FHM7 Version 7.3.111 Released
A new update for FHM7, version 7.3.111, has just been released.
Your existing savegames will be compatible with the updated game, but some of the update's fixes may not retroactively correct certain problems in existing saves.
This is our first content-oriented update for FHM7, adding the option to play a more realistic 20-21 season with shortened/cancelled schedules and adjusted league structures, as well as automatic NHL expansion to Seattle in 2021-22 Getting that stuff ready took a while, so this is a little lighter on bug-fixing than the previous update; there's still a fairly extensive list of things we want to change/fix in future updates, so if a problem you've reported didn't make it into this update, it's likely still in the works for another update.
So, the main feature in this update is the "Real 20-21" start option, which gives all leagues now have their correct 20-21 schedules, or as close as we could reasonably get with the information available last week, specifically:
NHL: 56 games, new divisions, start date moved earlier so playoffs end on time (i.e. before July 1)
AHL: 40 games, start date moved earlier so playoffs end on time; Charlotte, Milwaukee, and Springfield do not play games. (Players from their parents are still assigned to the inactive teams, though.)
ECHL: schedule length 57-69 games (varies by team), start date moved earlier so playoffs end on time. ECHL has only announced a partial schedule so far; the in-game schedule is just that repeated three times, which is a little short of their announced intention of playing 72 games. Playoff standings determined by winning percentage due to unbalanced schedule. Playoffs are 8 teams, 3 rounds, which is just a guess. Adirondack, Atlanta, Brampton, Cincinnati, Idaho, Kalamazoo, Maine, Newfoundland, Norfolk, Reading, Toledo, and Worcester do not play games; Fort Wayne, which is apparently going to start playing sometime after February 12, is also not on the schedule. Start date moved earlier so playoffs end on time.
SPHL: 42 games, only 5/10 teams playing, 4-team playoffs
FPHL: 24 games, they haven't announced any official plans or schedule beyond a few exhibition games next month, so this is just a guess
LNAH: no games, season cancelled
WHL: 24 games, but still using a generated schedule as no official one released yet
OHL: 24 games, haven't announced any plans yet so this is just a copy of the WHL plans
QMJHL: 68 games (still using a game-generated schedule, their real schedule has been badly disrupted by cancellations and it's difficult to put together anything coherent for them)
KHL: 60 games
VHL: 50 games
SHL: 52 games
HockeyAllsvenskan: 52 games
Liiga: 60 games
Mestis: 50 games
Suomi-Sarja: 30 games (still using a game-generated schedule, their real schedule has been badly disrupted by cancellations and it's difficult to put together anything coherent for them)
Tipsport Extraliga: 52 games
Chance Liga: 51 games
Tipos Liga: 50 games
Synerglace Ligue Magnus: 44 games
Metal Ligaen: 48 games
DEL: 38 games, new conferences; first portion of the schedule is real, remainder with the inter-conference games is generated as no official schedule released for that part yet
DEL-2: 52 games
Belarus Extraleague Group A: 38 games
Fjordkraft Ligaen: 45 games
Polska Hokej Liga: 36 games
Bet-at-home ICE Hockey League: 40 games
National League: 52 games
Swiss League: 46 games
EIHL: no games, season cancelled
NIHL National: no games, season cancelled
Asia League: no games, season cancelled
Most international tournaments will not play, aside from the top-level of the World Championships and World Junior Championships, and the Olympic Games Qualification (we need to keep that last one in so the Olympics work properly in future seasons.)
The special roster rules for the 20-21 NHL season (taxi squads, etc.) are not implemented.
Teams that do not have scheduled games in 20-21 will still make player moves, although they will never run into the need to fill their roster to play a game, so if they start with a roster that's not full they may not add more players. Completely deactivating their roster AI for the first season wasn't a realistic option, unfortunately.
All of these leagues will revert to a normal format in 21-22.
Additionally, the NHL and AHL will expand automatically at the start of 21-22, adding Seattle and their farm team in Palm Springs (this will happen even if the "Real 20-21" option isn't used.) The expansion draft format, since it uses our regular expansion draft mechanics, approximates the way the real Seattle expansion draft will work, but omits some mechanics, particularly the requirement for teams to expose a minimum number of players who are under contract and of a specific experience level.
The database is updated as of January 13, NHL opening night. Given the large differences in start dates for different leagues this year, choosing which players go where required a little more flexibility, but, generally, the NHL rosters took precedence. However, we'll probably update a few leagues that haven't started yet (AHL, WHL, OHL, SPHL, FPHL) over the next month or so (assuming they still play this year.) After that time, the "Current" start option will be added with all the post-January 13 transactions.
Additional Changes:
-farm team Lineups screen can now be controlled by a human GM of its parent team (click on player's checkbox and click on the spot in the Lineups priority list that you want to move the player to; in the Steam version, you can also click-and-drag)
-Control Farm Teams Staff checkbox will no longer become un-saveable in some games
-fixed intermittent crash while simulating games
-fixed crash when starting a new historical game, not changing the lineup, and trying to autoplay to opening night
-historical games no longer crash in 1972-1973 if you have "Leagues begin playing when they did historically" off and "New teams appear when they did historically" on
-the new region dropdowns on the Hire Scout screen now show all staff that can be hired like the unfiltered list does
-adjusted trade value of older players a little further downward
-converted custom games that were using the "16 teams, 8 per conference" playoff option in 6 no longer get a playoff format that mixes teams across conferences
-the "16 teams, 8 per conference" playoff type should now function properly and not mix teams across conferences with apparently random first-round matchups
-fixed criteria for 2nd All-Star goalie, so it's no longer possible for a goalie to be selected to both spots
-the game no longer crashes when you attempt to change a staff job on the staff edit screen
-when playing a historical game with the draft off (i.e. players start with their historical team), all new players now start with 3-year contracts
-fixed potential crash when playing in QMJHL
-trainers in custom games are now generated with more appropriate Training skill level
-several European leagues (Austria, Norway, Denmark, etc. are no longer hiring emergency players when they should be able to sign/call up players
-reducing the foreign player limit in a league will no longer result in inappropriate addition of emergency players by some teams
-editing a player's disliked club now immediately removes any happiness penalty that the player has for being on a disliked club
-fixed issue that could allow overage roster rules to no longer apply to a human-run team in a junior league
-teams will now claim waived players from a human GM again
-during the draft lottery for entry drafts, expansion teams are now given the #3 (and 4, 5, etc. if there is more than one) position (and that same spot during rounds 2 and later), rather than seeding their odds after all the non-playoff teams
-the mid-1940's NHL playoff format will no longer reverse the seeding of the #3 and #4 teams
-initial drafts in historical leagues no longer allow selection of Iron Curtain-restricted players if that option is on
-fixed text on the Team-Scouting screen to indicate right-clicking works to set Head/Advance scout
-if the waiver draft is active for the league, the season-start waiver rule (i.e., all players who start the season on the farm team who are waiver-eligible are put on waivers) is now disabled
-the 2010 Olympic tournament no longer starts a few days early, creating conflicts with league schedules
-fixed issued with draft logic of junior teams that could cause some to select nothing but goalies
-removed drafts for all minor leagues that are connected to a parent league
-Gornyak Uchaly of the VHL no longer treats Finnish players as non-foreign
-fixed potential crash when trying to return player from injured list
-restored the multiplayer option to custom games using with NHL/NHL+ leagues
-when creating a custom league, if "Use Historical Finances" is selected and a year (e.g. 1917) chosen for the main league, the checkbox for additional leagues will now copy the main league's settings
-if you attempt to add a fictional junior league with playoffs turned off, the game will no longer crash when you try to advance past the playoff setup screen
-AHL playoffs now work properly in a custom game using the NHL+AHL or NHL+AHL+CHL setup
-staff are no longer missing names if you select "Use Fictional Players" on the Start a Custom Game screen
-made a couple of changes to make NHL teams more efficient at signing their college draft picks, particularly once they get older; particularly, they will try to sign good graduating college players in April rather than allow them to make it to free agency in July
-corrected starting roster settings for Ontario and Quebec midget/Junior B leagues that were leaving the OHL and QMJHL drafts in the first year short of players
-fixed handling of team contract and rights status when player is traded (at any level) while on an NHL-CHL or NHL-Europe loan
-fixed issue that could cause the wrong team to be selected for promotion to the SHL from HockeyAllsvenskan
-the "Loss PS" column in the Olympics in a standard game now works properly, shifting all the columns to the right of it to the left
-fixed issue preventing some players from losing Unfit status
-training camp development reports should now show development for all players, not just ones not on the active roster
-2022 and later Olympics are now correctly used in the World Rankings again in a standard game
-Iron Curtain rule now deactivates at the correct time in historical games
-if you expand the KHL, take control of the expansion team, and transfer a player to another team, their rights no longer remain with you
-fixed huge numbers of giveaways in Champions League games
-records/leaderboards properly restored (including single-game records for those leagues that had them)
-slightly decreased suspension frequency
-Steam Workshop should now display images properly on the Workshop page (you may need to re-load them for existing mods)
-fixed odd roster behaviour (releasing players, going far below cap floor, etc.) by expansion teams during their first season
-fixed broken Champions League Round-robin portion
-fixed players ignoring age limit in WHL/OHL/QMJHL
-fixed potential crash in first-season NHL playoffs
-returning a tryout player to an unplayable league will no longer potentially make him unsignable/uneditable
2D Engine Changes:
-increased player speed in all zones, but particularly the neutral zone
-significantly reduced tendency of teams to pass backwards, particularly out of the offensive zone
-numerous adjustments to balance overall shot and scoring totals
-re-worked shot blocking checks to produce proper shot block numbers with rebalanced shooting
-additional changes to reduce tendency of players to bunch up at the middle of the ice
-lowered frequency of long pass attempts, particularly up-ice
-reduced tendency of players to move far ahead of the puckhandler when their team controls the puck
-rebalanced individual hits between positions (still needs some more work, leaders all tend to be defencemen)
-increased penalty and fight frequency and increased the chances of players who fight, but only rarely, getting 1-2 fights per season
-lowered assist totals slightly (appears to have resulted in the assist leaders being too low despite overall totals being OK, will continue to work on that)
-made defenders slightly more likely to attempt to get between their man and the net while in the defensive zone
-increased frequency of non-scoring/penalty events that result in a faceoff (pucks going out of play, offside, etc.)
-made players more likely to dump in the puck or simply wait when they have multiple teammates attempting to leave the ice on a line change