Here is my summary of what we know about the basic game details of OOTP Hockey Manager thus far:
Basic Details
The game's name has been decided but not yet publicly announced.
The game is scheduled for release in quarter four of 2012 (i.e. roughly October - December 2012).
It is to be released for the PC and Mac.
Windows XP is unlikely to be officially supported but the game may well run on XP regardless.
The game is a long term project. The number one priority is to get a rock solid first version as a basis for future games in the franchise.
The game will of course be influenced by other management games (such as EHM, FM and some old German hockey manager games) but it is ultimately an OOTP game. Don't expect EHM 2007 + 1. EHM is not being used as the template for this game.
It will have a similar look and feel to OOTP Baseball 13.
OOTP Devs will not stop support after release. Continued updates will be provided thoughout the year.
An iPad version will likely be developed for a future version.
Depending on the availability of volunteers to translate, the game will be available in different languages.
Game Features
Dynamic news and event system (based on XML files).
OOTP Baseball style news and storylines will feature in the game.
Online league gameplay and commish mode will be included.
Plenty of statistics - it is what OOTP Devs are know for after all!
FaceGen is technically very easy to implement into the game. However, whether or not it will be implemented depends on the cost of purchasing a license for the game.
The in-match mode will be similar to that of other text sims such as EHM and FM. The game will run with commentary for notable events. The clock can be stopped at any point in order to allow for changes of strategies or to look at player stats. This is a lot different to OOTP Baseball, but this is due to the nature of hockey.
A 2D engine will not make it into the first version of the game. It will be a text commentary only. A 2D engine could be included in a future version depending on time and available manpower.
The exact location of important in-match events will be displayed along with a short description of the event (e.g. shots, hits, etc).
Miscellaneous
OOTP Devs haven't started much work on the scouting system yet.
No decision has been made as to whether the quality of scouts employed will have a bearing on the accuracy of attributes displayed in a player profile (this is how OOTP Baseball does it).
Player role / type will not be visible in game but some form of scout report should be available for players - e.g. "Player XY has a strong but inaccurate shot."
Training / development camps will only be added to the game if the devs can find a meaningful use for them. It must be reasonable integrated into the scouting / development system.
The devs are looking to make a game that is not biased in favour of offence. For example, average ratings will be based upon all actions that happen in the game and not just on goals and assists. Ice time is an important factor but a player with limited ice time on a checking line will have the chance to earn a good game rating if he gets his job done.
Similar to EHM, there will be a combination of visible and hidden player attibutes. Some attributes will likely be the same as EHM whereas others will be different.
Some hidden attributes may be grouped and displayed as a single visible attribute.
Before each match, the game will generate "Game_Ratings" which will form a part of the match simulation. The "Game_Ratings" change on the fly during the game based on situation (e.g. high pressure match, morale, possible injuries, etc).
Team marker, fan interest and arena quality will all be a big part of the game.
There will be a GM history and GM stats in game. Each GM will get a season/career score in order to evaluate his success. GM achievements might be implemented.
An Assistant GM will feature in the game in order to help new users. This feature can be turned disabled (presumably by not hiring an Assistant in game??).
The AI will act differently depending on whether the team is currently building for the future or is in contention for the championship.
All GMs have a national and international reputation. This reputation will affect things such as negotiations (i.e. how easy/hard it is to pull of a trade or negotiate a player's contract).
The game market will be variable. Player values will fluctuate depending on the market situation. A single totally overpriced contract wouldn't set a new benchmark but it would affect the market.
The developers have suggested that they may start a "road to the release" development blog nearer the time of the game's release.
The first version will have the look and feel of OOTP 13 (such as the GUI, "look and feel", text engine and injury system), but it will not reach the scope of OOTP 13. The first version will continue to be developed post-release through patches and additional content.
As of January 2012, it had not been decided whether or not the game would be released on Linux.
Game Features
Player scouting reports will contain estimations of hidden attributes.
It will be possible to trade up/down draft picks but conditional pick trades might not make it into the first version (and there are concerns over how easy it might be to fool the AI with conditional picks).
Players will have their own personalities in the first version. Attributes will include Team Player, Ambition, Loyalty and Sportsmanship.
Contract negotiations will be handled in the same way as OOTP - i.e. you can negotiate with players without delay, but after you have reached agreement with the player, he will wait a few days to see if a better offer comes in from another team.
Lines will play better together if they have played with each other for some time. Constantly changing the lines can be detrimental to players' performances. The game will not however have any Team Chemistry rating per se.
Matches will be text-based only (i.e. no 2D).
It will be possible to play just as a GM and leave the AI Head Coach to deal with tactics and the line-up - or vice-versa. There will be three gameplay modes: GM, Coach and GM+Coach.
Fighting will feature in game and there will be a Fighting attribute. However, the hockey gameplay is rightly the developers' priority and so the fighting engine won't be an ultra-complex alogrithm.
As of February 2012, it was unclear whether individually assignable player tactics would feature in game.
A "don't fire me option" will be included.
A hidden Coachability attribute will be assigned to each player to determin how effectively a player follow the input of his coach. This attribute will be used during both training and games. A player with a higher coachability attribute will respond/improve better during training and will follow the tactics more accurately during games.
It will be possible for a player to acquire a new nationality.
As of February 2012, the game doesn't use player/staff language knowledge. However, the players' Adaptability attribute will determine how well/quickly the player adapts to a new country.
It might be possible in the first version to lure coaches/scouts away from their teams. If the coach/scout does not get the chance to accept a new (better) job, his contentment should decrease and it will be harder to renew his contract.
Ticket price / arena management will not feature in the future version. It might feature in a later version.
Dynamic team rivalry is something the developers have thought about, but it is unlikely to feature in the first version.
The match engine will take into account home ice advantage and a team's fan support.
The game will not have a network mode where people connect and play a multiplayer game. The game will implement online leagues in a very similar way to OOTP. The initial version might not be that deep, but the plan is to develop it to ultimately be on a par with OOTP 13+.
Miscellaneous
The Hall of Fame hadn't been implemented in the game as of May 2012. However, it is likely that there will be a Hall of Fame for each league.
Yeah they decided ages ago. However they won't announce it until they've got something worthy of a screenshot. So I guess they haven't got the GUI finalised yet...
archibalduk wrote:The game will implement online leagues in a very similar way to OOTP. The initial version might not be that deep, but the plan is to develop it to ultimately be on a par with OOTP 13+.[/list]
I'm not familiar with OOTP online features, how different is it from EHM2007? (I've been playing EHM2007 online for a while but only 3 human players)
archibalduk wrote:The game will implement online leagues in a very similar way to OOTP. The initial version might not be that deep, but the plan is to develop it to ultimately be on a par with OOTP 13+.[/list]
I'm not familiar with OOTP online features, how different is it from EHM2007? (I've been playing EHM2007 online for a while but only 3 human players)
I never played EHM online but I guess it works like FM? In that case, Online Leagues in FHM (and OOTP) work totally different: you don't play with a direct connection, you have a Commish who uploads the game-file, GM's download it and make all their changes in the game (lines, tactics, transactions, ...) and upload a small team-file from the game. The Commish imports all team-files, simulates a defined number of days and uploads the new master league file.
Online-Leagues have a big tradition with OOTP so some day we want to have the same great support for them in FHM but the initial version will have just basic support to get us started.
Sebastian Palkowski wrote:you have a Commish who uploads the game-file, GM's download it and make all their changes in the game (lines, tactics, transactions, ...) and upload a small team-file from the game. The Commish imports all team-files, simulates a defined number of days and uploads the new master league file.
In some ways, I think this is better. There's no need to run a server or host computer with the game running 24/7.
Sebastian Palkowski wrote:I never played EHM online but I guess it works like FM? In that case, Online Leagues in FHM (and OOTP) work totally different: you don't play with a direct connection, you have a Commish who uploads the game-file, GM's download it and make all their changes in the game (lines, tactics, transactions, ...) and upload a small team-file from the game. The Commish imports all team-files, simulates a defined number of days and uploads the new master league file.
Is the upload and importing of the files done within the game or you have to do that with a FTP program?
It seems a bit complicated but when it's time, someone will probably post some instruction on how to do it.
Asbeen wrote:It seems a bit complicated but when it's time, someone will probably post some instruction on how to do it.
The way it has worked for for non-OOTP games (and I'm guessing FHM/OOTP are like this based on what Sebastian says), is that the game imports and exports all of the necessary files. The commissioner will run the game on his computer and every week (or how often as he wants), he will generate a saved file from the game and email this to all of the users. The users load this file in FHM, set their lines, make trade offers, etc and then save the file. The users each send their saved file to the commissioner who imports them all and sims X number of days.
Asbeen wrote:It seems a bit complicated but when it's time, someone will probably post some instruction on how to do it.
The way it has worked for for non-OOTP games (and I'm guessing FHM/OOTP are like this based on what Sebastian says), is that the game imports and exports all of the necessary files. The commissioner will run the game on his computer and every week (or how often as he wants), he will generate a saved file from the game and email this to all of the users. The users load this file in FHM, set their lines, make trade offers, etc and then save the file. The users each send their saved file to the commissioner who imports them all and sims X number of days.
Sounds like a lot of work for the commissioner.
If they have a full NHL league then it would be 29 files to import every time
Manimal wrote:Sounds like a lot of work for the commissioner.
If they have a full NHL league then it would be 29 files to import every time
Yeah, I agree. I guess the key to success is to have a committed commissioner.
Having said that, this method seems to work successfully for the likes of FaceOff Hockey by Wolverine Sports and SimonT Hockey (such as the Victory Hockey League which has been running for past six years).
Asbeen wrote:It seems a bit complicated but when it's time, someone will probably post some instruction on how to do it.
The way it has worked for for non-OOTP games (and I'm guessing FHM/OOTP are like this based on what Sebastian says), is that the game imports and exports all of the necessary files. The commissioner will run the game on his computer and every week (or how often as he wants), he will generate a saved file from the game and email this to all of the users. The users load this file in FHM, set their lines, make trade offers, etc and then save the file. The users each send their saved file to the commissioner who imports them all and sims X number of days.
Sounds like a lot of work for the commissioner.
If they have a full NHL league then it would be 29 files to import every time
You don't need to import all files one-by-one. It's basically one click in the game ("import all files"). That said, of course the Commish has to do more work then GM's so it takes a good Commish for a good Online League. You can't compare Multiplayer from EHM or FM with Online Leagues in FHM/OOTP, two different philosophies. Online Leagues are a pretty big part of the OOTP Community, without them I would never have met Markus/Andreas, I would never had joined them to do iOOTP and of course we would not talk about FHM right now.
Here is something that just caught my eye. Any idea if it will be implemented in the initial release?
RETAINING SALARY IN TRADES
This was Brian Burke’s baby, an idea he pushed for years at GM meetings. Under the old CBA, teams could not absorb any part of a salary from a player they were trading -- unlike baseball for example.
But in this new agreement, teams will be able to do that.
Here are the main parameters of the rule: A club cannot absorb more than 50 percent of the players’ annual cap hit/salary in any trade. Any NHL club can only have up to three contracts on their payroll in which the contract was traded away under the retaining salary proviso. Also, only up to 15 percent of your upper limit cap amount can be used up by the money you have retained in trades.
For example, let’s say the Maple Leafs want to trade little-used blueliner Mike Komisarek and his $4.5-million cap hit ($3.5 million salary this year) to the New York Islanders (hypothetically). The Leafs could retain half the cap hit -- $2.25 million -- and half the salary -- $1.75 million -- in order to facilitate the deal. The Islanders would pay him the other half. This should facilitate more trades around the league, no question.
The game will support Windows and Mac to start with. Linux will not be supported at least initially.
The hardware requirements have not been announced, but it shouldn't be all that different to the requirements of OOTP.
There is no confirmed release dates for either version 1 or version 2 (they will not announce the specific date until they are 100% they can meet a date). It is possible that once the game is in a regular release cycle (likely from version 3 onwards), it will be seeing a regular October or Christmas release.
The game might be added to Steam Greenlight, but it will not be exclusive to Steam.
OOTP were considering making pre-orders possible, but no final decision has been made. It might not make sense for the first version (in the view of OOTP).
GAME FEATURES
There will be options to sim through games (i.e. your head coach takes control), coach the game yourself and to take a vacation.
It is possible to sim day by day or simulate days/weeks/months/seasons.
It is possible to delegate tasks to the CPU, such as training, scouting, trading, drafting, setting lines.
Both trading and transfer systems are included.
Scouts can be assigned to a player, team, league, region or nation.
The latest NHL CBA will be included in the game. Either it will be included in the first release or as a game patch.
The original 82 game 2012/13 NHL game schedule will be included as well as the shortened 48 game schedule.
The game will include a basic schedule generator (but you can create your own custom schedules using xml files just like OOTP).
The schedule files include an option to set the home arena (so that it is possible to schedule neutral site games such as the Winter Classic and NHL Europe).
The game might include FaceGen in the first version (it is a question of time and money). It is likely to be included in a future version if it is not included in version 1.
FICTIONAL MODE
A basic fictional mode is likely to be included in the game.
ONLINE MODE
Online multiplayer functions will be included with the first version.
The mode is different to the EHM style in that the commissioner sends out a saved file to all of the GMs. The GMs load the file, make their changes and email their file back to the commissioner. The game imports all of the GMs files and then the commissioner sims however many days/games he wishes - and then the cycle continues.
It is possible to start the game with a fantasy draft.
