Franchise Hockey Manager 2014 - General Impressions/Etc

[Garethw87]

I completed one full season with only one crash, no other issues that I could see. It was great!! One question though......when I start a game, my toon is listed as the HC? The real head coach shows as unemployed. Anyone know how to have your toon as the GM only and keep the HC? Great game everyone....lot's of potential!!

You have to be GM & Head Coach for now. Hopefully it will be changed!

[MadManPaddy]

I completed one full season with only one crash, no other issues that I could see. It was great!! One question though......when I start a game, my toon is listed as the HC? The real head coach shows as unemployed. Anyone know how to have your toon as the GM only and keep the HC? Great game everyone....lot's of potential!!

You have to be GM & Head Coach for now. Hopefully it will be changed!

I figured it out. First, hire your teams real coach (if you want...lol). You can do this through editing the coach and simply listing his as such. Next, go into your own toon and you should see the edit button. Click it. Look for the team role or position. Mine showed my role as being "headchef". I changed it to GM and then voila, I was GM and the real head coach was the HC. Hope it works.

[Garethw87]

Ah, nice little workaround!

[MadManPaddy]

Ah, nice little workaround!

It is.....but......when you do this then you have zero say over promotions and line setups. The line setups is not such a bad thing as that is really a coaches duty anyhow but the system will promote players that you might not want brought up. It is a little frustrating but hopefully it will get fixed.

[dave1927p]

funny, looking at the logo of the link below, the spacing and sizing is great. Why couldn't they of kept that logic in the actual game. It's alittle misleading actually. The "FHM" writing should be sized much smaller so it's hard to read as should the other writing and the logo should be 15 times smaller, that would accurately portray the interface.

http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/vi ... 23&t=11338

[Lortmane]

Love the game just a few things missing for me. Cant get the penalties to show up in the highlights, is that normal or am I not set up properly? It would be nice to have a basic view of the ice surface and of the play on the ice so that y0ou can judge on your tactics during the game and adjust them. Also apart from the top players you cant see the ranking of players in goals or passes or pints etc. It would be nice to see these also for trading. It would be nice also to get player stats within the game menu so you can shorten your bench.

However great work so far

[tkbuffalo]

Just purchased the game, downloaded the logo packs, excited to start it up!

I'll post more with updates when I get into it!

Also might be working on player picture packs there too.

[thegreaterikku]

I just bought the game.... and frankly, I wish I didn't.

There is something amiss with the game.

My low right now:
1. No long player name (unless there's an option).

2. Editing lineup is really a pain.

3. The general UI needs to be reworked.

4. I was seriously stuck on how to trade until I discovered the right click. (I should have read about it... but like I said in 3, the UI is far from being user-friendly)

5. We can't be just GM? I saw that every team I choose their HC was fired too. Not that I mind, but what happens to training?

6. Simming seems random. I was 20-1-3 with the Canadiens with default roster. Price had already 9 shootouts. Same thing nearly happened with another game when I pickup my junior league (Sagueneens in the QMJHL. I won the first 10 games.) Tried a new game again with the Devils and it seems every team you control are pretty good no matter what since Brodeur and Elias was leading the league by far.

7. No pre-season camp? No training? That goes back to #3 if there is a way.

8. The actual live game is very lacking. After the first period I was bored and flashforward the entire game.. which is still slow.

I get that's a game in progress... but currently they should have waited. EHM might be old, but at this point in time, even the first EHM game (was it 2004?) is superior the FHM.

If there's a way to solve my main gripe with the game, fine. Just let me know... but right now I really think I bought something I won't touch again until a very long time.

[archibalduk]

Yes, I'm afraid many customers feel like this right now. The devs are working on things and hopefully in the long run it'll all come good. For the time being, I'm sticking with EHM and the excellent databases produced by Manimal (modern), Nino (1974) and CJ (2006 unfaking).

[thegreaterikku]

I hope so too.

The level of customization is unreal when you create a custom league... but that's the only strong point I found so far. If only EHM had this...

But I'll stick around and wait to see if they will give the game some love. It has the foundation to be perfect (or near) but it's really a rough gem for now.

[Phareux]

I notice that it sometimes takes a long while for the game to load or save and I seem to get a lot of the "Not Responding" before it kicks in again and runs

[batdad]

Another good developer post. They seem to be moving in the right direction.

Address scouting...check
Address Trade and AI--check (sort of, remains to be seen)
Address game Engine-check
Address issues with player signings etc--check


Now it is the UI...which of course to me was one of the biggest issues to begin with, and it needs and MUST be addressed before I can become totally positive again about this game.

Still lots for them to do, but at least they seem to be on a beginning track to getting this somewhat right. I was disappointed that the developer was back working on iOOTP again this last week though. That is really something the company needs to deal with.

I think I like Jeff"s notes about the in game engine and the way things will be done there. The zone thing will be good provided and this is a big if....the play is accurate to hockey and it does not seem like the old board games when playing.

Player A move puck to zone 2, where player b gathers it and moves to zone 3, and in on goal with a nice move to zone 22.

I assume that the description will be much more realistic than that, but we shall see.

[Marori]

Got FHM not to long ago, and then the logo pack. did have a bit of a problem with it (as i'm a mac user. And then some of the names of the files were a bit off)
but eventually i got it all worked out, and it's pretty cool. the pack really elevates the game.

Finished pretty good in the season, and ended up in 2nd in the playoff a bit dissapointed that i didn't get any reaction from the owners either.
i remember i played a lot of fotball manager (back when it was called championship manager) and that was half the fun of the game.
also no national teams? world cup, olympics? nor continental cups?
feels like all i'm doing is trying to get a reasonable place on the board, and then go for the playoff which is the only payoff?.

hm long rant, sorry. cool game. though i feel it lacks a bit that makes it

[nino33]

So Sebastian answered a question about online play today http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/board/f ... uture.html
Sebastian said "Server/Client (or whatever it is called correctly) like FM/EHM will not be in FHM. But the system OOTP uses works pretty cool (I run an OOTP Online League for 6 years with sim's every day) and we had so much fun over the years."

The OOTP system uses exports/imports that a Commissioner takes care of daily...no live game to log into, no live games to play

Is there anyone out there with online experience that believes the OOTP way is the better way?

[B. Stinson]

Is there anyone out there with online experience that believes the OOTP way is the better way?

I don't have any experience with OOTP leagues, but I do know they're quite popular. I haven't seen any other management sim with a comparable online community.

[Tasku]

I'm enjoying the game somewhat, but two things bug me more than anything else. (No pun intended). One is not being able to offer new contracts to my players in Finnish SM-liiga after my first season. All I get is a box saying that I can't offer a contract, with no explanation. I have a faint recollection of someone mentioning such a problem, but not sure where. (This thread?)

For now I'll see how it goes with playing with an NHL team instead. Seems like the game is built for NHL anyway.

Another thing, also mentioned somewhere by someone: There are no ratings to tell how individual players are doing, other than your basic stats. I don't think I even need to get into how that is not a good thing...

[dave1927p]

Tasku, that appears to be a bug - the workaround is giving out contracts through the "upcoming free agents" screen.

I agree too...still no idea how well certain players are doing. It is a major issue that appears to not be bothering anyone, at least anyone overly vocal. I've mentioned it several times over there to no avail.

[Tasku]

Hm. Weird, cause I'm pretty sure I used the Possible Free Agents screen, because I was at the end of my season and looking at who to sign with an extension and who not to... Now that I try again, there seems to be no problem. I can offer contracts to everyone.

[archibalduk]

Tasku, that appears to be a bug - the workaround is giving out contracts through the "upcoming free agents" screen.

I agree too...still no idea how well certain players are doing. It is a major issue that appears to not be bothering anyone, at least anyone overly vocal. I've mentioned it several times over there to no avail.

Yeah it bothers me too. I don't want something as straightforward as the EHM average rating system, but we need something. I think the thing is that there are so many issues with the game right now that even something like the lack of performance feedback pales in comparison.

[Tasku]

Kay, I just signed Marian Gaborik to Espoo Blues for 450k. That would never happen. I think I'm done. At least with playing a Euro team. Maybe some NHL now...

[Alessandro]

Well, in what year? And under what circumstances?

[Tasku]

After the first season. (Took me a while to play my first season.) He made 67 points in 82 games last season in the NHL.

Would've never come to Finland after a season like that.

[dave1927p]

After the first season. (Took me a while to play my first season.) He made 67 points in 82 games last season in the NHL.

Would've never come to Finland after a season like that.

Yeah, you will notice too many players once their attributes regress actually sign with European teams. Even some during their peak careers are going over the odd time when their team who holds their rights doesn't give them a contract.

[Tasku]

So you're saying this isn't a common problem? Am I being too hasty to drop out on my Espoo Blues save?

[Tasku]

Another thing that confuses me is the player budget / payroll screen in the Financial Summary. According to it, I'm 9th in the league with a budget of 2.9 mil, yet my player payroll is 1st in the league with 3.1 mil. To me this indicates the other 8 teams in front of me are not using their full budgets, because otherwise my payroll wouldn't be the highest in the league.

Or am I misunderstanding something here?