Straw Poll: Which type of update do you prefer?

[archibalduk]

I'm curious to get an idea as to what type of update people prefer. Do you prefer start-of-season rosters or rolling updates? Or perhaps something in between? We ran a similar poll 3 years ago and it was very close indeed. As I say, this is just a straw poll to gauge the general feeling amongst the community.

Here's a description of the three options:

Rolling Updates
With each release, the rosters are up to date as of the date of release. For example, if we released the version 8.1 Rosters on 25 December then the rosters will be up to date as approximately that date.

Start of Season Updates
The rosters will be frozen as of the day before the NHL season starts. Rosters will continue to be released throughout the season, but the transactions that occur after the NHL season starts will not be included. Instead, we would concentrate on updating other leagues as of season start as well as working on things such as updating attributes, fixing data mistakes, etc (these things would of course be updated as far as possible in the Rolling Updates option above).

Hybrid Updates
A compromise between the two. The rosters would be frozen until either the IIHF or NHL trade deadline. Regular updates would be released as normal, but it'd be Start of Season rosters until the IIHF or NHL trade deadline.

[marksbros6]

I think there has to be at least 2 updates a season.

Firstly; start of the new season, rosters for that are great and all part of the 'new season' excitement.

After the trade deadlines; going into the playoffs (either North America or in Europe) most teams will have traded/changed their roster, so makes sense to provide an update then for that 'phase' of the year.

I appreciate it's a lot of work though, and I'm only 'looking after' 3 teams, not an entire league or country!

[Andrew55]

I voted hybrid updates, it makes more sense to have both start of season rosters and trade deadline rosters. A bit off topic but are fixed Start of the Season rosters (with updated player histories,etc.) coming soon regardless of the poll results? or am i better off starting a save with 8.0a rosters instead of waiting? Thanks!

[batdad]

Start of season. Here is why. More work to do the other updates for our great group....and well...I cannot justify having changes happen all the time in season as they do in the lower leagues put into the game....if I am not willing to help out.

[Tasku]

I'd go with start of season as well, then the team you take up in game would look the same as the real team did at the same moment in time, and the researchers could focus on rating the players and other tweaks.

[A9L3E]

I agree with the old fellows.

[B. Stinson]

Personally, I've always felt that there isn't quite as much need for constant updates in a game like this, where careers are typically started once and then evolve on their own. As opposed to a game like the NHL series, where it's possible to play any single game of your choice, or just the playoffs, and you would want the most current rosters.

[Asher413]

I prefer start of season, or at least (and I really don't know the level of work) offering each current update in start of season form.

The big one for me is watching cap's go sideways because midseason teams can do things to be 'over' the cap and okay, but they end up having to cut players or make bad choices if you have a midseason update. (Maybe one day EHM will let up pick a start date midseason?)

Either way, I just appreciate the work that goes into updates and probably won't cry either way!

[Peter_Doherty]

Start of season here aswell. I don't like the deadline updates, brings so many cap problems in the NHL because of how teams maximize the cap with IR etc before deadline.

[pantsukki]

Definitely start of season!

[Kobrakay]

I voted hybrid updates, it makes more sense to have both start of season rosters and trade deadline rosters. A bit off topic but are fixed Start of the Season rosters (with updated player histories,etc.) coming soon regardless of the poll results? or am i better off starting a save with 8.0a rosters instead of waiting? Thanks!

Can I eco this question to see if we get an answer?

As that OP said a new version of the rosters would be coming out fairly soon after I held on before starting a new game with the new rosters but it seems the fairly soon is taking a little while (not complaining at all, I just want to see if the soon is somewhat in 2 or 3 weeks or more like April or something).

So is there any estimation? If there is none, it is cool as well. The amount of effort and time put into these updates is really appreciated and the quality of the final "product" more than justifies the time. It is just a matter of getting the planning on my side done properly

[archibalduk]

We tend not to answer these questions because there's a large pink box at the top of the forum which sets out where we are. Once we have a release date we announce it on the forums, but it's typically that we don't know when it'll be ready until it's ready.

[Kobrakay]

We tend not to answer these questions because there's a large pink box at the top of the forum which sets out where we are. Once we have a release date we announce it on the forums, but it's typically that we don't know when it'll be ready until it's ready.

Believe it or not, it is easy to miss that lol...

But ok, read it and got it.

Thanks for all the great work!