Tips and Guides for Newbie

[tuffgong71]

Great forum! Not sure if anyone will have time for my nonsense but I just bought the game and I am so lost. I see the guides for previous versions available above but I can't find anything like that for the current version. Do the old guides apply to this version? I have decades of experience with sports management sims (Championship Manager, OOTP, Tournament Dreams College Basketball, Premiere League Manager 2001, Front Office Football, EA Sports stuff just to name a few) but I know very little about hockey to be honest. I bought the game because the management sim end of it looks incredible and I have always wanted to get more into hockey.

Through this game I hope to learn more about hockey and the current NHL scene. Obviously, coaching and tactics will be out of my reach for quite some time. Just the GM end of it will keep me busy for awhile. The game has been out for about a year, right? Why no guide yet? I have read the manual and the "New Manager" guide and I have been scouring these forums so I have some of the basics. I guess I am looking for more intermediate instruction. Advice, tips, etc.

I suppose the first thing is to address staff, especially scouting. So, I fired some staff and made offers to some good replacements. My targets immediately started getting a ton of other offers and have yet to decide. I imagine they will not end up signing with me. What is the best practice here? Make offers to 10 coaches/scouts in the hopes of getting 1 or 2? Offer them more money than they are asking?

Also, will the game only show the 2d match engine when you are coaching? If you are not coaching it just sims and you can't watch? Any other newbie tips, tricks, traps, and pitfalls to avoid would be welcome!

Thanks in advance.

[Primis]

Great forum! Not sure if anyone will have time for my nonsense but I just bought the game and I am so lost. I see the guides for previous versions available above but I can't find anything like that for the current version. Do the old guides apply to this version?

EHM 1 is basically built upon EHM 2007. There are subtle differences in player development and the engine, but yes, for starting out purposes the 2007 guides and advice will apply to EHM 1. EHM 2007 Tactics also work generally well in EHM 1 as well, it seems.

[Tasku]

Hi, welcome to TBL.

I had to change your thread title, as we like to keep them descriptive here, so that the forum'd be easier to browse.

I suppose the first thing is to address staff, especially scouting. So, I fired some staff and made offers to some good replacements. My targets immediately started getting a ton of other offers and have yet to decide. I imagine they will not end up signing with me. What is the best practice here? Make offers to 10 coaches/scouts in the hopes of getting 1 or 2? Offer them more money than they are asking?

I usually offer for just one head coach at a time, but if he has the WNT-tag in front of his name, meaning he's "wanted" by other teams, I offer a bit more money than he's asking. It is not a sure way to get him to sign, as other factors also matter, but it helps. For scouts, I make a ton of offers, as you can have 16(?) of them. Physios you can have three. Physios are usually abundantly available, and I only go for ones that have 20 in Physiotherapy.

[nino33]

Great forum!

It is! And EHM's a great game too

The game has been out for about a year, right? Why no guide yet?

Main reasons I'd say are...
- small development team (pretty much just Riz, and he still works on FM too)
- small volunteer researcher team focused on testing/roster work
- and "no need to reinvent the wheel" for a lot of things (and there is a year of "current" feedback in the key threads)
- game is still improving/changing

Also, will the game only show the 2d match engine when you are coaching? If you are not coaching it just sims and you can't watch?

You can watch the 2D games whether you're coaching or not (you can also watch games your team is not playing in for all Leagues set to Enhanced)

Any other newbie tips, tricks, traps, and pitfalls to avoid would be welcome!

There's a number of threads you might want to start with
- Offical Tactics Thread: General / Even Strength http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/vi ... &start=500
- Offical Tactics Thread: Powerplay & Penalty Kill http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/vi ... &start=150
- both the EHM05 Guide http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/wiki/inde ... 2005_Guide and the EHM07 Guide http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/wiki/inde ... 2007_Guide
- Player Attributes Guide chttp://www.ehmtheblueline.com/wiki/index.php?t ... s:_Players
All these things and more can be found in the Game Knowledge Discussion Forum http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=17


And someone recently posted on the SI EHM Forum a link to a Guide written recently for "newbies" http://community.sigames.com/showthread ... laying-EHM

[tuffgong71]

This is great and really appreciated. The 2007 guide looks to be pretty extensive. I will start there. I just didn't want to jump in there to find everything was different in this version. Well, I have the night off and it looks like I have a lot to do. Thanks!

[Shindigs]

A quick little tip if you want to be able to see some stats that aren't available in the "statistics" tab; you can actually see PPG (points per game) Pass% and the +/- stat split up. Good for figuring out which players are in on very few conceded goals. Sometimes the players who are boxplay gods will look poor in rating and +/- but when you divide their time played (GP*ATOI) with the goals scored while they are on the ice (the "-" column) you will see that you have some incredible defensive players who are hidden when only using the normal stats screen.

Here is a video showing how to get these stats visible for your own team, and here is a spreadsheet that lets you see a lot about how your players performed the last season, sadly requires a lot of manual input. But it gives a pretty easy overview of who performed really well. Especially the "N.Inv" which shows how many of the goals the player would have been involved in (all things equal) it actually was involved in. >60% is good for forwards, >80% is amazing, >100% is insane. For Dmen >40% is good, etc. All the flat gray/dark gray columns are manual entries, the bright to normal gray gradient ones are automated from formulas. Finally this is the spreadsheet i personally use to track training performance and attribute gain for players. I always use the Report Card spreadsheet for all my saves, it also has a tab for helping pick coaches. The End of Season Review one I've only used for 2 seasons so far, but it really helps with figuring out which players are under-/overperforming on your team. Makes figuring out who to drop/trade so much easier, and makes it easier to see which of your lower line players are overperforming for how little time they spend on the ice, if a 4th line prospect has an 80%+ N.Inv, maybe its time to give him a shot in the top 6?

Edit: The Report Card sheet is for 1-100 attribute btw. Can quite easily be changed to work with 1-20 though, just need to change a few formulas here and there.

[rikuvee93]

Can someone tell me, why i get fined by not reaching salary floor?

Salary floor is 41 million, salary cap is 55 million my total salaries is 53 million and my average club salary is 38 million. Is it because on the average club salary? And if it is, what i can do about it? Might be stupid question, but I just dont get what's going wrond because im under the cap etc.

[Tasku]

Your average club salary needs to be above the floor. Average is counted from players that are in your NHL line-up. Total salaries includes all contracted players, including those in the AHL.

[Acousticwalrus]

A quick little tip if you want to be able to see some stats that aren't available in the "statistics" tab; you can actually see PPG (points per game) Pass% and the +/- stat split up. Good for figuring out which players are in on very few conceded goals. Sometimes the players who are boxplay gods will look poor in rating and +/- but when you divide their time played (GP*ATOI) with the goals scored while they are on the ice (the "-" column) you will see that you have some incredible defensive players who are hidden when only using the normal stats screen.

Here is a video showing how to get these stats visible for your own team, and here is a spreadsheet that lets you see a lot about how your players performed the last season, sadly requires a lot of manual input. But it gives a pretty easy overview of who performed really well. Especially the "N.Inv" which shows how many of the goals the player would have been involved in (all things equal) it actually was involved in. >60% is good for forwards, >80% is amazing, >100% is insane. For Dmen >40% is good, etc. All the flat gray/dark gray columns are manual entries, the bright to normal gray gradient ones are automated from formulas. Finally this is the spreadsheet i personally use to track training performance and attribute gain for players. I always use the Report Card spreadsheet for all my saves, it also has a tab for helping pick coaches. The End of Season Review one I've only used for 2 seasons so far, but it really helps with figuring out which players are under-/overperforming on your team. Makes figuring out who to drop/trade so much easier, and makes it easier to see which of your lower line players are overperforming for how little time they spend on the ice, if a 4th line prospect has an 80%+ N.Inv, maybe its time to give him a shot in the top 6?

Edit: The Report Card sheet is for 1-100 attribute btw. Can quite easily be changed to work with 1-20 though, just need to change a few formulas here and there.

Very late response here, but anychance I can get those spreadsheets?