To date, I have been able to create a new playable league in EHM but have not been able to avoid getting a crash when trying to view a team's schedule screen in-game (even though the in-game news item indicates that the league's schedule has been set). I suspect there is something within one of these undefined items which needs to be updated or set in order to fix this. I hope that, to start with, there might be a couple of people who would be interested in trying to make the same league playable. I thought by concentrating on one league we will have a greater chance of success which will help us figure out how to get more complex leagues up and running. So to start with, I propose to make the French Magnus League playable using the v8.2 TBL Rosters. To keep things simple, I think the aim should be just to get the regular season working and, one we have done that, we can look at adding the playoffs.
IMPORTANT! If you would like to participate in this experiment, please ensure you use the v8.2 TBL Rosters and NOT the v9.0 TBL Rosters! The upcoming v9.0 TBL Rosters reflect the fact that the number of teams in the Magnus League has reduced to 12. In the v8.2 Rosters there are 14 teams in the Magnus League (as there were in 2015/16). Just so that we are all working with the same settings, let's go with the 14 team v8.2 TBL Rosters version of the Magnus League.
Before I jump in to the various settings, I though it might be useful to describe the Editor's features (some of which have been designed to hopefully make experimenting a little easier) along with a basic overview of how the Rules & Structures table works. So this guide is split into three:
1) The Editor: An Overview
2) Rules & Structures: An Overview
3) Getting Started with the Magnus League
1) The Editor: An Overview
First off, you will find the Rules & Structure editing screen via the Competitions tab in the Editor. Hovering the mouse over any of the input fields, drop-down menus, etc (except for table cells) will display some help/description text in the status bar running along the bottom of the screen. Hopefully this will help describe what the various settings do.
Clicking on the Add Items button at the bottom of the screen allows for two different ways of creating a new Rules & Structure entry:
- You can create a blank new item. This will be created with, to some extent, default values. For instance, it will add one conference with one division (see the Structure screen). This is because every league must have at least one conference and any every conference must have at least one division.
- You can copy and paste an existing item from the Rules & Structure table. For instance, if you are viewing the NHL and click on Add Item -> Copy and Paste Item it will create a new item with the same data as the NHL. It will not of course be linked to the NHL as you cannot have two entries linking to one league (I assume) and so it will be created linked to no competition.
- Export Model: This will export a spreadsheet showing the Basic Data for every entry in the Rules & Structure table. Hopefully we can use this to figure out which Custom Flags, etc settings to use whilst we are without the definitions;
- Export Text Report: This will create a text file listing every setting for the currently selected Rule & Structure entry. In order to keep things readable, it does not list the Schedule Dates.
2) Rules & Structures: An Overview
Note that all of the below is based on my experiments and observations thus far (i.e. some of it might be inaccurate).
The first thing to keep in mind is that editing the structure is not as simple as changing a single setting! If you want to increase the number of teams in a league then you must also adjust the league structure to reflect this. Otherwise the game will not know where the team belongs or how to generate the schedule. To further complicate things, if the league has a Schedule Template (e.g. the NHL) then you must also update this to reflect the revised schedule (see Competitions -> Schedule Templates via the Editor.
As mentioned in earlier, various settings are interrelated and must be kept in sync (once I have a better understanding of how the Rules & Structures work, I'll add some auto validation to the Editor). Just to repeat: For instance, the Total Number of Stages setting on the Basic Rules screen must always reflect the number of entries on the Stages screen - and the Number of Dates setting on the Stages screen must reflect the number of entries in the Schedule Dates table. Also, the Has Alternative Dates setting on the Stages screen must only be checked/ticked if the Alt. Dates table has been populated (and the number of Alt. Dates must be the same as the aforementioned Number of Dates setting).
Every competition consists of Structures and Stages:
Structures
The Structures determines how many conferences and divisions a competition has. A competition must have at least one conference and every conference must have at least one division. So a simple league would have one conference with one division.
Note that the list of Divisional Clubs only seems to be used where there are multiple divisions. It seems where there is just one division or where there are more complex team drawing rules then no teams should be listed here.
Stages
The competition is split into Stages (each competition must have at least one Stage). The Stages are linked together and the successful teams will progress from one Stage to the next. A simple league would have one Stage for the regular season and a second Stage for the playoffs. Things get more complex when you're dealing with multi-conference and multi-division leagues - take a look at the NHL Stages and you'll see what I mean!
Within each Stage there must be some Schedule Dates. These are used to calculate the game schedule for each Stage. For instance, the 10 teams in the Danish Metal Ligean play each other 5 times during the regular season, meaning 45 games each (9 teams x 5 rounds = 45 games). This means that the Number of Dates setting on the Stages screen of the first Stage should be 45. This also means that there must be 45 entries in the Schedule Dates table on the Stage screen for the first Stage. If we wanted an alternative schedule for Olympic years then you would need to tick the Has Alternative Dates box and add 45 entries to the Alt. Dates table.
3) Getting Started with the Magnus League
Below I will walk though the various settings I have been using for a 14 team French Magnus League using the v8.2 TBL Rosters. If I haven't mentioned any settings then it is because I am using the default settings. It should only take a couple of minutes to enter all of the data below.
To start with, click on Add Item -> Add Item (do NOT use the Copy and Paste setting).
Basic Data
Competition: French Magnus League
Competition Type: League
Ruling Body: France (you will need to create a new entry in the Ruling Bodies editing screen and assign it to France. You can just copy and paste the Great Britain ruling body)
Transfer Rules: France (you will need to create a new entry in the Transfer Rules editing screen and assign it to France. You can just copy and paste the Great Britain rules)
Number of Teams: 14
Total Prize Money: 10,000
Custom Flags: 0 - this is well worth experimenting with
Match Rules: 4198 - this is the Norwegian setting. Again, well worth experimenting with
Extra Match Rules: 0 - this is well worth experimenting with
Concurrent Initial Stages: 1
Total Number of Stages: 1
Stage Reputation: 8
Match Rules
FYI - currently this screen is not used.
Comp Rules
Has League Rules: Yes
Draw Date: 1.7.2015
Min Total Capacity: 1,000
Min Seating Capacity: 500
Max League Games: 26 - so each team will play each other twice (2 x 13 = 26)
Prize Money Type: 0
Total Prize Money: 10,000
Priority: 8
Win Pts: 2
Draw Pts: 1
OT Win: 2
OT Loss: 1
SH Win: 2
SH Loss: 1
Win Pct Type: 1
Sort Rules #1: Own Match
Sort Rules #2: Goal Difference
Sort Rules #3: Goals For
Sort Rules #4: No Rule
Structure
As the Editor automatically creates a single conference with a single division, there are no settings to change on this screen.
Stages: Structure
Firstly, click on the green "plus" button near the top right corner of the screen in order to add a new Stage. You will find it next to the two blue left/right and red cross buttons.
Generic Stage Name: Regular Season
Stage Type: League
Number of Dates: 26
Number of Teams: 14
Rounds: 2 - this means the teams will play each other twice
Stages: Rules
I'm not totally sure of the correct settings here. I'm going by what I have seen for other leagues. Probably worth experimenting here.
Team Picking Rules: 16
Fate Rules: 0
Stages: Schedule Dates
As we set the Number of Dates to 26 above, we need to populate this table with 26 entries. Rather than having to spend lots of time manually entering data, lets just steal the one from the Danish Metal Ligean:
1) Go to the Stages -> Schedule Dates screen for the Danish Metal Ligean. Make sure Stage 1 is selected from the drop-down menu in the top right corner of the screen.
2) Click on the Export Items button located at the bottom of the table and save the spreadsheet to somewhere like you desktop.
3) Open the spreadsheet and delete some rows from the spreadsheet until you're left with 26 rows of data. Keep in mind that there are two header rows when you count the number of data rows in your spreadsheet (i.e. the final data row will be located at Row number 28 in Excel, taking into account the two header rows). Save the spreadsheet.
4) Go to the Stages -> Schedule Dates screen for the Magnus League. Click on the Import Items (Replace) button below the empty table and select the spreadsheet you just edited. This will import your data into the table. You should now have 26 entries in the table.
Test it out!
Save the database and load it in EHM. When loading EHM, do NOT use the Import button. All you need to do is click on the New Career Game button.
You should now find the French Magnus League as a playable league. Select it as an Enhanced league. When you click on the Next button, the start date will be something like 18 August 2015.
Once the game has loaded, choose a team. You will see you have the usual initial news items included one announcing the 2015/16 league schedule. Viewing the league standings seems to work fine with all 14 teams listed. Clicking the Schedule button from the League Screen button seems to work fine. However, if you go to your Roster screen and click on the Schedule button, it seems to result in a crash...
Can we in future add Cups competitions? 
I can add a league to the game but when base is loading I have crash.
