Migrating to EHM from another multiplayer hockey sim

[donpaulo]

Greetings hockey sim fans, I am a newbie here on the forums but have been enjoying sim hockey online about 20 years and was a Stratomatic fan for years before that. I am really excited to take a closer look at EHM.

We are a 20+ team APBA league simming for 15 years now. Over the past few seasons the APBA community has rated our own disk and put out a very good set of disks IMHO. The league is as strong as ever but the sim itself is dated and starting to show its age. We are now in the process of trying to narrow down our choices of sim software.

I have some questions about moving our league over to the EHM platform, that I hope someone can answer.

One of the great things about APBA is that its abandonware and thus free to play. The manager app is really simple so Gms simply download the league files, open the roster app, adjust available players, lines, forechecking etc then send a 1K file to our central sim guy who runs all the games on a nightly basis.

Does EHM have a separate roster management tool or must every team purchase the software in order to participate ?

How are the players rated ? Is it community based or does it comes from a central source ?

Have you been happy with the ratings in the recent product ?

Thanks so much everyone !

DP

[Tasku]

Welcome to TBL!

Does EHM have a separate roster management tool or must every team purchase the software in order to participate ?

Each player needs their own version of EHM, which is available on Steam
http://store.steampowered.com/app/30112 ... y_Manager/

How are the players rated ? Is it community based or does it comes from a central source ?

The game itself has it's own "faked" roster file, that does not include real players. Our guys here at TBL have a group of volunteers who manufacture our own database with real players, teams, rosters and player ratings, but there are others as well, here and elsewhere, that may vary in, among other content, the player ratings.

Have you been happy with the ratings in the recent product ?

I have no complaints (using TBL Rosters).

[nino33]

We are a 20+ team APBA league simming for 15 years now. Over the past few seasons the APBA community has rated our own disk and put out a very good set of disks IMHO. The league is as strong as ever but the sim itself is dated and starting to show its age. We are now in the process of trying to narrow down our choices of sim software.

Are these yearly disks required with APBA to keep the game originally started going?

EHM isn't like that, it's a "complete hockey world" (down to bantam aged players) that regenerates itself as necessary as the years pass; an online league started back in 2005 with EHM05 just recently folded after over a decade...EHM on reddit shows 8 online leagues with the current version of EHM (released in 2015 via Steam); some of these online leagues are connected to TBL dmhnl.php


EHM is the core game that allows single player and multiplayer play; EHM does have different yearly databases (for free), and you can edit the databases, and to some extent edit a saved game, using a (free) editor.......multiplayer play in EHM has always been online and you just used the database you started with (with over 40 thousand players/staff); players/staff "regenerate" with new ratings on their own as necessary to keep the database "full" of players/staff (the core game system makes it happen)

The free databases/editors are from "the community" and not the company; there is actually an ingame editor coming from the company that will be part of the next update to the game

Discord or something similar is used for things like drafts (so they're done live), as well as trade discussion amongst the human GMs

EHM online leagues usually play the NHL and try to have a human GM for every NHL team

The manager app is really simple so Gms simply download the league files, open the roster app, adjust available players, lines, forechecking etc then send a 1K file to our central sim guy who runs all the games on a nightly basis.

EHM online leagues have the game up and running on someone's computer (the host) 24/7 and players can log in anytime they want to check results/make tactical changes/adjust practice settings/assign scouts/etc & once a day the game is taken offline for a bit (20 minutes?) and simmed forward (usually 4 days ingame time)

There is no downloading/uploading of files by anyone

[donpaulo]

Thanks for the posts guys

Are these yearly disks required with APBA to keep the game originally started going?

Yes we rate the entire league every year, it makes for a great community building task and we submit about 40K separate ratings each off season. The disk has really improved over the last season or three.

EHM is the core game that allows single player and multiplayer play; EHM does have different yearly databases (for free), and you can edit the databases, and to some extent edit a saved game, using a (free) editor.......multiplayer play in EHM has always been online and you just used the database you started with (with over 40 thousand players/staff); players/staff "regenerate" with new ratings on their own as necessary to keep the database "full" of players/staff (the core game system makes it happen)

The free databases/editors are from "the community" and not the company; there is actually an ingame editor coming from the company that will be part of the next update to the game

Discord or something similar is used for things like drafts (so they're done live), as well as trade discussion amongst the human GMs

EHM online leagues usually play the NHL and try to have a human GM for every NHL team

So just to be as clear as I can.

Our league has 1 central person who is doing all the sims.

So if I understand you correctly, each person (after buying the software) goes onto the net, updates the team

Then does what ?

The central league office stays online and GMs log in to update things ?

If each person is simming their own games, this is not how our league was initially structured.

Just trying to clarify things

Thanks again !

[archibalduk]

No, just the admin will sim the games. The game will be running on the admin's computer and each other GM will login and make their changes. The admin will then sim as and when he decides.

You could try downloading the demo of EHM 2007 HERE onto two computers and setup a test network game. This will give you an idea of how EHM 1 will work too. I have never tried the demo of EHM 2007 and so I cannot say with certainty that the network functions work in the demo, but I expect they would as the demo is just a time-limited version of the full game.

[nino33]

Are these yearly disks required with APBA to keep the game originally started going?

Yes we rate the entire league every year, it makes for a great community building task and we submit about 40K separate ratings each off season. The disk has really improved over the last season or three.

Just as an FYI/to clarify...

40,000 separate ratings covers less than 1000 players in EHM (so just the NHL essentially); each player in EHM is rated in close to 50 different categories

EHM is not simulating a single league for one season. EHM simulates an ongoing, neverending career in a complete hockey world

Also EHM simulates all of hockey...so scouting, drafts, waivers, trades, international play, awards, contract negotiations, etc

Also, EHM simulates the entire hockey world; there are around 50 different playable leagues (from 25 different countries) in addition to the NHL

[donpaulo]

Thanks again.

If 40K ratings only covers 1000 players I have to ask do 50 different ratings really improve things ?

Wow thats alot. I guess thats a learning curve we all have to decide to undertake ourselves.

I am sure you all love the realism I am just trying to garner interest for a league in which not everyone is a "die hard"

I hope you understand

Do you feel that 50 ratings makes it more enjoyable ?

[nino33]

I have to ask do 50 different ratings really improve things ?

Do you feel that 50 ratings makes it more enjoyable ?

Absolutely/undoubtedly yes! I know I'm not alone in thinking there's some more that need adding

Wow thats alot. I guess thats a learning curve we all have to decide to undertake ourselves.

I am sure you all love the realism I am just trying to garner interest for a league in which not everyone is a "die hard"

The learning curve isn't much if you don't try to edit everything yourself.....for "significant editing" from what I can tell it seems there's a handful of people that do a lot of EHM editing and a dozen or two that do some, compared to over 20,000 people that just play the game

The game "fills things in itself" as necessary based on a couple/few important selections (like Current Ability and Player Role) so you don't need to have every single Attribute entered by a human editor; the most important things are Current/Potential Ability, Player Role and Offensive/Defensive Role


FYI - there's videos of EHM being played on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ehm+hockey

[archibalduk]

Thanks again.

If 40K ratings only covers 1000 players I have to ask do 50 different ratings really improve things ?

Wow thats alot. I guess thats a learning curve we all have to decide to undertake ourselves.

I am sure you all love the realism I am just trying to garner interest for a league in which not everyone is a "die hard"

I hope you understand

Do you feel that 50 ratings makes it more enjoyable ?

Will you really need to rate players if we already maintain an up to date roster? Couldn't you just use ours at least as a starting point? My apologies if I am missing something obvious!

[donpaulo]

Will you really need to rate players if we already maintain an up to date roster? Couldn't you just use ours at least as a starting point? My apologies if I am missing something obvious!

Thanks

we wouldn't be "rerating" things, my concern is that 50 stats will overwhelm the non die hards

[donpaulo]

The guy in charge of the actual simming sent me some questions so I thought I would post them here. Rather than edit or try to answer them I will just cut & paste the original

Thanks again


Some questions I have for ANY new home for the league :

1) How is the technical support / customer service for this product?

2) How current is the most recent release?

3) Are we able to personalize the league with our team names, GM names, Rink names, colors, etc?

4) Does it provide for deep prospect lists? Is that done via additional available "lower leagues" - (AHL, OHL, WHL, Europe, etc...)? OR is there simply a basic option to list prospects owned somehow?

5) Does it provide for basic components of the our league ? UFA bidding period, annual entry draft, etc...?

6) Does the product feed all of its rosters, team info, game results, financials, drafts, Free Agency, playoffs, etc. into a user-friendly website?

7) What are the "back-up" provisions to protect the details and history of our league, should this provider go missing all of a sudden?

8) What operating systems is it compatible with?

9) Would the Commish's have controls over what player editing abilities the individual owners have access to?

10) In your opinion, what are the top pros/cons about this product?

[nino33]

Some questions I have for ANY new home for the league :

1) How is the technical support / customer service for this product? The primary source of technical/customer is the community here at TBL (which is very good I think)

2) How current is the most recent release? The game was created by a guy named Riz as freeware (still available) around 2000 & his work got him a job with Sports Interactive/Sega. Sports Interactive/Sega have released four versions of EHM: in 2004, 2005 and 2007 and then via Steam in 2015. Here's the EHM page on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastside_Hockey_Manager

Development had officially stopped after 2007 (apparently because of piracy), but Riz kept working on the game on his own in his spare time (his primary job being to work on the game Football Manager).....the game returned in 2015 (on Steam), was last updated a year ago and at least one more update is coming

3) Are we able to personalize the league with our team names, GM names, Rink names, colors, etc? Yes

4) Does it provide for deep prospect lists? Is that done via additional available "lower leagues" - (AHL, OHL, WHL, Europe, etc...)? OR is there simply a basic option to list prospects owned somehow? The entire hockey universe is within EHM from bantam age upwards (so basically every pro league you can think of is in the game...and you can be an NHL GM or you can be a GM in 50 other leagues; the other couple hundred leagues you can't be a GM in, but they still exist ingame)

5) Does it provide for basic components of the our league ? UFA bidding period, annual entry draft, etc...? All these things are ingame

6) Does the product feed all of its rosters, team info, game results, financials, drafts, Free Agency, playoffs, etc. into a user-friendly website? No...given the game is available to log into 24/7 why would you need a website?

With EHM rosters, team info, game results, financials, drafts, Free Agency, playoffs, etc are available ingame (and all of the information can be viewed for all of the leagues/players worldwide)

7) What are the "back-up" provisions to protect the details and history of our league, should this provider go missing all of a sudden? I don't understand your question...all of the details/history of your league would be on the host computer in the saved game

8) What operating systems is it compatible with? From the Steam page...
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
MINIMUM:
OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8
Processor: Intel Pentium 3, Intel Core, AMD Athlon - 1GHz+
Memory: 256 MB RAM
Graphics: NVidia GeForce FX 5900 Ultra, ATI Radeon 9800, Intel GMA X3100 - 128MB VRAM
DirectX: Version 9.0
Storage: 800 MB available space
Additional Notes: Minimum Resolution : 1024x768


9) Would the Commish's have controls over what player editing abilities the individual owners have access to? None of the players logging in as their GM would ever be able to edit anything

EHM the game is up and running 24/7 on someone's computer and the saved game would only be on that individual computer - only accessing that saved game would allow for possible editing of that saved game (so technically only the host would be able to edit anything)

I've never heard of any editing going on in EHM online play.....people might edit things to start, but once you start the game there's never a need to edit the game again

10) In your opinion, what are the top pros/cons about this product? Steam shows 670 reviews and an overall rating of "Very Positive"

My thoughts...I love the level of detail/completeness, the editability (though it's not always easy to do), and the 2D gameplay.....biggest con is in terms of ongoing development it's really just one guy working on the game in his spare time

I discovered EHM in 2010 and from 2010-2015 there was no EHM development or even rumour that there might be....it was a completely dead game (and had been since early 2007); roster updates and editor creation/updates continued to happen via the community) - so I'm happy the game's actually back from the dead and getting some official attention, even if it's limited

I'd really recommend reading some Steam reviews, looking at some of the gameplay on YouTube, and trying out the EHM07 demo

[nino33]

my concern is that 50 stats will overwhelm the non die hards

You don't see all 50 ingame, you see 27 Attributes for a player; here's an example of a player and a goalie...


The other Attributes that are used by the game but are "hidden" (not directly viewable by the player) are Fighting, Injury Proneness, Natural Fitness, Consistency, Dirtiness, Decisions, Important Matches, Pass Tendency, Agitation, Versatility + Adaptability, Ambition, Loyalty, Pressure, Professionalism, Sportsmanship and Temperament (Goaltenders have a hidden One-on-One Attribute)

[nino33]

As for the idea of EHM being "overwhelming" in general...IMO if a person knows nothing about hockey that's possible, but if one understands hockey they can IMO just use common hockey sense


You can select "Ask Coach" for roster decisions, practice, lines, tactical decisions, etc (you don't have to do everything yourself...but you can if you want to)


When I played online I found two things time-consuming...the initial startup (learning who my players were/making initial decisions regarding team style/direction) & the draft - each of these took me a few hours preparing on my own (the startup is a onetime thing, and the draft is once every 3 IRL months.....and I love all the detail, so I never used the Ask Coach function)

99% of the time it was less than 5 minutes a day (checking in, looking at the scores from the previous 4 day sim, adjusting for any injuries if necessary)

[archibalduk]

As Nino says, I'd highly recommend trying out the EHM 2007 demo. Whilst it is outdated (particularly in respect of screen resolution), it'll give you a good idea of how the game plays.

I would also add that whilst there is no website provision, it is possible to manually export data from the game to html (but you'd have to do it manually one team at a time).

[donpaulo]

This stuff is awesome !

I can't thank you all enough