EHM The Blue Line

tobygh1 wrote:Hi there! I recently purchased this game, been looking at it for ages wondering whether to or not. Started off as the invicta dynamos. I am really enjoying it however there is one major problem. I can sign any free agent I want to e.g. Rob farmer and in my second season I've signed brooks orpik. I don't think the dynamos are quite at the standard of signing these players. Also other teams in the league are signing NHL standard players, makes it a bit unrealistic.

What version of the game are you running? Also, what version of the game were you using when you first created your saved game? If this is something affecting the most recent version of the game (version 1.6.2) then I'll get it reported on our Project Tool as a bug.

Thanks for the quick reply! I may have made an error in believing that the most recent version would have downloaded, as I only bought the game the other day, I'm currently updating to the most recent patch and I will try again to see if the same thing happens. I will post the result on here. Thanks again!

Ah that's a relief (hopefully). Thanks for offering to let me know how it goes with the new version - it would be very useful to know.

Btw, I realised a week ago that I hadn't set the NIHL-1 players' Leadership rating (despite the fact that I rated them last year and have the ratings sat in an Excel spreadsheet). So you'll find they're randomised in game and so the captains and alt captains will be wrong. I'm going to get them added to the DB this weekend (along with all Offensive attributes for all EIHL and EPL players). So I think whenever the next DB update is released the UK leagues will be better than ever.

Hi again so far so good, people are turning down offers now! Thanks for your help. If I notice anything else that I feel could do with some work, I'll be sure to post it on here

Hey Archi,

I started a game unemployed/greenhorn and the only job offer I got was for the Manchester Minotaurs of the NIHL. I knew you had worked on the UK leagues so decided to accept the job.

One thing I noticed is that when the game advances/sims and displays the the league table, the teams records are displayed in W-L-OTL format, however, there are no OTLs (only ties) so this number is always zero? The same holds true for when your record is displayed along the top bar of the home screen. It's always something like 4-2-0 10 pts (ties are added but not shown). Not a major deal, just something that I noticed that could be improved.

Also, I read online that this is mainly an amateur league, however, a standard contract is in the 20K range. Is this intentional? I guess there wouldn't be a whole lot to do if there was no contract negotiation (since there is no trading), so I don't mind it so much. Just curious.

Thanks for your work on the DB.

Yeah the W-L-OTL is an annoyance. Unfortunately there is still a lot that needs polishing.

You're absolutely right; it's predominantly an amateur league. The richest teams (e.g. Invicta, Chelmsford, London and Wightlink) can afford to pay their top players modest wages plus housing. Other teams pay players' expenses whereas some teams charge their players to pay (this can also be the case for the weakest players on the top teams). I'm not totally sure about the wealth of the Northern teams, but I'd expect Solway, Billingham and possibly Whitley Bay to be the wealthiest (and Solihull in the NIHL-2 are certainly wealthy).

Anyhow, it's not really practical to reflect the wide range of wealth in game (the game isn't really designed to value players like this). So I compromised by using a very low scale which crosses over with the EPIHL salary range at an appropriate point (in order to reflect how the level of talent differs between the NIHL and EPIHL). It's exactly as you say - it's a trade-off between realism and fun.

Unfortunately there's a lot left to be desired with the European leagues and certainly the UK leagues. You'll see that teams in higher UK leagues can sign players straight from lower teams. And you'll see that intra-league transfers are also possible (although this is in the process of being fixed for the next patch).

Let me know how you get along with Manchester (they're one of the weakest teams in the NIHL-1 North (aka the Moralee Conference)). I'm more than happy to answer any questions about how the league operates or for players to look out for. Here are the end of the 2013/14 standings if you're interested: http://www.eiha.co.uk/Leagues/NIHLMORAL ... RENCE.aspx

The NIHL is still very much a work in progress. I have recently been reviewing and re-rating the offensive, physical and goalie skills for the EIHL and EPIHL players. I'm hoping to get to the NIHL-1 North and South probably late spring / early summer. I also have the Leadership ratings in a spreadsheet which I'm getting entered into the DB so that we have the correct players as team captains, etc.

I was actually starting to enjoy the game. Was turning the Minotaurs around and got a contract offer to coach in the EPIHL during my first season. I would have liked to accept the new position, however, the game would not allow me accept or deny the offer and it eventually crashed my game because I could not sim forward. When I reloaded the save, my last name as well as half the players on my team had their last name changed to "Smith" making the game unplayable. Total bummer, I was really starting to get into the league. Now I'm hesitant to start another one out of fear that I will experience the same bug again. Happened to me once before in the NHL. I'm still not sure how you move from coaching one team to another?

How irritating. I had thought that bug was fixed with the latest patch (v.1.6.4). Did you start your saved game after patch v1.6.4 or is it one you created using an earlier version? Let me know (and keep a copy of the saved game) because if it is still an unfixed bug I'll need to report it and OOTP may well need a copy of the affected saved game.

Pax25 wrote:I'm still not sure how you move from coaching one team to another?

Me neither. There's an available jobs screen hidden in one of the menus (can't remember which off-hand). Somehow you can either apply for jobs via that screen or possibly somewhere on the team's screen. I've never been able to figure it out, but it is certainly possible. I haven't played it seriously enough to want to change teams (I just playtest it to feedback to the devs).

This last game was started and finished with the latest patch. As I said, same thing happened to me once before, but I thought it was because I continued an old save from a previous version with the new patch.

I will hold onto the save in case you need it.