1974/75: Nino's Rosters - Mario Lemieux as an 8 year old

[MXD]

Awesome!
Keep up the good work!

Other tasks after the 30 teams?

[nino33]

Other tasks after the 30 teams?

Two more things to get done before initial release:
- young players on placeholder teams (putting them on the right teams)
- adding staff


Is there anything else that you plan to add before your initial release?
Yes, but they're what I consider "little things".....like reviewing Arenas (currently I think about 10 NHL Arenas are incorrect), and reviewing Team Attributes (things like Reputation and Fan Support), and a few more things...

[nino33]

Woo Hoo! I have now completed adding Date Joined Club, Contract End Date as well as Draft and Rights information for all players contracted to an NHL team (players who IRL were drafted in 1975 and 1976 are unsigned NHL prospects) – this was another big step in the process

And just now I added the applicable Arenas that were needed, and I’ve now started on putting the 522 “placeholder players” on their proper teams….and I’ve been working on adding NHL Staff too

Progress continues!

[nino33]

I’ve now started on putting the 522 “placeholder players” on their proper teams

432 players have been placed! I expect to finish this task this weekend!

I’ve been working on adding NHL Staff too

I expect this task to go as quickly as placing players from placeholder teams (as a lot of the work is already done)


I'm thinking I'm a couple weeks away from some serious playtesting!
I'd like a few users to playtest the database for me - please send me a PM (and include an email address in your PM) if you're interested.


FYI Thanks to an another application/program that Archi wrote, I've been editing the Team Records of all the NHL Teams too! (Most Team Wins, Most Team Goals For, Most Goals/Player Name, Most Shutouts/Player Name) - the NHL Team Records will reflect the IRL records as of the fall of 1974


Regards

[nino33]

I just thought I'd better add/clarify.....at this point the 1974 db is only set up for GMing in the NHL and Major Junior (WHL-OHL-QMJHL).

While I dream/hope of a worldwide historical database, it's not there yet!
In fact, because of the editing I've done to remove "modern" players and staff I wouldn't recommend play outside of the NHL/Major Junior.....I very much do hope to someday fully populate European/Russian Leagues with historical players (but that won't be soon)

[nino33]

Greetings!

I've already recieved a number of PMs from users willing to help out by testing the 1974 db - THANK YOU!
I'll be working on populating Staff the next 10 days or so, and then I'll be making the db available to the testers!

Regards

[Manimal]

Have you assigned minor league affiliates for the NHL teams?
How did you decide to do it?

[nino33]

Have you assigned minor league affiliates for the NHL teams?
How did you decide to do it?

Yes I have....but I haven't looked at it since September (and I'm at work right now), so I can't recall specifics.
It was the first thing I did again last September after finally determining why I lost last summer's work (Run as Admin issue!)....



EDIT
So now I'm at home, and I've refreshed my memory a bit on what i did in terms of AHL affiliations (see below); it was definitely a "work in progress" (done last fall) but I think at this point I'm mostly OK with what I've got (I do need to at least give Cleveland an affiliation!). I’m not sure I’ve even got all the AHL teams connected to an NHL team1…..I really haven’t looked at this area in many months!
I intend to look at Affiliations in further detail in the future (including the adding of hundreds of historical minor league players) - so far I have only looked at the AHL, and IIRC I tried as much as possible to give the NHL teams the same Affiliation they had IRL in 1974

Here’s a current list of all of the NHL primary (AHL) affiliations…..

Calgary Cowboys – Tulsa Oilers
Edmonton Oilers – Omaha Knights
Colorado Rockies – Baltimore Clippers
Winnipeg Jets – Sherbrooke Jets
Seattle Totems – Albany River Rats

Chicago Blackhawks – Dallas Back Hawks
Cleveland Crusaders –
St. Louis Blues – Peoria Rivermen
Minnesota North Stars – New Haven Nighthawks
Detroit Red Wings – Grand Rapids Griffins

Vancouver Canucks – Binghamton Dusters
Los Angeles Kings – Springfield Kings
San Diego Mariners – Rochester Americans
California Seals – Salt Lake Golden Eagles
Phoenix Roadrunners – Johnstown Jets

Washington Capitals – Hershey Bears
Montreal Canadiens – Nova Scotia Voyageurs
Toronto Maple Leafs – Saginaw Gears
Ottawa Senators - Greensboro Generals
Quebec Nordiques – Maine Nordiques

Boston Bruins – Rochester Americans
NY Islanders – Fort Worth Texans
NY Rangers – Providence Reds
Buffalo Sabres – Hershey Bears
New England Whalers – Cape Codders

Houston Aeros – Roanoke Valley Rebels
Atlanta Flames – Omaha Knights
Philadelphia Flyers – Richmond Robins
Birmingham Bulls – Mohawk Valley Comets
Pittsburgh Penguins – Cape Codders

[nino33]

To all those who volunteered to test the 1974 db, I intend to send it out on February 21st.
I get a 3 day weekend next weekend (Monday the 20th is a Holiday here)…and I’ve decided to take advantage of that time to put the “finishing touches” on the database before sending it out; ideally if the testing goes well I think I would like to then publicly release version 1 right away!

Progress on populating the NHL with staff is going very well!
All NHL teams in the 1974 db will have “historical” staff…I’ve used NHL/WHA Guides and team Media Guides (as well as some Yearbooks/Annuals) to populate Chairman, President, GM, Head Coach and Scouts.
BUT I still needed to add over 120 Assistant Coaches (including 30 Goalie Coaches)
AND after adding all the IRL Scouts I could find still 17 of the 30 NHL teams had less than 4 Scouts (3 teams had no Scouts!)…..so I needed to add close to 100 Scouts too
AND I’ve added Assistant GMs too, as IIRC last summer when testing I found NHL teams seemed to “need” to have/sign an Assistant GM

So I used the website HockeyReference and went through every player who ever played in the NHL and who retired prior to the 1974-75 season, and from these options created a list whose playing career (longevity especially) warranted inclusion – this provided me with more than enough potential Assistant Coaches and Scouts! I created an excel spreadsheet…here’s a screenshot of one of the tabs



ALSO I’ve got all the modern Assistant Coaches and Scouts in EHM with a CA/PA of 100+ in an excel spreadsheet (not shown),
AND I’ve got a big 3’ x 3’ wall chart with all the staff to add (I used two flip chart pages taped together, as shown below) - this is what I'm currently doing, adding the historical wall chart staff to EHM by overwriting the modern staff


Back to work!
Regards

[archibalduk]

Most people probably would have created fictional scouts... But not Nino; he's gone for as authenticity as far as possible!

Keep up the great work. There are very many people looking forward to this!

[Moses Doughty]

Nino is the realism king

[nino33]

Thanks for the kind words!

In addition to the authenticity/realism factor, I like the idea of a future version (many, many months away) having the Stats/History added for Staff too! I think it’ll be “educational” for many who may not know much about some of the great players who played so many decades ago (and I’m wondering if adding Staff History in the future will populate the Hall of Fame, as IIRC the 1974 db shows no one in the Hall of Fame!)

Regards

[batdad]

Nino is on fire....he is burning as hot as Archi.

That wall chart---looks like something I would do. I love it.

[archibalduk]

That wall chart---looks like something I would do. I love it.

Heh, Nino is a man with a plan!

[nino33]

Does anyone know how EHM might react if an NHL team at start-up had no Scouts? And/Or only a Goalie Coach, and no other Assistant Coaches? And/Or no Assistant GM?

I've added the Scouts from my wall chart, and I'm adding the Assistant Coaches and Assistant GMs now.....right now in the NHL in the 1974 db there are a two teams with no Scouts, two teams with only a Goalie Coach and no other Assistant Coaches, and IIRC about half a dozen teams with no Assistant GM.....what I'd like to do is provide a couple/few dozen historical Free Agent Staff, and let the game populate the NHL teams with the needed staff - will this work?

Regards

P.S. It's the Houston Aeros, New England Whalers, and the Michigan Stags (Ottawa Senators in-game) that are giving me the most grief

[archibalduk]

I would expect that the game will start as per the staff contracted and then the AI GM will sign new staff at the beginning of the season.

[Manimal]

Yes, if a team has no scouts and not enough assistant coaches they will try to sign new ones. They will perhaps not sign for all their open positions but most will be filled(at least coaches)
If the historical staff you create are good enough (and do remember the game likes to sign people by reputation) then they will get signed

[nino33]

Thanks Much!

[Manimal]

I like that you have a wall chart to work with.
Myself, I use a binder where I have all the rosters from all the North American leagues. I change it everyday as something happens, be it trades or just guys getting put on injured reserve

[nino33]

I've got multiple binders/notebooks full of various bits and pieces...for example the binder and open notebook in this pic contain the "minor leagues" - I've already got the teams, players and their CA determined (using the shaddsheet and IRL stats), I just need the couple months it'll take to input the data! A task for version 2



And I used a big chunk of cardboard wall chart for determining NHL divisions/affiliations, as shown in this pic....

[Manimal]

You and me are very much alike in our work!

But, cardboard! That is so high-tech

[nino33]

cardboard! That is so high-tech

I'd show you my original notes but they don't allow cameras into the cave anymore!

[nino33]

For so long now the 1974 db has been "untestable" in that 500+ young players were the wrong age and in the wrong league, and none of the NHL teams had staff.....and now all of that is fixed!! And I'm testing!!! Woo Hoo! Everything seems to work!!

Of course there's some weirdness....I have the Media Guides from the era for the AHL, WHL and OHL (missing the QMJHL) and I've always intended on going through these leagues too and making staff (and players) "historical" as much as possible - in giving all the NHL teams historical staff I've made Invalid many other similarly rated staff (many who were in the minors or junior), and despite them being Invalid I suspect the game may be using some of them.....as if EHM requires there be a minimum number of staff available of a decent rating for positions like Assistant Coach and Physio, and if they're not available it uses the Invalid list before creating/regening? All of this comes from seeing Paul Coffey the modern Coach show up, despite being Invalid.......I'm not overly worried as it doesn't seem to be widespread and I do (hopefully) intend on adding the needed historical depth of players/staff

And there's the issue with ALL Europeans/Russians under age 20 ALWAYS receiving an "NHL Release Clause" in their contract, and thus they end up in the NHL long before they should - so to have the younger Europeans/Russians show up in game, a user will have to use the SavedGame Editor to edit the Birth Date/Age and PA (I will provide a list of players and what adjustments to make), currently it's only 40 players.....no one will have to do this! All these players will have a PA below 100, and so if not edited, players like Larionov, Krutov, Makorov, Kasatonov, Myshkin, Kurri, Ruotsalainen, Siltanen, Lindbergh, Loob, Nilsson, Gradin and others will simply fade from the game without ever being noticed; and for those that do decide to spend the few minutes editing, a much richer, deeper experience.

Over the coming days I'll be making corrections based on what I'm finding in my testing (so far, overwrite Paul Coffey! and add a couple NHL Coaches I thought I'd already added)......plus some work on the Referee Attributes, Team Attributes, and a bit more. I'm definitely on schedule to send it to the testers in a week!

Regards

[archibalduk]

Absolutely fantastic news! I'm so pleased you've managed to get to this point despite the previous data losses. You've truly overcome it to now be approaching your goal.

By the way, we've uncovered a minor issue with the player and team histories when reimporting them to the database. I've fixed the History Importer/Extractor and so a quick export and reimport of the data will fix it. Rather than explain the steps, if you like, if you email your rosters to me then I will make the fix for you.

[nino33]

we've uncovered a minor issue with the player and team histories when reimporting them to the database. I've fixed the History Importer/Extractor and so a quick export and reimport of the data will fix it. Rather than explain the steps, if you like, if you email your rosters to me then I will make the fix for you.

Thanks Much! I'm at work now, I'll email the db to you when I get home.....also, I haven't fixed the "blank team issue" yet so if you can fix that too that would be great (those left blank don't say Unknown Team)

Thanks Much!