EHM The Blue Line

Thought about saving up and getting FHM, but there are some major issues I'm having with EHM (I used to play the first EHM game and now 2007), so I'd be thankful if anybody who has played FHM long enough could comment on whether or not they noticed in FHM these or similar:

a) if my team is successful and wins several cups & president trophy's, players won't sign no matter what money I offer (discussed here: http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/vi ... =17&t=6812). I tried this in 3 separate offseasons, I can't get players to sign with the SC champion for 3x the money they get offered else and NTC, this has led me to have massive holes in my lineup as my older players retire/are becoming worse and I can't sign players to replace them and don't have prospects yet to take their place - major bummer. I'm talking about no decent defenseman in the league being willing to sign a ridiculously overpriced contract with the SC champion. Makes sense, right?

b) game tries to prevent player from winning multiple cups in a row. I won the cup 2 times in a row, the third time I noticed that within 12 PO games, I lost my #1 d-man, #2d-man, starting goalie, team captain, #6 d-man, #1 center to injuries/bans, opposing team goalies started all posting career numbers (save% on average around 96%) and my goalies wouldn't get their save% over 85%, even though they were both Vezina runner-ups (during this actual season). I thought it was weird and suspicious, since these were mostly players who won the previous 2 cups and I knew them and what to expect, so I re-simulated with various setting/tactics/line-ups, regardless of what I did, I'd lose at least 3 out of 4 times and players kept getting injured, even though my team was dominant in all areas most of the time. I noticed this on several occasions. In the original EHM this was well known of (the game would "compensate" if you scored too much, etc...), I guess they kept it in the 2007 version too (or a variation of it).

c) trading becomes harder. I noticed after a few cups that I stopped getting trade proposals and it started to get ridiculously hard to trade anybody. this one MIGHT be subjective, then again, when I took the team over I made around 5 or 6 trades without any issues, now I'm happy if I find somebody willing to trade once in a season, I can't find a solid scoring winger for 2 well developed five star prospects and a 22 year old 3-time Vezina runner up. and many similar situations, which is pretty ridiculous, since most of the time teams go crazy for guys from successful, SC winning teams, not vice-verse.

d) if I get more scoring players, the production of others drops over time, guess they're trying to keep it "real" (not related to age, weak form, change in coaching, etc...)

Overall, I really enjoy the game, but I think what they did was try to prevent the game becoming "unrealistic". The issue is that it's somebody's subjective interpretation of what "unrealistic" is and in the end, it's a game - what point is there in playing if the game punishes you for being "too good"?

So my question is, have you guys ever experienced these or similar in FHM? I don't want to spend money on it if it compensates like EHM, it ruined the game experience for me.

Thanks & have a nice day.

I can't say FHM has the specific issues that you mention above, but it does have some serious issues right now (e.g. the tactical settings which seem to have no visible impact on the game and the sometimes seemingly random scorelines). The devs are working on improving the game and so hopefully things will be better in the future. IMO, FHM is more of an investment right now. The more sales the devs make, I would assume the more likely we are at getting a further version. But unfortunately I'm sticking just with EHM for the foreseeable future. I am nonetheless hopeful that things will continue to get better for FHM.

I recommend browsing through the various FHM Patch Discussion Threads and the General Impressions Thread as they will give you an idea of what people think about the game at present.

Who could know if FHM compensates. I mean I have not experienced the issues you describe in EHM and I have won zillions of cups. My first loss of a player going UFA and leaving the team was just this last week or so....Ryan KEsler...no guys have ever left unless I wanted them to. And I always get trade offers in EHM for guys. Tons of them especially for my young guys developing and even for my stars.

But back to the point....I cannot see if FHM compensates because quite honestly at this point the game just appears to be a bad UI and a random number generator attached to names. Nothing makes sense in it. ( yeah I am exaggerating a bit...but honestly at times that is what it seems to be...a random number generator taken to a whole new level.)

thanks a lot for the replies guys. I thought FHM would be a more polished game by now, looks like I'll have to wait some more for a good ice-hockey management game (sigh).