EHM The Blue Line

Welcome to NHL32 - Seattle Edition

See latest post for 2019-20 Season Start BETA!

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=18863&p=240754#p240754

Installation of Database:

Same as NHL36. Download the ZIP file and extract it to the database directory in EHM. It will automatically unzip into a folder named for the database and version. If you are having issues with the database not showing up upon installation, check the folder and make sure it as as shown below (the version may defer) - make sure you didn't accidentally unzip it into another sub-folder. Verify both the DB file and extra_config file are present.

Installing the Graphics

- There are both logos and screen backgrounds available for NHL32/NHL36. Because I have made adjustments since starting the project, there is a main file and an update file for each. Override any files when you unzip the update.
- ***CAUTION*** These logos will override any logos you have right now so if you need to, backup your current logos directory. You have been warned. They are standard style logos in Huge, Medium and Small sizes.
- The logos include everything you need for the NHL, AHL and ECHL structures in both NHL32 and NHL36 to look complete on all screens and also include logos updates around major leagues of the world for the 17-18 season. I can't promise however it will be as through as say the world set dani9 has produced for the TBL roster set so if you want to preserve all your logos but the NHL/AHL/ECHL logos, you could just use them with the rest of the logos you already have.
- Backgrounds are for the NHL and NHL teams (including all expansion teams) only.

- Unzip the logos files to the logos directory...NOTE, the ZIP file is already setup to unzip to the proper folders, if you unzip to the wrong place the logos will not show up.


- Same deal with the backgrounds, unzip to the background directory.

Running the Expansion Draft

- Process is the same for both NHL32 and all NHL36 databases.
- The expansion draft file automatically comes with each database ZIP file you download as I described above but it needs to be applied manually.
- To do this, you need archibalduk's EHM Editor found here: viewtopic.php?f=148&t=16014&p=233289#p206841

Steps

1) Make sure you donwloaded an NHL36 database and have it in the correct location as described in the "Installing the Database" section at the top.

2) Open the EHM Editor, click Open Database (NOT saved game) and locate your NHL32/NHL36 installation folder and select the DB file in that folder:


3) Go to Tools --> Import Spreadsheet. Make sure the option for XLSX format is selected and then hit the big green "Import Spreadsheet" button. Go to the same folder your DB is in and select the Expansion Draft XLSX file. *UPDATE* In EHM Editor 2.5 and later, the IMPORT/EXPORT buttons are located on the main file screen not under tools.


4) A correct install will give you the image below (150 lines for the NHL36 databases and 30 for the NHL32 - Seattle database)


5) Go back to the File tab, hit Save, start up EHM and select the database like usual and the expansion teams will be stocked with 30 players each

Note: The Expansion Draft XLSX file is a standard Excel spreadsheet...when you open it, it's pretty self-explanatory and you can easily create your own Expansion Draft results by editing this file with different players.

Seattle Totems Info

- As in NHL36, the Seattle franchise in NHL32 is called the "Totems". There is of course much debate about naming. NHL36 originally had them as the "Kraken". Both are among a final list of 13 that has been applied for. I've grown fond of the "Totems" moniker as one that reaches back in Seattle history and also has a darn cool logo. I know opinions will vary. The associated logopacks and backgrounds downloads still have the Kraken logos in them so if you want, go into the editor and rename the club - those Kraken logos should then show up. As the team name choice in real life is narrowed down, I may make adjustments to the name in future versions.

- They play in a renovated KeyArena as that is the current development plan that has been approved. Capacity is expanded, ice condition is excellent and expect excellent attendance from an eager and willing new NHL fanbase in the U.S. northwest.

- Rivals coded into the database include Vancouver and San Jose - so gear your Totems up for those games and don't lose or else your board might get a bit angry!

- Colors are Emerald City Green, Pacific Navy & Grunge Gray.



NHL32 League Setup & Structure Changes

- The NHL realignment to accommodate Seattle is very simple and straightforward. I've seen lots of more complicated plans put forth on how to handle Seattle but I honestly believe the simplest solution will be the one the league turns to: Arizona moves from the Pacific to the Central and Seattle then slots into the Central. No pain, no fuss.



- A couple of AHL changes to accommodate Seattle's primary farm team and some real-life movement that is happening for the 2018-19 season. The Colorado Eagles are moving up from the ECHL to be the Avs' AHL affiliate in 18-19, freeing San Antonio to be sole affiliate of the Blues. And for Seattle, I've returned a former team to life in the Fresno Falcons, who will be the Totems' AHL affiliate in NHL32. So 32 AHL affiliates for 32 NHL clubs. Schedule for the AHL is expanded in NHL32 to 82 games to match the NHL schedule.

- The ECHL had only 27 teams this season so to get that magic 32-32-32 ratio between all three leagues, I had to blend a few more fantasy changes in. First, on the "real life" front, the Maine Mariners are going to be a new club for 18-19, serving as the Flyers' ECHL affiliate. Brought back defunct teams in Elmira and Alaska (with the Aces acting as Seattle's ECHL affiliates) as well as adding fantasy teams from NHL36 in Oklahoma City and Abbotsford to the ECHL structure in NHL32.

- Unlike NHL36, where the SPHL got folded into a larger ECHL - the SPHL should be playable in NHL32.

- Also unlike NHL36, the scheduling in NHL32 for the 32 team format is much more natural than the "play every other day the entire year" format of the more complicated NHL36 structure. You'll play some back-to-back games, you'll have some longer breaks, etc.

The NHL32 Expansion Draft

- Like in NHL36, the NHL32 database comes with an expansion draft import file, the instructions were posted above.

- If you DO NOT use the expansion file, your Seattle team will start off completely empty. Not to say that's a bad thing - that really is the ultimate challenge - but you will find free agent pickings very, very slim. By using the expansion file, your team will be stocked with 30 players and you'll be able to hit the ground running a bit more...you'll be able to trade right away as well. It's really your choice how to play.

- I will post in a future post another file the Expansion Draft Toolkit I created to help conduct the expansion draft. It has a list of available/exposed players and a roster guide to help fill in your team if you want to do an expansion draft on your own.

- The Expansion Draft Import file is simply a spreadsheet and you can alter it in any way you want - whether you use my expansion draft guidelines or not - to stock Seattle with whatever roster you want them to have simply by swapping/filling in your own players in the format you'll see in that file. The reason this file is separate and I left Seattle empty in the base database is so that every use has the flexibility to update any future version of NHL32 with the Seattle roster of their own choice.

My Expansion Draft Rules

- I did not want to spend the time to examine every contract to determine who was on an ELC, who had a NTC, etc, etc. So these rules let me do this in a much swifter fashion.

1) Everybody 20 or under was exempt and did not need to be protected. So everybody born in 1997 or later.

2) Long-term injured reserve guys like Hossa, MacArthur, Lupul, Horton, Grabovski, Clarkson, Bolland, etc were not eligible.

3) Vegas was completely exempt from the draft since they just got created themselves.

4) Of the remaining eligible players, teams got to protect 9 forward, 4 defenders and 1 goalie (total of 14) or 12 players at any position (the cost of that flexibility is additional protection spots). With Vegas hitting the ground so darn well, these rules were meant to restrict Seattle a bit more on purpose - as the last thing other NHL owners want is another expansion team hitting the ground so fast. This will leave you with a challenge but also still let you put together a decent squad of NHL-level players along with a few younger talents.

5) I tried to examine protection lists from each club with an eye on what that club is going through in real life. So a team like Ottawa leaves some aging, very expensive contracts like Bobby Ryan and Dion Phaneuf exposed in order to protect a few more younger assets. A team like Nashville may have a few nice, valuable young assets exposed because they need to protect their "win now" talents. The protection lists were not made by simply saying each team protects the 13 players that have the best Current Ability. A lot of thought was put into this.

Expansion Draft Results

- See updated posts in this thread for initial drafts for each new release of NHL32!

NHL32 Expansion Draft Toolkit

You want to run your OWN expansion draft you say? But it's a lot of work you say?

Well - yes, it is a bit of work but I've assembled the NHL32 Expansion Draft Toolkit to help make it a bit easier.

Here's the download:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/267x7zputus55 ... .xlsx?dl=0

The toolkit is simply an Excel database with three useful tabs.

1) The first tab is available players, based on my draft rules and protections, sortable by player, team, age, primary position, CA, and PA. If you scroll to the bottom you will see the protected players, younger ineligible players and Vegas players all in separate pools that you are not meant to be able to choose from. Although you can edit things how you wish. Hint: I put a marker "SEA" in the availability column so I can sort my final eventual Seattle team.



2) The second tab let's you mark down the player you've chosen from each team and also has a couple of additional slots for other guys on each team under "consideration" so you can play with your line-up back and forth until you get your perfect expansion roster.



3) The third and final tab let's you will in your rosters as you make the picks. I use it in conjunction with the second tab to weight my decisions.



I've selected my team, how do I get it into the database?

Remember the Expansion Draft Import file that the database came with? You'll simply replace those players with the newly chose players from this toolkit spreadsheet. And there is a simple trick to this.

1) Go back to the first tab in the toolkit after you are done and sort the availability column so that all your choices stack together:

2) Copy the First Name, Last Name and Date of Birth as one block:



3) Go to the Expansion Draft import file and paste that block into the matching block in that file. You don't need to mess with the other columns:



4) Save the import file and load it into the database via the Editor. You're good to go! Not only are you good to go now, you can apply YOUR version of the expansion draft to every future NHL32 database update I make!

Do you think it would be possible to have a different expansion scenario of this Db ?

Basically : Putting Detroit back to west conference and add Quebec in the East instead of Seattle ?


I'd pretty much do it myself but I'm not confident enough with the Editor yet..

I'll put a step-by-step guide here later today. Don't be afraid of the Editor. You just have to get used to the workflow.

Because the NHL32 database has all the NHL36 clubs in it, in theory you can, fairly easily, setup your own 32 team alignment by swapping out clubs. It takes some work on the front-end but once you have it the way you want, you can apply it to every new NHL32 update so you always have your own league setup but with the latest data and ratings. My goal is to try and give others as much flexibility as possible with the database to customize it. Almost a primitive type of "sandbox" mode.

I will use Quebec in for Arizona with Detroit to the WC Central and Quebec to the EC Atlantic for the example.

Oh that's nice ! I'll give the Editor another try and make sure to use an alternate file for saving

And yeah I think moving Arizona to Quebec and swapping Detroit would be nice, and accurate considering the real-world situation.

Thanks for the info, I'll report back with my experience !

I'm putting together a generic guide as we speak (I'm stuck at home with flu, so it gives me something to do aside from watching daytime TV ). No doubt BK's guide will be the definitive version to follow for the NHL32 DB, but I thought I'd put together a very generic guide for use with any database.

Here you go: viewtopic.php?f=110&t=18124&p=233387#p233387

Let me know if any of it is unclear.

When I imported my own expansion draft into the database, it sets all of the contracts to end in 2018 even though that's not how it is suppose to work. Maybe because it's the version of the editor? Just to make sure I imported the default draft without any modifications and it still had the same issue.

Trieu wrote:When I imported my own expansion draft into the database, it sets all of the contracts to end in 2018 even though that's not how it is suppose to work. Maybe because it's the version of the editor? Just to make sure I imported the default draft without any modifications and it still had the same issue.

Hmmm you’re right even though the import file doesn’t change the contract expiry dates, the editor is resting all the Seattle players to 1.2.1900 for contract end date. Archi - I don’t recall this happening before, could there be something up with the new editor or has it always been this way and I just haven’t noticed?

I'm getting the same issue too. I will take a look today. It's a good job I'm off work with the flu!

I've found the cause. It was a slight tweak I made in order to accommodate certain invalid dates. I've fixed it and will do some testing before I release later today.

Btw, there is a roster error in your NHL32 DB. It looks like there are two Head Coaches assigned to Oji Eagles (Kunihiko Sakurai and Syuji Momoi). Click on Data -> Roster Errors in the Editor and you will see what I mean.

Thanks archi!

Here you go: viewtopic.php?f=148&t=16014&p=233424#p206841

Another bug I'd like to report is that the draft lottery is completely broken. I ran a few tests, and I had the Stanley Cup Winners (Toronto) and the President Trophy winner (Anaheim) win the lottery as the most notable ones. The draft order is also completely screwed up because it had Arizona pick in the mid twenties despite finishing second last. As an aside, I took the Totems to the playoffs, but had them sadly lose Game 7 to LA in the first round after being down 3-0. It's pretty clear to me how easy it is to break the game if you personalize your tactics. I just wanted to see how far I could go with an expansion roster. So my next save I'll leave coaching to the coaches for once and see how it goes!

There aren't facts about franchise history stats (for example Nashville or Tampa).
No full awards winners (for example Art Ross and 2012/2013).

Awards: For some reason all of Marty St. Louis' awards aren't showing up in history so I'll look into that. In terms of "full award history from the beginning of the NHL in the early 190'0's" - the way the game reads awards from the Editor - to do that would be a monumental task at the moment. Because the game will only add award history for guys who are still in the game as active players or staff. Even though the editor has a field to insert just the name of an award winner. The game itself doesn't read it. So the 2012/13 Art Ross missing field is an easily fixable mistake which I will get to for the next version but anything beyond the 80's or 90's in terms of individual award winners - its simply not going to happen until Riz fixes the way the game shows those names.

Franchise History: It's on my list but I'm not there yet.

Draft Lottery: I'll check it out - I'm not sure why it would be doing this, I've never edited anything with the draft function. Drafts aren't even really editable in the editor that I know of. Unlikely I know - but we are sure on these that the teams didn't trade for other 1st round picks?

Note: Remember to get archi's latest editor if you want to run an expansion draft! This applies to the NHL36 databases as well.

i've noticed the draft (lottery) issue as well...started with the totems and through two years i've had the 29th pick in the draft both years even though i finished dead last both years....otherwise everything else seems to be working great!

Ok, grrr, that's frustrating. Not sure how or why the draft lotto is broken but I'll examine it when I get some time. Thanks for the heads up.

BKarchitect wrote:Awards: For some reason all of Marty St. Louis' awards aren't showing up in history so I'll look into that. In terms of "full award history from the beginning of the NHL in the early 190'0's" - the way the game reads awards from the Editor - to do that would be a monumental task at the moment. Because the game will only add award history for guys who are still in the game as active players or staff. Even though the editor has a field to insert just the name of an award winner. The game itself doesn't read it. So the 2012/13 Art Ross missing field is an easily fixable mistake which I will get to for the next version but anything beyond the 80's or 90's in terms of individual award winners - its simply not going to happen until Riz fixes the way the game shows those names.

IIRC award histories more than around 20 years before the in-game start season will not be shown in game - but I think this might change in a future patch for EHM.

I used to get around the issue with retired players in EHM 2007 by linking any award entries to a random player in the DB where the actual player is not in the DB. I haven't really tested this out for EHM 1. I will try and look this weekend because it would be great to see this fixed as well for the v1.5 patch.

BKarchitect wrote:Franchise History: It's on my list but I'm not there yet.

FYI - Award histories, franchise/club histories and club and competition records are next on my list for importing via spreadsheets in the Editor. No ETA though as I'm writing some guides for things at the moment. Probably March/April.