Game Improvement Ideas (originally posted in steam forum)

[Leafsdude]

My "wishlist", as it were (in no particular order):

1) Make rules and CBA's editable. Not only would it allow for more replay-ability (making it harder to get tired of playing, even after years), but it would make it easier to modify for the geeks like me who love to create historical files or other wacky leagues. I suppose it might be unlikely, especially if this becomes a yearly franchise again, as it would make buying the new one each year less necessary, but even just a barebones rule options page would improve it, IMO.

2) Make it an option to name permanent captains and/or to dress 3 assistant captains. I know it was really annoying in EHM07 where I had to name someone captain when Mats Sundin was scratched (preseason or due to injury). Most NHL teams IRL name captains who they don't replace when they're out of the lineup or don't even have a captain in the first place. I find it annoying that we have to name a captain for every game (and, to a lesser extent, not having to name 2 assistant captains like most real leagues do).

3) Would like to have an "add entire page to shortlist" option for when viewing roster pages. It can be incredibly tedious and time-consuming to add a page of 20-40 players to the shortlist one at a time by right clicking and then left clicking, especially when you get confused and lose your spot and have to check back to see who's already added. As an addition to this, the auto-add to shortlist triggers (inquire in trade, invite to training camp, offer a UFA a contract) can also get quite annoying, as most of the time these triggers occur for players who should already be scouted.

4) An option to set training schedules or "triggers" so that players automatically change when certain conditions are met (for example, if a player's condition goes below a certain percentage, place them on "rest", or if a certain attribute reaches a certain level or drops, place them on a corresponding training program). Probably complex, but this isa wishlist.

5) In-game view changes:

a) Make saving individual line tactics an option (as in, save the 1st line only), or at least make it possible to swap an entire line to another line (ie: swap line 1 to line 2).

b) Make it possible to actually

be

the coach and change lines on the fly (and, if I'm being extra greedy, create a system where you can give players motivation or pointers on the bench). Would make it more interactive and reduce the frustrations when the coach, whether you have one or not, puts out the line you don't want to be out at a particular time.

c) Probably will happen, but make the player icons in the game more varied. Right now, it looks like there's 3 templates: face to the left side of the rink, the top of the rink or fall down. It makes it look really silly on the faceoffs (is the road team

mooning

the home team?

) and when the goalie makes a save on the bottom of the screen by turning away from the shooter. The goalie's stick also seems to be placed similarly to a skater's (to his side instead of in front). Obviously this is low priority.

6) In a similar vein to 5b), and as it appears others above me are asking for, the option to match the opponents line manually instead of with the finite preset options.

7) Also I'm sure this is being worked on tirelessly, but adding more leagues will only improve the quality of the game. I, for one, am finding this game less enjoyable than 07 due to the fact that there's only 5 countries to choose from instead of the 8-10 we had with 07. Especially the British and German leagues.

There's more I'm sure I'm forgetting. I'll add if/when I think of them.

PS. Is there an official improvements thread, or is this it?

[Searle]

With the right click you can change the positioning of the puck on the different zones. Try yourself.

Never knew I could do this. Helps a little bit but it's still a bit confusing, could definitely use work. Info on which breakout would suit which playing style or something would be good - having to research tactics online is a bit long winded.

[PuckingAround]

With the right click you can change the positioning of the puck on the different zones. Try yourself.

Wow, it works. The interface in this game is really... awful.

[Mars_Blackmon]

It is based on a game that is almost 10 years old. I'm sure the UI is something that would be changed once they decide on a full release.

[KevT90]

1- It would be interesting to see Goalies get more tired, especially when playing two days in a row (or more injury prone) so that you are '' forced '' to put your backup as a starter.

2- I find there are too many trades made, I would make the AI trade less. Trades still need to be worked on even if they were supposedly adjusted to be more difficult.

3- As said previously, the amount of decent players being waived by the AI is a little bit of a problem.

4- Less dominant top 5 prospects at the draft but better ones in the later round as well as more unpredictable prospects that are late drafted but can become NHL stars.

5- Anything that will continue to improve the realism of the game and make it as close as it is in the real life

[Cometdude]

Another... in ehm 2007 playing the maple leafs, richest team in the league, after a top scout's contract expires the team cannot afford their demands, but once they become "free agents" suddenly you can offer much more money... each team should have internal staff budgets based on how rich they are.

This isn't an issue in EHM EA

I'm currently the Leafs and had no problems renewing the contracts of all my non playing staff, some even accepted less money.

[Viking]

Some things from the top of the head that I'd like to see in the new EHM eventually:

* Manager tendencies, like "signs older players", "signs players of own nationality", "tries hard to sign his favourite players", and so on.

* League expansions, including expansion drafts. I'd love to take Las Vegas to NHL glory.

* More media and player interaction (think FM).

[Schlitz]

I would like to see an addition to the PRINT or export to CSV/excel options. Let us do that for most screens, especially contracts. It's a lot of information to take in and being able to make a printout or spreadsheet of your current contract situations would be extremely handy. I'm trying to figure out why my team is going deep into the red despite dumping a couple of my bigger contracts and not really signing any big money players.

[Viking]

I'd like an "disable first window transfer budget" option, just like in FM. So European clubs stick to their roster at least until the first transfer window.

[Felonious Python]

The possibility of having staff attributes subtly stack or multiply should be thought about. If my AGM/scout has a 20 in coaching goaltenders, in addition to my goalie coach, then my goalie's development should benefit from the two of them being in the organization, yes? It wouldn't necessarily take off as if I had two goalie coaches of that quality, but a more subtle effect could happen. It makes other strengths valuable instead of purely what they need for their specific job.

[Harper]

The possibility of having staff attributes subtly stack or multiply should be thought about. If my AGM/scout has a 20 in coaching goaltenders, in addition to my goalie coach, then my goalie's development should benefit from the two of them being in the organization, yes? It wouldn't necessarily take off as if I had two goalie coaches of that quality, but a more subtle effect could happen. It makes other strengths valuable instead of purely what they need for their specific job.

Not necessarily. You could have two great coaches who have conflicting methods/advice on how to improve the player.

[Felonious Python]

Not necessarily. You could have two great coaches who have conflicting methods/advice on how to improve the player.

For sure. I'm just thinking in terms of the game. Following that thread would make staff coaching styles much more important. For the min/max'ers, it would make their goal more complex, but it's a passive little coaching boost at best anyway. In a later game, it could be interesting to have situations like that arise where coaches disagree on how a player should be trained and they bring the options to you.

[Harper]

It would be nice if we could export information on player personnel (position, height, weight, DOB, all visible attributes) as html, xml, or .xlsx.

Given there is no means within the game to track player progression, I'd like a way to make my own graphs in Excel or in a Google doc.

[Felonious Python]

It'd be good for players for there to be an soft fail state. Say that someone is doing their own tactics. The game can recognize what it needs and if a certain threshold of games is lost (given their roster), then the GM has a message pop up from the coach saying that what they're doing isn't working, and if they'd like them to try their (the AI's) scheme, at least for now.

Same thing with practice, player selection, lines, etc. If they're failing, maybe warn them a bit first that it's considering an aspect of the team as failing, but kindly nudge them to switch control to the AI if the problem (losses, tiredness, lack of development or regression) gets bad enough.

edit: it occurred to me that players would have a certain amount of time of being frustrated losing before they go do something that's not EHM. Those points would probably be when to intervene with the messages from the coach/AGM. Gently guiding them, but keeping it in world. It would also be an opportunity to reinforce the 'media', 'fan', and 'board' aspects as the coach can note in the message that one or more of those groups are getting restless without a win.

[Spartacus70]

For roster edit: Potential height and weight! So when you create a player, you will just have to put the mature numbers.

[spost]

One issue regarding trading I've stumbled upon quite a few times, that I don't think was mentioned.

Say you want to trade player A for player B. Then you gauge the interest level of the other GM and you get *There's a lot to like here* (or something similiar), indicating that they would be more than happy to engage in trade negotiation with you. However, they come back the next day only to turn your offer down. I tried adding different picks, even tried to overpay massively but to no avail.

I don't mind the offer being rejected, however it's really annoying when the game indicates that you are close to deal but no matter how you modify your offer, it still gets declined.

[obi12323]

Lovin the game so far, just bought it. But, i need to make a trade, i have tried at least 20 different ones and they will never go through. Just to see, i added an equal player to the player i was trading to and i also added 3 first round picks, and it still didnt go through. Have a trading difficulty button where you can choose how easy it should be to trade in game. Thanks

[obi12323]

I am barely a quarter through the season and at least 5 teams have already fired their head coach. This happens just because they had a bad start, even though they are still good coaches.

[paul0405]

I've been playing a lot using a 2007 DB and have noticed the same things coming up (this is on full sim):

As has been mentioned defensemen are shooting way too much. Hitting is also way off. These appear to be known issues so I won't go into them much.

Larger/More Defensive defensemen are simply terrible in this game. Here is a sample of about 25 guys and their numbers (keep in mind this is a 2007 DB so guys like Foote, Witt, Hamrlik and Blake were all very good players back then). Bigger guys like Blake and Pronger still produce pretty well offensively but their average ratings are terrible compared to the first list. These stats were taken from the 2006-07 season and the players CA's are based on their CA going into the season from the pre game editor. In my 2014-15 season I noticed the same thing, the likes of Chara and Weber vastly under-perform every year.

More offensive minded/smaller defensemen:

[table]

[tr] [td] Name [/td] [td] GP [/td] [td] G [/td] [td] A [/td] [td] P [/td] [td] +/- [/td] [td] PIM [/td] [td] HT [/td] [td] GA [/td] [td] TA [/td] [td] SB [/td] [td] Av R [/td] [td] CA [/td] [td] Off Role [/td] [td] Def Role [/td] [td] Height [/td] [td] Weight [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Scott Niedermayer [/td] [td] 82 [/td] [td] 17 [/td] [td] 57 [/td] [td] 74 [/td] [td] 34 [/td] [td] 38 [/td] [td] 28 [/td] [td] 74 [/td] [td] 76 [/td] [td] 91 [/td] [td] 8.06 [/td] [td] 184 [/td] [td] 16 [/td] [td] 14 [/td] [td] 185 [/td] [td] 90 [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Nicklas Lidström [/td] [td] 82 [/td] [td] 14 [/td] [td] 47 [/td] [td] 61 [/td] [td] 12 [/td] [td] 12 [/td] [td] 34 [/td] [td] 68 [/td] [td] 118 [/td] [td] 98 [/td] [td] 7.87 [/td] [td] 200 [/td] [td] 16 [/td] [td] 16 [/td] [td] 187 [/td] [td] 86 [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Andrej Meszaros [/td] [td] 82 [/td] [td] 16 [/td] [td] 52 [/td] [td] 68 [/td] [td] 30 [/td] [td] 32 [/td] [td] 72 [/td] [td] 57 [/td] [td] 54 [/td] [td] 94 [/td] [td] 7.59 [/td] [td] 145 [/td] [td] 14 [/td] [td] 14 [/td] [td] 188 [/td] [td] 99 [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Paul Martin [/td] [td] 77 [/td] [td] 14 [/td] [td] 46 [/td] [td] 60 [/td] [td] 35 [/td] [td] 22 [/td] [td] 31 [/td] [td] 34 [/td] [td] 28 [/td] [td] 54 [/td] [td] 7.58 [/td] [td] 140 [/td] [td] 14 [/td] [td] 15 [/td] [td] 187 [/td] [td] 88 [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Kimmo Timonen [/td] [td] 82 [/td] [td] 18 [/td] [td] 45 [/td] [td] 63 [/td] [td] 15 [/td] [td] 18 [/td] [td] 33 [/td] [td] 70 [/td] [td] 43 [/td] [td] 118 [/td] [td] 7.55 [/td] [td] 163 [/td] [td] 16 [/td] [td] 14 [/td] [td] 177 [/td] [td] 88 [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Marek Zidlicky [/td] [td] 78 [/td] [td] 15 [/td] [td] 43 [/td] [td] 58 [/td] [td] 20 [/td] [td] 38 [/td] [td] 32 [/td] [td] 39 [/td] [td] 11 [/td] [td] 73 [/td] [td] 7.53 [/td] [td] 153 [/td] [td] 17 [/td] [td] 11 [/td] [td] 180 [/td] [td] 84 [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Steve McCarthy [/td] [td] 68 [/td] [td] 12 [/td] [td] 35 [/td] [td] 47 [/td] [td] -4 [/td] [td] 30 [/td] [td] 25 [/td] [td] 27 [/td] [td] 13 [/td] [td] 34 [/td] [td] 7.25 [/td] [td] 130 [/td] [td] 14 [/td] [td] 11 [/td] [td] 185 [/td] [td] 89 [/td] [/tr] [/table]

Larger/More Defensive minded players:

[table]

[tr] [td] Name [/td] [td] GP [/td] [td] G [/td] [td] A [/td] [td] P [/td] [td] +/- [/td] [td] PIM [/td] [td] HT [/td] [td] GA [/td] [td] TA [/td] [td] SB [/td] [td] Av R [/td] [td] CA [/td] [td] Off Role [/td] [td] Def Role [/td] [td] Height [/td] [td] Weight [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Rob Blake [/td] [td] 82 [/td] [td] 13 [/td] [td] 42 [/td] [td] 55 [/td] [td] 24 [/td] [td] 94 [/td] [td] 70 [/td] [td] 80 [/td] [td] 67 [/td] [td] 115 [/td] [td] 7.12 [/td] [td] 162 [/td] [td] 15 [/td] [td] 19 [/td] [td] 193 [/td] [td] 102 [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Chris Pronger [/td] [td] 82 [/td] [td] 14 [/td] [td] 51 [/td] [td] 65 [/td] [td] 14 [/td] [td] 58 [/td] [td] 52 [/td] [td] 64 [/td] [td] 115 [/td] [td] 102 [/td] [td] 7.1 [/td] [td] 180 [/td] [td] 13 [/td] [td] 18 [/td] [td] 198 [/td] [td] 99 [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Dion Phaneuf [/td] [td] 78 [/td] [td] 12 [/td] [td] 39 [/td] [td] 51 [/td] [td] 12 [/td] [td] 107 [/td] [td] 64 [/td] [td] 45 [/td] [td] 15 [/td] [td] 80 [/td] [td] 7.06 [/td] [td] 155 [/td] [td] 17 [/td] [td] 13 [/td] [td] 190 [/td] [td] 94 [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Roman Hamrlik [/td] [td] 82 [/td] [td] 11 [/td] [td] 37 [/td] [td] 48 [/td] [td] 9 [/td] [td] 80 [/td] [td] 54 [/td] [td] 53 [/td] [td] 69 [/td] [td] 100 [/td] [td] 7.01 [/td] [td] 156 [/td] [td] 14 [/td] [td] 13 [/td] [td] 187 [/td] [td] 95 [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Zdeno Chara [/td] [td] 82 [/td] [td] 15 [/td] [td] 30 [/td] [td] 45 [/td] [td] 12 [/td] [td] 54 [/td] [td] 62 [/td] [td] 56 [/td] [td] 92 [/td] [td] 136 [/td] [td] 6.91 [/td] [td] 170 [/td] [td] 14 [/td] [td] 19 [/td] [td] 206 [/td] [td] 117 [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Francois Beauchemin [/td] [td] 82 [/td] [td] 9 [/td] [td] 34 [/td] [td] 43 [/td] [td] 47 [/td] [td] 87 [/td] [td] 46 [/td] [td] 60 [/td] [td] 81 [/td] [td] 100 [/td] [td] 6.84 [/td] [td] 145 [/td] [td] 10 [/td] [td] 16 [/td] [td] 182 [/td] [td] 97 [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Bryan McCabe [/td] [td] 81 [/td] [td] 9 [/td] [td] 35 [/td] [td] 44 [/td] [td] -2 [/td] [td] 63 [/td] [td] 56 [/td] [td] 61 [/td] [td] 27 [/td] [td] 72 [/td] [td] 6.78 [/td] [td] 158 [/td] [td] 16 [/td] [td] 13 [/td] [td] 187 [/td] [td] 99 [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Sheldon Souray [/td] [td] 75 [/td] [td] 11 [/td] [td] 31 [/td] [td] 42 [/td] [td] 13 [/td] [td] 122 [/td] [td] 56 [/td] [td] 45 [/td] [td] 52 [/td] [td] 94 [/td] [td] 6.76 [/td] [td] 163 [/td] [td] 15 [/td] [td] 15 [/td] [td] 193 [/td] [td] 102 [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Chris Phillips [/td] [td] 82 [/td] [td] 3 [/td] [td] 15 [/td] [td] 18 [/td] [td] 4 [/td] [td] 33 [/td] [td] 48 [/td] [td] 56 [/td] [td] 79 [/td] [td] 95 [/td] [td] 6.7 [/td] [td] 145 [/td] [td] 8 [/td] [td] 17 [/td] [td] 190 [/td] [td] 97 [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Scott Hannan [/td] [td] 82 [/td] [td] 9 [/td] [td] 33 [/td] [td] 42 [/td] [td] -6 [/td] [td] 96 [/td] [td] 70 [/td] [td] 102 [/td] [td] 88 [/td] [td] 102 [/td] [td] 6.67 [/td] [td] 150 [/td] [td] 9 [/td] [td] 19 [/td] [td] 187 [/td] [td] 104 [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Ed Jovanovski [/td] [td] 81 [/td] [td] 13 [/td] [td] 23 [/td] [td] 36 [/td] [td] -35 [/td] [td] 81 [/td] [td] 81 [/td] [td] 94 [/td] [td] 31 [/td] [td] 105 [/td] [td] 6.67 [/td] [td] 162 [/td] [td] 15 [/td] [td] 10 [/td] [td] 187 [/td] [td] 95 [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Robyn Regehr [/td] [td] 82 [/td] [td] 7 [/td] [td] 23 [/td] [td] 30 [/td] [td] 4 [/td] [td] 49 [/td] [td] 61 [/td] [td] 65 [/td] [td] 90 [/td] [td] 111 [/td] [td] 6.59 [/td] [td] 150 [/td] [td] 10 [/td] [td] 18 [/td] [td] 187 [/td] [td] 102 [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Colin White [/td] [td] 82 [/td] [td] 5 [/td] [td] 19 [/td] [td] 24 [/td] [td] 14 [/td] [td] 131 [/td] [td] 43 [/td] [td] 69 [/td] [td] 67 [/td] [td] 82 [/td] [td] 6.57 [/td] [td] 150 [/td] [td] 8 [/td] [td] 19 [/td] [td] 193 [/td] [td] 97 [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Adrian Aucoin [/td] [td] 73 [/td] [td] 7 [/td] [td] 26 [/td] [td] 33 [/td] [td] -17 [/td] [td] 43 [/td] [td] 58 [/td] [td] 71 [/td] [td] 46 [/td] [td] 98 [/td] [td] 6.55 [/td] [td] 150 [/td] [td] 12 [/td] [td] 14 [/td] [td] 187 [/td] [td] 95 [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Mattias Norström [/td] [td] 82 [/td] [td] 5 [/td] [td] 31 [/td] [td] 36 [/td] [td] 3 [/td] [td] 22 [/td] [td] 50 [/td] [td] 69 [/td] [td] 95 [/td] [td] 118 [/td] [td] 6.54 [/td] [td] 140 [/td] [td] 9 [/td] [td] 19 [/td] [td] 187 [/td] [td] 99 [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Adam Foote [/td] [td] 73 [/td] [td] 5 [/td] [td] 9 [/td] [td] 14 [/td] [td] 8 [/td] [td] 110 [/td] [td] 43 [/td] [td] 66 [/td] [td] 62 [/td] [td] 99 [/td] [td] 6.18 [/td] [td] 154 [/td] [td] 10 [/td] [td] 20 [/td] [td] 187 [/td] [td] 101 [/td] [/tr]

[tr] [td] Brendan Witt [/td] [td] 74 [/td] [td] 2 [/td] [td] 8 [/td] [td] 10 [/td] [td] -22 [/td] [td] 95 [/td] [td] 59 [/td] [td] 79 [/td] [td] 83 [/td] [td] 115 [/td] [td] 6.16 [/td] [td] 148 [/td] [td] 5 [/td] [td] 18 [/td] [td] 187 [/td] [td] 104 [/td] [/tr] [/table]

That is a flaw that's really preventing me from enjoying the game. I find myself avoiding defensive defensemen at all costs because I know they're going to be terrible. Yet the AI values players on their CA, PA and reputation compared with their performance.

Another issue is wingers dominating the scoring. In the past 4 years I've simulated wingers have made up 17/20 of the top point getters in year one, 18/20 of the top point getters in year 2, 15/20 of the top point getters in year 3 and 19/20 of the top point getters in year 4. In real life wingers normally score more goals but centremen generally make up well over 50% of the top scorers league wide. Thornton and Crosby barely crack a PPG but guys like Satan and D.Sedin have eclipsed the 100 point mark with relative ease.

The other thing is that it's too easy to extend players contracts for below market values. Players only seem to want short 1-2 year deals and what they ask for reflects their reputation more than anything. Contracts should be based on stats, potential, age and injury history, not on reputation. If a player on my team leads the league in scoring, I want to see that reflected in negotiations by them asking for huge term and a high cap hit. Even the top UFAs generally only demand 3-5 year deals when IRL they're getting 5-7 year deals every year.

I really hope the defenseman issue is looked at. That's the one thing that is stopping me from getting really stuck into this game and playing it like I played EHM 2007. The other issues need looking at but not to the same extent IMO.