EHM Wishlist thread

[johndabomb]

Three line hockey in the EIHL.

[cmunch90]

It would be awesome if you could be more specific in scouting! I would love to get updates on my players out on loan. Also getting quick repports like in FM would be nice

[Colorado]

You can already do both of those things.

The goals are shown under Highlights and the shots are shown under Analysis.

Really? Oh, I might've overlooked the replay but shots by period?

[IvanIvanovich]

Really? Oh, I might've overlooked the replay but shots by period?

Yes! Under analysis you can choose either the whole game or one period at a time.

[Asher413]

Sorry if it's been said: I'd like to see more options about when lines and d-pairs are on the ice. For example, a slider on how often a line can be put on the ice on defensive or offensive zone draws, if you're a home team the chance to 'avoid' a player (don't put player x out if player y is out for the road team), or on the other side more clear options on shadowing (always get d-pair 2 out when player x is on the ice).

From B72 on EHM (and I agree)- I'd like to see "ask coach" be possible for tactics as well (I prefer to be more GM than coach).

More chemistry feedback from your staff "Winger A and Center B have been clicking in practice, we should put them on the same line" or "These two players styles just aren't working together"

More player affinity with staff (listing staff as favorite people organically)

Better AI cap planning- the AI doesn't look at next season's cap until after July 1, and will reject trades based on going over the cap in late June when they really aren't.

Rentals/trade-to-sign- let pending UFA's have some value, and somehow have that last week effort to sign a guy (conditional picks would help this a lot, 6th round if he doesn't sign, 2nd if he does, or plays games, not too dissimilar to some transfer clauses in FM)

Sorry for the random list, but all things I've thought of and haven't typed up!

[Thom of Finland]

The things that bug me most are the before mentioned random retires, but also the fact that the season 'changes' in July. This means that teams relegate only in July, meaning their players won't leave the team until then, but it also means that the game doesn't know your team isn't promoted until July. That is a problem cause your team has less reputation and the board doesn't raise the budget, making getting prepared for your next season up harder.

Oh and, maybe some little things such as making it possible to see avg rating on player search, and some more stats for players (such as giveaways and takeaways).

Other then that, everything else that annoyed me in EHM07 (such as not being able to coach minor national teams, etc) was fixed and the game is even more enjoyable now.

[Rakennusmestari]

It would be really useful if the contract negotiations screen (in the NHL) would show which years are RFA and which UFA years when offering a deal.

[connormcjesus]

It'd be nice to have an option to praise a player if he's been doing well recently. I like the "discipline player" option, but having something on the other end of the spectrum would be useful, especially to boost a player's morale.

[cazadori]

Generated news jerseys for new signings

What would be cooler than see the name and number, of your longtime shortlisted star player or top prospect, on the back of your teams jersey? This could be done so that th

[cazadori]

News jerseys for new signings

Would be cool to see the name & number of your longtime shortlisted star or top prospect on your teams jersey. The game would have a basic template of a back of a hockey jersey, and would use the same colours in it what are used in teams name panel. So when you sign a new player, in the news mail about it there would be this jersey with name & number. Number could be optionally assigned in the same news item or left blank if no intention giving one (for a junior for example).

[cazadori]

Stats showing wage/points = value per point.

"Asking price" to search filters.

[Rakennusmestari]

Shouldn't we be able to sign staff from other NHL teams?

[filip_croatia]

Mobile version of ehm would be so cool, just like fm.

[MegaGrubby]

Wherever player names are displayed, their position should also be displayed. Especially scouting and free agency screens. This would save a lot of clicking...

[Asher413]

Another line selection thought: Some realistic fatigue AI. In the event my team spends 18 minutes on the power play, the AI still seems to want to start with the first line all the time when it's set to 'equal' rather than some evaluation that says "These guys haven't been on the ice for two minutes, let's start with them". Recommendations (probably not simple or feasible): some sort of fatigue setting (see WhatifSports basketball for a simliar idea) where if a guy is under x level of energy, his line gets skipped or he gets replaced on that line.

In general, I'd just love to see more options (especially when coaching a game) on which lines to send out and when. I'd also like to see the line matching be about players, not lines (ex, put out these three forwards if Ovi is on the ice against us). Maybe even if you are just simming games, instead of telling the coach what lines to send out, give him a target time on a player (ex. I want these three forwards to get 18-22 minutes, these guys 8-12, etc.), which would also make coaches more important if you could tie in their ratings with how they meet those 'suggestions' from their GM.

Also, more options on 'simming' such as checkboxes for "pause on goals", "Pause on penalties" or "Pause every 5 minutes".

[MegaGrubby]

Add referees to the pre-game scouting report

[MegaGrubby]

Add the win-loss-tie record to the pre-game scouting report. Possibly some last 10 game stats as well.

[hobit]

I would really love to see the third level Czech league (2. Liga) playable. It's my dream to start with a team there and get it to the top.

Is there any chance?

[hobit]

Why I'm not allowed to sign an assistant GM when I already have one but I am "allowed" to sign a scout or assistant coach when I have the maximum of them (but the signing fails the next day because of the limit)? Shouldn't there be a warning as well? Like "you have already 5 assistant coaches which is the maximum. If you want to sign this one, you need to fire another." Wasn't such a warning in EHM07?

What is the limit for scouts btw?

[Archibalduk]

I believe the limits are as follows:

Directors: 3

Players: 75

Scouts: 15

Coaches: 5

Physios: 3

[Vanaja]

Would it be possible add semi-hidden mode to attribute display options? Mode where attribute numbers are not shown, but colorized background would be visible. That would practically give us nonlinear 1-4 ratings for known and scouted players and scout reports would be still useful for more accurate evaluation.

[Rakennusmestari]

Please enlarge the pre-season TOP10 listings (NHL) to, say, the 20 best. Also the coding behind the choices could use some tinkering, there are often some really odd choices in the listings!

[szczepek25]

Playable Polish League... pleeeeaaaaseee

[Exarz]

I would love to see the game being more economically based.

For example, being able to set prices on tickets, merchandising, snacks, food etc. so you could revenue more money!

[IvanIvanovich]

I would love to see the game being more economically based.

For example, being able to set prices on tickets, merchandising, snacks, food etc. so you could revenue more money!

That is not something that a Team Manager has in his job description. The business side of management is for the Board of Directors and the Owner to take care of. That is also the answer that your board is likely to give you if you ask them to increase spending (Training Facilities, Player Budget, New Arena) at an inopportune moment.

[McDavid97]

I have created a background script that upon hitting a hot key, will alternate player images so each player can have multiple profile pics. Ideally it would be great to setup EHM to auto export your teams' schedule/results after each game so my script could intercept the updated data and change the player's profile pic before each upcoming game which would allow, for example, to show a profile pic of a player wearing their home or away jersey corresponding to their next upcoming game.

[Exarz]

That is not something that a Team Manager has in his job description. The business side of management is for the Board of Directors and the Owner to take care of. That is also the answer that your board is likely to give you if you ask them to increase spending (Training Facilities, Player Budget, New Arena) at an inopportune moment.

One might say that, but if you look at FM, you can take decisions such as ticket prices, building a new arena, arena capacity etc. It makes the whole game experience better!

[hluraven]

One might say that, but if you look at FM, you can take decisions such as ticket prices, building a new arena, arena capacity etc. It makes the whole game experience better!

No, you can't. You cannot do anything with ticket prices at all, and you can only ask your board on the others. Frankly, you shouldn't be able to in FM either, it has nothing to do with the job of GM.

[kidhander1983]

I hope that in the future we'll stop having first round picks from Swe-4 or Russians playing in Kazakhstan championship

[Vander53]

Hopefully there's a chance that you guys can make the Junior A system in Canada playable as it would be fun

[Riz Remes]

I would like to make more junior levels playable in the game and that is on my long-term list of things to look into. But I'll need to do some more work on the existing junior systems first to support that.

[kidhander1983]

Stop having the training camp organizing scrimmages the day you have a friendly scheduled...

[IvanIvanovich]

Stop having the training camp organizing scrimmages the day you have a friendly scheduled...

Yes!

And give us a prospect camp. And let us know the dates of the training camp earlier than a week in advance. And have the coaches balance the teams better, not frontloading the blue team every time.

[Colorado]

Slow-motion replays of goals would be good. Not sure why it's not already in tbh, considering it's been in FM for as long as I can remember.

[IvanIvanovich]

They are there. You can watch them after the game.

[Colorado]

In game would be nice though.

I'd also like to see the player's type description feature on one of the roster menus. It's a bit hidden away on the Positions screen imo.

[IvanIvanovich]

In game would be nice though.

I'd also like to see the player's type description feature on one of the roster menus. It's a bit hidden away on the Positions screen imo.

You have to appreciate that the game was originally designed as text only and as a GM game only. The coaching options and the 2D game screen have been tacked on along the way during the different version of this game.

The design philosophy is still geared towards you as the player acting as a General Manager and for that job the most logical place to have player descriptions on is the player screen. As a coach you would be expected to know your player material by heart and wouldn't need any reminders. The reminders are very useful when drafting or trading but coaches are expected to know their players.

For replays I understand what you say but as there is nothing you can do after a goal that will be changed by a replay (It'd be different if there were challenges.) then I'd rather not have them played unless I ask for them.

[veskari25]

I think that this is already said but this is what I want to be added to EHM:

-Interaction. I really wish that you could hold team meetings, discuss with the board and hold press conferences. This all is in Football Manager -series and I would love the same system in EHM. Also it would be great if you had contract. I mean that in example you join Nashville Predators in 2016 and your contract is 2-year-deal. You would get maybe 100k for a year. And in end of your current contract you would have to sign a new contract to continue in same team. But most important thing is interaction

-3D-game engine I know that this might be unrealistic wish, but I would love to get 3D-engine to the game. That would help me to see better what is happening in the rink (2D-engine is not detailed enough to see everything)

These are my wishes, Good work so far Riz and others in development team. Kiitos Riz, että annoit meille lätkäfaneille tämän mahtavan kiekkopelin!

[marksbros6]

Hi all (and Riz in particular). Some ideas I've had from playing and being involved with the editing side over at TBL forums (split into ideas for the current version of the game and for any subsequent games 'proper' if there's ever an 'EHM2').

Ideas for current version:

More customisable ice surfaces.

In the absence of 3D arenas having customised ice really helps give you the idea you're playing at home or in someone else's 'barn' for me.

I recently made a pack for the UK consisting of centre-ice logos and sponsor logos for the faceoff circles. However plenty of teams don't have adverts in the faceoff circles, so would be nice (and satisfy my OCD) to have other sectors of the ice available to place logos.

Logos linked to arena, not to team.

Linked to my above point: many teams (aside from the very top-level) share rinks with teams from the same city, or lower-league teams. As such it would help for the customised ice/logos to link to a specific arena, as opposed to a team. Currently, if teams share arenas, I have to copy the 'parent' team's logos and re-name them for the lower-league team that shares the rink (OCD again). Would allow us to make logo-packs smaller/more accurate.

'Special' competition-specific logos (for playoffs/European Finals/World Championships)

For the Champion's League final and World Championships the ice is usually marked up with special competition-specific logos. Again would be good if the game recognised a special game/competition and used a logo pack for that particular game. This can even apply to the NHL Playoffs, where the Stanley Cup logo usually makes an appearance under the ice for the participating teams.

Player/Head Coach role.

Again, lower down the leagues in the hockey world it is quite common to have a Player/Head Coach. Currently we only have Player/Coach as an option, which usually means a new Head-Coach is appointed by the AI early in the game. Would be nice (again from an editing perspective) to be able to accurately model this in-game, especially for lower-leagues where the budget isn't there to have a separate Head-Coach.

'Alt' colours activated.

They are in the database, would be really good to have 'Alt' colours pop up now and then if I'm playing as New York Rangers and taking on an Original-Six rival, or playing as MK Lightning in the EPL Playoffs.

Colour-changes in extra-config activatable by date.

Been playing with the extra-config file and seen it is possible to use it to change a team's colours. Unfortunately this only happens at the game start (and we can already change colours using Archi's editor anyway).

How I'd like to use it is specifically to change a team's colours on a certain date. In the English Premier League this season all teams used their 'dark' jerseys at home till Christmas, and then swapped to 'light' jerseys at home in the new year. Would be good to be able to mirror this in-game. Also for 'historic' databases (such as when the NHL changed from light to dark jerseys at home, or when a team has altered their colours).

Also be useful to specify certain colours to be used in certain competitions or against certain opponents (such as Rangers tending to play in Whites at home versus Philly).

Transfers in extra-config overwrite trade-AI.

I like editing, on Football Manager I've been known to spend hours editing future-transfers into a start-of-season database to mirror players that have moved throughout the season in real-life. Largely you can in the extra-config anyway but there are a few exceptions.

1. In the NHL the AI will cancel and 'future-transfers' you program in if you try to mimic real life trades.

2. In leagues with a fixed-limit on foreign (or 'import') players the AI will cancel any Future-transfer that places them over the limit (hence you can program future transfers for British players in the UK leagues, but not for imports).

I'd like for any future-transfers in the extra-config to in effect be 'hard-coded' at game start. In effect 'forcing' the game to accept them (as in Football Manager). This would allow us to apply a list of future-transfers to the start-of-season database (instead of producing a seperate database) to allow a Trade-deadline data-update. Actually it would allow a player to play through a season with all the transfers happening as in real life (if they wanted to).

U20 World Championship divisions and U18 World Championships

Again for 'lower league' GM's losing talented youngsters to age-group internationals can be a challenge, as can managing the youth teams and trying to develop youngsters internationally. Would be good for the full international groups to be included.

Player 'dots'

Would be good for the club's 'foreground' colour to show up on the player icon on the match view, as well as the background colour. In a lot of leagues it often turns into a boring procession of 'white dots' playing 'black dots'. Again without a 3D match engine a bit more variety in the player icons (as with the rinks) can really make it feel like you're playing different teams.

Editable League Structures

Would really like to see a historic database for the Heineken British League back in the early '90's (3 divisions with Promotion/Relegation and the finals at Wembley Arena). I know that more editable leagues is something that's being looked at and this would be good if we could replace leagues in certain countries with ones that match the old structures).

Ideas for subsequent versions:

Dynamic League/Team reputation

It would be good to have certain things affect a league or a teams reputation in the database, for instance winning a World Championship or a good run for an underdog in the Olympics or winning at a Continental competition in Europe. This could add value to long-term gameplay, with perhaps the KHL approaching a true rival-status for the NHL, or certain Nations becoming more of a powerhouse leading to an increase in popularity for the sport in that nation and perhaps leading to better quality new-gens/regens in the player-pool.

League Expansions

Would love to see expansion teams feature in the game, or in leagues that are 'closed' with no promotion/relegation have existing teams invited to join. This would give the game enhanced re-playability and provide an ever-changing game-world to give the player new challenges.

For instance you could be mid-dynasty with an NHL team assiduously built over several years only to find it threatened by an expansion-draft.

You could be dominating in the Swedish league and invited to join the KHL.

Toiling away in the lower-reaches of the British Leagues with a team of amatures/semi-pro's and asked to join the Elite League.

This could all be dictated by various factors like league and team reputation, as well as a random element so that certain circumstances don't always dictate the same outcome.

Especially if the game is to continue without licences then there shouldn't be any legal issues to doing this. Have it as a selectable option at game start-up and anyone who want's to play with strictly accurate teams and structures can be kept happy too. Would open the game up to 'Bottom to the Top' challenges as well? Maybe the NHL would even expand into Europe?

Training and Tactics

I really like the new training and tactic interfaces in Football Manager, they just seem much more intuitive than sliders/training intensities. I'd especially like to see more 'individual' training and training to different depending on whether you're an NHL side or a Semi-Pro team practicing a couple of nights a week.

For Training: Have different training focusses, have players be able to train different roles and show us what attributes a certain type of training will focus on.

For Tactics: Have it much more explanatory as to what certain settings make your players do. Appreciate that the game is based on 'old' FM builds with sliders, but I find it so much easier in modern FM to set my team up to play how I want them to. Whether that way of playing is particularly effective is another thing!

This would also help new players who maybe don't have the knowledge of Hockey yet to adapt to the game.

Player roles

Linked to the above point have player roles (which are already in the database) actually be selectable. You might have a Power-Forward with a good shot who you actually want to play as more of a sniper, you might have a certain game where instead of playing as a Pointman you want both your defencemen to be more conservative and play with 2 defensive D-men against the oppositions top line.

You might have a NHL 3rd-line Grinder who drops down the leagues to play in Britain or Australia who suddenly finds himself the most skilful player on the team! So while he's 'naturally' a Grinder you'll play him as a Power-Forward or in a Finesse role.

I know you can do all this with sliders and personal instructions, but again it works really well in the most-recent FM's and if we ever get a new-build of EHM it would make sense to build on that.

Finally a personal request to Riz: I'm a massive MK Lightning fan (in the English Premier League) and we've been invited to join the top league (British Elite) in the 2017/2018 season. Would love it if in the next 'build' of EHM the Elite League expansion was included. The Elite League will grow to 12 teams (with a new London team playing out of Wembley expected to be the 12th). I know it's a long shot, but I know expansion teams for the MLS were included in a recent version and would be really cool if the league re-alignment could make it in.

Doing it for the 2016/2017 iteration of the data (if we're getting one) will be difficult as all the details aren't likely to be known till the end of that season. But you could have MK Lightning and a London team (London Emperors is the name that keeps floating around) join the Elite League (with Belfast switching conferences to keep it balanced).

To replace MKL you could have a new team playing out of the Leeds rink that's being built (though there's even more conjecture as to what the EPL will look like next year let alone the year after.

So yeah...really just me wanting to mastermind my team's debut in the Elite League. I know it's a long shot and there's plenty more to do with the game before then but you don't ask then you don't get

[rohm24]

I'm not against Dynamic reputation and League expansions as long as there would be an option to turn them off.

[mark49s]

U20 World Championship divisions and U18 World Championships

Again for 'lower league' GM's losing talented youngsters to age-group internationals can be a challenge, as can managing the youth teams and trying to develop youngsters internationally. Would be good for the full international groups to be included.

Definitely agree with that, it's a shame that if you become GB U20's manager you essentially have nothing to do as they don't have any in-game competitions in which to play! Also, maybe the ability to schedule friendly as an International manager.

I know there would be almost zero call for it, but I would love to see some of more obscure International competitions included in the game, competitions like the Challenge Cup of Asia, Gulf Championship or the Pan American Tournament.

Riz, is there anyway in which people can help out - or is it all done via TBL?

[Rakennusmestari]

I would like the willingness of Russian players (and generally players in the KHL) to move to the NHL increased. Currently it seems close to impossible to make signings like Chicago did last year with Panarin and Tikhonov.

[johndabomb]

Agree with everything in Markbros6's post. Would also like to see better AI for the signing of players in some of the smaller leagues.

British teams in the EIHL in game sign reams of rubbish free agents to fill our their rosters, all these free agents are terrible and most retired years ago in reality so it breaks the immersion. In the real life EIHL hardly any teams run 4 lines so in game it should be the same. For starters implementing some sort of rule for each EIHL team telling it not to sign players with a CA of less than say 45 in the Ehrhardt and 35 in the Gardiner conderence would help.

[kidhander1983]

I would like the willingness of Russian players (and generally players in the KHL) to move to the NHL increased. Currently it seems close to impossible to make signings like Chicago did last year with Panarin and Tikhonov.

I think that the problem is more of a contractual problem...

Certainly both things are to be considered

[marksbros6]

Agree with everything in Markbros6's post. Would also like to see better AI for the signing of players in some of the smaller leagues.

British teams in the EIHL in game sign reams of rubbish free agents to fill our their rosters, all these free agents are terrible and most retired years ago in reality so it breaks the immersion. In the real life EIHL hardly any teams run 4 lines so in game it should be the same. For starters implementing some sort of rule for each EIHL team telling it not to sign players with a CA of less than say 45 in the Ehrhardt and 35 in the Gardiner conderence would help.

Also a problem in the lower British leagues, though I know MK Lightning (EPIHL) were running 4-lines at one point before injuries took their toll later in the season. One of those was essentially a 'youth' line though and got little ice-time comparatively.

Also similar to above, I've seen teams in the EPIHL signing 14/15/16 year olds and playing them on 1st and second lines. I'm pretty sure from discussions on The Hockey Forum that under-16's cant play in the EPIHL (unlike in the 80's where certain 'generational talents' by British standards would play from 14/15). Maybe some sort of age limit would go a ways to preventing this.

I'm sure Arch has mentioned it to you as well Riz, but some way for the AI in the EIHL/EPIHL and lower to manage their squads around 3-line Hockey would be more realistic (maybe based on league/club reputation? Any team in a certain league under a set amount will maintain a smaller squad maybe and aim to ice 3 lines of a certain quality).

[Nino-33]

I would like the willingness of Russian players (and generally players in the KHL) to move to the NHL increased. Currently it seems close to impossible to make signings like Chicago did last year with Panarin and Tikhonov.

You're approaching free agent Russians right? and not those under contract...because the KHL doesn't have a transfer agreement like other leagues (so you can't sign them and have them come over the next transfer window, you have to sign them after they become free agents on May 1st)

And are you looking at the numbers "league wide"?

I'm not disputing your concern, just trying to clarify...from quanthockey here's the IRL number of Russians in recent NHL years.....41-35-34-29-31-33-34-36

[kidhander1983]

You're approaching free agent Russians right? and not those under contract...because the KHL doesn't have a transfer agreement like other leagues (so you can't sign them and have them come over the next transfer window, you have to sign them after they become free agents on May 1st)

It's more complicated

[Nino-33]

It's more complicated

I have no idea what you're trying to say.....I tried to give the OP some facts - am I wrong in some way? If so, could you please explain.....if I'm not wrong, but there's "more" could you please explain

I'm aware of things like Adaptability and Loyalty having an effect, but if one is trying to sign KHLers under contract and wondering why they won't sign things like Adaptability/Loyalty have nothing to do with it

And I gave some IRL numbers because I thought perhaps there might already be an abundance of Russians in the NHL ingame

[kidhander1983]

I have no idea what you're trying to say.....I tried to give the OP some facts - am I wrong in some way? If so, could you please explain.....if I'm not wrong, but there's "more" could you please explain

I'm aware of things like Adaptability and Loyalty having an effect, but if one is trying to sign KHLers under contract and wondering why they won't sign things like Adaptability/Loyalty have nothing to do with it

And I gave some IRL numbers because I thought perhaps there might already be an abundance of Russians in the NHL ingame

No, you aren't wrong, techically speaking. And yes, there are too many Russkies (and generally speaking European players) in the NHL in the game.

However:

1) The huge number of Russian (European) players in the NHL is IMHO due to the fact that the NHL draft is too much Euro-heavy. Too many players are drafted out of nowhere in a way IRL they'd never get drafted (1st round picks playing in 5th Swedish division or Kazakhstan league)

2) There isn't enough leagues-moving free agents. This afflicts mainly European play, but it also gets less free agents signing in NA. Look at IRL, there are good players moving in and out North American leagues every offseason, not so much in the game

3) Very KHL specific. A player can't move if it's under contract, but he can buy out his contract and move, like Lehtera and Plotnikov did amongst others. http://thehockeywriters.com/sergei-plotnikov-ready-for-nhl-debut/

[Nino-33]

Thanks so much for answering/clarifying!