April 2016 /r/EHM priotized enhancments

[MegaGrubby]

For almost a week the people over at reddit /r/EHM have been discussing desired enhancements for the game. Below, is a summary...

Must-Haves

• The calendar should show more events including:
  
  • All Star game
    
  • Start of free agency (North American and European)
    
  • Draft
    
  • International transfer date
    
  • NHL Rights expiry date
    
  • Trade deadline
    

  [*]If the captain is injured, he should remain captain. We prefer not to change the captain for a three day injury. Maybe move the pop-up to assigning the captain to IR

  [*]An option to "give praise" to a player who's been playing very well, in congruence with the "discipline player" option.

High Demand

• Open net (no goaltender) shooting is way too accurate. Many players even score from behind their own goal line. Reduce the accuracy.
  
• Manually pulling the goalie is often ignored by the game. It is frustrating.
  
• Add a scouting option for Free Agents
  
• Yearly rising salary cap. Each year players are asking for more money, yet the salary cap stays the same. The discussion noted that devs said salaries do not rise and then evidence of seasonal demands exceeding current numbers was provided.
  
• Steam Achievements
  
• Enhance AHL coaching. Possibilities include:
  
  • NHL coach asks for opinions on AHL players
    
  • AHL coach can suggest needs for draft
    
  • AHL coach can assist during the draft (perhaps suggest a player similar to the way scouts, assistant GM and head coach suggest players)
    
  • AHL coach can recommend not re-signing AHL players
    
  • AHL coach can recommend calling up/re-signing a player playing very well
    
  • AHL coach can submit an AHL report at the GM's command (instead of every 6 months like they do now).
    

Moderate Demand

• There is an area in front of your own net where a team never passes. This game passes there way too often. The puck should be going along the boards instead.
  
• In the AHL, the board often said "it's a shame fan support for the team is waning". At the end of the season I set a franchise record for attendance. These need to align.
  
• Waivers should better align with the NHL. Waivers should stop at the end of the season and start again 12 days before the season starts. More info at this site
  
• The option of giving a player a conditioning stint in the AHL if they've just come off a long-term injury, as described in the link above.
  
• Fix the Hall of Fame. Right now pretty much any forward who hits like 700 pts and any dman who hits like 300-400 points gets inducted into the hall of fame. I wish they'd tweak it so only the best of the best who finish their career with 1000+ points as a forward, 700+ as a dman, etc. Mike Riberio shouldn't be a hall of famer.
  
• Don't restart the NHL schedule until after the Olympics are done and players are back to their teams.
  
• Defensive players have less value play wise than offensive players. A 5 star defensive guy will struggle to hit 7.00 rating in the nhl. In general balancing defence properly into the game is pretty important.
  
• During free agency, a player's desired roles and desired salaries often do not match. It makes signing a player very difficult. Do not lock Role during the contract offer (especially considering this is the ONLY time in the game role is locked). This would allow us to change the role if it does not meet the salary needs.
  
• Practice injuries are way too frequent, especially near the end of the season. I am letting my coach manage practice.
  
• Teams should line up and shake hands at the end of a playoff round
  
• Add a GM stat for positive records set and negative records set
  
• Fired two assistants then a coach soon after joining a team. The press release said 3 head coaches were fired since joining the team. Make the press release more accurate.
  
• The timing for the firing of GMs is terrible. Instead of firing GMs in early July, fire them at the end of their team's season (which is typically at the beginning of the playoffs for the bad GMs). When the GM is fired in early July the new GM misses the draft and the important part of free agency.
  
• Training camp try outs need to change. Either have better players apply or don't have any players show up. Right now, it's mainly a click "terminate tryout" exercise.
  
• Since the game left Early Access retired players rarely move on to a career in coaching/scouting/managing after they retire. It was pretty common in the Early Access game to see a guy move on to a career in hockey. In a recent league a grand total of 2 NHL players have become coaches/scouts/managers since retiring.
  
• In player information another Team is showing as wanting a player. When you approach the team to trade, they have no interest in acquiring the player.
  
• Put a Scout button in the top bar.
  
• Warn me if a contract offer will put me over the salary cap. Include all pending offers (bids) in this calculation
  

Low Demand

• Trades that are offered after the season is over and before the draft starts should take into consideration that the team can waive someone they will not re-sign and keep the offered player. It is unnecessarily difficult to complete a trade during this time period.
  
• 3-on-3 face-offs are buggy. There are 2 guys for the same team at the face-off position (taking the face-off). Another game had nobody take the face-off.
  
• Add an expansion draft.
  
• The game is rarely resolved in 3 on 3 overtime. The simple but not preferred solution it so increase goal chances. The more elegant and preferred solution is that the AI better utilizes open ice. Much of 3 on 3 play in the NHL is about getting someone open for a clear shot/break away.
  
• AHL salary ranges are too broad (every 5k). When the salary range is typically between 30k-50k you don't have many choices for salary.
  
• Better negotiation in general. If an older player wants a contract with this much money for this many years, he shouldn't take a one year contract over a longer contract. Just better communication with the players during free agency as to what is important to them.
  
• Better clarity about contractual obligations and transfer dates at the point of signing a prospect instead of after the contract is signed.
  
• Bump up the # of player rights you can have up to 90 like its supposed to be.
  
• Fix the All Star game selection. Auston Matthews won 8 straight Art Ross trophies and in that span of time he only made 1 appearance in the ASG. The ASG is based off of reputation right now, so only "superb" or "star" players get in, even though they might not be having an allstar season. It should be based off of point totals.
  
• Sometimes the D man will shoot into the corner and the puck bounces straight back and far (often in front of the net). This should be adjusted so the puck shoots along the boards. Possibly an error with an attempted clear.
  
• Players need to stop dumping the puck 3 feet before the red line and taking a stupid icing. It's not even a failed pass, it's just bad AI.
  
• Pre-season stats are erased after the last second of the last pre-season game. There is usually a week between pre-season and the regular season. Please erase pre-season stats at the start of the regular season.
  
• Pull goalie AI needs improving. The goalie should not be pulled for a center ice face-off. I'm sure the strategy is pretty standard. Please apply the standard strategy.
  
• Goalie pulling aggressiveness as a slider in the tactics menu. You could go from never pull/last 30 seconds with control or faceoff in other team's zone to full Patrick Roy "we're down by 2 to start the third, **** it get him out of there"
  
• Fix the network games taking such a long time to navigate between screens. Every time you click on something, it lags about two seconds.
  

Minimal Demand

• In the player filter there are two boxes for Age (min and max). Please make it so you can tab between the boxes. It looks like it tabs you over but does not accept the typing.
  
• Remember window position when closing the application and open it in the same position for next startup. Currently, it seems to open in the center of the highest numbered monitor (or largest...not sure).
  
• Pretty sure a lot of icing is not called. Still trying to nail down the specifics. One possible scenario is if the puck crosses your goal line twice before being iced the icing is not called. Need help with this one.
  
• In the AHL, teams lose to teams with 3/4 to 2/3 of a roster. This does not seem realistic. The solution is probably complex (e.g. increase generation of exhaustion; have exhaustion have a greater impact on gameplay; etc).
  
• Scouts don't seem to completely cover an assignment. For example, if I say "scout the NHL", I still run into NHL players with no scouting report. Intended?
  
• Scoring on the first or second touch after a face-off is insanely high. Over ten games, face-off goals occurred in 15 out of 60 goals. 25% seems way too high.
  
• A couple of times some national team fired their GM after the first game on WC (no matter if win or lose)
  
• Watching games with "highlights only". About once every 5 games a goal is scored and no highlight is played.
  
• Why would a team in first place ever initiate a trade with another team in their division? It's happening.
  
• Make salary cap similar to the NHL by calculating it daily. This means that if you only have .5M under the cap then halfway through the year you could call up a 1M player if needed.
  
• Add the option to "Reject All Trade Offers"
  
• Any action that will affect salary cap should show you the before/after affects of the action. Make it so you can turn off this information. For example: "Putting this player on 24 day IR will change your salary cap number from X to Y"
  

[veskari25]

Excellent demands, I totally agree!

[Riz Remes]

Thanks for the list of suggestions, I'll see what we can do in the future to improve these.

Just a note on the player salaries and cap. The player max salaries do not change, the same as the cap does not change. However, the player reputations can and will change in long term games, meaning sometimes more players will ask for wages closer to the maximum.

[MegaGrubby]

Regarding salary cap: I'm at 2025 and Claude Giroux was asking for close to 12M before I had to let him go (and then he signed elsewhere for 4M). Anthony Mantha is the highest paid player at 12.4M. More than 50 players are getting paid 10M+ while in the actual NHL only two players are getting that much. So yes...the game is exceeding current standards and salary cap needs to rise over time.

[Riz Remes]

I wasn't saying the players are not asking for higher wages, the more their reputations go up, the higher wages they will be asking. So it is possible for more players to be asking wages closer to the maximum over time. However the maximum salary per player isn't going up, it stays the same just like the salary cap per team stays the same.

If the salary cap rises over time, it means the maximum wage per player will also increase. This in turn means the all the players will be asking more money as well. So just making the salary cap rise arbitrarily isn't the answer here. Long term (but not in this version) it is something that can possible be added to the game, so that the cap will dynamic change over time but it will also require more balancing of the player reputations to prevent too many players from reaching such high reputations and demand high wages.

[MegaGrubby]

Well right now it's broken because demand is out of control and there is no way to accommodate it. So most teams over spend for some great players and have to fill in the rest with up & coming stars or wait until near the start of the season and hope a bargain is available. If you do the math, it is clear that in this version teams 10 years later need more money to have a similar roster.

Also, it's not a few players asking for more...overall...high end players are asking for about 2 million more per year. There are 25 times more players over 10million than at the start of the game. I don't care about the "theory". The reality is that player salaries and team salary caps are not aligned.

Final edit: I bet if I export both leagues and total up the salaries for top starters the numbers are much higher 10 years later

[Riz Remes]

And hence more balancing will be done in this version on the reputations and wages, so the feedback is much appreciated.

[MegaGrubby]

Thank you!

[Colorado]

When can we expect another update Riz?

[Fmfan00]

prob wont see another update until the new ehm verison is out as ehm and fm are both done for updates and groups are working on the new verisons if im not mistaken

[dmacgreg37]

prob wont see another update until the new ehm verison is out as ehm and fm are both done for updates and groups are working on the new verisons if im not mistaken

Have we heard any word on a new version? I probably have missed something, but is there expected to be an EHM reboot 2? Any mention of when?

[Archibalduk]

prob wont see another update until the new ehm verison is out as ehm and fm are both done for updates and groups are working on the new verisons if im not mistaken

Are you really sure that's correct in respect of EHM?... I do not recall anything being announced.

[Lucas]

Nothing has been announced as of this time with regards to updates or an upcoming version of any of our games at the moment.

[IvanIvanovich]

Nothing has been announced as of this time with regards to updates or an upcoming version of any of our games at the moment.

Isn't that the very reason for all the speculation? :-)

[szczepek25]

When you can expect something new in the game? Great silence about EHM

[Colorado]

With respect, I really hope that EHM isn't going to be left as it is. I supported this in beta but parts of it still feel unfinished.

That said, the updates have seemed to have eased.

[Riz Remes]

The next update for EHM is being gradually worked on. I've been working on the next edition of FM for a while now, which has somewhat slowed down the progress on EHM but there is an update in the pipeline.

There is also some long term work being done on EHM at the moment, which is something that won't be immediately evident in the next update but will go towards another future update.

[filip_croatia]

The next update for EHM is being gradually worked on. I've been working on the next edition of FM for a while now, which has somewhat slowed down the progress on EHM but there is an update in the pipeline.

There is also some long term work being done on EHM at the moment, which is something that won't be immediately evident in the next update but will go towards another future update.

Nice to hear that. I have two questions. 1. will new update affect current save file ?

2. Is it possible to add in some future updates that you can see players profiles and stats after they retires?

[Riz Remes]

1) The updates are always compatible with previous saves, although there may be some fixes/upgrades that only take effect in new games.

2) This is something that can only be looked at for future new versions, the closest thing we have in the current game is the "hall of fame" feature, which is meant to double as a place to store the career overall stats of the best retired players in different leagues.

[HockeyFanSenator]

Hello,

let me input my thoughts about improving EHM.- It was fantastic job to ressurect the game. i bought early access version as well and i hope my list will be also viewed.

SALARY CAP CHART SCREEN , it would be lovely to shorten gap between team and number . its far away from each other.

INTERACTIONS WITH TEAM, WITH WORLD talk to team during every break , talk to media , talk to player(s). its clear you guys wanted this game look a bit same as football manager, so it would be great to add this functions, because the game suffers from bored clicking to the next match over and over again.. as GM, i want to discuss rumours, praise players, speak with board, speak with scouts, held press conferences. create as much additions to GM´s life , so one season wont be too short.. as you can see here, some guys are already in 2025.. its not good imho. i want to play "slowly" even if my matches are in "fast" mode... i want to issue daily topics,stuff...

TRADES are still unpolished in case of "enquiry" and my assistant opinion.. at the end of season where 3 of my players were above 60 points, many teams said they dont see anyone interesting in my roster ... im pretty sure hoffman, or ryan should do better than in Ottawa (and its my beloved club). but i know it takes time and trying. im just pointing out..

PRESS NEWS AFTER SOME GAMES. when outsider beats favourite, when some player continues his hot/cold streak, match controversy, fights.. tuns of those short news are welcome and would be nice.

!!!LOCAL NEWSPAPERS!!! GM should be in close watch from columnists (critise/praise trades, free agents additions, talking to players who gave their interviews.

ALT-TAB bug , i have problems to get back from windows to the game when in game and press alt-tab.. i have black screen only.

NHL = STATS,STATS,STATS - please bring MORE stats like Hits, Blocked shots, game winning goals at players, at goalies now i cant rememebr if there some key stat is missing. i will check later.

ROSTER SCREEN-SELECTION VIEW - when you click "selection" . you should be able to see scoring stats at your players names. it would be huge time saver.

ROSTER SCREEN-LEGENDS - coloured circle (legend) on the left of the name for better player recognition (at other teams too). Like - defensive defensman/forward, offensive defensman/forward (all from bio-report). (make something new in contrast with football manager, i think t would be benefical).

TACTICS - create small pictured legends for users to see how my player will scattered for example furing powerplay, when playing funnel, diamond, triangular.. i know this, but maybe not everyone is familiar with it. as well as simple text legend to every key word in tactics (of course as in football manager...)

TRAINING - create some actractive stuff to each training regime. for example. in shooting regime i want further choices like "shoouts" "shooting from blue line" ... you got me ? and bring these more choices to every regime. like at "fitness" create for example "cicling" "medicineball" .. etc..

QUICK STRATEGIES - during match , make quick buttons for changing powerplay, penalty kill tactics (for example change from tight box to large box, because when u trail 1-2 and 3 mins to the end, you want your team to get puck and try to attack). So quick button for lets say 5-6 tactical aspects would be handy.

I hope my ideas arent so bad and i will be back for updating it when i have some proper time to play this game...

Each updates are appreciated. Dont need new instalment each year, but every update for each year (rules changes, new rosters, new jerseys, etc) are more welcome than whole new game...

Thanks for reading and hard work and best of luck !

Mike