Franchise Hockey Manager 2014 Patch Changelog

What's new in Franchise Hockey Manager 2014 Patch 1.6.19

Jun 3, 2014

Transactions, Contracts, and Rosters:
"Open Offers" amount should now be reset properly once an offer is no longer open, rather than staying open in some circumstances, leading to a gradual and irreversible budget decline
Similar problem with offers getting double-credited to the Open Offers amount, resulting in a negative balance, also fixed
AI should no longer occasionally release a large number of players at once
If a prospect is not currently signable, popup with window will appear sating when he will be.
Players moved to the reserve list via waivers should no longer be released.
AI should be much less likely to attempt to waive/trade list players they just traded for.
Waivers fixed in historic mode so players can be assigned to reserve list via them, and don't need to be re-cleared to be assigned a second time that season.
No longer possible for human-run major junior teams to sign players under the league age limit.
Salary demands for NHL personnel hires should no longer be unreasonably low.
When user takes over a team via commissioner mode, the replaced staff member(s) should have their contracts deleted properly.
Player demands and "player too young" warnings should no longer fail to appear on some offer contract screens.
Unsigned draftees should no longer have their signing deadlines occasionally appear with nonsensical dates 2700 years from now.
Players who have just been bought out will no longer be willing to immediately re-sign with that team.
AI in some minor leagues should no longer double/triple-shift some players while leaving other healthy players on the bench.
Certain players who begin in junior, but with NHL contracts, no longer impossible to reassign after being returned to their NHL team.
Player and Staff Ratings, Development, and Performance:
Player ability update for human-owned players fixed (previous fix left some exceptions still not updating, so some players would appear to never improve.)
After being traded, players should get their first preference jersey number (if available) rather than reversing that number as their first choice.
Some free agent staff should no longer appear with "player" as their job.
Staff retirement system adjust to significantly reduce the number of elderly staff who never quit.
Scouting should no longer default mainly to a single area when the user gives control to the AI.
League/Mode-Specific Issues:
Names of awards that were added in previous patch can now be edited.
Draft picks should no longer appear blank and uneditable after editing league rules in commissioner mode.
New European and Canadian players generated in fictional mode should no longer get US birthplaces.
In historical mode, the AI should no longer automatically release players for the user if the team is above the 50-man limit at the start of the game.
Announcements about the CHL Import draft should no longer be received in triplicate.
When editing CHL Import Draft in commisioner mode, picks from the previous team should no longer fail to be replaced after choosing a new team.
Teams in historical mode should now hire/fire coaches properly.
Staff contract history in historical mode should now display salaries properly.
Fictional staff members generated for historical mode should now be primarily Canadian and American, instead of having a large number of Europeans.
News, History, and Related Issues:
In the "Welcome" news messaage, the second-best prospect is named as best prospect if the best prospect is also the best player.
Some retired goalies should no longer appears as skaters in the historical stats.
Several text errors in news items about/mentioning the WHL draft fixed.
Resigning from your team should now generate a news item.
All waiver claims should now be reported in a news item.
Board confidence updates should now correctly describe the team's recent playoff results.
Players who retire after July 1 should no longer temporarily vanish from the historical database between their retirement and the next July 1.
Team names in player histories should now appear in the correct order for that season.
Gameplay:
In highlights section of match display, third period events no longer have the shootout ("PS") designation instead of "3."
"Play until next game" should now work correctly after completing that day's game - i.e., it will advance to the next game day.
Choosing Auto-Play to Specific Date on December 31 should now default to the next year, rather than the current one.
"Ask Assistant" option in edit lines should now scratch injured players from the lineup properly.
3-Star selection should no longer occasionally appear blank, and the criteria for them has been rewritten to be a little closer to the traditional 3-star "rules" (goalies still seem to be a bit neglected, though, so there'll likely be more adjustments.)
Graphical/UI:
"Start Screen" option added to allow returning to the opening screen without needing to re-start the game
Context Menu (same one as in roster screens - stats, ratings, etc.) added to search screen.
Team history player stats are now sortable.
League history player register is now sortable.
Year selection and stats added to draft Log Screen (we're still working on completing the data for previous seasons, so pre-2013/14 draft data may be incomplete.
Sorting for PP and SH assists should now work correctly.
Sellouts column in team attendance should now sort correctly.
Ranking number for team PP goals in Team Home Screen should no longer show a negative value.
Draft screen should no longer appear empty after clicking and viewing a player, then returning to it.
Clicking and Viewing a player and then returning to the previous screen should no longer reset the user-chosen sorting on that screen.

New in Franchise Hockey Manager 2014 Patch 1.6.17 (May 30, 2014)

Transactions, Contracts, and Rosters:
"Open Offers" amount should now be reset properly once an offer is no longer open, rather than staying open in some circumstances, leading to a gradual and irreversible budget decline
Similar problem with offers getting double-credited to the Open Offers amount, resulting in a negative balance, also fixed
AI should no longer occasionally release a large number of players at once
If a prospect is not currently signable, popup with window will appear sating when he will be.
Players moved to the reserve list via waivers should no longer be released.
AI should be much less likely to attempt to waive/trade list players they just traded for.
Waivers fixed in historic mode so players can be assigned to reserve list via them, and don't need to be re-cleared to be assigned a second time that season.
No longer possible for human-run major junior teams to sign players under the league age limit.
Salary demands for NHL personnel hires should no longer be unreasonably low.
When user takes over a team via commissioner mode, the replaced staff member(s) should have their contracts deleted properly.
Player demands and "player too young" warnings should no longer fail to appear on some offer contract screens.
Unsigned draftees should no longer have their signing deadlines occasionally appear with nonsensical dates 2700 years from now.
Players who have just been bought out will no longer be willing to immediately re-sign with that team.
AI in some minor leagues should no longer double/triple-shift some players while leaving other healthy players on the bench.
Certain players who begin in junior, but with NHL contracts, no longer impossible to reassign after being returned to their NHL team.
Player and Staff Ratings, Development, and Performance:
Player ability update for human-owned players fixed (previous fix left some exceptions still not updating, so some players would appear to never improve.)
After being traded, players should get their first preference jersey number (if available) rather than reversing that number as their first choice.
Some free agent staff should no longer appear with "player" as their job.
Staff retirement system adjust to significantly reduce the number of elderly staff who never quit.
Scouting should no longer default mainly to a single area when the user gives control to the AI.
League/Mode-Specific Issues:
Names of awards that were added in previous patch can now be edited.
Draft picks should no longer appear blank and uneditable after editing league rules in commissioner mode.
New European and Canadian players generated in fictional mode should no longer get US birthplaces.
In historical mode, the AI should no longer automatically release players for the user if the team is above the 50-man limit at the start of the game.
Announcements about the CHL Import draft should no longer be received in triplicate.
When editing CHL Import Draft in commisioner mode, picks from the previous team should no longer fail to be replaced after choosing a new team.
Teams in historical mode should now hire/fire coaches properly.
Staff contract history in historical mode should now display salaries properly.
Fictional staff members generated for historical mode should now be primarily Canadian and American, instead of having a large number of Europeans.
News, History, and Related Issues:
In the "Welcome" news messaage, the second-best prospect is named as best prospect if the best prospect is also the best player.
Some retired goalies should no longer appears as skaters in the historical stats.
Several text errors in news items about/mentioning the WHL draft fixed.
Resigning from your team should now generate a news item.
All waiver claims should now be reported in a news item.
Board confidence updates should now correctly describe the team's recent playoff results.
Players who retire after July 1 should no longer temporarily vanish from the historical database between their retirement and the next July 1.
Team names in player histories should now appear in the correct order for that season.
Gameplay:
In highlights section of match display, third period events no longer have the shootout ("PS") designation instead of "3."
"Play until next game" should now work correctly after completing that day's game - i.e., it will advance to the next game day.
Choosing Auto-Play to Specific Date on December 31 should now default to the next year, rather than the current one.
"Ask Assistant" option in edit lines should now scratch injured players from the lineup properly.
3-Star selection should no longer occasionally appear blank, and the criteria for them has been rewritten to be a little closer to the traditional 3-star "rules" (goalies still seem to be a bit neglected, though, so there'll likely be more adjustments.)
Graphical/UI:
"Start Screen" option added to allow returning to the opening screen without needing to re-start the game
Context Menu (same one as in roster screens - stats, ratings, etc.) added to search screen.
Team history player stats are now sortable.
League history player register is now sortable.
Year selection and stats added to draft Log Screen (we're still working on completing the data for previous seasons, so pre-2013/14 draft data may be incomplete.
Sorting for PP and SH assists should now work correctly.
Sellouts column in team attendance should now sort correctly.
Ranking number for team PP goals in Team Home Screen should no longer show a negative value.
Draft screen should no longer appear empty after clicking and viewing a player, then returning to it.
Clicking and Viewing a player and then returning to the previous screen should no longer reset the user-chosen sorting on that screen.

New in Franchise Hockey Manager 2014 Patch 1.6.8 (Apr 23, 2014)

Transactions, Contracts, and Rosters:
No longer possible to hire a head coach - for now, the user is always Coach/GM.
March 5 quickstart cap set to $71.1m (next year's value) to minimize the amount of roster adjustments needed.
Contract demands for younger players, particularly those on second contracts, and older ones with limited experience at the level of the team they're negotiating with should now be significantly reduced.
Players will be willing to resume broken-off negotiations much sooner now.
Coach and GM firing rates re-tuned.
Multiple coach firings in a season for one team should now be extremely rare.
Late-season coach and GM firings now less likely.
Rights to qualified RFA's should now be retained properly.
Offer sheets can now be made to RFA's normally.
AI teams will now attempt to sign RFA's to offer sheets, and get the option to match offer sheets to their own players (they tend to match very aggressively, as they do in real life, so successful offer sheets won't happen often.)
Sudden changes in contract value on July 1 in certain leagues fixed.
AI adjusted to place a higher value on draft picks.
AI will now attempt to hold a contract space in reserve to allow more flexibility while trading.
Users should no longer get GM job offers from leagues they're currently employed in.
Abandoned contract negotiations in major junior should no longer result in 1-year, $0 contracts.
NHL teams should have a slightly-increased preference for signing North American players.
Emergency tryout contracts should tend to go to players from the same region/state as the team.
Contract offers should no longer occasionally reappear after being removed by the player.
Players should no longer be willing to accept contracts longer than 3 years with salaries below the league average level.
Transfer deadline restrictions should now reset correctly for nonplayable leagues with post-January 1 deadlines.
"Minor option" checkbox should be functional in negotiation screens if the rule is enabled for that league.
Should no longer be possible on draft day to trade picks that have already been used.
Entry-level contracts in leagues that allow 2-way contracts must now be 2-way.
User should now be able to sign staff from lower-level leagues during the offseason.
Player and Staff Ratings, Development, and Performance:
Player ability should now update properly on user-controlled teams.
Limited the effect of scouting error on displayed player attributes.
Players should no longer change uniform numbers while on the injured list.
Determination and Leadership should no longer increase to high levels for almost all veteran players.
Altered ranges for hidden personality descriptions in scouting reports, too many guys with neutral numbers were having those described as weaknesses.
League/Mode-Specific Issues:
Crash with certain custom mode league setups fixed.
Scouts should now work properly in historical mode.
Various errors in handling of overage players in major junior fixed.
In leagues with salary caps, contracts of players assigned to that team by a parent club should have a cap hit (to the team they've been loaned to) equal to the league minimum salary (in that league), instead of the $0 cap hit they currently get (mainly affects the ECHL.)
Finnish junior leagues should now have no roster limit on 20-year-old players.
CHL teams should no longer sign players with the college preference.
OHL league rules now specify the correct number of overagers.
Historical games started in years where the schedule started after January 1 should now begin at the correct date.
UK teams should no longer be able to make transfer offers within their own league.
Current NHL playoff system fixed so the two divisional leaders are seeded correctly.
Player salary demands in historical games should now take into account entry-level restrictions.
News, History, and Related Issues:
Rookies in historic mode will no longer be draft-ineligible, leading to empty drafts after 2-3 years.
Draft reports now appear a couple of additional times a year.
Draft reports should be "written" by the team's scout with the highest draft potential rating.
Sorting protected list while in the process of setting it should no longer copy players to the list.
Correct arena names should be displayed in box scores and game reports for arena mode.
Draft reports removed from historical mode (they wouldn't work properly because of the way the drafts are scheduled in that mode.)
Certain team names should no longer display as blank in "Last 4" and Career Stats.
Owner season expectations should now be more realistic in historical mode.
Maximum minor league salary on 2-way entry-level NHL deals now set to $70,000.
Goals Against leaders in league home screen should now display correctly.
Gameplay:
Crash when attempting to view playoff game reports fixed.
If a player with a No-movement clause somehow winds up on a farm team (e.g. via editing), he should no longer be prevented from being called up by the clause.
Players acquired on waivers should get scouted to A-level as soon as they join the new team.
Random name files updated and expanded.
Crash when trying to view staff tab of inactive teams fixed.
User's GM contract should be automatically renewed (if you want to leave the team, use the resign option on the user menu.)
Maximum editable injury frequency increased to 3.0 from 1.4.
A few situation-specific crashes fixed.
Debugging-related dumping of CSV reports turned off.
"Strengths" description removed from evaluation of trading partner (it wasn't that useful, and wasn't showing anything most of the time anyhow.)
When scouting is delegated to the AI assistant, its choice of targets shouldn't become overly focused on the local region after the first assignments end.
Graphical/UI:
Sort order for PP and PK% in league stats fixed.
Various changes to the way the game retains sort orders in a number of different screens.
Team/league/game names on the upper bar of the screen should now link to the appropriate screen.
Ties should now be displayed properly on the autosim screen in leagues where they're used.
Right-click option to offer contract should always appear for eligible players now (i.e., no longer necessary to open the player screen to check if it works there.)
Incorrect total for shooting percentage on split section of player screen fixed.
New Draft Info view available (and set as default) during draft with more draft-relevant categories (height, weight, etc.)
Certain weaknesses should no longer be repeated in scouting report.
Current role description in scouting report should now properly describe role of player in league he is currently in.
Should now be possible, after changing views, to go directly from looking at one of a team's farm teams to another.
Various small typos and grammatical errors fixed.
Players put on reserve list of farm teams should no longer become invisible to the user.
Error in formula for playmaking rating fixed.
A few unused filter names ("Minor Awards", etc.) removed from the news filter list.
Attribute sorting on Ratings views of roster screen should now work properly.
After looking at a multiple-tab table (e.g. free agents) and then adding a filter that reduces the number of entries to a number lower than the current tab, the table should automatically revent to the 1-100 tab.

New in Franchise Hockey Manager 2014 Patch 1.6.2 (Mar 15, 2014)

Introduction:
This is by far the largest single update to FHM. We've replaced some major parts of the game, primarily training and scouting, with new systems that should allow more user input and generate better feedback. Four new leagues have been added, a wide variety of bug fixes and adjustments made, and the game's overall stability improved. Obviously, it's taken quite a while to get all this done, much longer than we've ever taken between patches previously, and we thank you for your patience while we worked on it.
We intend to do one more big patch like this (as well as smaller ones if urgent fixes are needed before or after either.) The primary focus of the next one will be the addition of a completely new match engine, with an accompanying tactical interface, to the game. For that reason, there are few changes to things directly related to game simulations in this patch - e.g., stats, lineup selection, tactics, anything and everything related to the in-game display, and so on. It didn't make much sense to make changes there when it's all going to be replaced soon. Originally, we'd planned to release all the new changes together, but the match engine development was taking longer than everything else, so it made more sense to split it up and give you a patch with the things that have been completed. So you'll see very little changed regarding those aspects of the game in this patch, just things that were absolutely essential (e.g., crashes) to fix right now.
There are a few other issues we intend to deal with in that patch, too. Notably, we're going to be fleshing out the underlying levels in leagues with playable countries. The new leagues themselves won't be playable, but it will help the long-term balance of the game to get those junior and lower-level leagues into the database. At the moment, since they're not there, there's effectively a missing generation of 16-20-year-olds at certain ability levels in some European countries, which becomes noticeable 5-10 years into the game when older players start hanging around a little too long because they don't have adequately-talented replacements, and the rosters tend to have a noticeable lack of mid-20's players. Eventually, that missing generation ages out of existence and the regular player generation routines get the player pool back into a normal spread of ages, but it's not ideal the way it is right now. Not having those leagues around also has a bit of a developmental impact on the overall talent pool, since there aren't as many coaches who are skilled at working with young players as there should be.
There will also be some changes to in-game editing coming; see the final section of these notes for more details on that.
The database has been updated as of the end of the NHL trade deadline on March 5. This will be the latest date for the "current" version of the startup; we'll continue to work on and improve the data and include those changes in future patches, but real-life player moves happening after March 5 won't be included (with some leagues at or near the end of their seasons while others have months to go, the database would become very chaotic if we tried to do otherwise.)
Important note: in the "current" start, the combination of late-season rosters, which the real teams have assembled using saved cap space and LTIR exemptions, and an August start means some NHL teams begin in very difficult cap positions. Detroit in particular has problems, because they have a very large number of No Movement/No Trade-clause contracts in addition to being several million dollars over the cap. So be aware that the cap management AI may do some very strange-looking things to address these situations, like moving a lot of players to the farm team and signing minimum-wage replacements to scrape together enough cap savings (remember, no more burying big salaries in the new CBA.) It's designed to manage organically-occurring cap problems, not ones where it's artificially presented with something that's nearly impossible to resolve. So, if you don't want to see those odd roster moves at the start of your game, you may prefer to start with the Opening Night rosters.
As well, when you start with the updated rosters, the AI-run NHL teams tend to make a lot fewer trades in the first season, likely because of those constrained cap situations and their rosters being better-optimized than at the start of the year. Transaction frequency begins to return to normal starting in the first offseason.
1. New Training System
The game's training mechanics and interface have been overhauled. The primary input the user has in training his players is still somewhat similar to the previous method: the choice of training focus. However, there is now more feedback provided, and training effectiveness depends on a broader array of factors.
There are eight focus categories to choose from, selectable by right-clicking on the player's name. The attributes related to each category are:
Offensive Mental - Offensive Read, Getting Open, Screening
Offensive Skill - Passing, Puckhandling, Shooting Accuracy, Shooting Range
Defensive Mental - Defensive Read, Positioning, Shot Blocking
Defensive Skill - Faceoffs, Hitting, Pokechecking, Checking
Physical Non-Skating - Stamina, Strength, Fighting
Physical Skating - Acceleration, Agility, Balance, Speed
Goalie Mental - Positioning, Poke Check, Rebound, Puckhandling
Goalie Skill - Recovery, Reflexes, Skating, Passing
(These are listed in training screen tooltips for easy reference.)
There are also two categories for mental ratings that are only used internally by game and can't be selected as a training focus - you can't deliberately train things like leadership and coachability. The six skater categories are not available to goalies, only skaters, and vice-versa for the two goalie categories. You'll also notice Glove, Blocker, and Low Shots missing from the goalie categories; those are handled separately, evolving roughly in tandem with overall level of the goalie's other attributes and maintaining, approximately, their relation to each other, so the goalie's style tends to stay consistent.
You may switch between these categories as often as you wish, but it's generally best to stick with one focus per month, to ensure the maximum chance of getting an attribute to improve. If you have a young team, though, with players who are improving rapidly, you may wish to move the focus around to try to get multiple attribute improvements.
The player's chance of improvement is controlled by a points system, which isn't displayed directly, but adds points to the player every day, the exact number depending on whether or not it was a game or practice day (each tends to be better at improving different attributes, so players in leagues with long schedules will tend to develop a little differently than those in ones with fewer games played) and various other factors:
the training focus gets a large bonus
whether the player is in a league appropriate for his skill level is considered - a player who's much better than his competition won't improve as quickly
the player's happiness is considered, an unhappy player is less likely to improve
the player's performance: playing well, as long as it's against decent competition, will help the player improve (so a regular role on a top line or starting in goal can boost improvement chances)
coaching: the player will get a bonus if he responds well to coaching and has a good coach available ("good" meaning one with a high rating in coaching the player's position, or coaching prospects if the player is under 23); this bonus applies to all players contracted to a team, so it's beneficial for an NHL-level team to employ a "consultant" type of coach who's good with prospects so their young players on the farm or in junior can benefit.
injuries may limit the player's ability to train and/or participate in practice
playing time: the more, the better, as long as the player isn't overwhelmed by the level of competition
At the end of the month, if the total number of development points in a category is over the amount needed to increase an attribute, one is chosen for improvement. If not, the total for that category is reset to 0 for the start of the next month. You can get a rough idea of how the player's development for the month is progressing by looking at the new Training roster view on the Roster Screen. It gives you a color-coded circle to indicate how the player's development is progressing this month:
Red: No chance of an improvement, either because the player has reached his peak (all attribute categories have a hard cap) and cannot improve further, or severely inadequate training.
Orange: Very little chance of an improvement. A change in focus early in the month might reverse the situation, but later in the month it's likely a lost cause.
Yellow: Some chance of an improvement. Unlikely to improve if the player is left to his own devices, but a change in circumstances and/or focus could get it into the green zone.
Green: Probable improvement. Not guaranteed to increase an attribute (particularly if there are multiple greens for a player), but highly likely.
(Note that the game begins partway through August, which means everything is likely to show up red for the first month - there's not enough time to improve.)
Additionally, there are three columns in this view that provide specific warnings if a player's development is being hindered by three factors: "U" if he's unhappy, "C" if he's too good for his competition, and "T" if the teaching skills of his coaches are too inadequate to help him significantly. If one or more of these situations applies to the player, a red X will appear in the appropriate column(s).
Important note: Movement between rosters is disruptive to training. Players only retain the points they accumulated with their current team this month, there is no carryover from other teams he may have been with during the month. So consider that when deciding whether or not to shuffle players between your main roster and a farm team.
Attribute Improvement:
When an attribute category is selected for improvement, one of its attributes is semi-randomly selected as the one to increase. There are some modifiers to this to reduce the likelihood of improvements in certain attributes that should be slower to improve, to limit the possibility of attributes increasing beyond 20 (in most cases, an attribute at 20 will only increase about 10% of the time it's selected, otherwise a different attribute will increase instead), and to keep certain attributes in a sensible relationship with each other. You will receive a monthly note from your staff that will describe which players appear to have improved and in which areas.
Position Improvement:
Instead of a training focus category, a new position to train can be selected instead (which sacrifices the development point bonus to training); skaters cannot be trained to be goalies and vice-versa.
Position learning points (which, like development points, aren't displayed directly) start at 0 for all positions and are tracked continuously (not resetting at the end of the month.) When they reach 100, the position rating in question improves by 1 and the points are reset to 0. The player gets a certain number of points based on minutes played at that position in a game and the number of practice days he spends with learning that position as his focus. If a position rating reaches 20, that becomes the new primary position and the previous 20-rated position is reduced to 19.
Levelling-Off Period and Decline:
The improvement of attributes in the "Skill" categories will stop, for most players, at an age somewhere past the Player Peak Age setting (visible in the Setup/Options Screen, and currently set to 25.) The exact timing is variable, the probability of the levelling-off increasing as the player gets older. Forwards (generally) level off sooner than defencemen, who level off sooner than goalies.
The player's (hidden) Aging attribute heavily influences the exact point at which the player levels off, and is itself subject to increases or decreases based on events in the player's career - injuries, for example, may reduce it, leading to an earlier end to improvements.
The levelling-off of attributes in the "Physical" categories operates the same way as with Skill attributes, but uses the Physical Peak Age (currently 24) as a base, instead, and there is no positional differentiation.
Physical attribute decline is more variable than skill decline; it's initiated via a random check involving his age and aging attributes. The checks begin a few years after the levelling-off period starts.
Attributes in the "Mental" categories will typically continue to improve until a variable date determined by a calculation involving the Aging and Physical Peak Age numbers.
Once the player stops improving, a few years later (the exact amount again being based on his Aging attribute, with some degree of randomness) he'll enter his decline. At that point, attributes will begin to decrease. Once a decline has started, each affected attribute category gets a monthly check to see if a rating in it has declined. The attribute that decline is chosen semi-randomly (there are some safeguards to prevent certain mental attributes from declining, and to limit the ability of some attributes to stay high through sheer luck of the draw when everything else is going downhill.) Any declines will be noted in your monthly training report.
Note that physical, skill, and mental levelling-off and decline are timed independently of each other, so a player may still be improving in some areas while his development is frozen or declining in others.
Retirement:
There is a new retirement check that increases the odds of a player retiring if he's declined significantly past the highest ability level he achieved. Previously, very good players were hanging around much too long, moving down through lower-level leagues until they finally couldn't get a job anymore. This will still happen occasionally, but it'll be much more rare now.
2. New Scouting System
The scouting system has been completely replaced with a much more interactive one. Players still have an inherent consensus about their abilities, representing the general opinion of the hockey world towards them, which has to be corrected (assuming it's wrong) by scouting. Player abilities and potentials are now displayed with a scouting qualifier, ranging from A to E. A-scouted players have been scouted to the maximum possible level, correcting the errors in their assessment by as much as the skill of your scout will allow. E-level scouting means the player hasn't been seen by your staff at all, and you're just going on what you've heard from other sources. The D- through B- levels indicate increasing levels of scouting; each week a scout spends watching a player raises his scouting level by one letter category and corrects the inherent error a little more.
Scouting levels will decline over time - it's not set to a specific length of time, but the longer you go without watching a player, the more of a chance his scouting level will decline. If that happens, you'll need to have someone scout him again to refresh your report and raise his level back to what it was.
Players belonging to your own team will always be advanced to the maximum scouting level when joining you (which may lead to surprise changes in their perceived ability, if your previous evaluation was wrong); additionally, anyone that plays in a game against you has their scouting level increased by one.
Scouts can be assigned either by right-clicking on a player name to scout that specific player, or by right-clicking on the scout's name in the Scouting screen. The latter brings up a new scouting assignment screen, with a large variety of options, broken down into three sections:
The top section determines the broad target for the scout. He can be assigned to a region, a specific league, a specific team, your shortlist (he'll only scout players you've actually listed there), or to the free agent pool (the free agent pool tends to be small during the season, when scouting occurs, in normal mode so this is primarily useful in historical mode, when there will be many more players available but no other leagues to scout.) Scouts have a fixed number of players they can watch in a week, dependent on their skill, their team's resources, and whether or not the scout is in his 'home' territory. Regions and leagues that will get the 'home' bonus for that particular scout are displayed in red.
The middle section adds qualifiers to narrow the search. The scout's targets can be restricted by a range of birth years, their positions, their draft eligibility (not necessarily for your own league's draft, you can set it to another league's if desired), a range of abilities and/or potentials, and "foreign" status in your league. The final two options, Ability/Potential and Quality/Quantity, are particularly important: these determine the way in which a scout approaches his task. Ability will use the scout's "Evaluate Ability" rating and is primarily useful when scouting players whose current level of play is the priority (trade or free agent targets, for example.) Potential uses the "Evaluate Potential" rating, and is better used for long-term targets, such as potential draft picks.
Quality vs. Quantity determines who goes on the scout's target list for a given week. Choosing Quality will make him start with the best players in his current target (subject to the other qualifiers), and then scout them repeatedly until they're all at the A-level before moving on to the next group of players. This ensures the best players get reviewed thoroughly. Quantity takes a much more broad approach: it finds the players in the target group with the lowest scouting level, and attempts to raise them all to a higher level before moving on to that level and doing the same, until the scout's time runs out or they're all at A-level. It's more useful if you've narrowed your target list down using the other qualifiers and want to make sure everyone on it gets looked at.
The final section of the assignment screen determines the length of the scout's trip, and the frequency of his reports to you. Every time he emails a report, there will be an option to respond by reassigning him to a new set of instructions; you can also manually recall and reassign him at any time via the team scouting screen.
Scouting Reports:
The Scouting tab on the player screen now provides much more detail, and has bit touched up graphically a bit. E-level scouted players will have a blank report, but anyone at a higher level will get a detailed description of the player, as well as a reminder of when he was scouted last. The report is broken down into six sections. The Personality section gives you some hints about his hidden ratings; Current Role tells you what type of player he is (if you own a similar one to compare him to) and how he fits into the league he's currently playing in; Strengths and Weaknesses describe his best and worst skills; Ability tells you how good he is right now, relative to one of your players and your league in general; and Potential tells you if he's likely to improve, and, if so, what kind of skill level you can eventually expect out of him.
When you are unemployed, you will always see players from the "general consensus" viewpoint, with no scouting correction, and will not be able to read scouting reports.
3. New Staff/Personnel System
The way the game handles GM and Head Coach hiring and firing has received significant changes. The frequency and timing of firings should be a lot more realistic now. End-of-season firings will still come without much warning; the computer will evaluate the GM's recent performance based on a variety of factors and make a change if it doesn't like the direction the team is going in. In-season firings, however, will work a little differently - when the team is in serious trouble, underachieving and in a slump, the GM and/or coach's job has a chance of becoming in jeopardy. If that happens, there will be a news item announcing that he's in trouble. From that point on, every subsequent loss will bring the chance of a firing, until it either happens or the team manages to win a couple of games in a row, ending the jeopardy status (for the moment.)
Salary negotiation has been removed from job offers to the user: it's just a reject/accept option now (it didn't really make much sense to have the user negotiating a salary - you either want the job or you don't, and it's not like there's anything for you in the game to spend the money on.)
Staff hiring by AI-run teams has been adjusted to better emulate real hiring patterns: some of the time, teams will simply decide to promote from within, in which case they'll fill the job vacancy with an appropriate member of the current staff. If they don't, they'll shortlist five candidates, the highest-reputation ones that make sense for their level (i.e., no NHL coaches showing up in the Federal League) and have appropriate resumes (e.g. not choosing unemployed assistant coaches for GM jobs, and favouring nationalities from the country or countries where their league is based.) The team will then choose from within those five, based on their reputation, recent job status, and a random element.
Hiring directly from other teams' staff is possible in the offseason, but will be limited to hiring from teams in lower-level leagues and staff that will be getting a promotion within the same level of league (e.g., one NHL team hiring another's assistant as its head coach.) Human GM's will be at a slight advantage in the hiring process, but you won't be getting badgered with job offers from lower-level teams; computer teams will avoid you while you're employed in a better league. Unemployed human GM's will get an additional advantage beyond that.
Important note: the reputation you set for yourself at the start of the game will affect what kind of offers you get. If you choose "Greenhorn" and then start as unemployed, don't expect immediate offers from the NHL (you'll probably need to be in the top 3-4 levels to get those.) This is the only effect of that reputation choice - it doesn't increase or decrease difficulty in any other way.
Unclicking the "Exit Auto-Play when you receive a personal message" box in the manager settings will result in the game not being interrupted when you get a job offer. This is useful if you want to advance the game for a while without interruption, but be aware that job offers made to you must be answered the same day or are considered rejected. So if you autoplay for a month and then find an offer that's a few days old, it's too late (although you may be able to reapply for the job if it's still open.) If you start unemployed, you'll usually have at least one job offer at the start of the game.
The Owner/Board Confidence emails and status screen have been integrated into the new hiring and firing system, the information given in them should give you a fairly accurate picture of where you stand (at least during the season - offseason firings may be a little more abrupt.)
Generation of new staff has been adjusted, mainly to give them lower starting reputations and limiting the full 1-20 range of attributes to coaches in the major hockey countries - smaller countries get a more restricted range. Staff reputation improvement will now be driven mainly by the ability to stay employed - as long as a GM/coach/scout keeps their job, their reputation will tend to go up (but not beyond a level governed by the quality of the league they're currently in.) New staff will also only generate as scouts or assistant coaches - getting the "Head Coach" or "GM" role requires being hired for that position by someone.
GM and Coaching W-L-T/OTL histories are now shown on the staff member's record. Data entry for these is a work in progress, the research takes a while because there isn't any comprehensive source for these records - it requires a lot of digging through various sources to piece them together, especially at lower levels.
While making these changes, it became apparent that the non-playing personnel and their relationships to their team are still modeled in a fairly clumsy way. We've improved that situation quite a bit, but that realization is probably going to drive some major changes in this area in the second version of FHM, hopefully to the point where staff and their development and careers are modeled in a way comparable to the treatment players get. But for now, the new staff systems should be a big upgrade over what we started with.
4. New Leagues
We've added four new playable leagues:
Swiss Nationalliga A (top-level Swiss league)
Asia League Ice Hockey (Japan, South Korea, and China, our first league outside of Europe and North America)
Federal Hockey League (Northeastern US-based low-level minor league)
Suomi-Sarja (Finnish third level)
The first three can be selected independently, but the Suomi-Sarja requires the two higher-level Finnish leagues to be playable as well. The Asian league tends to run a little low on players in later (15+ years from the start) seasons - not to the point of being unplayable, but it's somewhat noticeable. It's a problem common to the French and Norwegian playable leagues, caused by the lack of a proper second-level league (or leagues in Asia's case - they need Korean, Japanese, and Chinese leagues) below it. We'll be rectifying that in the future, but it'll take a while to get the data added, so it won't happen until the next patch.
Suomi-Sarja/II-divisioona relegation has been simplified a bit, it's an 8-team round-robin tournament. The two lowest conference finishers in Suomi-Sarja and 6 teams from II-divisioona play each other once, with the best two finishers staying in or being promoted to the upper division and the rest being relegated to/remaining in the lower one.
Regarding these new leagues, please remember that playable leagues are added based on the availability and effort of volunteers willing to work on them - they're not necessarily the "best" leagues that are currently non-playable, just the ones where someone has been willing to do the hard work necessary to get them into a playable state.
5. Miscellaneous Major Changes
Blind Mode: This is a new setup option that will disable the ability to view attributes directly. If this is activated, the user's ability to evaluate players is limited to seeing only the vaguer skill indicators (each comprised of multiple attributes) on the player profile, the text descriptions he finds in the scouting reports, and whatever he can glean from statistics. This should be a little more challenging than being able to see precise numbers for everyone.
Player height and weight can now increase as players age. Height improvements are based on data from the US Center for Disease Control, creating realistic increases in younger players that slow and stop as they reach their late teens. The maximum theoretical height is 7 feet, but you're unlikely to ever see someone that tall in the game, it's literally a one in a billion chance. Weight can continue to increase after height increases end, until the player has peaked physically, and then may increase a little again at the end of the player's career, putting on extra pounds as he declines. Additionally, there's now a closer relationship between size and strength in newly-generated players. At the moment, we're starting to suspect that players are getting a little too large on average, but we need to investigate this a lot more - it may be an issue with growth rates, or the WHL Bantam Draft data that was used to determine the spread of starting heights for 14-year-old generated players may have been non-representative of the larger hockey world - there's definitely a large difference in heights, for example, between the top 20 picks in that draft and the average Swedish lower-division U16 team, despite the Swedes being older.
National talent pools have been adjusted a little, primarily to lower the odds of a good player emerging from outside the traditional hockey powers. We were getting a few too many of those popping up in the draft. It's also much more rare for a player in a lesser hockey power to be overrated by scouts, since they're developing in relative obscurity. You'll still see the occasional unusual country getting someone drafted; the NHL has, at various times, taken players from Japan, the UK, Hungary, and other lesser hockey powers, so it seems reasonable for there to be a chance that Romania, Israel, Italy, and other nations in that same 20-30ish range in the IIHF rankings have a similar small chance at producing someone worth drafting for the first time.
Player contract demands are now increased somewhat if they've played well in recent seasons. This primarily applies to guys who've been getting a lot of points, and goalies who've started frequently. It's not a huge effect (that would create problems at the high end of the talent scale, and put the AI teams at a disadvantage), but it'll help productive players get a little more money.
Major Junior (CHL, OHL, and QMJHL) teams now have farm "teams" rather than a reserve list - they aren't actual teams, but rather generic regional Junior B leagues that are shared between 3-4 nearby junior teams. Limitations on the number of contracts major junior teams can sign have also been reduced to more accurately reflect the number of players the teams typically use in a season. Finally, negotiation has been removed from junior contracts - every player gets a contract worth $3000 annually, and the contract duration always runs through the end of the player's overage season (but they can still be released prior to that.) That's helped considerably in maintaining the long-term roster quality in those leagues - it's no longer dropping off significantly after a few years.
Playable teams will now have a much easier time signing players away from amateur teams. The exact scope of this varies from league-to-league, but in general it's a lot easier, for example, for a Finnish team to acquire junior-aged Finns and players in low-level leagues like II- and III-divisioona.
The text for news items has been modified significantly and should have more variety now, and a few old typos and grammatical and formatting errors have been removed.
AI-run teams now have a pseudo-training camp in early September where they assess their roster, sign players whose rights they own (and occasionally free agents) that might improve their lineup, and cut very poor players that have found their way onto their roster. They also check the free agent market more frequently during the season. The net effect is that AI teams, particularly at high levels, are much more efficient at maintaining (and improving) the quality level of their lineups.
There is now a startup option (under Preferences) to select metric units instead of imperial for player height and weight.
Teams can now have more than two affiliations, allowing ECHL-AHL relationships (among others) to be fully modeled.
The NHL salary cap now moves to the projected $70.1 million in 2014-15, and fluctuates slightly every year after that, generally moving up a bit. This isn't tied to revenues, the game's financial system isn't quite developed well enough yet to model that.
6. Bug Fixes and Minor Adjustments
Transactions, Contracts, and Rosters:
AI teams now hold some cap space in reserve during an ongoing negotiation, rather than using it all up by signing other players before the negotiation is completed
players will now refuse to sign long-term contracts if the salary involved is close to the league minimum, and will only sign very long-term (5+ years) if the salary is well above the league average
NHL star-caliber players who sign overseas will generally only sign short-term deals
entry-level contracts now have appropriate age restrictions on their use
proper number of players with the "college" junior preference now generated
AI teams will no longer occasionally frequently keep 9 defencemen active on a 23-man roster
emergency tryout signings now limited to low-quality players (relative to league strength)
players will now reject contracts from leagues with a standard of play significantly lower than their talent level
AI teams now change their player training priorities regularly, and use the full range of options
players with experience playing on another continent will now always consider offers to return there, rather than possibly rejecting any overseas moves
age limits in junior leagues no longer occasionally being ignored
certain leagues should no longer ignore foreign player limits
extreme roster sizes in low-level UK leagues corrected
slightly lowered contracts demands of players with above-average skills (relative to their league)
increased contract demands for players who've performed well in recent seasons
goalie coaches less likely to be hired as head coaches
staff salary scale adjusted for some leagues
custom leagues should now get appropriate staff budgets
players should no longer occasionally sign new contracts while having multiple years left on their current one
league rights to players should now terminate properly once the player becomes too old for the league
teams should no longer re-hire staff they just fired
user should no longer be told he's reached the contract limit before he actually does
leagues with a particular database setting no longer getting an inappropriate number of minimum-wage contracts
rare situation where rights could be traded but player remains on original team's roster fixed
no longer possible for a GM/Head Coach job to be filled, but the slot at the top of the personnel screen remains blank
fired coaches should no longer be considered as candidates for the job they were just terminated from (however, there's still a bit of an issue with them frequently getting the minor league job that opens up if the farm team's coach is chosen as their replacement)
nonplayable teams should not make job offers to human players
Player and Staff Ratings, Development, and Performance:
bug fixed that resulted in injury proneness ratings being largely irrelevant to the injury frequency
negative ability scores no longer possible
potential should no longer be lower than ability in some cases
generated players now get a broader range of mental stats
initial scouting error now generated with a more realistic spread, fewer players will get extreme numbers
goalie recovery system adjusted slightly to increase the frequency of starts by the backup (in the appropriate era, and not in the playoffs)
database settings for some staff no longer overwritten during startup
"?" characters in some names fixed, was caused by an unusable special character in one of the name files
random name generation files expanded
chance of elite player generation outside the traditional hockey powers reduced
departed assistant coaches and scouts should now be replaced by new hires
coaching records no longer reversing championship and firing records
error in ability/potential calculation in historical mode fixed, teams should no longer start massively over-rated and over-budget
goalie fatigue/start frequency settings adjusted slightly so there are fewer 70+ start seasons
puckhandling no longer displayed as the biggest weakness for most goalies on the scouting report
League/Mode-Specific Issues:
NHL teams now get accelerated responses to their offers during the first two weeks of free agency, giving them a bit of an edge over other leagues and moving signings closer to the start of the free agency period
promotion/relegation tournament winners should now be promoted properly
NHL teams should no longer be sending under-20 players whose major junior rights are owned to the AHL
increased likelihood of elite European juniors wanting to play Major Junior or college hockey in North America
AHL teams no longer signing KHL players in mid-season
players from the former USSR nations are now selectable in the CHL Import Draft
promotion candidates from nonplayable leagues should now be varied and based on roster strength, instead of always using the same ones
Liiga players no longer occasionally getting contracts far in excess of the normal salary structure
excess number of minimum-level salaries at startup in some leagues fixed
transfers should no longer become impossible after the first season in the EPIHL
certain OHL/QMJHL/WHL players can now be sent to an affiliate team instead of only having the option to be "sent down" to the parent club
CHL teams should now have less trouble signing players selected in the import draft - only those who have contracts with upper-league teams in their home country will be difficult to sign
undrafted YHL/YHL2 players can now be signed by KHL teams post-draft
quality of CHL import draft pool improved
in historical mode, WHA teams should now be able to sign all free agents (they had been limited to those drafted/passing through draft age after the league's appearance)
in historical mode with "Draft at 17" off, players who enter the database at older ages should no longer be impossible to sign
European players should no longer refuse overseas offers in historical mode
entry-level contracts should now be disabled in historical seasons where that rule didn't exist
draft picks should now be valued properly in the first season of historical games
ability rating should now update correctly following annual ratings changes in historical mode
News, History, and Related Issues:
criteria for several awards changed significantly to get more reasonable results; rookie of the year is still not implemented yet, but will likely come in the next patch
data errors in league histories corrected
stats generated for non-playable leagues now include icetime, including special teams time
presets file updated to correct starting injuries and proper version added to opening day start files
milestone watch now only shows players currently active (or out with injuries) in the league
goals-against leaders fixed
position-inappropriate awards (goalie of the year to non-goalies, GM award to non-GM's, etc.) should no longer happen
ranking in leaders list should no longer count up by threes (1,4,7, etc.) in some categories
additional variety added to some news text categories
power play and shorthanded stats should now be recorded properly; a second screen view has been added to the league stats-team stats display, and all the special teams stats moved to it
Gameplay:
occasional crash when only one alternate captain is selected fixed
playoff-related crashes in certain leagues fixed
end-of-year (June 30-July 1) crashes fixed
March 25 crash fixed
saves with corrupted names.dat files appear to function properly after the game version is updated, although we recommend against continuing them for stability reasons
crash after editing league rules fixed
occasional crashes when making trade offers fixed
game should no longer crash during 1999 draft in historical mode
crashes when clicking on some player names in trade screen fixed
re-offering a trade after the deadline should no longer result in a crash (or be possible)
crash when looking at protected list using the training view fixed
second-season crash when trying to buy players as a Liiga team fixed
game should no longer crash when clicking on a staff member who has employment history with a defunct team
game should no longer crash when attempting to view the (non-existent) playoff stats in a non-playable league
Graphical/UI:
"Last 4" display on the player screen should no longer omit the current season
various misspellings and typos fixed
switched certain spellings from American usage to the proper Canadian English versions any self-respecting hockey game should use; also, various suspiciously German-sounding compound words ("Headcoach", "Teamowner") broken in two
user can no longer force acceptance of rejected contract offers by changing years and offer amount after the rejection
CHL Import Draft now displayed properly in league histories (instead of repeating the bantam/midget draft)
option to limit search by talent range added to filter
calculation of Conditioning display attribute now correctly uses Injury Proneness rating, it previously had it backwards
"Season" leaderboards in league histories now display the correct leader list the same way the Career boards do
leaderboards should now display names of retired players properly
broken streak display in league standings screen fixed
"days lost to injury" stat for teams should now reset properly at the start of a new season
amount of money offered in a transfer should now be able to be reduced using the arrow buttons
manager news subscription setting should now be able to be selected/unselected properly

New in Franchise Hockey Manager 2014 Patch 1.5.20 (Dec 2, 2013)

New in Franchise Hockey Manager 2014 Patch 1.3.13 (Oct 15, 2013)

Never-ending penalties fixed.
Crash when offering trade involving draft picks while in historical mode fixed.
AI teams should no longer skip draft picks when their protected list is full.
Tactics are now saved when user exits game and restarts.
AI no longer makes cap-reduction moves for user's team if he doesn't have all "assistant" options off.
Player no longer occasionally prevented from signing free agents despite being below payroll.
Payroll in custom games should now match salary obligations properly.
Playoff games no longer scheduled on back-to-back days.
AI now allots time to 3rd PK unit and uses special-teams icetime percentages properly.
Shutout leaders now sorted properly, instead of alphabetically.
Faceoff leaders now sorted correctly (by percentage, with minimum qualifiers)
IR players now counted when checking to see if team is above cap floor.
When negotiating salary for free agents, NHL-caliber players will initially expect NHL-caliber wages even when signing in other leagues.
Players will sign ask for more or less if they are signing outside/inside their home continent.
No more multiple responses after a trade is rejected.
No more invalid database error when attempting to launch a quickstart.
Expansion teams in historical mode now start with 0-0-0 history instead of all-time total.
HNN fixed and restored to game.
Overtime penalties now displayed in OT period in boxscore, instead of third period.
Injury settings now split between game and practice, both levels editable.
Under-20 players whose major junior rights are owned but are contracted to NHL teams can no longer be sent to AHL.
No longer possible to type in play-by-play box during games.
Nicknames and preferred number now cleared properly when fictionalizing players for custom games.
Installer no longer overwrites custom logos.
Incorrect schedules no longer used in certain leagues/years.
In-game mode now includes buttons to advance to end of period or game.
In-game mode now allows choice of player, shot, or stats view.
Custom mode games now allow a proper budget for staff.
Contract values in custom games no longer have higher values for minor league salary.
Player stats now generated properly in all non-playable leagues.
Amateur draft in custom games no longer forces user to choose goalies first.
When trying to sign players who would exceed foreigner limits, popup now specifies the exact problem, rather than just saying there are too many active players.
Clicking on "report" in in-game view should no longer result in crash.
Lineups should now update properly when using the in-game stats screen.
Norwegian teams should now obey foreign player limits.
User's trade window should no longer occasionally default to a different team, making trading impossible.
AI should no longer trade away players when using "CPU Finish Draft" in the initial custom league draft.
Crash involving duplicated waiver status fixed.
Crash in season changeover from 1978 to 1979 fixed.
KHL trading deadline now works properly.
Loophole allowing foreign player limits to be exceeded by using reserve list fixed.
KHL teams no longer get young placeholder players to fill prospect spots at startup.
Multi-year contracts in French leagues now set correctly at startup.
Skater stats 2 screen now sorts correctly for Faceoffs, Takeaways, Giveaways, and Shootout Goals.
Teams in custom leagues with divisions but no conferences now get assigned minor league teams correctly.
Addition value bonus for enforcer players now cannot make player's value higher than 7.0.
Player portraits now aligned correctly on leaders pages.
German league should no longer occasionally schedule multiple playoff games for a team on the same day.
Skill penalties for out-of-position players increased.
Position ratings should now change properly with playing experience at that position.
Position ratings for players in nonplayable leagues should see some random increases.
Player mental improvement now stops after a certain (variable) age.
Goalie fatigue system adjusted to allow one player to start all the time in playoffs and in early historical seasons.
1-10 value system now used more extensively by AI, particularly in roster/lineup decisions.
More attributes affected by aging, should significantly cut down number of players remaining effective into their 40's.
Shooting range and accuracy adjusted for forwards and defencemen playing out of position.
Power play units now include one defenceman spot and one "point" spot, which a player of any position can be used in with no penalty.
Assignment of fighting majors adjusted, enforcers should fight more often and regular players less.
When negotiating to re-sign players to a two-way deal, minor league salaries can now be set correctly.
New player filtering system for several screens: instead of only being filterable by position, player lists can now be filtered by age, ability, potential, position, nationality, and signability. Note that the main player search page (the magnifying glass icon) still requires a text search as well as the filter.
Very Slow aging speed no longer switches to Very Fast after exiting the edit screen.
AI now places a lower value on draft picks offered to it in trade.
3-Star selection report in game summaries now uses correct type of team abbreviation.
Home ice advantage rebalanced.
Player fatigue now works correctly for visiting teams.
Giveaways/takeaways should now result in possession changes 100% of the time.
User-edited salary caps should no longer revert to default value at start of new season.
EIHL teams no longer ignore import player restrictions.
Development speed for young goalie4s increased.
Freeze at end of 2004-05 season in historical mode no longer occurs.
After team country is changed during custom league setup, city list should now offer choices from new country.
Correct KHL schedule now used for 2014-15 and later seasons.
No more redundant injury warnings after injured player has been removed from lineup.
Inaugural draft in custom mode should now be much faster and not give the appearance that the game has frozen.

New in Franchise Hockey Manager 2014 Patch 1.0.3 (Sep 16, 2013)

Game should no longer crashes when clicking on names of players currently playing in non-playable leagues (e.g., in draft previews or during draft.)
Fixed crashing when adding players to a trade, or moving scroll bar while looking at trade offers.
Should now be possible to move the starting goalie to G2 position when switching goalies during a game.
Rights issue when re-signing your own players resolved, should be possible to do this properly now.
Swedish and Finnish relegation should work correctly now.
Goalie shutouts and W-L-T now recorded properly.
Computer-run teams should no longer make trade requests to the player that offer nothing in return.
Custom mode inaugural drafts now scheduled for August to prevent conflicts with league formats that have an early start date.
Custom mode games no longer crash on June 30-July 1 of first season (was due to improper setup of draft rules in nonplayable leagues.)
Inaugural draft in custom mode should no longer force user to choose goalies first (this may occur in regular draft mode, though - discovered too late in testing to fix on this patch.)
Ability rating will now be recalculated after editing a player.
Now possible to start games as St. Louis (had been crashing because Missouri hadn't been assigned to a scouting region.)
Entry drafts should now occur properly in in historical mode.
Expansion drafts should now occur properly in in historical mode.
Historical mode will not crash on transition from June 30, 1979 to July 1, 1979.
Newly generated players outside Canada and US no longer always getting their national capital as a birthplace.
Players serving bench minors no longer get 2 minutes added to their PIM.
Mental ratings for post-prime players in historical mode stop collapsing to very low (1-2) values.
Staff portraits enabled.
Initial import of players in historical mode with generate at 17 turned off should now include only correct players for that option.
"Generic Leagues" description is now "Other Leagues."
Text/grammar errors in some news items corrected, new items added.
Neverending penalties in match engine fixed (caused by bug allowing already-penalized players to receive a second penalty.)
Should no longer be possible to sign "late-birthdate" (Sept. 16-Dec. 31) 18-year-olds before they're drafted
Team entry draft previews now "written by" amateur scout instead of assistant coach.
Should be fewer "Cy Young" players (high number of goals, low assists), may require a little more tuning.
"Return to Start Screen" feature removed from Mac version (should have been taken out at release, it causes crashes when trying to start new games after using it and needs more work before it's stable.)
Incorrect starting cap hits for some NHL players corrected.
Recent NHL roster moves added.
Starting ability of 17-year-olds in historical mode modified downward slightly.
Award winners should now be storied in league history correctly.