The fourth post-release update for FHM6, version 6.5.63, has just been released.
Your existing savegames will be compatible with the updated game, but some of the update's fixes may not retroactively correct certain problems in existing saves.
Since we've turned this update around relatively quickly while also adding some significant new features, this is a little lighter on the bug fix list than normal, although that's also a product of the list being comparatively shorter than it usually is at this point in the year. But the next update will probably swing a little more back towards cleaning up those issues as opposed to introducing new ones like we've done this time. That said, this time we have some early Christmas presents in the form of three significant new features:
1. We've added the ability to import historical players to existing games via a similar method to the player creation button: go to the league edit screen with Commissioner Mode turned on and you'll see an "Import a historical player" button just below the Create Player one (if you're just turning it on now, you'll need to leave and return to that screen for it to update.) Clicking it allows you to type in a player name, and once you've found the intended player on the list of historical players, to choose which season's version of him you want to import. He'll appear as he would in a historical game created in that season. This will work with any mode; you can add 1983 Wayne Gretzky to a modern game, put 2018 Connor McDavid into a custom game or the 1917 NHL, etc. This should make life much easier for those of you who want to do things like create an all-time all-star league.
A couple of notes, though: first, there are a few players in the historical database that I created for reasons other than in-game use, e.g. various 19th century players to get a Hall of Fame with all the real members. Not all of them have a proper ratings set, so you may get some strange players if you try to import them. I'll try to get that stuff cleaned up soon so everybody you can find is functional, but for now if you import somebody who wasn't an NHL/WHA/PCHA player (those all should be fine), you should check his ratings to see if he's looking like you expect.
And second, really extreme mismatches in talent (dropping Wayne Gretzky in his prime into the UK's NIHL, for example) tend to create mismatches on the player-on-player level that are a little beyond what the scope of the game engine can handle best, so those players will not be quite as effective as you may expect (not that they won't dominate; they will, it just may not turn a bad team into an undefeatable one as the player gets 10+ goals a game on his own.)
2. The UK Challenge Cup has been added as a tournament. It was originally scheduled to be included back in the release version but had to be delayed due to a format change that required quite a bit of new coding. It's viewable via the EIHL league menu (similar to how the Spengler Cup/Memorial Cup/Champions League work.) We may add other similar tournaments (i.e. national cup competitions separate from the normal regular season/playoffs) in the future.
3. The most significant new addition: an editable "Lineups" screen (on the team menu, between Lines and Tactics) that allows you to set lineup priorities for your players, effectively giving the AI a simple set of rules for which players to substitute in when needed - so you'll no longer have to stop and replace players when you get an injury or suspension, instead letting the AI handle it automatically. Aside from the convenience for single players, this should also make multiplayer leagues easier to handle, since the commissioner won't need to intervene to fix every lineup hole that occurs between regular export/imports. The way it works is a little complicated to explain in the update notes, so I'm posting the full explanation separately on our forums at https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/showthread.php?t=309072
The rest of the update:
Gameplay Changes:
-teams will now be more likely to protect the rights to good RFA's on their protected list during expansion drafts if the player isn't currently contracted to another league
-NHL-western cup final will now end in 1926 even if the PCHA/WCHL/WHA doesn't stop playing at that point (we may allow it to continue eventually, but that'll require a few more safeguards to be built in for it to work in a safe and stable manner, so for now it ends on the historical date)
-if, while creating an expansion draft on July 1, you decide to delete the draft you created and make a new one, you'll now be able to select the July 2 date again, instead of being forced to choose a date option of July 4 or later
-fixed data errors in the team histories for 2017-18 and 2018-19 in several playable leagues
-Current database updated (this isn't quite a full-scale update like last time, as that requires a little more time than we had available, but it does include all the NHL moves up to the Taylor Hall trade, among other things)
-lowered nonplayable PIM stats in lower-level leagues (specifically, reduced the chance of fighting majors and misconducts by about half)
-tweaked 3-star system to loosen the restrictions on giving 3rd star to goalies with a lot of saves
-player personality ratings now used when available in the database
-added career records/leaderboards to Current Rosters start (a newly-generated version to fix some issues with the correct names not appearing in the previous version)
User Interface Changes:
-the leaders in the autoplay standings screen should now use the correct abbreviation for the team
-the (A) indicator on the roster screen has been changed to to (A1) and (A2) so it's possible to see exactly which assistant captain the player is (so you no longer have to guess when only one A is open and you want to add a new one)
-the active roster list on the Tactics-Player screen should now update (i.e. adding a checkbox beside the player) if you dress a player via right-click, so you no longer need to go back to the roster screen, dress him from there, then return to the player tab to get the option to select him
-waiver-eligibility for players is now shown relative to the league of the currently-selected team, so e.g. while looking at an NHL team's contracted players list, the waiver eligibility for players on their AHL team will be shown for the NHL, not the (nonexistent) AHL waiver eligibility
-added additional explanatory text to the "player is too old" popup warning (that appears when e.g. you attempt to sign a 20-year-old player in the WHL when you're already at your limit of 3 overagers)
-the Hall of Fame screen now only shows the stat totals in the top-level league in the game (i.e. NHL in everything except custom games)
-if a retired player is listed in another player's line chemistry list (in the profile screen), clicking his name no longer takes you to a different player's profile
-various minor text issues and typos fixed
Bug Fixes:
-fixed potential empty draft class in historical games and a related crash
-fixed issue causing lineup errors in minor league teams after importing/exporting rosters in a multiplayer game
-fixed Mac-specific crash when clicking World-Tournaments-History without selecting a tournament
-fixed error that was slowing players' language-learning speed significantly
-fixed crash when automatic suspensions for fighting majors are enabled for a league
-corrected the player order in the in Tactics-Unit screens' (both the in-game and the regular one) second Even Strength 3-on-3 unit
Additionally, Steam Trading Cards have been released for the Steam version.