The fourth update for FHM8, version 8.6.88, has just been released.
This is our third "content" update for FHM8, adding new features in addition to fixing problems. Most notably, the user-controlled line-changing option has been added to 2D mode after we worked out the issues that were holding it up. Other new features include the addition of a new Championship screen that announces the winner of your league once the playoffs are complete, some improvements to the Create Player feature, the addition of the new Division IV to the World Championships (along with a few new national teams), and a database update as of early February.
2D Changes:
-added line change controls to 2D mode:
- activated via the "Use Manual Line Changes" button on the Options popup; note that Game Stoppages and the "Full" Watch Mode must be enabled for it to work
- when the option is on, whenever a faceoff occurs (except the opening faceoff at the start of a game/period and after your own team ices the puck), you'll get the the option to choose which line and pair to send onto the ice; it uses the classic engine's fatigue display (green for game fatigue remaining, blue for shift fatigue, the larger the bar the better; the ##/##/## numbers are the overall/offensive/defensive game ratings). Click the box beside the line to choose that line/pair or use the keyboard shortcut (1-9), then click play (or hit the space bar) to resume.
- choosing a line or pair will select it as the line/pair to be sent onto the ice for the faceoff. Once the choices are made, this replaces the normal AI substitution logic. Exception: if players are unavailable due to penalty/injury, the game will make a logical substitution (based on fatigue, position, etc.) for the missing player(s)
-also fixed some minor AI line selection issues (in both 2D and classic)
-2D mode should now produce realistic home/away winning percentages
-increased the number of events leading to a faceoff (faceoffs are still a bit too infrequent, but it's considerably better now)
-various rebalancing done in order to get the stats back in line after the faceoff and home/away adjustments
-improved goalie movement in response to cross-ice passes
-fixed issue with shift fatigue not recovering properly at the end of a period
-fixed rare potential crash while simming/viewing games in 2D mode
Other Changes:
-database updated (to approximately February 9 for the playable leagues; for the NHL that's everything up to but not including the Tippett firing. Which I blame on Adam, because after I mentioned I was done with the database work on Wednesday night, he said "and now someone will get fired tomorrow.")
-added a Championship Screen that appears when a team becomes the champions of the user's league (or NHL if he's unemployed)
-made a number of improvements to the Create Player option:
- replaced age selection with specific birthdate
- height, weight, junior preference, preferred number, hand (shoots/catches), second and third nationalities, ethnicity, and secondary position can now be specified
- split Quality into Current Ability and Potential (both on the same 5-star scale as Quality was, but also allow 0.5 steps, so it's 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, etc.)
-added Division IV to the World Championships (6 teams, winner is promoted to the III-B level; Philippines, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Kuwait now have national teams)
-special abilities can now be edited on the player edit screen
-real captains and assistant captains are now included in the presets file (for playable teams.) This is based on Eliteprospects data, which has some gaps; we'll be working on improving the data manually
-added additional safety checks during importation of multiplayer data to prevent corruption in the main league files
-fixed crash on July 8, 2022 of NHL+AHL+CHL custom games
-fixed broken QMJHL schedule at the start of 22-23 in NHL+AHL+CHL custom games
-limited number of waiver claims by an AI team to 2 per day, so the AI can't evade its normal restriction on waiver claims by claiming a bunch of guys in a single day
-the ratings shown for goalies on the player profile's ratings tab are now adjusted properly for scouting errors
-the two-week buyout option (fixed in the last patch) in the EIHL and some other leagues no longer tells the user that he has to pay the full value of the contract (i.e. salary*years) when he buys a player out, instead of salary/52*2
-fixed issue with the monthly budget reminders disappearing in historical games after a few months
-the IceHL (Austrian) league no longer takes a full month off between the regular season and its playoffs
-adjusted trading AI when dealing with a human player to make it much more difficult to acquire high-value/potential players (approximately 4+ stars) with large packages of players and picks; the AI will now demand that the user include first-round picks and/or at least one high-value player in return
-added Birthdate to the Biography tab of the team roster screen
-if the trade deadline is changed from a date after January 1 to one before it, then changed back to a post-January 1 date, it no longer disappears from the league event menu, preventing teams from trading
-the KHL awards from 2019-20 and earlier are no longer duplicated in the icons on the player screen
-in the league-stats-team stats screen with the Off/Def Ratings dropdown active, the Stickchecking (STC) column now sorts correctly
-when adding a team to a league via the structure editor, the team is no longer selected from the league's country if the league has a region set, and instead chooses from the region (so e.g. a league based in Canada with the "Canadian Province: Alberta" region will no longer get teams from cities in Canada outside Alberta.)
-custom tournaments will no longer fail to record ties in the round-robin stage standings
-one group in some custom tournament formats will no longer play an extra game
-custom tournaments should no longer start too late to avoid a playoff overlap with the regular season schedules
-custom tournaments will no longer produce odd statistical results during games (massive turnover totals, very low player game ratings, etc.)
-the check that makes a player reluctant to sign on another continent made much easier if the player speaks the local language of the team he is moving to (primarily to make Canada/US players more likely to move to UK/Australia/France)
-North American junior-age players are now much less likely to sign with a playable European team
-in the Draft Review email, the best/worst drafts list no longer includes teams with only one pick
-fixed issue where, when adding a new league to a custom game, if a non-hockey country is selected, the teams would fail to sign any players
-in custom games with the NHL included, all the NHL league rights of NHL players are no longer set to free instead of the team the player is contracted to (didn't affect anything, since they were already contracted, but was technically wrong)
-fixed problem with entry-level contracts in custom leagues with no minor league attached, where the player would demand more for their minor league salary than the team could offer
-fixed data issue with the Add Hist Team option on the structure menu in standard games that was resulting in teams importing with the wrong city (which in turn could lead to their generated staff being from the wrong country)
-drag-and-drop should now work correctly in the Epic Games Store version