Eastside Hockey Manager - Part VIII

[xECK29x]

I downloaded an updated roster pack. But truly ANY tips. I'm only through the beginning of November.

Even though they are for the older versions of the game the engine is mostly the same, I'd recommend checking out the EHM 2005 and 2007 guides on EHM The Blueline:

EHM 2007 Guide - The Blue Line Wiki

EHM 2005 Guide - The Blue Line Wiki

These should be able to answer a lot of questions, also check out the TBL forum, I'm sure a lot of your most common questions have already been asked and answered and documented.

 

[BKarchitect]

So I've come up with a new wrinkle to add to collegiate play in EHM...

The way the NCAA is setup, due to team limitations in a single league, each conference in the NCAA is its own league. Which is fine and dandy for conference standings and conference championships but teams also play out-of-conference games each year.

Prior to now, that was only possible via manual management of a team and setting up pre-season games for your specific club. But I've created a new "league" which is essentially out-of-conference schedule for all 72 NCAA teams and all 36 U Sports teams (remember, in NHLX, U Sports is fully playable). You simply select the new "Collegiate Exhibition Games" league during the setup menu where you select other leagues. You also don't have to select it to play NCAA or U Sports but it's a fun new wrinkle.

The games happen in late August and September before actual league schedules. With 108 total teams, I've divided the teams in 12 groups of 9. Each group players round-robin so your total out-of-conference schedule is 8 games. The groups have been diversified with not duplicate conference teams in any group, each group has 6 NCAA and 3 U Sports teams and I've tried to balance the traditional powers throughout all the groups.

Now - you'll be in the same group each year, there's no way to randomize it - but 8 OOC games is better than none and I love the ability to put U Sports teams up against NCAA teams.

You will get full league standings and player stats although no "league champion" history is recorded and there are no awards - you can win your group but that's as far as it goes. Still neat to stack your team up with other clubs across the continent and since it is a "continental" competition, you will see a player's OOC stats in their profile under the "continental" games section.

 

[TNT87]

You just navigate the Steam Workshop and click Subscribe, the content will be downloaded and activated in your game, you can select the new database when you go to start a new sim.

Thanks! Looking forward to playing the game as I've read many good reviews about it.

 

[xECK29x]

Thanks! Looking forward to playing the game as I've read many good reviews about it.

Not sure how many sports sims you have played before but if your only experience is EA games this will hit you like a ton of bricks, the learning curve will be steep!

 

[TNT87]

Not sure how many sports sims you have played before but if your only experience is EA games this will hit you like a ton of bricks, the learning curve will be steep!

I've played OOTP, FHM, and Front Office Football 8. I started out with Strat-o-Matic games years ago but quickly got bored of those as they never went in-depth with how a team is operated. Maybe they have changed but I've move on from them.

I'm already very impressed with EHM and I've barely started to play it. I was up in the late hours exploring the game. There's so many new things that I never imagined being on a sim game before. It's fantastic.

 

[bashbros32]

In NHLX is Matvey Michkov programmed to have an aversion to the NHL? I've seen some others mention he never comes over. So far in my save I drafted him, he rejected my initial offer because he was: "very happy with his role at Paris (Flyers) and is unwilling to move to a team in north america."

Fast forward 4 years, his contract ends with Paris on May 1st 2027. (I'm supposed to lose his rights on june 5th I believe)

I offer him a max rookie contract with 5 million in signing bonus. Plus the 69,700 bonuses for "played x games, scored x goals"

I set them all to 1 game, 1 goal, 1 point. So that he could easily max out his rookie bonuses.

He signs a 1 year contract 5 days later with CSKA and is once again "very happy with his role at CSKA and is unwilling to move to a team in north america."

I dont think it's a team reputation thing. (Although I dont know what our team reputation is) as we've made the playoffs 2 years in a row and just made the west finals.

I did manage to get him to come over in some other saves, at this rate I may start adding him to my "do not draft" list.

 

[BKarchitect]

In NHLX is Matvey Michkov programmed to have an aversion to the NHL? I've seen some others mention he never comes over. So far in my save I drafted him, he rejected my initial offer because he was: "very happy with his role at Paris (Flyers) and is unwilling to move to a team in north america."

Fast forward 4 years, his contract ends with Paris on May 1st 2027. (I'm supposed to lose his rights on june 5th I believe)

I offer him a max rookie contract with 5 million in signing bonus. Plus the 69,700 bonuses for "played x games, scored x goals"

I set them all to 1 game, 1 goal, 1 point. So that he could easily max out his rookie bonuses.

He signs a 1 year contract 5 days later with CSKA and is once again "very happy with his role at CSKA and is unwilling to move to a team in north america."

I dont think it's a team reputation thing. (Although I dont know what our team reputation is) as we've made the playoffs 2 years in a row and just made the west finals.

I did manage to get him to come over in some other saves, at this rate I may start adding him to my "do not draft" list.

Russia factor? I think because some of the star prospects in NHLX are "boosted", they get pretty lucrative offers from KHL and other foreign clubs. What's his salary with CSKA?

 

[bashbros32]

Russia factor? I think because some of the star prospects in NHLX are "boosted", they get pretty lucrative offers from KHL and other foreign clubs. What's his salary with CSKA?

His salary is 3.12M with a possible 1.144 in bonuses. 4.264 total IF he hits his bonuses.

I offered 925,000 (max for rookie) for 2 years, 5 mill signing bonus. Plus a basically guaranteed 338,000 in bonuses.

.925 + 2.5 + .338 is only 3.763 Total per year. Dang.

As to the Russian factor comment, why would that apply to the paris flyers?

 

[BKarchitect]

Well the WHA at one point had pretty high reps but I turned them down to be more like SHL or Liiga or NLA and less like KHL. BUt I'll double check their finances - they might still have high levels of salary.

 

[bashbros32]

Well the WHA at one point had pretty high reps but I turned them down to be more like SHL or Liiga or NLA and less like KHL. BUt I'll double check their finances - they might still have high levels of salary.

Just did a random check on WHA teams in 2027/2028 season for $1mill + contracts.

Kyiv 1
Vilnius 5
Budapest 3
Athens 3
Istanbul 3
Warsaw 1
Madrid 3
Luxembourg 0
Lisbon 3
Brussels 1
Amsterdam 2
Paris 8
Dublin 2
London 5
Copenhagen 1
Reykjavik 0
Torshavn 0
Oslo 5
Sarajevo 0
Skopje 0
Vienna 1
Tirana 1
Milan 0
Prague 7

Checking through

Vilnius, London, Paris, Oslo and Prague have at least 5 $1mill contracts.

0 teams have eclipsed the 2 mill mark.

Amsterdam pays the highest salary at 1.91 mill to Daniel Audette.

Of the 5 teams that have 5+ 1mill contracts, Paris and Pragues finances are insecure, London and Vilnius are OK, and Oslo is secure.

As for Amsterdam and the big fish 1.91 mill contract? Bankrupt

Just some interesting tidbits.

 

[BKarchitect]

Thanks for the input @bashbros32 !

 

[bashbros32]

A quick note on schedules, forgive me if this has been addressed before.

Nhlx in season 2029-2030

Playing as houston. We started the year pretty normal. 4 away games and 3 hone games in our first 7. Then, on october 16th, we started a 26 game 8 week home stand. Followed up by a 26 game 11 week road trip.

Is this a known issue that the game just randomly spits out schedules after a while or is there something we can do here?

 

[BKarchitect]

A quick note on schedules, forgive me if this has been addressed before.

Nhlx in season 2029-2030

Playing as houston. We started the year pretty normal. 4 away games and 3 hone games in our first 7. Then, on october 16th, we started a 26 game 8 week home stand. Followed up by a 26 game 11 week road trip.

Is this a known issue that the game just randomly spits out schedules after a while or is there something we can do here?

Yeah I may look at re-doing the schedule at some point...for some reason in some years it takes the template and totally screws around with home and away splits and does them in huge chunks of games.

 

[archibalduk]

A quick note on schedules, forgive me if this has been addressed before.

Nhlx in season 2029-2030

Playing as houston. We started the year pretty normal. 4 away games and 3 hone games in our first 7. Then, on october 16th, we started a 26 game 8 week home stand. Followed up by a 26 game 11 week road trip.

Is this a known issue that the game just randomly spits out schedules after a while or is there something we can do here?

I suggest you upload the affected saved game to SI so that Riz can take a look at the schedule. This is clearly a game bug.

See here: Encountered a game AI issue? Please read this! - EHM The Blue Line

 

[ImActuallyAnOtter]

2029-2030 is an Olympic Year, so the schedule will "switch" to the alternative. If the bounds of the alternative schedule go outside of the registered dates of the competition you can trigger some issues.

 

[Daeni10]

Random question, but has Malkin ever been a PPG player or close to it?
Every game I play Malkin always is a 40-60 point player, never saw him get a PPG or close to it

 

[BKarchitect]

@xECK29x and @archibalduk

Having a bug - you can click thru it - on August 1st of the first year...it's staff having a loan contract and being invalid. Is there an easy way to identify this in the editor to fix?

Thanks!

 

[xECK29x]

@xECK29x and @archibalduk

Having a bug - you can click thru it - on August 1st of the first year...it's staff having a loan contract and being invalid. Is there an easy way to identify this in the editor to fix?

Thanks!

I’m pretty sure I have seen this before, I believe it happens when club contracted/playing are reversed from what they should be. Are there any staff errors showing in the Editor? You can use the filter to quickly identify them, should come up yellow.

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

Random question, but has Malkin ever been a PPG player or close to it?
Every game I play Malkin always is a 40-60 point player, never saw him get a PPG or close to it

with certain attacking tactics, you can make him a prolific scorer. Never had a problem with Malkin

 

[Daeni10]

with certain attacking tactics, you can make him a prolific scorer. Never had a problem with Malkin

And if you are not playing the Pens or in the NHL at all?

 

[BKarchitect]

Random question, but has Malkin ever been a PPG player or close to it?
Every game I play Malkin always is a 40-60 point player, never saw him get a PPG or close to it

The computer has a tough time simulating for high scoring players not on a top line...so if the Pens AI has Malkin glued to second line ES and PP units because Crosby, his stats will suffer.

If you human control them it’s easy to get Malkin to score a lot though IMO. Set high offensive tactics for his line even if it is line 2, make sure he eats tons of PP1 time with Sid on a PP1 heavy unit setup and you can rotate him up to play with Sid at ES in certain situations or double shift him (should have high endurance) or even replace Sid as center #1 at times.

I know in NHLX he’s set to a 185 CA and still has pretty insane attribute ratings so it’s def not cause of his ability if he’s not scoring. Although I have his consistency a bit lower than it was in his prime though still high important game value. So he’s older and probably not as locked in all the time but should still be a beast when it matters.

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

And if you are not playing the Pens or in the NHL at all?

Then that’s different. Detail Level and what team has him makes all the difference.

I saw Malkin leaving the Pens in one save and joining the Coyotes to make the Cap Floor in FA. He became their number 1 center and lead the team to the playoffs

 

[Kranix]

Ah darn. I'm still using EK29's 4.1.2, made tons of edits to players, which I know is a dangerous game, but it had worked fine. Then today I made the Sharks coaching changes, got two roster errors for the old assistant coaches still being on the team, so I removed them, no more roster errors, but the db crashes on "creating short lists." I must have corrupted it there some how.

I wonder if I can import some of my edits by spreadsheet? Haven't been able to so far, because of that "does not have valid identifier" error.
Would the corruption be carried over in the spreadsheet?
I can share the spreadsheet if anybody wants my take on player attributes haha

 

[bashbros32]

Can somebody give me a rundown of how average ratings work in the stats page?

There are 3 rookie centers who put up decent, similar seasons but got low AVR.

anyone able to explain why?

1st center:

Quinton Byfield 20yr old season
82 GP 24 G 33 A 57 P +10 48 PIM
19.2 SH% 9 PPG 8 PPA 1 SHG 198 HITS
19 GA 15 TA 68 SB 46% FO
TOI: 18:17 PP 2:54 PK 1:47
AVR 6.6

2nd center:

Matt Savoie 18/19yr old season
82 GP 17 G 38 A 55 P +23 43 PIM
11.6 SH% 1 PPG 6 PPA 140 HITS
15 GA 7 TA 34 SB 46% FO
TOI: 16:08 PP 1:12 PK 0:48
AVR 6.88

3rd center:

Shane Wright 18/19yr old season
76 GP 24 G 31 A 55 P +2 30 PIM
18.2 SH% 10 PPG 12 PPA 113 HITS
10 GA 10 TA 38 SB 49% FO
TOI: 14:57 PP 2:35 PK 0:03
AVR 6.8

Sorry if this format is completely unreadable.

Any reason these centers aren't sitting in the 7s for avr? Is faceoff ability and giveaway/takeaway ratio that important?

 

[archibalduk]

Ah darn. I'm still using EK29's 4.1.2, made tons of edits to players, which I know is a dangerous game, but it had worked fine. Then today I made the Sharks coaching changes, got two roster errors for the old assistant coaches still being on the team, so I removed them, no more roster errors, but the db crashes on "creating short lists." I must have corrupted it there some how.

I wonder if I can import some of my edits by spreadsheet? Haven't been able to so far, because of that "does not have valid identifier" error.
Would the corruption be carried over in the spreadsheet?
I can share the spreadsheet if anybody wants my take on player attributes haha

Changing assistants won't corrupt the database. You probably have something set incorrectly which can be fixed. Usually a "creating shortlists error" means there is something wrong in your extra_config.cfg or possibly your records_config.cfg file. Try temporarily removing these from the sub-folder of your database and see if that fixes the issue. If that still doesn't work, email your database to archibalduk AT gmail DOT com with details of the coaching changes you made and I will see if I can figure it out. I'm pretty busy at the moment so it may take a little bit of time.

The error about the spreadsheets is because you're trying to import a spreadsheet in a format the Editor does not recognise. You should make sure that you enable the "Export as a Research Spreadsheet" setting when you export your attribute spreadsheet from your existing database. This will then be a in format which you can import into other databases.