Custom Game Creation - My Run-Through

[Winnipeg59]

First let me say that I am pumped about FHM and what it will become. Any growing pains will be worth it!

Test w/FHM v1.0 immediately below in post #1-#4
Test w/FHM v1.0.3 Begins @ post #8

As a first run-through I tried to create a basic custom game. Here are the steps and what I found. Hope it helps...

Create a Custom Game:
Used default structure (30 teams, 2 conf, 6 divs, 82 games) and checked the 3 options for amateur draft, playoffs and fictional characters.

Start Fictional Game:
Left defaults (USA, MAL, etc) - one of my next tests will be to see how the game sets up for a country other than the default, for example a strictly Canadian league.
Left defaults for minor league as well (this will take some getting used to with both coming right after the other (I admit being used to the OOTP create one-league-at-a-time thing).
Left default amateur draft parameters and league/engine settings for this initial run-through.

Set League Rules - Major League (default unless noted here):
Set salary cap to $20mil and floor to $10mil
Set entry level contracts to $250k and minimum to $150k and checked entry level contracts

Game Rules Major (again default unless noted here):
I wanted to go old school with 2pts/win and 1pt/tie and no overtime, penalty shots.
CANNOT reduce points/win/ot below 1 (not sure if this matters pending other settings)
CANNOT reduce points/penalties below 1 (same note as previous)
Reduced points/loss/ot to ZERO
Reduced ot time to ZERO and penalty shots to ZERO
Unchecked sudden death
I did not realize until I advanced to the next (minor league rules) that i neglected to set the points/tie to 1 which is a problem I'll note here...THERE IS NO "BACK" BUTTON TO CORRECT/CHANGE ANYTHING, SO BE CAREFUL SETTING THINGS UP INITIALLY. A back button while setting rules, etc would be huge.
I also noticed later in-game that you cannot edit these rules (to set the points/tie to 1) unless I'm really missing something.

Game Rules Minor:
Only changed the length/ot and points/penalties to ZERO and unchecked sudden death
Here is where I set the points/tie to 1 and noticed my previous error.

Playoffs left default in both major and minor for this run-through. And I left the default manager information.

Created Game!

[Winnipeg59]

Once initially into the game - Unemployed by the way - you don't see much. None of the teams appear to have players or any information. I didn't obviously see a prompt of any kind (again like OOTP) where it might suggest a course of action, which would be really helpful.

So after snooping around, I clicked "Finish Today".
I think I read elsewhere that players feel the game stalls here. The "Please Wait" window pops up immediately and the progress bar fills to 100% rather quickly but then there's a whole lot of nothing! Knowing this game is in it's infancy, I waited. If I clicked once randomly, anywhere, I saw the "not responding" feedback in the outer window, so continued to wait.

After 3-minutes I took a walk. When I returned after 6-minutes the game had indeed advanced a day. So it's not initially frozen, it just takes a while to, I would assume, populate the players in the league, etc. Again there isn't any sort of feedback, so hope this helps for the future?

Now you can see a roster on a team page and additional information.

So again after snooping around, I clicked "Auto-Play until next Year" and let FHM do it's thing!

There isn't an ability to sim to a specific event at this point, but there appears room for it, so that will be great. Simming, for example, to end of regular season to to trade deadline, etc would have been helpful in this run-through, so I just simmed to month-ends until roughly end of season. FHM sims relatively quickly (maybe 5 days/min at this point in this game) and the puck graphic let's you know it's working as the days click off.

[Winnipeg59]

82 game schedule completed.

Some randomness:
Top team in the league finished with 96 points (on 48 wins of course).
The standings only seem to reflect Wins & Losses on the Standings screen. While simming I noticed W-L-OTL so I guess you can only go partially old-school at this points with having ties, but not seeing them. No problem, but might be nice in future?

The three top goal scoring Skaters finished with 62-55-54 goals, the three top assist Skaters finished with 69-60-60 and the top point Skaters had 95-92-89 on the year.
Top Goalies finished with 32-29-29 wins, 093-047-942 saves (I'm not really sure what I am seeing here, actual number of saves and the first two went over a thousand, losing the first digit? Can't be save percentage?) and 0-0-0 shut outs (Again not sure what I am seeing here, not one goaltender had a shutout on the year or digits are cut-off - and how coincidental would the top three goalies to all get a shut-out amount ending zero?). So there seems to be some work on the LEAGUE HOME screen needed?

I clicked on the top goaltender in wins and he appeared to play in 39 games with 32 wins, as noted - WOW - and 8 losses and 0 ties. So there is a ties in the goalie stats, but the 32-8 record doesn't equate to 39 games? So a little work needed there too. His team had two goalies at season end that had accounted for 53 games, so likely some trades happened in the net during the season - I'll have to check later.

I clicked on the top SAVES goaltender and yes, he had 2,093 saves, which means the graphic needs adjusting on the league screen (SAVE% might be a more useful stat, imho).

Also No Ties are noted on the player stats page for any goalies? Odd, given my setup allowing ties.
No shutouts were indeed recorded by any goalie? That's just plain odd.
The most games played was 64 by one goalie, which means some swapping of tenders does take place even for the most played, which is good imho!
No goals against were recorded on the stats leaders page which is impossible.

Among the Skaters the top faceoff skater was listed having 1293, while the next two had 1301 and 1171? So that needs to be juggled to be correct.

Among the TEAMS on the League pages, not one team has Powerplay or Shorthanded Chances noted - all leaders ZERO which again is highly unlikely?

[Winnipeg59]

Curious that in the "League Events" the MAL playoffs are listed for April 10th. I am at April 10th and no games are scheduled?

Looking in the "League Rules" I find:
Regulation Teams: 0 (I get that reference as being European Football)
Regulation League: No Regulation
Playdowns: No
...and that is funny because I did check playoffs right back at the first screen??

WAIT! Simming to April 11th now brings up a playoffs button on the same screen as standings! Excellent! It is noted as the "Round of Sixteen". It seems to have plotted them by overall "League" rankings, which isn;t what I expected, but probably is the default setting. So I'll revisit that setting next game Test!

Again, it's early, but the "Sim Until X" point in time (like next playoff round) would be enormous. It will come I'm sure...

The playoffs seemed to work as promised, with the ladder progressing until the randomly generated OMAHA STEELHOUNDS won the Finals.

Interestingly there appears to be league history going back to 1917? One earlier question I had, not mentioned in this thread, was where and how to specify your starting year for the Custom League?

It's also curious that the Omaha team is NOT even listed in the league history? Odd.

Unless I missed it, there also didn't appear to be any JOBS after the initial year for me to take, now that the playoffs are done and not once was I sent a message during the entire process (of any kind).

Last thing I wanted to check in this first, and very basic, run-through was whether any rules could be altered after the season (in off-season)?

I tried to sim through to first the draft date. The FREE AGENTS window seems to pop up in the off-season, but there's nothing in it? Odd. And then tried to sim to SPECIFIC DATE prior to the pre-season of the next year.

While doing that (roughly end of June) the Microsoft WE HAVE A PROBLEM AND HAVE TO SHUT YOU DOWN message came up and I was crashed out of the program (I did send the message)!

I remain VERY hopefully about the future of FHM. Keep going people!!!

[GiantYankee]

This is great. I posted a bug report about custom league crashing before seeing your thread. Tried your method of not touching anything when it first appears to be crashing and is simming without a problem now. Compared to OOTP the sim times seems to be somewhat slow.

[trendon]

Originally Posted by Winnipeg59

So there is a ties in the goalie stats, but the 32-8 record doesn't equate to 39 games?

Perhaps he wasn't on the ice when the game-winning goal was scored in that missing game?

[Winnipeg59]

As we have a patch coming Friday/Saturday, I'll gladly wait and then take another run at a custom walk-through to see if anything has changed.

Great to see the team working the problem and tackling any and all issues with FHM v1.0. I can wait...

[Winnipeg59]

TEST103a
With new 1.0.3 patch of FHM and essentially the same setup as the initial test, to remain consistent and track anything from patch to patch to note progress in those areas.

Create Game
Let the default structure again and checked the three options of Draft, Playoffs and Fictional players. This does seem to take a while after clicking OK and I'm sure I'll get used to it, but "working" feedback of some kind would be nice initially so you don't feel the game has stalled (admittedly pessimistic I know).
I also clicked through the default windows for major and minor leagues and draft.

League Rules - Default unless noted
Changed the Cap Max to $20mil and Min to $10mil again. I checked the entry level contracts and changed the Max from $0 to $250k and the Min from $525k (which I think is new to this patch version if I recall correctly as previously I remember it as $0 as well) to $150k.
I'm going Old School again without the ovetime and penalty shots in regular season so:
Reduced Pts/Win OT to 1 (cannot reduce it to ZERO - not sure if that's important)
Reduced Pts/Win PEN to 1 (as above)
Reduced Pts/Loss OT and PEN to ZERO
And this time I did remember to set my Pts/Draw to 1 (I know this as a Tie btw, but that's not important)
Reduced OT time to ZERO and Penalty shots to ZERO as well
OT skaters can only be 5-4-3 so left at default 4 (not important)
And I unchecked Sudden Death

For the Minor League I left the default Min/Max caps at $0 but changed the entry level contracts Max from $0 to $50k and the Min I left at $25k (which I think is also new to this version)
Of note the Pts/Draw on this screen was defaulted to 1 and I'm not sure if that was previously in the game (no big deal)

Playoffs Rules
I left both Majora nd Minor leagues as is

Created Game as TEST103a
It took about 3-minutes for the game to create itself and there was "loading feedback" throughout this time (including loading player pictures - cool)
When presented with the Manager screen I left as is

Things to note initially- Based on previous test with v 1.0
There is nowhere to specify in what year you are beginning your game, so it looks like it defaults to August 15, 2013
Clicking on GAME/SETUP produced a fault window underneath the Hall of Fame and Injury options (Could Not Create Player Pictures Folder) FYI - I did change auto-save here to MONTHLY btw
Clicking on LEAGUE MENU/LEAGUE HISTORY gives a better view of this ERROR window above - It does NOT appear this new version includes previous history initially (Great)
Clicking on LEAGUE MENU/STATS/LEADERS shows that it's also present underneath that screen (tough to see, but it's there)
Clicking on LEAGUE MENU and then ANY of the noted TRANSACTIONS links just takes you to the same FA screen (no big deal, just noticed)

Moving to the TEAM drop-down (just stayed with the random choice) there obviously aren't any players, etc at this point in the creation of the game as the initial "draft" or assigning players to teams has yet to take place but on the FINANCES window, for what it's worth:
BUDGET $80,000,000
PLAYER PAYROLL 4th in league @ $8,028,889 seems odd to me?
CURRENT STAFF PAYROLL $0
But TOTAL STAFF EXPENSES of $540,027 also seems odd to me?
SALARY CAP is $22,000,000 (if that is supposed to relate to my choice of salary cap earlier I set it to $20mil)
And the SALARY CAP SPARE and SALARY CAP SPARE NEXT are $22mil and $20mil respectively (not sure if that's work in progress or what I am seeing with this)
SALARY OBLIGATIONS shows no players and the CAP of $20mil - Good!
SCOUTING shows nothing (thought that might be some of the expenses above) BUT you can also plainly see the ERROR window noted above here
PERSONNEL shows a coaching staff all making $0 at this time and AVAILABLE STAFF below

SO...Here we go with another year of sim! One of the fixes in this new patch was getting past July 1st

[Winnipeg59]

Test 103a SIM

After the setup above it's time to CLICK Finish Today!
Again there is a bit of a wait BUT it's about half the time in my opinion (great). Immediately a "Please Wait" window pops up and the sim of today bar fills to 100% then.......nothing for the 3-minutes. It appears that the game locks up if you are impatient, so some better feedback would be helpful here.

After the one day:
ROSTER is now filled on my randomly default team - 23 players in the overview (including 3 goaltenders)
LINES aren't set (again I am unemployed and not handling this team) and the tactics are default as before
MINOR roster has seven players at this time (that factors into the finances below)

TEAM FINANCES still shows a BUDGET of $80-million, my PLAYER PAYROLL is 4th in league still at 27,639,562 and I have $52-mil and $57-mil available for extensions and free agents (so there's some work to reconcile that with the initial cap settings creating the game it would seem to me).
My TOTAL EXPENSES are just over $8-mil to date (one day essentially).
Basically I think this window is still a work in progress for the custom games as there are places that simply say "No Info" (Transfer Fees is a Euro Football Term, so not sure how that will play into N.A. hockey, but this is a custom template, so...)
I have the same personnel BUT they do not have any SALARY attached to them at this point and the SCOUTING window shows no information (that could be because this isn't actually my team) BUT the ERROR window noted above is still there.
Lastly, there were some transactions to assign some players to the minor affiliate and ther eis NO team HISTORY at this point in time nor LEAGUE HISTORY of any kind (and that includes the PLAYERS LIST, which should have current players by now, if that's what I see this being, but...).

OK Let's SIM! First AUTO-PLAY to NEXT YEAR to get us to 2014.

[Winnipeg59]

Test 103a SIM the SEASON

SIM to January 1st, 2014 went very well. Just a couple of observations at this point, then I'll finish up the year:

While simming the game presents a conference standings screen with some leaderboards to either side
- The standings reflect WINS-LOSSES-OTL-POINTS but in "my world" I have included TIES (again not sure how tough that would be to reflect based on the custom settings, but not a huge issue at this time).
- I did notice some ODD numbers, which means TIES are indeed being recorded by the game (just not seen) which is excellent (again that was my fault in the v1.0 sim).
- I'm not sure where I can see that same window outside of the sim, but it would be nice? You can see divisional and conference standings of course.
*** The reason why I ask is that in the GOALS leader list of the top 10 I regularly saw two players with the notation FA next to their names. In my mind that would seem to indicate FREE AGENT (which would be pretty much impossible)? I remembered one of the names but in searching his history didn't find any change of teams or release in his history, so not sure what that notation signifies?
- SAVE PERCENTAGE was noted next to the standings now which is GREAT - Thank You! I think this same stat would be useful in the LEAGUE NEWS window too imho, as would GAA instead of noting Shut-Outs on that page?

In the STATS LEADERS boards I again see that FACEOFFS are NOT noted as being most to least in the Top 9 at this point in the season at least
The rest seem OK with Skaters
Among the GOALIES there seems to be issues with the Top 9 in GOALS AGAINST
There is also an issue with the listing of SHUT OUTS (most to least)
Everything else seems in order

FINANCES I am still not totally understanding at this point (but that might just be me)?
COACHES do not have any salaries Jan 1, 2014.

SIM to the end of the regular season - April 8, 2014

Top Team in the league finished with 45-27-10 = 100 Pts
*** By the way, the "records" for the teams (home/away for example) reflect wins-losses and I presume OTL so each is inaccurate in my world (with ties). Again, not a huge problem at this time but noted.
Worst team btw 26-43-13 = 65 Pts
*** By the way, the team with this brutal record had 41 straight HOME sell-outs at 18,000 a game for 100% capacity (as did the BEST team in the league)! Wow...but a bit unrealistic...maybe? It's still early.

Top 3 Goal Scorers = 67-52-48 - Top Assists = 67-61-60 - Top Pts = 94-94-91
Face-Offs still incorrectly itemized at year end of course

Top 3 Goalies Wins = 31-30-27 - Top GAA = 2.44-2.60-2.68 - Top Save% = .927 (Tie-3) - Top Games Played = 62-62-59
GOALS AGAINST is wrong (only top GA listed having 10, all else 0)
SHUT OUTS is wrong (not itemized correctly)
There appeared to be no goals or assists from any top noted goalies (could be or maybe not...not big enough to even check at this point)
Randomly clicking on the TOP goaltender revealed a number of issues with the stats and contract of that player - $0 salary - home and away "splits" of only 1 game played noted - and I believe the reason is that he played ONE minor league game before obviously being promoted and then went on to be the TOP goalie in the league with 31 WINS in 59 games played! So a little work needed there on player stats pages.

And I think I'll stop examining the details at this point, it's evident that there's more work to come. Stay at it!!!

BUT we can SIM the playoffs and I am most interested in getting past July 1st.

By the way, with respect to the in-game ME, there are/were no available JOBS to this point. Again it's early in development... I'll check again end of season. One would think, somewhere, a job would open up??

[Winnipeg59]

Test 103a - SIM the Playoffs and Off-Season

Simmed the playoffs and through to July 1st

Playoffs seemed to run smoothly. Btw the 100 Pts. regular season team lost in the final 4 games to 2 to the second place team in the other conference with 95 Pts. That bodes well!
Not to be really picky, but I did notice, on the League News page the championship is noted as the winning team "closing out a 2-1 series win"? The "series" was 4-2 (best of seven) and the final game it would appear was a 2-1 victory. And there's some additional wording issues with that announcement.
The end of season came May 27, 2014 (if only the NHL could work that quickly).

I simmed through to June 1st and did note some individual STATS/RECORDS listed in the League pages. Note that the CAREER Goalie SV% stat is not recorded after the first season, other than that all appears to look good.
There also appears to be some AWARDS (MVP, etc) to hand out but not sure when that happens? And I looked for, but did not see, any update of the league HISTORY noted (as in the winner of this inaugural year) so not sure when that happens?

Oh, and the game did NOT notify of any JOBS through to early June. No firings at all in the League News, so I remain unemployed!

Amateur Draft SIM on June 21st

The draft order seems OK. I just to a quick look and the worst team picks first with the 100 Pt. team picking last. Their doesn;t appear to be any other information associated with the draft that I can easily see (I am unemployed, but still).
SIMMED June 21st and that took about 3-seconds to complete. Only place I found any draft information was by looking at the UNSIGNED DRAFTEES screen on the team I have been monitoring otherwise I'm not sure where to obtain any other draft information at this point? I might be missing it, but it's really not obvious in this Custom Game as an unemployed outsider looking in (if that makes a difference)!

Now the SIM past July 1st to see if FHM crashes or, hopefully, not!

Next major event on the list was the Free Agent filings on June 30th so I simmed to that DATE. There appeared to be many signings and some declarations of impending FA's in the league news when I arrived at June 30th, but not real list of who would be the top FA's to that point. There is the exisiting FA list of course, but nothing more obvious.
I hit SIM and the game processed to July 1st. It took about 3-minutes to process to "next season". There were 212 FA's listed previously and are 281 on July 1st.
LEAGUE HISTORY now notes the Season Champion, so it must update June 30th
The AWARDS don't seem to do anything yet
Still no JOBS ;-)

I will stop there.
There seems to be a lot of detail that needs polishing in FHM to make it fantastic. It will come. But at this point, at least in a custom game, I think it might be a little frustrating.
I do plan on simply going with the NHL start to compare notes to the CUSTOM game next!
And also plan to start a smaller scale league and play around...without getting too discouraged.

Still have HIGH HOPES!!!

[trendon]

Hey, man, great job on your posts.