Franchise Hockey Manager returns for the 2023-24 season with plenty of additions to the deepest, most authentic hockey strategy gaming experience you can find. Choose from teams around the globe and select a team to guide to glory, including a chance at the ultimate prize, the Stanley Cup®.
Welcome to the final update (barring any emergency fixes) for FHM10. Thanks to everyone who reported issues during the open beta. In addition to the post-trading deadline rosters, we've added a few new things and made a number of other fixes and changes. We're moving into the planning and design stages for FHM11 now; thank you for your ongoing support.
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; this normally happens when the problem is inherent to data created at the start of the save.
[b]New Features[/b]
-the filter dialogs (used on player search, roster screens, etc.) have been rebuilt and now have Load, Save, and Save As options:
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[*]"Save" sets the currently-loaded filters to be the default filter for the screen you're currently looking at - if you make changes and do not save them, they will only be used temporarily for the active screen and will be gone when you leave it. You can have different default filters for the roster view, the search screen, the free agent center, etc.
[*]"Save As" saves the currently-loaded filters to a file that can be loaded via the "Load" button, allowing you to swap between filters without having to re-enter all the information. Note that if you want to apply a filter to more than one screen, you'll need to load it for each additional screen, then save.
[*]The reset button, as before, will wipe all your currently-active filters clear and go back to the original defaults (but if you've changed the default filters by using Save, you'll need to save again after the reset to make the reset filter permanent)
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-World Cup changes: it's now held in 2027-28 (and every 4 years thereafter), no more North America/Europe teams, and presumably no Russia for the forseeable future, so Slovakia, Germany, and Switzerland fill the missing team spots; the start date has also been moved a little earlier, since it tended to finish too close to the beginning of the NHL season
-csv export now exports player rights (for the leagues that use them only)
-for the csv export function, if the user exporting is in control of a team, the exported player ratings will be those adjusted for the perception of their scouts; this can be switched via a new game setting to always show the unadjusted, real ratings (in the File Menu, Setup/Options screen - this requires that commissioner mode be active
-head coaches and GM's will now improve over time (aside from the user-controlled GM/HC, which already did)
-added Regulation Wins added to the standings screen
-if the user changes a player's position manually (i.e. via right-click, change position) or the player gets a new primary position (due to reaching a 20 rating at a non-primary position), the player's template will now be adjusted to one appropriate for the new position (having the incorrect template was creating issues with things like contract negotiations, since the player would "think" he was still playing the old position
-Lester and Frank Patrick will now automatically jump to the Victoria Senators and Vancouver Millionaires, respectively, if the teams exist on July 1, 1911 (the PCHA was founded and owned by the Patricks, it doesn't make any sense for them to remain in the east when it appears)
-when determining if a player requests a No Movement/No Trade Clause, if the contract will end before the player's 7th season in the league, the player will not request one
-added several period-specific adjustments to on-ice behaviour in 2D mode to reflect historical rules: e.g. forward passing in the offensive zone will be severely curtailed until 1929-30 and in the neutral zone until 1919-20, and there will be very few offsides called until 1929. We plan on expanding this type of thing further in FHM11, to better reflect variations in the game's rules both over time and across leagues, instead of having all the 2D mechanics conform to modern NHL play
-when using create/import Player: if an initial draft is selected, players created before that initial draft will now be added to the draft class
[b]Other Changes[/b]
-rosters and ratings updated as of March 24 (or slightly later for the NHL); we've made some improvements in how we record real-life player loans, particularly in Europe, so hopefully there won't be as many of those loaned guys starting back on their original teams
-cliques with a lot of players are now shown on multiple lines, rather than having the last names cut off
-the wording on clique announcements with multiple players will no longer use wording that implies only one player joined
-tournament scouting reports will now exclude players who only played minimally
-when looking at one of the tabs (e.g. final rankings) on the League Scouting screen, if you click on a player and view his profile, then click back out it will now return you to the last tab you were looking at, rather than the first (Future Watch) tab
-players who are traded (and possibly acquired on waivers) are no longer retaining their specific tactics (i.e. from the tactics-players screen) from their previous team
-if a game is started in 1909 with the "draft/generate rookies at 16" option turned off (so the players should generate on their actual team), the NHA teams will now get their players at the correct time
-corrected NHL tiebreaking mechanics
-AI will no longer occasionally exceed the contract limit when the league limit is low (under 40)
-the Goals Against Avg and Save Pct leaders on the autoplay standings screen now use the same rate requirement as the leaderboards to determine which goalies are shown
-if a traded player already has a contracted renewal signed, the new team's AI will no longer negotiate a different renewal
-fixed issue that was reversing the difficulty for teams to sign players away from US college teams - it was too easy to sign lower-end prospects, and too difficult to sign higher-end ones
-fixed bug that was making good college players too likely to enter the transfer portal
-teams in the top-level league (i.e. NHL/top league in a custom setup) will now release the rights to older fringe prospects that are no longer contracted to them
-potential crash if historical game is started in 1916 fixed
-the wrong team popups no longer appear for some teams in youth tournament scouting reports - e.g. the Riga U18 tournament's Central Asia U18 team showing the Peteborough Petes
-when the NHL is created on July 1, 1917, it should now set league rights properly for the players on its teams - all of the players who have NHA league rights for the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, and Ottawa Senators will have their NHA rights set to the same team
-create/import Player: if an initial draft is selected, players created before the draft will now be added to the draft class
-corrected tooltip for Fen. Rel. (Stats: Advanced roster view)
-after choosing the roster for the prospects tournament for a KHL team, clicking the "Prospects Tournament" version of the continue button will now continue the game properly
-when adding teams to a custom league, if there are already teams in the league, the local broadcast revenue amount for each new team is now set to the average amount of all the existing teams rather than starting at 0
-on draft screens, if a view with player ratings (e.g. "Skater Ratings") is chosen, the player mouseover popups now appear for the player name instead of for the first attribute listed
-teams in the one-goalie years (generally prior to 1964) will no longer replace the starter during blowout losses
-made a number of adjustments to rebalance stats in 2D mode, particularly lowering the number of shots and goals
-the Goals Against Avg and Save Pct leaders on the autoplay standings screen now use the same rate requirement as the leaderboards to determine which goalies are shown
-if a traded player already has a contracted renewal signed, the new team's AI will no longer negotiate a different renewal
-fixed issue that was reversing the difficulty for teams to sign players away from US college teams - it was too easy to sign lower-end prospects, and too difficult to sign higher-end ones
-fixed bug that was making good college players too likely to enter the transfer portal
-teams in the top-level league (i.e. NHL/top league in a custom setup) will now release the rights to older fringe prospects that are no longer contracted to them
-potential crash if historical game is started in 1916 fixed
-the wrong team popups no longer appear for some teams in youth tournament scouting reports
-corrected tooltip for Fen. Rel. (Stats: Advanced roster view)
-after choosing the roster for the prospects tournament for a KHL team, clicking the "Prospects Tournament" version of the continue button will now continue the game properly
-when adding teams to a custom league, if there are already teams in the league, the local broadcast revenue amount for each new team is now set to the average amount of all the existing teams rather than starting at 0
-on draft screens, if a view with player ratings (e.g. "Skater Ratings") is chosen, the player mouseover popups now appear for the player name instead of for the first attribute listed
-teams in the one-goalie years (generally prior to 1964) will no longer replace the starter during blowout losses
-added missing international player stats
-fixed incorrect naming for some historical international and farm teams in the first 10-20 seasons (of a 1909 start)
-various small text fixes
-fixed incorrect text options being shown for some media responses
-fixed crash when trying to do a historical re-draft of Columbus or Minnesota in a 2000-01 start
-fixed issue with Mac version showing an "FHM10 is damaged" error message (may require a reinstall of the game if you continue to get this after updating)
-corrected logic in the team scout entry draft evaluation PM (the one with the title "[year] [draft name] [head scout name] Evaluation") that was omitting a lot of players
-The 1912-13 NHA season schedule is no longer being re-generated at an early start date and starts much too early (October instead of December)
-1914-15 NHA playoffs now occur correctly (earlier fix seemed to have become broken again)
-World Junior Championships awards are no longer being shown twice in the news
-fixed issue that was preventing the correct operation of a safety check that was supposed to be keeping backup goalies from starting too often
-fixed issue with leaderboards and records not generating correctly for new games