The fifth post-release update for FHM6, version 6.6.68, 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. After adding some larger fixtures in the last two updates, we've spent more time on this one on smaller additions and fixes, and there are a lot of them; details are below. That's not to say we've completely cleared out our bug/request/wish lists, but they're probably in better shape now than they've ever been in the history of the series, so we should have the game in a nice, stable place for you as we wind up work on 6. There will be one more major update after this one (and possibly some hotfixes if serious issues are found in either); we expect to release that sometime after the NHL trading deadline (February 24). It'll likely be out a little later after the deadline than in previous years, since we're already relatively close to that date and we want to leave enough time for proper testing and database review. After that, we'll still be active on the forums and elsewhere, but most of the development effort will begin to shift over to FHM 7 unless something critically wrong is discovered with 6. Playable team rosters for the "Current" quickstart have been updated as of (approximately) February 2 and some adjustments have also been made to nonplayable leagues. The scope of the database updates in the final update will be larger and should cover most, if not all, of the significant nonplayable leagues. Gameplay Changes -added the option to retain salary in trades - the trading interface now has an option (in leagues with a salary cap) to allow a team to absorb, in 5% increments, up to 50% of the player's salary after the trade. [list] [*] after the trade is executed, the retained salary is adding to the former team's Cap Hit Penalties and removed from the player's salary and cap hit (using the Cap Hit Penalties this way is a necessary compromise at the moment since we don't want to make a signficant data structure change in an update; in FHM7 we'll likely separate cap penalties and retained salary into two categories) [*] a team can only have Cap Hit Penalties up to 15% of the overall salary cap; the retention option may be lowered (or removed) if a team is close to (or over) this amount already [*] the amount of retained salary cannot lower the player's overall cap hit to an amount below the minimum salary (this isn't actually an NHL rule, but if we don't do this it would break the trade AI by creating players with contracts below the threshold it can evaluate properly) [*] the AI will change its evaluation of players with retained salary to reflect their increased/decreased value to it, but it will not make retained salary offers itself at the moment (that's going to require some significant trade AI rewriting for it to use retained salary appropriately) [/list] -the Belarusian league will now play the second half of its schedule instead of stopping at 28 games - we can't easily model their new system this year that blends first -and second-level league teams into a new division in midseason, so the teams still remain in a single division -the Tipsport Extraliga playoffs are now correctly re-seeded after each round, instead of retaining the starting bracket through the whole playoffs -the Chance Liga pre-playoffs are now the correct best-of-5 instead of best-of-3 -the Synerglace Ligue Magnus now relegates/promotes teams properly -the Danish Metal Ligaen should now re-seed properly after each round of the playoffs -added automatic fight suspensions after X games for several playable leagues that use them -corrected several Slovak second level teams and parent-farm relationshipo -reduced the number of preseason games in leagues with shorter seasons -enabled "Use Real Players" in custom league setup for leagues with structures other than 2019 NHL, ss long as "Use Initial Draft" is checked and the start year is 2019 -in a custom game using the CHL junior setup, the WHL and QMJHL no longer get 20-minute regular-season overtime periods as a default instead of the correct 5 -the stat-based talent options (percentages/year weighting) are now part of the game setup, rather than forcing the defaults on at the start of every new game -the Stanley Cup final between the PCHA/WCHL/WHL and the NHL should now deactivate properly after 1926 in edited games -if the user attempts to use AI Setup Organization while his team's cap hit is >95% of the salary cap, he will now get a warning box and yes/no confirmation that reads "This team is very close to the salary cap. To optimize the roster, the AI may trade some players to clear cap room. Do you still wish to continue?" (To make it clearer that there's a risk the AI may need to make trades when that option is used, so it's no longer a surprise to the user) -players added via Import Historical Player no longer automatically have all league rights set to None, which makes them unsignable if they're past draft age - there's no perfect solution for this problem, since the exact rights/draft setups will vary from league to league and game to game, but we now have it default to something that will work with most NHL-like setups: if the player's age is <20, he imports with rights set to None for all leagues; if it's >=20, set them to free for all leagues. If you need different rights settings for your league, every added player will need to have them edited -players who have a non-KHL 1st nationality and a KHL 2nd nationality (e.g. Dmitrij Jaskin, Czech/Russian) should now be counted correctly as foreign -main/potential rivalries and the potential's rivalry level are now editable on the team screen -birthplace selection added to the Create Player option -added an option to the team edit screen to immediately retire all of its players (mainly useful if you want to clear it out before importing/creating new players) -added ability to edit/add/delete retired numbers for a team on the team edit screen -the "Son of" field is now editable on the player edit screen -adjusted the ratings shown in the player popups (OFF/DEF/PHY/MEN, GOA/MEN for goalies) to be calculated via a weighting method similair to the talent ratings, which should generate more accurate numbers and create a little more variation in them -the 16-team (8 per conference) playoff format should now select home ice advantage in the finals correctly (by regular season points) -AI will no longer treat the cap hit of players on IR with non-season-ending injuries as free cap space when evaluating trades, so it won't put itself in cap trouble by acquiring players that will put it over the cap when the injured player returns before the end of the regular season -fixed starting player rights in historical leagues with draft minimum age >18 (e.g. 1974-75 starts), so the first 1-2 drafts aren't empty -the "6 Teams, 3 per Div" playoff format no longer forces a total-goals format on the first two rounds, even if the user specifies a different length -adjusted AI lineup routines for non-multiplayer games so it will fill lineups properly when the active roster is smaller than the number of players who can dress for a game (this restriction had been relaxed to make multiplayer commissioners' jobs a little easier by limiting the number of times the AI needed a replacement player, but it was unnecessary in non-multiplayer games and was leading to odd lineups and some execssive icetimes, so we've deactivated it there) -minor league teams in historical should now properly fill jobs when staff are hired away from them -added "no stats/history" option (like the one in historical mode) to standard games -adjusted AI's choice of captains/assistants to consider some secondary mental stats in addition to leadership, and make it less likely for foreign players to be selected as captains, particularly in leagues where this is uncommon -limited starting popularity ratings of new 17-year-old players in historical games -the "interesting player on waivers" news alert now won't appear for players the user has waived himself -slightly adjusted forward and defenceman requirements for the Hall of Fame to get a better F/D/G balance (had been a little too heavy on D and G) -Hall of Fame voting now won't begin until 1945, the year the real HoF began inducting players -option to use the yearly Historical Finance adjustments added to custom games (i.e. if the game is started in a pre-2019 year, the salaries, etc. will be adjusted to a level appropriate for that year) -adjusted some league reputations and levels of play slightly -adjusted historical league offensive/defensive and physical preferences for a number of seasons to get more period-correct lineup usage -various csv export improvements/fixes: added playoff and preseason versions of the player_goalie_stats.csv and player_skater_stats.csv files, in player_ratings.csv the column for goalie Stamina (goalies) is renamed Goalie Stamina, player_skater_career_stats_po.csv now shows the correct leagueid for all players, player_skater_stats.csv how has SOG, TOI, PPTOI, and SHTOI, column names in the skater career stats csv's should now match the name of the same stat as shown in the curren season csv, schedules.csv now shows if the game went to a shootout/OT, added some of the advanced stats the skater stats csv, and corrected some typos -power play and shorthanded points removed from the exported player_skater_stats.csv (they weren't intended to be there, since the points total can be calculated from g+a, and were just displaying 0) -when generating a expansion team in the structure editor via the add team button, the game will no longer choose a city for it that already has a team in the league User Interface Changes/Fixes -restored the draft page link to the manager home page -scouting level now shown on the league Scouting pages (Futures, Watch List, etc.) -when a league is in the playoffs, its Standings screen will now open by default to the Playoff tab instead of the regular division/conference/league one -the "Edit" button (when available) now appears at the bottom of the team/league menus immediately, instead of requiring them to be re-opened after turning on commissioner mode (and league editing in historical) -added Shots should be added to the player screen career stats (Expanded 1 view) -on the Info tab of the team screen, the injury length now shows same status of the injury as shown on the player screen, instead of the internal counter data -certain changes to league structure will no longer result in odd formatting of the standings screen where columns begin to overlap and/or disappear -if the user changes his league's conference names, the autoplay standings screen will now update their abbreviation properly and not show the previous abbreviation for them -in "milestone" news stories, the player's ice time is now total ice time for the game (had only been showing the ES time) -the "Contract" section of the player profile will no longer show a free agent type of "Restricted Free Agent" for some UFA's -when the user attempts to sign staff and gets the "demand is too high" error message, it will now show the exact amount the person wants -when attempting to offer a contract to a player via right-clicking his name on the depth chart, error messages (contracted to another league, has to be signed at a specific time of year, etc.) will now appear properly if the player isn't eligible to be signed -the autoplay standings now display W/L streaks for leagues with a non-divisional format that have all the standings columns shown, e.g. the SPHL -when looking at the team history screen, if you use the up/down arrow keys to change team, the end of the lower menu bar no longer remains in the same colour as the first team you looked at, rather than updating like the rest of the bar -the team popups now work properly on the Wildcard tab of the standings screen -a small white box no longer appears in the top left corner of the screen when the Set Up Your Manager popup appears during setup of a new game -in team-history-(individual season), switching to "Playoffs" from "Regular Season" on the dropdown menu will now show the playoff stats properly -if the user sorts his player search screen results and then opens a player, the up/down buttons on the player screen now advance to the next player on the sorted list instead of a random player -if the user has sorted his roster screen by something other than position, clicking in the dressed column (even if the maximum number of players is already dressed) will no longer re-sort the screen by position -added the Biography and Stats:Advanced view options to the player search screen dropdown menu -added second and third nationalities and local popularity to the Biography view of the roster screen -the Salary Obligations tab of the Team Finances screen has been split into two tabs, one for Cap Obligations (if applicable) and one for Salary Obligations -when league standings from previous seasons are viewed by selecting a year in the League-History screen and clicking on "Standings", there's no longer a line (like the playoff divider) below every team name and clicking the team names there should now open the team's screen -for leagues that allow games to end in ties but do play overtime, the standings page of the GM home screen no longers shows an OTL column which counts both ties + overtime losses -Exhibition mode team selection for historical teams now shows the team name from the selected season, not the current/final name of the franchise -the league-history-(individual season)-standings screen should now use the nickname before name/always use nickname settings properly so e.g. CSKA Moscow isn't listed as "Moscow CSKA" -if a trainer is edited onto a team, when he's right-clicked the option to assign him to the trainer's positon (on the coaching screen) is no longer greyed out, even if the spot is open -the staff search screen seems no longer limits the number of staff that can be displayed -right-clicking on staff on the staff search screen now gives you the same options available in the staff screen action button for them -fixed playoff dividing line in the EBEL league standings screen -reversed order of the Qualifikationsrunde and Platzierungsrunde on the EBEL autoplay screen so the higher level is on the left -clicking the player names on the Hall of Fame screen will now open the player profile -corrected issue causing the world ranking to begin with no #50 and 51 team, skipping from 49 to 52 -players who have signed an extension to this season's contract now have a "*" appear in the Length column of the roster/contracts screen (e.g. "1 years(s)*") -split the "not enough players in lineup" popup warning into "not enough skaters in lineup" and "not enough goalies in lineup" so it's a little clearer where the problem is Bugfixes -fixed reloading issue that was causing storylines to cancel the timer on the minimum delay before repeating a storyline, leading to excessive use of some stories -in multiplayer games, one GM checking or unchecking "Use Goalie Start Settings" no longer checks or unchecks it for all GMs once the files are merged -the "Compensation" field for staff salaries that tracks money paid to fired staff (as shown e.g. in the team staff screen's Staff Finances box at the upper right) will now reset to 0 every July 1 -players added via Import Historical Player should now have their languages set correctly -players added via Import Historical Player will no longer have have unusual favourite/disliked teams -the Add Hist Team option should now assign the correct team colours for the chosen season -teams added via Add Hist Team will no longer occasionally start with retired numbers -fixed potential crash in historical games with edited league structures -fixed issue that could cause game data files to expand to unworkable levels if multiple saves were reloaded many times without ever closing the game -fixed Czech relegation issue that could cause the team relegated from the Tipsport Extraliga to immediately get relegated a second time out of the Chance Liga -when a team is promoted in some leagues, it will no longer swap arenas with the relegated team -fixed potential July 1 crash in multiplayer custom leagues -Quebec 75-76 and Minnesota 80-81 historical challenges no longer force you to start unemployed -fixed Cleveland 76-77 and Colorado 79-80 challenges not being rewarded correctly -Detroit 83-84 historical challenge will now be awarded as soon as 3rd Stanley Cup is won -traded CHL import draft picks should now assign player rights properly, rather than giving them to the pick's original owner -fixed potential crash when shopping some players -the 1922-23 NHL final no longer plays a third game (it's supposed to be 2-game, total goals) -RFA filter on the free agent centre now works properly (previously the screen only showed UFA's, even if the filter was changed) -fixed an issue with KHL baseline salary levels where a typo had set one level much too high -players who played in early KHL seasons should no longer have their playoff stats shown with "EIHL" as the league -the "hired a living legend head coach" fan happiness increase (+10) no longer happens when non-Living Legends are hired -also fixed a variety of smaller typos/text/data issues