The first full post-release update for FHM7, version 7.2.105, 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. The change list for this update was somewhat limited by the timeframe involved; for the most part, the changes are things that could be dealt with and tested in a few days, while leaving a couple of days' safety margin before Christmas to deal with any serious, unanticipated issues that might arise. We did manage to take care of quite a few things, though, so we should be in good shape post-holiday to continue fixing outstanding issues, adding new things to the 2D engine, and begin adding new content to the game. Speaking of which, now that the NHL has announced the format and dates for the upcoming season, we'll start moving ahead with our plans for the "realistic" starting option for 2020-21 season, with the shorter schedules, realignments, and so on. We're hoping to have this ready around the time of opening night, give or take a few days. We should be able to implement most of what the NHL has announced, although we'll probably need to move some dates to match our July 1 season start - with the Stanley Cup scheduled for mid-July, we may just wind up having the in-game start about a month earlier to make everything fit. Some of the reported roster rules, like requiring the teams to carry 3 goalies, may also need to be adjusted to keep the roster AI from behaving oddly. [b] 2D Engine Changes:[/b] -modding the 2D rink for individual teams is now possible: the modded image should have the format rink_team_name.png (e.g. rink_vancouver_canucks.png) and be placed in the \graphics\rink_pics folder of a quickstart or individual save. The image needs to match playfield_0.png precisely in terms of dimensions (2880 x 1344) and the location of on-ice markings, or you'll see players doing things like skating off the ice, apparent offsides not being called, etc. -fixed the bug that would show the same player being named on every penalty called after an injury occurred -after switching goalies manually, the original goalie's icon will no longer remain on the ice -added play-by-play text during shootouts - we're having some issues with the shootout animation at the moment, which will take a little longer to resolve, but right now if you click the Quick button during the shootout it'll advance through each shot, showing you the play-by-play of what happened, and the shootout score will be displayed on the scoreboard -fixed incidence of brief flickering of players near centre ice when they leave the ice on a line change during play -slightly slowed players' speed when moving to the bench during line changes -made the colour of the clock-related numbers (period, clock, penalty clock) slightly different than the score numbers -fewer players will now get ejected from faceoffs -raised overall player speed slightly -the fatigue requirement for lines to get changed before a faceoff was dropped a bit, so there should be more pre-faceoff line changes -increased speed of dump-ins -slightly increased fighting/roughing frequency -increased frequency of icings, offsides, pucks leaving the ice, and dump-ins -made players less likely to make risky passes on their own side of the ice and in their defensive zone in particular -several adjustments to pass targeting and the default behaviour of some tactical roles, which were leading to excessive shots for some players [b]Other Changes:[/b] -the game will now ignore Windows display scaling settings and show FHM in normal size, regardless of what screen scaling Windows is using -the extra delay on the player popups is gone -fixed potential crash in late June -fixed draft crash in custom leagues with only 2 teams -corrected broken trading deadline in 20-21 for Liiga and National League in standard games -fixed crash when trying to sign free agents as a German team -fixed error in 2010 Olympics that could place a team in multiple places, leading to a crash -fixed potential crash while simming games with classic engine -fixed Steam Workshop popup being transparent, making it difficult to read -scouting for WHL/OHL/QMJHL teams should now properly cover prospects for those leagues -assitant-run scouting for human teams should choose its top regional priority correctly now -added a dropdown filter to league-scouting-hire scouts, with the 5 Scouting Coverage maps as options (they filter the list to scouts from that area) -in custom games, players in leagues that a major league doesn't draft from now have their rights set to free for that league, so they can be signed once they're the appropriate age, rather than not being able to go anywhere after their junior career ends -adjusted top goalie and MVP award calculations -fixed a bug in the MVP award nominations that would give a nomination to a player who wasn't in the top 3 -captain status will now be recorded in the player career stats for seasons after the game starts -added playoff versions of team stats.csv and boxscore csv's to the CSV export should be added, as should a playoff version of the boxscore csv's (or include them in the existing boxscore csv's) -the Goalie Positioning rating on the filter will now work properly, and the skater Positioning filter won't show goalies -the award ceremony should now appear properly occurring in saves imported from FHM6 -the AI in non-junior leagues will no longer put players on the trading block if their age is <21 (was lowering their trade value, which made it easier to steal good prospects from the AI teams) -fixed problem where "AI assign scouts" would place regional priorities from one map into another's list, or blank lines on the list -all NHL RFA's at the start of a new game should now be willing to negotiate with their teams, instead of behaving as it they had already broken off negotiations -using "Save As" in a historical random debut game will no longer fail to copy some random debut data, leading to extremely small draft classes -fixed issue with NHL awards ceremony in some historical seasons being before the nominations, leading to all awards being given to a default player -when starting a Custom Game with any of the NHL options, the team rivalry data no longer gets randomized -in a Custom Game with the NHL+AHL(+CHL) options, the AHL and CHL teams no longer have 2-5 copies of each staff member -changing the number of draft rounds in a historical game will no longer result in all non-expansion teams losing their draft picks for that season -fixed a couple of issues that were restricting NHL teams' ability to reduce cap total when in cap trouble, leading to odd moves (most commonly seen with Tampa Bay in standard games, their salary structure was a perfect fit for a situation that made them unable to reduce their cap hit via trades, leading to odd player movement and releases) -reduced excessive usage of the Perimeter Shooter tactical role -added options to the NHL options in custom games to use the initial draft for the NHL and play the NHL, etc. setups with fictional players -Awards Announcements no longer disappear after the first season in a custom NHL-only game -attempting to edit a non-active team (found via the team search) will no longer crash the game -small data update, a few errors fixed and some moves updated (NHL moves are as of December 20)