The fourth update for FHM8, version 8.5.81, has just been released. This is our second "content" update for FHM8, adding new features in addition to fixing problems. We've added the first new playable league in a couple of years, the Australian Ice Hockey League; we've been a little hesitant to add new ones, mainly out of concern for slowing the standard game down, but the AIHL is a small league with a very straightforward format amd won't slow things down noticeably. Australians have also long been the largest segment of the FHM player base whose local league wasn't playable, so they were past due for getting their own teams. We've also made the new player cards completely moddable, so if you want to create a separate card for each historical season (or even future seasons), that's now possible. Unfortunately, the system to add line changes to the 2D in-game decisions ran into some more problems, particularly with game stability, and we're going to need more time to get it implemented properly and safely, so that'll have to be left to the next update. But in its place, we added full shootout coverage to the highlights modes and did some work on the goal/penalty popups, adding the long-requested season totals after the goal and assist announcements as well as adding referee icons to penalties which had none. And we've done a larger database update this time, rosters are now up-to-date as of December 15. We're planning two more large updates at this point; the last one will be after the NHL trading deadline in February, but we don't have a definite date for the one prior to that yet - we've been a little pressed for time on the first couple of content updates, so we'd like to take some extra time with the next one so we can finally get that line change feature in, as well as some other things that will require longer-term testing. Your existing savegames will be compatible with the updated game, but any fixes involving the database updates in the update will require a new start to be fully effective, and some of the update's fixes may not retroactively correct certain problems in existing saves. 2D Changes: -the in-game "Goal" popup now shows the preseason/season/playoff (whichever applies) totals after the names of players getting the goal and assists (we're going to be doing additional work on the popups to get them showing all penalties in multi-penalty situations, but that's going to require some recoding of their basic mechanics, so it wasn't ready in time for this update) -shootouts are now shown in highlights and all-goals modes -fixed potential crash when a highlight occurred in the first few seconds of the game -national anthem .wavs will now work if placed in \sounds\anthems - there's no time limit, so it'll play the entire file; file must be a .wav named in the format country name_anthem.wav, e.g. canada_anthem.wav or the united states_anthem.wav (note the use of spacing/underscores in the latter) -added missing referee icons to the in-game Penalty popup for the penalties that didn't have one -on-ice player names now get left-justified if they're too long to fit, rather than getting centered so both ends get cut off -fixed issue causing the goal popup to occasionally not show all the assists on a goal -"Backchecking" in-game feedback popup should no longer be triggered in situations where the user's team is not outshooting their opponent by a significant amount -the clock now runs when a highlight is being played instead of freezing -highlights will now play at the selected view speed instead of always being at normal speed -modded player icons now have the year in the filename (e.g. "player_new_york_islanders_away_1972-1998.png") will now work properly Other Changes: -Australian Ice Hockey League is now playable (schedule and league events are all offset by about seven months backwards so the season won't overlap July 1 and the league is in sync with the rest of the world; the league itself has a simple format, 28 games with the four teams making a two-round playoff with single-game series. The AIHL hasn't played non-exhibition games since late 2019, so the rosters are a best guess at this point, basically the 2019 rosters minus players who've moved to other leagues or retired. Salaries and budgets are very low, and it'll be difficult to sign any significant foreign players (and the better Australian players may not be interested, either.) Note that there is a foreigner player limit, but it does not apply to New Zealanders, who are counted as local players. -hockey card customization enabled (I'll be posting instructions for this in the mod forum); also added about 20 new fonts that can be used to make modded cards -database updated as of December 15 -added a new function to AI roster management of draft picks to fix the cases where teams weren't signing prospects at appropriate times, e.g. leaving high picks unsigned until their junior careers ended; between this change and the fix to signing deadlines mentioned below, teams in leagues with drafts are now much more efficient at signing their young prospects -in a custom game, if you use commissioner mode to take over a team between the end of the season and June 30, when you reach June 30 the end-of-season popup will no longer fail to show a season score and then crash -fixed potential crash if you stop on June 30 of the first season of a a historical game and then attempt to continue -adjusted annual team budget mechanics so the cheapest options always allow a budgeted amount over the cap floor in leagues with caps -lowered the budget increases provided by the top options in the annual finances budget setting -increased team regional bias when signing free agents (e.g. non-Russian KHL teams will no longer load up on North American free agents in preference to local players) -lowered starting ability of newly-generated (July 1) players in custom games -made the AI a little more reluctant to make waiver claims -the QMJHL schedule will no longer fail to generate if the user has changed the league structure by moving teams between divisions -lowered trade value of players in the period between the end of the playoffs and June 30 in the last season of their contract -adjusted trade AI in junior leagues to make more use of draft picks -when a player is released from junior (WHL/QMJHL/OHL) teams, his league rights will only become Free in all 3 leagues if he is over age 18, otherwise they'll remain on None for his non-local leagues (there were too many cases of young players changing leagues after being released, when this normally happens only with older players) -the bonus shown on the training screen (the number in parentheses) now includes its adjustment (if any) by the Player Development selection in Annual Finances -in multiplayer leagues, human GM's are no longer able to edit the suspension and injury data -the annual finances scouting support bonus is now applied correctly on the team scouting screen (it'll be impossible to raise a team's scouting above 15 in a region without a bonus) -the "16 Teams, 8 Per Conf (NHL 1999-2013)" playoff system now works correctly in leagues that don't use the same divisional setup as the NHL had at that point -updated presets file to make Ben Bishop's injury permanent) -increased trade frequency in OHL -adjusted starting fan happiness levels for several NHL teams -WHL US Import Draft should now work properly -adjusted junior preference so more US and Canadian players prefer college (college rosters still tend to be a little too thin after several seasons, going to need to do some more work in this area) -fixed issue with some NHL signing deadlines being calculated incorrectly -reworked movement of young players in nonplayable leagues in Russia, South Korea, China, Israel, and Australia to prevent dead-ending of careers of players who should continue playing into adulthood -Hall of Fame nominees will eventually stop being nominated after repeated failed nominations so there aren't e.g. 110-year-old nominees -the cost of the 2-week buyout option used by some leagues is now calculated correctly (had been charging the teams the full buyout amount, rather than two weeks' salary) -the NHL awards ceremony in a standard game will now occur no later than June 29, to prevent a conflict with the manager end-of-season points screen -international teams now get their lines cleared after a tournament, to prevent potential crashes from user-run teams using outdated line sets that include players no longer on the roster -teams should no longer be mentioned as having both one of the best and the worst drafts in the draft review news story -boxscores will no longer miscount power play totals by adding 1 to each team for every minor penalty, including coincidentals (the actual team stats were always counting it correctly, it was just appearing wrong in the boxscore)