The final major update for FHM8, version 8.7.102, has just been released. This is our fourth and final "content" update for FHM8, adding new features in addition to fixing problems. It adds new historical challenges, more options for modding the player cards, a better way to import multiple historical players into a game, an updated database, and a number of other things. Additionally, we've made some changes to reflect the effects of sanctions on Russian and Belarus following the invasion of Ukraine. If there are any major problems with this update, we'll release a hotfix, but barring that we'll now be moving on to development of FHM9. Thanks again for your support of FHM8 this season and the FHM games over the years. Your existing savegames will be compatible with the updated game, but any fixes that involve database changes may require a new start to be fully effective, and some of the update's fixes may not retroactively correct certain problems in existing saves. [b]Changes/Additions:[/b] -updated database to final post-deadline version, also updated the world database with a few fixes. This updates the rosters to approximately the evening of the NHL trade deadline on March 21, although a few slightly later new NHL contracts were also added. -a new set of 6 historical challenges have been added; the theme is the effect of having a young superstar player; one per position (Orr, Potvin, Ovechkin, Lemieux, Iginla, Dryden) -the Importing Historical Player interface now allows the the importation of multiple players at once, getting around the long load time for adding individual players -added a few additional card modding options in the info.txt file: FULLNAME (uses the combined First Name + Last Name of the player, e.g. "John Smith", rather than having to use separate NAME and SURNAME, which makes it very difficult to put names horizontally on the same line), TEAMNAME (full team name, Name + Nickname, e.g. "Boston Bruins"), TEAM (just the team Name, e.g. "Boston"), TEAMNICK (just the team Nickname, e.g. "Bruins") -made arena construction a little easier by having the owner set aside some of his profit-taking amounts for future arena construction: there's a new number, "Funding From Owner" displayed on the line between Arena Name and Total Cost on the Annual Finances Screen. When calculating Total Cost for a new arena, the Funding From Owner amount is subtracted (to a minimum of 0 points.) If the owner takes any profits at the start of a new year, after the owner's profit-taking amount is calculated, there's a chance he'll add a portion of them to the "Funding from Owner" amount. If the owner dies/sells the team, the Funding From Owner amount may increase or decrease. -added a few new goal celebrations to 2D mode -when the user shops a player, any existing offers for that player (including from previous shopping attempts) are now automatically rejected. No more shopping guys a dozen times in 4 days and cherry-picking the best results - you shop him again, you lose the open offers -the draft lottery now functions in historical games from 1995 onwards - it uses an approximation of the 1995-2012 lottery system in all years [b]Russia/Belarus-related Changes[/b] This is just a best-guess at the ongoing impact the various sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine will have on the hockey world. Generally, there's a temporary removal of Russia and Belarus from most international play, followed by a return in three years. The domestic effects will be longer-term: the Russian and Belarusian leagues have had their financial situations degraded significantly (although probably not as badly as is going to happen in the KHL in the short-term - if we actually devalued their budgets to match the real drop in value of the ruble, it would make managing the teams next to impossible.) The post-21-22 destinations for Jokerit and Dinamo Riga -Jokerit and Dinamo Riga leave the KHL after thge 21-22 season. Jokerit moves to Liiga ; Liiga format remains the same, just with an extra teams. Dinamo moves to the Latvian league and becomes unplayable. Jokerit's financial situation was degraded a bit to match the rest of the Liiga teams, and the game's financial system should gradually pull them into line with the rest of the league (although they'll likely remain one of the wealthier teams in the league) -the VHL format and playoff system have been updated to the actual 21-22 format (removed the divisions, top 16 teams make the playoffs) -Russia and Belarus will not participate in the 21-22, 22-23 and 23-24 World Championship, World Junior Championship, and Div-IA Under 20 Championship. The tournaments will temporarily play with a smaller number of teams. They'll return to normal in 2024-25, with Russia and Belarus resuming play at the levels they were formerly in. -replaced Russia in the Carlson Hockey Games, with Latvia in the the Karjala Tournament, and with Austria and with Switzerland in the Beijer Hockey Games (except in the first year for tournaments that were played pre-invasion) -Channel One Cup is deactivated after the first season (it was played before the invasion this season) -replaced Russia U18 with Germany U18 in Hlinka-Gretzky Cup in 22-23 and 23-24; reverts to Russia U18 in 24-25 -removed Russia U18 and Belarus U18 from U18 World Championship in 22-23 and 23-24 (tournament will have 2 groups of 4 instead of 5); they return in 24-25 -remove pre-set international tournament hosting for Russia and Belarus -made some database changes to the financial situation of the Russian and Belarusian teams, lowered the KHL/VHL/BXL league qualities slightly, and and gave them much stronger preferences for local players -made minor downward adjustments to the lower end of NHL salary standards to reflect the loss of the KHL as a viable destination for fringe players [b]Fixes:[/b] -reworked some of the mechanics of storing scouting information in multiplayer leagues to prevent massive file sizes when a large number of human-controlled teams play for several years, which would eventually break the save -fixed issue that was overwriting multiplayer league ftp data when a multiplayer game was loaded after already having another save loaded in the game (i.e., without restarting game first) -in historical games, the AI will no longer ignore the Iron Curtain rule restriction on drafting players from some of the non-Russian/Czech/Slovak countries -the Iron Curtain rule is no longer being incorrectly applied in historical games started in years after it ends -if the user is controlling a European team and signs a junior-aged player whose CHL rights are owned by a WHL/OHL/QMJHL team, they no longer lose the option to send him to their own farm team and only have the option of sending him to the CHL team (which option should only exist for NHL teams, not any other league) -adjusted the Goalie stat-adjusted talent slightly, it was lowering the star ratings a little too much on average -in a custom game, if you're playing as an WHL/OHL/QMJHL team and send an overage player to the reserve list, you'll no longer be prevented from recalling him because the game tells you that you already have 3 overage players -if the AI accepts a trade and you use the "discuss" option to change the salary retained amount, the "Finalize Trade" option no longer remains active -fixed bug with the Goalie Start System in non-historical games, and increased weighting for the best goalie during playoffs and other big games -fixed issue resulting in excessive fitness reductions for goalies playing partial games -fixed issue preventing degradation of scouting levels beyond a certain point; the increased re-scouting of players will be visible in-game as more frequent shifts in the potential of players who still have a lot of development remaining -fixed potential issue with relegation from international tournaments whose size was temporarily reduced due to Russia/Belarus ban -the submit button no longer stops working when attempting to add several years to a player's contract demand -fixed issue when adding new leagues to a custom game that could leave the league's teams unable to sign free agents (this will also retroactively fix the problem in existing saves) -made some adjustments to the 2D match engine to lower the production of the top players in the league, particularly when more than one of them is on the same team -when starting a game from a quickstart, the GM and coach templates are no longer missing from the "Set Up Your Manager" screen -fixed issue with the in-game feedback system reporting that players are confused about their role when they shouldn't be -the AI will no longer occasionally switch goalies after a goal extremely late in the game -Belarusian Extraleague transfers should now work properly again -adjusted pre-season calculation of season goals (Win Championship, etc.) to prevent selection of very modest goals if team has been strong recently but has a weakened roster in the current year -adjusted trading restrictions on acquiring draft picks to also accept rights of players in return for the picks instead of just contracted players -the warning popup that appears when you try to dress another player while already at the limit now shows the correct number of players if the dressed limit isn't 20, instead of just saying "20" -the "Free Agency Preview" message will no longer include in its list of UFA's some RFA's who have already been qualified by their team -adjusted primary nationality-changing mechanics to make it more likely for players who have second nationalities in low-ranked nations (i.e., out of the top 20) to switch to that nationality for international play (as happened with the Chinese Olympic team this year) -raised the maximum length of contract that players in their early-mid 20's more willing to sign -fixed issue that was likely causing some captains to be replaced near the start of the season when they should have stayed captains -fixed potential crash during the June 30-July 1 changeover -exempted college teams from age range adjustments during quickstart creation (i.e., real college players with ages >22 will no longer get adjusted to the 18-22 range at the start of a new standard game) -corrected problem with the LNAH schedule that led to a team having to play two games in one day after the first season -fixed missing franchise start dates in historical mode -updated presets file, primarily for changed captains, but also adjusted a few of the long-term injuries -fixed some minor text issues