New NHL EHM game first impressions
 

Hi,

As you are hopefully aware the North American release of NHL EHM has now occurred (details at sigames.com as per usual) - I was wondering what peoples first impressions of it were ... presuming you've given it a go.

Thanks,

Marc

how is the interface? I guess that's the one thing that has kept me from buying. I was a huge fan of the original because of it's simplistic UI, I feel overwhelmed when trying to get into the SI EHM (last year's and this year's).

It took me a few minutes to find the download and information on buying. And the link off the News item to the EHM page is broken. Might want to make the link to the download-and-buy option more prominent.

WARNING!!!

It may take a few minutes for the game to start after the patch! Be patient, and if all else fails, check Task Manager to ensure the exe is still running! HEART ATTACK TIME!

I'm going try to have some patience and wait untill I get some feedback before patching, maybe even wait untill the next patch of the patch. It is such a time-eater that I don't want to get sucked in unless I'm sure there aren't show-stoppers left.

I just downloaded the patch. I haven't installed yet. I probably wont have time to play it until the weeked at the very earliest. I will report back once I do.

Kinda odd, it didn't do that for me when I did a fresh reinstall with the patch yesterday. Your hard drive need defragging?

Pretty quiet on the bug reporting front so far, so I think we're OK in that department. But you may want to wait for the final October update to get the improved rosters - the current ones are pre-training camp, so there'll be a ton of changes. And we're always fixing and adding things to the data in addition to the player moves.

so the digital download on the site, the try and buy one, is the new game?

The new version of the try-and-buy install won't be up until sometime tomorrow, so if you get it today you'll need to download the patch for it as well.

ill wait and get it tomorrow then...cool thanks.

I didn't do a fresh install, so perhaps there is a difference there.
To add to my findings, when I tried to start the game the first time, my computer sounded the critical failure beep and the game did not launch. Task Manager told me the exe was running, but nothing was happening. I figured I should reboot, but I could not shut down. Unfortunately, I'd already stated the shutdown process, so I couldn't get into task manager to stop the exe.

Hard shut down and restart, and I started the game. Nothing.
I decided to walk away from the computer and watch the weather. By the time I got back, I saw the splash screen so all was well!

I was able to upgrade,WED Sept. 28, (try and buy version) with out any problems. At least I assume it is the newest version. It has the new NHL logo and Crosby with the Penguins. I haven't started a dynasty yet so I have no idea what will happen at the six month mark.

Just so you know Marc, the game was mentioned on the video game news radio podcast on sunday. they had a little fun with the game's name. About 20 minutes into the show I think.

The Flyers, don't have Nitti as the backup goalie, they have a generic goalie, and that goalie's name changes every time I opt back into the roster.

Go to unsigned prospects Qwik, you'll probably find him there

i hope i can find it in the US stores this weekend.

last year version was so hard to find in the states.

I thought you could just download it?

I was planning on downloading/buying the new version, post patch this weekend?

Niittymaki's on their AHL affiliate's roster, just call him up. Probably one of the guys that had to be switched back to his previous team because of licensing restrictions. Most of them should be in the 'right' place in the next (and final) update.

yep you can download it.


but if its going to be in the US stores, then i rather buy it from the store.

You can do either, but if somebody wants a boxed version it should be in North American stores this weekend.

one thing i've noticed a few games into the season: make sure you have a solid #1 goaltender. I see the goalies exposed a lot more on breakaways and rebounds and the like. Currently playing with default tactics as the Bruins, havn't encountered and difficulty yet, undefeated but only 3 games into the season. hoping to have a year down by the time i go to bed.

Have the patch installed, but my game's packed. Damn her!!

In case anyone has trouble locating it in America or Canada:

IMEA = UPC in the US and this code is 010086851540

If you give this to a store then they should be able to type it into their computer systems and locate the game.

I'd be interested in hearing more peoples' impressions, especially on the interface.

can't wait to see what happens over the next 20 seasons

So far my Flyers are looking very good in the preseason.

Signed a couple young wingers to min contracts

I was curious and punched that code in the amazon.com search box and it returned NHL EHM 2005 all right, so it seems it is working.

One odd thing Marc, they say it's not yet released and that it will be released on October 27, 2005. Maybe one of your (or SEGA's) guys could ring 'em and wake 'em up... Just saying...

FM

The listing for EHM 2005 on Gamestop.com lists the release date as 10/3/05.

As soon as I get moved in, this puppy will get a workout from me. I'm also waiting on the data patch as well.

Excellent.

Trades happen pretty fast, I couldn't get a word in when some GM would put a player on the market, he'd be traded before I could even make a bid.

New patch is a big improvement.

My plan was to play it last night, but I installed the patch and saw that I couldn't continue from my old game so I decided to play a little FM2006 beta and start a new career after dinner...

Ended up not eating dinner and playing FM2006 beta until midnight...:D

One bug that has been reported and think is one that was around before is "Most of my icing calls are not icing, but just players dumping the puck to the boards. "

This was reproted on the SI board for awhile but they haven't addressed it. I also, heard there are offsides being uncorrectly called. This one reltaes to the new rules.

Looks like the bug with the fictional name generator hasn't been addressed.

Although I appreciate all the work that must have gone into getting the rosters correct, I like to play sports sims with fictional players. With the fictional name generator borked, I'm still on the fence with this purchase.

What is the fictional name generator bug?

Marc,

Could you clear some of your PM's? I have a question for you.

When you play a game with fictional players, the game generates boatloads of players with identical names, far too many players with the same last name, and far too many players with the same first name. I'd say a quarter to a third of the players have someone with exactly the same name, and in lots of cases there are large groups of players with identical names. Makes it nearly impossible to keep track of who is who.

Below is a screenie to show what I mean. Taken from a game with the North American and Canadian leagues only (7 leagues?). This is only one screen, but there were over six screens with players whose last name is Adams (over 120 players in all).



Even if I look at only the NHL players, for example, I've got four guys named Bob Cudmore currently on NHL teams. And there are 15 NHL players with a last name of Franks. These are only a couple of the oodles of examples. You would expect some similarity, of course, but the amount that currently occurs is over the top.

Damnit. That was worked on, and I remember checking and seeing that the frequency of repeated names was reasonable, so I don't know why in hell it's doing that now. I'll let Graeme know it's screwed up again.

YES! SUSPENSIONS OF MORE THEN ONE GAME!!!

Hordichuk got 26 GAMES FOR SHOVING A REF!

I LOVE IT!

So far so good. I've only played a couple games into the season though. And just to brag a little I was able to trade for Sidney Crosby with the Canucks. In the pre-season I was able to acquire Philly's and Buffalo's number one picks. With a couple days before the start of the season I traded them both along with Trevor Linden for Crosby. :D

2 number ones and Linden for Crosby?

Sheesh. :rolleyes:

A bit unrealistic, but I still thought I had pulled off some sort of coup with that deal. Then if you look at the SI site it looks like its too easy to get top prospects.

Then bragging about it might be seen as a bit on the silly side.

is this downloadable yet? with the latest patch already in it....and the latest rosters?

For some reason, the player search screen has slowed down considerably. Once I click on a player, it takes several seconds (~5-10) to exit his profile.

I've also noticed that top prospects (i.e., first rounders) will sign a three-year deal for $450k/yr. They should be pushing for the rookie max.

Yes, should be ...

I can't get mine to work. I had a computer crash that made me reboot my whole system, but now the trymedia thing is saying it can't find my purchase. If I send for my code, they send me a reciept showing I bought it, but it won't activate the game.

BTW, is it true you only get to use the code 5 times?! If that is correct, people need to be told before the purchase. That is stupid. I bought this game, and I should be able to reload it as many times as I want. I hate buying this online license crap.

found out my gamestop willhave it on Tues...ill buy the hardcopy. thanks though

My local EB's may have it on Tuesday. Looks like I'll be gfetting the hard copy. I really thought about getting it through DL but didnt like the online license thing.

If you're registered on the SI boards, post that in the "How to Purchase" thread in the main EHM forum and Marc Duffy, who deals with Trymedia, can check into it. I'm sure Marc V. will let him know when he sees this, but Duffy's been online at odd hours the last few days (probably still jetlagged from the trip over here last week) and he might catch it a little earlier that way.

I don't.

For those that Dl'ed the update:On average How many SOG per game did you have pre update and now? Just wondering. thanks.

Godzilla Blitz - what database settings are you using(game preferenes/database size)? Is this happening with every game with random names that you create? I can never seem to repeat it when I try here.

Contract negotiations seem a bit, well...off. Playing as the Bruins GM the first year, and I finished up losing in the Eastern Finals (had a nice playoff run as the 6th seed). I decided at that point to try some negotiations with some of my upcoming UFAs, mainly Samsanov. I believe he was making 2.8MM in the final year of the deal, so I started at that number, for 3 more seasons. He wouldn't have anything to do with me. I tried 3.0MM and later 3.2MM, also for 3 seasons. He never even wanted to listen.
The last offer (the 3.2MM one) was turned down 2 days before the game updates itself the end of June. On July 1st, as a UFA, he was willing to take 2.0MM for 3 years. I wonder what his agent told him in those 2 days? It wasn't like he hated me or anything, in fact he thought I was a fairly competent GM. shurg...

I don't have the game in front of me, but I have noticed that computer controled teams are a bit too easy and willing to trade away some top talent, and that's to other CPU teams. Also, at the trade deadline I've seen teams listed as 8th or 9th in the conference deal some big names to teams below them for prospects/picks. I'm sure those are financial-driven deals, but it still seems a tad weird.

Hi Graeme,

Interestingly enough, I can't get it not to happen. Here's more info, in case it helps. I'd be happy to email you a saved game file or two as well, if that would help. Let me know.

This happened with the version I downloaded a month or so ago in the two times I started a league. After uninstalling that version, I downloaded the full game (v2.1.1) again off your SI Games site last week (in other words, I didn't patch up to 2.1.1). I started two more games today to double check to see if the name issue happens consistently, and in all three attempts with version 2.1.1 the same thing happens as did with the previous version. I am using the unpurchased version, in case that matters.

Details...

Game Setup
Leagues
All North American and Canadian leagues:
NHL, AHL, ECHL, All-American League 3, All-American League 4, CHL.

No other leagues.

All the above leagues set at "enhanced".

Real Players: unchecked.
Mask Attributes: unchecked or checked. Doesn't matter.

The game options screen I never saw, so the database is at normal size, and all other options are at their defaults as well.

When I start a new game, I'm defaulted as an American, which I leave as is, then I select an NHL team.

Right after the game starts, I click on scouting, player search, and start looking through the database of players. There are about 18,000 players in view at that point, and such screens as I posted above occur repeatedly. One or two screens may only have a few identical names on them, but large clusters of identical last names are immediately apparent. Before you get to your tenth screen you'll see large clusters of players with identical full names. Almost seems as if the code gets stuck on a subset of last/first names and then only generates names within that subset.

Also, I generated one game with real names using the previous version, and in that game it struck me that the fictional players generated were perhaps suffering from the same problem. This of course would be clear after letting the game run for ten years or so, and is difficult to see at the beginning of a game with real player names because the number of fictional players in such a game is small at the game start.

Again, I'd be happy to send you a saved game file if that helps, and good luck tracking this down. The game looks pretty exciting.

So, I emailed support from the Trymedia people and have recieved no response. I just can't seem to win for losing in buying SI games. Last year I was determined to wait for WSM to be released and buy it at a store (hoping to increase your sales in the states) and ended up having to order it on line anyway because no stores even knew it existed. So for this, I decided to just go ahead and buy the online version, and now I can't play it.

Please email me marc.duffy @ sigames.com with your order number and the email address you provided at the time. I will look into this for you. Details of the number of activations allowed is available under the terms of service online.

oh, we have an official SI sighting here.... Please welcome mister Marc Duffy to FOFC :D

Seriously, welcome aboard :)

FM

What ? Me and MV no longer count ? :D

awww Riz, you've been here forever it seems. Look at you all grown up with 220 posts ;) :p

I just wanted to point out his first post ever, and the fact that he signed up today :)

FM

Some more thoughts on my continuing game as Boston...

It's now December 2007, and some interesting happenings in Pittsburgh. After being used as the backup to Thibault for 2 seasons, and going 25-4-1 in 06-07, Marc-Andre Fleury had to feel pretty confident that the starting job was his going into 07-08 since Thibault was signed away by LA. Well, I guess the Pittsburgh brass thought otherwise. They brought in Conklin, who is 11-11-3 so far, and is backed up by Billy Thompson (who is listed as the 5th!! best net-minder on the team report screen). Where is M-A? Down in Wilkes-Barre. Probably as a result, Pittsburgh has gone from a 63 win season to the .500 team this season. Odd...Seems the AI values goalies so much that they don't want to risk exposing them to waivers? Why else pay M-A 1.3MM to play in the AHL?

Also, Crosby is STILL in Rimouski, after scoring 95 goals in 06-07 and having 56 goals thru 35 games this season. It's his last year of eligibility. I have no idea if Pittsburgh has tried to bring him on board or not, but I thought it odd that he's being left in the Q.

Maybe I should put this on the shelf for a few weeks, or try out a lower level game? How tough is it in Russia, anyway?!? :)

Sent the info. Thanks for any help. I do find it humorous that you think people actually read the "terms of service." :) I think limiting the number of installs is a very bad practice, and will guarentee I'll never buy anything from Trymedia again.

that doesnt sound good. Is this after the patch? I was going to rush out to buy this today but that certainly doesnt make the realism sound, wel, realistic.

Yes, completely post-patch, v2.1.1. At least I hope I've got the latest version.

I really want to love this game, trust me. I'm sure they'll get it right after the next patch, but I was so looking forward to leading my Bruins back to Cup glory this week. Guess it will have to wait.

i just ranup to gamestop since "yeah, our delivery is in." but the UPS or DHL guy didnt drop that particular game off. Perhaps its further back in his truck so now its a wait til tomorrow :( eventhough the AI patches should be comin'

Anyone else seen it at gamestop, frys or eb?

Nope. As the Gamestop put it, "We only carry titles people have heard of." :(

its been so frustrated to find this game in the us store so far.


and no way i going to get trymedia. that silly of there limit on the # installs you can do..


they should have two licenses like vtech and which you can unlicense it when you do a clean install of your system.

I haven't seen anything like this in my game. Both of those guys are playing in the NHL, with Crosby scoring 113 points in 06-07 for the Pens.

I'll wait until the 10th, and if its not here I'll just forget it and get Call of Duty. :(

That's an across the counter moment. Fuggin' retail bitterness.

And I didn't even try asking the people at Fry's. A clerk there today couldn't tell the difference between the iPod Shuffle and the iPod Nano. If I can't find it on the shelf, then I doubt that anybody else there could.

Actually, my wife had a nice customer service experience at Office Depot.
Got a new printer this weekend, but they don't include USB cables in the box, and I wasn't going to pay $30 at Best Buy for gold connectors.

So it sat on the floor for a couple of days as i didn't have time to go get the cable. Turns out my wife had time, so I gave her the picture from the box, the printer specs, and even the caveat "If you aren't sure, don't buy."

She goes into Office Depot armed with all of this knowledge. She shows the salesman the picture, and he asks if it's an old printer. I didn't notice at the time but the picture looks like very old USB or even parallel cable!!!
So he goes around the floor with her, finds the exact printer, gives her the CORRECT cable, and she comes home. I look at the cable, sigh, tell her it's wrong, then she tells me the story of the nice sales guy at Office Depot.

Hooray for people who give a shit about their jobs!

I ended up buying it off gamestop.com and overnighting it. too frustrated to continually call them to find out they dont carry it in stores.

Hey guys from SI:

I can't post on the forums there because my email is banned?! I post there about one every 2 years so I don't know why that is.

Anyway, I am trying to get my post patch game to launch on my G5. I have played it on the mac before the patch but now it just attempts to go to a lesser resolution and cancels the process. I tried re-installing and trying again but it doesn't help.

Are there other people reporting this for macs? The game loads fine on my PC, but 'the squaw' has found my Sims 2 and has overtaken the pc.

Thanks.

Imac G5 1.8 20"
1GB Ram
Tiger OS (latest patch)

Quick Q: Is there any update out that edits the names of guys like Phil Kessel, Jimmy Howard, etc?

Getting towards the end of my first season with the Wild... some first impressions.

Ovechkin went completely unsigned all year, I was able to trade for his rights for two number 2 picks and AJ Thelen (five star D prospect) and he'll be with the Wild at the start of next year. Pretty strange the Caps hadn't signed him before as he's clearly NHL ready.
Crosby however has been with the Pens all year and has cleaned out the rookie of the month awards all year.

Seems to be a bug/issue with enforcers. I was getting 3-4 news items a week for the month before the trade deadline that teams wanted to trade for Matt Johnson and Rob Ray (who is completely past it and playing with the Senators ECHL affiliate) I don't know what the issue is - bug with teams evaluations, news items bug or just general wierdness in my game. It doesn't make sense because there are better enforcers than those two in FA and getting waived every week. Especially Ray, he is completely washed up. Johnson eventually was traded from Montreal to Nashville for a player and a fifth round pick.
I've also seen a couple of trades whereby average enforcers have moved teams for a second or third round pick that just made me think WTF?

Seems to be (again might just be my game being wierd) that marginal backup goaltenders bounce around teams way too much. JS Aubin is on his fourth team (think waived and picked up three times and traded once) Garth Snow is on his third.

Other than that... outstanding game. Immersion is great, I love scouting for the draft and trawling the European leagues for marginal prospects or backups that might be able to contribute to my team.

Has anynes seen this game on an American store yet?

Nope. i am in los angeles too.

Reminds me of the distribution for WWSM 2005 last december. Looks like its another cluster for SEGA. :mad:

Don't tell the Ducks & Todd Fedoruk this.:D

The nearest Gamestop to me is in Mankato, Minnesota. Doing a search from the
GameStop site shows they don't have any on hand but it is on the way. There is a second Mankato GS that doesn't show it coming to the store and 5 or 6 stores within a 100 miles and none of those show it coming to their store.

According to what I've read on the SI site you are more likely to find the game in a store that is located in "hockey hot beds".

dola

For those that have the boxed version of the game does it come with a printed manual?

If so how good is it?

Does it give good explanations of free agency, waivers, and youth hockey?

While I have a pretty good understanding of the game itself I have virtually no understanding of now the "minor leagues" work in hockey. If the manual gives good info regarding this it would go a long way in getting me to buy the game.
Not to mention it would give me something to read while I'm on the throne :)

Does the game track head coaching records on their "pages/cards" in this version?

if you download the trial and buy. it comes with a manual and it will be the same one printed marc said before.

Good point :cool:

At least Fedoruk is not old and can actually skate

Another one if Marc or Riz are reading this... I seem to get an insane amount of repeated offers for players. Two examples:

a) for at least two months I got the same offer every week for Brian Rolston from maybe three or four teams - can't remember who off the top of my head. Every time it was a second round pick in 2006, 2007 and 2008. It seemed to be completely non-negotiable (no way I could change any of the picks, or swap a pick for a player - it would get rejected right away). In the end I must have rejected each team at least 5 times and they would come right back the next week with the same offer. Non-negotiable. It drove me insane because I'm looking to restock, but I couldn't get the deal to where i wanted it. And the teams still came back to me the next week with the exact same offer I told them to stick last week :mad:

b) I have all the prospects my scouts recommend on shortlist. One guy, Zach Hamill from Everett seemed to be the subject of a crazy amount of trade offers and of course I saw them all as he was on my shortlist. Every week without fail every single team in the OHL (?) would offer for him. I'm not kidding - something crazy like three out of every ten news items of mine is about him. Each team had a deal they would offer every week - I don't think they changed. And every time it would be rejected. I figured - maybe he's available but they are holding out for a great offer? Nope, checked and he is not on the trade block and his GM has never said that he will consider offers for him.

Anyway, that was a long winded way of saying that (in some cases at least) the AI never seems to remember that you rejected an offer or the particulars of an offer that gets rejected, and never seems to be willing to sweeten the deal. One of the great things about FM, that you can haggle a bit over transfer deals, seems to be missing in EHM right now.

On the "Bio" tab for any staff that have been a head coach anywhere, it says their overall record. Example on Ken Hitchcock's card:

Coaching Record
Hitchcock's current coaching record stands at: 39-34-9.

This has been a problem in NHL EHM for a while now...

When you go and inquire about a player and the team comes back with an offer, then you make some adjustments... they consistently come back 3-4 times with the exact offer they originally made. If that's the ONLY offer they're willing to accept, it would be nice if they would say that up front...

Tracking down all the past offers which have been for a specific player or to a specific team would eat up resources quite quickly. The reason why teams come back with similar or the same offers again and again, is because the trades aren't just setup with a function that randomly adds players/picks to the trade. The function to setup a trade goes through the team needs and tries to find the best players on the other team that match those needs. And because this follows a logical path with only some additional randomizing, the same offers will come up from time to time.

For the next version, I've already got it on my list to make the trade negotiations more flexible, with users able to lock objects (players, rights or picks) into the offers, so the other team will keep those items in when negotiating, rather then swapping them for something else instead. If you guys have any other ideas on how to further improve trading, now's the time, I'm all ears :)

You have to remember that haggling over money is a LOT easier than haggling over players, player rights and draft picks. When using just money, sweetening the deal means just increasing one number. When talking about trades, you'll have to either add picks, players or prospects to the trade (and maybe to balance it out, on both sides) or swap the components (players, picks or prospects) already included in the offer.

The AI does seem a bit whacky. For example I offered Tyler Wright to the Kings for a 2nd round pick. They declined the offer then counter offered a 2nd round and 4th round pick for him. I guess they must have thought they would be taking advantage of me with my first offer?! Anyway, I accepted the offer and then I get a new item saying that the fans were excited that I made such a great deal. I'm a genius!

The "waiver dump" that occurs the first season is pretty annoying too. Basically because there is no waiver draft anymore, everyone and their brother come up on waivers as tehy are sent to a minor league team and you get like 100 news messages.

Also a small bug when, in midseason, you offer one of your scouts a new contract as an assistant coach. It forces you to terminate one of your existing coaches because you don't have enough room. Then the scout signs the new contract as an assistant coach and he doesn't show up on your practice screen, which leads me to believe that he won't be available until the next season. My feeling is that he should change jobs as soon as he signs the assistant coach contract.

Well, there is no real life waiver draft anymore and tons of players were waived in the last few days in real life as well...It's just that in real life you don't get every single waiver notifications in the newspapers etc.

Is there anyway to sort/search thru all those waived players? I haven't been able to find any way to do it yet, and I'd really like to be able to find that 4th line guy that could help my team out without having to click my way thru 4 dozen guys.

Crosby was finally signed by Pittsburgh in my game, and he's leading the league in scoring thru the first 2 months.

Full waiver list is available in the "World" menu. Just underneath the drafts and rankings.

I found a copy 400 miles away in Phoenix. I'll be driving down there right now. ;)

Right, I found that. But is there a search function off of that list? All I see is a button for 'Enter Claim'.
Thanks

That sounds like a great idea Riz. That would certainly address the non-negotiable part (this is what I must have in return, otherwise get lost) but I still think you need something that stops a silly number of repeated offers for a player.

Throwing something out there... I assume money works on a value system like in FM (I reject an offer of £400k for a player and ask for £800k - the player's asking price goes up to £800k) Why couldn't there be an asking price for each player that the game keeps track of - e.g. in my Rolston example all I wanted was a first round pick and a third so you could put that as his "asking price" and then teams know not to come in with an offer too far below that. You would have to put a value to players obviously but would that be too hard - surely the AI already values players for trades.

If I then changed my mind and said I now wanted two first round picks for Rolston, his asking price would go up again.

In fact, why not go the whole distance and allow the user to manually set an asking price for any of his players, akin to the team needs screen. E.g for Brian Rolston I want a first round pick and a depth winger and won't consider any offers dramatically below that. AI could still come in with offers marginally below that or to the same value (e.g. two second rounders and a depth winger, a second rounder and a starting winger etc...)

Interesting ideas, you don't mind if I steal these for my wishlist now do you ? ;)

The AI teams do naturally figure a player or a pick down to a numerical value, but to get there, it has to take into account a lot of various things. It would be quite easy to track the "values" of rejected offers for Bill Guerin alone, but whatabout if someone offered you a certain deal for Guerin and Kapanen ? The package offered for those two could not be compared to the offers for Guerin alone. But I'll give it to you that there might be something behind this :)

The main problem with defining a "depth winger" as one requirement in making the trade, is that each team has their own opinion on what counts as a depth winger, and it also depends on the team in question. One team's depth winger is another team's core winger. Add to that the fact that a humans value their players and especially players on other teams in quite a different way than the AI. AI might see a decent prospect in something that looks like a never-will-be to the human, just because every team has their own opinions on players.

I'm not sure if this is on the official list, but one of my wishes is to have more ability to praise/criticize a player/the team both privately and publically. I'm guessing something similar is available in FM?

Me too.