Alright boyz, here we go!!! Eastside Hockey Manager 2007 First Impressions Thread!

[scooter]

The official 3.0.4 patch is now out. Just click on the "Check for Updates" button in-game and it will take you to the website for download.

Thanks again to Riz and Graeme for continuing to work on this discontinued game on their own time.

[Critch]

How much is the game now? I can find the link for the try-and-buy trial download, but can't find any mention of how much it actually costs.

[MrIllini]

Originally Posted by Critch

How much is the game now? I can find the link for the try-and-buy trial download, but can't find any mention of how much it actually costs.

it's free if you're not Scottish...

oh, sorry

[Marc Duffy]

Originally Posted by Critch

How much is the game now? I can find the link for the try-and-buy trial download, but can't find any mention of how much it actually costs.

$34.99

www.elicense.com/sigames/store/

[MizzouRah]

Ok gents, how is this version post final patch?

[Karim]

SI has always been first class but a patch for a discontinued game goes beyond the call of duty.

[MizzouRah]

Anyone? Is this game getting playing time for anyone??

Considering it's the last iteration of the game, I'm still wanting to hear thoughts with the latest patch.

Thank you!

[Honolulu_Blue]

I haven't had time to play anything of late. I haven't installed the latest patch yet either. It's still too depressing to play this game knowing it's the last one...

[condors]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

I haven't had time to play anything of late. I haven't installed the latest patch yet either. It's still too depressing to play this game knowing it's the last one...

+1, it is a real downer

[scooter]

I'm still playing, but I play really slowly. I've installed the new patch, but I haven't advanced enough to see any difference. I've just spent the last couple of days getting ready for the draft before my third season.

I guess I'm just the opposite - knowing that it's the last one makes me want to play it more. Usually with SI's games, I play about a season and a half before the next version comes out. I invest a lot of time in my team and really enjoy it. But when the new version comes out, I can't go back to the old game (but I cant' bring myself to delete it either). Knowing that this is the last version means I can relax and enjoy the game knowing that I won't have to abandon my game in a few months.

[MizzouRah]

Thanks, please update this thread if you guys have any input later on.

Watching what the Blues are doing in RL really makes me want to purchase this game.

[JPhillips]

I haven't played enough with the new patch, but if it fixes the attribute decline it's well worth the purchase. EHM constantly delivers one more turn play for me.

If I could only see the same level of managerial brilliance in the real Washington Caps!

[Hurst2112]

I got a new jones to start another career. Any direct link to an unfaking patch to use with the latest patch? thanks

[Honolulu_Blue]

I don't think I mentioned this, but found it funny.

I was playing a career (pre the most recent patch) and did the fantasy draft for my team. I ended up with Branislav Mezei as my 5th or 6th defensemen. He's big and pretty tough, so on the tactics screen I meant to change his "fighting" tactic to "allowed" or whatever the setting was. I accidently, however, set it to "encouraged".

He went insane. He was like a berseker in each and every game. He accumulated over 200 penalty minutes in FIFTEEN GAMES. Every game there were fights, multiple misconducts, game misconducts... He was completely out of control. He then started getting depressed because he thought the refs were picking on him.

Once I wratched his fighting down a notch, however, things returned to normal.

[sachmo71]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

I don't think I mentioned this, but found it funny.

I was playing a career (pre the most recent patch) and did the fantasy draft for my team. I ended up with Branislav Mezei as my 5th or 6th defensemen. He's big and pretty tough, so on the tactics screen I meant to change his "fighting" tactic to "allowed" or whatever the setting was. I accidently, however, set it to "encouraged".

He went insane. He was like a berseker in each and every game. He accumulated over 200 penalty minutes in FIFTEEN GAMES. Every game there were fights, multiple misconducts, game misconducts... He was completely out of control. He then started getting depressed because he thought the refs were picking on him.

Once I wratched his fighting down a notch, however, things returned to normal.

Yes, don't use that setting with a goon. He will blow the ford up.

[Hurst2112]

I haven't been reading this thread that much as of late. However, I started a new career (with Detroit).

56 games in, I saw something strange.

It appears that Edmonton and Detroit share the Grand Rapids Griffins AHL team? I check Edmonton and they ALSO have their hand in the Wilkes Barre /Scranton Penguins????

Is this a known glitch or is this something new? I loaded the latest patch and haven't installed any unfaking.

thanks

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Hurst2112

I haven't been reading this thread that much as of late. However, I started a new career (with Detroit).

56 games in, I saw something strange.

It appears that Edmonton and Detroit share the Grand Rapids Griffins AHL team? I check Edmonton and they ALSO have their hand in the Wilkes Barre /Scranton Penguins????

Is this a known glitch or is this something new? I loaded the latest patch and haven't installed any unfaking.

thanks

This is not a glitch. This last year, the Oilers did not have their own AHL affiliated team, much like the Wings didn't for a few years before teaming up with Grand Rapids (the Wings shared Cinciniatti with the Ducks). Babcock was the coach of Cinci for some of that time and coached some Wings players like (ex-Wing) Jason Williams.

The Oilers had a similar arrangement, splitting their players between Wilkes Barre and Grand Rapids. It's not an ideal situation for prospects. I hated it when the Wings were in that situation. The Oilers just recently signed a new deal with an AHL club (not sure which one) to be their affiliate.

Short answer: EHM has the right of it.

[MizzouRah]

I'm downloading the patch right now and it says, 3.0.1 - do I install the patch to the demo to make it 3.0.4?

[Travis]

I'm guessing it works if you do it that way with the demo, but I'm not 100% sure, I bought the game right off the bat, but it's all the same program, you're just limited to I believe 6 months with the demo.

To others playing, have any of you had much exposure to multiplayer leagues? A couple buddies of mine and I are going to get a local one going after a few holidays end and any tips on any potential pitfalls would be appreciated. I'm assuming it's pretty simple to setup and run, but that's with 0 experience with online leagues for EHM.

I can't recommend this game enough from a single player perspective thus far. I'm 5 years into my new career after restarting with the 3.0.4 patch and had played around 12 combined seasons prior to that with 3 different careers. If this is the last game in the series, at least it's one that will be getting loaded up every hockey season for me.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Since it seems that the declining attribute bug has finally been squashed, I'm about ready to purchase the game and get to playing. I was deep into WWSM for a while there, but I just got fired in that game, so it's time to move on to EHM.

One question about the game for those of you who are watching the 2D view: Is there any way to turn off the music at stoppages of play? Maybe if they had different tunes, it wouldn't be so bad, but when I first tried the demo, my wife and I were getting sick and tired of hearing the same ditty before each faceoff.

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

Since it seems that the declining attribute bug has finally been squashed, I'm about ready to purchase the game and get to playing. I was deep into WWSM for a while there, but I just got fired in that game, so it's time to move on to EHM.

One question about the game for those of you who are watching the 2D view: Is there any way to turn off the music at stoppages of play? Maybe if they had different tunes, it wouldn't be so bad, but when I first tried the demo, my wife and I were getting sick and tired of hearing the same ditty before each faceoff.

Gridirion Greta disapproves.

[Marc Vaughan]

One question about the game for those of you who are watching the 2D view: Is there any way to turn off the music at stoppages of play? Maybe if they had different tunes, it wouldn't be so bad, but when I first tried the demo, my wife and I were getting sick and tired of hearing the same ditty before each faceoff

Graeme or Riz will be able to confirm this - but I'm guessing they'll just be .wav files hidden in the data directory somewhere, just remove them or replace them with something more to your liking (silence?) ....

(yeah I know I work for SI - but I haven't worked on EHM, my guess is based upon ye-olde CM3 engine which I DID work upon and which once apon a time EHM evolved from)

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by Marc Vaughan

Graeme or Riz will be able to confirm this - but I'm guessing they'll just be .wav files hidden in the data directory somewhere, just remove them or replace them with something more to your liking (silence?) ....

(yeah I know I work for SI - but I haven't worked on EHM, my guess is based upon ye-olde CM3 engine which I DID work upon and which once apon a time EHM evolved from)

I'll look around for .wav files. I figured that it was something like that, but I admit that I didn't look for very long. I can think of lots of songs that I'd like to use, but I fear that the files may need to be below a certain length or file size, and I'd hate to crash my game because I put in a file that was just a wee bit too long.

I mean, I know better than to try to fit a whole song in there. I'd only do maybe 10 seconds, but who knows if the file would be too big for the game to handle? Whatever the case, I'll muck about with it.

[Marc Vaughan]

but I fear that the files may need to be below a certain length or file size, and I'd hate to crash my game because I put in a file that was just a wee bit too long.

If it still shares the CM3 event file format (which is what causes the display of text and sounds) then the 'length' of the time will be in that file and configurable - but it won't 'crash' if its too long or short anyway.

I'm afraid I don't have EHM installed on this laptop (limited disk-space) otherwise I'd check for you ..

[MizzouRah]

Anyone know the websites for add-ons to EHM? I found the UK site with the unfake patch 1.0, but I thought there were more add-on sites for pics, rinks, and what not?

Thanks in advance!

[General Mike]

MizzouRah,

did you try http://ehmtheblueline.com ?

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by General Mike

MizzouRah,

did you try http://ehmtheblueline.com ?

That's the one!!!!!

Thank you!

[Ramzavail]

Downloaded the demo and patched it up last night.

Needless to say, I pumped 6 hours into this last night.

Fantasy drafted, fake players, game said I was pegged to be 30th in the league - I've started out 5-0 with 4 road wins. I knew my team was better than that. Dying to get home from work just to stick it to the man more.

I pounded 05 up big time, this game just feels more fluid to me and more organized. 2d is fun to watch too, less choppy.

[Ramzavail]

and speaking of going beyond the call of duty - giving out a 6 month IRL demo is another example. I am still going to buy it, but it gives me 6 months to hid it from the gf in our funds

[Young Drachma]

I think I'm going to download and buy this next week. I love hockey more than soccer and I played way more WWSM than I ever thought I would before OOTP came out. I mean, I got to the point where I'd tell friends how much I enjoyed the game.

And EHM was always better to me because I know hockey a lot more.

Mostly, I just want to be able to edit teams and move players around. And I would be happy to recreate the NHL a bit. So...might be time.

[riz]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

One question about the game for those of you who are watching the 2D view: Is there any way to turn off the music at stoppages of play? Maybe if they had different tunes, it wouldn't be so bad, but when I first tried the demo, my wife and I were getting sick and tired of hearing the same ditty before each faceoff.

Locate the sounds folder of the game and you should find all the in-game sound files in there in .wav format. The bits of music playing at faceoffs are named "music1.wav", "music2.wav" etc. You can either change these to your liking, delete them or you can edit the "events_eng.cfg" in the "match events" folder and remove any references to these music wavs in there.

If you want the game to play more than those set tunes, there's a way of setting it to play a random music file from 10 or 20 named "music1.wav" etc. but unfortunately I'm not on my work laptop right now so I cannot give the precise syntax for setting that up. Will try and post it in the morning.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

I think I'm going to download and buy this next week. I love hockey more than soccer and I played way more WWSM than I ever thought I would before OOTP came out. I mean, I got to the point where I'd tell friends how much I enjoyed the game.

And EHM was always better to me because I know hockey a lot more.

Mostly, I just want to be able to edit teams and move players around. And I would be happy to recreate the NHL a bit. So...might be time.

I left my darn jump drive at work that I downloaded the demo, patch, and many mods on... damn me!

It's a definite purchase for me as well, I had fun with 2005 before I sold it and I'm finally starting to get back into a sport that was once my favorite.

Another reason is after what happened to the series.. I want to support riz and EHM, that has to suck what happened to him, SI, and the whole EHM team.

[General Mike]

I've been playing EHM 2005 alot the last few days, so maybe its time for me to make a run at 2007. When I played the demo, the unfake wasn't out so I had trouble getting into it.

[Hurst2112]

Does anybody have links to the walkthroughs or tactics tutorials that were on theblueline.com? The links are broken and I can't log in to SIgames forum to ask questions.

[twothree]

Originally Posted by Hurst2112

Does anybody have links to the walkthroughs or tactics tutorials that were on theblueline.com? The links are broken and I can't log in to SIgames forum to ask questions.

Can you access this link?

http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/dload.php

Edit: Look under the Tutorial and Templates section of EHM 2005 for the .pdf version of the "EHM 2005 Walkthrough Guide". I think the online guide is still down.

[Hurst2112]

yep. i thought there was a 2k7, updated guide. i could be wrong. thanks for the link.

[riz]

About the custom music files I mentioned above, here's the full usage syntax:

In the "events_eng.cfg" file, replace all the references to "music1.wav", "music2.wav" etc. with either "random_music_10.wav" or "random_music_20.wav" depending on if you plan on using 10 or 20 custom music files. Then all you need to do is place new music wavs into the sounds folder to replace the default "music1.wav" etc. with up to 10 or 20 custom files of your choise.

I'm pretty sure I documented this for some people earlier on the SI forums so it might be mentioned on the Blueline website guides as well.

EDIT: Btw, nice to see at least some media picking up on the game in Canada, even though it is a bit late
http://www.tqs.ca/videos/infos/2007/...ainey-8732.php

[sachmo71]

Originally Posted by riz

About the custom music files I mentioned above, here's the full usage syntax:

In the "events_eng.cfg" file, replace all the references to "music1.wav", "music2.wav" etc. with either "random_music_10.wav" or "random_music_20.wav" depending on if you plan on using 10 or 20 custom music files. Then all you need to do is place new music wavs into the sounds folder to replace the default "music1.wav" etc. with up to 10 or 20 custom files of your choise.

I'm pretty sure I documented this for some people earlier on the SI forums so it might be mentioned on the Blueline website guides as well.

EDIT: Btw, nice to see at least some media picking up on the game in Canada, even though it is a bit late
http://www.tqs.ca/videos/infos/2007/...ainey-8732.php

So what's the deal wiht EHM riz? I saw that you are going to continue to work for SI on the football games, but are there any plans to resurrect the free version of eastside...you know, in all of your "free time"?

[riz]

Originally Posted by sachmo71

So what's the deal wiht EHM riz? I saw that you are going to continue to work for SI on the football games, but are there any plans to resurrect the free version of eastside...you know, in all of your "free time"?

I'm working on the FM team right now yes. As for the old freeware, situation with that remains the same: if I ever wanted to do something with it, it would still be a whole new game written from scratch (just like it would have been before I got the chance to join SI) since the engine was just stretched to its limits and written in poor VB. And naturally my "free time" has changed as well. I'm no longer a student with lots of free time, but I do have a day job now and a family to take care of (wife, 2 dogs and 2 cats so far...). Add to that some sports and there is very little "free time" left really. So I would say going down the old freeware route and putting together something on my own time is a poor bet for now.

However, EHM is not dead and buried yet, at least in the back of my head. The NHL EHM series is currently discontinued and everyone who worked on the game are working on other things now. But what future brings, we never know. Maybe one day we can work on something EHM related at SI, maybe I find some "free time" some day in the distant future. Who knows...maybe one day, the East Shall Rise Again ?

Once again, thanks for anyone who went on this ride with us

[Young Drachma]

Finally bought this today, after some friends and I had a conversation about a hockey team in Wyoming.

[King of New York]

Hey Riz,

I hope that SI Games' discontinuation of EHM 2007 didn't come as too much of a blow to you. Yeah, 2007 had issues at release, but you and Graeme did a fine job of getting the game into shape. EHM 2005 and EHM 2007 have given me many, many hours of enjoyment--they will always have an honored place in the text-sim pantheon, imho. Thanks--I'm sorry that the sales weren't there.

[Draft Dodger]

I don't suppose now that the game is done riz / SI will release how the 1-10 performance rating scores were calculated...

[Pumpy Tudors]

Just because the thread was bumped, I'd like to say that I'm finally playing this game. I guess my issue is that I'm not sure if I want to be a coach as well as a GM. Now, I'm working with the Devils here, so make your own joke, but I'm just really tempted to coach the games myself. The problem is that I don't want to be half-assed about it. If I'm going to coach, I need to spend the time to really study my players' attributes and match them up in ways that'll help my team win. I can't just throw Elias-Gomez-Gionta together and not touch the sliders for their line. I have to use the sliders to bring the best out of these players, and I'm not sure if I want to take the time to do that.

Obviously, this isn't a problem with the game. This is just an issue that's in my mind. Playing as GM only, I almost feel like I'm not really doing anything, but I'm only a week into the regular season. Maybe as time passes, I'll feel like I'm doing more as a GM. I think I only want to coach because that's what will make me feel "active" right now.

[Travis]

I'd suggest to do it slowly (getting into coaching). Start with setting line tactics, progress that into doing player by player tactics, then start to control practices as well (as you'll know what skills you'll want them to improve on/what can stay the same). I pretty much jumped into this version of the game at 3.0.3 (had played the freeware version previously) and went this route as I was getting a feel for this version. Now 90% of the work is at the start of the season with only minor tweaks during the year to respond to injuries/slumping play, but a lot of these settings are team oriented vs player oriented so once you make the distinction between what you want to be player specific and team/line specific, you can clip through them pretty quickly.

[sachmo71]

Still waiting on the guys at the blueline to get the new unfake\roster update done. There was some concern that the old unfake db was not based on the new fixes, and so the declining ratings problem would still appear.
In the meantime, I found the fantasy draft to be a lot of fun.

[Karim]

I've finally been able to get into this game and haven't been disappointed. I absolutely love the draft. I play strictly as GM except for setting the lines. I'm not sure another sim could do much more than tweaking or presenting alternatives with certain features. This is definitely a solid game.

[GMO]

To help resurrect EHM, they could have EHM being updated every 2nd year instead of every year.
This would mean costs would be averaged over 2 years instead of one, and there would be revenue from 2 years instead of one for each version of EHM.

[riz]

Originally Posted by GMO

To help resurrect EHM, they could have EHM being updated every 2nd year instead of every year.
This would mean costs would be averaged over 2 years instead of one, and there would be revenue from 2 years instead of one for each version of EHM.

Yeah, it would cut down on the licensing costs but would also double the salary commitments (dev team etc.) per game. And most of the income comes in during the first weeks of sales, so it wouldn't really make much of a bump having the same game on sale for 2 years before the next release instead of the usual 1 year.

But that's really not worth speculating since I don't really see NHL EHM coming back in the near future for now.

[riz]

Originally Posted by Karim

I've finally been able to get into this game and haven't been disappointed. I absolutely love the draft. I play strictly as GM except for setting the lines. I'm not sure another sim could do much more than tweaking or presenting alternatives with certain features. This is definitely a solid game.

Great to hear. It was important for us to get this last version patched up properly (even if it meant working on our own time) seeing as it will be the version that people are going to have to keep on playing for some time now...

[GMO]

Originally Posted by riz

Yeah, it would cut down on the licensing costs but would also double the salary commitments (dev team etc.) per game. And most of the income comes in during the first weeks of sales, so it wouldn't really make much of a bump having the same game on sale for 2 years before the next release instead of the usual 1 year.

But that's really not worth speculating since I don't really see NHL EHM coming back in the near future for now.

Less people would be needed to work on the game because the development would be over 2 years . You would have half the people working on the game over 2 years (or have the updated game developed over one year and have no development for one year). In either case the development costs would be halved.

I'm always hopeful the game will make a comeback.