A new maintenance update for Franchise Hockey Manager 3, version 3.4.116, has just been released.

Last week's hotfix left a few more problems than we'd hoped, so we decided to do one last maintenance update to clear those up before we finish. We've begun work on FHM4, and some of the early work has involved fairly significant changes to the game's internal architecture, and the farther we get with that the more difficult it'll be to change FHM3 in ways that can also be incorporated into FHM4 without a lot of extra work. So, at this point, we're only likely to do an additional update for FHM3 if a problem is discovered at some point that literally breaks the game (i.e., renders games unplayable via something like an unavoidable crash) - and in that case, it'll likely be a single-fix update for that specific issue. As always, though, we'll still be monitoring the forums and Facebook (FranchiseHockeyManager), Twitter (@FranchiseHockey), Reddit (/r/FranchiseHockey), etc. on a daily basis, answering questions and offering help as needed, so if you have any problems or suggestions, please let us know.

Changes in 3.4.116:

-Display errors with the scores on the tactical role popup in the strategy screen fixed.
-Fixed problem that was incorrectly lowering tactical role scores in some special teams slots.
-Fixed a variety of goalie starting issues that were causing incorrect starter calculations, particularly in the playoffs. Also adjusted the backup start frequency routines, since the changes led to excessive starter use.
-Problem with one goalie starting 100% of games when playing as GM-only should now be completely eliminated in all modes.
-Fixed issue that made some players unselectable for international tournaments when they should have been eligible.
-Corrected problem that could cause the wrong team to be promoted from the lower levels of the World Championships tournaments.
-Asian League should now play a full schedule after the first season (had been stopping after 30-35 games in 2017-18 and later.)
-Fixed issue that prevented proper trade responses if news messages had been deleted.
-Fixed issue that was allowing AI-run NHL teams to send 18/19-year-old players to the AHL/ECHL when they should have been returned to a CHL team.
-Corrected another circumstance where players signing in the NHL could escape the entry-level rules (would usually be visible to the user when a player rejected a two-way contract.)

A new maintenance update for Franchise Hockey Manager 3, version 3.4.116, has just been released.

Last week's hotfix left a few more problems than we'd hoped, so we decided to do one last maintenance update to clear those up before we finish. We've begun work on FHM4, and some of the early work has involved fairly significant changes to the game's internal architecture, and the farther we get with that the more difficult it'll be to change FHM3 in ways that can also be incorporated into FHM4 without a lot of extra work. So, at this point, we're only likely to do an additional update for FHM3 if a problem is discovered at some point that literally breaks the game (i.e., renders games unplayable via something like an unavoidable crash) - and in that case, it'll likely be a single-fix update for that specific issue. As always, though, we'll still be monitoring the forums and Facebook (FranchiseHockeyManager), Twitter (@FranchiseHockey), Reddit (/r/FranchiseHockey), etc. on a daily basis, answering questions and offering help as needed, so if you have any problems or suggestions, please let us know.

Changes in 3.4.116:

-Display errors with the scores on the tactical role popup in the strategy screen fixed.
-Fixed problem that was incorrectly lowering tactical role scores in some special teams slots.
-Fixed a variety of goalie starting issues that were causing incorrect starter calculations, particularly in the playoffs. Also adjusted the backup start frequency routines, since the changes led to excessive starter use.
-Problem with one goalie starting 100% of games when playing as GM-only should now be completely eliminated in all modes.
-Fixed issue that made some players unselectable for international tournaments when they should have been eligible.
-Corrected problem that could cause the wrong team to be promoted from the lower levels of the World Championships tournaments.
-Asian League should now play a full schedule after the first season (had been stopping after 30-35 games in 2017-18 and later.)
-Fixed issue that prevented proper trade responses if news messages had been deleted.
-Fixed issue that was allowing AI-run NHL teams to send 18/19-year-old players to the AHL/ECHL when they should have been returned to a CHL team.
-Corrected another circumstance where players signing in the NHL could escape the entry-level rules (would usually be visible to the user when a player rejected a two-way contract.)

A new hotfix update for Franchise Hockey Manager 3, version 3.3.113, has just been released.

Barring any newly-discovered game-breaking problems, this hotfix will likely be the final update for FHM3, clearing up some issues that arose with the large 3.3.109 update as well as making a few other fixes and changes. We'll be moving on to FHM4 development immediately; we have some fairly elaborate plans for a large overhaul of the game's internal systems that will take some time to implement and test properly if we want to get them into 4 along with the usual array of other major additions and changes. We wound up releasing later than we'd have liked to last fall, so we're starting the substantial changes earlier this time around - that'll get the game to you sooner next season, we hope, with even more new and interesting things in it. As always, we'll still be monitoring the forums and Facebook (FranchiseHockeyManager), Twitter (@FranchiseHockey), Reddit (/r/FranchiseHockey), etc. on a daily basis, answering questions and offering help as needed, so if you have any problems or suggestions, please let us know. We will, at various points in the next few months, be looking for additions to our testing and research teams, and possibly some other forms as help as well; we'll post in all those places when we're ready for that. Thanks for your continued support, we look forward to making an even bigger and better version of FHM next season.

Changes in 3.3.113:

Interface:
-Fixed display error that showed the wrong tactical fit values on the Select Role screen for special teams.
-3-on-4 tactical roles (and scores) now shown for defencemen (had been blank.)
-Order of the logos on the momentum display is now correct, had been reversed
-For games that haven't been played yet, the team schedule screen now shows '-' as the result instead of T
-Shootout list is now changeable by the user while games are underway
-If a player is injured and has to leave a game, his fitness will drop to 0% (mainly so there's an easy indicator of which player you need to replace when you're looking at the strategy screen)
-Fixed some small typos/text issues

Bug Fixes:
-Possible crash while viewing international tournament history fixed.
-Club logos no longer shown on the international teams stats screen for a particular tournament's history (had been showing NHL/AHL/WHL teams)
-Tournament winner names now displayed correctly on the stats screen in international tournament history (had been showing NHL/AHL/WHL teams)
-All-Swedish Champions achievement fixed, wasn't being recognized properly
-In international tournament history, the standings screens for individual years now sorts teams in proper order, was listing them randomly for some tournaments.
-Bug that could cause large fluctuations in international rankings after the first season fixed
-Database issue that caused "Jim Unknowns" to appear in recent draft histories fixed
-AI head coach will now use new goalie selection mode in GM-only games (had been leaving everything set to 0/minimum value and was always using the same starter)
-Newly-created staff will no longer get scouting regions that don't match any of their nationalities

Simulation/Rule Changes:
-AI's choices for the Backup start frequency rule will tend to give the starter more preference unless that ratings are extremely close.
-New injuries.txt file, fixes off-ice injuries that were mistakenly set to be allowed on-ice (no more dental surgery or dog attacks during games), and lowers frequency and duration of some injuries, mainly arm/shoulder-related ones
-Missing transfer deadline for Suomi-Sarja fixed
-Uncontracted under-20 players now have their rights set correctly during historical game setup (they were being left as UFA's, they'll now belong to the correct team)
-Fixed problem that was still allowing some players to avoid NHL entry-level contract rules
-Some 19-year-old CHL players were being sent to the minors by AI-run NHL teams instead of back to the CHL, fixed

Data Changes:
-OHL rosters overhauled to fix a large number of ratings issues and to reflect current season performances
-Continued adjustment of historical fighting ratings toned down to lower excessive penalty totals in some years in annual recalculation mode
-Added several later-round 2017 NHL draft prospects who weren't in the database yet and upgraded the potential for some others who were on the Central Scouting mid-term rankings but were underrated in the game
-Swedish Division 2 rosters received large update
-National-team level players for non-major countries added/updated
-Large number of players who've been inactive for two or more years retired
-Various miscellaneous changes to other players, teams, and staff

A new hotfix update for Franchise Hockey Manager 3, version 3.3.113, has just been released.

Barring any newly-discovered game-breaking problems, this hotfix will likely be the final update for FHM3, clearing up some issues that arose with the large 3.3.109 update as well as making a few other fixes and changes. We'll be moving on to FHM4 development immediately; we have some fairly elaborate plans for a large overhaul of the game's internal systems that will take some time to implement and test properly if we want to get them into 4 along with the usual array of other major additions and changes. We wound up releasing later than we'd have liked to last fall, so we're starting the substantial changes earlier this time around - that'll get the game to you sooner next season, we hope, with even more new and interesting things in it. As always, we'll still be monitoring the forums and Facebook (FranchiseHockeyManager), Twitter (@FranchiseHockey), Reddit (/r/FranchiseHockey), etc. on a daily basis, answering questions and offering help as needed, so if you have any problems or suggestions, please let us know. We will, at various points in the next few months, be looking for additions to our testing and research teams, and possibly some other forms as help as well; we'll post in all those places when we're ready for that. Thanks for your continued support, we look forward to making an even bigger and better version of FHM next season.

Changes in 3.3.113:

Interface:
-Fixed display error that showed the wrong tactical fit values on the Select Role screen for special teams.
-3-on-4 tactical roles (and scores) now shown for defencemen (had been blank.)
-Order of the logos on the momentum display is now correct, had been reversed
-For games that haven't been played yet, the team schedule screen now shows '-' as the result instead of T
-Shootout list is now changeable by the user while games are underway
-If a player is injured and has to leave a game, his fitness will drop to 0% (mainly so there's an easy indicator of which player you need to replace when you're looking at the strategy screen)
-Fixed some small typos/text issues

Bug Fixes:
-Possible crash while viewing international tournament history fixed.
-Club logos no longer shown on the international teams stats screen for a particular tournament's history (had been showing NHL/AHL/WHL teams)
-Tournament winner names now displayed correctly on the stats screen in international tournament history (had been showing NHL/AHL/WHL teams)
-All-Swedish Champions achievement fixed, wasn't being recognized properly
-In international tournament history, the standings screens for individual years now sorts teams in proper order, was listing them randomly for some tournaments.
-Bug that could cause large fluctuations in international rankings after the first season fixed
-Database issue that caused "Jim Unknowns" to appear in recent draft histories fixed
-AI head coach will now use new goalie selection mode in GM-only games (had been leaving everything set to 0/minimum value and was always using the same starter)
-Newly-created staff will no longer get scouting regions that don't match any of their nationalities

Simulation/Rule Changes:
-AI's choices for the Backup start frequency rule will tend to give the starter more preference unless that ratings are extremely close.
-New injuries.txt file, fixes off-ice injuries that were mistakenly set to be allowed on-ice (no more dental surgery or dog attacks during games), and lowers frequency and duration of some injuries, mainly arm/shoulder-related ones
-Missing transfer deadline for Suomi-Sarja fixed
-Uncontracted under-20 players now have their rights set correctly during historical game setup (they were being left as UFA's, they'll now belong to the correct team)
-Fixed problem that was still allowing some players to avoid NHL entry-level contract rules
-Some 19-year-old CHL players were being sent to the minors by AI-run NHL teams instead of back to the CHL, fixed

Data Changes:
-OHL rosters overhauled to fix a large number of ratings issues and to reflect current season performances
-Continued adjustment of historical fighting ratings toned down to lower excessive penalty totals in some years in annual recalculation mode
-Added several later-round 2017 NHL draft prospects who weren't in the database yet and upgraded the potential for some others who were on the Central Scouting mid-term rankings but were underrated in the game
-Swedish Division 2 rosters received large update
-National-team level players for non-major countries added/updated
-Large number of players who've been inactive for two or more years retired
-Various miscellaneous changes to other players, teams, and staff

A new update for Franchise Hockey Manager 3, version 3.3.109, 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.

Notes:

This is one of the largest FHM updates we've ever done, both in terms of fixes and additions. There is an entirely new system for determining starting goalies that gives the user much more scope to decide the way his team's starter will be chosen (and the ability to override that choice) as well as making the AI teams make more realistic decisions about who to start. As part of that, the hot/cold status of goalies is now tracked, which has an impact on their performance and makes the starter decision a little more interesting than just choosing the best-rated goalie.

The tactical system has gotten a makeover to make its operation a little more transparent to the user; you can now see the exact numerical effects of changes you make to tactical roles, and the in-game view will specify the exact areas you have an advantage (or disadvantage) in relative to your opponent and by how much, rather than having to rely on a single vague indicator of overall advantage.

Saving games has been made safer on a couple of different levels - the save procedure itself has been made more crash/shutdown-resistant so an unexpected game stoppage during the save can't corrupt the entire save, and an option to add rolling backup saves has been added.

On the bug-fixing front, we've knocked out some long-standing bugs and many more recently-discovered ones. There have also been a number of other small additions and changes, details below.

This will likely be the final major update for FHM3, as we're moving on to FHM4 development soon - we'd like to be able to get the game to you a little earlier in the season than we did this year, and we have a lot of big changes planned. If there are any serious issues with this update (not entirely out of the question, given the number of changes we've made), we will, of course, release a hotfix to correct those.

Major Goaltender Changes:

There are two significant new systems for goaltenders: One that tracks how hot (or cold) a goaltender is (and adjusts his performance accordingly), as well as a new starter management system:

Goaltender Heat:

-All goalies have a "Heat" rating that tracks how hot (or cold) they are.
-The range is 0 to 5, indicated by flame icons (1-5) or the snowflake icon (0) on the goalie section of the strategy screen, and also shown after the goalie's name on the roster and dressed list (e.g. (1))
-The natural resting level is 1, goalies will cool off if they're not used but will only drop below 1 due to playing badly. However, all goalies start each new season at 0 - they'll need some playing time in exhibition games to warm up.
-The heat number works as follows: for each game, all of the goalie's goaltending (not mental) ratings are reduced slightly before a game. Then a random number is added to them; the upper bounds of this random number that can be selected are dependent on the goalie's Heat rating - the hotter he is, the more chance of a large number (and if he's cold, that number may be so low that it doesn't get the reduced ratings back to his base level.)
-The heat adjustments can potentially reduce the effective star level of a cold goalie by up to (roughly) 2 stars, while a hot one can potentially be raised 2-3 stars (bear in mind these are extremes where the random portion would have to be very unlucky or lucky.)
-Events that can raise the heat rating in rough order of the chances of getting an increase): getting a shutout, having a large number of saves in a game, winning a game.
-Events that can lower the heat rating in rough order of the chances of getting a decrease): getting replaced in a game (not by an extra attacker), giving up a large number of goals in the game, losing a game.
-Heat will also tend to decline if the goalie isn't playing regularly, roughly one point per 3-4 games missed consecutively
-Finally, Heat is lowered by 1 point (but not below 1) when a new season phase (exhibition, regular season, playoffs, etc.) begins or when an international tournament the goalie is playing in begins (so a hot goalie going into the playoffs is good to have, but not necessarily a sure thing, and a mid-season international tournament can significantly alter a goalie's hot/cold status for his club team.)
-Heat can only be raised or lowered by one point per game.

The net effect of this addition is making your choice of starter no longer just a matter of picking the guy with the most stars as long as his fitness isn't extremely low - it now makes sense to do things like start a hot rookie over a veteran starter in the playoffs even though the veteran is better "on paper," - but at the same time, you also need to consider how to get a cold starter enough playing time to get his edge back and maybe get hot himself.

Starter Management:

-There's now a "Goalie Starts" tab on the strategy screen. These settings control the priorities the AI will use when choosing your starting goalie for each game, ranging from 0 (ignore this factor) to 4 (vitally important.)
-Settings are: Start the hottest goalie, Start the best-rested goalie, Alternate goalies in back-to-back games, Always start a goalie again after a shutout, Start the best goalie, Backup start frequency, and Stick with the starter during the playoffs
-Some of the categories are limited in range at certain times, e.g. backup start frequency can't go below 1 after 1965, or above 1 before 1939.
-The AI uses these factors and their weighting (and a small amount of randomness) to choose who will start the next game - it'll determine the current situation relevant to each of rules, identify the relative importance of each of them, and put it all together to make a final starter decision.
-There's a "lock" checkbox that prevents the AI from overriding these priorities; otherwise, it'll re-choose them whenever there's a roster change involving a goalie or a new season phase begins. "AI Setup Organization" with the lock unchecked will cause the AI to choose a new rules set.
-The human user can always override the AI starter choice by changing goalies from the pregame strategy screen (which includes a section for goalies now).

In summary, you can set up your own, very specific, priorities for goalie use, so you're not dependent on the AI's cookie-cutter choices - or you can just override them completely and set the goalie in the pregame screen.

Tactical System Changes:

The Tactical system has been modified to be a little more transparent:

-the "dots" scale for a player's effectiveness in a tactical role has been replaced by a numerical 1-5 rating; these still show the same information as before (although the scale for that was adjusted a bit so the extreme ends are used more)
-the first number shown for a player's tactical effectiveness is the actual number of points he's contributing to his team's tactical score, which may be limited by things like the line he's on (the contribution of lower lines is capped relative to the top ones) or whether or not he's in a secondary role; the second number is the theoretical maximum he could have in that role if he were subject to no such limitations
-the total tactical score for each tactic is now displayed at the top of the strategy screen; this (after modification for countering roles) is compared to the corresponding tactical score of the opponent (i.e. offensive vs. defensive, PP vs PK, etc.) to determine who has the tactical advantage in that situation - since you're now seeing a numerical score it should be a lot easier to understand (and change) the exact situation, e.g. getting the advantage back for your team or at least reducing the opponent's advantage
-the larger the difference between each team's scores, the larger the performance bonuses and penalties on the advantaged/disadvantaged team; the display colours the numbers to show the degree of advantage: green, yellow, orange, red from smallest to largest (the actual advantages are +1 to one player rating, determined by the tactic, +1 to 2 ratings, +1 to 3 ratings, and then at the maximum "red" level, +2 to all 3 of those ratings.)
-opponent's roles/tactical scores are now visible, at least to the extent that they're known - if the AI has the coaching advantage and is making choices after you, they may be inaccurate/incomplete relative to his final choices (the coaching advantage indicator is now visible on the strategy screen only, since that's where it's directly relevant. RIP little dude with a crown.)
-the mechanism for determining tactical advantage and its extent changed to use the "dots" totals directly (instead of the previous system which stopped a step earlier and just used raw internal numbers) - so the numbers you see on the screen are an accurate representation of what's being used in the internal calculations
-the four tactical advantage situations (each teams Offense vs Defense and PP vs PK) are now shown in detail on the in-game screen, with the exact scores of each team (including adjustments for momentum and countering roles), so you can now see exactly where you have advantages/disadvantages, and by how much.
-momentum has been modified to consider the most recent events more heavily
-The AI (including AI assistant for human teams) should no longer be able to select invalid tactical roles (i.e., that don't meet role requirements for its tactic.)

Other Changes:

Interface:

-The Set Up Your Manager screen now includes offensive and physical preferences and several template options for both the GM and coach roles, which will fill out the ratings so you don't need to set them all.
-League-style stats leaders screen added for international tournaments.
-The team schedule screen now shows the abbreviation for the game result (W/L, etc.) just to the left of the score column.
-Full history screens added for all levels of national teams.
-"Hire" option on the staff screen's action menu is now available for trainers.
-Totals of 1000+ no longer getting cut off on the Player Index screen at resolutions with 768 width.
-Awards that are not awarded by a league will now be named "No Award" so it's clear why it's not being awarded in a given league.
-Hall of Fame link moved to the manager menu in game modes without international play.
-Scouting reports will no longer mention the exact (and occasionally inaccurate) number of scouting reports that have been updated.
-The team names on the in-game screen now uses the text colour instead of the secondary colour, so no more blue-on-blue for e.g. Toronto.
-"Loaded Game:" text removed from the top menu so more of the game named is displayed.
-Right-click assign options for scouts now appear everywhere (e.g. the personnel screen), not only on the Scouting screen.

Simulation/Rule Changes:
-Change to historical setup: at the beginning of a historical game, players under age 20 whose rights belonged to a team but who did not actually play for the team in that season (e.g., recent draftees) now only have their rights assigned to the team, they don't automatically get a contract (this should tone down the cuts that happen at the beginning of the game because rosters are too large),
-Retirements in historical mode with FHM development off will now be less frequent (typical age bumped back by a couple of years, and a problem that retired a lot of unsigned players in mid-season of the first year of the game was removed.)
-In historical games, at-start and newly-generated players now get their aging/development rates calculated the same way (they were being set by separate methodology earlier, and it tended to hurt development of star players in their early seasons.)
-Expiry system for NHL rights on NCAA players corrected.
-Canadian player generation balanced a little better between regions (more Ontario players than there were previously).
-Effect of coaches' Coaching Prospects ratings on younger players lowered - should make development rates for CHL players a little more similar to those in nonplayable leagues (previously their higher development rates were making Canadian, and to a lesser extent American)
-Quality of player generation adjusted for several countries.
-Pre-1972 historical teams are now allowed to own the rights of up to 75 players (it had been 50, same as the contract limit); will help with the size of the expansion draft pools
-International tournaments should now use the 3-point win format instead of 2
-Trading frequencies (which also control transfer frequencies for leagues that use transfers) increased for most leagues.
-Transfer cost benchmarks lowered slightly to get teams to make more acquisitions that way
-Issue that was causing incorrect RFA designations on contract renewals has been fixed.
-US college preference for generated Canadian players lowered slightly.
-User's salary in historical games should now be in proportion to other staff salaries.
-Historical finances adjusted so teams are less likely to run into roster-limiting budget issues.
-Contracts signed by some UFA's no longer ignore NHL entry-level rules.
-Potential situation where ELC limits could be ignored by recent draft picks fixed.
-Waiver-exempt calculation fixed in historical so all players are no longer exempt.

Bug Fixes:

-"2nd goalie is injured" popup will no longer appear if user enters the strategy screen after a goalie injured.
-Game will no longer force goalie to be returned to the net if the strategy screen is entered while he's pulled.
-Possible crash in first September fixed.
-Fixed crash when "AI Setup Organization" is used when playing from a game created with a quickstart.
-Missing/incorrect names ("Jim Unknown") in historical fixed.
-Players who debut for WHA teams in historical non-draft mode should now appear on the correct team in the correct year.
-Hiring staff via right-click from the free agent view of another team will no longer sign the staff to that other team.
-GM of Great Britain national teams should now be able to select English players again.
-Nationality problem with generated players in fictional games fixed (was limiting their nationalites to a small group of countries, followup to the fix last time that corrected this with the at-start player pools.)
-Scouting targets that include references to the QMJHL draft (eligibility, or simply their draft region) should now return results properly.
-Problem with some historical players not being generated at 17 in the correct year fixed
-Editing a player's contract after July 1, 2017 no longer results in the previous year's contract being visible and saving an extra year to the player's contract even if no edit is made
-Teams that make the first round of the 1974-75 playoffs will no longer get the X under "Playoffs" in their history screen until 1979-80 even if they didn't actually make the playoffs in the later seasons
-AI teams in historical games with drafting turned off will no longer trade draft picks.
-Player's demand in contract renewal negotiations will no longer occasionally be blank.
-KHL trade and offer sheet deadlines no longer perpetually one season in the future.
-1991 Dispersal Draft results no longer mixed into the Entry Draft history for that year.
-Attempting to click on retired players in team transaction histories will no longer result in a crash.
-Users will no longer get 3-4 news stories for some international tournament awards.
-"Reject" option for junior international job offers should now work properly.
-News reports from U-18 tournaments should no longer occasionally display the logo of a CHL team.
-League Player Stats screen will no longer go blank if the filter is set to the playoffs.
-User will no longer be asked to choose the captain for another team in some circumstances.
"X had a great game" message now reports total icetime instead of even-strength icetime.
-No longer possible for players to leave the penalty box prematurely when serving a minor + misconduct.
-Potential December crash fixed.
-Possible crash when saving historical games after 2017 fixed.
-Crash when attempting to sign a foreign free agent after demoting foreigners to reserve list fixed.
-The stats listed for Star Players on the pregame screen will no longer start games played as -1.
-Misnamed Italian U20 logo fixed, logo will appear correctly now.
-Defunct teams no longer appear in the free agent preview news message in historical games.
-Scouts in historical games will no longer end 16-week assignments prematurely under some circumstances.
-Links to playoff game boxscores from schedule screen in historical mode will work now.
-Problem preventing playoff game-by-game results from appearing in player screen while in historical mode fixed.
-Potential June 30 crash in fictional games fixed.

Data Changes:
-All NHL and AHL players and high-level free agents thoroughly updated to reflect current season performances.
-Starting injuries adjusted to reflect length of time players actually missed (note that this won't be an exact match due to variability in the injury recovery system.)
-Player ratings in the early pre/post-NHL expansion years (roughly 66-69) got a big upgrade to current ratings standards (they were some of the earliest ones added 4-5 years ago and most were a bit too low); part of an ongoing process to eventually get every historical player fully detailed ratings.
-Various individual player data errors that affected historical development fixed.
-QMJHL goalie with skater ratings has had those removed so he no longer gets mentioned as having the best shot in the league.
-Lots of adjustments to nonplayer transactions data to remove some more development traps for young players.
-Nonplayable transactions in North American junior leagues adjusted to route fewer players to Junior B out of bantam and midget, and more players to Canadian High Schools in provinces where that's becoming more common (primarily BC and Alberta.)
-Historical fighting ratings toned down to lower excessive penalty totals in some years in annual recalculation mode; still needs additional work, but getting closer.
-Top prospects for 2017 OHL, QMJHL, and WHL drafts added (will be in 2019 and 2020 NHL draft classes.)
-Staff who've already signed for Las Vegas next year had their roles changed to their future roles for the Golden Knights, as needed.
-UFA ages in early post-cap era corrected.
-Team data in several nonplayable European leagues updated.
-Kunlun Red Star given a farm team (Harbin of the Chinese league, formerly farm team of China Dragons of ALIH; their farm team changed to Qiqihar.)
-NHL Draft eligibility date corrected.
-WHA award names added.
-Most league trading and transfer tendencies increased.
-Average transfer prices lowered slightly.
-Various miscellaneous changes to other leagues and many players and staff.

Miscellaneous Changes:

-Major change to save system: saving now uses a two-stage process that will make saves a little more resilient to crashes/shutdowns while saving - it creates temporary save files first and then only replaces the real ones with them if the save process works properly, so a save crash no longer results in a bunch of 0-kb files and the death of your save. Very slightly slower, but a lot safer.
-Rolling saves have also been added as an option on Start Screen - Settings - Misc. If this is active, the game will keep the two previous saves in the rs_one and rs_two sub-folders. Bear in mind save files can be pretty big, so if you're really tight on drive space this may not be a good idea unless you clean your save folder out frequently.
-Eligibility for expansion drafts (including historical) changed so third-year players (as of draft day) are now eligible and need to be protected.
-Fictional games using the NHL setup and real players will now also get the real staff.
-Quickstarts will now copy the current graphics folders (jerseys, logos, etc.) to the new quickstart; also fixed some previously-unnoticed problems with other files not being copied properly.
-Historical games now default to monthly, instead of weekly, saves.
-Various grammar/spelling changes to text.
-If a user-created player's age is <18, his NHL and KHL rights are now set to "None"; if he's <16, QMJHL and OHL rights are set to "none", and if he's <15, WHL rights should be set to "none" (should eliminate the need to set this manually and the confusion over why created players weren't getting drafted)
-Nationality for created players no longer defaults to Venezuela.

A new update for Franchise Hockey Manager 3, version 3.3.109, 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.

Notes:

This is one of the largest FHM updates we've ever done, both in terms of fixes and additions. There is an entirely new system for determining starting goalies that gives the user much more scope to decide the way his team's starter will be chosen (and the ability to override that choice) as well as making the AI teams make more realistic decisions about who to start. As part of that, the hot/cold status of goalies is now tracked, which has an impact on their performance and makes the starter decision a little more interesting than just choosing the best-rated goalie.

The tactical system has gotten a makeover to make its operation a little more transparent to the user; you can now see the exact numerical effects of changes you make to tactical roles, and the in-game view will specify the exact areas you have an advantage (or disadvantage) in relative to your opponent and by how much, rather than having to rely on a single vague indicator of overall advantage.

Saving games has been made safer on a couple of different levels - the save procedure itself has been made more crash/shutdown-resistant so an unexpected game stoppage during the save can't corrupt the entire save, and an option to add rolling backup saves has been added.

On the bug-fixing front, we've knocked out some long-standing bugs and many more recently-discovered ones. There have also been a number of other small additions and changes, details below.

This will likely be the final major update for FHM3, as we're moving on to FHM4 development soon - we'd like to be able to get the game to you a little earlier in the season than we did this year, and we have a lot of big changes planned. If there are any serious issues with this update (not entirely out of the question, given the number of changes we've made), we will, of course, release a hotfix to correct those.

Major Goaltender Changes:

There are two significant new systems for goaltenders: One that tracks how hot (or cold) a goaltender is (and adjusts his performance accordingly), as well as a new starter management system:

Goaltender Heat:

-All goalies have a "Heat" rating that tracks how hot (or cold) they are.
-The range is 0 to 5, indicated by flame icons (1-5) or the snowflake icon (0) on the goalie section of the strategy screen, and also shown after the goalie's name on the roster and dressed list (e.g. (1))
-The natural resting level is 1, goalies will cool off if they're not used but will only drop below 1 due to playing badly. However, all goalies start each new season at 0 - they'll need some playing time in exhibition games to warm up.
-The heat number works as follows: for each game, all of the goalie's goaltending (not mental) ratings are reduced slightly before a game. Then a random number is added to them; the upper bounds of this random number that can be selected are dependent on the goalie's Heat rating - the hotter he is, the more chance of a large number (and if he's cold, that number may be so low that it doesn't get the reduced ratings back to his base level.)
-The heat adjustments can potentially reduce the effective star level of a cold goalie by up to (roughly) 2 stars, while a hot one can potentially be raised 2-3 stars (bear in mind these are extremes where the random portion would have to be very unlucky or lucky.)
-Events that can raise the heat rating in rough order of the chances of getting an increase): getting a shutout, having a large number of saves in a game, winning a game.
-Events that can lower the heat rating in rough order of the chances of getting a decrease): getting replaced in a game (not by an extra attacker), giving up a large number of goals in the game, losing a game.
-Heat will also tend to decline if the goalie isn't playing regularly, roughly one point per 3-4 games missed consecutively
-Finally, Heat is lowered by 1 point (but not below 1) when a new season phase (exhibition, regular season, playoffs, etc.) begins or when an international tournament the goalie is playing in begins (so a hot goalie going into the playoffs is good to have, but not necessarily a sure thing, and a mid-season international tournament can significantly alter a goalie's hot/cold status for his club team.)
-Heat can only be raised or lowered by one point per game.

The net effect of this addition is making your choice of starter no longer just a matter of picking the guy with the most stars as long as his fitness isn't extremely low - it now makes sense to do things like start a hot rookie over a veteran starter in the playoffs even though the veteran is better "on paper," - but at the same time, you also need to consider how to get a cold starter enough playing time to get his edge back and maybe get hot himself.

Starter Management:

-There's now a "Goalie Starts" tab on the strategy screen. These settings control the priorities the AI will use when choosing your starting goalie for each game, ranging from 0 (ignore this factor) to 4 (vitally important.)
-Settings are: Start the hottest goalie, Start the best-rested goalie, Alternate goalies in back-to-back games, Always start a goalie again after a shutout, Start the best goalie, Backup start frequency, and Stick with the starter during the playoffs
-Some of the categories are limited in range at certain times, e.g. backup start frequency can't go below 1 after 1965, or above 1 before 1939.
-The AI uses these factors and their weighting (and a small amount of randomness) to choose who will start the next game - it'll determine the current situation relevant to each of rules, identify the relative importance of each of them, and put it all together to make a final starter decision.
-There's a "lock" checkbox that prevents the AI from overriding these priorities; otherwise, it'll re-choose them whenever there's a roster change involving a goalie or a new season phase begins. "AI Setup Organization" with the lock unchecked will cause the AI to choose a new rules set.
-The human user can always override the AI starter choice by changing goalies from the pregame strategy screen (which includes a section for goalies now).

In summary, you can set up your own, very specific, priorities for goalie use, so you're not dependent on the AI's cookie-cutter choices - or you can just override them completely and set the goalie in the pregame screen.

Tactical System Changes:

The Tactical system has been modified to be a little more transparent:

-the "dots" scale for a player's effectiveness in a tactical role has been replaced by a numerical 1-5 rating; these still show the same information as before (although the scale for that was adjusted a bit so the extreme ends are used more)
-the first number shown for a player's tactical effectiveness is the actual number of points he's contributing to his team's tactical score, which may be limited by things like the line he's on (the contribution of lower lines is capped relative to the top ones) or whether or not he's in a secondary role; the second number is the theoretical maximum he could have in that role if he were subject to no such limitations
-the total tactical score for each tactic is now displayed at the top of the strategy screen; this (after modification for countering roles) is compared to the corresponding tactical score of the opponent (i.e. offensive vs. defensive, PP vs PK, etc.) to determine who has the tactical advantage in that situation - since you're now seeing a numerical score it should be a lot easier to understand (and change) the exact situation, e.g. getting the advantage back for your team or at least reducing the opponent's advantage
-the larger the difference between each team's scores, the larger the performance bonuses and penalties on the advantaged/disadvantaged team; the display colours the numbers to show the degree of advantage: green, yellow, orange, red from smallest to largest (the actual advantages are +1 to one player rating, determined by the tactic, +1 to 2 ratings, +1 to 3 ratings, and then at the maximum "red" level, +2 to all 3 of those ratings.)
-opponent's roles/tactical scores are now visible, at least to the extent that they're known - if the AI has the coaching advantage and is making choices after you, they may be inaccurate/incomplete relative to his final choices (the coaching advantage indicator is now visible on the strategy screen only, since that's where it's directly relevant. RIP little dude with a crown.)
-the mechanism for determining tactical advantage and its extent changed to use the "dots" totals directly (instead of the previous system which stopped a step earlier and just used raw internal numbers) - so the numbers you see on the screen are an accurate representation of what's being used in the internal calculations
-the four tactical advantage situations (each teams Offense vs Defense and PP vs PK) are now shown in detail on the in-game screen, with the exact scores of each team (including adjustments for momentum and countering roles), so you can now see exactly where you have advantages/disadvantages, and by how much.
-momentum has been modified to consider the most recent events more heavily
-The AI (including AI assistant for human teams) should no longer be able to select invalid tactical roles (i.e., that don't meet role requirements for its tactic.)

Other Changes:

Interface:

-The Set Up Your Manager screen now includes offensive and physical preferences and several template options for both the GM and coach roles, which will fill out the ratings so you don't need to set them all.
-League-style stats leaders screen added for international tournaments.
-The team schedule screen now shows the abbreviation for the game result (W/L, etc.) just to the left of the score column.
-Full history screens added for all levels of national teams.
-"Hire" option on the staff screen's action menu is now available for trainers.
-Totals of 1000+ no longer getting cut off on the Player Index screen at resolutions with 768 width.
-Awards that are not awarded by a league will now be named "No Award" so it's clear why it's not being awarded in a given league.
-Hall of Fame link moved to the manager menu in game modes without international play.
-Scouting reports will no longer mention the exact (and occasionally inaccurate) number of scouting reports that have been updated.
-The team names on the in-game screen now uses the text colour instead of the secondary colour, so no more blue-on-blue for e.g. Toronto.
-"Loaded Game:" text removed from the top menu so more of the game named is displayed.
-Right-click assign options for scouts now appear everywhere (e.g. the personnel screen), not only on the Scouting screen.

Simulation/Rule Changes:
-Change to historical setup: at the beginning of a historical game, players under age 20 whose rights belonged to a team but who did not actually play for the team in that season (e.g., recent draftees) now only have their rights assigned to the team, they don't automatically get a contract (this should tone down the cuts that happen at the beginning of the game because rosters are too large),
-Retirements in historical mode with FHM development off will now be less frequent (typical age bumped back by a couple of years, and a problem that retired a lot of unsigned players in mid-season of the first year of the game was removed.)
-In historical games, at-start and newly-generated players now get their aging/development rates calculated the same way (they were being set by separate methodology earlier, and it tended to hurt development of star players in their early seasons.)
-Expiry system for NHL rights on NCAA players corrected.
-Canadian player generation balanced a little better between regions (more Ontario players than there were previously).
-Effect of coaches' Coaching Prospects ratings on younger players lowered - should make development rates for CHL players a little more similar to those in nonplayable leagues (previously their higher development rates were making Canadian, and to a lesser extent American)
-Quality of player generation adjusted for several countries.
-Pre-1972 historical teams are now allowed to own the rights of up to 75 players (it had been 50, same as the contract limit); will help with the size of the expansion draft pools
-International tournaments should now use the 3-point win format instead of 2
-Trading frequencies (which also control transfer frequencies for leagues that use transfers) increased for most leagues.
-Transfer cost benchmarks lowered slightly to get teams to make more acquisitions that way
-Issue that was causing incorrect RFA designations on contract renewals has been fixed.
-US college preference for generated Canadian players lowered slightly.
-User's salary in historical games should now be in proportion to other staff salaries.
-Historical finances adjusted so teams are less likely to run into roster-limiting budget issues.
-Contracts signed by some UFA's no longer ignore NHL entry-level rules.
-Potential situation where ELC limits could be ignored by recent draft picks fixed.
-Waiver-exempt calculation fixed in historical so all players are no longer exempt.

Bug Fixes:

-"2nd goalie is injured" popup will no longer appear if user enters the strategy screen after a goalie injured.
-Game will no longer force goalie to be returned to the net if the strategy screen is entered while he's pulled.
-Possible crash in first September fixed.
-Fixed crash when "AI Setup Organization" is used when playing from a game created with a quickstart.
-Missing/incorrect names ("Jim Unknown") in historical fixed.
-Players who debut for WHA teams in historical non-draft mode should now appear on the correct team in the correct year.
-Hiring staff via right-click from the free agent view of another team will no longer sign the staff to that other team.
-GM of Great Britain national teams should now be able to select English players again.
-Nationality problem with generated players in fictional games fixed (was limiting their nationalites to a small group of countries, followup to the fix last time that corrected this with the at-start player pools.)
-Scouting targets that include references to the QMJHL draft (eligibility, or simply their draft region) should now return results properly.
-Problem with some historical players not being generated at 17 in the correct year fixed
-Editing a player's contract after July 1, 2017 no longer results in the previous year's contract being visible and saving an extra year to the player's contract even if no edit is made
-Teams that make the first round of the 1974-75 playoffs will no longer get the X under "Playoffs" in their history screen until 1979-80 even if they didn't actually make the playoffs in the later seasons
-AI teams in historical games with drafting turned off will no longer trade draft picks.
-Player's demand in contract renewal negotiations will no longer occasionally be blank.
-KHL trade and offer sheet deadlines no longer perpetually one season in the future.
-1991 Dispersal Draft results no longer mixed into the Entry Draft history for that year.
-Attempting to click on retired players in team transaction histories will no longer result in a crash.
-Users will no longer get 3-4 news stories for some international tournament awards.
-"Reject" option for junior international job offers should now work properly.
-News reports from U-18 tournaments should no longer occasionally display the logo of a CHL team.
-League Player Stats screen will no longer go blank if the filter is set to the playoffs.
-User will no longer be asked to choose the captain for another team in some circumstances.
"X had a great game" message now reports total icetime instead of even-strength icetime.
-No longer possible for players to leave the penalty box prematurely when serving a minor + misconduct.
-Potential December crash fixed.
-Possible crash when saving historical games after 2017 fixed.
-Crash when attempting to sign a foreign free agent after demoting foreigners to reserve list fixed.
-The stats listed for Star Players on the pregame screen will no longer start games played as -1.
-Misnamed Italian U20 logo fixed, logo will appear correctly now.
-Defunct teams no longer appear in the free agent preview news message in historical games.
-Scouts in historical games will no longer end 16-week assignments prematurely under some circumstances.
-Links to playoff game boxscores from schedule screen in historical mode will work now.
-Problem preventing playoff game-by-game results from appearing in player screen while in historical mode fixed.
-Potential June 30 crash in fictional games fixed.

Data Changes:
-All NHL and AHL players and high-level free agents thoroughly updated to reflect current season performances.
-Starting injuries adjusted to reflect length of time players actually missed (note that this won't be an exact match due to variability in the injury recovery system.)
-Player ratings in the early pre/post-NHL expansion years (roughly 66-69) got a big upgrade to current ratings standards (they were some of the earliest ones added 4-5 years ago and most were a bit too low); part of an ongoing process to eventually get every historical player fully detailed ratings.
-Various individual player data errors that affected historical development fixed.
-QMJHL goalie with skater ratings has had those removed so he no longer gets mentioned as having the best shot in the league.
-Lots of adjustments to nonplayer transactions data to remove some more development traps for young players.
-Nonplayable transactions in North American junior leagues adjusted to route fewer players to Junior B out of bantam and midget, and more players to Canadian High Schools in provinces where that's becoming more common (primarily BC and Alberta.)
-Historical fighting ratings toned down to lower excessive penalty totals in some years in annual recalculation mode; still needs additional work, but getting closer.
-Top prospects for 2017 OHL, QMJHL, and WHL drafts added (will be in 2019 and 2020 NHL draft classes.)
-Staff who've already signed for Las Vegas next year had their roles changed to their future roles for the Golden Knights, as needed.
-UFA ages in early post-cap era corrected.
-Team data in several nonplayable European leagues updated.
-Kunlun Red Star given a farm team (Harbin of the Chinese league, formerly farm team of China Dragons of ALIH; their farm team changed to Qiqihar.)
-NHL Draft eligibility date corrected.
-WHA award names added.
-Most league trading and transfer tendencies increased.
-Average transfer prices lowered slightly.
-Various miscellaneous changes to other leagues and many players and staff.

Miscellaneous Changes:

-Major change to save system: saving now uses a two-stage process that will make saves a little more resilient to crashes/shutdowns while saving - it creates temporary save files first and then only replaces the real ones with them if the save process works properly, so a save crash no longer results in a bunch of 0-kb files and the death of your save. Very slightly slower, but a lot safer.
-Rolling saves have also been added as an option on Start Screen - Settings - Misc. If this is active, the game will keep the two previous saves in the rs_one and rs_two sub-folders. Bear in mind save files can be pretty big, so if you're really tight on drive space this may not be a good idea unless you clean your save folder out frequently.
-Eligibility for expansion drafts (including historical) changed so third-year players (as of draft day) are now eligible and need to be protected.
-Fictional games using the NHL setup and real players will now also get the real staff.
-Quickstarts will now copy the current graphics folders (jerseys, logos, etc.) to the new quickstart; also fixed some previously-unnoticed problems with other files not being copied properly.
-Historical games now default to monthly, instead of weekly, saves.
-Various grammar/spelling changes to text.
-If a user-created player's age is <18, his NHL and KHL rights are now set to "None"; if he's <16, QMJHL and OHL rights are set to "none", and if he's <15, WHL rights should be set to "none" (should eliminate the need to set this manually and the confusion over why created players weren't getting drafted)
-Nationality for created players no longer defaults to Venezuela.

Have you not picked up Franchise Hockey Manager 3 yet? Well there's no better time than right now! Save 50% on FHM3 during our All-Star Game discount, available until February 3!

Have you not picked up Franchise Hockey Manager 3 yet? Well there's no better time than right now! Save 50% on FHM3 during our All-Star Game discount, available until February 3!

The new update for Franchise Hockey Manager 3, version 3.2.89, 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. Saves with the April crash issue some users had with version 3.1.84 will, however, be fixed retroactively when the game is loaded after the updates and can be continued normally.

There's an early Christmas gift from us in this update, just in time for the upcoming world juniors: Junior tournaments have been added to international play - all of the Under-20 and Under-18 tournaments are included, down to the Division III level. A few notes on how they work:

-all Under-20 and Under-18 world tournaments are now in the game, from the world championship level down to Division III, including promotion and relegation
-GM/Coach jobs for the junior national teams may be offered to users just like the regular national teams
-NHL players will not participate in the tournaments (dealing with the issue of giving individual permission to participate players on an NHL roster is a little too complicated for the AI to handle at this point, we could've made it work eventually but it would've held up the update too long)
-WHL/OHL/QMJHL players will participate in the Under-20 tournaments, but will only play in the Under-18's if their team's season is finished (the U18's are in the spring at the same time as the major junior playoffs, basically the same situation as the NHL and the World Championships)
-junior teams will tend to have the same tactical preferences as the senior national teams (but the tactical choices will always be primarily driven by theier GM/Coach's tendencies)
-note that not all countries participate in one or both of the junior tournaments - there are a few, mainly at the lowest levels, that participate internationally only at the senior level, or in only one of the junior levels
-players on the rosters (or at least predicted roster) for teams in the 2017 U20tournament that starts next week had a data update to try to get the AI's player choices in the first year fairly close to real life, but bear in mind there tend to be a lot more surprise choices and omissions at this level than there are for senior tournaments, particularly for the countries with really deep talent pools
-you may notice that the Division I-A through III tournaments do not name an MVP, this is intentional as the real tournaments only name best forward, defenceman, and goalie, with no overall MVP
-performance in the junior tournaments does not affect the national rankings

Next time out: the next update will likely be out sometime in January (although we will do a hotfix if any gamebreaking issues with this update become evident.) It will probably focus on interface changes and improvements, particularly making the new tactical system a little more intuitive and user-friendly, as well as some development changes once we've had time to do a thorough evaluation of the effects of this version's development-related changes.

Change List:

Crashing/Freezing:
-potential crash in April (of any season) fixed; includes a retroactive repair to existing saves with the problem
-historical game freeze during June 30 - July 1 changeover in 2015 fixed
-possible crash in historical games during the NHL draft lottery fixed

Graphical/Text/UI:
-"View" option added to international tournament schedules (as was done with the leagues in the last update - i.e. you can now watch international games you're not coaching in)
-minor typo and tooltip corrections
-large number of nameless retired players no longer shown in league Front Office view in modern games

Gameplay Issues:
-bug that allowed the user to sign too many players (then get stuck because the game was unable to advance due to the roster size) fixed
-players on INT (international play) status are now correctly counted against the cap floor, so you can't fall under it if you have a lot of guys playing internationally
-national player generation quality levels adjusted significantly (down in almost all cases) to tone down the excessive growth in the NHL-caliber player pool in later years, particularly for certain nationalities; long-term testing with these changes is showing good results in a game running to 2049-50; now that this is done, we'll look at refining specific areas of ratings development
-nonplayable transactions in North America adjusted to fix potential traps in lower-level junior leagues that could keep good players stuck in Junior C/D; still some issues with it happening in Junior B, but we'll be revisiting that
-nonplayable transactions for some European teams/leagues will now be more likely to send young players to American junior leagues (and occasionally high schools); seems to be a growing trend in real-life, particularly in some countries, the numbers should be similar to the real totals (but highly variable since they're still a relatively small group of players)
-player junior preferences (i.e. the choice between college, major junior, and European junior) adjusted, a larger number of players of all nationalities will choose college
-missing data for NHL entry-level contract maximum values added in the period 1995-2004, should improve contract handling, particularly rookies, in this period

Miscellaneous:
-added more generated players at the start to make sure there's enough to fill the national team rosters
-reputation/quality data adjusted in the top two French leagues (had been a little too low, making outside players look too good relative to domestic ones), players in the Ligue Magnus should now be about 0.5 stars higher when viewed by a user playing there
-issue with nationality selection for generated players in custom sandbox games fixed (had been limiting players to a very small list of countries and creating far too many from some)
-various data updates and changes

The new update for Franchise Hockey Manager 3, version 3.2.89, 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. Saves with the April crash issue some users had with version 3.1.84 will, however, be fixed retroactively when the game is loaded after the updates and can be continued normally.

There's an early Christmas gift from us in this update, just in time for the upcoming world juniors: Junior tournaments have been added to international play - all of the Under-20 and Under-18 tournaments are included, down to the Division III level. A few notes on how they work:

-all Under-20 and Under-18 world tournaments are now in the game, from the world championship level down to Division III, including promotion and relegation
-GM/Coach jobs for the junior national teams may be offered to users just like the regular national teams
-NHL players will not participate in the tournaments (dealing with the issue of giving individual permission to participate players on an NHL roster is a little too complicated for the AI to handle at this point, we could've made it work eventually but it would've held up the update too long)
-WHL/OHL/QMJHL players will participate in the Under-20 tournaments, but will only play in the Under-18's if their team's season is finished (the U18's are in the spring at the same time as the major junior playoffs, basically the same situation as the NHL and the World Championships)
-junior teams will tend to have the same tactical preferences as the senior national teams (but the tactical choices will always be primarily driven by theier GM/Coach's tendencies)
-note that not all countries participate in one or both of the junior tournaments - there are a few, mainly at the lowest levels, that participate internationally only at the senior level, or in only one of the junior levels
-players on the rosters (or at least predicted roster) for teams in the 2017 U20tournament that starts next week had a data update to try to get the AI's player choices in the first year fairly close to real life, but bear in mind there tend to be a lot more surprise choices and omissions at this level than there are for senior tournaments, particularly for the countries with really deep talent pools
-you may notice that the Division I-A through III tournaments do not name an MVP, this is intentional as the real tournaments only name best forward, defenceman, and goalie, with no overall MVP
-performance in the junior tournaments does not affect the national rankings

Next time out: the next update will likely be out sometime in January (although we will do a hotfix if any gamebreaking issues with this update become evident.) It will probably focus on interface changes and improvements, particularly making the new tactical system a little more intuitive and user-friendly, as well as some development changes once we've had time to do a thorough evaluation of the effects of this version's development-related changes.

Change List:

Crashing/Freezing:
-potential crash in April (of any season) fixed; includes a retroactive repair to existing saves with the problem
-historical game freeze during June 30 - July 1 changeover in 2015 fixed
-possible crash in historical games during the NHL draft lottery fixed

Graphical/Text/UI:
-"View" option added to international tournament schedules (as was done with the leagues in the last update - i.e. you can now watch international games you're not coaching in)
-minor typo and tooltip corrections
-large number of nameless retired players no longer shown in league Front Office view in modern games

Gameplay Issues:
-bug that allowed the user to sign too many players (then get stuck because the game was unable to advance due to the roster size) fixed
-players on INT (international play) status are now correctly counted against the cap floor, so you can't fall under it if you have a lot of guys playing internationally
-national player generation quality levels adjusted significantly (down in almost all cases) to tone down the excessive growth in the NHL-caliber player pool in later years, particularly for certain nationalities; long-term testing with these changes is showing good results in a game running to 2049-50; now that this is done, we'll look at refining specific areas of ratings development
-nonplayable transactions in North America adjusted to fix potential traps in lower-level junior leagues that could keep good players stuck in Junior C/D; still some issues with it happening in Junior B, but we'll be revisiting that
-nonplayable transactions for some European teams/leagues will now be more likely to send young players to American junior leagues (and occasionally high schools); seems to be a growing trend in real-life, particularly in some countries, the numbers should be similar to the real totals (but highly variable since they're still a relatively small group of players)
-player junior preferences (i.e. the choice between college, major junior, and European junior) adjusted, a larger number of players of all nationalities will choose college
-missing data for NHL entry-level contract maximum values added in the period 1995-2004, should improve contract handling, particularly rookies, in this period

Miscellaneous:
-added more generated players at the start to make sure there's enough to fill the national team rosters
-reputation/quality data adjusted in the top two French leagues (had been a little too low, making outside players look too good relative to domestic ones), players in the Ligue Magnus should now be about 0.5 stars higher when viewed by a user playing there
-issue with nationality selection for generated players in custom sandbox games fixed (had been limiting players to a very small list of countries and creating far too many from some)
-various data updates and changes