The first non-hotfix update for FHM11 begins to move beyond correcting bugs and making realism adjustments, although those things remain the main focus. Most importantly, it adds the current database start option with updated rosters. The next update will be out before Christmas and will have larger content additions, including implementation of the recent NCAA division to allow the recruitment of former major junior players.
Your existing savegames will be compatible with the updated game, and some saves that previously had crashes, particularly around the time of the Olympics or when inter-league tournaments have been added) should now work after the update. Some issues, however, are data-dependent (e.g. incorrect historical records) and may require a new game before you see them.
Changes:
-added "current" roster start option for new modern games; rosters are as of approximately November 10 for most leagues and November 17 for the NHL (Staff in some leagues still needs updating, will be doing that in the next version)
-fixed potential crash during the Olympics in modern games
-"Finish ahead of rival" owner goal now checks the comparative standings of the two teams correctly
-owner request to acquire players with chemistry with one of team's current players will only be issued if that player has good or better chemistry with someone on another team
-player screen will now show all player chemistry for the player, instead of only chemistry above a particular ("good") level
-staff in major junior leagues will no longer start with extremely high salaries if their reputations are above a particular level
-adjusted salary generation for assistant coaches and scouts in junior and college leagues, they should now be in line with GM/Head Coach salaries
-fixed text color on some headers in the awards section of the league data screen to make it more readable
-AI will now ignore internal restrictions on sending players to the minors if they were acquired recently if their team has so many recent arrivals that its options would be limited to a very small number of players
-the "Commitments" tab on the draft screen during college signing day in the first few years will now also show players with a real-life verbal commitment to the team, instead of only game-generated commitments
-players will now always ask for No-Movement Clauses for very high-value contracts
-the player and staff search screens now default to having the Retired Players and Retired Personnel filters set to Active-only (so you'll need to switch those options to show retired players/staff)
-if the NHL is imported into a custom game with international play, the NHL players will now be available for selection for the World Championships teams
-corrected various errors in league/tournament winner histories
-Champions Hockey League now has the correct teams for 24-25
-the NHL contract bonus system will no longer be used by AHL teams in historical mode
-the Liiga-Mestis promotion/relegation series should now work properly
-the Mestis and Liiga bronze medal games are now back to a 1-game series (were accidentally changed to best-of-7)
-players who clear waivers in the NHL will now be exempt from further waivers for the next 30 days from the date they were waived
-on the team finances screen, the middle column now shows the correct tooltips
-the World Junior Championship in historical now records gold-silver-bronze history correctly for simulated tournaments in its history
-fixed standings column errors in some international tournament histories in historical mode
-fixed potential crash with some inter-league tournament configurations (this will also fix the problem in existing saves)
-AI will no longer force trades for some players the user attempts to send to the minors
-Champions Hockey League games involving the user's team now show up properly in the calendar at the top-right corner
-in a 6-team league, the same team will no longer occasionally appear on both the best and worst draft lists in the post-draft report
-added the teams' regular season records to the playoff preview message
-fixed column width error on the League-Edit-Expansion Drafts screeen
-AI trading should now occur at normal frequencies in custom leagues again
-adjusted Junior Preference generation for newly-created players to reflect recent trends (e.g. more Europeans to US colleges) and the probably impact of the NCAA decision to allow former major junior players (which will be implemented in the next update)
-made a large number of changes to the Job Security calculation, which will now be affected by many more factors; particularly, it will be easier to recover from low security if the team starts winning
-if historical editing is turned on, teams will no longer change their colours on July 1 if "Update Team Names" is unchecked
-the "(other team) can't afford to add this much salary to the payroll" message will no longer appear in the trade interface when the team actually has enough payroll (and budget) room
-the "Signable" filter in player search now properly filters for league age restrictions when playing in a major junior league
-fixed QMJHL and Tipos Extraliga schedule lengths in post-2024-25 seasons
-added "Overage: X/Y" counter at the bottom of the team roster screen in leagues with an overage player limit
-the team popup now properly adds +1 to Team GA for shootout losses
-the "Tallest Team" order in the Demographics Report now sorts correctly
-in historical mode, the player search screen will no longer allow you to right-click and attempt to make a contract offer to a retired player
-players with long-term injuries will no longer agree to mutual contract termination
-the "signable" filter for the search screen will no longer include some players who are under the league's age limit
-when playing as an AHL team in historical, the free agent centre will no longer show players under the league's minimum age
-changed leadership award criteria to weight captains/assistant captains more heavily
-when setting up a custom game, the "Play International Tournaments" option is now on by default and will need to be turned off if international play is not desired
-during setup of a custom junior league, the "Edit league playoffs and rules" popup no longer has some overlapping sections
-added the "Minimum GP" filter to League-Historical-Player Index screen
-the team logos for international teams in historical should now change properly with the season, e.g. no Red Ensign for Canada after 1964 in games started before that year
-the "can't add this my salary to the payroll" response will no longer occasionally appear in the trade interface when trying to make a trade in the WHL/OHL/QMJHL
-AHL affiliations will now be set properly in historical challenges
-fixed potential schedule error in World Junior Championships
-players from outside Russia/Belarus/Kazakhstan will now be counted as foreigners in the VHL and Belarusian leagues (instead of considering everyone from the former USSR as a non-foreigner)
-Belarusian league teams will no longer exceed the BXL's allowed foreigner limit
-made several adjustments to lower starting weights for newly-created players and make the weight ranges more specific to the exact age of the generated player
-height creation for generated players now adjusts for exact age of player (rather than just having two generic "junior" and "non-junior" groups)
-previous fix to initial player major role selection should now work properly (e.g. the two-way defenceman role will now be selected when appropriate, instead of only happening a very small percentage of the time)
-Liiga 23-24 player histories should now appear
-if an AHL team sends a player contracted to its NHL parent to its own farm team, the player's contract is now properly counted against the NHL team's contract limit
-adjusted goalie starts to reduce the excessive number of starts for the team's best goalie
-fixed various small text and formatting errors, and various data issues