The second content update for FHM11 is here! In addition to fully updated rosters in all leagues (as of February 4), we've also added the old Western Hockey League (1948-74) as the third playable minor league in historical mode, made a number of changes to improve 2D mode's realism, as well as the usual bug fixes and other adjustments. Historical and league-specific penalties for 2D mode, which we'd hoped to include in this update, have run into a few complications so we've pushed those back to the next (post-trading deadline) update. That one is likely to be a fair bit larger than this one, as the hotfix two weeks ago included a number of the fixes that would've gone into this update. It will also include the last of the new playable historical minor leagues, which will cover the later years (1984-2001) of the International Hockey League. That update will be released sometime in mid-March, after the NHL trading deadline.
Your existing savegames will be compatible with the updated game. Some fixes, however, are data-dependent and may require starting a new game before you see them.
Additions, changes, and fixes:
-current database updated, rosters current as of February 4 (the Pettersson extension with Vancouver is the earliest NHL thing that's not in)
-Western Hockey League (1948-74 version, not the junior league) is now playable in historical mode; everyone who played a WHL game in this period has been added to the database; note that some teams in this league will continue into the CHL when the WHL folds in 1974
-large number adjustments to 2D mechanics; in particular, scoring should now be lowered to a realistic level, the shot totals for defencemen substantially reduced, shots blocked increased, and forwards should be shooting from long range more often
-the schedule screen will now show the correct number of points for teams in leagues that allow ties (had not been counting the tie points)
-the scorers list on the schedule screen will no longer be cut off in high-scoring games
-newly-acquired players in multiplayer games will now get a number other than 0 assigned
-KHL teams can now have their VHL farm team relationships edited (in commissioner mode on July 1)
-when using the "end of season" setup in historical, players with both minor league and NHL history in that season will no longer be assigned to the minor league team
-the AI should now select captains for expansion teams properly
-fixed loophole allowing the AI to ignore contract limits in some situations
-farm teams will no longer be added automatically (when an NHL team is created) to playable minor leagues in historical mode (had been breaking the schedules in the minor leagues)
-when an expansion team is added to a league, its founded date will now be set to the current year
-corrected GA tooltip on player stats screen (it's giveaways but was showing up as "goals against")
-shooter/blocker names are no longer reversed on the 2D game's shots display
-made it more difficult for players to develop their defensive skills to elite levels when not playing in a top-level league
-NHL player ratings reviewed and adjusted for 24-25 performance
-2025 IIHF tournaments now have their correct participants
-fixed missing history for Latvian league
-updated some missing logos from new national teams that started playing this year
-updated presets file for the "current" start to correct some injury lengths, add a few missed injuries, and update NHL captains
-fixed issue preventing some 2023 and 2024 drafted players from appearing in historical games
-adjusted default percentage of talent from stats in new historical games down to 20% (modern/custom games unaffected, still at 40%.) The higher percentage was putting the AI at too much of a disadvantage relative to human players, who have (or can easily look up) better information on the player's actual ability/potential. In standard and custom games, the user doesn't know any more about the future of the players, so they're equally misled by the influence of the stats and the higher percentage doesn't create an imbalance.
-updated recent team history for Champions Hockey League and Memorial Cup
-recent NCAA commitments updated
-new Chinese league updated with the 24-25 teams and rosters (non-playable)
-added new player cards for 1960-1969, 1970-1979, and 2000-2009 periods
-the new player card info.txt options for alternate formatting of team and player names that were added in FHM8 should now be working properly again
-conflicts with a parent team's players will now be cleared properly when a player is traded by that team while on their farm team's roster
-fixed players getting the same nationality listed twice in historical mode