Eastside Hockey Manager

hey there,

i'm a huge fan of sports games that have very involved managerial aspects to them. one of my favorite games is high heat baseball 2003 because it includes a 25 round draft as well as a full minor league system. to me, that is more important than gameplay, and from what i hear EHM is very good for this kind of thing. Can someone answer a couple questions for me?

1) What's the basic breakdown of the game? what does it include and what makes it so great?

2) What's the latest version that is available? I've seen somethings for franchise (maybe) edition, but i can't seem to find that one anywhere. is it out yet?

3) whichever is the latest, where can i find it? is it a download and pay later type of thing, or is it in stores?

any help anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated. i'm dying for a new GOOD sports game, unlike NHL 2004.

thanks :)

Sicilian, I've copied this thread to the Fantasy Forum (http://www.hfboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=61) for you. Riz and a lot of his followers congregate here, but you may get more responses in that forum. Be sure to check both.

1) The freeware game EHM revolves only around the NHL which is the only playable league. The game is all about handling the GM duties of your team and some coaching as well. It has a good community around it to support with latest rosters and other extra packs. One of the best places to visit for updates would be fhockey.com. What makes it a good game ? A lot of people enjoy the game in their own ways and should be able to specify their reasons...my opinion might be a bit biased ;)

2) Latest of the freeware version is 1.18 but I recommend 1.16 because it is the fastest of the two and does not lose much in features. The "franchise edition" version is a commercial sequal to the freeware game and it is called "NHL Eastside Hockey Manager". The new game will include multiple leagues from around the world aside from the NHL and it is being developed at Sports Interactive who have a strong experience in making sports management games (soccer in the past, nowadays hockey and baseball as well). The game will be out in stores in July (Europe). You can find more info on the new game at www.sigames.com

3) For the freeware game, see the site mentioned in answer 1. For the NHL EHM, you'll just have to wait a bit more.

Thanks for listening to this broadcast, hope it answered your questions tonight :)

:handclap: bless you both, i really appreciate your help! i'll check out those places and hopefully come away with a good time :banana:

1) The freeware game EHM revolves only around the NHL which is the only playable league. The game is all about handling the GM duties of your team and some coaching as well. It has a good community around it to support with latest rosters and other extra packs. One of the best places to visit for updates would be fhockey.com. What makes it a good game ? A lot of people enjoy the game in their own ways and should be able to specify their reasons...my opinion might be a bit biased ;)

2) Latest of the freeware version is 1.18 but I recommend 1.16 because it is the fastest of the two and does not lose much in features. The "franchise edition" version is a commercial sequal to the freeware game and it is called "NHL Eastside Hockey Manager". The new game will include multiple leagues from around the world aside from the NHL and it is being developed at Sports Interactive who have a strong experience in making sports management games (soccer in the past, nowadays hockey and baseball as well). The game will be out in stores in July (Europe). You can find more info on the new game at www.sigames.com

3) For the freeware game, see the site mentioned in answer 1. For the NHL EHM, you'll just have to wait a bit more.

Thanks for listening to this broadcast, hope it answered your questions tonight :)

Is it strictly management, or you can also play games or at least view the games from above?

Is it strictly management, or you can also play games or at least view the games from above?

You can view the games as they are being simulated. There is even a slider that adjusts how fast the simulator goes.

In the freeware, you can view games on the screen as they progress by getting a text commentary and an indicator on whereabouts the puck is.

In NHL EHM you'll get the play-by-play and an indicator like in the freeware, but you can also get "snapshots" of the player positions on certain events such as goals and penalties. It is management only, so you won't control players directly. And it does not have a real time 3d or 2d view of the game, just the play-by-play.

also can you take advantage of loopholes that deal with compensation picks? Can you do 3 way trades? How fast do young players improve, because in NHL2004 it was almost impossible to get a young player to improve and to start scoring no matter how much icetime you give him.

In the freeware, you can view games on the screen as they progress by getting a text commentary and an indicator on whereabouts the puck is.

In NHL EHM you'll get the play-by-play and an indicator like in the freeware, but you can also get "snapshots" of the player positions on certain events such as goals and penalties. It is management only, so you won't control players directly. And it does not have a real time 3d or 2d view of the game, just the play-by-play.

Is play by play in audio or text only? So basically there is no graphical part to it, only still screens?

The commentary is just text, there is no audio in the game whatsoever.

here is another hockey management game that is coming out soon:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sports/icehockeymanager2005/index.html

In the freeware, you can view games on the screen as they progress by getting a text commentary and an indicator on whereabouts the puck is.

In NHL EHM you'll get the play-by-play and an indicator like in the freeware, but you can also get "snapshots" of the player positions on certain events such as goals and penalties. It is management only, so you won't control players directly. And it does not have a real time 3d or 2d view of the game, just the play-by-play.


I LOVE the free version of this................what exactly is the retail version you are talking about and is it gonna be available in the US cause I will buy it right away!
:yo:

here is another hockey management game that is coming out soon:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sports/icehockeymanager2005/index.html

Wow, this looks pretty badass as well! Man, when this an NHL EHM come out I am going to have my hands full...

You gotta stick with EHM lads, Riz is one of us! I'm playing CM4 right now, and by the time I'm ready to give that a rest I'm hoping its cousin will be in the stores.

Demo is available at http://www.gamershell.com/download_demo.shtml

looking at the stats here it says Holik is 6'2" isn't that wrong? Why does Betts have such low Mental attributes? Isn't Lundmark a "bit" overrated? Balej has no pic and has unknown place of birth?

Demo is available at http://www.gamershell.com/download_demo.shtml

looking at the stats here it says Holik is 6'2" isn't that wrong? Why does Betts have such low Mental attributes? Isn't Lundmark a "bit" overrated? Balej has no pic and has unknown place of birth?

I just checked Holik's height and it seemed to be a rounding problem. The database takes in both imperial and metric values and Holik's height was wrongly rounded down. Issue has been fixed.

Betts: maybe because the Calgary researcher (where he was when he was rated) did not think that much of him ?

Lundmark has been downgraded in the latest database (the db in the beta is even older than the beta itself and it was missing the latest updates from our researchers)

Balej has a birthplace in the latest db but he was not among the players who got their photos taken at the start of the season and thus he has no picture in the game. If you want, you can add in your own pictures if your favourite player is missing. The game can pickup jpg and png format files from the data\pictures\players folder if you name the file <FIRSTNAME_LASTNAME_DD_MM_YYYY.jpg> (the date should be his birthdate). The ideal size is between 155x200 and 200x200 pixels.

Just a reminder...this is a BETA demo and we will use the feedback to tune the final version. There will be a proper demo done after the game has been completed.

Absolutely loving the demo. Great job riz and your team...

I just checked Holik's height and it seemed to be a rounding problem. The database takes in both imperial and metric values and Holik's height was wrongly rounded down. Issue has been fixed.

Betts: maybe because the Calgary researcher (where he was when he was rated) did not think that much of him ?

Lundmark has been downgraded in the latest database (the db in the beta is even older than the beta itself and it was missing the latest updates from our researchers)

Balej has a birthplace in the latest db but he was not among the players who got their photos taken at the start of the season and thus he has no picture in the game. If you want, you can add in your own pictures if your favourite player is missing. The game can pickup jpg and png format files from the data\pictures\players folder if you name the file <FIRSTNAME_LASTNAME_DD_MM_YYYY.jpg> (the date should be his birthdate). The ideal size is between 155x200 and 200x200 pixels.

Just a reminder...this is a BETA demo and we will use the feedback to tune the final version. There will be a proper demo done after the game has been completed.

Cool thanks for clearing it up. Also noticed some scouts get payed a lot more than others, is that normal? Is Rockstrom's salary only $30,000?

Yeah, more proven scouts with higher attributes will command a higher pay package..

As for whether its actually 30K I dont know how the researchers established that.

i got a "version" of the game at www.fhockey.com i know its a differant game but its very simalar from what i understand. if there are differances in the 2 i dont know what they are. the only ones i know about are the coaching tactics and the entry draft. the version i have is a 5 round draft i think the other one might be 8 or 9 rounds. the navigation is slow on both games from what i understand.

i got a "version" of the game at www.fhockey.com i know its a differant game but its very simalar from what i understand. if there are differances in the 2 i dont know what they are. the only ones i know about are the coaching tactics and the entry draft. the version i have is a 5 round draft i think the other one might be 8 or 9 rounds. the navigation is slow on both games from what i understand.

I'll start with the easiest differences:

Freeware:
-1 playable league, about 3000 players and non-players
-shortened versions of the waiver and entry drafts
-in-game engine that simulates the games in 10 second slices, no player position tracking

NHL EHM:
-10+ playable leagues, 15,000+ players and non-players
-full waiver and entry drafts where applicable
-in-game engine that simulates the games in 1 second slices, player positioning tracked to 5 feet accuracy

I'd be happy to go into further detail but those, but I need to continue my Rangers season so I'll get over the first season and into signing Prucha and Marek to see how they handle NHL action :D

Riz, I have to say, the interface is really annoying me. It takes so many clicks to get simple tasks done. Most notable to me is the trading mechanism - it takes ages to set up a trade, and then if the trade is rejected it takes another age to set it up again and try and tweak it.

Also, I'm hoping this is just a BETA issue, but in the final, can we expect a sort-of-CM4-esque 2D match screen?

Riz, I have to say, the interface is really annoying me. It takes so many clicks to get simple tasks done. Most notable to me is the trading mechanism - it takes ages to set up a trade, and then if the trade is rejected it takes another age to set it up again and try and tweak it.

Also, I'm hoping this is just a BETA issue, but in the final, can we expect a sort-of-CM4-esque 2D match screen?

The trading interface has been already streamlined based on the feedback. After clicking "Add Players", you'll now be able to add/remove players from the trade in the roster screen with one click.

No 2D real time game presentation. We've said this from day one, since the codebase is the previous generation than that of CM4. It will probably take me about half a year (atleast) of dedicated time to get a reasonable version of a realtime 2D engine going.

I'll start with the easiest differences:

Freeware:
-1 playable league, about 3000 players and non-players
-shortened versions of the waiver and entry drafts
-in-game engine that simulates the games in 10 second slices, no player position tracking

NHL EHM:
-10+ playable leagues, 15,000+ players and non-players
-full waiver and entry drafts where applicable
-in-game engine that simulates the games in 1 second slices, player positioning tracked to 5 feet accuracy

I'd be happy to go into further detail but those, but I need to continue my Rangers season so I'll get over the first season and into signing Prucha and Marek to see how they handle NHL action :D

allright, so i have a question for you then. would this program overwrite the current one i have or could i have the 2 seperate games?

allright, so i have a question for you then. would this program overwrite the current one i have or could i have the 2 seperate games?

Yes you can. They are two complitely separate games. And as you can run the new one also in a windowed mode, you can even play the two games at the very same time, side by side :)

First of all, congratulations to what appears to be a great game Riz.

Secondly, I have a question. If I remember correctly, some player attributes could change a lot during the course of a players career in CM, while others didn't change much. Will this be the case in EHM as well, and if so, any chance that you could reveal which attributes will change and which will remain relatively static?

a question:

will it be out for mac as well as PC?

a question:

will it be out for mac as well as PC?

We are working on a Mac version as well and the game should be out as a dual format disc.

We are working on a Mac version as well and the game should be out as a dual format disc.


I'm getting the jonses :banghead:

There is another hockey sim software out there called APBA hockey. I have used it for 3 years now. Its completely free and is true share ware. Every season the folks who use the software rate the players. There is a disk management team who tests the results and updates the disk.
You can download a working copy at http://www.othl.net/Utils.asp
There are quite a few leagues with a variety of options. Some have finances, other don't. If you are interested in a league send me an PM
DP

We are working on a Mac version as well and the game should be out as a dual format disc.

awesome!!!!!

:banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:

I`ve downloaded the EHM demo and I absolutely love it. I`m currently ranked 6th in the East with only 2 games to go. However...there seems to be a problem. When I come to March 31 it wont go any further. I`ve tried several times, and so has my brother in his game, but none of us are able to get to April...

Anyone else with the same problem?

Love the game but it needs to be streamlined.

I played a demo from earlier and it just doesnt seem as user friendly. Everything seems to be a task and a half.

I'll be honest with you, i kind of liked the interface from the older version better. It just seemed to work a lot better.

It also seems to take longer to go through each day, but basically i'd like to see it streamlined more. From a marketing perspective, if the game is going mainstream it's going to scare a lot of people off.

But I have high hopes, Eastside forever has a place on my computers.

Edge, you have come across the same thing that most of the people who have been playing the freeware game for years and have not played any of the CM games in the past. I've come across several people in the last few weeks who hated the beta interface and were very vocal about it. And most of those people who have actually continued playing the beta after the initial shock of "it's not the old windows interface" have lately come back on our boards posting that the interface is actually damn good. Go figure :)

It's all just a matter of getting used to the new layout which is more geared towards running a world of hockey rather than customized around running a single team in one specific league (as was the case in the freeware).

We will be working on streamlining things and we have already taken steps based on the beta feedback to simplify a few things and we hope to continue to do so in future updates based on customer feedback. After all, its not just us at the office who play the game all day long :D

^^ Well in reference to that post, I totally agree with Edge and I've been playing Champ since CM1.

Edge, you have come across the same thing that most of the people who have been playing the freeware game for years and have not played any of the CM games in the past. I've come across several people in the last few weeks who hated the beta interface and were very vocal about it. And most of those people who have actually continued playing the beta after the initial shock of "it's not the old windows interface" have lately come back on our boards posting that the interface is actually damn good. Go figure :)

It's all just a matter of getting used to the new layout which is more geared towards running a world of hockey rather than customized around running a single team in one specific league (as was the case in the freeware).

We will be working on streamlining things and we have already taken steps based on the beta feedback to simplify a few things and we hope to continue to do so in future updates based on customer feedback. After all, its not just us at the office who play the game all day long :D

I think it's just a matter of getting used to it. It was the same with the old Windows interface that every seems to love now. I can guarantee you that those same people were a bit overwhelmed by the freeware EHM the first few times they played it. Hell, I was the one who introduced Edge to the original EHM and the first thing he said to me after he installed it was "There are so many tabs!" But in any deep game, there's going to be a learning curve.

I've just been trying and trying and i can't get used to the new gameIf the freeware had a lot, perhaps this one just has too many for my tastes. I mean i actually took it off my computer after a couple of months of feeling like it was just too much.

It reminds me of the out of the park series for baseball sim fans.

Great depth, but it just doesn't hold you in.

I think EHM strength is in it's ability to turn the casual gamer into a fanatic. People are willing to overcome some feelings of being overwhelmed but you push it and suddenly you start losing people.

I think the game has a chance to be the next underground sensation like baseball mogul was for years, but i worry that this game might just be a little "too" much for that happen in its current state.

Sim games seem to work best when you can focus on your role in a specific world and interact with the depth around it. You put people in charge of the whole world and suddenly it starts to lose something.

But on that note i really want it to work because the more these clowns keep making updates for the old game, the more bugs and bone head moves that pop up.

For example i am playing a game update i got from f.hockey and the bonehead forgot to finish the 2008 schedule. The result? I have no playoffs to speak of, and I';m hoping i can actually start a 2009 season.

There's only one Riz and he's probably the only one who could have pulled this thing off {which is proof positive now}. Just don't make the mistake a lot of games make. Don't try to reinvent the wheel when you already got something the people like and want.

The Gold Demo for NHL EHM is available now, both PC and Mac.

Here is the final list of the 18 playable leagues and their details:

Leagues with official licences, team logos, background photography and player pictures (all where available)

# NHL
# Czech Tipsport Extraliga

Leagues with official licenses, logos and player pictures (where available)

# Swedish Elitserien

Leagues with official licenses, team logos and background photography (where
available)

# UK Elite League
# UK British National League

Leagues with official licenses and logos.

# Norwegian Elite League
# Slovakia Elite League
# Swedish - Allsvenskan

Leagues with official licenses.

# Canada (WHL)
# Canada (OHL)
# Canada (QMJHL)
# Denmark Super Best League
# Austria Erste Banke Eishockey Liga
# French Superleague

Other playable leagues

# Russia
# 3 Finnish leagues

The gold demo is downloadable at SI Games website (http://www.sigames.com/news.php?type=view&article_id=953) and there is also a pack of faststarts available for those who want to start a game outside the NHL/UK leagues that are in by default in the gold demo.

There is also a microsite available at Sega Europe for the game: http://www.sega-europe.com/nhlehm/

man, i'm getting quite excited now. Anyword on the exact release date? I've heard july, but is there a specific date set yet?

edit: september? :(

Riz, do you know if EHM will be released in Norway? I sure hope so.

Thank you

Riz, do you know if EHM will be released in Norway? I sure hope so.

Thank you

Yes, it should be out 2nd of July in Europe, including Norway. I think it is already in the Top-10 of preorders from Norway at cdon.com

There is a list of confirmed retailers for Europe here: http://www.sigames.com/news.php?type=view&article_id=954
and it seems to have a few already for Norway.

Yes, it should be out 2nd of July in Europe, including Norway. I think it is already in the Top-10 of preorders from Norway at cdon.com

There is a list of confirmed retailers for Europe here: http://www.sigames.com/news.php?type=view&article_id=954
and it seems to have a few already for Norway.

Great! Thank you

Yes, it should be out 2nd of July in Europe, including Norway. I think it is already in the Top-10 of preorders from Norway at cdon.com

There is a list of confirmed retailers for Europe here: http://www.sigames.com/news.php?type=view&article_id=954
and it seems to have a few already for Norway.


we have to wait for a September release in the States and or Canada?

:dunno:

we have to wait for a September release in the States and or Canada?

:dunno:

Only for retail release. You can still order it online and have it shipped from Europe on July 2nd. Plus the game will be available for digital download (get it right away, and don't have to pay shipping costs!).