From the Happy Holidays email sent out from OOTP Developments (not a complete list)
Windows and Mac support
Two game modes: Modern and Historical
2012-13 game start with these playable leagues: NHL, AHL, ECHL, QMJHL, WHL, OHL, KHL, DEL, Elitserien and EIHL
Over 1,000 teams, comprising nearly 100 leagues, that are non-playable but are stocked with real players
Start any NHL season from 1947-48 through today, with players appearing on their actual teams or in a draft
Real stats, finances, and rules
Detailed player model with over 30 skills in 5 main categories
Trades, player transfers, RFA/UFA signings, and more
Set lines and tactics and make changes on the fly during games that feature a huge, editable play-by-play database
News engine featuring a database packed with thousands of articles
Stat keeping, including CORSI and Fenwick
Almost everything is editable, from logos and colors to data to league rules and more
Fantasy Draft
Expansion Drafts will be included. You can move teams, "delete" them or add new teams, players from deleted teams become FA`s, if you add new teams you can hold an expansion draft (existing teams can protect players). All this is possible before any season you want.
Basic online league support
Game Features of what is known so far: (compiled from the games official forum by some folks at EHM The Blueline)
Quote:
Game Features
- Dynamic news and event system (based on XML files).
- OOTP Baseball style news and storylines will feature in the game.
- Plenty of statistics - it is what OOTP Devs are know for after all!
- FaceGen is technically very easy to implement into the game. However, whether or not it will be implemented depends on the cost of purchasing a license for the game.
-The game has 7 skills each in Offense, Defense and Physical + 9 skills in Mental + 11 skills in Goalie + 10 hidden skills. Makes a total of 51 primary skills, not counting e.g. positions or different body part proneness.
- The in-match mode will be similar to that of other text sims such as EHM and FM. The game will run with commentary for notable events. The clock can be stopped at any point in order to allow for changes of strategies or to look at player stats. This is a lot different to OOTP Baseball, but this is due to the nature of hockey.
- A 2D engine will not make it into the first version of the game. It will be a text commentary only. A 2D engine could be included in a future version depending on time and available manpower.
- The exact location of important in-match events will be displayed along with a short description of the event (e.g. shots, hits, etc).
- Player scouting reports will contain estimations of hidden attributes.
- It will be possible to trade up/down draft picks but conditional pick trades might not make it into the first version (and there are concerns over how easy it might be to fool the AI with conditional picks).
- Players will have their own personalities in the first version. Attributes will include Team Player, Ambition, Loyalty and Sportsmanship.
- Contract negotiations will be handled in the same way as OOTP - i.e. you can negotiate with players without delay, but after you have reached agreement with the player, he will wait a few days to see if a better offer comes in from another team.
- Lines will play better together if they have played with each other for some time. Constantly changing the lines can be detrimental to players' performances. The game will not however have any Team Chemistry rating per se.
- Matches will be text-based only (i.e. no 2D).
- It will be possible to play just as a GM and leave the AI Head Coach to deal with tactics and the line-up - or vice-versa. There will be three gameplay modes: GM, Coach and GM+Coach.
- Fighting will feature in game and there will be a Fighting attribute. However, the hockey gameplay is rightly the developers' priority and so the fighting engine won't be an ultra-complex alogrithm.
- As of February 2012, it was unclear whether individually assignable player tactics would feature in game.
- A "don't fire me option" will be included.
- A hidden Coachability attribute will be assigned to each player to determin how effectively a player follow the input of his coach. This attribute will be used during both training and games. A player with a higher coachability attribute will respond/improve better during training and will follow the tactics more accurately during games.
- It will be possible for a player to acquire a new nationality.
- As of February 2012, the game doesn't use player/staff language knowledge. However, the players' Adaptability attribute will determine how well/quickly the player adapts to a new country.
- It might be possible in the first version to lure coaches/scouts away from their teams. If the coach/scout does not get the chance to accept a new (better) job, his contentment should decrease and it will be harder to renew his contract.
- Ticket price / arena management will not feature in the future version. It might feature in a later version.
- Dynamic team rivalry is something the developers have thought about, but it is unlikely to feature in the first version.
- The match engine will take into account home ice advantage and a team's fan support.
- The game will not have a network mode where people connect and play a multiplayer game. The game will implement online leagues in a very similar way to OOTP. The initial version might not be that deep, but the plan is to develop it to ultimately be on a par with OOTP 13+.
Here's the latest update on the new hockey game from the developers of OOTP Baseball. Taken from their official forum:
Quote:
Since we added a few things for the historical mode into the second pre-beta version I can talk about it a bit:
First of all, the modern game has absolute priority for us in version 1. That said, right now I would say that changes are good to have at least a basic form of historical play.
As others already wrote, with hockey it is much harder to have a historical mode comparable with OOTP. We can't generate ratings from stats, the NHL player database we use is less detailed then the Lahman DB for baseball, we do not have Play by Play data for old seasons.
So what can you (realistically) expect from us in version 1: a database with all NHL teams and players (with bio data and basic career stats). We found a way to rate player without rating them for every year they played in the NHL: basically, each player will get ability ratings for 5 points in his career (start, pre-prime, prime, post-prime, end) and a pre-defined template that describes him best so we can generate plausible skills for every year he played. It will be possible for the researcher to rate prominent player in more detail if the templates are not enough.
So what you most likely can expect from version 1 is the ability to start the NHL in the past, continue through the years, rookies will show up in the draft pool (or assigned to the real teams, your choice), finances will be modified to reflect the time and stats will reflect the years as well (at least stuff we have data for: scoring level, penalties).
I don't want to promise more, time will tell how much resources we can use for historical mode. But hey, even with "just" basic possibilities it is more then most other hockey games offer.
Sweet. I haven't played OOTP, but I've heard tons of great things and it always seems to get rave reviews.
If it's coming out later this year, it's a must-buy for me when it goes on sale during Steam's holiday sales. If not, then next year's summer sale (NHL 13's BAGM mode is a huge improvement over last year's, so that should tide me over).
Really looking forward to this, the OOTP games haven't dissapointed me since god knows when... And with the amount of editable content even one version could last us years, although I would buy it if they release a new version yearly without hesitation.
The main thing that pissed me off in EHM was the high scoring and how 50 players would be ppg players every year, that will most likely be editable in FHM. Another thing that I love about the OOTP series which I hope this game will have is those rare late round gems that can sometimes become superstars through an improved progression after being drafted.
As long as they get realistic scoring, a good scouting and drafting system and good player progression then I'm a happy camper.
First post is regarding historical play, I for one am drooling over this, especially considering early on during development they had said to not expect historical play for the first release. Anyways seems like this is a late 2012 release for now.
"That said, let's start with the basics: the game will let you pick a season and play from there - if you want to start in 1955, you get the teams and rosters that actually existed then. Every year, the new rookies will be added, and depending on your preferences, you can have them either show up on their historical teams or be available for drafting and signing. Hate that your team traded away a future Hall of Famer for a guy that broke down a couple of years later? Now you can avoid the mistake. Were they ruined by year after year of incompetent drafting? Well, do it yourself and see if you can make better picks. Been waiting four-plus decades for a cup? Go win one yourself."
Oh man... my loyalty to EHM 2007 might become questionable with this game coming out. For sure going to drop the $40 or however much it costs to check it out.
I was really surprised when I saw the provisional release date. It's been so long since EHM went under and there have been so many pretenders that a wait of a few months seems almost too good to be true.
EDIT: I have been following WTHM now FHM, but I hadn't seen this quote from Habsfan18:
Quote:
"That said, let's start with the basics: the game will let you pick a season and play from there - if you want to start in 1955, you get the teams and rosters that actually existed then. Every year, the new rookies will be added, and depending on your preferences, you can have them either show up on their historical teams or be available for drafting and signing. Hate that your team traded away a future Hall of Famer for a guy that broke down a couple of years later? Now you can avoid the mistake. Were they ruined by year after year of incompetent drafting? Well, do it yourself and see if you can make better picks. Been waiting four-plus decades for a cup? Go win one yourself."
I thought this was still a 'maybe next time' kind of thing. As a Canucks fan, this pleases me greatly. So much botched history.
I was really surprised when I saw the provisional release date. It's been so long since EHM went under and there have been so many pretenders that a wait of a few months seems almost too good to be true.
EDIT: I have been following WTHM now FHM, but I hadn't seen this quote from Habsfan18:
I thought this was still a 'maybe next time' kind of thing. As a Canucks fan, this pleases me greatly. So much botched history.
