A new update for Franchise Hockey Manager 4, version 4.6.75, has just been released.

We went a little heavier on the fixes this time, so there's less new content than the Christmas update - although we did add a few small new things as well as doing the usual roster update (Vegas, for those who've been asking, is playing signficantly better now.) In particular, we think we've made some major inroads in fixing some ongoing stability issues with the interface. We'll be doing one more major update for FHM4, likely appearing in early March in order to get all the final NHL trading deadline moves in (although it's also possible we may release some smaller fixes as well, if necessary.) The ongoing work on AI line and roster selection will be continuing; a major fix in this update related to players playing out of their primary position required some time to evaluate properly, so it wasn't a good idea to get as aggressive with the changes as we'd hoped; there'll be more coming in that area next time. Once that's all done, we'll be moving on to FHM5 development. As usual, we'll be monitoring our 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. Thanks for your continued support.

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.

Changes and Additions:

-interface crashes when attempting to click on player names fixed
-added exit autoplay option to stop the game when players above a specified level become available on waivers in the user's league (defaults to stopping for all waivers, a threshold can be set to only show players at or above 1/2/3/4/5 stars)
-rosters updated to (approximately) January 21
-a large amount of historical draft data for many leagues has been added. Not completely implemented in historical mode yet after running into some issues there, but it'll be coming soon
-Olympic breaks from 2018 schedules removed from schedule files used for non-Olympic years, should prevent the scheduling conflicts with international tournaments that were happening in later seasons in some leagues
-NHL all-star game no longer stops being scheduled if league is expanded
-fixed problem with the NHL draft lottery in expansion years that prevents the lowest-ranked teams from receiving the top pick
-lineup selection AI now checks position-adjusted fit score for players before choosing them for a line (had been using the pre-position adjustment value, which led to players with low position scores being selected for those positions)
-fixed records file setup in the current rosters quickstart, so records and leaders will now generate and be updated properly in games started using Current Rosters
-expansion teams should now have leaders/records recorded correctly
-the Swiss National League relegation final no longer stops after 4 games, regardless of results
-the Champions Hockey League Group 5 schedule is no longer unbalanced
-fixed Bruins historical challenge achievement (was requiring 4 cups instead of 3)
-II-divisioona teams finishing high enough in the Suomi-Sarja/II-D relegation tournament should now be promoted properly
-fixed situation where ex-KHL player waived by NHL team could be claimed on waivers by KHL teams
-fixed Pittsburgh historical challenge trigger conditions
-in the in-game stats display, all of the columns should now be sortable.
-young players who were in college in the start year of a new historical game should now be unsigned (but their NHL rights owned) instead of starting with a contract (won't work for all of them, some data needs to be added to the db to identify them as college players, which will take a while because it has to be edited in player-by-player)
-AI will be less likely to choose a low priority for the "Start the Best Goalie" criteria if he has a high-quality goalie (even if the backup is also very good)
-the NHL playoff tree used from 1928-1938 should organize the opening round series a little better, so the 2v3 series are on the same side as each other
-player rights in nonplayable leagues that use rights will no longer occasionally show rights belonging to a team in a different league
-fixed issue with users getting job offers with negative salary values (usually from low-level leagues)
-fixed potential crash when clicking on a line in the staff history of a GM in a historical game
-Stanley Cup achievement should now be awarded correctly when the Cup win also completes a historical challenge achievement at the same time
-sorting for stats views should no longer get reset when the user clicks on a player and then returns to the stats screen using the back button
-Suomi-Sarja award winners should no longer be named while playoffs are still underway; leading scorer award will also not show up multiple times in winner's history
-the CHL-type (i.e. Western/Ontario/Quebec leagues) in custom games is now available again for league setups that don't use the NHL format for the top league
-fixed issue causing the power play 4on3 LD spot to show 1/x for most players and tactical roles
-fixed problem with historical mode where defunct NHL teams could appear as options for the user to take over during setup, and, if the setup was continued, would sign players and make trades (but not play games)
-issue with RFA's with open offers being selected in expansion draft, then the expansion team being unable to match the offer (reported fixed in 4.5.59, but is apparently still occurring) should be fixed properly now
-news stories about teams winnin multi-league tournaments (Champions League, Memorial Cup) should now user the name of the tournament instead of their home league
-in the team history skater stats, goalies should now get their GP added after the start of the game
-sorting one of the leaders views in the team home screen should no longer break subsequent attempts at sorting that list
-numbering on the in-game shot chart seems to be showing now correctly shows the shot number iustead of the overall event number
-goals now shown in gold text in the highlights section of the in-game view
-CHL import draft now properly alternates picks through the leagues
-the "edit league and playoff rules" in the custom setup now allows the number of penalty shots to be specified
-right-click option to dress/scratch players will no longer occasionally become inaccessible
-discount the trade AI applied to overage players in junior leagues has been significantly reduced, so the AI will no longer give up these players so cheaply
-player buyouts in leagues that have a cap and also allow mid-season buyouts will no longer result in cap penalties in subsequent seasons
-AHL, ECHL, and SPHL historical stats re-imported to fix some issues with players stats being assigned to the wrong team
-reduced trade valuation for "iron curtain rule" players in historical games, so the AI can't be exploited by offering it superstars who are years away from being able to play
-2017 draft no longer empty in historical games
-historical games started in 2016 will no longer have all previous draft data missing
-potential historical crashes on July 1 in 1927 and 1978 fixed
-fixed crash when watching Memorial Cup games that go into overtime
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