A new update for Franchise Hockey Manager 4, version 4.4.56, has just been released.

This is the first update with a significant amount of non-bugfix level changes. We're still making those small fixes and adjustments (and have more to go), but the long-requested player comparison screen has been added, some noticeable performance improvements have been made, as well as a big under-the-hood change to the way historical player ratings are handled. Bug reports have dropped off significantly in the last couple of weeks, so it looks like we'll now be able to spend more time on adding content and other projects that require more coding and testing time; we've got a few things in mind in addition to the stuff that's commonly come up on the forums. That being the case, the next update (aside from any needed hotfixes to this one) will likely be a month or more away, targeted for sometime in the pre-Christmas period.

As always, we'll still 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.

Changes:

-Player Comparison screen added (right-click on a player to get the option to compare one player to another)
-rewrote certain functions to decrease processing time, should increase speed of a full modern season with all leagues active by 9-10 minutes on a fast system
-fixed issue with a large number of guys being created with the last name "Unknown" in modern games
-in the Injuries section of the pregame and postgame reports, all injuries are no longer are being shown in the "Out" category - players with minor injuries (i.e., orange cross instead of red) should be listed under "Day-to-Day"
-reduced long delay when processing the "signable" filter
-the NHL playoff historical rules for 1998-2012 should now give home ice in the finals to the correct (more regular-season points) team
-in games that get "sim to start date" (e.g. modern with user employed from the start), injuries in the presets.txt file should have their duration reduced properly at the end of the simming
-the user's team is now highlighted in all-caps on the league screens (standings, leaders, etc.)
-players who have signed a contract extension in their current league, then are drafted and signed by an NHL team later in that season, will no longer have the previous extension still active, preventing them from being re-signed when the NHL contract ends
-development report will no longer show forwards occasionally getting +1 to LD or RD (this was actually just a display issue, they weren't really getting the increase)
-players in the CHL leagues (or the junior league in fictional games) who are under contract to NHL/top league teams should now change teams properly when traded within the junior league, instead of only their rights switching
-the "Not enough players to create lineup" now includes the name of the team with the problem
-when the user is in GM/HC mode and attempts to sign a head coach, he will now get a warning/confirm popup informing him that this will put the game in GM-only mode
-Champions League games should no longer occasionally show Montreal's arena as the location of the game
-fixed crash that could happen when attempting to manage players on Orlando of the ECHL
-custom games should now create and retain leaderboards/single-game records properly
-no longer possible to exploit the trade AI by adding low-value players to the other team's offer to reduce its overall value
-fixed issue causing Game Ratings to occasionally disappear from the roster screen
-adjusted waiver system slightly to fix incorrect first contract year for players who played 10+ AHL games while junior-aged (e.g. Tyler Bertuzzi)
-sorting the roster by game rating should now work properly when in the playoffs
-in custom league playoffs, home ice advantage now correctly given to team with best regular-season record
-scouting report should no longer repeat lines
-the pregame notes sections "players playing against their former team" and "players visiting their hometown" should now work properly
-fixed occasional blank spots appearing in the goalie spots in user's team's depth chart
-tactical advantage scores will no longer occasionally show incorrect, unchanging values during games
-fixeed issue that could cause incorrectly-sized fonts on Macs
-clicking the "take over" box on the expansion popup no longer crashes the game
-fixed potential error with Finnish Liiga schedule that could put one team into the playoffs in two different spots
-the action menu on the staff screen for trainers should work properly now
-fixed issue that could cause players signing ELC's in June to get wrong number of years on ELC and start contract too early
-the Team (Info) screen no longer shows the wrong abbreviation in the Team Info box (it was fixed earlier for the draft picks, but not in Team Info)
-lowered physical ratings of very old players at the start of custom games and adjusted the age range generation so there are fewer of them
-the "unused players" section of the post-game report should now correctly list players who dressed but didn't play
-corrected 2003-04 historical data so reserve list does not shrink for NHL teams in that season
-corrected 1933-34, 34-35, and 35-36 minor league roster sizes being too small
-changes in historical player generation at startup and season recalc that'll allow us to better represent player careers that weren't smooth up-and-down curves. Basically, the new system overrides the default ratings calculation for them with something more accurate for a particular anomalous season. It's going to take a long time to get the data adjusted for every player whose modelling will be helped by this, so right now the only players affected are the following guys we used as test cases because they had seasons that were good candidates for this system: Teemu Selanne, Paul Kariya, Scott Bjugstad, Jim Carey, Ken Hodge, Bill Cowley, Jose Theodore, Jonathan Cheechoo, Ken Dryden, Alexandre Daigle, Frank Boucher, Howie Morenz, Johnny Bower, Al Rollins, Chris Chelios. This change will be most noticeable if annual recalculation (instead of the regular development system) is turned on, and during the first season of either type of historical game (i.e., if you start in 2001, Theodore will be the MVP-quality Theodore of that season, instead of the career-average version you would previously get and Chelios will be the 40+ point near-Norris winner instead of the less productive guy he'd been in the prior seasons, and if you have annual recalculation on Kariya and Selanne will have their bad 2003-04 season when you get to that point.)
-several adjustments made to the goalie start system: the "after shutout" check no longer considers shutouts that were in a previous season stage, i.e. a shutout in the last preseason game is ignored when checking the first game of the regular season; random element decreased slightly; the calculation used to determine which goalie is "best" is now the same one used to determine the starter (which includes a few considerations besides talent, e.g. there's an allowance for potential)
-the top RD position in the penalty kill 4 on 5 strategy screen and goalies in the 5 on 5 screen now work properly with click-selection
-Hall of Fame announcement message should no longer show picture of another player
-bridge contract frequency reduced again, and discount cut significantly
-all-rookie team should now be announced properly
-fixed occasional issue with only being able to sign 29 (instead of 30) players while managing a CHL team
-fixed issue that could prevent the Tsujimoto achievement from being awarded
-changed the requirements for the "good game" and "bad game" sections of the postgame reports so more players will be named
-fixed some spelling errors in the default skin's stylesheet
-various smaller text and UI fixes
-updated database to include contributions from researchers up to November 12 (note that this isn't a roster update that reflects current trades, just revisions and corrections that won't change the opening night rosters.)