Eric Welsh

Each time I see a new GM announced within the Fishbowl and Howitzer game worlds, I tap out a quick welcome message. Something along the lines of, 'Welcome to the LIHL. If you have any questions about how things work, I am happy to try and answer them.' I'm approximately 0 for 11 getting an answer back. I'd like to help some of these new people get involved, but it seems like most of them have a foot out the door before they even get a foot in the door.

I always figured I was participating by posting suggestions when I think of them. It'd be nice to be invited to a focus group, but I don't mind that I'm not. I trust that when myself or someone else posts a suggestion on the board, it is being brought up with the game designers and focus group and given due consideration.

Just a thought, but this could add some good depth to the game. Instead of setting up the tactics like we do now, how about hiring a coach who is known to run a specific system. If you want to run a defence-first trap-style team, hire some kind of fictional Ken Hitchcock. Have fictional bench bosses to represent each of the tactics that exist now. Imagine re-creating some kind of Broad Street Bullies scenario where your roster is populated with tough players and you have a coach who favours intimidation? Like you match your players to your systems now, you would sign players to run the system your coach prefers. If you don't, he may not give proper ice time to a certain player, or may even have the authority to sit that player out. And that player would then demand a trade! Like players, you could have upwardly mobile coaches who refuse to re-up their contract after a successful season. You could integrate coaches with the existing 'traits' system. Have coaches who clash with lazy or arrogant players. Coaches who are challenged by the idea of motivating lazy players. Coaches who have a calming influence on nervous or anxious players and coaches who push those same players into mental-breakdown territory. Loving or hating the coach could add another reason for a player to sign or not sign with your team. The coach could also factor into a team's reputation.

Thanks for all the work being done on this and I really look forward to seeing the results. I don't have a championship to my name, but I am proud to have taken my Howitzer Queenston Wolverines from 11th in the standings to IHL promotion in about 40 games, and my Fishbowl Duffield Desperados are on track to improve from ninth place to IHL promotion in my first full season. Maybe a little permanent note on my record: Good at making bad teams not quite so bad!

Hey. I run the Queenston Wolverines. Hit me up if you ever want to talk trade or anything. Eric

That's outstanding. That's one aspect that I miss from the old Eastside Hockey Manager days. Scouts were an interesting part of that sim.

Related to the topic, I agree that a couple extra 'rejection notes' would be great. Something along the lines of, 'Are you kidding me???' would go a long way.

I just got a second team in Howitzer LIHL, so hopefully that livens things up a bit. Spent the afternoon on a free agent spending spree. One year contracts to a bunch of guys who are better than what I've got!

My method of scouting the draft class involves inputting their ratings and such into a spreadsheet so I can more accurately compare Player A to Players B, C and D. It's a bit of a painstaking process the way the prospect list is set up now, where I have to click on the player, then click on 'show all ratings,' then click on 'show all traits' Rinse and repeat about 250 times. I would love, love, love it if the prospects were presented the way I view my team's roster on the 'ratings' page, where everything is laid out in a cut-and-pasteable way. Even if you're not doing some kind of foolishly labour-intensive process like mine, I think it would help less involved GMs if they could do a bit more eyeballing of the draft class before the draft. I've heard that everything in this game matters, but I don't think everyone is accounting for everything in draft evaluation, because accounting for everything is currently a lot of work.

Sounds reasonable, if only LIHL GMs in Fishbowl would return a message... ever. I love a lot of this game so much, but 23-1/2 hours out of every day is very boring.

Newish GM. What is the 'trade formula?' I have made a few offers in LIHL that the board of my team or the other team doesn't like, but when I analyze the deals honestly, I don't see a problem. I offer a 64 ova vet with great traits who would fit onto the roster of the receiving team (I always check whether that player would be a useful addition for the receiving team), and all I want back is a third round pick, which in LIHL is what, 250-260 ova or something like that? I don't feel like I'm pushing boundaries or floating a ridiculous offer out there, but the bright orange note makes me think I'm a trade criminal. So I'm curious. Does the trade formula value draft picks super high, even at the LIHL level?

Centers should always take faceoffs, unless this game has some sort of 'waved out of the circle' function. Otherwise, when I line up my four centers I expect them to be the ones taking the draws. And there should never, ever, ever be a time when a D-man takes a faceoff. I don't think I've ever seen that anywhere in real life. Something to be fixed.

That kind of mirrors real life. Often a team will 'get a spark' from the backup coming in and play better. Often a team with a big lead will 'ease up' offensively, making life easier for the backup. The backup is usually fresh and inclined to play as well as possible to take advantage of the rare ice time. This one makes sense to me. But usually there's a reason that person is a backup in the first place, and it shows up over a larger sample size.

I would like to see a deeper statistical record tracking stats/rosters from past seasons. I plan on running my team for a long time and I would like to be able to look back from time to time to see what my roster looked like in season 13/16/18, what the standings were that year, what the stats were. I currently only see basic win-loss record info. Maybe I haven't found the correct screen yet, but that's something that would interest me.

I am trying to send welcome messages to everyone coming into the LIHL. No responses from any of them though. A couple GMs in LIHL have been in contact with me, which adds to the fun of the game when you can bat around ideas on your team and theirs, but I find the game to be a lot of 'hurry up and wait.' Lots of down time between sims and if I had a few messages to answer I'd be enjoying this more. That said, absolutely enjoying the Game Plan experience so far and I am working to try and engage newbies at my level.