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FHM 8
FHM8 Manual
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Welcome to the user manual for Franchise Hockey Manager 8!

Franchise Hockey Manager 8 is the newest version of hockey management game that has now been in development for over a decade. We continue to build the series with FHM8, bringing new features and innovations to build on a successful foundation.

FHM8 has many options designed to allow you to create your ideal hockey simulation, and this manual will illustrate and explain how to go about doing that.

You can navigate sequentially through the manual by using the "Next Page" and "Previous Page" links at the bottom of the page. If you enjoy reading manuals, the manual is designed to gradually build your understanding of the game in a naturally flowing order. You can also click on the headings along the left if you wish to jump to a particular section of the manual.

You can use also the search function in the top right to search by keyword.

We hope you enjoy FHM8 as much as we enjoyed making it for you!

-The OOTP Developments FHM8 team

What's New in FHM8

  • New Financial System: the game's financial mechanics have been completely updated, allowing you much greater control of your financial system by deciding how to bring in more income and where to spend it on a monthly and annual basis, including adjusting your salary budget, changing your spending on player development and/or scouting, improving your arena, or even building a new one. The new system even tracks things like sales of player jerseys, allowing you to see which of your players are most popular with your fans.

  • On-Ice Decisions: While playing games in 2D mode, you now have the option to directly suggest to your players what they should do next - and they might even listen to your request.

  • In-Game Feedback: While viewing games in 2D mode, you will get feedback if your current tactical tendencies aren't working well or are inappropriate for the situation, and have an opportunity to adjust them.

  • Postgame Analysis: A new postgame screen provides additional insight into the performance of your players in each game.

  • New On-Ice Player Behaviour: Players will alter their playing style depending on the game's events - for example, a player who is subject to a lot of physical punishment may become intimidated, or a defender who repeatedly lets puckhandlers around him may start positioning himself more conservatively. This feature is integrated with the new In-Game Feedback system, so you may be able to take steps to counteract those situations.

  • Fully-updated rosters, teams, leagues, and stats for the 20-21 season. And as we did with Vegas in 2017, you'll have the option of playing as Seattle and re-doing the expansion draft, or using the Kraken's real lineup.

  • Junior, College, and European leagues in historical games have been significantly fleshed out, so young players will no longer just be free agents before they're signed/drafted and will instead be assigned a league. As part of these changes, the Sponsorship/Affiliate system that was used by the NHL up until the 1960's is now sdimulated as well.

  • European teams will now be able to take steps to improve the quality of the young players entering their youth systems.

  • Trading difficulty can now be adjusted, allowing for easier or more difficult trade negotiations.

  • Special Abilities: this new system adds more individuality to players by special attributes and abilities to simulate things beyond what can be modeled by the regular ratings system - big hitters, players with exceptional charisma, particularly skilled fighters, goalies who like to try for a goal on an empty net, faceoff cheaters, and many more.

  • The 2D game system has undergone many changes to improve player behaviour, animation, and statistical output, and now has a "highlights" option that'll allow you to view only the game's key moments.

  • The in-game news will now show rumours about potential trades and retirements, particularly around times (like the trading deadline) when they're likely to happen.

  • Commissioner Mode can now be enabled while in Challenge Mode (but doing so takes the game out of Challenge Mode.)

  • An additional Leaders screen has been added, showing the players leading the league in Game Rating, Offensive Game Rating, Defensive Game Rating, Rookie Points, Shifts, Giveaways, Takeaways, Hits, Fights, and Game Winning Goals.

  • A number of new goalie stats, including shooting percentage on different shot locations (glove, blocker, etc.), are now tracked.

  • A new "Auto Play Until End of Today" option has been added that sims all the current day's games without advancing to the next day.

  • Players now delay their response to any contract offers in the first week of July, allowing entry drafts to occur before any free agent signings, but still permitting negotiations with the players during that period.

  • Player scouting reports have been redesigned to provide more information and a more readable format.

  • Custom games can now add tournaments that allow the participation of teams from multiple leagues (similar to the Champions League or Memorial Cup.)

  • Custom games can now add new leagues after the game has started.

  • Players now have a user-editable Notes view that can be used to record your own notes, reminders, etc. regarding them.

  • The trading interface will now show the trading partner's current cap situation.

  • The changes to 2021 NHL Draft Lottery mechanics have been added.

  • A new "hockey card" style for displaying player portraits on some screens.

  • A new "Triple Gold Club" screen tracks players who have won an exclusive trio of championships: the Stanley Cup, Olympic Gold, and a World Championship.

  • Revamped league and tournament history Records and Leaderboards screens - and the tournaments now have their own game records screen.

  • The Champions League draw is now handled by an event screen similar to those for Awards and Draft Lotteries.

Along with the usual long list of smaller improvements, fixes, additions, and changes.

Manual Contents: