As someone who enjoys SLH progressive leagues and HBD I'll weigh in on what shobob said he wanted for Frozen Dynasty. I agree with most of it.
- The fist world NEEDS to be named GRETZKY!!
agreed
- HBD is the gold standard. It would be great to see all of the elements that HBD has, as close as can be replicated for NHL hockey.
As much as I love hockey I understand that its probabally the least popular sim on this site. That being said, having the HBD as a base engine to go off of might be possible (I hope) to save time and money.
- I think aginor's idea about having the draft take place at the same time as training camp is decent, but that could be problematic for noobs. I'm leaning towards having the draft take place during the playoffs.
Probably a good idea.
- 3 draft scouting departments to budget for: Major junior (CHL), US college, and Europe/international.
Also a good idea.
- There's probably no need for an equivalent to the international free agent scouting department of HBD, since in the NHL the equivalent to these players more often than not tend to be undrafted training camp invitees. I don't see a real need to have these players have any higher ceilings than HBD's tryout camp pitchers. I can live without the Tyler Bozaks and Jonas Gustavssons (guess who's a Leafs fan?)
I don't see a problem with doing this. Yes it might not be realistic but its fun to have to spread your budget out more, creates for different teams. Martin St. Louis and Brian Rafalski wern't drafted.
- I know that trading draft picks is allowed in real life, but I just can't see how it would be a good thing here. Way too many pitfalls.
I say if you purchase seasons ahead of time and assign them to teams ahead of time you should be able to trade draft picks. Its too important of a bartering chip in hockey for both teams. If you want to shoot yourself in the foot its fine but no sense causing trouble for new owners. This should also help up sales. You wanna make this trade? Buy another season.
- Just like it was necessary to simplify the arbitration rules a bit for HBD, I wouldn't mind if something similar happens here.
- Two levels of minor leagues, AHL and ECHL, but there could also be the option to send your draftee back to junior/college/Europe after training camp and a 9 game big league tryout for a season or two.
Again, creating ficticious levels of minor leagues isn't a bad thing. Having 3-4 farm teams plus a rookie tournament (like the leafs, sens and blackhawks do) would make managing teams much more managable.
- Signing an RFA (restricted free agent) a la Dustin Penner should not result in losing first round draft picks from future seasons, since I'm sure that, just like in HBD, a first round draft pick is going to be much more of a "sure thing" than they are in real life. I suggest that clubs can lose up to their first three/four draft picks from the current season as compensation for signing a good RFA.
- Let's have a salary cap and floor, just like real life NHL.
All dynasty and sim leagues have this. Its a good way to even the field.
- Don't change a thing about the NHL playoffs
- It pains me to say this, but I guess for the same reasons as HBD, we'd have to have a balanced schedule. I would prefer if the schedule could be just slightly unbalanced, though. For example with a 32 team world, comprised of two conferences of 4 divisions of 4 teams, a team could play all of the other teams in their own conference (15 other teams) 5 times, equaling 75 games. Then, on a rotating basis, they could play one game each against the teams in two divisions in the opposing conference, for a total of 83 games. An awkward number to be sure, but I can't see any other way. That would require at least 4 schedules to be created - ie teams in Eastern conference, Northern division would play home games vs Western conference North, and road vs Pacific one year, followed by home vs South, and road vs Central, followed by road vs North and home vs Pacific and finally road vs South and home vs Central. Also, there would have to be alternation from season to season of the home/road balance of the 5 games played against the conference mates (2 road and 3 home one season, followed by 3 road and 2 home the next). Perhaps with a 30 team world (two conferences, 3 divisions of 5), there could be 5 games against teams in your conference (70 games), and one game each against the 15 other teams in opposing conference, switching who gets to be home and road every other year, for a total of 85 games. This latter one would be problematic, because of a greater imbalance between road and home games.
- I don't want to see less than 30 teams per world.
- Two cycles per day, broken down into half cycles as well (am1, am2, pm1, pm2). I wouldn't mind seeing the cycles broken into thirds either (am1, am2 am3, pm1, pm2, pm3). That would make a season about the same length as an HBD season, assuming a schedule has 80 or so games in it.
- Training camp wouldn't need to be as long as HBD's spring training, which would allow for a longer playoffs.
Same setup as SLH except with added days for pre-season and off season. Just like HBD.
- Manager settings to allow for allotting ice time. Depending on the makeup of your team/lineup, you might want to play your first line a great deal more than your third, or you could roll three scoring lines more or less equally. Same thing for defensive pairings - you might have two studs that can play half of the game, or you might want to spread the ice time out.
- There could be "roles" assigned to lines. You might use your third line as the "checking" line, or it could be a third scoring line, with the checking role going to the fourth line.
- I can see how home ice advantage can come into play, with the home side having last choice for which line to put out there, such as looking to take advantage by having your first line come out against the opposition's weakest defensive unit, and having your best checkers out against the other team's top line, etc...
- Pull ratings for goalies (as in how much patience does the coach have with "bad goals"- Mike Keenan or Pat Quinn?), as well as what situations to pull the goalie for the extra attacker and for how long.
- Systems, such as the trap, left wing lock, aggressive forecheck, dump n' chase, could be assigned to teams or lines, depending on the score/game time left.
- We need to have the game's results being influenced by the long change (second period and first OT etc), punishing teams that have players with lower stamina more than the teams with players who have good stamina.