So I've finally completed a major upgrade that will be in the next version of NHL36 & NHL32!
- The USHL is now playable again as a human GM with no crashing errors.
- The NCDC (National Collegiate Development Conference), the 12-team top tier of USPHL junior league (United States) is now also fully playable. This all Tier I & Tier II American junior leagues (USHL, NAHL, NCDC) are fully integrated into the DB.
- The biggest news though is that the entire Canadian Junior ('A') Hockey League system is also fully implemented. This is 133 team junior teams spanning 10 conferences across Canada (BCHL, AJHL, SJHL, MJHL, SIJHL, NOJHL, OJHL, CCHL, QJHL & MHL). It includes winners of the Doyle Cup, ANAVET Cup, Fred Page Cup and Dudley-Hewitt Cup moving on to the Memorial Cup style RBC Cup competition which crowns the top Junior A club in Canada each year.
Sneak peak screens below. I still have to add competition awards for each league and the RBC Cup but when complete, this will be a fully-functional setup the records history and awards.
Also included will be a revised full North America logo pack matching "dani9" style logos for all clubs and competitions in North America in NHL36 & NHL 32. Clubs, colors, logos and league setups updated for 2018-19, including the entire CJHL system (with color coded competition logos for the CJHL regions). The logo pack will also include all N.A. updated logos for teams such as the San Jose Barracuda, Guelph Storm and others new for 18-19. Plus the Penguins logos have been updated to the proper shade of yellow. As always, you'll need to make sure you have dani9's most recent logo packs (both club and national) installed first - then you'll apply the NHL36/32 North American logo updates on top. Besides updating logos, it should not affect the logo setups for other DB's, merely add proper subfolders and names for NHL36/32 DB clubs.
You'll notice on the setup screen the newly playable junior leagues. Selecting the RBC Cup will automatically select all the CJHL competitions (similar to selecting the Memorial Cup for the CHL leagues).
As mentioned, fully updated leagues structures and logos. To make the setup work correctly, the leagues were grouped as conferences by Cup competition.
The CJHL Pacific has the BCHL & AJHL. Schedules are based on real schedules so no cross-over until the Doyle Cup Final. Winners are crowned for the BCHL & AJHL after full regular seasons and league playoff brackets and the BCHL champ and AJHL champ then square off in a 7-game series for the Doyle Cup and the Doyle Cup winner moves on to the RBC Cup.
The CJHL West has the SJHL & MJHL. Schedules are based on real schedules so no cross-over until the AVANET Cup Final. Winners are crowned for the SJHL & MJHL after full regular seasons and league playoff brackets and the SJHL champ and MJHL champ then square off in a 7-game series for the AVANET Cup and the AVANET Cup winner moves on to the RBC Cup.
The CJHL Central has the SIJHL, NOJHL & OHJL. Schedules are based on real schedules so no cross-over until the Dudley-Hewitt Cup Final. Winners are crowned for each of the SIJHL, NOJHL & OJHL after full regular seasons and league playoff brackets and the three league champions then square off in an elimination tournament for the Dudley-Hewitt Cup and the Dudley-Hewitt Cup winner moves on to the RBC Cup.
The CJHL East has the CCHL, QJHL & MHL. Schedules are based on real schedules so no cross-over until the Fred Page Cup Final. Winners are crowned for each of the CCHL, QJHL & MHL after full regular seasons and league playoff brackets and the three league champions then square off in an elimination tournament for the Fred Page Cup and the Fred Page Cup winner moves on to the RBC Cup.
The CJHL RBC Cup Tournament features 5 teams; the 4 regional Cup champions and a randomly selected host city club. These 5 teams play a 4-game round-robin tournament. The top 4 move on to a seeded "Final Four" - with the champion claiming the title as "Top Junior A Club" in all of Canada (albeit - there are a few American teams in the CJHL!).
The CJHL & NCDC are important feeder leagues for the NCAA and, in the case of the CJHL, also cross-pollinate with the CHL (Major Junior hockey). Because each CJHL league has a slightly different schedule, I modified all the schedule templates to produce a consistent 56-game slate for each league. There also may be slight rule tweaks that need to occur (all CJHL models based for now on CHL rules). But overall I'm pretty thrilled with how this turned out. I can't guarantee that playing as a human GM in these leagues will be totally satisfying (for example, the USHL still doesn't even have a draft) but they should add depth
I highly, highly recommend turning on both "Add Extra Junior Players" and "Add Extra Players to Playable Teams" if you want to GM any of the teams in these leagues as it will help stock the rosters. All the CJHL rosters have been cleaned up and include many real life prospects (especially those already committed to NCAA programs) but certainly not enough to stock all the teams without extra players being added by the game.
ETA on this update should be early this week, perhaps Monday or Tuesday. My next project will be to get the U Sports (Canadian colleges) playable so that the entire North American university system and all major feeder leagues are fully in the game!
P.S. - Big props to
@Holden Caulfield at HFBoards for suggesting this CJHL formatting - it actually works almost perfectly! Thanks for the inspiration Holden! The only thing that doesn't work exactly correct are the Central and East finals because I can't set a 4th "host club" within the parameters of a playoff but still, you get the three division winners, top seed with a bye and ultimately one wins so the net effect is still the same.