Simulation Procedure

[SharksGM]

These are EHEC's standard simulation procedures, both as instructions and to clarify how simmers deal with roster and lineup issues.

All sims are performed with EHM v1.16 (available here) and using the league's config_teams.ehm.

0. Check the daily page for any waivers that were not posted in the waiver thread and post them. Then, delete the last/ folder on the FTP. This will disable GMO during the sim.
1. Download the latest savefile from here. Delete the old save folder and replace with the downloaded version. This can be skipped if you simmed the previous night and did not change anything after creating and uploading the save.
2. Download the latest players.ehm (roster changes), staff.ehm (staff changes), teams.ehm (training and lines changes) from the FTP (under files/).
3. Open EHM (version 1.16) and load the save.
4. Activate any players who are day-to-day on the injured list. (If you want to check the schedule, only players who have a game the next day need to be activated).
4.1. Enter any waiver claims by waiving the player (you will need to recall them from the farm if they've been demoted), then switch to the claiming team and claim them. The claim will be processed the next day.
5. Browse to the lines/ folder on the FTP. For every team (pro and farm) that has updated lines since the last sim, switch to that team and confirm their new lines.
If lines are valid but cannot be confirmed prior to game day, make note of the relevant teams and confirm their lines after advancing to the next day in step 6. This can happen in a few circumstances - trades and waivers claims on the previous day that haven't arrived at their new team yet, and injured players who only became day-to-day on game day (these should be activated).
IF AND ONLY IF you accidentally overwrote the teams.ehm file on the FTP (thereby wiping out the newly entered lines within), you should download all of the new lines files and load them manually before confirming. This is normally not necessary.
6. Advance to the next day. Simulate every game. You may need to correct various issues:
a. Rosters - teams that have fewer than 18 skaters + 2 goalies, or more than 23 players, may need recalls or demotions.
b. Lines - teams may still have invalid lines after demoting/promoting players. Farm teams may need players activated from injury, or a fast-sign (done by pressing the auto lines button, if all else fails).
Simmers will make best efforts to fix rosters and lineups following the rules (e.g. by loading the previous saved lines file, if it is valid), but ultimately it is each GM's responsibility to maintain valid rosters and lines.
7. Save the file.
8. Check for any attempt to injure penalties and enter suspensions as required by the rules.
9. Delete (locally, not on the FTP) the old players_cap.ehm, and copy the new players.ehm to players_cap.ehm. If you are able to, run the cap calculator program.
10. Enter any instructions, including trades, signings, buyouts, returning players to junior, and extra practice requests:
- Trades are entered through the game. You should save after each trade, and reset any consistency drops.
- Signings, returning to juniors, buyouts, etc. should be done directly in players.ehm. Newly-signed UFAs should have "signed as a free agent" entered in the line two under their name. Buyouts should read "bought out".
- The extra practice button is enabled when you advance a day, so if you need to enter more than one per day, simply advanced to the next day, reload the save, schedule the extra practices, and save again.
11. Upload new versions of all of the relevant ehm files to the files/ folder on the FTP. The relevant ones are boxscores, draftpicks, players, reports, schedule, staff, statistics and teams. alltime, histories, league, and trades are not currently needed.
12. Return to the root folder on the FTP and rename the old EHEC.zip to EHECmmdd.zip, where mmdd is the previous sim's day and month.
13. Create a new EHEC.zip file and upload it.
14. Copy the files/ folder to last/. This will re-enable GMO, and allow the next simmer to do step 0.
15. Post a new thread about the simulation in the Current Season folder. If you ran the cap calculator, update the Financials post.
16. Rejoice. Hopefully this took less than 10 minutes.

[SharksGM]

Added a reminder to enter extra practice requests (along with instructions on how to do multiple per sim), as well as more obscure things like sending players back to junior and entering buyouts.

[SharksGM]

2.1. NORMALLY UNNECESSARY, but If you somehow manage to overwrite/mangle/lose the updated teams.ehm, extract the original EHEC.zip again, and load all lines files (under lines/) modified since the last sim (usually those with today's date in EST if you're doing the sim before midnight, but potentially from the previous night as well). You may need to promote/demote players to make the lines work.

Note that I added this line for backup instructions in case of future sim snafus.

[SharksGM]

2. Download the latest players.ehm (roster changes), staff.ehm (staff changes), teams.ehm (training and lines changes) from the FTP (under files/).
3. Open EHM (version 1.16) and load the save.
3.1. Browse to the lines/ folder on the FTP. For every team (pro and farm) that has updated lines since the last sim, switch to that team and confirm their new lines.
IF AND ONLY IF you accidentally overwrote the teams.ehm file on the FTP (thereby wiping out the newly entered lines within), you should download all of the new lines files and load them manually before confirming. This is normally not necessary.

Note that I updated this section due to issues found at the beginning of this season and discussed here. Unfortunately, I was wrong about updating teams.ehm being sufficient to keep lines fully in sync - new lines must also be confirmed in-game.

[SharksGM]

3. Open EHM (version 1.16) and load the save.
4. Activate any players who are day-to-day on the injured list. (If you want to check the schedule, only players who have a game the next day need to be activated).
4.1. Enter any waiver claims by waiving the player (you will need to recall them from the farm if they've been demoted), then switch to the claiming team and claim them. The claim will be processed the next day.
5. Browse to the lines/ folder on the FTP. For every team (pro and farm) that has updated lines since the last sim, switch to that team and confirm their new lines.
If lines are valid but cannot be confirmed prior to game day, make note of the relevant teams and confirm their line after advancing in step 6. This can happen in a few circumstances - trades and waivers claims on the previous day that haven't arrived at their new team yet, and injured players who only became day-to-day on game day (these should be activated).
IF AND ONLY IF you accidentally overwrote the teams.ehm file on the FTP (thereby wiping out the newly entered lines within), you should download all of the new lines files and load them manually before confirming. This is normally not necessary.
6. Advance to the next day. Simulate every game. You may need to correct various issues:
a. Rosters - teams that have fewer than 18 skaters + 2 goalies, or more than 23 players, may need recalls or demotions.
b. Lines - teams may still have invalid lines after demoting/promoting players. Farm teams may need players activated from injury, or a fast-sign (done by pressing the auto lines button, if all else fails).
Simmers will make best efforts to fix rosters and lineups following the rules (e.g. by loading the previous saved lines file, if it is valid), but ultimately it is each GM's responsibility to maintain valid rosters and lines.

Edited this section (including some reordering) with the newly-added bolded bit that evidently only lived in my brain prior to today.