Offseason questions and problems

[Leander]

Hi.

My first season is finished. After the playoffs the offseason was just strange. In another thread someone said that cpu teams never trade players due to a bug. That's right.

I only had one trade in the offseason when two rookies got traded. Rookie A for rookie B.

Question 1

Aren't the grades the same during scouting and after the draft?

I drafted a center with a B in blocking. After the draft I looked at his ratings and he had a 71 in blocking. I forgot to retire a jersey number and loaded the end of season 1 again...drafted the same player with the same grades...but this time he had a 81 in blocking. Is this a bug?

After the first draft I compared this center to another player of mine...and the rookie had a FG of 34. I reloaded the end of the season, drafted him again...but this time his FG was 51.

=> ???

Question 2

Free agency does not work either, like trades. When a contract expires and the player decides to leave the team he still finally ends up with the same team again. Free agents leave, do not resign...but later all sign with the same team again. With the trade bug and this odd thing the teams always have the same players.

Moreover, San Antonio does not have Barry, Bowen and Stoudamire anymore...all of them have ratings of 63 or 64. They have three low-rated rookies instead. At the start of the second season the FA pool is cut to two handful of players. All of them have ratings between 57 and 67 and nobody can sign them as all teams but one do not have cap space left.

I will sim some seasons to see how this develops.

[Andrew]

1. Your scouts' grades don't necessarily point to the same ratings every time. Consider that your scout's initial grades might not be accurate; even Rick Barry was dismissed as being "too slight" and "just a shooter" when he was drafted.

2. This is how it generally goes if no one's under the cap. They'll decide not to re-sign immediately but not being able to sign elsewhere, end up re-signing anyway. It's preferable to NBA Live 2003 and NBA Live 2004 where they'd just sit in the Free Agent pool if they didn't re-sign and isn't that unrealistic if no one's under the cap but I agree it's a bit annoying all the same.

[Leander]

Thanks. When Marbury becomes a free agent he demands 97 millions for 7 years. Other players demand contracts with 80 millions and above, too.

It is strange that nobody complained about Live 2005's dynasty problems before. Maybe I will create a fantasy trade generator like my injury generator.

[Andrew]

I remember some complaints back in the day. I think some people were just relieved not to have stars sitting in the free agent pool until they retired though.

[SWJ06]

It's wierd I seem to remember NBA Live 2001 Dynasty mode having a lot less problems, and three way trading owned in my opinion, plus having multiple human franchises at once was pretty cool. Could dynasty mode be taking steps backwards? .

[Andrew]

NBA Live 2001's Franchise Mode had its own issues. I would say that a lot of progress has been made since then in different areas.

[SWJ06]

Yea I agree 01 had some issues too. It was cool to get all those computer trade requests though and have comps trading with comps. And multiple dynasties...that's what I miss the most for competing with friends.

I think the problem with free agents has more to do with everyone pretty much always being over the cap...at least in the early years. I am on year two right now, I took some dynasty points to take over the New York Knicks after creating a great Spurs Team and winning the NBA Title enroute to going 74-8 in the regular season. I figured trying to make another good team would be a fun challenge--and it has been so far. I am 1-3 but I think I have a good enough team to reel off a lot of wins and I had 30k dynasty points to use to start the season.

Off-season for trading and all was great, I got 8-9 deals done until I got roughly the team I wanted though I still lack a really reliable down-low presence but have enough guard play to compensate. So yea, that's my solution to the computer trade problem, keep taking new offers to fix up dynasties so teams are trading each year.