FOF2004: Do rookies ever lower their demands?
 

If I have a rookie who has reject an offer at a certain level and is holding out, will he ever blink and accept that offer down the road or do I need to just keep offering him one better until he signs?

i honestly can't stand the rookie contract thing in FOF, i just give them what they want. It usually takes a couple reloads for me to find out what they want, its just so unrealistic i don't even bother with it.

In my experience, no. They want what they want and that is it.

Not really (in my experience), although I admit I don't really let them holdout while I try to hammer out a better deal for myself.

I usually take 1 shot at giving them what I want, and then concede to offering option 4 if they reject.

That game has alot of problems main reason why I don't play it.

It's not perfect, but I don't know of any game that is. I think it's easily the best version of FOF though, and that's why I play it constantly.

I just wish that 90% of the guys wouldnt want option 4, especially since after pick 10 it is only a 4 year deal. I have way too many "4 and out guys" since guys's demands are often absurd if they merely start.

Some rookies (perhaps due to agent or draft position vs perceived abilities) will never accept a particular contract. But I can't help but think that the rookie signing process is random. Why? Keep reloading, eventually, the rookie will accept the contract that you want to sign them to. (ie. option 2 or 3). It's a tedious process but it works. I don't know why a rookie will change their contract demands during different loading times but they do.

One thing I noticed, rookies seem to do what other rookies on the team have done in signing in the same stage, meaning if the first couple players you offer hold out, the others will be more likely to hold out as well. What I tend to do then, is start out by making offers to the lower picks first being they're easier to sign, and then trying to offer one of the first two options to the higher picks.

Thats always been my biggest problem with the game.... a guy starts for a couple seasons and even if he blows, he still wants a trillion dollar contract. But i still play the game because no other Football sim is even close :)

Bingo. Start with the 7th-round work toward the 1st round. I do it that way, and very rarely have more than 1 or 2 guys who don't sign at the very beginning of that stage, and it has probably been 30-40 seasons since I've had to go to training camp without every draftee signed. (And I've never had to reload...)

I've been using the 'cheat' where you sign the lower round picks first and work your way up. When backed against the wall though you always have to offer option 4, which is BS.

Contract negotiations is definately an area that needs a good bit of attention. TPF showed us how things could be done with the wide range of options available when signing free agents and rookies. It also showed that signing players bring another level of fun to the game. Outside of the poor incentive system and the new rookie negotiations, contract negotiations remain relatively unchanged since the original FOF. Its something that will be a major dissappointment for me if its not heavily reworked in the next version.

Thanks for the feedback.

I'm trying to get back into FOF, and I just had a 2nd round pick who wouldn't sign. I kept offering him option #3 and he kept holding out, well into the season. I was just wondering if at some point he'd cave and take the deal, but eventually I got tired of waiting and just gave him what he wanted.

Gee, I'm just like a real NFL GM...

In a career that I was just playing around with, I kept offering the guy option 2 until midway through the season when I finally offered option 4. I was pretty sure that he wouldn't accept my offer after the first 10 times or so.

It's worth pointing out that my team was 7-1 while the guy was holding out, so I doubt there's any sort of advanced "you need me more than I need you" logic at play here.

I'm prolly alone, but I like the rookie signings.. it's simple.

Thanks for the help though, Skydog.. I'll try that in the future.


Todd

That may be the case but I don't play FOF b/c its simple. I play it to be a simulation of the real thing. If I want simple I'll play Madden. Just my 2 cents.

I'm not talking about the game as a whole, just the signings part. I guess if it was like the FA process it would be ok, but I like it as is.


Todd

Thats what I was talking about too. The rookie signing is way too simple. Give them number 3 or 4 and they will take it, instead of trying to hammer out an unheard of number like they do in real life. I believe that the whole FA process and rookie signing as a whole needs reworking to make it more realistic.

I think the rookie signing in FOF is probably closer to reality than most of us imagine. The players are basically slotted in, with only a few real variations on the base deal.

While I guess it could use some work, I think there are a lot of things that should take precedence over rookie signing (everything involving the staff and finances for example).

Yup. I'd definitely prefer to see Jim's primary resource (time) devoted somewhere else.

Just wondering. What would you prefer him to work on?

AFAIC, Training camp and preseason. Right now, it might as well not be there...