I Have A Roster Question

[onetime90]

Is there any why in the franchise mode after the season ends how can you stop the game from deleting freeagent players.

[puja21]

there is no real way to stop it from happening but you can recover those players.

i forget when FAs disappear (whether it's @ the start of the playoffs, offseason, or after the impending preseason), but at some point anyone who isn't on a roster gets kicked... same for retired players. until you "START NEW SEASON," however, these guys are still hidden in the file. if you use the search tool in Finn's editor you can find them & copy them over to replace any unsigned rookies who instead makeup the new free agent pool.

it's tedious & annoying but there's no way i know of to actually keep FAs around in the game. i actually use this method to decide who retires & who sticks). the deleting of FAs is a small weakness in the 2K5 franchise mode IMO, but a weakness nonetheless

[dan77733]

LMFAO. Come on PUJA21, you should know by now that if there's a trick or a way around something, yours truly (me) knows how to solve the problem. Tee hee.

Anyway, there is a way around this problem that I for one hate because, I like signing a few free agents in the retirement / resigning periods for two reasons. First, I actually want those players on my team but want to wait until the off-season to sign them and second, the players that I target arent always available in the Free Agent Wire because they get resigned.

Anyway, here's how you solve this problem. After the Pro Bowl (doesnt matter if you play or simulate), save your franchise. Then, go to the free agents section. Sign the player(s) that you dont want to see eliminated to your team. Then, release them back into FA. Just be sure that you dont give any player a signing bonus. Releasing a player with a signing bonus will cause you to receive a cap penalty which doesnt get added back to your team's salary cap until after you complete (or skip) the NFL scouting combine.

Of course, you will need at least one open roster spot to do this trick which everyone should have since you're almost guaranteed to have at least one player on IR.

And since im in a generous mood, here's a few other roster tricks -

1) Eliminate players on your team by letting them leave as free agents. After the Pro Bowl, if there are any players that you no longer want on your team, re-sign them to one year deals. Doing this will cause them to have their contracts expire once you enter the off-season. You can now let them leave as free agents. However, resigning players to one year deals may cause you to take a cap hit because of the adjusted signing bonus but dont worry, once you enter the off-season, you get back that missing cap room because the player that was resigned is now a free agent.

2) NEVER EVER release players. Of course, this is sometimes impossible depending on the player but releasing a player will cause a cap penalty if that player has a signing bonus. The problem with releasing a player is that you wont get back the missing cap room until after you complete (or skip) the NFL scouting combine. This is bad because you're losing valuable cap room that you may want or need during the Free Agent Wire. Also, never ever go past the 54 player limit in the off-season. Doing this almost guarantees cap penalties (depending on whether or not the player that you're releasing has a signing bonus) when it's time for the final cuts before you enter the regular season. Any cap penalties received after the NFL scouting combine wont get added back to your cap room until after you complete (or skip) the NFL scouting combine the following year.

3) Here's a trick that while not guaranteed to work does work more times than not. It has to do with wanting to re-signing a player that wants to retire in the retirement period. Players who want to be resigned out of retirement require a one year contract offer. Of course, this doesnt always work but guess what, there's a way around it.

If for example, you have a DT that is retiring that you dont want to lose but he refuses to be resigned. Release other retiring players that you dont want as well as any free agents that you dont want to resign. Then, go back to that DT and more times than not, you'll be able to offer him that one year deal out of retirement.

Be advised though that when testing this out, you may or may not have to release players on your team. I sometimes would release a player at the same position and would then be able to resign the retiring player out of retirement. Of course, releasing a player may cause a cap penalty if that player has a signing bonus.

Hope all of my little tricks help you out.

NOTE: It's recommended that you save your franchise before entering the off-season (I recommend after playing (or simulating) the Pro Bowl) and before and after each off-season period. Example - save after Pro Bowl. Enter off season. Save again. Complete retirement period. Save again. Etc.

Just be sure that before you save your franchise, that you didnt mess up anything. This way, you can always re-load your franchise file and "start over".

Any questions or comments??? Feel free to post them.

[Wjkporter]

Dan, do you have a trick for, my franchise locked up during my second season during the thrid preseason game.... What can I do to fix this??????

[dan77733]

Quote: Originally Posted by Wjkporter

Dan, do you have a trick for, my franchise locked up during my second season during the thrid preseason game.... What can I do to fix this??????

Try playing the game itself, simulating the pre-season on a week by week basis and by simulating the entire pre-season by going to week 5 and simulate to end. If none of that works, it's most likely due to some corruption in the file that you're using. In that case, save the franchise file and open it in Finn's editor. If there's any corruption, the editor will notify you as it's loading the file up. Then, proceed as normal. If not, then it may be the disc itself or the system's lens may need to be cleaned.

If it still freezes, im not sure what the problem could be. My guess however is that the file is corrupted and that's what's causing the freezing.

[puja21]

Quote: Originally Posted by dan77733

Of course, you will need at least one open roster spot to do this trick which everyone should have since you're almost guaranteed to have at least one player on IR.

i thought he was talking about actually stopping the entire free agent pool from disappearing... not just retaining some key guys thru the offseason who were unsigned @ season's end

of course anyone who is signed to a roster wont disappear, but if there are 250+ FAs you cant keep them all w/o utilizing the editor, as there aren't going to be enough slots (32 tms, 54 man rosters minus all the active players equals not enough slots)

[dan77733]

Quote: Originally Posted by puja21

i thought he was talking about actually stopping the entire free agent pool from disappearing... not just retaining some key guys thru the offseason who were unsigned @ season's end of course anyone who is signed to a roster wont disappear, but if there are 250+ FAs you cant keep them all w/o utilizing the editor, as there aren't going to be enough slots (32 tms, 54 man rosters minus all the active players equals not enough slots)

You could always sign and release every player, one at a time. With the salary cap at $109m (which is about a $30m increase compared to the game's default salary cap of $80.50m), you shouldnt have any problem doing this no matter what team you're playing with. Also, since you wouldnt be giving any player a signing bonus, releasing the player after signing him wont give you a penalty and thus, you basically have an "unlimited" amount of cap room.

Personally, I hate it when the CPU eliminates all these free agents but it's done on yearly basis and the reason why is simple, it's to create room for the upcoming rookie class. I remember back in 2K3, I used to sign RB Maurice Smith, OT Robert Hicks, DT Garrett Johnson, DT Jace Saylor, CB Kareem Larrimore, SS Raion Hill, SS Perry Phenix and FS Tarvares Tillman in the retirement / resigning period.

In 2k5, there are usually a few players around that I would like to sign but I hate signing them in the current season so I do my little trick for the players I want and let the others retire especially the veterans who have been retired for years. If there's one thing I hate about custom made roster updates, it's that people use the CAP feature instead of eliminating retired players such as WR Jerry Rice, FS Rod Woodson (two of my all time favs by the way) and QB Tim Couch among many others. It doesnt make any sense to me.

Sure, signing every free agent one by one would take some time but re-creating them in the editor in addition to finding them in-game in order to copy their stats, equipment, etc. would take far longer. Besides, re-creating players eliminates their career stats which some people may not be happy about.

But hey, to each his own. It's all good.

[puja21]

Quote: Originally Posted by dan77733

You could always sign and release every player, one at a time.

^ya i realized this after i wrote it. it's definitely a good trick

Quote: Originally Posted by dan77733

re-creating them in the editor in addition to finding them in-game in order to copy their stats, equipment, etc. would take far longer. Besides, re-creating players eliminates their career stats which some people may not be happy about.

^i always just have 2 copies of the franchise open in the editor; 1 before the offseason & 1 after the preseason. then i just copy & paste FAs over the crappy leftover undrafted prospects. so it's not really any faster or slower... but your way keeps career stats which could be nice for a couple FAs. really, each way is good for diff reasons-- depends on what ur trying to do; i dont like having any low-rated fake rookies in FA if i can help it.

dan: have you ever tried sign & cut for every single FA to retain them? im just wondering if the game somehow compensates for all the extra players which would be in free ageny (ie does it delete some undrafted rookies when you start the reg season?)