Offseason:Free Agency

[Kaiser Wilhelm]

I'm just curious, for all those out there, which system do you prefer; the auction system, or the former 30 days FA, multiple factors system? Or would you like to propose a third direction.

Me personally, I like the former system as it was more realistic and as somebody who still plays multiplayer offline franchise the new system is simply atrocious.

I say more realistic because it has multiple variables (while they may have been hidden I'm not sure why the devs could not have added in a tooltip or hint as to why they did not like you) and that the days to respond was better IMO.

The auction system is just too bland. Some say its fast paced but even then, its only fast paced when you have to hand off the controller every 30 seconds.

[Argooos]

I don't like the auction system at all. One of the reason I enjoy playing franchise mode is that I can take my time doing everything - I don't like feeling rushed when I'm trying to recreate. That being said I'd be fine with there being an option to turn the auction system on or off.

My ideal free agency system would have no time limits at all. Rather, you would have a list of all available free agents. You would make offers to however many players you want and the CPU would do the same. As you're making your offer, the player (or his agent) would be giving you some indication of how good they consider the offer to be. You would indicate in your offer what role you expect the player to fill (outright starter/possible starter/backup/depth). You would not know what the other teams have offered or which team is the frontrunner.

When all the bids are in, the players would each consider all the offers given to them and choose the one they think is best based on a variety of factors including the role they would have on the team, the record of the team last season, the coaching staff, the salary and the length of the contract. The first players to sign will be the ones who feel they have a satisfactory number of offers (the higher the player's OVR, the more offers they will expect). Of those players, the first to sign will be the one with the easiest decision (one offers stands out from the rest). If a player you placed a bid on signs with another team, you will immediately be given a chance to make an offer on another player. This will continue until you decide that you are done making offers to players.

Of course certain parts of my system would require other changes. For example, morale would have to be included, and it would go down if the player wasn't used in the role they expected/you promised them.

[dirtguru]

I definately prefer the old system. Even better if they bring back RFA as well.

It is possible to bypass the auction system in M13 if you control all 32 teams. After staffing go to player managment and resign and or cut and sign all of the better players for all 32 teams. You can save but do not advance until you have filled most if not all positions for each team.
Of course this takes an inordinate amount of time and I have found after each save that sometimes a player will slip through and either resign with there team or sign with another.

[vrock627]

nfl head coach 09. an auction system, but only one player at a time. your slightly rushed but have enough time to make a good decision. also it becomes much easier to do a multi-player franchise

[KBLover]

Quote: Originally Posted by Kaiser Wilhelm

I'm just curious, for all those out there, which system do you prefer; the auction system, or the former 30 days FA, multiple factors system? Or would you like to propose a third direction.

The former system by far. IMO:

More realistic in the sense of time (FAs can take their time to respond, get other offers, etc).

More realistic in the sense of interests/players may not like some teams and deal "harder" with them while being more accommodating (including taking less money, etc) with another.

The auction system is fast paced, but you almost have to pick right from the start and sit on certain guys if you want them because the CPU will try to "snipe" them sometimes, bidding with like :05 left and if you're looking for other names, you might miss that you got sniped.

And I can't imagine how it would be with multiple teams on User bidding. And if both/all the Users are trying to go after an in-demand name and trying to work out the logistics of who gets the controller when and trying to duel the CPU teams at the same time...

Instead of a whole new system they needed to add RFA, more in-depth franchise tags (exclusive/non-exclusive), hold out possibilities.

[Blitz1942]

Personally, I liked Head Coach 09's the best. As someone else said, it was the auction system, just one player at a time.

I also liked the free agency system they used on PS2 and earlier in this generation where you had 30 days to bid on free agents. The PS2 had it even better where it was split to before and after the draft. So you could sign your big name guys to come in and start in the first portion, go through your draft, and then fill holes and get depth in the second signing period. Adding a second free agency period after you sign your draft picks would likely help the problems of too many UDFAs (and if they expand the draft classes, they could just dump the UDFAs from the draft class into free agency for people to sign during that second session).

[woodjer]

As others have said, I like Head Coach 09's system. There was enough of a rush feeling but also another layer of strategy since you didn't know ahead of time when players would pop up for bidding. Do you bid on the 2nd or 3rd best guy to fill the hole because he came up first and might be cheaper? Or do you risk getting into a bidding war and overpaying for the top guy when he comes up? Or worse yet, what if you pass on the #2 & 3 guys but don't get the #1? It also forced you to consider your priorities more...if my top need is QB and my second one is HB, do I bid on the strong HBs that pop up before my QB targets knowing that I might have to take a hit in the quality of QB I get? Or do I wait for my top QB target knowing that the desirable HBs may all be gone by the time he pops up?

The new system works ok for me but I'd like a chance to preview the free agents before the bidding starts. They said that it was to avoid players just picking the top player but when things get moving, that's the easiest thing to do if you're trying to save time so you can monitor the countdowns on your targets.

The other solution to the current system might be targeting potential FAs after the Retired Players stage. Anybody that you target is automatically added to your target list when the bidding starts. You'd be limited to maybe 10 guys and would have to hope that your targets weren't re-signed by their previous team. That would require a little more thought and that "scrambling" feeling when you realize that your top three guys aren't available on the open market because they were resigned. Just an idea...

[Murderousllama]

I wouldn't have a problem with the bidding system if you could look at the FA players available before the timer starts, you should also be able to high-light players you want and set the time for bids, (2 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, etc) Imagine how much easier it would be to find great deals with this system.