Official M25 Trade Thread

[Hokie200proof]

I did a forum search and a search through the Q&A thread and I didn't really see too much there regarding trades in Madden 25. Anyone made any big deals recently?

Or would care to update how the trade logic/AI seems to be working this year? Are teams prioritizing draft picks differently (used to be the case in Head Coach back in the day) or players over draft picks? Any particular position overvalued or undervalued (like trading a kicker for a > 4th round pick)?

I've got a ton of moves I want to make when I begin my CFM tonight, so any experiences or insights you can provide would be welcome.

[troy184]

Re: Official M25 Trade Thread

I love these threads. The only move I've made so far is in my CCM with the Jets I traded Chris Ivory and a 2nd Rounder for Stedman Bailey of the Rams. I originally tried to trade the players straight up but it wouldn't work. I probably could have gotten him for a lesser draft pick but I didn't try.

[Hokie200proof]

Re: Official M25 Trade Thread

I love these threads. The only move I've made so far is in my CCM with the Jets I traded Chris Ivory and a 2nd Rounder for Stedman Bailey of the Rams. I originally tried to trade the players straight up but it wouldn't work. I probably could have gotten him for a lesser draft pick but I didn't try.

How was the trading interface? Was it the same color-coded deal from Madden 13 (looked like it on one LP I saw), or does it give more information when you're making an offer?

Did you do it preseason, off-season, during season?

[innet7]

Re: Official M25 Trade Thread

I traded Mario Williams and a 5th rounder for Kamerion Wimbley (90 ovr).

I was very happy to get rid of Mario's big contract and get a better player.

[sly0981]

Re: Official M25 Trade Thread

I love these threads. The only move I've made so far is in my CCM with the Jets I traded Chris Ivory and a 2nd Rounder for Stedman Bailey of the Rams. I originally tried to trade the players straight up but it wouldn't work. I probably could have gotten him for a lesser draft pick but I didn't try.

Kind of surprised the Rams made that trade. I mean they have Richardson, Pead, and Zac Stacy as running backs, So i guess they took that deal for the 2nd round pick.

[Hokie200proof]

Re: Official M25 Trade Thread

Kind of surprised the Rams made that trade. I mean they have Richardson, Pead, and Zac Stacy as running backs, So i guess they took that deal for the 2nd round pick.

From the VERY limited LP footage I've seen, the CPU puts a high value on picks, more so than players. Is that everyone's experience?

If so, it might be tough to accumulate a lot of picks as might have been able to (or exploit) in the past. Which is both good and bad I think. I still play Head Coach '09 a lot and I would trade down a lot during the draft, or ditch a guy in his last year in his contract, picking up picks upon picks until I had something like 8-9 2nd rounders and even more 3rds, 4ths and 5ths. It was easy to amass a lot of picks by moving down in the draft, so if the CPU is more stingy with their picks, good...

But if the CPU is overvaluing picks (say 1st rounders are always >>> players rated 85 and below), it might be easy to sell your draft and build a team of superstars really fast.

I'm hoping it's varied from team to team, but I'm sure there are some universal trends in the draft logic that I'll want to know before heading into any big deals.

[innet7]

Re: Official M25 Trade Thread

From the VERY limited LP footage I've seen, the CPU puts a high value on picks, more so than players. Is that everyone's experience?

If so, it might be tough to accumulate a lot of picks as might have been able to (or exploit) in the past. Which is both good and bad I think. I still play Head Coach '09 a lot and I would trade down a lot during the draft, or ditch a guy in his last year in his contract, picking up picks upon picks until I had something like 8-9 2nd rounders and even more 3rds, 4ths and 5ths. It was easy to amass a lot of picks by moving down in the draft, so if the CPU is more stingy with their picks, good...

But if the CPU is overvaluing picks (say 1st rounders are always >>> players rated 85 and below), it might be easy to sell your draft and build a team of superstars really fast.

I'm hoping it's varied from team to team, but I'm sure there are some universal trends in the draft logic that I'll want to know before heading into any big deals.

I've noticed as I've scouted that this year the drafts seem to be top heavy. There seems to be less of a chance of you getting an exceptionally good player now in the 5th round. It also seems like most 1st rounders have atleast a B grade.

[troy184]

Re: Official M25 Trade Thread

How was the trading interface? Was it the same color-coded deal from Madden 13 (looked like it on one LP I saw), or does it give more information when you're making an offer?

Did you do it preseason, off-season, during season?

I did it in the preseason and the color codes are all listed as in red, yellow, and green. A submitted trade that is approved goes through right away without the query to ask you if you are absolutely sure you want to make the trade.

[Hokie200proof]

Re: Official M25 Trade Thread

I did it in the preseason and the color codes are all listed as in red, yellow, and green. A submitted trade that is approved goes through right away without the query to ask you if you are absolutely sure you want to make the trade.

I finally got to play around with it this morning and the draft logic seems pretty strict thus far. Maybe not too crazy, but some simple trade I could make in past versions didn't work when I tried them today. I usually run two different Franchises, one where I play straight up or as sim as possible and in the other I try to make the Hokieskins (or Redokies) and get as many Virginia Tech players on the rosters as I can. I was fooling around with my Hokieskins project and it was tough getting even the worst Hokie alum onto my current team.

I'll try to list the trades tonight when I get home to see how I got what I got, but I know a couple off the top of my head -

QB Tyrod Taylor (74 ovr, and was on the trade block) & a 5th round pick for FB Darrel Young (89 ovr).

RB Ryan Williams and a 5th round pick (seems like a big jump between 4th and 5th round value) for RG Chris Chester (88 ovr)

What hasn't worked thus far, but something I've been able to do in past Maddens, is trading players in the same position and trying to get a lower round draft pick in the wash. For example, you've got a WR who's an 88 ovr, but he's 30+ and on the last year of his contract. In the past, you could trade him for a younger WR who was a 70-80 ovr and get a 3rd-5th round pick as well. That hasn't worked for some of the deals I've tried to do thus far...

I tried to offer Fred Davis (86 ovr) for Jeff King (81 ovr) and a a low rounder and I got back the "no interest" message. I tried going with an even lower pick and got nothing. Then I tried a straight-up deal, which wouldn't have been a good one from my end, but that didn't work either and I got a message like "The Cardinals are not interested in trading that player".

So, early testing seems to suggest that the CPU is going to be a little smarter about player value and evaluating trades. What made most of my deals work thus far was hitting the other teams needs (shocker) and throwing in some picks to up the value of "meh" deals.

[miz468]

Re: Official M25 Trade Thread

Year 2 of my London Bulldogs (Raiders relocated) CFM, just made this trade to bolster my WR corps after Denarius Moore went down with a broken collarbone Week 1:

London Bulldogs

2nd Round Pick (2016)
3rd Round Pick (2015)
4th Round Pick (2016)

for

Minnesota Vikings

WR Cordarrelle Patterson (83)

I think this was a fair trade. Vikings have solid depth at WR, and they get back three picks. I desperately needed a true WR with Moore out and a rookie at QB, so I was willing to part with those picks.

[..GameOver..]

Re: Official M25 Trade Thread

From the VERY limited LP footage I've seen, the CPU puts a high value on picks, more so than players. Is that everyone's experience?

If so, it might be tough to accumulate a lot of picks as might have been able to (or exploit) in the past. Which is both good and bad I think. I still play Head Coach '09 a lot and I would trade down a lot during the draft, or ditch a guy in his last year in his contract, picking up picks upon picks until I had something like 8-9 2nd rounders and even more 3rds, 4ths and 5ths. It was easy to amass a lot of picks by moving down in the draft, so if the CPU is more stingy with their picks, good...

But if the CPU is overvaluing picks (say 1st rounders are always >>> players rated 85 and below), it might be easy to sell your draft and build a team of superstars really fast.

I'm hoping it's varied from team to team, but I'm sure there are some universal trends in the draft logic that I'll want to know before heading into any big deals.

I haven't really tinkered with the trading systems yet but draft picks should be valued high in this game. The first couple seasons when your player is young, it is much easier to develop them with experience points. I hope they value young players rather than just draft picks.

[Hokie200proof]

Re: Official M25 Trade Thread

I followed some good advice from Robrain in this thread (about 7th post from the top) I was able to pick up a couple of #1 picks for the 2014 draft.

My trades...

Got: GB's 1st rounder
Gave: Adam Carriker (85 ovr) and a 2014 6th

Got: AZ's 1st rounder
Gave: Fred Davis (86 ovr) and a 2014 5th

It seems like you can use good players (80's and above) to upgrade your draft picks like I did. I put both of those guys on the trade block and waited for offers. I knew I was money when I got 6-7 2nd round offers. I picked the worst teams and went after their 1st rounders, adding late round picks until they accepted.

In my offline CFM, AZ is dead last with a record of 0-9. BINGO. Hoping to turn that into a couple of 1st rounders come April 2014. I'm definitely picking up Kyle Fuller from my Hokies (projected 1st round, pick 16 or so) and maybe James Gayle (early 1st) to replace Carriker, but we're ok at DE right now.

I was also able to get (but not a great value pick-up)...

Got: Jeff King (75 ovr TE to immediately replace Fred Davis)
Gave: 2015 5th rounder

Oddly, I couldn't trade Fred Davis straight up for Jeff King, even though that would've been a terrible trade for me and AZ was listing TE as a need/want position. You really need to add picks to make these deals work.

[Hokie200proof]

Re: Official M25 Trade Thread

Does anyone know if there's a penalty for the sign-immediate-trade exploit? There were in years prior (or as I recall? Your rep with FAs would take a hit and it would be really hard to sign guys), but I've seen guys saying they've done the sign-and-deal and it worked fine for them.

Cheap practice, and I probably wouldn't do it, but I'd like to know.

[Hokie200proof]

Re: Official M25 Trade Thread

Does anyone have advice/experience with trading down in the draft? It looks like I'm about to have the #1 overall (see cardinals Fred Davis deal above) and I was wondering if it would be smarter to try and trade it before the draft (if that's even an option) or if the in-draft mechanics work well enough that I can do it when the draft starts.

I was trying to find an LP to see how it works, but i can't find anyone who has done one with a top-5 pick. It looked like Madden 13's in draft trading was limited to the take-it-or-leave it offers from the cpu, which isn't great. In Head Coach you used to be able to actively negotiate the deal inside the draft. In M25 it looks like the manual offer section is really the only place you can make counter offers or customize offers to what you want.

Is that right or does anyone have experience and can share how it worked?

[Hokie200proof]

Re: Official M25 Trade Thread

Long Story about Trading, specifically in the Draft...

Starting to figure out M25 trading mechanic and I'll say that playing the NFL Draft Pick Futures Market is almost a game breaker. In previous Madden games I was always a big trader, trying to always max out my value for picks and players, usually to the point of exploit. I've been playing around with trades a lot this year and I thought the AI was much improved, removing some of the cheap moves I was able to make in previous iterations... but my conning of 2014 Draft has me thinking a little differently now.

As you can see from my previous posts, I struck gold as my 1st round pick from AZ (for Fred Davis and my 5th rounder) became the #1 overall as they ended up going 2-14. Amazingly my pick from GB ended up being #6 overall as they sucked on ice as well, going 5-12 in 2013 (looks like Rodgers had a season ending injury and the team just folded after that).

So, at the start of the 2014 Draft I had the #1 overall and the #6 overall and my original pick (#32 as RGIII and the Skins returned to SB glory). By the end of the 2014 Draft I had made three 1st round selections (all from VT - James Gayle, DE, 6th overall; Kyle Fuller, CB, 9th overall and Logan Thomas, QB, 22nd overall) two 2nd round selections (Andrew Miller, C, 34th overall and David Wang, OG, 39th overall). More importantly (and perhaps more impressively considering my draft haul) I also had three 1st rounders, three 2nd rounders and four 3rd rounders for the 2015 Draft.

It wasn't all popcorn and HJ's in the beginning. When I fired up the draft I was immediately furious as I had ZERO offers for my 1st overall pick. The draft starts, I hear Trey say "The Redskins are on the clock..." and then... nothing. Just two options - "Make a Selection" and "Advance Draft". WTF? NO ONE WANTED THE #1 OVERALL? I couldn't believe it.

I paused the draft and tried to figure out what I wanted to do next. I didn't want to use the pick as I was fine at QB and LT, positions that all of the top-5 picks projected to be (imported from 2014 NCAA, Clowney stayed in school). While I was paused I realized I could navigate to "Improve Roster" and get into the "Trade Players" screen (I skipped Madden for a long time, so I am a CFM noob, so this was a big revelation for me, if not for you). With the draft paused I was able to scout the upcoming draft picks and select my target team (San Diego picking 5th, right around where I predicted James Gayle to go). I went into the “Manual Trade” screen and offered my pick for what I considered to be a max deal (given that M25 only has three available slots for trades) - SD's 5th overall, their 2014 2nd and their 2015 1st. Boom. Accepted, no discussion or "need a little bit more..." message or anything.

WTF? So why didn't I get an offer like this in the beginning? Why didn't I have a bunch of teams offering me packages through a "Trade Down" option as soon as I started the draft? My only guess is the math just didn't add up for the CPU and the #1 overall pick is almost untouchable in terms of value. I'm assuming the AI did a calculation when the draft began and determined that no other team could offer me enough value to take the overall #1 pick, so it didn't even offer the option. Why else would I get no offers, then have my manual offer accepted without argument?

This changed everything for me, and I immediately wondered what would've happened if I had traded down to the 2nd overall pick. Could I have done the same thing with the 2nd overall? Trade down, get that one, that team's 2nd and their 2015 1st? I might go back and run some tests to see if that would've produced similar results.

With SD's pick in hand I progressed the draft until Trey told me I was on the clock. With the 5th pick I got the "Trade Down" option and checked out the offers. 3 of the 12 teams that offered, offered me their 2014 1st, their 2014 2nd and their 2015 1st. I chose the one that was closest to the 6th pick and who didn’t need an LE (James Gayle’s position). Ended up being the 8th pick from Houston. Houston made their choice and I got another tempting set of “Trade Down” offers, but decided not to tempt fate again and took Gayle 6th overall. I got my last 2015 1st rounder when I moved down one spot from 8th to 9th and ended up taking Kyle Fuller as was my draft plan.

I kept the deals going throughout the draft, moving up when I needed to, but always exploring the “Trade Down” offers when they were there. After the 4th round I didn’t get too many good ones and I didn’t get any for my 5th round or 6th round picks. I got a really strange offer for my 7th round pick (two teams offered 2015 5th rounders) which I took gladly.

So… could be exploitive, could just be shrewd moves, but I would highly recommend scouting the NFL standings just before the trade deadline and trying to trade for what looks like the future #1 overall. Luck has plenty to do with it (especially if you’re shipping off a difference maker in order to make the deal go through in the first place), but it looks like I might have found an old weakness in this year’s trading AI.

Anyone have similar results?