Free Agency Wish for LIVE 07

[The Hitman]

One thing I really hope that is in LIVE 07 is a Madden-like system for free agents. When someone is a free agent, you should put in an offer for him as he considers and entertains other offers from other teams. So even if you give him more money than another team, he may not accept your contract offer and accept another teams offer because that team has a better chance of winning the championship or because they are in a rebuilding stage and he will be the star player or something like that. Players shouldn't always be conserned about money always, they should also consider playing time, coaching staff, team chemistry, and team prestige. Its too easy to sign superstar players from the free agent pool when you have the cap room because as long as you give them the money they want they will sign with you. They should be able to consider other offers from other teams offering the same money. I think MVP 2005 has the same concept with their free agents. They HAVE to have Mid-Level Exceptions this year, its so sad to see good players as free agents during playoff time. Players should also demand for minium contracts once the season starts so that even teams over the cap can sign them once the season starts. What do you guys think????

[Andrew]

The PDA is a bit restrictive when it comes to free agency and trades. I think you should be able to go back and forth with a few offers to simulate a face-to-face meeting rather than having to make an offer a day and advance to the next day to get a response.

Trading is even worse, since teams don't hammer out deals by checking their email every couple of days. I do like the idea of the PDA and I know that Madden is doing well with their emails in Dynasty feature but the way it is in Live at the moment doesn't really represent what goes on with negotiations.

Additional layers of logic in trades and free agency would be great.

[The Hitman]

Yeah, I know what you mean, but I want to fight with another team in order to sign a free agent. For example, if Shaq is a free agent and I want to sign him, there would probably be other teams who would want to sign him as well. So as other teams offer him a contract, if I want him on my team I would have to offer him a contract too. So if there are three other teams offering Shaq a contract, plus myself, then, it is up to Shaq to decide as to which team he will sign on with for whatever reason he chooses. It doesn't always have to be money related, he could sign on because of team prestige, or team chemistry, or because that team has a good chance of winning the championship, or because the team is rebuilding and he wants to be a part of a team in which he can teach young players...etc.

[Andrew]

Absolutely, and it would be great to have the extra layers of logic to make that a realistic and challenging process. But I also think that altering the use of the PDA in free agency and trades would be for the best as well.

[The Hitman]

Can't argue with that. Do you think it will be possible for them to make all these changes to Dynasty in one year?? Like I mean how much better do you think 07 will be over 06?? Like I mean I don't even play LIVE 06, I'm playing NBA 2K6 and I still prefer EA games!!! I was very disappointed with 06 and am really hoping that 07 will have these improvements made to the Dynasty, or else its 2K7 for me. What do you think Andrew??

[Andrew]

I couldn't say for sure whether it will happen and I don't really have enough programming knowledge to truly speculate on the feasbility of it, but given that the foundation is fairly solid and most of the aspects are already in place (just not functioning as realistically/efficiently as they could) I'd say it's possible that some of the smaller fixes/additions could be done in the space of a year.

[The Hitman]

Can you give me some examples?? What about the free agency we talked about? Hire/Fire real NBA coaches and assistants?? Trade Block?? Mid Level Exceptions?? Are these features "..the smaller fixes/additions" that you state? Or are these considered features that we most likely won't see in 07?

[Andrew]

Well...again it's hard to say because I'm not on the production team and have no experience programming a commercial video game. Tweaks/fixes to the existing engine are obviously changes that can be made within the space of a year since the structure is already in place.

I can't really speculate on what exactly could be added because I really don't know that for sure.