Free Agent's messed up

[dshier89]

In my franchise I have noticed that when stars such as kidd,payton,walker,duncan ask for a lot of money like 280,000 points none of the teams will take him. Then I go to FA and see him there and wll play a season with me for minimum. How unrealistic can this be. Rip Hamilton, payton,kidd,walker,duncan, and other stars will always be able to find a team. I mean espacially since this is only 1 year into the franchise. It's not even fun unless the computer takes a few of those guys.

[MajaFiggaz_Early!]

I've got the ssame problem and its serius bug. In Upcoming Free agents its always the same guys it seems. In my frnachise the Lakers signed Jason Kidd for the Minimum and I can't beat them. They are 34 and 0 so far

[mcbiggins]

I'm shocked that you have been able to get your hands on those free agents at all. It may be that you had the first game on the schedule for the second season, and they were all available to you. The game auto-sims to your first game at the start of the season, so the odds are those players will be gone before you're even allowed to do anything, as while autosimming all of the selectable options are greyed out and you have to wait until your next game.

Yes, this is a problem that was around since 2000. Actually, it was worse in 2000 because the computer teams would auto-sign the best players for the minimum before the season even started. So at least you have a chance at them now, if only because you were lucky enough to have a game on the firs tday of the season. The big problem is that if a player doesn't resign with his team, then his ability to go over cap with them goes away even if you are still in the same offseason. Another big problem is that signings are all-or-nothing affairs, unlike Madden 2003, where you could bid on players and they would go with the best offer. You might end up paying too much for your player to keep him (Juwan Howard in Washington) or you could get him back for cheap because no one else had enough cap room to pay him (Marc Jackson two offseasons ago, Rashard Lewis this past offseason). I think the Madden gm module is great, and should be ported over to live games (and nhl and mlb and verything else they put out too). It has holdouts, mid-season contract extensions, bidding wars, and even though it has a step-by-step offseason, it doesn't make each part of the offseason a totally seperate entity. Need to cut a player and trade someone else because you see a free agent you want, then do it. Want to trade a draft pick before the draft, go for it.

I play franchise mode 95% of the time in sports games, and Live's offseason makes me want to headbutt my monitor.

[Jase23]

Yea ive noticed this too. Im at the point where I just dont sign free agents until the good ones have been taken by the computer... otherwise you can pickup too many stars too easy sometimes. But the other side of the coin is the puter signs them so u end up with super teams in the league that are hard to beat..... makes for a good challenge though I guess... but yea its buggy.

[KnickNut3]

Yeah. Acutally, I notice if you do it before you play your first game, you can get anyone. I just decided to have a little fun and exploit it, and my roster is something like this by 2005:

Duncan 96
Wallace 96
Garnett 95
Pierce 97
Francis 95

McGrady 93
Webber 93
Allen 92
Jamison 92
McDyess 89
a rookie 89
Miles 88
Gasol 88
Marbury 87
Curry 86


Anyway, I've gone 82-0 for 2 straight seasons now, but my salary is about 4 times the cap, since I've maxed everyone out after one season. LOL

Fortunately, this can be fixed if the salary cap is configured correctly by Andrew, or, even better, anyone else who is willing to help. Last year's might be a good as a reference - I heard it hasn't changed much.

[KnickNut3]

Live's offseason makes me want to headbutt my monitor.

Don't do it. I have the stitches to prove it, thanks to Live 2000.

[gx_slim]

<--- undefeated for 13 years, regular season and playoffs alike... this is no mere "first chance" bug... the computer just isn't signing anyone.. in 2001 I almost never saw a free agent rated over 80... in 2003 I never see a free agent rated under 90 (unless I scroll down)... its a ridiculous bug... clearly showing that EA had not playtested this "product" at ALL before releasing it... after working as a playtester myself I can say that EA has no apparent interest in putting out a good product or pleaseing true fans... I am well aware that 90% of the target demographic of video games is children or other people who have no interest in game balance, realism, fundamentally good game play or anything else other than graphics. However that does NOT mean game companies should IGNORE the 10% of the market that is interest in having a GOOD playing experience. This is why many game companies hire playtesters from noted top players around the world to make sure the product is worthy of being played by true gamers.

[snowman]

i have live 2000 and want to get live 2003 but how good is the francise mode . clearly some of the bugs still exist but have any new features been added since 2000 thanks
greg

[Metsis]

The fact is that the off-season sign free agents is totally useless. Because the salary.ini file is incorrect. In live 2001 the top overall was 88 and it had the respected 300k price tagged on it. No the superstar is overall 95 and a good basic player is 83-85. And a player with an overall of 85 takes almost the maximum too which makes this system so flawed. It ends up with no team able to get under the salary cap so the best free agents end up with the teams that play first games in a season. IT JUST SUKS!

Someone please fix the salary.ini file and send it here for the sanity of all of us...