Negotiation in FOF4

[DaleReeck]

I love the game, but - and forgive me if this has been covered before - player negotiation needs some serious work. Or, in this case, I should say non-negotiation.

Basically, any attempt to offer the computer player one dime less than what it is asking for is basically useless. No matter how I rearrange the contract, if it even suggests the hint of a little less money, it is always rejected. Even if I offer overall more money, but if its not in a similar arrangment to what the CPU wants, it gets rejected. Usually, it complains that it wants more bonus and/or higher money in the later years. Which is fine except the "later years" money is usually outrageous. I'm sorry, but I'm not paying a center $25,000,000, especially in the second year of a contract, I don't care how good he is.

Occasionally, in real life, an agent/player is a harda$$. It happens. But I have been playing 7 years so far into a career and I have yet gotten the computer to take anything other than what it wants. Players winning the negotiation 100% of the time is a bit much.

Am I doing something wrong? Anyone else have this problem? Re-signing star players past their rookie contracts is almost impossible. It is tough in real life too, but geez, not this much.

[FBPro]

I've gotten player to take a contract other than what they requested. Some depends on the "agent" and the "rep" he has.

[JimJam19]

I have also noticed this, but it is possible to negotiate. I've noticed that it is mostly in the bonus. My strategy is that I will determine how much I feel this player deserves per year (I like to keep each year salary at no more than a 500k raise) and try to fit the contract like that. I often give a very large bonus, and subtract from each years salary. For example, if I feel a player is worth $7M a year, I will give him around a $15M bonus, which gives me the opportunity to lower his demands of $10M a season. This can be risky bc that money becomes guranteed, but it has worked for me.

[judicial clerk]

Players will usually take a little less in the current season. All you should really worry about is the bonus and the current season. If the next seasons salary is unreasonably high, you can renegotiate again. Another thing to watch for is that free agents form the human controlled team almost always demand a higher salary than equally talented free agents from other teams. Just let the high priced guy go and pick up the cheaper guy. it might be frustrating to let a guy go who you developed, but this is a salary cap lrague, so no loyalty!