Does the AI look at performance when making trades?

[krownroyal83]

Or do they look strictly look at current and potential ratings. This is the first time i've played Ootp but most sim games i've played i've found the AI mostly base their decisions on ratings only or at the very last very heavily.

[PSUColonel]

The AI evaluation settings affect the AIs decision.

[jmknpk2]

The settings I believe the Colonel is referring to allow us to change the percentage weight the AI assigns (considers) for ratings, current season statistics (performance), prior season, and two seasons ago.
They may be found on the GameSettings screen on the AI Settings tab.

I wish there were also an entry for "entire career" statistics. Significant for older veterans who are fading in the last 3 seasons, but have that extra experience factor players with only 3 seasons are lacking. Players with 3 or less seasons are more likely to have increases in current vs. potential ratings. While players with 5 or more seasons may experience both decreases and increases to current ratings. Sometimes I see veteran players bounce up and down a single point in a specific rating, several times in a given season. This makes it more difficult to predict the impending downward slope for an individual veteran player. The potential ratings impose both much less of a limit and much less of a target for older players.

A player who has better than league average statistics for more than five years, is definitely taken into consideration during my decisions, and it seems should be taken into consideration by the AI.