Trading Hard Mode Thoughts

[willboat75]

I enjoy turning up the difficulty on trading in this game, and the "hard mode" has been a fun addition. But I do have some thoughts about how it could improve. First, I'll get into what I like about it.

I'm no longer spamming the "Make It Work Now" button to squeeze every drop of surplus value out of trades with the AI, making long saves more competitive. I pay more attention to AI trade offers because it's the easiest way to gauge interest in who they want from me and what market prices are for their players. I like how trading is spread out over a few days as you go back and forth with AI GMs.

No matter what happens with the setting, I think I will turn it on in all my saves. I have had several one-for-one trades in my recent MLB sim, which I usually never do, but they made sense for both sides and they were largely AI-initiated. I also have trading difficulty turned to the hardest setting on the sliders (two-or-three ticks to favor prospects).

However, I wish that it was easier for me to search for a player I want and quickly gauge what it would take to get the deal done. These are players that I haven't been offered in trade or players that don't come up with the "Shop this Player" function, so I don't know what I need to offer. I think it could take the form of a reverse "Shop this Player" function like NBA 2k has when you want to see what trade packages the AI would accept for their players.

Currently, you can kind of see what it would take for players on the trade block, for instance, if you submit a bunch of offers and sim ahead, but with the reputation system enabled, I worry that that approach will make the AI hate me. And that's more of an "Annoying Mode" than a "Hard Mode". Too often it's just, "NO WAY, we want Elly De La Cruz for our 50-grade reliever because you happened to send us a 45-FV prospect that we arbitrarily hate."

So, what's everyone's thoughts on this? Do you like the setting? Do you want to see it improved? I think it's an easy way to increase immersion and RPG aspects of OOTP. I love that they've implemented it, but I hope it can get better over time.

[Sweed]

It's been a great addition to the game and works quite well "as is". I'm never against improving a feature, but when something is working a lot of thought should be put into any changes.

With that in mind the following is just a quick off the top of my head response without a lot of thought to the details...

Your reverse shop feature, ie a "who would you take ..." question to a team's GM? It's an interesting idea and one that could work, but if done right would probably lead to a lot of complaints by what may well be a "vocal minority". "I asked WWYT for Joe Baseball and the AI GM wanted way too much", this isn't working! IOW business as usual. But yeah if Matt and team came up with fair value offers, from an AI GM dealing from a position of strength (you came to him), it might be a worthy addition to the game. Oh, and AI GM's should also be able to respond with "player X isn't available at any price".

I'd say tie your trade reputation to it so it didn't become a spam-fest to try to fleece the AI. Continually ask a GM about players that end up being a waste of time you take a ding to your rep. The question then becomes how many fruitless asks does it take before the other GM quits listening, similar to how reneging on trades does now. There could be other ways but the point is there needs to be a downside to spamming, IMHO.