IAFA Demands WAY more / unreasonable for my team, then sign for half or more elsewhere

Dubplatepressure · 01-08-2026, 10:09 PM

Just jumped on OOTP26 and started a historical game. My first international amateur free agent signing period, and although the soft cap is 30k I'm getting demands from almost everyone in the 50-70k range. I obviously don't want to go that far above the cap, so I move on. Then, they sign for half (or less) with a competitor team.

I play with soft-cap all the time and have never seen this before. Any reason why this may be the case? Is this a new bug or something?

I've been playing OOTP versions for years so I'm fairly familiar with the IAFA system.... I've just never seen it shake out this way on the IAFA front... usually you can sign at least 1 strong prospect within the allotted amount based on what they'll demand, and I've never seen them 2x - 5x a demand for my team only to sign for half or more elsewhere.

examples:

Torres (24/73) - 14k demand, but in negotiation he's asking 57k
Reynoso (25/63) - 3100 demand, but in negotiation he's asking 29k

those are two but they are basically ALL like that.

Dubplatepressure · 01-08-2026, 10:19 PM

And to add to that, I just played forward a few months and now all preseason / spring training games are completely gone from the schedule. They just do not appear - the regular season starts without any spring training games played. In addition, my first year play-through, the game just completely blew over the draft date. It posted the draft pool 30 days before the draft, but approaching the draft day it just never happened. I had to go into league settings and select another date in the near future to get it to finally trigger.

I'm really not understanding the oddities with OOTP26. Is it really this buggy?

LansdowneSt · 01-08-2026, 11:23 PM

Historical games do not default with Spring Training turned on. You need to go to League Settings and turn it on if wanted. When di you have the draft set for (the one that blew past)? In Historical games the draft should remain in November. Moving it earlier makes the game think it is tied to a previous year.

Can't help with the IAFA as I have not used it in some time and I don't think I've ever seen it in a historical game - do you mean the current season quickstart? I think there is a way to build relationships with the players so they will join your organization even if not the high bid. See if that's a thing wherever the IAFA settings are in the League settings. Checking the wiki, looks like it is still an options so as to build loyalty and get kids to sign with you.

https://wiki.ootpdevelopments.com/in...ur_Free_Agents

Dubplatepressure · 01-09-2026, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

Historical games do not default with Spring Training turned on. You need to go to League Settings and turn it on if wanted. When di you have the draft set for (the one that blew past)? In Historical games the draft should remain in November. Moving it earlier makes the game think it is tied to a previous year.

Can't help with the IAFA as I have not used it in some time and I don't think I've ever seen it in a historical game - do you mean the current season quickstart? I think there is a way to build relationships with the players so they will join your organization even if not the high bid. See if that's a thing wherever the IAFA settings are in the League settings. Checking the wiki, looks like it is still an options so as to build loyalty and get kids to sign with you.

https://wiki.ootpdevelopments.com/in...ur_Free_Agents

Good to know re historical + spring training. In OOTP25 I didn't have that issue so I guess that's new to OOTP26.

Default draft dates though I did have to turn the amateur draft on when creating the league. I only changed it to 1 month later after I saw it blew past the draft day without having it.

Yes there's a way for IAFAs - you can scout them and build relationships that way - even the scouted players I had running practices with and had good relationships with asked for way more than the max from me (ie 50-80k) then turned around and signed for less than the max (ie 25-30k) with other teams.

The combination of these three events has sucked a lot of the enjoyment out of the historical replay for me. I may restart a new save and try it one more time...

Dubplatepressure · 01-09-2026, 12:09 PM

Next season, same result with IAFA.

IAFA Team cap = 32,600
Prospect relationship = very strong
Prospect potential rating = 80
Initial demand = 17,000

My offer = 23,000

Prospect counteroffer = 57,000

... what the heck?

Then signs for .... 32,600 with another team after a few days.

Like clearly this is somehow broken. Any of the previous versions did not function like it was purposely rigged against you like this. I have multiple X/80 prospects who for no reason at all just completely bust after years of steady development, even with TCR set to 25 and scouting accuracy maxed. It just seems there are too many instances of the game seemingly intentionally torpedoing the player team. Is that the 'standard' experience of other players?

01-08-2026, 10:09 PM	#1
Dubplatepressure Bat Boy Join Date: Dec 2020 Posts: 8	IAFA Demands WAY more / unreasonable for my team, then sign for half or more elsewhere Just jumped on OOTP26 and started a historical game. My first international amateur free agent signing period, and although the soft cap is 30k I'm getting demands from almost everyone in the 50-70k range. I obviously don't want to go that far above the cap, so I move on. Then, they sign for half (or less) with a competitor team. I play with soft-cap all the time and have never seen this before. Any reason why this may be the case? Is this a new bug or something? I've been playing OOTP versions for years so I'm fairly familiar with the IAFA system.... I've just never seen it shake out this way on the IAFA front... usually you can sign at least 1 strong prospect within the allotted amount based on what they'll demand, and I've never seen them 2x - 5x a demand for my team only to sign for half or more elsewhere. examples: Torres (24/73) - 14k demand, but in negotiation he's asking 57k Reynoso (25/63) - 3100 demand, but in negotiation he's asking 29k those are two but they are basically ALL like that.

01-08-2026, 10:19 PM	#2
Dubplatepressure Bat Boy Join Date: Dec 2020 Posts: 8	And to add to that, I just played forward a few months and now all preseason / spring training games are completely gone from the schedule. They just do not appear - the regular season starts without any spring training games played. In addition, my first year play-through, the game just completely blew over the draft date. It posted the draft pool 30 days before the draft, but approaching the draft day it just never happened. I had to go into league settings and select another date in the near future to get it to finally trigger. I'm really not understanding the oddities with OOTP26. Is it really this buggy? Last edited by Dubplatepressure; 01-08-2026 at 10:23 PM.

01-08-2026, 11:23 PM	#3
LansdowneSt Global Moderator Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: From Duxbury, Mass residing Baltimore Posts: 7,683	Historical games do not default with Spring Training turned on. You need to go to League Settings and turn it on if wanted. When di you have the draft set for (the one that blew past)? In Historical games the draft should remain in November. Moving it earlier makes the game think it is tied to a previous year. Can't help with the IAFA as I have not used it in some time and I don't think I've ever seen it in a historical game - do you mean the current season quickstart? I think there is a way to build relationships with the players so they will join your organization even if not the high bid. See if that's a thing wherever the IAFA settings are in the League settings. Checking the wiki, looks like it is still an options so as to build loyalty and get kids to sign with you. https://wiki.ootpdevelopments.com/in...ur_Free_Agents __________________ Complete Universe Facegen Pack 2.0 (mine included) https://www.mediafire.com/file_premi...k_2.0.zip/file Just my Facegen Pack: https://www.mediafire.com/file_premi..._Pack.zip/file

01-09-2026, 12:09 PM	#5
Dubplatepressure Bat Boy Join Date: Dec 2020 Posts: 8	Next season, same result with IAFA. IAFA Team cap = 32,600 Prospect relationship = very strong Prospect potential rating = 80 Initial demand = 17,000 My offer = 23,000 Prospect counteroffer = 57,000 ... what the heck? Then signs for .... 32,600 with another team after a few days. Like clearly this is somehow broken. Any of the previous versions did not function like it was purposely rigged against you like this. I have multiple X/80 prospects who for no reason at all just completely bust after years of steady development, even with TCR set to 25 and scouting accuracy maxed. It just seems there are too many instances of the game seemingly intentionally torpedoing the player team. Is that the 'standard' experience of other players? Last edited by Dubplatepressure; 01-09-2026 at 02:23 PM.