Financial system affecting "Import rookies as free agents"?

SloppyThirstin · 03-15-2024, 08:41 PM

I'm trying the Challenge Mode on a Historical Game with the Import Rookies as Free Agents option selected. I start in 1871 and sim ahead to when I can sign a pitcher (I go hitter-heavy in the draft and lose every game 22-14 lol). When I simulate to the offseason, though, all the good free agents are already on teams before I have a chance to negotiate with them. I've tried a three different times now, all with the same result.

My only explanation is that the financial system being blacked out in 1871 on Challenge Mode causes it. When I try to sign coaches, for instance, I don't actually pay them anymoreÂ—they just tell me whether or not they'd like to work with the team and then I give them the job. No negotiation.

Is that how it is with players in free agency in historical replay? The first team to "negotiate" with them gets the chance to sign them before the player has a chance to outbid them? If so, is there any way to beat the AI teams to individual players like Candy Cummings in the 1871 offseason? I have a particular obsession with roleplaying a rotation of Candy Cummings and Fred Goldsmith and imagining them bickering over who invented the curveball and it becoming a team chemistry crisis.

If that's the way it works for Challenge Mode, I understand. Otherwise, there's no real way of keeping players from having a recalculated roster of Ty Cobb/Tris Speaker/Shoeless Joe/Nap Lajoie/Honus Wagner/Cy Young/Christy Mathewson/Rube Waddell wreck the league down the line. But is there any way to keep both Challenge Mode and historical recalc on without a rookie draft but where I'm still able to sign my own weird assortment of must-have players?

SloppyThirstin · 03-15-2024, 10:15 PM

Never mind—found it! It was right under my nose the whole time and I was just overlooking.

The financial system is blacked out once you start the save, but you have the option to turn it on in setting up the game. It's in the bottom left the second screen, below the minor league choices.

03-15-2024, 08:41 PM	#1
SloppyThirstin Bat Boy Join Date: Mar 2024 Posts: 5	Financial system affecting "Import rookies as free agents"? I'm trying the Challenge Mode on a Historical Game with the Import Rookies as Free Agents option selected. I start in 1871 and sim ahead to when I can sign a pitcher (I go hitter-heavy in the draft and lose every game 22-14 lol). When I simulate to the offseason, though, all the good free agents are already on teams before I have a chance to negotiate with them. I've tried a three different times now, all with the same result. My only explanation is that the financial system being blacked out in 1871 on Challenge Mode causes it. When I try to sign coaches, for instance, I don't actually pay them anymoreÂ—they just tell me whether or not they'd like to work with the team and then I give them the job. No negotiation. Is that how it is with players in free agency in historical replay? The first team to "negotiate" with them gets the chance to sign them before the player has a chance to outbid them? If so, is there any way to beat the AI teams to individual players like Candy Cummings in the 1871 offseason? I have a particular obsession with roleplaying a rotation of Candy Cummings and Fred Goldsmith and imagining them bickering over who invented the curveball and it becoming a team chemistry crisis. If that's the way it works for Challenge Mode, I understand. Otherwise, there's no real way of keeping players from having a recalculated roster of Ty Cobb/Tris Speaker/Shoeless Joe/Nap Lajoie/Honus Wagner/Cy Young/Christy Mathewson/Rube Waddell wreck the league down the line. But is there any way to keep both Challenge Mode and historical recalc on without a rookie draft but where I'm still able to sign my own weird assortment of must-have players?

03-15-2024, 10:15 PM	#2
SloppyThirstin Bat Boy Join Date: Mar 2024 Posts: 5	Never mind—found it! It was right under my nose the whole time and I was just overlooking. The financial system is blacked out once you start the save, but you have the option to turn it on in setting up the game. It's in the bottom left the second screen, below the minor league choices.