There are a few members that have had discussions about how many trades a team should be allowed to make per season (Whether there should be some sort of limit on trades a team can make).

I don't believe the NFL imposes a limit on trades that a team can perform. Is this something that could be discussed?

I see no reason to cap trades, the NFL doesn't and it generally doesn't cause any issues and lots of trading greatly reduces the time of a rebuild. The positives far outweigh any negatives. A lot of owners aren't particularly good at or simply shy from certain aspects such as free agency and the draft and instead rely on trades to keep the teams competitive. I see no reason to take that away from owners because a few don't like their approach to team building.

I have been vocal about the trading system in MFN since I joined two years ago. The most recent discussion came about due to a version discussion and I brought up the idea of leaving the game engine alone for a while and put some focus into the flaws in the GM part of the game. There were 3 items I brought up. The first was the power ratings, everyone has always known they are broken, either fix them or remove them, easy solution. The second was the trade meter, it reflects default values, which is a formula(coding) approach other people had better ideas, so I won't touch them. The third which I will elaborate on is the trade system in general. It has become obvious to me that MFN is attempting to closely resemble the NFL, the trade system doesn’t, this is based of NFL Theory vs. NFL reality.

1. The current system allows 3 trades per team. That potentially is 93 trades total per season that any individual team can make (I am not going to discuss if it is financially viable).
2. There is +2 or -2 allowed in player quantity per each trade.
3. There are no restrictions on the number of draft picks one owner can acquire.

The discussion has been, well the NFL doesn’t limit how many trades a team can make. This is true, but it also true that they don’t limit the number of players involved in those trades or how many times I can trade with a team. In addition, they don’t have 12-13-year-old people running franchises.

I have watched teams make 30-40 trades per season accumulating 30-40 draft picks. There are several issues regarding a team being able to do this. First it makes free agency, waiver claims, and the draft itself less important. Why would a team focus on any of these great features, because they can trade for whatever mistakes they have made? Second, the current system allows for one team to influence the direction of the league. An example would be Player A makes me mad, so I am going to make 9 trades with his divisional opponents to make sure Player A doesn’t win that division. Now that doesn’t mean a team couldn’t do it in a new format, but unlikely due to the limitations. Finally, the numbers don’t match the reality of the NFL, there were 99 trades total in the NFL last season, with New England making the most trades at 13, the norm is between 5-8. Every part of this game is set up to reflect the NFL, except regarding trading. The trading system is set up to reflect fantasy football.

I believe the rules should be set up based on what the majority does. The majority falls under what I am going to say. My original thought was each team should be allowed to make 10 trades total per season. After I received further data, 15 total trades per season per team is more realistic.

I already know the minority of the owners that actually don’t fall within this criteria are going to sound off. Rules don’t bend for the minority, they represent the majority.

So your argument is that you want things to be more NFL like despite the NFL not having much as far as trade rules by making more rules against trading which we already have more than the NFL... You seem to be arguing against your own point there.

In regards to screwing an opponent your proposal does nothing to prevent or change that ability.

So essentially your argument comes down to you don't like how they build their team so you don't want it allowed anymore...

There is absolutely no reason for such a rule. All it is doing is punishing players for having their own style which is as far as I can tell the opposite of what MFN tries to accomplish.

Whether a large amount prefers that strategy or not is irrelevant.

Edit: yes a team could potentially trade 93 times but that is assuming many things from financial ability to willing trade partners. NFL teams could potentially trade a million times but they don't. Potential trading ability is irrelevant as well.

I am not arguing anything. The facts of what happens in the NFL versus what happens in MFN is evident. What I am saying in regards to the people that want to use "well the NFL doesn't limit trades" argument is bs. If that was a valid statement then the same can be said about limitations on number of players traded or how many teams an owner can trade with.

The facts are this no team in the NFL last season traded more than 13 times. There were a total of 99 trades. No team has more the 19 draft picks. That is fact, It doesn't matter who likes it.

I have stated my observations in my first post. My personal opinion is that anyone that needs to make 15-20 trades in order to win in a season should go play a different game, they are missing the point of this one.

This is what it looks like after a bunch of trades...

Lol, yes teams in the NFL do that every year.

If the rules would change by some sort of act from god, the question MFN has to ask "Will more serious individuals join the game to replace the few that leave due to the rule change"

The answer to that is a resounding nope. They don't bring in many new players in the first place and those that do come in are wanting control and desire to actively improve or change teams to their own style. Restricting this would also make it less desirable to take on a failing team and rebuild it which is what is likely going on here though I've had that result by simply trading back when I don't need any new players from a draft as well. This is simply a more extreme version of what the Raiders are attempting under Gruden. Like I said this will limit attractiveness to new owners but more importantly keep people from wanting to rebuild creating dead leagues and players quitting when their roster gets too old and face not being able to restock fast enough to be competitive. The rule proposal does significant harm while having no benefit besides haha you can't use that strategy to make your team competitive anymore.

Now everything that has been said, here is a viable solution to all issues regarding trade restrictions. This is one of the original reasons I said there needs to be work on the GM area.


1. Give league administrators the function to set up trade guidelines for each individual league. There are many that would prefer to be an a reality concept league vs. a fantasy concept league in regards to trades.

2. This would give all current owners and future owners a choice in what type of league they want to be in and wouldn't cost MFN any owners.

3. I realize this is not any easy thing to do and would require additional coding, but it does need to be addressed. I have seen many owners leave leagues due to the fact that there are an enormous amount of trades even by NFL standards.