Potential Ability

Im sadly bored of FM

So gonna make my own footbal team of my friends but I think I saw on the forums somewhere of a way you can set someones PA not to be an eactly number but a random number between i figure i want? :S

Any help would be good if you understand what I mean

Is it something like putting negative numbers?

yeah i think you mean negative numbers. -10 gives a random pa somewhere between 200 and 170, -9 is between 180 and 150, -8 between 160 and 130, and so on.

You mean the negative PA's. Basically you assign a player a number between -1 and -10. Each number represents its own PA range with -1 being very poor and -10 being world class.

-10 = 170-200 PA. That's the highest.

-9 = 150-180.

-8 = 130-160

-7 = 110-140

-6 = 90-120

And so on. I think that's right anyway.

Basically only very special players get -10 (Vela, Bojan, Kroos, just to name a few). Very promising youngsters get -9 as do many unknown quantaties. -8 represents a youngster with decent potential but they're fairly unknown talents. Anything below that is quite poor for top teams.

i see

Thanks alot

And see if you leave CA at 0 will it make a number once i start the game?

Yes, leaving PA at 0 will generate a "random" number. I say random with quotations because this doesn't mean you have an equal chance of getting a PA of 20 and a PA of 200. It is much more likely (heavily so) that the "random" number generated will be quite low. If you have a CA set, however, this PA will not be lower than the set CA.

here's something I've always wondered about PA...

when a player has a PA of -9 which is between 150-180...does that mean that, that player has the potential to end up anywhere between 150-180 depending on how he develops throughout the game, or is it that everytime you start a new game the computer sets that players max potential at somewhere between 150-180. Now, what I mean by that is, let's say that player X has a PA of -9, does PA work where in one save player X will be set at say 160 PA and in another save he's set a 170?

Yeah. The player of say -9 will have a set PA somewhere between 150-180 which varies in each game, rather than a PA which changes in the game, if you get what I mean

IE: In one game, he'll have PA 167, but in another he'll have 153, while in the third he could have 177.

here's something I've always wondered about PA...

when a player has a PA of -9 which is between 150-180...does that mean that, that player has the potential to end up anywhere between 150-180 depending on how he develops throughout the game, or is it that everytime you start a new game the computer sets that players max potential at somewhere between 150-180. Now, what I mean by that is, let's say that player X has a PA of -9, does PA work where in one save player X will be set at say 160 PA and in another save he's set a 170?

Precisely that. I remember on FM 07 that there was a Turkish youngster (He's a real life player) who has a PA of -9.

I took over Reading on one game and signed him on a free in 2011 - he earned the golden boot in his first season. Checked his PA - and it was 176.

I then started another game and checked his PA - which was 150.

So what you're saying is absolutely correct.

here's something I've always wondered about PA...

when a player has a PA of -9 which is between 150-180...does that mean that, that player has the potential to end up anywhere between 150-180 depending on how he develops throughout the game, or is it that everytime you start a new game the computer sets that players max potential at somewhere between 150-180. Now, what I mean by that is, let's say that player X has a PA of -9, does PA work where in one save player X will be set at say 160 PA and in another save he's set a 170?

Kind of both...

A -9 PA will generate a player with a fixed value for PA (it may be 151 in one game and 179 in another one).

However there's no guarantee he'll actually reach that maximum PA, as it depends on how well he'll develop in the game.

So, while the highest PA value is fixed (and randomly chosen at the beginning of every savegame), the actual in-game PA is depending on many other factors

So don't you think that it would be better if any player that is a -9 has the potential to reach 180 in any game? Leave the player's development up to the manager, rather than by chance. And just like there's many factors in player development (like proper player mentoring, playing time, proper training regimes, proper competition and of course the player's mental statistics), the game could use those very things to make it somewhat difficult to develop a -9 player into a 180 player.

You know, depending on a players mental stats, one -9 player would respond better to higher training workload than another, or one -9 player responds better to higher competition than another, etc, all things that would determine wither or not that player ever reached 180.

There could be a -9 player from Asia that never got discovered, so because he spent his whole career in Asia he was never able to develop into a 180 player. Whereas, if that same player managed to get discovered and was brought to a top league, assuming he was given the right mentor to work with, good playing time, etc, he would manage to develop to a greater level.

Kind of both...

A -9 PA will generate a player with a fixed value for PA (it may be 151 in one game and 179 in another one).

However there's no guarantee he'll actually reach that maximum PA, as it depends on how well he'll develop in the game.

So, while the highest PA value is fixed (and randomly chosen at the beginning of every savegame), the actual in-game PA is depending on many other factors

No, the actual in-game PA is determined by one thing alone - the random number chosen at the beginning of the game (actually, IIRC, this is not quite true - major injuries at a young age can lower the PA slightly, but from my experience this is very rare so can pretty much be discounted).

The CA he will reach depends on many in game factors, but the PA is always the same regardless of what happens to the player. You can have someone with a PA of 199, who turns into a complete faliure and spends his career in non-league football, and even at the age of 40, he'd still have PA 199.

So don't you think that it would be better if any player that is a -9 has the potential to reach 180 in any game? Leave the player's development up to the manager, rather than by chance. And just like there's many factors in player development (like proper player mentoring, playing time, proper training regimes, proper competition and of course the player's mental statistics), the game could use those very things to make it somewhat difficult to develop a -9 player into a 180 player.

You know, depending on a players mental stats, one -9 player would respond better to higher training workload than another, or one -9 player responds better to higher competition than another, etc, all things that would determine wither or not that player ever reached 180.

No, I don't think a -9 should always have a PA of 180, cos that's what player with a fixed PA of 180 has.

The negative PAs are for players that the researchers aren't that sure about how much potential they have. So it's randomised. Fixed PAs are for those players that the researchers are pretty sure how much potential they have, so they're fixed.

It's funny how many people ignore the fixed PA players. It didn't seem so bad when 09 came out, but with 08 and 07, I remember GPTG having lots of people asking for the -9 and -10 players, yet not seeming to be interested players with fixed PAs of, say, 160+...

No, I don't think a -9 should always have a PA of 180, cos that's what player with a fixed PA of 180 has.

The negative PAs are for players that the researchers aren't that sure about how much potential they have. So it's randomised. Fixed PAs are for those players that the researchers are pretty sure how much potential they have, so they're fixed.

It's funny how many people ignore the fixed PA players. It didn't seem so bad when 09 came out, but with 08 and 07, I remember GPTG having lots of people asking for the -9 and -10 players, yet not seeming to be interested players with fixed PAs of, say, 160+...

no no, what I'm saying is that in every game, a player with a -9 PA should have the potential to reach anywhere between 150-180 and not be limited to a random number selected between those two. It doesnt mean that every player with a -9 will reach at least 150, it means that anywhere between 150-180 is their potential max.

no no, what I'm saying is that in every game, a player with a -9 PA should have the potential to reach anywhere between 150-180 and not be limited to a random number selected between those two. It doesnt mean that every player with a -9 will reach at least 150, it means that anywhere between 150-180 is their potential max.

So you want every -9 to have a fixed PA of 180 right?

hm, is that really what I'm saying? then I guess, yes.

Or perhaps since there's such a vast difference been a 150 player and a 180 player, that maybe a player who is a -9 should have their potential ability be in a closer range. So -9 is actually anywhere between 160-180.

-10 : 180-200

-09 : 160-180

-08 : 140-160

-07 : 120-140

etc

hm, is that really what I'm saying? then I guess, yes.

Or perhaps since there's such a vast difference been a 150 player and a 180 player, that maybe a player who is a -9 should have their potential ability be in a closer range. So -9 is actually anywhere between 160-180.

-10 : 180-200

-09 : 160-180

-08 : 140-160

-07 : 120-140

etc

What's wrong with having such a big difference between the top and bottom PAs for each level? Personally, I love it, as it makes things much more interesting when starting new games.

Besides, you shouldn't even know about a player's PA unless you're cheating

No, the actual in-game PA is determined by one thing alone - the random number chosen at the beginning of the game (actually, IIRC, this is not quite true - major injuries at a young age can lower the PA slightly, but from my experience this is very rare so can pretty much be discounted).

The CA he will reach depends on many in game factors, but the PA is always the same regardless of what happens to the player. You can have someone with a PA of 199, who turns into a complete faliure and spends his career in non-league football, and even at the age of 40, he'd still have PA 199.

The highest PA, yes, it's always the same fixed value picked at the beginning of the game.

But I was referring to some sort of "secondary PA", let's call it Highest Attainable PA.

The Sunday League player who has an initial PA of 199 will now have a CA of 40 and an HAPA of, say, 110.

Should he spend even more time in an useless league/team, his HAPA will drop further.

P.S. That's what the "show potential attributes" option in FM Genie does... It shows how much of the original/highest PA the player can still develop

is there a player with 200 PA?