Do you use genie scout?

Anyone here use genie scout?

Or do you prefer your scouts to do the work?

i prefer not to cheat, so no i dont use it.

Genie scout gives you all the CA/PA of the players so you can almost guarantee how they will turn out without taking any chances on youngsters, what is the point in that?

no chance of me using it. i like doing the hard work myself

I use fmrte, does the same thing. But I also use scouts in Australia, England, Spain, France, Italy, Brazil, Holland & Germany

i just cant understand why people buy this game only to download a program to seee all the hidden info?

I have used it do do long-term testing for stats purposes when I had a desktop I could run holiday games on quickly, but don't use it for any spoiling.

I used to use it when I was new to FM, but now I'm experienced enough to judge players by myself. I find the game more enjoyable without it anyways.

I've got my global scouting network and I personally routinely scout different areas.

I wouldn't do this but even my best scouts have a habit of ignoring the 18 yr old bulgarian who is better than half my mids.....

I'm glad I have my scouts though. The best youngster that I have signed was found by one of my scouts.

So much fun of the game is unearthing a gem who you pick up for peanuts and nurture into a world class player, so using a programme like that takes that element of fun out of the game IMO.

i prefer not to cheat, so no i dont use it.

Genie scout gives you all the CA/PA of the players so you can almost guarantee how they will turn out without taking any chances on youngsters, what is the point in that?

It's not cheating, it's an unofficial add-on that aids some people's enjoyment of the game. Some people play it one way, others a different way. People are far too quick to label something like this 'cheating' while forgetting that FM doesn't have its own set of rules. Once you've bought the game it's yours to do whatever you want with.

It's not cheating, it's an unofficial add-on that aids some people's enjoyment of the game. Some people play it one way, others a different way. People are far too quick to label something like this 'cheating' while forgetting that FM doesn't have its own set of rules. Once you've bought the game it's yours to do whatever you want with.

exactly, very good post.

Deffo cheating.

For me such programs detract from rather than add to the game, so definately not.

It's not cheating, it's an unofficial add-on that aids some people's enjoyment of the game. Some people play it one way, others a different way. People are far too quick to label something like this 'cheating' while forgetting that FM doesn't have its own set of rules. Once you've bought the game it's yours to do whatever you want with.

let me give you an example. You are looking at signing 2 16 year old players. They both look good but you use genie scout and see that one has a PA of 190 and one has 150. You sign the 190 and he becomes a world beater and is the key reason that the team wins X competition. In my opinion this is cheating, you may have a different opinion but im surely entitled to mine?

And once the game is yours is yours to do whatever you want with, i can think of plenty things you are not allowed to do with the game just cause you own it.

I am not saying thats what the OP is going to do with it, and i know it doesnt concern anyone but the person who is playing the game, again IN MY OPINION it is cheating, if SI wanted that data seen they would either show or make a tool to show it.

I agree, it is kinda cheating, I don't use it because it's buggy and crashes my FM. but I have a question: why the developers of FM put these hidden attributes there in the first place? why are these attributes so easily available? it almost feels like they wanted them to be discovered. if so, than why not make it officially available once and forever? otherwise, why not just totally hide some stuff inside a source code, just like match algorithms?

Deffo cheating.

Its a good tool that some people prefer to use an others not. I have used it in the past, but not anymore. I like to scout my own players and take the chance of a star or a flop.

seriously guys you buy the game yo play the way you want it

I dont. I have done so I can edit my personal file, changing favourite/disliked clubs and players, but that's it. I'm happy just playing it as I can.

It's not cheating, it's an unofficial add-on that aids some people's enjoyment of the game. Some people play it one way, others a different way. People are far too quick to label something like this 'cheating' while forgetting that FM doesn't have its own set of rules. Once you've bought the game it's yours to do whatever you want with.

Good Point. No all people like the hard way and not all people like easy way.

Im still considering to take a glance on the youngsters playing for Roma so I can offer better advice in the thread I maintain in Good Player & Team Guide section, and honestly, developing the players already at your club is something that should be encouraged IMO

would never use an external scouting program for anything else then that

Of course its cheating, its giving you the power to see hidden attributes that your not ment to see..If we was ment to see these, you wouldnt need an unofficial add-on would you?

If your getting an unfair advantage, surely thats classed as cheating?

let me give you an example. You are looking at signing 2 16 year old players. They both look good but you use genie scout and see that one has a PA of 190 and one has 150. You sign the 190 and he becomes a world beater and is the key reason that the team wins X competition. In my opinion this is cheating, you may have a different opinion but im surely entitled to mine?

And once the game is yours is yours to do whatever you want with, i can think of plenty things you are not allowed to do with the game just cause you own it.

I am not saying thats what the OP is going to do with it, and i know it doesnt concern anyone but the person who is playing the game, again IN MY OPINION it is cheating, if SI wanted that data seen they would either show or make a tool to show it.

Yeah, yeah. It all boils down to the point that FM is first and foremost only a game. Stop taking it so seriously. My wish how I play it, your wish how you play it. As long people are honest about using these programmes, I really don't care.

Using FMRTE to help your team and genie scout takes the fun away for me, but i do use FMRTE on my LLM game so the clubs have realistic funds to start with. Obviously the guys making level 10 DB's can't do the fianances for every club and also any glitches can be sorted using FMRTE. i had to change the league rep of all the leve 9 clubs as they where better than the La Liga and EPL.

I think its up to you but whats the point in playing if you give yourself loads of money or get the best players straight away, but again its personel choice so noone can tell you how to play your own game.

I've tried it in previous FMs but dont use it anymore. Takes all the fun out of the game for me and I lose intrest quickly. I like challenges and that keeps the game intresting for me, if anything.

I use FMRTE on a regular basis - before anyone tells me i am cheating let me tell you what and why I use it!

i use it for one reason and one reason only - player bonuses.

IMO the player bonuses cannot be this high in real life. Example - Steven Gerrard is on £120,000 pw wages (I have no problem with this is as it is probably true), but his appearance bonus is £12,000 per game and he has a goal bonus of £12,000 as well. So theoritically, if he scores in every game he plays he earns an additional 20% of his weekly wage in bonuses. I cannot believe that this is the case in real life.

So this is the sole reason I use FMRTE.

In response to those who shoot down people who use it for scouting - just because a player has a PA of 190 (example), this does not mean he is guaranteed to be a good player and reach his full potential. This will depend on training, playing matches etc etc. it is not a guarantee!

I use it and am proud... I have big balls!

I have used it in the past but it takes the fun out of the game for me. I like to find and develop young players, if you can find them as easily as you can with a scouting program, it takes away a sense of achievement.

To those that say using a scouting tool is cheating, well by your own standards, you are cheating too..... Just by using this forum.

I've lost count of the amount of tips I've seen on players, tactics, training ETC ETC in this very forum. It's a similar thing.

In some cases, using the forum is worse than using a scouting tool. I know several players with high PA who never seem to develop in game but look great on tools.

I personally do not like using these tools because although it can add something to your game in the short term, long term enjoyment of the game can be affected.

However, as I said before, using forums is a similar thing. Infact, using the good player forum is sometimes better than a scouting tool.

This game is not all about CA/PA. I noticed a long time ago that a player with CA/PA 145/160 can be far better than a player with 160/170. And thats not just because of the hidden stats that you can see in these scouting tools. It's because his spread of stats are better and he fits your team and tactics better.

I can give you a list of players that will become "Key" players in your squad and they don't have anywhere near the CA/PA of Messi.

There is also the time factor. Some FM players do not have the time to play the game for season after season to see if Player X becomes better than Player Y.

So before you post your "Cheat" comments, take a break, have a cuppa and think about it.

Rice2cu - you make some good points there.

I use FMRTE on a regular basis - before anyone tells me i am cheating let me tell you what and why I use it!

i use it for one reason and one reason only - player bonuses.

IMO the player bonuses cannot be this high in real life. Example - Steven Gerrard is on £120,000 pw wages (I have no problem with this is as it is probably true), but his appearance bonus is £12,000 per game and he has a goal bonus of £12,000 as well. So theoritically, if he scores in every game he plays he earns an additional 20% of his weekly wage in bonuses. I cannot believe that this is the case in real life.

So this is the sole reason I use FMRTE.

In response to those who shoot down people who use it for scouting - just because a player has a PA of 190 (example), this does not mean he is guaranteed to be a good player and reach his full potential. This will depend on training, playing matches etc etc. it is not a guarantee!

Each to their as everyone has the right to play the game their way (As long as they are honest about what they have done when on the forums) but just playing devils advocate:

Given that you alter your own player's bonuses as you think they are too high do you do the same for all the other teams? at the very least the ones in the same league? If not do you think this gives you an advantage over the other clubs? - More money & advantage in the transfer market when signing players (Agreeing a bonus then taking it away).

I used it once (I think it was with FM05) and it ruined the game for me, I think that save game lasted just a few months. There's absolutely no way I'd touch it again.

Knowing the PAs of players completely ruins the player development model. It takes away the element of chance when signing a player so it removes the flops, the unexpected stars and the late bloomers. For me, this is the part of the game that I most enjoy so these sorts of utilities would remove that for me.

As for the cheating debate, if I used it to check out a potential signing then I would consider it cheating. For others it may not be considered cheating because that is how they like to play the game. One of the great things about FM is that we all set our own rules and play by them, it is completely up to us what we can and can't do. As long as people are not using it and then bragging about how great they are at the game then I really don't see a problem.

However, as I said before, using forums is a similar thing. Infact, using the good player forum is sometimes better than a scouting tool.

I completely agree, and a lot of other people will also put the good player forum in the same bracket as the scouting utilities that are available, this is why this particular forum does not allow player specific discussion mentioning CA/PAs. Obviously there will be a few player names but we do try to keep the lesser known ones (from real life) out of here.

Each to their as everyone has the right to play the game their way (As long as they are honest about what they have done when on the forums) but just playing devils advocate:

Given that you alter your own player's bonuses as you think they are too high do you do the same for all the other teams? at the very least the ones in the same league? If not do you think this gives you an advantage over the other clubs? - More money & advantage in the transfer market when signing players (Agreeing a bonus then taking it away).

Fair point Cougar - the answer as I am sure you can gather is no i do not alter other teams - to be honest I had not even thought about that but you do make a valid point.

As long as people are not using it and then bragging about how great they are at the game then I really don't see a problem.

That's the one thing about scouts that does annoy me. Sometimes it's very obvious an editor of some sort has been used to tamper with a player/club.

On some of the Club Threads, I fail to see how it's possible for them to win the champs league within 2 seasons with low rep clubs and sign every world class player arond.

If you use a tool, dont be afraid to admit it, it aint cheating, its how you have your fun ....... Bit like my missus tbh

To those that say using a scouting tool is cheating, well by your own standards, you are cheating too..... Just by using this forum.

I've lost count of the amount of tips I've seen on players, tactics, training ETC ETC in this very forum. It's a similar thing.

In some cases, using the forum is worse than using a scouting tool. I know several players with high PA who never seem to develop in game but look great on tools.

I personally do not like using these tools because although it can add something to your game in the short term, long term enjoyment of the game can be affected.

However, as I said before, using forums is a similar thing. Infact, using the good player forum is sometimes better than a scouting tool.

This game is not all about CA/PA. I noticed a long time ago that a player with CA/PA 145/160 can be far better than a player with 160/170. And thats not just because of the hidden stats that you can see in these scouting tools. It's because his spread of stats are better and he fits your team and tactics better.

I can give you a list of players that will become "Key" players in your squad and they don't have anywhere near the CA/PA of Messi.

There is also the time factor. Some FM players do not have the time to play the game for season after season to see if Player X becomes better than Player Y.

So before you post your "Cheat" comments, take a break, have a cuppa and think about it.

very very good post!

there are heaps of ways to cheat at this game, especially with the forums, loading someone elses tactics could be classed as cheating as it takes the skill out of developing your own, looking up player threads, or best player role threads could also come under cheating, just because FMRTE is an additional tool doesnt mean its any worse than looking up info online. Not everyone uses it to see PA/CA stats thats just one tiny part of the programme.

Doesn't work so no.

Yes, but only because some of the best regens (especially those in European leagues outside the top 10) are scouted and bought by other clubs only a few days after their generation, while the world-class scouts at your club don't even know about them until a few months later. It's a little silly and this was discussed in another thread some time back.

I downloaded in the last month or so before fm12 I found a few gems I hadn't seen before but using search and scouts is more rewarding

genie scout is one of the reasons i dont understand what the new "leaderboard" is good for, theres no fair competition in a offline singleplayer game...

I use Genie Scout as a search tool. I turn off columns for PA, potential rating etc and instead use it in place of the in game search functions since it's less clunky and I can see more information at a glance. Using it to view PA takes all the fun out of the game. The transfer market and making the right decisions without a crystal ball is 90% of the fun of FM for me.

I dont use it myself. I like my scouts to do all the work.

Not sure how anyone can say this is not cheating.

Sure if you get more fun from the game by using it then go right ahead,after all you paid for the game,Lets keep it real though it is cheating as you have a 3rd party device doing the work for you.

For me it is the excitement of "will this guy work out" if you use a 3rd party add on then that takes that away from the game,I mean why pay money for a game and then add a big "IWIN" button,never made sense to me.

Do I cheat? No.

I'm using it at the moment, being new to FM, but I intend to stop using it once I get into my second season. I'm mainly using it to get some decent youngsters for positions that have older (30+) primary and secondary players.

Once I've laid the foundations, I'll do the labour myself.

I can see myself using it in the future for investigative purposes, like seeing whether an injury-prone player has high injury-proneness or is just unlucky, or checking temperaments of nowty players.

I consider it cheating, but I'm using it mainly for training (as in training me) purposes.

I also use FMRTE on a small scale for similar purposes. At the moment I use that to extend contracts for some players, because their increased wage demands would eat up what's available of my wage budget, preventing me from signing new players.

I don't understand why anyone playing the game in a normal fashion (eg. not testing, and so forth) would need such a utility, the I'm new to FM excuse is exactly that, an excuse, you won't learn anything from using it because you will come to rely on information that is hidden in the game, thus leading you to "need" to use such a program in the future again to supposedly teach yourself how to use the game which you still don't know how to play because you need to know PA/CA and so forth to sign anyone.

What is the challenge, or even the fun of playing the game when you just extend contracts, sign all the outright best players without taking any risks, and so on. You may as well save your money and buy a game that you actually want to play without cheating.

Tips on a forum is not cheating, however looking up hidden attributes from the game is. Tips are TIPS, suggestions on ways to improve your approach to playing the game.

I use Genie Scout usually to look for anomalies, like big amounts of world class players from "dwarf" nations, which unfortunately happened quite a lot in FM12.

I use FMRTE to "correct" this and lower their PAs.

I also like to use it to transfer some better players to other good teams in my league or other big teams like Barcelona, Real, Manchester United and so on because I often feel that the AI can't maintain a really good squad.

They often sit on massive amounts of money and don't spend it despite world class players rotting away at fairly small clubs, so I usually transfer these players to bigger clubs using FMRTE and to maintain some level of competition.

Now that there are almost only newgen players left in the game it looks like the transfers of the AI tend to get a bit better so I rarely use FMRTE at all anymore.

No. I think it would end me playing FM if I got used to checking out PA/CAs. FM to me is a football world I can get lost in and feel the pressure of wether to spend the clubs money on players based on scout reports and my own thoughts. There is nothing like knowing you made the right call and sometimes even the wrong one. Each to their own. All about enjoyment at the end and if using 3rd party scouts ect gets it so be it.

I used to use it but now I realize its much more enjoyable to find a hidden gem the "natural" way.

I only use FMRTE when a player has announced his retirement. Just to check how much PA he actually had.

I used FMRTE once in a Bristol Rovers Save in FM10 to make a Left-back regen wonderkid I signed more loyal (he wouldn't renew his contract). After I did that, I kind of lost interest in the save as in the back of my mind I knew I'd cheated.

Good luck to those who can play the game with a clear conscience using third party add-ons to adjust finances/find hidden attributes etc. but it's not for me.

Hands up, I use FM Genie to assess my youth team, but saying that with the addition of the new youth system I've found the scouts are pretty spot on when informing you on the players you should sign, the only time I ignore their advice is when they say sign these players to bolster your squad. I've found greyed out players are better than low CA/PA players in this case and you save some money