A concept of dynamic PA system

Currenty, every player have a certain number of PA when the game starts. I dont think it's realistc enough, or even completly broken.

In real world, we cannot tell the exact potential of a player until he reach a certain age, like 23 or even older. Also, the growth of player is largely depended on the quantity and quality of the match they play NOT on how good people think he can be.

So, my suggestion is to enhance the concept of -x PA, by let yonng player retain their -x potential before they are old enough and divide the development of a player into several stage and use different PA system for different stage.

U18 player have 5 type

amateur -1 -2

semipro -2 -3 -4

average pro -4 -5 -6

good pro -6 -7 -8

star player -8 -9 -10

When player reach 18, he will choose one PA range in his type depend on his CA, and if one player's CA have already reached the highest range of PA at this time, he will surpass this limit by one level, for example, a good pro who have 130CA will be given -9

When player reach 23, a exact PA is given depend on his CA, if his CA is no more than 10 point lower than his limit he get one step higher, so if the previous -9 player have 170 CA this time, he may have 195 PA

In this way, a player labled as good pro could end up a superstar player. On the other hand a young star player could get -8 if he suffer many injury and end up a 140pa player.

So, we, as manager, will pick player to develope according to their style and current ability, not the coach/scout report or 3rd party tools.

Flamini would be a good realworld example of good pro become starplayer, he may not he most talent player but have many chance to playe during the second stage, when he reached 23, he is already a very good player in the 0607 season, and he progress further in 0708.

Legionaire, we've had this debate many times, and every time it seems to boil down to a religious debate, or a debate about the meaning of "potential".

What your *scouts* report will, if you watch it over five years, tend to reflect a dynamic PA - as a players' CA rises, your scouts may recognize that he still has room to grow, and will tell you he now has more PA than they used to think he did ...

... while "under the hood" he's always had the high potential .. its just that its much harder to spot when he was playing part-time for Puddlemere United with their broken-down pitch and abysmal coaching staff.

If we weren't using Genie Scout or other 3d-party tools, we would never know that potential was "fixed" under the hood.

Currenty, every player have a certain number of PA when the game starts. I dont think it's realistc enough, or even completly broken.

In real world, we cannot tell the exact potential of a player until he reach a certain age, like 23 or even older. Also, the growth of player is largely depended on the quantity and quality of the match they play NOT on how good people think he can be.

In the FM world, you also cannot tell the exact potential of a player. Unless you use an editor...

I don't see any problem with the current PA system. Success in sports (as well as almost everything in life) is dependent somewhat on god given abilities. Some can work as hard as possible, but will be limited by factors like height, athletic ability, IQ, etc. This is realistically represented by the PA cap.

What your *scouts* report will, if you watch it over five years, tend to reflect a dynamic PA - as a players' CA rises, your scouts may recognize that he still has room to grow, and will tell you he now has more PA than they used to think he did ....

the current scout already works this way, my league one team have some player which my scout with 17 judge pa say he is a leading star for league one and have close to his potential, but by checking scout tool, some of them are 100/130. And if the player reach 130 he may report him as a good signing for championship and close to his potential

Im perfectly happy with the current system. I think it does its job well.

I think the current system is good enough I understand what you mean about not knowing a players potential but the scouting system works well enough.

the game mechanics actually induces 3 ability levels: current (CA), potential (PA) and realistic potential if player never moves on in his career or is never discovered (?A)

a quick glance at fmscout reveals that there are several players with pa of over 190, but are well into their 20's with CA of less than 100, and probably would never discover their potential....this aspect shows that the game mechanics is not fundamentally flawed. but obviously it can be improved.

The problem with PA in the past hasn't been that its a fixed number, its that it was too easy to find out approximately what it was via scout reports.

On FM2008 I think SI have got it right. Scouts, even good ones are far more likely to get it wrong now. I've regularly seen the opinions of my coaches on a player change because of certain factors such as a successful loan spell or a good run in the first team. This is exactly how I wanted it after FM2007, and imo this is an area which needs no changes.

In real world, we cannot tell the exact potential of a player until he reach a certain age, like 23 or even older. Also, the growth of player is largely depended on the quantity and quality of the match they play NOT on how good people think he can be.

I think this is where a lot of confusion comes in with regards to PA. In real life we might not be able to tell how good a player will be but his potential limit is still there. The player still has a point where he will no longer improve, no matter how hard he tries. This is PA.