Time for a new approach to CA/PA and attributes

FM's 1-20 attribute system is pretty excellent when dealing with most semi-pro and professional players, but at either end of the spectrum, the game's mechanics fall down.

Recent posts on this forum have discussed how the 1-20 range is insufficient for representing the abilities of lower non-league players. Even a rating of "1" is too high for such players since in game, "1" is poor for a professional player but necessarily a Sunday league player. Similarly, I remember reading older threads about how the real life levels of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are difficult if not impossible to model in FM since they would need to exist beyond the 200 CA/PA limit in order to be as brilliant in the game as they are IRL compared to their peers.

I have no idea how, but perhaps it's time to look at developing the system further to make it more accurate and in-depth to cover the very best players and the very worst?

So many people keep mentioning how potential ability and/or the attributes system need to change. I disagree; I think they work perfectly well for now. I think there are far more important elements of the game for SI to work on (like the transfer market, for example).

It's a no from me.

The current range is fine. Players at the lowest playable level can be modelled fine with the existing attributes, and the highest level is good enough for the top players. Why change? Attributes are out of 200 anyway, just rounded down to a range of 20. Where do we draw the line? 400? 500? 1000? 20000?

To get the best out of the top players, surely they just need to limit how many players actually reach a CA over 195, to make sure the truly top players stay well ahead of the rest.

As for the ones at the bottom, sadly I don't think a huge percentage of FMers actually play that far down (since you need a custom DB) so it won't affect them the majority, meaning SI are hardly going to make major changes for them.

I thought most of the stats for the lower league clubs (league 2 and beyond maybe) were all generated at random every game, since its a big job to put in accurate stats for the million or so players in the game, better they focus on the top clubs and top leagues (where most ppl are gonna go when they start a new game) and leave the lower leagues as they are

Technically, the attributes are in a range of nearly 200 anyway

When you're seeing an attribute of 15, it could be anything from 14.5 to 15.4

Technically, the attributes are in a range of nearly 200 anyway

When you're seeing an attribute of 15, it could be anything from 14.5 to 15.4

So FM rounds up or down then?

I was always under the impression that 15 was anywhere from 15.0 to 15.9 with the user only able to see the first two digits.

There used to be people who want the attribute to increase from 1-20 to 1-100. I always thought that under such scale, you are effectively reduce the range because most people will just look at the first digit when they glance over all the attritubes.

And as other points out, it's really 1-200 anyway.

For me its fine as it is.

I think reputation should be more dynamic but that is the only place I can see any improvement being made in terms of players.

I like the system as it is, except that I'd like to see more flexible PA's.

It would be hell for the researchers. Deciding if a player should be 11, 12 or 13 is bad enough. When that becomes anywhere in a range from 55-65 it becomes that much harder and you will get more and more 'player x is underrated' posts because they are a 59 not a 61 in a given attribute because, as has been said, people look at the first number.

Wonder what it would be like if SI somehow encrypted the PA / CA so it was invisible to the user.

Wonder what it would be like if SI somehow encrypted the PA / CA so it was invisible to the user.

It is if you don't use the editor.

Wonder what it would be like if SI somehow encrypted the PA / CA so it was invisible to the user.

The game can hide it from casual view, as it already does. Encrypting and hiding it fully is going to be impossible, because the machine needs to know the value, and the user has full control of the machine. You cannot hide it from one but not the other, and no matter how hard you try there will always be a way around it.

I suggest increase the range from 1-20 to 1-30 and from 1-200 to 1-300 respectively. Leave all the current players as they are. And just have two players - Ronaldo and Messi - have attributes above 20 and CA above 200.

No problems for researchers.

To get the best out of the top players, surely they just need to limit how many players actually reach a CA over 195, to make sure the truly top players stay well ahead of the rest.

As for the ones at the bottom, sadly I don't think a huge percentage of FMers actually play that far down (since you need a custom DB) so it won't affect them the majority, meaning SI are hardly going to make major changes for them.

All sounds fair to me, Kenco. Agreed with you when it comes to nerfing the majority of players so that the likes of Messi/Ronaldo really do look a level above, as they do in real life.

And yeah, fair point on the lower non-league players.