Level assesment?

Hello, I am new to Football Manager and I just installed the FM 15 Demo. I am wandering now if the limited overall level of a player is the same in the full game (made out of stars). So can anyone tell me about it? Or let me know of your way of assesing your players? Thank you.

Please make an overall player level for his position wether it's from 1 to 20 or anything else. The game is not buyable to me to this point without that.

If you want an overall rating for a player, you're best off playing something like FIFA. This isn't how it works in FM, because quite frankly that's not how it works in real life. That's why great players have flopped for big teams in real life, or lesser rated/unknown players have become key players. Because you can't just look at a player and see an overall number. FM gives you a representation of what each player's strengths and weaknesses are, and it's up to you as manager to determine whether those strengths and weaknesses will fit in with your style of play, your tactics, your other squad members etc.

If all you want to do is look at a player and see a number to immediately tell you whether he's good or bad then you're probably not suited to this type of game. I will tell you though, there's no better feeling than mastering this game, finding an unknown gem or nurturing a young player through your youth squad to become a first team superstar. If you put in the time and effort you get the rewards.

Well the overall level is made out of stars and there is no explanation what is the difference between gold and silver stars. Also, I don't think Randolph who plays at Birmingham in the second league is a four star player compared to Neuer five star. The difference is far greater! It's not a question of genre, it's a question of accuracy. A player's level should be unkown when he is not scouted at all or not scoted enough. In reality you can see a player's quality by how he moves touches the ball, running off the ball etc... You can't expect the same to assest in the same way for a game at this point. It's far away from reality. I hope somebody reads this and they make the overall level as an option. I takes a lot of time to create an algorithm for each position that is relevant, I hope they'll make it for 16 or something at least since I noticed producers of games don't like to introduce new options as a patch. It's needless to say for me that a player needs an overall level in a game, I don't know what to call make the overall level out of stars, just weak stuff...

You really don't understand how the stars work tbh.

Silver stars are worse than gold stars, 5 silver stars = 0.5 gold stars.

As for stars in general they are based on your current squad and to a lesser extent the rep of your team and the league it plays in. A 3* player is an average member of your squad, a 4* player better than average and a 2* worse than average overall but they may play better or worse than the star estimate depending on their attributes.

Given its the way its worked in FM for well over 10 years I would say it works well.

Fifa Manager series had something similar but they gave the option to have a general level and a talent level which by the way, just the talent was made out of ten stars and the overall level 1 to 99 far better option far better way of assesting a player can be 82 as a right back and 85 as a right wing back, in Football Manager I see 3.0 stars and 2.0 stars for the same thing and the player has the qualities to play there. Also the accuracy was made by the potential of the player to play there, he might've been playing a offensive midfield and he would be even better as a winger if he got match experience, you could see that as in reality you could realize on the training pitch that he is. All this needs to be implemented at least as an option in my opinion. I really hope this things will get promoted and if they do I'll be a fan of the series, hopefully till the next big step when they'll have more licences maybe that day I'll propose something else for the series. Until than maybe get some more second leagues, third leagues, forth leagues of other championships that you didn't get the first league please, I will write in the forum designated for proposals as well.