Scouting Questions

[Slippy_]

Since the change to scouting in FM18 I have been absolutely stumped at how to get the system to work for me. I have a series of questions based on my experiences in FM21. 

My understanding is that scouts have to go to a match a player is playing in to begin getting scouting knowledge of the player (and to start revealing attributes). This is the core problem for me to understand: 

1. If a player never plays in a match is it impossible for my scouts to discover the players attributes? I’ve been testing this and appears to the case. 
If so how do I get knowledge of these players via scouting? 
 

2. follow up question how does this work for players who are playing games in non loaded leagues? A real example in my current game is a player in regional leagues of England. I can see he is playing games as his appearances go up BUT my scouts will not go and scout him despite being asked to do so. 
 

3. Second follow up: if the above assumption is true is there any point scouting countries with no playable leagues (ie most of Africa)? Or will my scouts be able to discover a regen at X club but won’t be able to get further knowledge? 
 

I mostly play lower league saves and while finding players isn’t an issue (I have no problem understanding assignments) getting enough knowledge on a player is a significant issue and stumbling block to enjoying scouting. I’ve been testing setting my scouts to scout for ‘X further matches’ and I’ve noticed that they hardly go see players even if I take them off their scouting assignment. 
 

Any help would be appreciated, scouting is a huge part of the game and not being able to understand it drives me crazy. I could just play without hidden attributes but that does defeat the object of how I’d like to play the game. 

[mouli]

Good questions. I would also like to know the answer to these

[obasa_G]

7 hours ago, Slippy_ said:

Since the change to scouting in FM18 I have been absolutely stumped at how to get the system to work for me. I have a series of questions based on my experiences in FM21. 

My understanding is that scouts have to go to a match a player is playing in to begin getting scouting knowledge of the player (and to start revealing attributes). This is the core problem for me to understand: 

1. If a player never plays in a match is it impossible for my scouts to discover the players attributes? I’ve been testing this and appears to the case. 
If so how do I get knowledge of these players via scouting? 
 

2. follow up question how does this work for players who are playing games in non loaded leagues? A real example in my current game is a player in regional leagues of England. I can see he is playing games as his appearances go up BUT my scouts will not go and scout him despite being asked to do so. 
 

3. Second follow up: if the above assumption is true is there any point scouting countries with no playable leagues (ie most of Africa)? Or will my scouts be able to discover a regen at X club but won’t be able to get further knowledge? 
 

I mostly play lower league saves and while finding players isn’t an issue (I have no problem understanding assignments) getting enough knowledge on a player is a significant issue and stumbling block to enjoying scouting. I’ve been testing setting my scouts to scout for ‘X further matches’ and I’ve noticed that they hardly go see players even if I take them off their scouting assignment. 
 

Any help would be appreciated, scouting is a huge part of the game and not being able to understand it drives me crazy. I could just play without hidden attributes but that does defeat the object of how I’d like to play the game. 

1. It is rare but scouts can recommend players to you through their "contacts". That's the only way I know scouts can recommend players and reveal their attributes without watching them. Apart from that, you have manually search for them using the player search. The best way to increase your knowledge of a nation is by hiring staff that have the knowledge you require or getting affiliate clubs.

 

2. The only games that scouted in non-playable nations are continental (e.g. African Champions League, UCL, etc.) and international games. Even though league and cup games are played in the background they cannot be scouted. For your example, since he is playing in a non-playable English league, the only competition where your scouts can watch him is in the FA Cup.

 

3. There's no point in scouting most African nations as a majority of them are unplayable. I would focus on the continental competitions and the international competitions specifically.

On a final note, In my opinion, I'd advise sending scouts to view players on a time basis (1 week, 1 month, etc) rather than sending them to watch x amount of matches. I have found that to be the best way of effectively scouting players.

[Slippy_]

39 minutes ago, obasa_G said:

1. It is rare but scouts can recommend players to you through their "contacts". That's the only way I know scouts can recommend players and reveal their attributes without watching them. Apart from that, you have manually search for them using the player search. The best way to increase your knowledge of a nation is by hiring staff that have the knowledge you require or getting affiliate clubs.

 

2. The only games that scouted in non-playable nations are continental (e.g. African Champions League, UCL, etc.) and international games. Even though league and cup games are played in the background they cannot be scouted. For your example, since he is playing in a non-playable English league, the only competition where your scouts can watch him is in the FA Cup.

 

3. There's no point in scouting most African nations as a majority of them are unplayable. I would focus on the continental competitions and the international competitions specifically.

On a final note, In my opinion, I'd advise sending scouts to view players on a time basis (1 week, 1 month, etc) rather than sending them to watch x amount of matches. I have found that to be the best way of effectively scouting players.

Thanks for your reply! That mostly lines up with my assumptions although it does raise a question around country knowledge: 

according to my scouting screen I have full knowledge of England (makes sense, the club is based here and all my scouts are English). I can’t raise the knowledge level any higher (at least visually) so am I doomed to never know if a player in a non playable league is any good? This is my major problem with getting to grips with the system, if I can’t get scouts to reveal the attributes of players then I can’t make informed decisions on who to sign. 

I had used the ‘watch player for X amount of time’ but the knowledge of the player would never progress which is why I switched to see if the scouts were actually watching matches. 

 

[fc.cadoni]

According to the manual, typically 3-4 matches will unveil (nearly) everything for the player.

It typically takes three to four full matches of watching a player before your scout can put together a 100% complete report, so time becomes a factor, as well as the cost of that scout’s assignment.

----

What nations and leagues you load in database, directly affects everything. Scouting is one, so you will not find the amount of players in unloaded league from loaded one.

[Slippy_]

16 minutes ago, fc.cadoni said:

What nations and leagues you load in database, directly affects everything. Scouting is one, so you will not find the amount of players in unloaded league from loaded one.

Thanks for the tip on scouting time that gives me an idea on how long it should take. 
 

On the 2nd point my issue isn’t around discovering players it’s around gaining scouting knowledge after the player has been discovered. If I can’t gain player knowledge of a player unless he is playing in scoutable matches how would I ever know if a player is good enough for my team? 

[Slippy_]

Ive been doing some testing and discovered the following interesting things

I made myself the manager of Manchester City in my current saveand created the following scout player assignments:

1. An Iranian regen playing in Iran. Set to scout until full knowledge.

2. An English real player playing in the English regional leagues. Set to scout until full knowledge.

3. An Iranian regen playing in Iran (different club to test 1). Set to scout for 3 matches.

4. A Welsh real player playing in the English regional leagues (different club to test 2). Set to scout for 3 matches.

Manchester City in my save City have full scouting knowledge of England and no scouting knowledge of Iran. Iran is not a loaded nation/league in my save. I found out the following:

For test 1 the game created matches for me to scout! These matches are between senior level teams but do NOT appear on either teams fixture schedules. Im guessing the game does this on reputation. The Iranian club 'played' a match with a Thai and 2 Argentinian clubs. These matches do NOT appear to exist anywhere other on the scouting page on the players profile.

For all the other tests no matches were attended.

I then did some further testing, based on 'fully scouting'.

1. I created a new test to 'fully scout' a regen playing in Bermuda. Result =  matches were generated

2. Real Brazil players in leagues not loaded. Result =  didnt get any 'generated'

3. Finland (leagues not loaded) and tried to scout a regen and a new player in the Finnish top flight. Result = No generated matches for the real player. The regen player had youth internationals scouted.

4. Regen in English regional leagues. Result = no matches generated

5. Regen playing for Cyprus but playing in the Portugese lower leagues = no matches generated

So my take away is that as @obasa_G suggested setting scouting to run 'per match' isnt a great idea unless the player is playing in real matches but I was surprised to discover that the game 'creates' matches for you to scout, in some situations. My guess is that it only does this for some regens not all (perhaps those with CA/PA above a level?). Scouting real players never seems to generate matches to scout.

[JB22]

I have a scouting related question...if you set the DoF or Chief Scout as in charge of Assigning Scouts, I never see any of the scouts on any assignments, yet the world knowledge percentage does go up slowly over time. 

Is the only way to get individual scouts to carry out assignments such as scout country/continent/competition etc to do it yourself or will the game do it for you if you assign the responsibility to a staff member?  

 

I'd rather have my Chief Scout create assignments for the individual scouts but then when I have done this all I ever see under current assignments is the following:

[fc.cadoni]

4 hours ago, Slippy_ said:

On the 2nd point my issue isn’t around discovering players it’s around gaining scouting knowledge after the player has been discovered. If I can’t gain player knowledge of a player unless he is playing in scoutable matches how would I ever know if a player is good enough for my team? 

That always be the case, you never know if it will be good or not for your team (with 100%); but there some indicators. 1. Attributes for the role in your tactic (key & preferable is a good start). 2. Squad Personality (eg. Professional), player with Fickle personality will be hard to fit.

[fc.cadoni]

59 minutes ago, JB22 said:

I have a scouting related question...if you set the DoF or Chief Scout as in charge of Assigning Scouts, I never see any of the scouts on any assignments, yet the world knowledge percentage does go up slowly over time. 

Is the only way to get individual scouts to carry out assignments such as scout country/continent/competition etc to do it yourself or will the game do it for you if you assign the responsibility to a staff member?  

 

I'd rather have my Chief Scout create assignments for the individual scouts but then when I have done this all I ever see under current assignments is the following:

You need to go forward in a day (or more) so the DoF or Chief Scout start to assign scouters. In the Scouting Center you have the option to be more specific (be default is 15-50 y.o, All)

[Slippy_]

1 minute ago, fc.cadoni said:

That always be the case, you never know if it will be good or not for your team (with 100%); but there some indicators. 1. Attributes for the role in your tactic (key & preferable is a good start). 2. Squad Personality (eg. Professional), player with Fickle personality will be hard to fit.

Thats all well and good but if you cant reveal a players attributes/personality how can I make that judgment?

[fc.cadoni]

1 hour ago, Slippy_ said:

Thats all well and good but if you cant reveal a players attributes/personality how can I make that judgment?

Understandable, but without matches is little hard for a scouter to unveil anything.

[mouli]

8 hours ago, fc.cadoni said:

According to the manual, typically 3-4 matches will unveil (nearly) everything for the player.

It typically takes three to four full matches of watching a player before your scout can put together a 100% complete report, so time becomes a factor, as well as the cost of that scout’s assignment.

----

What nations and leagues you load in database, directly affects everything. Scouting is one, so you will not find the amount of players in unloaded league from loaded one.

Where can I find this manual?

[fc.cadoni]

20 minutes ago, mouli said:

Where can I find this manual?

There you go mate

https://community.sigames.com/sigames-manual/football-manager-2022/