Scouting is strange and confusing

[BuzzR]

I've got a decent amount of hours into the last 3 FM releases, but I still can't get a hold of how scouting works sometimes or how to use it efficiently..

For example: 

Let's take this assignment 

It looks easy. Find First Team Players ( i.e. scouted ability = good ) in England.  *never mind the transfer fee for now.

Now the confusion starts:

1. What does GOOD Scouted Current Ability really mean ? I know it equals 3 stars, but the stars are relative to your team only. 

It means 3 stars players ( in the scout assertion ) relative to my players at the start of the assignment or at the moment of the new found player assertion ?  Because during the scouting assignment I could sign a new player that it will be viewed as a 5 star player relative to my existing squad. What will then be a GOOD player for the existing scouting assignment? Does the " good " value updates when my squad changes during existing assignments ? Is it evaluated and computed every time it filters a new player or is fixed at the begging of the assignment ?

2. How does Scouted Current Ability help me in anyway relative to the league I'm in or would be next season ?  For example: I've got promoted to EFL Championship and I want to find good/decent players for EFL Championship. There is no way I can set up an assignment like this. I should be able to do so, disregarding the ability of the scouted players relative to my current players. 

3. How does Transfer Budget filters players when the transfer value is a range ? And why isn't there an " Unspecified " option of transfer budget ?

 

 

 

[CARRERA]

14 hours ago, BuzzR said:

1. What does GOOD Scouted Current Ability really mean ? I know it equals 3 stars, but the stars are relative to your team only. 

Current ability is always related to your team. 3 (good) equals the average regular starter for your team. For other teams that specific player could be a superstar, or not even of quality for the league that team plays in.

If the quality of your team changes, so will the scouting assignment. I mean it doesn’t really change the assignment, but the players to be scouted will change as their current ability does change compared to your team. 

14 hours ago, BuzzR said:

2. How does Scouted Current Ability help me in anyway relative to the league I'm in or would be next season ?

It doesn’t, it’s always related to your current situation. If you want to scout for a potential promotion, I would look for at least 3.5 Star players. 

14 hours ago, BuzzR said:

3. How does Transfer Budget filters players when the transfer value is a range ?

To the max of the Range, I think

[Overmars]

The other confusing part is with respect to efficiency of scouting. If you create that assignment, you might get a dozen reports over the next few months, however if you told that same scout to scout 12 specific players you would get those reports in about a week. If left to their own schedule, scouts seem to be rather lazy -- either that or they are way too efficient when told exactly who to scout.

[Junkhead]

16 hours ago, Overmars said:

The other confusing part is with respect to efficiency of scouting. If you create that assignment, you might get a dozen reports over the next few months, however if you told that same scout to scout 12 specific players you would get those reports in about a week. If left to their own schedule, scouts seem to be rather lazy -- either that or they are way too efficient when told exactly who to scout.

Not sure this is true. The dozen reports in the scouting centre are not the only players the scouts have found or watched - they are just the 12 that they have spoken to you about during the scouting "meeting". If you look at the "scouted players" tab, you will see a number of other players that they have watched but not spoken to you about.

The way I use the scouting centre is to allow the DOF or Chief Scout to take charge of the scouting meetings so I don't have to press "acknowledge" over and over again every week. I create a "general focus" depending on what I am looking for, but with broad parameters - like the "first team standard transfer targets" that the OP has used. That should give you a decent number of players in the "scouted players" tab. Then, as it becomes apparent during the season what positions I need to strengthen, I cancel the general focus and set short term priority focuses just to boost the numbers of particular player types in the "scouted players" tab. Then, once the short term assignment is finished, I review the scouted players list for the positions I'm after and send scouts out on assignments to watch the players I most like the look of until full knowledge.

Although this can take a bit of time a few times a season, I find it much easier than weekly scouting meetings that bring up the same players over and over again.

[turnip]

Scouts are only as good as you let them be or make them.

A Scout will go and check out a player. How a Scout views that player will depend on the Scout's JPA/JCA, the player's CA/PA, the player's form and the player's Reputation. It's very possible for an otherwise excellent Scout to misjudge a high PA player because he's got terrible Reputation or is playing poorly (or simply playing for a team that loses a lot).

Still, the Scout will come back to you and give a judgement. I would always advise that you check out a player's attributes before deciding whether to shortlist or ignore the player. As has been proven hundreds of times on these forums, it's quite possible to massively overachieve according to your team's CA if you have the right kind of players. I've had a 4th-tier-quality DC get a 7.2 average rating in the top tier because we were set up to get the most out of him. I had a fairly mediocre goalkeeper perform like he was playing a different sport . 

 

Honestly, I'd treat your scouts like a somewhat clueless relative: they message you telling about music/games/TikTokers they've heard are really good. Sometimes the message is "Have you heard of Coldplay?" and you think 'I mean, yeah the Safety EP was good, but it was all downhill after 'Shiver'; and sometimes you get a message about Nærvær and you've made a bid before you even realise it.

[BuzzR]

13 hours ago, turnip said:

Honestly, I'd treat your scouts like a somewhat clueless relative: they message you telling about music/games/TikTokers they've heard are really good. Sometimes the message is "Have you heard of Coldplay?" and you think 'I mean, yeah the Safety EP was good, but it was all downhill after 'Shiver'; and sometimes you get a message about Nærvær and you've made a bid before you even realise it

That's a cool analogy  .

I totally get what are you saying - the scout's report is an "opinion" based on multiple factors altered by his ability. 

Sometimes I found myself struggling to translate a simple real life concept into the game scouting module. For example:

It's midseason and we kind of struggle scoring. We are creating chances but my strikers are just.. bad. So I would say " we need a better striker !". 

Here are my 3 strikers :

    

In my AM assessment they kind of have the same ability (2,5* and 3*) - and are good for lower leagues ( League Two and National League ). ( *Never mind I'm in Championship ) 

Now, as I said - we need a better striker Mr. Scout, but I can't set up a scouting assignment saying "get me better strikers than this lot " or " get me a decent Championship striker ! ".

The only thing I can set up is current ability ( = stars in scout's opinion ) to a larger value - say 3.5*.  This could be and it is different than Assistant Manager's opinion. Fair point. But now I'm stuck with 2 relative measurement scales ( Scouts opinion and Assistant Manager opinion both relative to the players I've got) and I have no translation between them. Add to that the fact we are newly promoted to Championship, punching way above our weight.

Instead of a helpful hand from the Scouting Team now I have a headache . I've started with simple concepts : " we need a better striker !" or " a decent championship striker " and I have 2 set of players with 2 measurement scales. I know one set of players is bad - my own, but are the ones in the other set better for my current situation?  Ok, It could be an argument that if the scout finds a decent League One player it is correct to say it's better than what I've got now.

Anyway, maybe I'm babbling too much and make no sense.. long story short : I would like to set up scouting easier, with real life concepts/ ideas rather than relative star ratings.

Edited August 1, 2022 by BuzzR
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