Scrap Potential Ability

[TheGreat10ne1]

I had a look through the forums to see if this had been posted yet, and I am shocked to find no suggestion of this type, Perhaps I am mad if I'm the only one thinking it, but I have literally NEVER understood why potential ability needs to be in the game, ever since I was 13 years old discovering CM 00/01's editor.

Why is it not possible that any player can potentially grow? How do the FM staff decide who has a potential ability of 150 and who gets a potential ability of -10? In reality nobody has a clue about how good a player might get, but can only judge a young player by how good he is right now. 

Most players in FM actually don't even reach their potential ability, so I don't think removing potential ability from the game will mean every  player will become world class, but it gives every youngster the potential to BECOME world class under the right circumstances. What I experience a lot is some players reach their potential ability by age 19 and all of a sudden their rapid growth just suddenly stops for no reason, despite no injury or off the field problems, and you can't even improve their stamina/etc with specific focus. I just don't think potential ability is a realistic view on how far a player can get to, and no player should have a limit except for natural growth.

As an experiment, in my FM editor for 2017, I turned the potential ability of every player at the start of the game to 200. Unfortunately I couldn't do the same with the regens, but I can tell you that the game was not badly affected at all, and in fact made the experience a lot more enjoyable as youth players are now only limited by their current attributes, training facilities & coaches and natural growth. I've played 9 seasons so far with this file and no players are at 200 ability. I didn't notice any dramatic increase in the number of 180+ current ability players. I think it works very well, and made the game more exciting and realistic.

Potential ability should most definitely be scrapped altogether. It makes no sense that a player has to suddenly stop developing. I hate the idea that great players are "born" with talent/potential, because that is simply not true.

For me the factors that should limit a player's potential as opposed to a stupid number:

- Attributes like determination, work rate, ambition, professionalism, and so on.

- Training facilities at the club.

- The quality of staff at the club.

- General confidence (morale) from performances on the pitch.

- Language barriers.

- Tutors, and other general influences at the club.

- Injuries.

- Off the field events.

[enigmatic]

This comes up on a regular basis, but a game world where everyone has a theoretical chance of being Messi, and teenagers who are good for their age will to continue developing until they're world class provided they have good enough facilities, the right attitude and no serious injuries is a lot less realistic than the current system.

There's a reason that the last world class player produced by Liverpool's academy has retired and is now coaching there, and it isn't that the facilities and staff suck or none of the hundreds of players to pass through over the last couple of decades have had a good enough attitude or luck with injuries

 

[Guest]

I've never been in favour of this idea as I believe the potential for the user to game the system to produce a squad of perfectly balanced 190+ CA players is too great however if your experimental save shows otherwise it may be worth uploading a copy of the file for SI to check out.

[Neil Brock]

Reviewed so locked.