Would you mind looking at the scouting costs in your FM game please?

[Jimbokav1971]

Hi. I am managing a little club in Iceland and during pre-season I have somehow racked up £105,472 in scouting costs and there are still 3 weeks of pre-season left. 

This doesn't seem right to me.

Would you mind looking at your scouting costs for this financial year in FM18 please and let me know if you think it looks reasonable?

Thanks in advance.

[corn_onthecurb]

£2.5M for the last season playing as Arsenal

I think the common feeling on the forum is that scouting costs aren't made clear enough.

Cougar2010 has some useful information about costs in this thread - 

 

[Cougar2010]

Yeah you are a little behind the curve there Jimbo.

Costs have been discussed in a few threads including the one linked above, its not me though that deserves the credit its wicksyFM who has been putting in the work to understand the costs.

Basically at the moment though you seem to be getting charged between £500 & £850 per player that you scout to 100% on top of the package costs/wages etc.  I haven't seen SI state their reasoning yet but atm the costs are still there.  Personally my gut feeling is that they are excessive, especially for small clubs and it effectively rewards those that cheat rather than those who want to find good players in a realistic way.

[Rashidi]

If I am not mistaken and correct me if I am wrong, when you stop at 80% the costs aren't as exorbitant, or am I wrong?

[Jimbokav1971]

48 minutes ago, Cougar2010 said:

Yeah you are a little behind the curve there Jimbo.

Costs have been discussed in a few threads including the one linked above, its not me though that deserves the credit its wicksyFM who has been putting in the work to understand the costs.

Basically at the moment though you seem to be getting charged between £500 & £850 per player that you scout to 100% on top of the package costs/wages etc.  I haven't seen SI state their reasoning yet but atm the costs are still there.  Personally my gut feeling is that they are excessive, especially for small clubs and it effectively rewards those that cheat rather than those who want to find good players in a realistic way.

Sorry @Cougar2010and thanks. Don't come in here as much as I used to. I will have a search for some of the previous discussions and start with the one linked above, (thanks @corn_onthecurb by the way). (Feel free to point me in the right direction of any other appropriate threads).

[Jimbokav1971]

9 minutes ago, Rashidi said:

If I am not mistaken and correct me if I am wrong, when you stop at 80% the costs aren't as exorbitant, or am I wrong?

Cheers. Will have a play about with the levels and see how we go. 

[Cougar2010]

14 minutes ago, Rashidi said:

If I am not mistaken and correct me if I am wrong, when you stop at 80% the costs aren't as exorbitant, or am I wrong?

I don't know but it leads to the question of why 80%?

At the very least it means more micro managing of your scouting to weed out those you are not interested in and only scout those you are seriously interested in from 80-100%.  This isn't always easy either when some of the key information you need is in that last 20% (Consistency, Big Matches, Work Permits etc).

[wicksyFM]

Ive stopped looking at it now. It is frustrating. If your a massive club the problem isnt as bad. But LLM is impossible with attribute masking enabled. Just take a look through the Dafuge challenge page and look at some of the clubs finances. Some players have got the clubs into massive debt. Some clubs are 600k plus in the red. I get that there can be bugs. But this is a massive one to me. Issue was raised during beta. I cant see how developers missed it 

[wicksyFM]

3 minutes ago, Cougar2010 said:

I don't know but it leads to the question of why 80%?

At the very least it means more micro managing of your scouting to weed out those you are not interested in and only scout those you are seriously interested in from 80-100%.  This isn't always easy either when some of the key information you need is in that last 20% (Consistency, Big Matches, Work Permits etc).

It gets even stranger with masking disabled. Some your charged for, some your not. I had both top packages with masking disabled. Bulk scouted 100 in one month, charged nothing. The next month bulk scouted another 100, charged £249

[wicksyFM]

Also, i feel not enough people are raising this issue with SI in the bugs page. Some people dont seem to care. They say "oh, it is what it is" or "money is the chairmans problem". 

[cjb1986]

Thats most likely because most players tend to start at bigger clubs we money is not as much as a concern in comparison to a lower league manager. Im with you know, I play almost exclusivley long term LLM saves and build my team up. I havent purchased FM18 as of yet as im waiting to see if this will be addressed as with all the issues/bugs raised this one will effect my game most

[wicksyFM]

3 minutes ago, cjb1986 said:

Thats most likely because most players tend to start at bigger clubs we money is not as much as a concern in comparison to a lower league manager. Im with you know, I play almost exclusivley long term LLM saves and build my team up. I havent purchased FM18 as of yet as im waiting to see if this will be addressed as with all the issues/bugs raised this one will effect my game most

I think it also shows how money people play with masking disabled. Nothing against it. People play however they want. I’m probably going to have to start playing that way. I want to play the game I brought. Not wait for a potential fix. We don’t even know if it will be fixed

[cjb1986]

I don’t think i could play with masking on. Never have and it would take away the point of scouting for me. Down in the leagues i start saves in (Van North + South) with the scouting cost of one player at £500+ that can be the equivalent 10% of your cash flow and with the high turnover of players due to most being non contracts and loans it doesn’t seem feasible to even put a squad together without bankrupting the club.

[wicksyFM]

1 hour ago, cjb1986 said:

I don’t think i could play with masking on. Never have and it would take away the point of scouting for me. Down in the leagues i start saves in (Van North + South) with the scouting cost of one player at £500+ that can be the equivalent 10% of your cash flow and with the high turnover of players due to most being non contracts and loans it doesn’t seem feasible to even put a squad together without bankrupting the club.

 

Go and read through the Dafuge Challenge and have a look at the finances of the clubs. You will see what your up against. It’s impossible to play the game properly. 

[DEERHAUNTER]

Only thing I've noticed with the scouting is some players when I click continue scouting, a box pops up saying it'll cost £xxx amount as they're out of my scouting range or something along those lines.

[Pingdinho]

I don't know if the costs are realistic or not, but it feels like in the real world if scouting costs were becoming excessive a club's accountant / chairperson / whoever signs the cheques would step in and put a stop to it, rather than just keep paying out.

[treble_yell_:-)]

6 hours ago, Pingdinho said:

I don't know if the costs are realistic or not, but it feels like in the real world if scouting costs were becoming excessive a club's accountant / chairperson / whoever signs the cheques would step in and put a stop to it, rather than just keep paying out.

 There were guys in the other thread involved in scouting saying that the costs to clubs are negligible outside of buying packages. 

 

The packages literally allow a scout to sit at a desk and create comprehensive dossiers on the players.  The idea that you're sending scouts all over the country/world to watch players is a dated one and one that's been so poorly implemented in game that it's hurting LLM.

 

Have SI even commented on whether it's intentional  ( and explain why) or that its a bug and is going to be addressed ? 

[grasu]

Since this is such an important part of the game, is there a guide that explains all of this obscure crap?

This is what's currently killing my enjoyment of the game. No explanation for several MAJOR changes. Would really love to know if there's a guide related to the scouting system and its costs.

[StormenDK]

1 hour ago, grasu said:

Since this is such an important part of the game, is there a guide that explains all of this obscure crap?

This is what's currently killing my enjoyment of the game. No explanation for several MAJOR changes. Would really love to know if there's a guide related to the scouting system and its costs.

Don't hold your breath  .... many things in the game are obscure and without any explanation (from SI). Best bet is to wait until someone here on these boards figures it out by reverse-engineering these things.

[Whatawaster95]

I do not understand the scouting costs. We are now paying monthly for the scouting packages, we employ scouts and they get a wage to do their job and now its costing £500-800 to scout a player? 
Is this supposed to be a scouts expenses or something? Scouts in FM must love pies & bovrils! 

[wicksyFM]

2 hours ago, grasu said:

Since this is such an important part of the game, is there a guide that explains all of this obscure crap?

This is what's currently killing my enjoyment of the game. No explanation for several MAJOR changes. Would really love to know if there's a guide related to the scouting system and its costs.

I raised the issue with SI during the Beta. All they have said is its under review. Nothing about if or when it will be fixed. It might never get fixed.