Scouting Revamp

[timcliffsmith]

I'm 43, and have been playing this in its various forms for 25+ years, often with over 1,000 hours per year. The game has improved massively in many ways (apart from when it gets the balance wrong), but one thing always stuck with me, and it was sparked by the complaint about PA. In ye olden days, before scouting, there was no way to tell the current ability or potential ability of a player; all you had was their individual stats (far fewer back then) and their team stats. That being the case, you often scrolled through the lower divisions (there were no foreign leagues) looking at who had the highest ratings and then taking a punt. I used to look for players who had high average ratings but were in teams not at the top of their respective league. And then, you never really knew what sort of player you had until you gave them a run of ten or so games and saw how their average rating was working out. That side has gone. With the star rating, you just play the guy with the most stars. It's like FIFA in that respect. Now, I realise that you can't do away with scouting, so my suggestion is this:

The scouts will watch a player and report back to you not a star rating, but make comments about their stats, such as, 'He's not quick but has great ball control'. You need to keep scouting a player to reveal the stats - similar to now - but that's all that scouting does, and of course, how good your scout is affects the accuracy of his assessment. BUT, you can never know the CA or PA, you have to judge it for yourself. YES, stats can help you determine this - but there will always be those few players who have all the stats you're looking for but are terrible. And then they'll be those who have not great stats but turn out to be diamonds. Why? Because that's how it is with footy sometimes. So, perhaps the scouts could also make comments such as, 'He has the third highest average rating for a rightback in League 2.' And you think, hmmm, he has pretty good stats, would seemingly fit my system, but why only third best? You go look at where Newport County are - ah, they're 16th - third highest rated playing for the team in 16th...this kid might be worth a punt!

[Vänsterback]

"... you just play the guy with the most stars". No I don't. I didn't even do that when I was 13 years old. I play with the ones that perform, and sometimes a 1,5 star player performs better than a 3,5 star player. The AI coaches can't tell me what to do, their estimates are incorrect quite frequently. I guess most experienced FM-players have realised that stars represents estimates/opinons/perceived ability and not the actual CA that is entered in the database. And that ability =/= performance (and isn't in real life either). So I think it perfectly alright that the scouts and coaches try to summarize their opinions regarding a player with a star rating. We as managers can decide what we want to do with the information that the game presents. Some may prefer star ratings, some the pros and cons report and some just look at attributes or match ratings. I can't see the point of taking any of that away from the game.

[Neil Brock]

Reviewed so locked.