Hey guys, Football Manager 2014 is fast approaching and for most that means excitement and anticipation, for us at FMS it means work and vital preparations are underway. We want to make Footballmanagerstory more enjoyable every year for you the reader and that is what today’s post is all about. Myself and Johnny have been deep in conversation over new ideas and additions for Football Manager 2014‘s release.
We have already confirmed new player profiles will include each players best role, in previous years we’ve covered their position, but feel there’s a demand for more detail. There is another new feature we’ve discussed in detail, but feel you guys deserve to have the final say on whether it is included for FM 2014.
The question is simple, do you want to see every players current and potential ability. To clarify, these would be shown in every profile along with the general details. When I say current and potential ability (also known as CA and PA) I mean the number out of 200 assigned to each player to show how good they actually are and how good they could be, these are usually found in the games editor….it would help decide whether a players worth signing, but it could also be perceived as a bit of a cheat, so the decision lies with you! No judgement, just a simple question to answer in the poll below and if you want to leave us a comment, please remember every gamer has a right to play the game as they see fit.
Goal Of The Month June 2011
- Jon Crosby (Gabrielsen goal) (41%, 63 Votes)
- Dami (Fuchs goal) (12%, 18 Votes)
- Desmo Wenning (Llorente goal) (9%, 14 Votes)
- Jerzinho (Barrios goal) (9%, 13 Votes)
- Cruickshanks (Aguero goal) (8%, 12 Votes)
- Szalo (Traore goal) (6%, 9 Votes)
- Nicka94 (Bentley goal) (5%, 8 Votes)
- Billy (Buzsaky goal) (5%, 8 Votes)
- Jackie C. (Bojan goal) (5%, 7 Votes)
Total Voters: 152
Загрузка ...The poll is now closed, thanks for voting and everyone for their suggestions. Due to popular demand we will instate the players CA and PA into every profile, but hidden behind ‘spoilers’ to keep the voters who went for ‘no’ happy. This feature will be active once the game has been fully released, not during BETA release as the editor will not be available then.
By the way, Football Manager 2014 has been announced and you can pre-order the game from us to get access to the beta version two weeks before the full game release. You can also take your chance in our FM14 giveaway, one of the three free activation codes could be yours!
Gaurav Chaddah
20 августа, 2013 at 14:19
I don’t think it would be classed as cheating and it would be more of an helping to see on who to sign and who not to so I voted yes.
Darren Smith
20 августа, 2013 at 18:57
Yeah it would be harsh to call looking at the CA and PA cheating, very harsh. I can see why half the voters have gone against it as lots of us want to play the game as realistically as possible and I guess they want to look at the player and make their own mind up as opposed to be swayed by some random figure. I honestly can see both sides of the argument, hence we decided to put the question to you guys, thanks for voting Gaurav.
Gavin Scotney
20 августа, 2013 at 20:41
Could you not hide it at the bottom of the profile as a spoiler so those that wish to see it can and the ones that don’t won’t have to see it. That way everyone can view your scouting reports
Darren Smith
20 августа, 2013 at 20:49
Everyone can view our scouting reports regardless. The question is poised more to see what peoples opinion is of the morale side. If its deemed this feature is seen as too much information bordering on cheat like then we won’t add it, if everyone doesn’t see it that way then we’ll include it, the problem is some people won’t even want the temptation on the site while others won’t want the inconvenience of having to open the spoiler, which we don’t have on this site anyway. This is not the forum so we don’t have spoilers on here, good suggestion though.
Johnny Karp
22 августа, 2013 at 06:42
We could add spoilers here too, I can take care of that if needed ;)
Darren Smith
22 августа, 2013 at 07:45
Could well be that we add the CA and PA in spoilers if the majority of readers want this. That way the ones who voted no shouldn’t be disappointed either.
Jake Stothard
30 августа, 2013 at 16:15
Spoilers is the best of both worlds really!
Darren Smith
30 августа, 2013 at 19:17
Agreed.
Chai Chien Liang
21 августа, 2013 at 04:10
Would prefer to stick with the star ratings, it’s more than enough to see if a player is good enough for me (maybe you can make a thread in the forums with all the players in the scouting network and put their CAs and PAs as a spoiler below each players name :D )
Darren Smith
21 августа, 2013 at 07:01
Yeah I’m the same, it’s a more challenging way of looking at players ability as coaches and scouts can be wrong and misleading due to considering other players in your squad also. Not a bad idea there, but if we’re going to do it I’d want everything in one place, it’s cleaner and new visitors won’t get confused.
hfoster02
21 августа, 2013 at 16:12
Seeing as it uses an external game mechanic, I voted no. Though I wouldn’t be against it being shown in a spoiler box or something similar.
Darren Smith
21 августа, 2013 at 18:43
That’s fair enough, the choice of many I’m sure, the voting is very close so far but there’s still at least half a week left.
David Warner
22 августа, 2013 at 12:44
My two cents:
I look at the profiles on FMS as I would treat «advice from fellow scouts». I look at the recommended scoring, but don’t pay too much attention to it, because there are many factors that can influence a player’s development in a save. I scout the players myself to make my own deductions and decisions. Worked well for me.
Showing the PA or CA is largely a no for me though, because knowing that would just infuriate me, especially if circumstance dictates that the player doesn’t live up to expectations.
Having said that, I would suggest having CA/PA visible, but hidden — either in a «spoiler» style box … or in white text on white page.
Darren Smith
22 августа, 2013 at 20:07
I think many share your view David, I personally wouldn’t use it either and the spoiler is something I now see us using should the votes be a resounding yes.
W41ton
22 августа, 2013 at 12:45
I don’t think it should say the exact PA, maybe like a rough estimate.
Seeing as «Yes» seems to be winning hopefully it’s a figure you’ll have to switch on
Darren Smith
22 августа, 2013 at 20:08
If its a yes, I think we’ll have the value hidden in a spoiler for people to view if they like, but we need to find a function for that, Johnny’s on the case I’m sure :)
David Warner
22 августа, 2013 at 12:55
I may be mistaken, but don’t the 1-200 numbers vary a fair amount from save to save?
Darren Smith
22 августа, 2013 at 13:46
No not exactly. When it shows 1-200 in the editor the figure is set in stone. But some players have a -10 or -9 (flexible ability) so on and so forth, this represents a variable figure, -10 for instance means the figure is anything from 180-200 I believe. We would show all that.
nielsneutron
22 августа, 2013 at 12:56
First of all CA and PA is somewhat randomized within the game as well.
And since the feature seem to be around 50-50 maybe you do it with a spoiler tag. That would be perfect.
Darren Smith
22 августа, 2013 at 20:10
CA and PA is a set figure, but some players have like -10 for instance, in that instance their ability is flexible within the value of 20, so -10 would mean the player can range from 180 upto 200. I do think the spoiler is worth looking at as it seems to be the main request, and this post was made to find out what everyone wants. :)
Adam D
22 августа, 2013 at 13:45
I voted yes but with the caveat that it be in a ‘spoiler’ tagged bit where you need to actually want to see the infomation for it to be visable.
Short version:
Whilst I can see why people would consider it cheating I think the steps SI have taken with the -1 to -10 scale of generating a random potential for players will prevent people from just signing the same players over and over as there’s no guarentee each game that a player will have sky high PA.
Long version:
*** About to go into what some might consider spoilers but they’re very small and focused on game mechanics not individual players. I’m also assuming anyone reading here has a basic knowledge of the PA system and what the numbers mean***
Just looking at the latest patch database (13.3.0) in the editor there are currently:
— Around 25 players (deliberately avoiding using a specific number) aged 21 or under that have a set PA of 170 or more. I recognised all but 2 of them as players with a well known reputation in both RL and FM and I assume people from the regions the 2 I don’t know play in will recognise them. Adding PA to these players wont spoil anything, I doubt anyone will be ‘spoiled’ by learning that someone like Neymar has a high PA.
— Over 600 players (again, keeping it vague to keep ‘spoilers’ to a bare minimum) with a random PA of either -8, -9 or -10 with ages ranging between 15-24. Plenty of recognised young talent already playing in the big leagues in there but also a lot more ‘unknowns’ playing in lower leagues.
The only problem one is -10 (potential varies between good Premier League player to Best in World)) as it would make people look for the -10s who are guarenteed to be good players barring freak injuries stunting developement (who in all editions have been extremely rare, as far as I know every FM since the scale was introduced has had less than 10 players with -10, occasionaly not even having any). Thing is these are also the same players that everyone will recognise as good players and any FM site with an active community will find them pretty damn fast.
The range of PA generated with -8 and -9 means that revealing it doesn’t really spoil much. A -9 player might be a someone who could set the Premier League on fire in one persons game but be just a decent enough squad player in another. With the final generated PA varying each game the best you can get from a revealed PA of -8 or -9 is that the player will at least probably be good enough to hold down a first team place in a lower table Premier League club. Some people might consider that a spoiler but with over 600 of those players in the game it’s not like they have to go for the same player every game like they’re rare or something.
Darren Smith
22 августа, 2013 at 20:15
I agree, in most cases there isn’t much to spoil. I see the CA and PA as more of a tool for the newer gamers as most experienced won’t want to know that anyway. But Spoilers seem to be the way forward should this addition be a yes, which so far it seems to be going that way.
Edd the Red
22 августа, 2013 at 15:35
At the end of the day, no one is forcing you to go on the scouting network so if any aspects of it bother you then don’t look, simple really. I voted yes as it is just another scouting tool for me. «Cheating» for me is things like reloading on purpose, gaining money through the editor and editing your players to make them better. I hardly see how getting some better scouting can be considered on the same level as those things. Thanks to Darren and everyone else for the scouting network :)
Darren Smith
22 августа, 2013 at 20:18
I agree, I don’t see it as cheating. Everyone has varying opinions I guess, some may even see cheating as looking through this site, but I don’t see it that way. From what we’ve seen so far spoilers could be the way forward.
Mike
22 августа, 2013 at 16:14
Yes! Spoilers seem like a fair solution to avoid offending the folks that don’t want to see it. SI has to interpret real life players, and the result is not always like the real life counterpart. I’ve always felt that it’s not a cheat to examine their interpretation and see how well or poorly they rate a certain prospect.
Darren Smith
22 августа, 2013 at 20:19
Yes, spoilers do seem to be the way forward here.
Pedro Silva
22 августа, 2013 at 16:24
I voted yes, because I think the majority of the players posted by you guys are youngsters, meaning that they have a variable PA. So taking Adam Maher as an example, he may be great in your save because he had the highest possible PA for him (I think he as a -9 in FM13, so let’s say in a great save he had a PA of 175), and in mine he could be much worse and not develop as well because he had less PA.
On the other hand if you show in a spoiler at the bottom, that he has a variable potential -9, and that in that save his PA was for example 170, it gives the reader a more realistic way to compare the Adam Maher here on the site to the one on his save game. I had previous cases with players here that were great, and in my save not so much, and it wasn’t because of the training or other aspects, they just simply didn’t have the same potencial to grow.
Darren Smith
22 августа, 2013 at 20:20
Yes it would certainly help gamers understand the flexible ability better and why their player may not be as good as we are showing here or vice versa.
Brijesh Sangani
22 августа, 2013 at 17:37
Me and my frnds love the game because of the challenge. While viewing player profiles here,we also do some extensive scouting of our own.Which means its only players that are on the lists here and not on our shortlist for which we refer the scouting page.
If you show CA and PA as the the editor,its no fun as you already know which player is better. some times its good to make mistakes and make the game more challenging.Much of the challenge is taken of here by displaying CA and PA
Darren Smith
22 августа, 2013 at 20:22
Very good point, and that is why we are now looking into using spoilers should this feature be added, as to not annoy the gamers that would rather not see CA and PA. That seems like a fair option for all.
Ibra
23 августа, 2013 at 00:40
Hey, I know that my comment might not even be noticed. But I immediately thought why not, in the player profile, include the CA/PA, but in a section marked «spoilers.» I for one find it incredibly useful, as I want to know when I am 4 seasons in what youngsters are guaranteed to be good (those with fixed PA’s), so if i find them for cheap I know that they are under-performing, and those that maybe had a flexible PA and there are much more risky because while they may have been fantastic for someone, they might be actually not be under-performing at all and just be at their level.
Another solution might be to have that clickable button that adds content to the page, but if that is deemed to troublesome/unprofessional, then why not write that information but in the same color as the background (in this case white). That way only view-able to those who want it, when they highlight it with their cursors.
Darren Smith
23 августа, 2013 at 11:47
Yes we’ve already discussed most of what you’ve mentioned there and some of it is been considered.
Jack
24 августа, 2013 at 13:25
I really can’t decide on this. I think it would discredit some of the player profiles who don’t have such high PA but at the same time the editor is free for everyone to use so it would be harsh to call it cheating as such. I just think it would ruin the profiles of the lesser players knowing that there is a limit to how far you can take them. tbh I really like how it is right now, and if some people want to see the PA and CA then they can get the editor or whatever and see it themselves, although I agree that this is a difficult one to decide.
Darren Smith
24 августа, 2013 at 13:29
That is why we are looking into hiding the values behind a spoiler, so you can’t see them unless you press a button.
Greg Pancoust
17 сентября, 2013 at 23:14
Dont know whether you guys have decided yet as its been a while since ive been here due to rome 2 and World Of Tanks but I would put it as a spoiler. I would not want to use it because as a real football manager simulator as it is you should stick to your scouts and your fellow scouts on here and pass on knowledge. For example if someone has a potential of say 180 and is already decent you would have to do a good job too mess it up. However if a different player has just the raw talent and has the same should’nt you decide whether to take the risk as real managers do and listen to your scouts. Otherwise you take away some of the realness of the game.
Darren Smith
18 сентября, 2013 at 11:56
The voting has already closed and it was decided by the readers that this feature will be included. But as written in the post we will only do this through spoilers, seems like the fairest option.
Greg Pancoust
19 сентября, 2013 at 23:49
Good decision in my opinion. Can’t wait for 2014. Keep up the good work boys.