Best Way to Scout?

[tartanterror]

Does anyone know how the method of scouting impacts the players you can find? Say you focus on scouting strikers, does the algorithm use the overall numbers for just your strikers or for the whole team? Are you better off scouting for "any" player (does this raise the quality of what you find?) I read Mr. Pitt's post regarding how the scout algorithm works in another thread, and that was most helpful. It seems the key is sell off all low rated players prior to scouting. Sorry for the rambling post, but if anyone has more information I would appreciate it.

 

[StevePitts]

Most of what you are asking about is hidden internally, so all I can offer is my own personal experience, spread across FIFA 07 and FIFA 08. I don't believe that you get better (or more/less) players by focusing on a particular position, or area, so I would only bother if you have particular needs that you'd like to address.

As to the low rating theory, I've had conflicting results and suspect that it isn't just their current OVR that matters but that potential and/or peak OVR are taken into account too. Much of my current confusion arises from some strange results in my Dagenham & Redbridge career in FIFA 08, where the scouting returns in the middle of my second season improved dramatically (high 50s/low 60s instead of low to mid 30s) with the arrival of a mid 70s rated free agent, despite the fact that the low end players on my team were still down in the low 40s.

Various experiments made it apparent that if I didn't sign the free agent that the scouted players stayed in the 30s, but as soon as I did sign him there was an immediate impact. I've tried reproducing that effect at the beginning of the second season and at the start of the third, but either I don't see any change or a considerably more subtle one.

 

[tartanterror]

Thanks for the response. One last question if I may. Does repeatedly scouting the same territory (without a break) improve your odds of finding a gem, or are the available players preset at the beginning of the season?

BTW, happy holidays and merry christmas to all

 

[StevePitts]

Does repeatedly scouting the same territory (without a break) improve your odds of finding a gem

I'd say not. If nothing has changed between the two scouting trips (in terms of scout levels, team prestige, existing team members, etc.) then the chances are you will be offered exactly the same players as last time, and then get to see a nice little debug error message when you try to add a player to the shortlist that is already on it

 

[tartanterror]

Thank you :handshakesmilie:

 

[MrVee]

Realize this is an old thread but I have a theory on how the scouting algorithm works.

I believe what happens is that the game picks out players based on the current salaries of the players on your team. So if everyone on your team is making 200 to 250 a game, they don't pop up some guy rated a 70 who makes 7000 a game.

What Steve did fits this perfectly since Free Agents tend to get much higher salaries than players with similar ratings from lower leagues. The free agent's high wages boosted his "salary counter" in the algorithm and therefore the game started spitting out better players in scouting.

This works to a lesser extent too. Buy a few players with Dag and Red and pay them a little more than your current guys (like 500 to 600 a game) and the scouted players jump up into the mid 40s.

This is again why I think it's so hard to scout out guys who are already up at 94 or whatever. Their salaries are so high that they're above whatever possible "salary counter" even a Barcelona or Man United could reasonably have.

 

[StevePitts]

I have a theory on how the scouting algorithm works

Makes perfect sense. This time last year I'd have jumped at the chance to investigate your theory further but FIFA 08 simply hasn't maintained my interest like FIFA 07 did and I've barely played the game in the last six months so I'm afraid that I won't be attempting to corroborate your findings