Status
Not open for further replies.

Raikan007

Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2009
Messages
20,597
Reaction score
7
Points
38
This thread will deal with all questions you may have about Current and Potential Ability of the players within Football Manager... :D


In the Editor, there are tens of thousands of players and they all have Current and Potential Abilities. These two attributes can define a player and most of the times they give you an accurate description of how good a player is. We will call Current Ability: CA and Potential Ability: PA


Current Ability Defintion:

CA is an indicator of how good a player is at the moment. Usually at the beginning of the game CA will be less than PA (example CA of 160 and PA of 190). Both attributes range from 0 - 200.

Current Ability is a hidden value assigned to every player and staff within the game. It ranges from 1 – 200 and the higher this figure is, the better the player is. The general level of attributes assigned to a player seen within the game is directly correlated to the CA of this player. CA can change depending on game variables, generally increasing as a player gets older and more experienced. However it can also decrease when a player is past his peak or receives a serious injury for example. The maximum CA of any player is capped at a certain value, known as Potential Ability (PA).



Notes on CA:

The CA can improve by correct guidance and correct amount of games until the maximum figure, which is PA, at the correct time. If you use players who are under 19 too much then he is going to reach his PA too fast and therefore, it causes "burn out." Usually CA will drop when the player gets older or at some moment after he reaches his PA.

Potential Ability Defintion:

is an attribute for players in Football Manager games. It dictates the maximum that a person's CA attribute can ever rise to, and therefore how good they can possibly become. It can be a value between 1 and 200 (with 200 being the best).

The value of this attribute can also be a value between -10 and 0 (in the pre-game database) which tells the game to assign a random Potential Ability value within a certain range when creating a new game. For example, a player with PA set to -10 (the best rating), tells the game to use a random value between 170 and 200 for that player's Potential Ability.

Potential Ability is a hidden value assigned to every player and staff within the game. It ranges from 1-200 and the higher this figure is, the better the player potentially is (or, in the case of old players who have past their peak, the best they were). However within the pre-game editor it can also be a negative figure. A negative PA will result in a random PA between a certain range being assigned to the relevant player on starting a new game:



We also need to know that PA’s have two types as well:

  • fixed
  • negative

Players with fixed potential:


These players have a fixed PA of say 184 (instead of the negative rating of -10) A high fixed PA is set to players like Pato, Aguero and Bolatelli due to the fact that they are already playing at the top of their games and in competive leagues, this ensures that these types of players will (most of the time) reach their PA instead of having a random PA.

Players with negative potential:

These types of players are assigned negative PA scores in the editor so that the game can randomly generate their potential each game (so it will most of the time always be different)
Now this is done so that they will either become World Stars or they will fade away (the developers cannot assume that Areola is going to become the next Buffon)

The minus ratings in the Potential Ability was introduced seeing as Potential Ability is probably the hardest rating to determine in the set of ratings that exists inside Football Manager, seeing as researchers are asked to judge how good a player could become in the future. This is pretty difficult, so the minus ratings create a bit more flexibility.




Actual PA’s which can be generated by the negative numbers:


  • -10 = 170-200
  • -9 = 150-180
  • -8 = 130-160
  • -7 = 110-140
  • -6 = 90-120
  • -5 = 70-100
  • -4 = 50-80
  • -3 = 30-60
  • -2 = 10-40
  • -1 = 0-30

Notes on PA:

The age in which a player reaches his full potential is up to different influencing factors. We need to take in consideration the standard of your facilities, your training schedules, the standard of your coaches, the amount of first team football the respective players gets and of course the actual difference between the CA and the PA. If he can improve a lot, then there is a high chance that he will.

Unlike CA, PA is generally a static figure that does not change once a game has been started. However if a player has a serious injury in the game their CA can decrease so much that they will never potentially be the player that they they could have been. PA is the maximum CA that a player can achieve and it is not possible for a player’s CA to ever surpass his PA. This system reflects well on real life, as a player who can be promising in real life may never reach his potential. It also helps to maintain a relative balance of player quality throughout the gameworld as time progresses.

Extra notes on CA/PA with regards to scouting:

Originally Posted by Montanaro


A lot of the African clubs have very poor reputation and very poor facilities.

PA can be affected by this.

Lets use player X as a prime example. He may have a ton of actual potential, but while he is at Mangasport he will NEVER reach it (will only reach 1.5 stars instead of 5). If he moves to a top club he will be able to fulfill his potential and will show 4.5-5 stars.

I sign a lot of africans and I know this to be a FACT. I've signed 2 star players from Africa who are actually 5 star when they get to my club. The thing you need to know about scouting africa is to look at their attributes and NOT THE STAR RATING. If a player has solid stats (sometimes you can find players with outstanding stats) but a low star rating, SIGN HIM, he will be a wonderkid. Just last season in my save I signed a 1.5 star Nigerian AMC with 18 dribbling 19 technique 15 creativity and 18 passing...He's obviously 5 star now that he can reach his potential.

And while I'm at it, my current team doesn't have the best training facilities. I've had young players who had 4.5 PA lose their PA after a couple of years because my facilities are only adequate. When I sell these players to better teams with better facilities, their PA shoots back up to 4.5 or even 5.






Additionally, a PA of zero is completely random, with the value based on the player's CA.


NB:

(this is not all my own work, I have used alot of defintions etc I have found around the Internet, mostly from WikiFootballManager and other sites)
 
there is a way to find the current ability of each player on the game like the genie scout ? how can we say that a player is better than other by scouts only or there are other importnat things such attributes ?
 
scouts are programmed to find the PA of a player and judge according to that! so if player A has 168 PA and player B has 198 PA of course Player B is going to be better (if all things remain equal)
 
Nicolas Otamendi i think hes called In FM 10 Had a PA of around 170 which was Fixed, However After 3 or 4 seasons I downloaded Scout Genie,

He had a CA of 192 and PA of 200

can this actualy happen Or was it a bug of some sort ?
 
I am not sure mate, I never use any of those things... :)
 
Nicolas Otamendi i think hes called In FM 10 Had a PA of around 170 which was Fixed, However After 3 or 4 seasons I downloaded Scout Genie,

He had a CA of 192 and PA of 200

can this actualy happen Or was it a bug of some sort ?
Nicolás Otamendi was a -10 in FM2010.
 
Has anyone reverse engineered how much each stat affects current ability? Like if a player was at CA 120, then his finishing/strength/determination/whatever went up by 1, what would his new CA be?
 
Has anyone reverse engineered how much each stat affects current ability? Like if a player was at CA 120, then his finishing/strength/determination/whatever went up by 1, what would his new CA be?

There is no fixed formula, as it depends on player position, age, and of course club facilities and coaching. It is highly variable.

For example, raising a defender's long shots skill will take more CA than raising a striker's long shots skill, whereas if the skill is tackling the reverse is true.
 
It also depends on the score level; for example it takes a lot more CA to raise a skill from 16 to 17 than it does to raise one from 11 to 12.
 
If you use players who are under 19 too much then he is going to reach his PA too fast and therefore, it causes "burn out.

A very crucial question I'd like to ask.
What is the definition of "too much" in the above statement?

I've read another thread which suggests to let the young players on at the ending 20 minute of each match
What if I let the young player play the entire match (maybe against weaker opponent) and let him rest for next 3 or 4 matches (when against similar teams and stronger teams)
Will it give a similar or totally different result to the young players' development?
 
If you use players who are under 19 too much then he is going to reach his PA too fast and therefore, it causes "burn out.

A very crucial question I'd like to ask.
What is the definition of "too much" in the above statement?

I've read another thread which suggests to let the young players on at the ending 20 minute of each match
What if I let the young player play the entire match (maybe against weaker opponent) and let him rest for next 3 or 4 matches (when against similar teams and stronger teams)
Will it give a similar or totally different result to the young players' development?

hey bud :)

you read that all in my thread about youngsters :) 16-17yrs old, even the last 5 minutes is enough! 18-19, 10-15 minutes and 20, 20 minutes at least :)

thats absolutely perfect! what I meant was that if you play him week in week out in all matches he will burn out! youngster are not physically ready to play extensively and should be used sporadically!

a rule of thumb:

start a promising youngster (if playing as a big club) every 8-10 matches under the age of 19yrs
 
As a rule young players are still weak physically, and you got to be careful not to burn them out. However, there are exceptions. Sometimes a player will be have physical prowess of an adult despite young age - think young Roney - even at 17 he wasnt exactly a kind of guy that would fall over after soft breeze.

I tend to look primarily on their Natural Fitness before deciding how much to play them. Stamina and Strength also help - you don't want man-titted 16 year old fighting on regular basis with 100kg defenders build like a russian tank.
 
If the orange tag indicating "Need Rest" appears on a young player's name,
It isn't necessarily the sign of "burn out", is it?
 
Burn out happens IRL, but does it really happen in the game?
I have 5 or 6 youngsters in my game who have been playing pretty much everygame since the age of 18 (ie around 40 per season)and they are now my best players at arround age 22.
Further to this i would also say that when you send players out on loan they only really develop if they are playing around 30 games during the loan season.
I have also found that it is a lot easier to underplay the youngsters rather than overplay them.
I am the first to admit that this is in no way scientific, but only what ive foung through playing the game.
Does burnout really exist to any great extent in the game? I dont think so, just use a bit of common sense!
Feel free to correct my ramblings!
 
ah I see ... thanks bro.

So when the assistant coach suggests that the young player is ready to take more first team action,
is it an indictator that I should put him on more for his development?
Or he is just telling me his CA is good enough for first team action?
 
I guess I did misunderstand the term "burn out" here.
I thought you were suggesting if I play the youngster too often, it will "burn" his potential out.
ha, so I get it now. It's just the matter of stamina.
So I think I won't have any trouble if I only send them on pitch when their condition is >95%, right?
 
I think the matter is: if a player's CA reach his PA too early, the CA will start decreasing earlier. This is how the game models the decline of a player. If a youngster plays too much too early, it will contribute to the CA's early increase.
 
I was refering purely to stamina.

When it comes to early decline, I don't see what practical difference can it possibly have, whether player peaks at 19-29 or 23-33 , you still get 10 years out of him. If anything, it might be a good thing - at 29 you can still sell them t at very good profit and bring some fresh blood to your squad, while making serious money of 33 year old fart is generally impossible.

If the player isn't physically ready to constantly play at current level of your team, he will become increasingly tired very quick, otherwise i just try to keep them above said 95% and not play them 2 full games in a row.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top