[Suggestion] Revamp of Player Search and Scouting

[Powermonger]

For a long time the Player Search in Scouting has just felt like an interface to query the FM database, and not like a scouting tool to explore the FM world and find players. I'd like the Player Search to be revamped and made to feel like we are using a 3rd party to find players.

In Football many clubs are now taking advantage of data companies like Wyscout and using their service to find players, through data and video footage, with it often being the first the tool they use before even engaging a scout. FM Player Search should be more like Wyscout where we can browse nations and their leagues, but also do Advanced Searches however only performance data can be searched, not individual attributes like now.

Some key points:

• Make Player Search the key focus of the Scouting module, and labeled the Scouting Centre
• Player Search operates like the data hub and only populates with data after a certain amount of matches
• The old player search has to be enabled on database setup (like Attribute Masking or enabling the editor) if people want to see it still

I feel scouting in FM and the mechanics around it are a little outdated, we rely too much on Scouts out in the field to find us players, where as modern day scouting is very data driven. FM doesn't really reflect this change in scouting philosophy and Player Search needs to be updated to feel more like a real world tool.

 

 

 

Edited May 31, 2022 by Powermonger

[azymin]

Good idea.

Currently what you 'see' is limited by scouting knowledge, where irl you can use 3rd party data to evaluate players. This should be the 1st step, and once you're truly interested in a player you'd send someone to watch them in person. Currently FM does the opposite - assign a scout and then recruitment analyst will generate data.

I have also had a suggestion of being able to browse data from different competitions through data hub, which would be a part of what you've shown here. 

Perhaps, if this is too large of an undertaking in this FM development cycle at this stage, SI could add the ability to assign recruitment analysts to competitions to produce this data. 

Edited June 1, 2022 by azymin

[Powermonger]

11 hours ago, azymin said:

Good idea.

Currently what you 'see' is limited by scouting knowledge, where irl you can use 3rd party data to evaluate players. This should be the 1st step, and once you're truly interested in a player you'd send someone to watch them in person. Currently FM does the opposite - assign a scout and then recruitment analyst will generate data.

I have also had a suggestion of being able to browse data from different competitions through data hub, which would be a part of what you've shown here. 

Perhaps, if this is too large of an undertaking in this FM development cycle at this stage, SI could add the ability to assign recruitment analysts to competitions to produce this data. 

Yes the way scouting operates in FM is a bit topsy-turvy, scouts can still find new talent out in the field but if you watch some interviews with Football Directors, they say its expensive to send scouts out (especially if the player is in a foreign country) so they start their recruitment process by looking for players through data. If the data for a player looks promising, then they will send a scout to watch the player.

Changing the player search more into a scouting data hub, which has the ability to be searched or browsed, would refocus scouting. I would even suggest scout reports for players are maintained within the new scouting hub and not attached to a players profile like it is now. Have the scout reports formatted to look distinctive as opposed to just another player profile screen. The World browse button could also be removed from the menu bar and made part of the scouting hub.

 

[azymin]

On 01/06/2022 at 19:51, Powermonger said:

Yes the way scouting operates in FM is a bit topsy-turvy, scouts can still find new talent out in the field but if you watch some interviews with Football Directors, they say its expensive to send scouts out (especially if the player is in a foreign country) so they start their recruitment process by looking for players through data. If the data for a player looks promising, then they will send a scout to watch the player.

Changing the player search more into a scouting data hub, which has the ability to be searched or browsed, would refocus scouting. I would even suggest scout reports for players are maintained within the new scouting hub and not attached to a players profile like it is now. Have the scout reports formatted to look distinctive as opposed to just another player profile screen. The World browse button could also be removed from the menu bar and made part of the scouting hub.

 

Yeah, the way scouting currently functions makes it easier to simply ask for complete team reports and then scout individual players, or just mass select players. Otherwise, scouts are constantly missing players and only 'report' on the ones they see in games. In its current form, scouting is bulky, awkward, and unnecessarily time consuming.