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FHM 4 - Technical Support Need help or want to report a bug? This is the right place.

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Old 12-17-2017, 02:03 AM   #1
Muzz1960
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Scouting

I'm having issues with the scouting feature. I'm currently in my second year of operations. During the first year, I had my assistant handle the scouting. But that sorry SOB provided me information on a plethora of players that in real life would be tending bar. So, in the second year, I decided to take the reins myself.

The problem is that my scouts aren't scouting. I have nearly two dozen scouts, which I have given instructions on the leagues, regions and assignment lengths I wish scouted, as well as putting lower limits on abilities and potential. But after the first reporting period, I got a blank scouting report. When I looked at the activities of my scouts, none had assignments.

There's no way I can compete against the AI if I can't get reliable information regarding future talent. Nothing like being a cellar-dweller and getting the first overall pick, only to draft someone better suited to drive the Zamboni.

I've stopped playing. If a suitable solution cannot be provided, I'll be submitting a refund request.
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Old 12-17-2017, 04:29 AM   #2
JeffR
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Can you walk me, step-by-step, through how you're setting up the scouting assignments? Something's clearly going wrong at some point, seeing exactly what you're setting the assignments to may give us an idea of where the problem is.
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Old 12-21-2017, 03:48 PM   #3
Muzz1960
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I open up the assignment feature on the selected scout. I look at his scouting region listed about in his profile. Then I decide which league I wish him to scout. For instance, I have a scout with a scouting region of Minnesota listed as his scouting region. Being that the only decent league in that region is the NCAA; though U-20...16 would also be an option. I assign him to scout the Central US NCAA. Then I click on draft eligible and the box right above it (Sorry, I can't recall what it is called). As well, I don't register any positional assignments; I wish for the scout to review all the players ... though that may change later in the season when I want the scout to focus on an individual. After that, I choose either "Ability" or "Potential" and beneath that I click on "Quality." In the boxes determining the extent of the reports, I only want to see players with a minimum ability of 2.5 and a minimum potential of 3.5 with the maximum 8.0 on both. This is a bit confusing because you use a five star system to rate the players, but an eight point system to rate the upcoming draft stock. That means each star is basically worth 0.75 on the scouting scale. (I think that's correct). Then I make the position "Permanent" with reports every "Two weeks." And I do this for roughly two dozen scouts. So, it does get tiresome and frustrating. As I mentioned earlier, I could let the AI make assignments, but it really doesn't do a really good job. Or I could do as some probably do and access the players drafted in "Commissioner Mode" and edit each player to be super stars. But that's not why I'm playing the game. I want a fair challenge. And this scouting thing seems to put me at a disadvantage. I hope you can help.
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Old 12-21-2017, 06:17 PM   #4
JeffR
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OK, it's probably one of two things:

The box right above Draft Eligibility is position, do you maybe mean right below it? That's Rights Available, which may explain the problem - rights available means the player is signable in your league right now. Combined with turning draft eligible on, they're going to mutually exclude each other and no player will qualify for the search criteria. I'm not sure why that would cause the scouts to lose their assignments - either it's a reaction to getting an empty scouting pool or possibly an unrelated intermittent problem we've had reports of where some scouts on permanent assignments are dropping their assignment; we're still trying to pin down the cause of that.

But even if that isn't what's happening, the minimum 2.5 ability will probably remove just about everyone from the scouting target list - that's 2.5 stars at the NHL level, and it's very rare that any player will be that high during his draft year. So that would reduce the list of scouting targets down to maybe one or two players at most (more likely zero), who are more likely to be outside the NCAA than in it.

The min/max scale is actually the regular 1-5 star scale - which, technically, isn't a 1-5 scale, 5 is just the maximum number it'll display. The scale is actually open-ended. 0-8 is available as a scouting option because the rating is relative to the league you're currently in. If, for example, you're in a very low-level league, you'll look at the NHL and see almost nothing but 5-star players. That isn't too useful if you're trying to find guys who might be willing to sign with you - an actual 5-star player might do that, but if he's really 7+ stars for your league and only cosmetically a 5 (because the visible ratings are capped there), there's no way he will. So having the extra steps on the rating scale lets you decide at what level you want to filter out the highest-rated guys. The levels above 5 aren't really useful for NHL teams, and intended more for very weak leagues to avoid wasting scouting effort looking at guys who won't play in your league.
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Old 12-29-2017, 01:15 AM   #5
Muzz1960
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So you recommend I lower potential and ability levels, as well as having only the draft eligible box selected? I'll give it a try. Please leave this thread open. If I continue to have problems, it would be nice not to have to start from scratch again. Thanks For the tips.

PS Happy New Year.
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Old 01-07-2018, 06:53 PM   #6
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Yeah. Well, I’m still having issues, though it’s only half as problematic as before. The problem now centres around those given assignments to scout the NCAA and those given assignments to scout provincial junior leagues; the durations averaging eights weeks with reports requested at the end of the assignment. I’ve lowered minimum levels for ability and potential to 1.0 on both and have only checked for those that are ‘Draft Eligible.’ The game maintains the allotted assignments for about a week (Game-Time, not real time). Then I get a ‘Scouting Report’ with nothing in it. And upon checking out my scouting assignments, these scouts now have no assignments.

The only thing I can think is happening is I’m expecting the AI to be more advanced than it actually is designed. For instance, I have a scout named Larry Neville. Under his profile, within the ‘Scouting Rating’ box, he has Wisconsin listed after ‘Scouting Region.’ I’m giving the assignments based on these ‘Scouting Regions,’ assuming the AI will know which NCAA teams play in the state of Wisconsin. I would be happy to send them to check out individual schools, but aside fro obvious institutions – ie. Boston Collage – I really have no idea where the majority of these schools are located. For instance, where is Bowling Green? Calgary’s Inglewood district has a bowling green, but that is for the sport of lawn bowling. And there is no listing as to which state any school resides. And the same issues apply to the provincial junior leagues.

And, I maybe giving these ‘Scouting Region’ listing too much significance. I don’t know how much these listings affect the scout’s abilities. These ‘regions’ ae a bit confusing. Some scouts have listing which are geographical, others based on leagues and yet others have no listing. Furthermore, some of the geographic listings don’t have significant leagues to scout, for instance the Northwest Territories and South Dakota. So I give them assignments to lesser leagues. For instance, for a good scout with a scouting territory in NWT, I gave him an assignment to scout ‘midget’ teams. Now midgets are not going to be draft eligible for two to three years, so I leave those boxes unchecked, assuming the reports will remain in the system to be applied to the player if he advances to the juniors. But these assignments are also being bounced.

So, that is the situation as it stands at the moment ... hope you can help.
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Old 01-07-2018, 08:40 PM   #7
Adam B
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Muzz1960 View Post
Yeah. Well, I’m still having issues, though it’s only half as problematic as before. The problem now centres around those given assignments to scout the NCAA and those given assignments to scout provincial junior leagues; the durations averaging eights weeks with reports requested at the end of the assignment. I’ve lowered minimum levels for ability and potential to 1.0 on both and have only checked for those that are ‘Draft Eligible.’ The game maintains the allotted assignments for about a week (Game-Time, not real time). Then I get a ‘Scouting Report’ with nothing in it. And upon checking out my scouting assignments, these scouts now have no assignments.

The only thing I can think is happening is I’m expecting the AI to be more advanced than it actually is designed. For instance, I have a scout named Larry Neville. Under his profile, within the ‘Scouting Rating’ box, he has Wisconsin listed after ‘Scouting Region.’ I’m giving the assignments based on these ‘Scouting Regions,’ assuming the AI will know which NCAA teams play in the state of Wisconsin. I would be happy to send them to check out individual schools, but aside fro obvious institutions – ie. Boston Collage – I really have no idea where the majority of these schools are located. For instance, where is Bowling Green? Calgary’s Inglewood district has a bowling green, but that is for the sport of lawn bowling. And there is no listing as to which state any school resides. And the same issues apply to the provincial junior leagues.

And, I maybe giving these ‘Scouting Region’ listing too much significance. I don’t know how much these listings affect the scout’s abilities. These ‘regions’ ae a bit confusing. Some scouts have listing which are geographical, others based on leagues and yet others have no listing. Furthermore, some of the geographic listings don’t have significant leagues to scout, for instance the Northwest Territories and South Dakota. So I give them assignments to lesser leagues. For instance, for a good scout with a scouting territory in NWT, I gave him an assignment to scout ‘midget’ teams. Now midgets are not going to be draft eligible for two to three years, so I leave those boxes unchecked, assuming the reports will remain in the system to be applied to the player if he advances to the juniors. But these assignments are also being bounced.

So, that is the situation as it stands at the moment ... hope you can help.
It's not always easy to know where Universities in the States are, but more (if what I'm reading is correct), you're making Scouting harder on yourself than it needs to be.

Scouts can scout anywhere, but if they are from the region they will Scout better and more efficiently. What you need to decide is where you want to (A) hit leagues, or (B) hit regions.

For instance, if you have a Scout in Minnesota, you can see what Leagues he'd be best in as they are Greened. Same goes for location. Being that Minnesota has a nice mix of NCAA, USHL, and Major League talent, maybe you instead have him Scout the whole province to find different players, rather than have him directed just as say the NCAA where maybe he is useful some of the time, but not as useful as others.

I actually went over this in the Last Kraken episode about what I look for in Scouts. Typically when I'm looking over large areas, (whether that be NCAA, ECHL, USHL, AHL, NHL, etc), I'm targeting Scouts who can Scout all over North America (yes, there is a geography region for that). Those guys are going to be most effective at that.

(Also Bowling Green is in Ohio).

Last edited by Adam B; 01-07-2018 at 08:41 PM.
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