Player Growth in Career Mode

[Gnemi]

I know I'm just beating my head against a brick wall here, but I figured I'd throw it out to a general discussion.

After 8 or 9 seasons of Career Mode fun, I've come to realize that the core foundation of the player growth engine is either broken or in bad need of repair.

This not only affects the players coming out of the Youth Academy, it affects all facets of the game. I bought Luca Marrone to start my Career. In two seasons, he has played in over 60 games, all as CDM (his preferred position). His average form has been 6.5 in those games. He started as a 70, apparently has the potential to be an 86, yet he has gone up ONLY TWO POINTS and is now a 72 to start his 3rd season with me.

I have a 16 year-old Striker, 66 OVR with 83-89 potential. I played him in 19 games, he scored 6 goals and averaged 6.7 in form. He went up ZERO points. I realize EA patched the game to address players progressing too fast but now it feels more or less broken. Anybody else having this issue? It has gotten bad enough that I basically keep only 22 players on my roster. If I have more, there's no way I can justify the problems I'll end up with due to Morale and slow player development. I feel compelled to keep the same starting 11 because even my starting 11 don't develop very fast let alone the bench and reserves!

As far as I know, there is no way of scheduling friendlies or reserve matches in Career Mode to maintain morale and form for your reserves. Oddly enough, there may be this option on the Wii? The following website has a tip for player growth: scheduling friendlies. I was very excited and thought I had overlooked the obvious, but alas, I do not think this option is available on the PS3 version. http://www.supercheats.com/wii/fifa-...Player-Growth/

I'm probably preaching to the choir but if anybody has suggestions, hit me with 'em.

[eyeamg0dly]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gnemi

I know I'm just beating my head against a brick wall here, but I figured I'd throw it out to a general discussion. After 8 or 9 seasons of Career Mode fun, I've come to realize that the core foundation of the player growth engine is either broken or in bad need of repair. This not only affects the players coming out of the Youth Academy, it affects all facets of the game. I bought Luca Marrone to start my Career. In two seasons, he has played in over 60 games, all as CDM (his preferred position). His average form has been 6.5 in those games. He started as a 70, apparently has the potential to be an 86, yet he has gone up ONLY TWO POINTS and is now a 72 to start his 3rd season with me. I have a 16 year-old Striker, 66 OVR with 83-89 potential. I played him in 19 games, he scored 6 goals and averaged 6.7 in form. He went up ZERO points. I realize EA patched the game to address players progressing too fast but now it feels more or less broken. Anybody else having this issue? It has gotten bad enough that I basically keep only 22 players on my roster. If I have more, there's no way I can justify the problems I'll end up with due to Morale and slow player development. I feel compelled to keep the same starting 11 because even my starting 11 don't develop very fast let alone the bench and reserves! As far as I know, there is no way of scheduling friendlies or reserve matches in Career Mode to maintain morale and form for your reserves. Oddly enough, there may be this option on the Wii? The following website has a tip for player growth: scheduling friendlies. I was very excited and thought I had overlooked the obvious, but alas, I do not think this option is available on the PS3 version. http://www.supercheats.com/wii/fifa-...Player-Growth/ I'm probably preaching to the choir but if anybody has suggestions, hit me with 'em.

i agree with you. i had a career going 10+ years before the data became corrupted. in those seasons i had one player go from 70 to 77 rating and he more or less alternated games with my other strikers. i ended up just selling my low rating / high potential recruited players and bought out higher rated bench players to fill in the gaps.

[Gnemi]

I figured as much, thanks. I've been doing the same.

Career Mode is almost perfect but I have to say, this particular oversight on EA's part ruins things. I have noticed that players with high potential on other teams are progressing as expected, 3-4 points per year. On my squad, however, no such luck. So when I buy great players with 8-10 points of potential to gain or develop good Youth players, they're doomed to often see only 1-2 points max per season. That means, mathematically, you'll be lucky to see a 75-80 OVR Youth by the time they're 28. Lame...I hope they put reserve games or allow for scheduling of friendlies for next year.

[MMurda]

yea i noticed the same thing. i wish they wouldnt have patched this cuz it seems they went to the extreme to correct it. im in season3 and i alternate in my reserves frequently to no avail. they go up like 1 pt. even the guys in my starting 11 only go up 1-2 pts a season. my guy just got the golden boot in the US. he only went up like 2 pts the whole season scoring assist and like 19 goals.

[Gnemi]

Yeah, it really is awful and sadly, I think EA doesn't support their products very well at all, so as much as I'd like to write them about the problem, I doubt it would matter. The game is already six months old and we have another FIFA coming out soon. *sigh*

[MMurda]

yea it sux...they always throw out half arse patches that usually break other stuff. i wish i could just play offline and remove the patch, but unfortunately i play online alot with fifa so it would be a pain to keep deleting and restoring the patch a million times. ah well...ill just have to enjoy it for whatever it is

[Gnemi]

Yep. It's especially sad that the "fix" would be simple. Before, growth was insane as in players would be 10 years old and fresh out of the Academy already in the high 70s or low 80s.

Now, you're lucky to have an 80 OVR out of the Youth Academy by the time they're 26-27, which is patently unrealistic and dumb. They either need to keep a better eye on the data for these patches and adjust as necessary OR go back to manual growth.

To put it even more simply...when a really talented footballer is 20 years old, they may lack in discipline or vision, but they won't be slow, out of shape, and unable to hit the side of a barn with a football.

[eyeamg0dly]

not to mention also that you get a pretty talented youth player with very low skill moves. maybe the trick is to sell them early and then purchase them later after they have skilled up with another team.