Today's indepth FM2008 blog is a look at the some of the scouting improvements with Keith.
"Following on from last years rewrite of scouting, there have been several changes/additions to the scouting system for FM2008.
* Having assigned all your scouts and got loads of reports back, did you find it just too difficult to manage these reports in FM2007? Well in the new version this will be made a lot easier due to the addition of a right-click option to remove all scout reports for that player. You will of course be able to use this option on multiple players at once.
* Did you constantly lose track of what scouts you had sent to what nations/regions? Well in the new version you will receive a news item once an assignment has been completed informing you of how many players that scout has found, a list of his highly recommended players from that assignment and also a 'view reports' button to take you to the results of that particular assignment.
You can also access results for a particular assignment by selecting an assignment (scout assignments panel) and clicking on the 'reports' button, and there's even an option to set the scouts next assignment.
* The scout report card is now easier to understand for those user who just like to flick through a lot of reports quickly. Shortened (1 word / 2 word / icon) summaries have been added to the headings for each section. So for instance, as well as having the text explaining how good the player can be in the future, his potential star rating will be in the heading in the form of an icon (6stars etc).
* One of the nice little additions to the report card is that sometimes a scout will not only tell you he thinks the player is no where near as a good as your best central defender, but he will suggest that he reckons the player could be as low down the pecking order as probably the fifth best centre back at the club.
* And now for probably the biggest change to the scouting system this year: The Star System. There was quite a bit of confusion last year regarding how the stars were worked out and why did one decent player get 7 stars for ability whilst a world class player only got 4 stars.
Last years system was based upon what the scout regarded as the best player is that particular position. That player would then get compared to the player being scouted. Here is a list of star ratings for this
comparison:
FM 2007 - Key: Player X = scouted player / Player Y = best player in that position at club
7 Stars - Player X loads better than Player Y
6 Stars - Player X better than Player Y
5 Stars - Player X slightly better than Player Y
4 Stars - Player X same as Player Y
3 Stars - Player X slightly worse than Player Y
2 Stars - Player X worse than Player Y
1 Stars - Player X no were near as good as Player Y
While the new system will be based upon a calculated standard for a senior player for that club. So it will go something like this:
FM 2008 - Key: Player X = scouted player / Club Standard = standard required for senior player at club
7 Stars - Player X loads better than Club Standard
6 Stars - Player X better than Club Standard
5 Stars - Player X slightly better than Club Standard
4 Stars - Player X same as Club Standard
3 Stars - Player X slightly worse than Club Standard
2 Stars - Player X worse than Club Standard
1 Stars - Player X a lot worse than Club Standard
* Also for FM2008, international managers can now scout competitions, next opponents and also scout individual players to aid them in leading their respective nations to glory."
Cheers
Miles
FM 2008 blog: In-depth Scouting 
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