In the Editor, there are tens of thousands of players, and they all have Potential Abilities, be that a fixed one, or a random aka "minus" one. Fixed PA's are quiet simple.. After the CA, and the attributes are all set, the scouts, researchers from SI, give the player a PA, a number higher then his CA, which will indicate the maximum value, that his CA can get. Fixed PA can be number between 1 and 200. As you all know, the 2 most important characteristics, that define a player, are CA(Current Ability), and PA(Potential Ability). In this mini-guide, I would like to tell you some things about these abilities.


In the Editor, there are tens of thousands of players, and they all have Potential Abilities, be that a fixed one, or a random aka "minus" one. Fixed PA's are quiet simple.. After the CA, and the attributes are all set, the scouts, researchers from SI, give the player a PA, a number higher then his CA, which will indicate the maximum value, that his CA can get. Fixed PA can be number between 1 and 200.

When adding older players to the database, this ain't so hard, as the 2 values are very close to each other, there are almost equal. For example, we can be sure, that David Beckham can't get any better then this, mostly because of his age. Over the years, he "fulfilled his talent", he can't learn anymore, or even if he captures a trick or 2, some of his physical attributes, are already lower then a few years ago.

Who is not old, is young, isn't he? Maybe you will consider me mean, but in todays football, this barrier between the categories are at the age of 21. Off the record, in FM, most of the random ability players are U21, but you can find older ones as well. The age barrier here is 23, but the above the age of 21, you won't find any -10-s.
There are some youngsters, who already conquered the World.. They already play at the highest standard, despite their fragile age, they already learned almost everything they can. Here, I am talking about players like Lionel Messi or Cesc Fabregas. Despite their age, their CA is close to their PA. They can polish their skills, but they are already among the best. They are literally Wonderkids.
Some young players already have their part in their clubs progress, they already play at a decent standard, but it can be guaranteed, that if their development continues like this, they will turn out to be one of the best in the World. They need time, to learn, but once they finished this process, they will be great players. A good example for these kind of youngsters is Sergio Aguero. These players have a high PA, but their CA is still pretty far from this level.
Of course, we can talk about players, who have a fixed PA, who have a "clear" future, but everybody can be sure, that they won't turn out into World class players. Some of them might have a big difference between their CA, and PA, some of them might not..

Another category of youngsters are the interesting part of this guide. They are the minus PA players. Some of them seem to be good, some of them not that good, but nobody is sure, how will they end up like. The experts can predict some limits of their PA, but they just can't determine, if they are going to turn World class, or only good players.. Totally rubbish players, or a decent backup player. Facing these though challenges, the SI researchers, invented the "minus PA". They figured out, that if they can't be sure of a players talent, it is best, if they let the computer generate it randomly, so the game will offer different variatons. This sorta gets some weight off the creators shoulders, as nobody would blame them, if for example Lulinha won't turn out World class. Instead of taking the risk, of being wrong on some players, they just added a number, that can generate a different PA, with each new game. An important thing is that most of the youngsters have a minus PA, on the game, so don't be surprised if your lad tells you that he Omar Andrade is class, but he just can't start scoring in your game. So, there are 10 different minus numbers, that are added to players in the Editor, and each number can generate a concrete PA, that will vary in a territory of 30 points. These are the values, that can be generated, with each minus number:
-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 = 0-20


As you can see, minus 10 is the best, and if you are a maths freak, you can find out a function in these numbers, which will probably help you remember them..


Thanks for reading this guys! thmbup.gif This is my first ever guide, so please don't be harsh on me. Feel free to comment tho wink.gif