Scouting Question

[Iorwerth]

I have read the guide and wondered if I could just double-check I am reading it right, and clear up a bit of confusion I have about the coach scouting rating.

The guide describes the following coach attributes that seem relevant to scouting:

Assess Potential – used for finding high potential players in the draft
Asses Ability – used to generate base knowledge of players in the draft
Scouting– used to generate base knowledge and finding high potential players of/in the draft

Assess ability gives you the base scouting points for players (along with how prominent the player is) , and the more base points a player has generated, the less scouting points needed to scout them fully. I presume this is correct?

Assess Potential is what determines the emails you get from the coaches highlighting talent. I assume this is correct?

What I am a bit puzzled by is Scouting, which seems to do a combination of assess ability and assess potential. Does it just increase the effectiveness of both of those assess ratings, or does it do something else in addition to boosting those assess ratings? Or does it not affect either of the assess ratings, just something different altogether?

Lastly, the coach ratings the coaches give you - what are they based on? Also is an offensive coach's rating likely to be more accurate than a defensive coach's rating on an offensive player, and the other way around for a defensive player, presuming they have the same coach ratings? If yes, where does the HC fall in that equation?

EDIT: Also what ratings do Physique, Athleticism, Technique, Football IQ and Intangibles cover? I presume they cover:
Physique: Strength and Endurance
Athleticism: Speed, Agility, Hands
Technique: Blocking, Tackling
Football IQ: Intelligence
Intangibles: Mental ratings

Is that all correct?

What would a QB's Arm and Accuracy fall under? I figure Arm could be Physique and Accuracy could be Athleticism (maybe technical)?
Similar for the two kicking ratings, what would they fall under?
Lastly, a draft player's skills - where would they fall under? Technique? Football IQ?

[Iorwerth]

Also, do my ratings as GM just add to all of the scouting mechanisms above?

I think some more explanation in the guide would be good. After all, these scouting reports are coming from what are supposed to be my scouts, and if I didn't fully understand what my scouts were reporting back, I would make damn sure they explained it to me, rather than leaving me guessing as to what they were meaning, or else I would get rid of them and hire myself some new scouts who would be more forthcoming about what they meant!

Ditto with coaching ratings - if my coaches were giving me a rating on a player I would expect them to be explaining to me how that rating worked and the scale they were using! e.g. Scouts, Inc have a rating system from around 10 to a 100, with 90-100 being Elite prospect, 80-89 being an Outstanding player and so on (https://www.espn.co.uk/nfl/news/story?id=3339687). As a GM I would not find it acceptable for a coach to give me a rating on a player and then not explain the different grades of that rating system.

What I am getting at is that it is all well and good to have some opacity in the scouting system, so there is some fog of war, but the actual information they provide needs more explanation than is in the guide. Why should I be having to guess whether a QB's Arm was being rated under a Technical or an Athletic grade? I should know what system my scouts use, after all they are working for me! Same for coach assessments - If a coach gave me a rating of 28.4 for a player, why should I need to guess at what the coach means by that grade? I should have a full understanding of what the scouts and coaches are telling me, even if what their ratings are not accurate. So getting some additional information in the guide, or posted here, would be very useful.

[AKH]

Physique: Strength and Endurance
Athleticism: Speed, Agility
Technique: Their position relevant ratings Blocking, Tackling, Hands, Arm, accuracy, Kickaccuracy etc
Football IQ: Intelligence, position skill
Intangibles: Mental ratings

[AKH]

All your staffs ratings combine into the the aspects of the game, where they are relevant (in this case scouting) so yes, you are right that your GMs ratings work in tandem with the coaches.

The coach grades on players is based on their preferences (check their bio and check their gameplan settings to see which kind of players they like and how they use the different positions), this means that normally an OC will rate an offensive player higher than a DC because the DC doesnt really have any strong opinions about how to utilize e.g. A Tight End. HCs have strong opinions on both sides of the ball and will usually be close to the higher of the two coordinaters.

There is no fixed scale, but the grades max out at around 35, and from just clicking on players projected for different rounds, you should be able to get a pretty clear idea of the scaling (most people would never draft a guy with his highest grade below 20 in round 1 etc).

As for the scouting attributes, both of the two "assess ability" and "scouting" give background knowledge, but additionally one of them (cant remember which from the top of my head) gives extra scouting points you can spend freely (combined with the ones you get by default and the ones you get extra from your scouting department).

[Iorwerth]

Ok, great! Thanks for the information, much appreciated!

I am going to to do a bit more comparison in the scouting/draft section to see if I can get more of a feel for it. I still think it would be good to have a base rating ranking in the guide, like 30+ considers this player potentially elite, 28-30 as Outstanding and so on, or even simpler, just after rating on the player scouting screen put suggested round pick in brackets after the rating e.g. a player they rate as 30+ (32+ or whatever) has 1st round after their rating, or something like that.

Anyway, thanks again for the reply!