When Bob calls a new scout

Oh my… Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. And it’s the same in the Hattrick World! One good example is what really goes on behind the scenes of the Hattrick youth scout system. Curious? OK, let’s have a peek then. We put a hidden camera in manager Bob’s room so that we could show you what really happens when he calls his youth scouts. Please, don’t tell him that we share this info with you! He would get mad 😛

Player Types

From the manual: If you tell [your youth scout] to look for a specific kind of player (for example wingers) he will offer you such a player most of the time, but the players will in general be worse.

Here is a little secret: While it is true that searching for specific player brings you somewhat less impressive players on average, this effect is not linear. Instead, when using a specific search there is a cap on how good that player can be. If you are having the luckiest day of your life, you will always get a better player if you ask your scout to look at all the options than if you ask him to look for something specific. The very best prospects can never be found through a specific search – but of course, if you always go for this, you will never be able to influence what kind of talents are brought into your club either.

This means that if you are having two equally lucky days, you will get a player with higher skills the day when you search for “any” type of player than the day when you search for a specific skill.

However, since you may not have the same luck all the time, any player type can some times return to you a worse player instead.

Frequency of report types

As you may have seen, the scouts supply the manager with three different types of reports. He will talk about the current and maximum value of a skill, as well as about the overall skill level of a player. Mostly, you will hear the scouts talking about the current and maximum values, but there is also an one in three chance to show the overall as well! In addition, if a player has a specialty, the scout will mention it only 10% of the time.

Current and maximum skills

As Bob said on the phone, this is pretty straight forward. The scout will be aware of the three highest skills of the player and will reveal one current level for these and one potential maximum level, as well. He could choose any combination of the three skills, it could even be that the two reports deal with the same skill.

Overall skill

And just a while before Bob drops the phone, we got an answer to the Million Dollar Question. What is that Overall Skill the scouts keep going on about, really? I am pleased to confirm that what is used by the scouts is the average of the top three skills. But, hang on, there is more to it than that! These top three are NOT based on the maximum potential value of those skills, but on something we could call “training potential”.

Let me give you a couple of examples:

Example 1
Player A is currently at inadequate scoring but could reach solid as that is his potential maximum.
Player B is a poor scorer at the moment, but could reach solid if maxing out his training at the Academy.

Both players have the same maximum. But, if you could choose one of them, which one would it be?

Example 2
Player A is an inadequate scorer today, with his potential at solid scoring.
Player B can only be described as a wretched scorer, but has the potential to reach excellent scoring.

Now player B has higher maximum value, but again, considering the current skill, which one would you have chosen?

As you can see, the maximum skill in youth players can be a way to compare them, but taking into account the limited time before the next birthday and the lower training speed, what is the optimum for youth academy?

Back to Bob now. We use a statistical measure known as Mid-range or just (max+min)/2. We get the three skills with the higher mid-range (excluding stamina and set pieces) and then the average of them, rounded to the next bigger integer.

Here is a final example:

Keeper: wretched (max wretched), (mid-range (2+2)/2=2)
Defending: wretched (max inadequate), (mid-range (2+5)/2=3.5)
Playmaking: poor (max poor), (mid-range 3)
Winger: disastrous (max inadequate), (mid-range 3)
Passing: weak (max weak), (mid-range 4)
Scoring: inadequate (max solid), (mid-range 6)

For the maximum and current skill value, it could be Defending, Winger and Scoring. However, for the overall skill report we need the three highest skills based on mid-range, which is Defending, Passing and Scoring. The average of those is (3.5+4+6)/3=4.5 ~ Rounded as 5. As a result, this one would be an inadequate allaround player.

Note: While I was working on this blog post, we fixed one bug. In only a few cases, the player type weren’t used on the process of how good the player will be.