Accuracy of ADV vs. INT, HS and COL

This is from the 7/28/2015 post in the Critical News Forum:

Now that most worlds have rolled to the next season where the new logic from the May 26th release is in place, I wanted to provide a general overview of how the new scouting system is working since we've been receiving some customer support tickets from folks after their Amateur Draft.

 

In the old system, the accuracy of all the scouting departments was the same (driven by budget amounts, of course).  A high school scout (with a budget of $10M) would be about as accurate as an advanced scout (with a budget of $10M).  If you had $10M budget for both your high school scouting and your advanced scouting and you drafted a high school prospect, his projected ratings would not change much when you signed him.

 

In the new system, the accuracy of the high school, college and international scouting departments is now different and less accurate than the advanced scouting department. And because current ratings are no longer visible for prospects, scouts can now under project a prospect's ratings. This means the shift in projected ratings once a player enters your advanced scouting department can be potentially larger in the past.

 

This also means the Amateur Draft will be less formulaic.  Budgets still matter very much, but there is more variability.  Can you occasionally have a scout be way off on a player with a $15 budget? Sure, but it'll be less likely than if you had a $10M or $5M budget. But it also means your scout may be wrong in a favorable way as well.

 

Hope this helps explain what you may have experienced (or what may lie ahead).