Hi,
how do the players develop into stars? After watching my teams for many seasons, I still do not see a pattern.

Players who average over 8.00 for the season arrive the next year with no stars. Players who seemingly do not stand out as the best on the team, nor at their position, get stars. Some players lose all of theirs during their prime.

Also, how do players develop from Class A to Class S?

Thanks,

Stars are mostly based on player ratings, but it is not as simple as taking the average rating. Each star type (gold, silver and bronze) has a minimum rating associated with it, every time the player achieves that minimum during a match he earns some points towards that star level. In addition to that, each player has a natural tendency towards or against stars (some are neutral) that is hidden, which will make it easier or harder for them to get stars. In summary, stars are associated by top ratings in matches (think 8.5+ in most cases) affected by the player’s natural star tendency.

For each country there is a maximum number of stars to be distributed for each level. Higher ranked countries will have more star players. That means that star distribution is a relative comparison on players performance in a country for the previous season. A star player will lose no more than one star level per season, even if he doesn’t player any matches.

Now, class S players. Every season we automatically re-calibrate the way the game evaluates how good a player is, and then for each dimension we’ll find out what is the highest skilled player for the current parameters, that is our top number for class A players. When a player has stars, those stars will artificially increase the player skills for class purposes, which means they can make a B player become an A player or an A player become an S player. Another way to have an S player is if you had an A player whose skills were very close to the pre-determined maximum on season start that then surpasses it by improving during the season, then he can become an S player even without any stars.

Sorry for the long post, I thought these things deserved a proper explanation!

Thank you for that.
So what you are saying is, players need to:
- rate over 8.5 in games to build points towards the next class
- have hidden attributes
- be the best at their position for your end of season calculations
- not have many other stars in your nation

So is not so much that i can control.

- rate over 8.5 in games to build points towards the next class
not towards next class, this is to build points towards earning stars
- have hidden attributes
yes, only influencing the minimum rating required for each star level
- be the best at their position for your end of season calculations
stars are not influenced by the position (except goalkeepers who are slightly less likely to get them)
- not have many other stars in your nation
a specific number of stars is distributed per country, so your players are only compared to those playing in the same country in order to get stars

“Players needs to play for his national team”. Does it include international friendlies or only the cup matches? My goalkeeper hasn’t increased skills yet.

No friendlies, official matches only.

So it’s possible a player needs more than one season to unlock those skillpoints. Some national teams will only play 1 or 2 matches each tournement.
A manager is very dependant of the tactics of the national team manager.
My keeper De Gea is one of the best keepers in fastticker but Spain has 3 wonderful Gk’s. So it’s not unrealistic he won’t play. Spain can also be unlucky and eliminated after 1 match.

Wouldn’t it be better if the players who have ‘to play for his national team’ just unlock their skill by being selected or playing international friendlies? Their time with the best players of their country would already be instructive.

GKs are a special case, I agree. I’ve already removed “man of the match” steps for newly generated GKs as this is also very rare, maybe it’s the case of removing “national squad” steps as well. For other positions I think we can still leave it as is, the minority of the players will have such requirements and, when they do, it is usually a single step that will require playing a single national squad match (unless the team’s coaching level is lower than required).

I know my keeper is a star. He is old and lost 1 skill point in a small skill. He lost his star!

Amazingly, after his next Champions League game, he gained 2 skill points. He got his star back!

Hold on, players don’t earn/lose stars during the season, they can only change classes. Is that what you meant?

Yea, He was a Star, but went to an A. Then back to a Star again.

Yep, class S…I was confused with having actual bronze/silver/gold stars :-)

Class S players are very interesting to me still.

I’ve now had many Class S players lose their Class S and go back to Class A:
- during a season
- whilst having a huge average rating above 8
- whilst playing nearly every possible game club and national team

Then I look at Nancy and see that team with 8 Class S players and I wonder how I can achieve that too.

A class “S” player is, in general, an “A” class player who’s got enough stars to turn him into an “S”. Top skilled A players may require a single bronze stars, whereas not so high skilled A players may require more. If your player was downgraded during the season, it means the combination of his skills + stars were not enough anymore to keep him as an S.

There are a few exceptions where an A player who improves enough during a season may become S without having stars, but it is rare.