Not really a noob question, well maybe it is. Been here a year and no one can seem to agree on this.

You have two players. One is a 5 star talent, one is a 3 star talent.

Their stats are exactly the same, but for maybe the guys who is 3 stars is 1 speed faster. So their ratings, chemistry, everything in the same apart from the 3 star guy is one speed quicker.

Who do you start?

Also, how quickly do player ratings go up? I can't seem to get a straight answer on that either. I.e. how many matches does it take a player to go up 0.5 stars in rating for a position?

Talent drives BPOS. Final BPOS is higher for higher talents.

BPOS, according to the Admins, is treated as an additional skill when calculating a players performance. As such a higher talent player can have the same skill level, but due to higher BPOS, better performance. In addition, as it doesn't factor into the salary calculations, BPOS is a free skill.

mrrich wrote: Not really a noob question, well maybe it is. Been here a year and no one can seem to agree on this. You have two players. One is a 5 star talent, one is a 3 star talent. Their stats are exactly the same, but for maybe the guys who is 3 stars is 1 speed faster. So their ratings, chemistry, everything in the same apart from the 3 star guy is one speed quicker. Who do you start?

If everything is the almost the same, I start the higher talent player. Sure, the lower talent player may have slightly higher stats now, but if there's only a small difference, it won't make a difference in the game. The higher talent has a higher ceiling, will soon be equal to the lower talent across the board anyway, so play him for better chance to increase experience, position rating, etc.

mrrich wrote: Also, how quickly do player ratings go up? I can't seem to get a straight answer on that either. I.e. how many matches does it take a player to go up 0.5 stars in rating for a position?

There are several that disagree with me on this, but I've been meticulously tracking my players position rating for several seasons now. My research has shown me that players will increase .5 star for every 10 games they play at one position. The first increase may come much quicker sometimes. This is due to having been played at the position by previous owners, or random rating assignment by the game, etc. But after the first increase, it has taken 10 games at the position to increase the next half star.
Again, others have claimed to be tracking their player's position rating as well, and say it's random because they've had players take 20+ games to increase in position rating. But this has not been the case with me.

sh8888 wrote: PHI 21 wrote: Again, others have claimed to be tracking their player's position rating as well, and say it's random because they've had players take 20+ games to increase in position rating. But this has not been the case with me. yeah, but when you say "games" , are all games treated equally or do Friendlys/League/Regional Cup/AFLC etc get weighted slightly differently to the increase in position rating ?

I've not played any AFLC games, so I don't know if there is any difference with them. But I've seen no difference between any of the others. I don't differentiate my records for friendly, league, or regional cup games, but since every player has increased .5 star rating every 10 games exactly for the last several seasons, I don't see a reason to believe there's any difference between the games.
Most of my player training is done in friendlies and against bots. I do have some players that only train against bots, and others that only train in friendlies. The only time I position train in league/cup games against humans is when the player is nearing full rating. But again, I've seen no difference in game type affecting how fast they increase.
On a few occasions (3 or 4), I've had a player increase outside of the 10, but in every case, I discovered that I made a mistake in record keeping and was able to track the mistake. The corrections showed 10 games.
One possible variable is talent. I've only position trained players 3.5* talent and above. It's possible that lower talent players may work differently.

mrrich wrote: The reason I was asking is because a lot of my players have good stats for other positions, like their build is totally wrong for the position they play. Would it make more sense to waste a season or three playing players out of position and getting them to be 5 stars rating in a new position.

Depends on your patience, their age, and their starting point in the position you think they should play. I've done it with many players. To me, if a player is 24 or higher, it's not really worth it because by the time they max out at the new position, they could be at least 28 and you'll only get a couple of seasons out of them before they start declining if you're lucky. If they are already a good ways to the new position max, then I'll consider some of the older players.
I also look at what else I have on the roster. If he's likely to be a superstar on my team when he's ready, then I'm more apt to do it, if he's likely to be a backup when he's ready, then no.