still having problems: fighter vs. fed pop

[Slick Mick]

i know this has been addressed once, but it still seems a fairly large issue. my stars' name value just can't keep up with my fed popularity, leaving me with no main event. what bugs me the most is having a guy win a Great anticipation, Great+ rated main event... and drop out of the main event due to fed pop increase. So the stars who made the fed more popular, are no longer stars in that fed? doesn't seem right at all.
how many others are still having these problems? a couple guys have posted that they are, but id be interested to see the general consensus.

[LFC_chris]

I've not noticed too many problems with the latest patches tbh.

[petecrimson00]

it helps pop if u throw a champ a can sometimes. cuz it gets a quick finish and good rating. i have spencer rubenstein ahead of my promotion at like 97%.

[grits207]

In my game I only have 1 fighter who is popular enough to be in the main event (Hassan Fezzik). Even Tadamasa Yamada, who is rated High Level international and has a 98% reputation isn't popular enough to main event on of my PPVs. Very frustrating.

[FINisher]

I guess it's all about contender making. Protecting the winning streaks and such. It's easy to blow off huge matches within a little amount of time actually. We are all learning on how to play the game :) I really haven't noticed anything like this, XCC is now High National. Altough I had to raid a lot of talent but I blame myself for that. The only guy that is undefeated in the roster is Ziskie (no surprise there).. I didn't create the contenders. I just put the best against the best in each division for little to no value what so ever.

[Hawk1665]

Here's how you do it:

Get to a popularity where you start having problems (for me this was around national). Get a TV deal. Put only your stars and up and commers on that TV show and always try to have a good main event (possible since you'll be doing one every two months). Run PPV events with no intentions whatsoever to have them be good. The goal is to get more fighters exposure, not to gain popularity. You'll gain much faster from those six TV's then you will lose from six PPV's. If you can, run *more* PPV's. Each TV will give you a spike of 30% or more in popularity. A PPV will generally dock you at most 10%. For every one TV you can run three PPV's generally.

When you reach high national/low International, get a second TV deal. Schedule this new TV show to air on the months inbetween your first show. Now you will have a TV show every single month. Virtually abandon PPV's at this point (unless you need the money) since the main event restrictions are severely weaker on the TV shows. Or you can keep it to help build fighters, but I would advise never trying to have a good main event on them. You need them for TV. You can afford to only have one of these TV shows have good main events, but if you can, have all shows have good main events. Once you're out of the 30% threshold International, you can take the hit, but having a "bad" TV will hurt very, very bad. You'll gain upwards of 40% off a good TV show, and lose 30% off a bad one. Keep that in mind, it's very very easy to get shunted down a level if you aren't being observant.

The whole goal is to get as much overness for fighters as you can. With some talent, and good matchmaking, you can take a guy from nothing, and using TV within six fights have him up to international.

Match up fighters on the same career path generally. Victory vs. Victory, win streak vs. win streak, loss vs. loss, losing streak vs. losing streak. You're entire goal is to get win streaks going. If the win streak is strong enough, and their popularity is relatively close to your promotions, the game will accept them as main eventers on TV. This *DOES NOT* extend to PPV where the restrictions are much, much more severe.

I don't even run PPV's anymore outside of the odd one. At 100% High International, there's no reason for me to. I can almost never produce a good main event for it. I'll have 20 main events lined up for TV, but none for PPV. It's not worth it. Any popularity from a PPV show can be gained twice over for a TV. It's not worth the popularity hit for me.

[mickel]

Good advice Hawk. Personally I still run PPVs every month or so, but still, if I ever get in danger of dropping down a level, I just stick a TV show on for a (fairly) easy 30% popularity boost. I usually don't put my very best fights on TV, though often, in my more stacked divisions, #3 vs #4 contender fights canbe great main events, so it works out well.

[BrokenCycle]

Don't be afraid to put on poor pay-per-views if you don't have the star power. Popularity control in this game is just as legitimate a tactic as anything else.

Honestly, though, since the patch that changed the popularity rates I really don't have that much of a problem. Usually I feel main events that aren't popular aren't popular for a reason. Build up fighters' streaks a little better by putting them in fights you KNOW will win (via the stats), not hope to win. That doesn't mean having them fight cans necessarily, either.

[Slick Mick]

well, forgetting about ppv may be good game strategy, but if it is, thats a flaw in the game. cause from a real life perspective it makes no sense at all. im gonna start a new game and see if i can stop the problem before it starts. if anyone's made it to International without running into this problem, id sure like to hear your advice.

[Slick Mick]

Don't be afraid to put on poor pay-per-views if you don't have the star power. Popularity control in this game is just as legitimate a tactic as anything else.

Honestly, though, since the patch that changed the popularity rates I really don't have that much of a problem. Usually I feel main events that aren't popular aren't popular for a reason. Build up fighters' streaks a little better by putting them in fights you KNOW will win (via the stats), not hope to win. That doesn't mean having them fight cans necessarily, either.

yeah, that was my basic strategy starting, but i got caught up in putting on a great show every time. seems ill have to be more cautious. thx for the advice.:) out of curiosity, what fed are you running?

[BrokenCycle]

GAMMA. Also something else I do is if I don't have a decent main event for the PPV, I'll not run (or for a measly $25,000 will cancel) the show and either wait out the month or book a TV show. TV shows are great too because they will give you a boost in popularity and have more forgiving standards. It gives you the time to wait for your star power to come back.