A wee bit of advice

[unicron]

Hello fellow WMMA lovers!

I've been getting into my first 'deep' game recently having tooled around with a couple of learning-curve type experiences prior and I'm loving the game. I have been playing since the earlier days of EW but found that WMMA1 rendered TEW all but unplayable to me.

The changes implemented in the second installment are very much welcome, particularly the decision to base the popularity of main events on the name value of the fighters in question which I think brings a whole new element of realism into the game.

On the down side of this, I appear to be dreadful at actually getting this mechanic to work!

Roughly two and a half years into a game with a custom created promotion (starting with 0% pop, $500,000 etc.) I've grown to high level national level and successfully stolen most of the worlds top fighters in each of the four major weight classes.

Despite this I find that I am having to put on deliberately bad shows to try and bring the overall popularity of my league up, as the popularity of my star fighters (even top 10 p4p guys) fails to hit the mark for main events.

Am I doing something wrong here? I have just over 100 fighters on the roster (designed to give plenty of guys opportunities for winning streaks in order for them to earn popularity) and I have PPV for the big shows and TV for the less popular.

Whenever I run TV specials it seems that the overall pop boost my promotion gets is actually greater than the boost to the pop of the fighters on the show so I'm trapped in a kind of Dr. Who wormhole where I can't get fighters to the relevant level to hold PPVs.

Am I overthinking this? Do I simply need to mix the good shows with the bad shows to keep my promotion pop on the level whilst building the fighters I need built?

Sorry for the uber-post!

[Derek B]

It's one of the tough things abot growth... a fighter can gain signigicant popularity when he wins (more for winning streaks and being undefeated) but he can't be on every show for you. And as such, you can gain more popularity by holding more shows that your stars can appear on, with TV in particular offering more rapid growth as it reaches a lot more people.

Sticking to PPV is a better approach, as it will ensure you don't grow too quickly by over-exposing yourself on free TV, while making sure you make enough money to maintain a steady growth rate.

Everyone loves a free product and it will help give you name value... but your fighters are viewed by the free public a lot less than the promotion, which is why a lot of people end up in this situation. :)

[mickel]

For me personally, the only time I ever use my TV show is when I'm in danger of dropping down a popularity level and want to stay up, so use the TV show as an easy popularity boost.

I think the trick is to really not expect to gain popularity every show you put on. As long as your fighters ARE gaining name value, then, in the long term, your company will too. Just not every single show.

[kimo666]

I find that you can put on a good tv show and that will boost your popularity enough to have 2 poor ppv's where you can boost your fighters popularity. It takes time but you can build up quite a few "top" names that can headline ppvs.

Also when you get to low-international level it seems to give you a lot more options to get ppv and tv deals so your fighters popularity grows quicker.

When you said

Despite this I find that I am having to put on deliberately bad shows to try and bring the overall popularity of my league up, as the popularity of my star fighters (even top 10 p4p guys) fails to hit the mark for main events.

I think that's pretty much right.

[BuddyGarner]

I don't think there are enough fighters in the default data to sustain a high level international promotion. I usually over around mid level international. I would never hold a TV show because PPV's allow you to hold more can crushing fights versus competitive fights(20 total fights versus 8).

Remember you can hold unassigned weight class fights. I do that when I can't find a suitable can in the division that a fighter hasn't already beaten two times.
Useful for featherweight division where there are tons of good fighters but not many cans.

Charisma helps a lot in gaining popularity faster. Job your old guys to your younger guys once the old guys are past their prime to boost your young guys reputation.

Stand up fighters need to be protected a lot more than ground fighters. Ground fighters can be tested a lot sooner than stand up fighters can.

Have your rules be set so fighters can't win by holding a muay thai clinch for an entire 60 minute fight or just pushing them against the cage.

[AlexB]

It's one of the tough things abot growth... a fighter can gain signigicant popularity when he wins (more for winning streaks and being undefeated) but he can't be on every show for you. And as such, you can gain more popularity by holding more shows that your stars can appear on, with TV in particular offering more rapid growth as it reaches a lot more people.

Sticking to PPV is a better approach, as it will ensure you don't grow too quickly by over-exposing yourself on free TV, while making sure you make enough money to maintain a steady growth rate.

Everyone loves a free product and it will help give you name value... but your fighters are viewed by the free public a lot less than the promotion, which is why a lot of people end up in this situation. :)

I think the growth model works well when rising from national to international (at least in principle - I've played as BCF and international is way off!) as the fighter poularities are split according to countries, and the above generally makes perfect sense. Even so, the same fighters should be able to put on a great normal show in their home country for their home fans who have seen them for years.

However, when rising from regional to national the model doesn;t work so well - nothing has changed in game terms: no fighter is fighting in an area where his popularity is different as it still all home country; there has been no TV/PPV to distort things; and if the company is suddenly known in all regions throughout the home country it makes no sense if the fighters aren't.

The old regional popularity system would have made sense without TV/PPV, but it's difficult to justify why if you book two shows in advance at regional level that have great main events and popular undercard, hold one that causes a rise from regional to national, the exact same card the next day becomes very poor and decent/low standard undercards with nothing else affecting matters.

But it is what it is, and at least you and others have been helpful in how to begin to work around it, and the changes Adam made yesterday will hopefully help as well.

[mickel]

After a few years into the game, things do get a lot easier popularity wise. I'm guessing I'm further into the game than the vast majority of people and though at my worst point early on I only had 2 fighters poular enough to main event, now well into the game I'm at 69% international and have 12, and a lot more on the cusp, who can still carry off main events if they have winning streaks. 11 fighters on international level popularity in the heavyweight division alone.

[Capelli King]

I think the trick is to really not expect to gain popularity every show you put on. As long as your fighters ARE gaining name value, then, in the long term, your company will too. Just not every single show.

Yeah i agree with that one;)