Staying solvent beyond "cult" size

[Squirrel]

I've been playing as Ring of Fire for some while now, and have grown to "cult" size. Now I'm hemorrhaging money and am receiving bankruptcy warnings! The problem seems to be that upon reaching "cult size", my production costs have shot up dramatically. I've signed pay per view and television network deals, but these are losing more money than they're making.

Please help!!! Would be particularly grateful for advice on how to go about getting profitable tv or ppv deals.

[Sons of Kohral]

The TV deals kill you early on, don't sign any TV deals until you've got a nice cushion in the bank.

[jesterx7769]

Growing to Cult is one of the biggest challenges in the game and it has been said it is supposed to simulate what happened to ECW. The general advice people are going to say is to save up alot of money (usually at LEAST $1 mill) and try to raise your popularity in other regions of the country so you can rise to National faster (which you then real in big dough)

In your current game there are two options for you to save your game as theres no real true way to cut those costs down or generate the money you need.

1) Fall back down to regional- its not a fun option but if your trying to play "true" this is the only real way. Your costs will drop and you can expand to the other areas of the country while making money to help the bleeding when you do go to Cult.

2) Give yourself money via the editor to survive.

[Comradebot]

Best advice: Never, ever grow to Cult without at least a C in popularity in one region. Not importance, just straight popularity. If you can get a C+, even better (heck, you'll probably start off MAKING money at Cult). Considering ROF's talent and product, it shouldn't be too hard if you're patient.

Never get a TV or PPV deal UNLESS you're getting at least 10% of the profits. A TV deal, even at graveyard hours on a small network, will net you some extra cash if you get ANY of the revenue.

Rushing to Cult will kill you, simple as that.

[Remianen]

Originally Posted by Comradebot

Best advice: Never, ever grow to Cult without at least a C in popularity in one region. Not importance, just straight popularity. If you can get a C+, even better (heck, you'll probably start off MAKING money at Cult). Considering ROF's talent and product, it shouldn't be too hard if you're patient.

Never get a TV or PPV deal UNLESS you're getting at least 10% of the profits. A TV deal, even at graveyard hours on a small network, will net you some extra cash if you get ANY of the revenue.

Rushing to Cult will kill you, simple as that.

As well it should.

People who rush to Cult get what they deserve IMO. It's like broke people having children (you're not prepared for that!) or taking on a $750,000 mortgage with $30,000 worth of income (you can't afford that!). Likewise, Cult is the crucible. It's where the chaff is forcibly burned away from the wheat. It's TEW's form of natural selection.

I would disagree with jesterx though. One million? Try five, minimum. In fact, if you do as Comradebot suggests and build up to C or C+ in your home area, you should hit Cult with even more than five (probably closer to 12, unless you're using a ton of workers). There are concessions that must be made in order to get there though. You need to go with a TV station that might be a bit smaller than you qualify for (it increases your chances of getting ad revenue). But this also works in your favor because it slows your growth sufficiently to help keep your popularity at a manageable level.