Does everything matter?

[Big "Pimpin" Chief]

I just discovered the TEW franchise last year...I've been playing EWR for the longest time. My friend hipped me to TEW 2008, and needless to say, I'm addicted. However, I can't seem succeed in anything but being the owner of WWE and squashing other companies with my mega-superstars. I've had people tell me that everything in the game is and can be a factor. For example, workers who haven't wrestled in a while don't perform well, and disgruntled workers will perform poorly on purpose, and everything down to the referee in the match effects the match's and show's overall grade. Is this tru? How do I succeed in putting on good matches with talent that isn't "John Cena-Over"? Does tweaking my product to be less entertainment, and more focused on the matches work? how do i do that? I'm not a complete noob at the wrestling industry, i know my sh!t, im just havin a lil trouble understanding this game and how realistic it actually is. The deeper the explanation, the more appreciated. Thanx!

-Chief

[sabataged]

Originally Posted by Big "Pimpin" Chief

I just discovered the TEW franchise last year...I've been playing EWR for the longest time. My friend hipped me to TEW 2008, and needless to say, I'm addicted. However, I can't seem succeed in anything but being the owner of WWE and squashing other companies with my mega-superstars. I've had people tell me that everything in the game is and can be a factor. For example, workers who haven't wrestled in a while don't perform well, and disgruntled workers will perform poorly on purpose, and everything down to the referee in the match effects the match's and show's overall grade. Is this tru? How do I succeed in putting on good matches with talent that isn't "John Cena-Over"? Does tweaking my product to be less entertainment, and more focused on the matches work? how do i do that? I'm not a complete noob at the wrestling industry, i know my sh!t, im just havin a lil trouble understanding this game and how realistic it actually is. The deeper the explanation, the more appreciated. Thanx!

-Chief

Adjusting your product via editor or in your business screen will allow you to use different style workers. Being as your WWE right now you are using a popularity over performance product right now. When using less over workers, say as ROH, you can edit you product to be strictly performance and still put on fantastic shows.

As for everything mattering. I am pretty sure. The better announcers, color commentators, referee's, and road agents you have the better the match will be.

[FINisher]

I'd say it's the mods fault. Try playing Cornellverse, it's by far the most balanced database there is. Many mods have the skills completely wrong and there's far too many people with ridicously high Superstar Quality etc.. But yeah, the most important part is understanding the Product and book the shows according to the product. With popularity biased products you need to have 50/50 to 70/30 match/angle ratio in order to succeed as you basicly live from angles. Vice versa in performance biased products where there's no need for angles and long matches equals good match ratings.

Try this thread if you need advice http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum...ad.php?t=32473

[D-Lyrium]

Originally Posted by Big "Pimpin" Chief

workers who haven't wrestled in a while don't perform well

That's true, for certain values of 'a while'. Workers who haven't worked a single match, including independent shows, for six months straight will become 'rusty', and will take a while to work off their ring-rust. The longer the unemployment, the more rust there is to work off. You'll get a note about that from your road agents during the matches though. If you've signed someone who you KNOW will be rusty just have them work a few dark matches until their rust is gone.

and disgruntled workers will perform poorly on purpose

Depends on their personality (LOTS of things 'depend on their personality' in '08 ). A genuine nice guy or a driven, motivated professional probably won't let their morale backstage affect their performance in the ring too much - they wouldn't want to sacrifice the fans' enjoyment (or future job prospects) by phoning in matches. However, if they're very egocentric, very politically minded or just a straight-up jackass, they might well sabotage matches just to prove a point.

everything down to the referee in the match effects the match's and show's overall grade.

Of course - it'd be a bit pointless having referees in the game if they didn't do anything! The referee's input is limited though, of course. A really bad referee can drag a match down a few grades by being really bad, but a great referee won't add too much to a match. Referees are like movie soundtracks - you only notice them when they suck. When they do their job well, you hardly even know they're there.

How do I succeed in putting on good matches with talent that isn't "John Cena-Over"?

Simple - get them over. Might sound silly, but... it's true. The best way to get better matches out of a wrestler when you're an entertainment-based promotion is to get the worker more over. Put them in storylines with popular workers, let them win matches against guys at their level that aren't being pushed, put them in a tag match crossing over with another hot storyline (The Rock needs partner to take on nemesis Triple H and H's friend Shawn Michaels. The usual suspects are all busy, so Upper Midcarder A steps up as his partner. Boom, instant popularity gain just by associating with Rocky and being in the same ring with the main eventers).
Popularity is far easier to gain than skill.

Also, it's generally accepted that the three most important matches on the show (in terms of overall show grade) are the Main Event, the Semi-Main Event and the Opener, in that order. The bigger your promotion is, the more 'weight' the lower matches carry. For example, if you're a Local promotion, nothing except the Main Event really matters. You could have a show full of absolute crap, then a decent main event, and you'd come out with a decent grade.

When you move up to regional, the semi-main becomes more important. The fans aren't just paying for the one headlining match now, they expect decent 'support' matches too. A bad semi-main here can drag your score down quite a bit. Conversely, if your semi-main is BETTER than your main event, that's a bad thing too and will also drag your overall grade down.

When you get to National and Global, everything needs to be quality. The fans will expect a good opening bout to get them interested, with 'peaks and valleys' throughout the show if it's a long one; you don't want two hours of 'meh' before your brilliant last half hour - casual fans will have gotten bored and flipped channels. You want the 'meh' interspersed with 'good' to keep the interest going, then 'great' to finish off and send the fans home happy (or at least, getting their money's worth if a heel has won).

So as the WWE you'll obviously want your most anticipated match in the main event slot, with your secondary feud in the semi-main slot, and your tertiary feud (in the good ol' days this was usually the European title match, nowadays probably Cruiserweight or Tag, whichever storyline has more heat/will produce a better match) in the opener to start things off hot.

Does tweaking my product to be less entertainment, and more focused on the matches work?

It could work, if you have good wrestlers on your roster. Note that the more you focus on matches, the less angles and promos will have an effect on your shows though.

how do i do that?

Go to [Business] -> [Product] from the control room screen. There you can change your product (though if you're not the owner, the owner might not let you screw with his product too much). You'll want less of things like Comedy, Risque, Cult and Mainstream and more of things like Pure, Lucha, Traditional and Realism. Check the analysis though, because you don't want to get to a point where you've got so much realism and pure that half your roster is going to be crapped on. Also be sure to take note if you get a message saying that your change in product could lose you fans - it's not joking.

Anyone who turns up to the event expecting great pure wrestling and finding a WWE show won't be too happy. Likewise, if you change your product too much, you risk losing the fans you do have, as they think "oh, they've become a pure wrestling promotion, I don't really fancy that..."


One final thing: Remember that grades are relative. If you're a promotion like Ring of Honor, you shouldn't be aiming for A-rated shows, or even B-rated shows. Your popularity is only likely to be around the C- range, so a show rated C C+ is perfectly acceptable for you. B- is great.

If you're a smaller promotion with a popularity in one region of E+, then a D-rated show is fantastic. Don't be discouraged by the low letter grades; compare them to your popularity. D+ as the WWE is a disaster, but D+ as CHIKARA is great.

[Big "Pimpin" Chief]

wow, thanx a lot for all ur comments and takin the time to help me out...the feedback has been great...It rly amazes me that the game is that deep, I guess im just used to EWR where all u gotta do is match up styles to get a good match and good show overall...im gonna take all this advice and try my hand at making my own promotion again...again, thank u guys so much for the excellent advice, u guys are life savers, cuz i play TEW erytime I go to work so hopefully my frustrated days are over...if not, ill be back here cryin wit more questions thanx again homies!

-Chief

[Big "Pimpin" Chief]

ok, so lets say I want to make a promotion that is like a blend of ROH and WWE, is that even possible? Like will ppl get it? Cuz my favorite aspect of WWE is their top guys' gimmicks are subtle, but very good, like Orton's character is amazing..HHH and HBK's DX thing is always entertaining...and my favorite aspect of ROH is their matches that literally always have me on the edge of my seat...so, whenever i start a ROH promotion, itz hard to go through the shows just doing matches, I'd like some angles to help spice up storylines, so I figure adding in the entertainment element of WWE's charachters and gimmicks would be the right solution, however I still want my workers to be rated on performance rather than popularity, because I'm good at finding two workers that work well in the ring and have similar styles, or styles that compliment each other..So what exactly do i set in the product screen? Do I even have Traditional, Entertainment, or Modern as a Key Feature, or just have them all as Heavy Features? and how much does daredevil play into that..because ROH matches aren't exactly full of too much jumping off balconies as they are jumping off the ropes and doing springboards and plancha's and such...so how do I achieve the amazing matches from ROH, but incorporate good character's and gimmicks that I create? It'z like i see it in my head..but can't quite tweak my product to achieve that...other than that...i've got all my other problems solved I've been getting jobbers over in my WWE promotion and all that. Thanx in advnace.

-Chief

[King Kirby]

In this case, you should futz around with your product settings until you get a product that says it's "rated equally on performance and popularity." Combine this with a match-angle ratio that's between 80% and 60% matches. This way, workers can get over based on in-ring talent, and strongly rated angles (for your promotion's size) should be attainable (make the ones you want to count toward your show's grade at least six minutes).
One of the grand masters around here, Remianen, has devised and posted a couple products that are basically perfect, but as a new player you should probably mess around with the settings yourself and look at the "analysis," to learn how different settings affect what your audience wants to see.
I like to run a product that's basically exactly what you're describing. As oxymoronic as it sounds, I set both Traditional and Modern as Key Features, Mainstream or Cult at Medium, and maybe one or two other mediums for flavor. As long as I let workers play to their strengths, I can pretty much get away with anything I want to do. A good example of a versatile product where you can have your cake and eat it too is WLW in the default data.
P.S.: General consensus around here seems to be that you DO want one (minimum) or two (max) Key Features, and don't go TOO heavy on the Heavy, one or two tops. The Creator himself has stated that successful promotions should have some sort of identity.

[alden]

I would really suggest holding off on making your own fed to be honest. A product can make a break you some times....you have to be able to get sponsership money but also the kind of matches you want. Alot of time it is a give and take. If you want cult at key you are going to loose money.....if you want to make lots of monney you need mainstream high but with that people are rated more on popularity. It is all a balancing act.......and untill you learn the budgeting aspet of the game it can be frustrating.