Published By: Grey Dog Software- Monday, May 1 2006
Adam Ryland- Let's make this official then: welcome to the GDS WreSpi2 chat, brought to you by the numbers 3 and 4, and the letter C. The chat is now in session!
Q: Adam what kind of changes do you have planned for WreSpi 2?
Adam Ryland- Well, Tara, that's an interesting question - let me answer in detail. A lot of detail. The planned changes for WreSpi2 are twofold. Firstly, the brand new league mode allows the player to compete in an organised competitive environment, which is something that hasn't been done in a wrestling game before. Secondly, the improved engine for "career mode" takes the popular feature from WreSpi1 to the next level.
Q: How did you approach making a sequel to WreSpi 1
Adam Ryland- We decided on a sequel because I had a gap in my schedule and I didn't fancy doing a prequel. George Lucas really ruined the appeal of prequels for me. It's also because I like WreSpi1, and I fancied making it a lot better, and I thought the idea for league mode would be fun.
Q: A question Adam: are the matches in WS2 more scripted or is it still the same? I mean, do you get instructions on who should win the match etc beforehand?
Adam Ryland- It is a shoot-based game, so there are no scripts involved. It's definitely not a simulator like TEW, it's very much a game.
Q: Are there any notable differences in the match engine?
Adam Ryland- It follows the same pattern as WreSpi1, except the addition of momentum makes it a lot different.
Adam Ryland- The momentum level is the major difference, as it changes the matches from WreSpi1 where it was "you do a spot, I'll do a spot" into something more "realistic", where you have periods of offence which are punctuated when you generally get too cocky and miss something.
Q: Go into further details about this new League Mode, what was the inspiration, what can you tell us, why League Mode?
Adam Ryland- Well Phil, it's interesting you should ask. I'd been toying with the idea for some time, and then a Mr. P Parent independently came to me with a similar suggestion, with some extras I hadn't thought of. By combining them together I came up with a pretty fun mode that I thought I'd enjoy playing, which is usually a sign that it'll turn out well.
Q: A good but boring approach would be to do punch after punch then, when you have momentum?
Adam Ryland- You could just do punches, but as it's such a low level move you're going to inflict minimum damage, so all the opponent would need to do is avoid one and hit a medium-level move and he'd have done as much damage as you did in 5 minutes in about 20 seconds.
Q: Really what's the appeal of League compared to Rookie to Legend. Is it a larger focus on the fighting engine?
Adam Ryland- The main appeal is that it's much more organised - you don't have to worry about finding work, creative meetings, that sort of thing. You know you'll get a match each night, and can see in advance what will happen.
Q: I believe a read something about a changed contract-handling. Can you give some details about that?
Adam Ryland- The actual contracts aren't much different in terms of how they work, the big change is that you don't get a set wage. Instead you get a purse for each fight, and obviously the winner takes the biggest share. The bigger the promotion you work for, the bigger the purses tend to be. The emphasis is on "the more you win, the faster you progress" - a classic game strategy.
Q: How do you spend the money in WS2?
Adam Ryland- The money is WS2 goes into a lot of things. Your lifestyle needs to be kept, you can bug skill upgrades, and it also is used in many other parts of the game. Money is central to everything.
Q: Does the purse also also vary with how good your match is? Or do you get as much for having an E-rated match as for an A-rated one?
Adam Ryland- The match ratings don't have any effect, they're just for the player's benefit - as it's a shoot based world, the performance isn't importance, it's all about the win.
Q: how are they for the player's benefit then?
Adam Ryland- So you know how good the match was - a lot of players in WreSpi1 seemed to like the challenge of trying to put on great matches. Especially if you're playing Exhibition, where the winloss doesn't really matter.
Q: For those players of wrestling console games, what elements of WreSpi would most appeal to them?
Adam Ryland- For console players, I think they can see it as being something very different. Whereas in console games it's all about button mashing and reactions, WreSpi is really the only one where it's about strategy. In essence, it's a "thinking person's fighting game"
Q: Question: What elements of WreSpi have been improved from the last game? Besides League Mode, what additions are you most excited about?
Adam Ryland- Going back to Boon's question, I think the most exciting feature is actually the most mundane, the new fighting engine. I'm really pleased with how it's come out, it seems much more realistic.
Q: I believe the booking is also improved? I guess we won't be booked in all those dreaded 4 vs 4 matches then?
Adam Ryland- The booking has been improved, it uses a modified version of TEW05's booking engine. On top of that, every fed has customizable booking AI, so you can actually set what booking parameters there are. So you can set a fed to booking nothing but hardcore tag team matches if you want. It'd be odd, but it's your game!
Q: You mentioned momentum being a big change -- what else about the fighting engine has been improved, in your opinion?
Adam Ryland- Boon, the moves are much better defined; there are more positions, more counters, there are new stats even to the level of whether you can do it to a bald person or not. This means that matches flow really well (or at least I hope they do :-))
Q: are there going to be customized Move sets for all wrestlers this time?
Adam Ryland- Not every wrestler has a customized move set, but every major name does - I think out of the 600ish active workers in the database, 250 have a custom move set at the moment. As a lot of the others are "no names", it means that most big matches you have will feature custom moves.
Q: The editor was rather daunting in the original game... are there changes in that regard that will appeal to mod makers? Will moveset creation be simplified this year? (heh)
Adam Ryland- Good question Boon :-) I'm sure you'll be glad - and totally surprised - to learn that there is a custom move set creator that can make move sets for you in the blink of an eye
Q: Will you do commentary for this game Adam?
Adam Ryland- No, there is no audio commentary in this game. The feedback was that people turned it off very quickly, so it seemed like a waste of memory.
Q: What changes have been made to the backstage area? in WS1 I thought it was a bit too easy to keep 'everybody' as your friend an stay out of trouble with the angry guys.
Adam Ryland- The backstage relationships have been completely overhauled, it is totally different this year. Instead of simply asking from a list of questions, you buy your way into a game of "conversational cards". It's sort of like a version of blackjack, except with some new twists and turns. Your performance effects the relationship. So for example, you may need to win 3 out of 3 hands to get someone to have a positive relationshuip with you; 2 wins would get you your entrance fee back but no relationship, 1 win and you get nothing, lose them all and you get a dislike relationship. The entrance fee depends on the person you want to talk to; a big time owner would cost more than a no-name jobber. So relationships become a mixture of skill and luck - just like real relationships you might say ;-)
Q: will you be able to change a relationship once it's formed? Could you turn a dislike into a like?
Adam Ryland- You can build relationships from this. So once you have a friendly relationship with them, they appear in your phonebook and you can contact them anytime. And then you play another set of hands to try and "upgrade" your relationship, except that the wins and losses change - you might lose the relationship entirely, you may actually turn a dislike into a like (or visa versa), etc, etc. And of course, as it costs money to access a game, and money is used for everything, you have to balance it.
Q: To expand upon the Promotional AI you mentioned earlier... besides match-making philosophies, what else can the player manipulate?
Adam Ryland- You can really define the actual style of matches too. There are four types, and they affect how the matches play out, by changing the levels at which energy changes. So in Sports Entertainment for example, you don't spend much time at Low level, but quickly progress to Medium and High - meaning the matches are faster paced, shorter, and have more big moves. Meanwhile a Pure match spends a long time at the build up before progressing to finishers, so you get a match very similar to the ones you got in AJPW in the 1990s. Going back to Boon's question, you can also set the style of the promotion, from whether they have ref bumps, to whether they use storylines. You can really make each promotion unique. You can even make top rope moves illegal!
Q: One more question: what has been changed regarding feuds? And are there storylines etc?
Adam Ryland- Feuds and storylines are actually not done yet, they're one of the final things scheduled to be addressed.
Q: (when you get the time) what about WreSpi are you most proud of? (I think people might be interested)
Adam Ryland- The massive interest it has generated <_< I'm proud of the fact it's pretty deep without being off-putting. It packs a lot in without overloading the player. From a personal point of view that's good, as it takes a lot of time to design a game to do that. It doesn't happen naturally.
Q: Will matches take the same amount of time as in WreSpi 1?
Adam Ryland- The match times really depend on the specific match. "Big time" matches take a lot longer than your run-of-the-mill stuff.
Q: The record for longest match using third party data (Mine) has been 78 minutes for a tag match. Record for the shortest has been 18 minutes for a singles match.
Q: perhaps a question about what changes have happened to the CornellVerse from TEW05? 'Will there be any surprises for the CornellVerse?'
Adam Ryland- The CornellVerse is set 6 months after TEW05. I want to keep some of it as a surprise, but there's a MAJOR change in one of the promotions, two new promotions have opened, and there's been a few big names moving around. There's also quite a few new workers in the CV.
Q: About how many workers are in the default data? (Forgive me if this has been asked already)
Adam Ryland- Everyone from TEW05 is still there, plus about 50 new characters. So we're pushing 1,200 characters in total I think, it might be more.
Q: you answered changes of 'tag team matches that ran too long' in WreSpi 1 with a patch that adjusted the time scale in the match. Will that same time scale in team matches be used in this version?
Adam Ryland- The time scale will be the same, but there will be some changes to how matches run in multi-man to make sure they don't take as long
Q: How is the manual on wrestling spirit 2? if you have no experience in previous version. Can a newbie understand how to play it?
Adam Ryland- jb, you could pick it up in about 5 minutes even if you didn't have access to the manual. It's one of my favourite things - a deep game that is such a deceptively simple concept that anyone can play it.
Adam Ryland- Correct. Some knowledge is assumed - you can play it without any, but it'd be harder, as you'd need to look up each move. If you already know what a bodyslam is, it's much easier.
Q: how challenging is the AI on Wrestling spirit 2? Hopefully its not too easy.
Adam Ryland- jb, most of the testing team are in this chat, and they get beaten regularly. By the CPU I mean, not by me, GDS didn't like it when i started beating my testing team with sticks.
Q: If this hasnt been answer. how many wrestlers will be in the game to choose from?
Adam Ryland- Over a thousand. Well, that's over a thousand characters. Only about 700 are actual wrestlers, the rest are managers, announcers, etc
Adam Ryland- Another thing to mention is that each moveset (which is now expanded to include more moves) has individual AI, so you can customise each wrestler's attack by move set rather than overall. That means you can have them slow down and cheat more as a heel, and speed up and play clean if they're a face.
Q: You mentioned that 'Skill Upgrade Purchases' will be in the new game -- can you explain to someone interested in the game how that will work?
Adam Ryland- Each wrestler can have 17 move sets assigned to him, allowing him to have one for each promotional style. So you could have them change their move set for every promotional style they fight in, for both face and heel alignment.
Adam Ryland- The idea is that instead of in WreSpi1 where you gained skill simply by being in matches, you now need to purchase upgrades like a normal computer game. So you'd pay X amount of dollars to get 5% more Brawling for example.
Q: so... Joe Schmoe can be a preening teen idol in one promotion, and a rabid mad dog in another?
Adam Ryland- Yes, Joe Schmoe could.
Q: What are the different promotional styles? The same as TEW2005?
Adam Ryland- Yes.
Q: How long can matches go when playing wrestling spirit 2?
Adam Ryland- Do you mean in real time or game time?
Q: both
Adam Ryland- In real time, anywhere between 2 minutes or 15 if you were really concentrating your hardest and had a brilliantly lengthy war of a match
Adam Ryland- In game time, it's based on the match times of reality, so a Sports Entertainment match might take "6 minutes" of game time, a Pure classic might go over 60.
Adam Ryland- There's also a new feature for this game that wasn't in WreSpi1, which is you can do CPU vs CPU matches, which might interest some people (such as those who do e-feds)
Q: on Relationships: Will relationships in WreSpi2 effect where my wrestler can/ can not get hired?
Adam Ryland- Yes, relationship work the same way as in TEW05
Q: so you can view those cpu vs cpu matches ?
Adam Ryland- Yes, you can see move by move coverage of the match
Q: will there be any tournment brackets you can set up in wrestling spirit 2?
Adam Ryland- No. In league mode there is a proper schedule, as you'd have in a football basketball etc game, telling you who you're fighting each week. But if you mean making your own tournament, no.
Q: how many leagues are there Adam? are all wrestlers involved?
Adam Ryland- There's 2 modes. Professional League is four 20 man divisions where the best from around the world compete
Q: Adam WreSpi2 has a darker, grittier look what do you think this brings to the game?
Adam Ryland- Tim, I think it lends it a more serious feel, and less of a cartoony atmosphere than WreSpi1. This is reflected in the game, where matches are more about strategy than just hitting as many moves as you can.
Adam Ryland- World League is five separate leagues (American, Canadian, Japanese, Mexican, European) each with between 3 and 4 20 man divisions. These are based on "country of origin", so Canadians are in the Canadian league, etc. At the end of the season there is a World Cup
Q: how long can a career last?
Adam Ryland- A career in league mode is indefinite, you can play as long as you want. A career in proper career mode lasts until your character retires or gets to depressed.
Q: what rewards do you get when you win a league? One of those super secret nude pictures of a team member that Phil mentioned earlier?
Adam Ryland- There are no rewards as such. Unless you count the warm glow of success. Believe me, winning a league - or the world cup - is seriously difficult. That's 19 matches against tough opponents over the course of a season.
Q: but there's no money reward for it?
Adam Ryland- So if you win it, you will feel you've done a good job
Q: How are the competitors for League Mode selected? Is it random each playing?
Adam Ryland- In League mode? No, there's no money reward, but money isn't used in that mode, that's in Career
Adam Ryland- The competitors are based on overness, with some randomness involved, so you shouldn't get the same league set up twice
Q: so you can't get any better then in the league? You can't buy better brawling etc?
Adam Ryland- No, league mode is not set in a specific time frame, it's intentional so that you can have the best from all eras competing. You don't build your character up (although you can change your move set), the challenge is to win the league as they are. It wouldn't really make sense to be able to build them up, as eventually everyone would end up either really good or really bad. It'd be very hard to continue to be "middle of the road" in a league
Adam Ryland- Career is where you build up your character
Q: do you gain a promotion if you win a league? for example you win league 2, do you go to league 1?
Adam Ryland- Yes, there are promotions and relegations as in any sport. At the end of each season you can change characters if you want, to stop it getting dull.
Q: are there playoffs? or is it just the winner/last one that promotes/relegates?
Adam Ryland- It's the top three get promoted, bottom three relegated. There's also a knock-out cup, and a world cup if you're in World league mode
Q: so Cornellverse will always be updated for wrestling spirit 2?
Adam Ryland- The CornellVerse is updated for WS2 yes, it is 6 months ahead of the last time it was seen, in TEW05
Adam Ryland- No, I've decided that each new COrnellverse will not be backward-compatible. There's new stats in each game, so it makes it very difficult to update it.
Q: is it possible that your character dies in the middle of your career? I don't know if this could happen in WS1
Adam Ryland- No, he can't die. He can get so depressed he doesn't want to continue though, which would be game over.
Q: can you still buy a monkey? :-)
Adam Ryland- That bit hasn't been done yet. I'd imagine so though.
Q: Are there any new stats and if so, how will they effect gameplay?
Adam Ryland- There's no new stats to the wrestlers themselves. Moves have plenty of new stats, which obviously effect the matches. Promotions have the new AI that we discussed earlier.
Q: Can you buy yourself services from joy ladies? Or nail ring rats? In the spirit of realism?
Adam Ryland- There's no promos in Ws2 yet, not sure if they'll be in the final game or not
Q: Or Hot Coffee in WS2
Adam Ryland- As we've in the last 5 minutes are there any final questions?
Q: Yeah, will there be Hot Coffee, yes or no?
Adam Ryland- no
Q: It sounds as if a lot of the complaints have been answered with the new game, Adam - is there anything you can say to those people to inspire them to give the new game a chance?
Adam Ryland- Yes, I'd repeat the awesome "it's a thinking person's fighting game" line that I came up with earlier. Wish I'd thought of that two months ago, I could have put it on the title screen :-o
Adam Ryland- Well thank you for everyone for turning out tonight, hope all your questions were answered. And look out for some new screen shots in the very near future!
