Oregano Jensen

Eh, the perma-jobber thing was an issue for larger promotions in '16 too. I have noticed a slightly increased tendency in 2020 for AI promotions to break workers out of that cycle, though it might just be sample size.

OUT OF THE LOOP: The women's wrestling establishment doesn't exactly respect BSC, and if a worker's willing to take a job with you, it probably means pickings are slim. You can't employ more than 3 workers (at any time) who are also employed by another company that features women's or integrated wrestling. If any of your workers is employed by an equal or larger-sized company, and is considered a star or major star there, that worker immediately resigns. STARDUST'S FOLLY: Somebody on the creative team -- not pointing any fingers -- is irrationally dedicated to making BSC a "real" wrestling promotion, and insists on showcasing your roster's in-ring skill (such as it is). At least one match per show must feature the Technical Masterclass aim. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY OBJECTIFICATION: Are you trying to fight sexism, or expand your potential audience? Maybe a little of both... in any case, at least half of your managers/personalities must be male. At least once per show, an angle must feature a male character who's graded on Sex Appeal. ANOTHER KIND OF SIN: If you're going to run a company in Las Vegas, you have to accept that drugs are readily available to your employees. On top of that, the pressure to get in shape for the ring pushes some workers to take... certain shortcuts. A "dirty doctor" is always present backstage. Upon hiring a new worker, you must use "talk to worker" and suggest taking steroids. (In-character, this would reflect recommendations from other workers, rather than an actual suggestion from management. You only need to ask once. If they say no, that's fine.)

Thanks... feeling pretty optimistic about this one. I have almost three shows written out... just waiting for the time to find all the (alternate/regular) pictures and upload them.

When I was finally free, I didn’t waste any time. The bastards took two and a half years of my career – years I could have spent defeating them. It wasn’t enough that they took my birthright from me. No, they made me sign the waiver… put me on ice until 2020. Figured they needed the head start, I guess. Cowards. Well, I wasn’t going to let them pull one more day from me. I stayed awake for 36 hours straight, sending emails, making phone calls, and drafting documents. Didn’t get a lot of answers that first day, of course… you try starting a business on New Year’s Day. See how many calls back you get. But it was more for me – and for my brothers. I hoped it got back to them. I wanted them to know what they were in for… they stabbed me in the back, but when it was my turn to hit them, I was going to hit them head on. Not that I wasted those years either… that’s the funny part. If they’d just turned me loose back in ’17, they’d have a fight on their hands… but let’s be honest. In ’17, I was a broken-down drunk. I hadn’t wrestled in three years. I still would’ve beat them, most likely, but it would’ve been close. But when they made me sign that non-compete clause, they basically put me in prison – and there’s not much to do in prison but count the days. Lot of days. Enough time to get off the booze, enough time to hit the gym. Enough time for the knee surgery I had put off, because I didn’t have time to recover, because I spent every day holding the business together. Enough time to study promotions across the globe, to see what the fans expected, to figure out how to give them more than that. The more days passed, the younger I felt. I was renewed. So yeah, in a way, they did me a favor. I’m sure they didn’t mean to, though – and they shouldn’t expect any kindness in return. I’m going to make sure they suffer as much as I did. And unlike them, I’m going to do it the honest way. They will know that they wronged me. They will know that I rose above their betrayal. They will know that I, Alexander Spencer DeColt, am the true heir to the first family of Canadian wrestling. VANCOUVER PRO WRESTLING: DeCOLT WITHOUT A COUNTRY A TEW2020 Dynasty

I'd consider Johnny Martin (the face of DAVE and winner of the East Coast Wars) and Dread (one of the greatest big man workers of all time, and a world champion in SWF, TCW, BHOTWG, and GCG) pretty major. Shawn Gonzalez's son Marco, and Original Sinner, the son of (of all people) Primal Rage, though... I really appreciate the volume of new workers (not specifically second-generation ones) in this database... I've felt as though the last couple installments have been kind of low on new workers (except as part of new promotions), so to have this many is great.

LaGrenier has been effective for me the two times I've used him -- re-hired him in CGC once and got him to the upper midcard. Also played a 4C game a few years back where he became a major player. The biggest unexpected success story I've ever had in the game, though, was way back in TEW2007, in which Danny Rushmore had multiple A* matches en route to winning the DAVE championship.

<p>Not going to lie, I'm a little worried about this. As a guy who tends to play long-term saves (or, more accurately, to sim 5-10 years into the future before entering the game world), I felt as though the biggest weakness of TEW16 was the AI's inability to move their characters in an intelligent way. (Talented rookies getting stuck in the lower midcard for a decade, main eventers who weren't delivering not getting moved down, etc.) So the feature I was most excited about in TEW20 was the promise of a fix for that. </p><p> </p><p> And now it sounds like only certain bookers (and if booking skill from 2016 carries over, <em>very few</em> certain bookers) are going to do those things at all? I agree that it makes more sense if good bookers choose their push/depush targets more wisely, but for other bookers not to even be able to try anything... just seems odd. Hoping I got the wrong impression from the entry.</p>

<p>I had hoped so -- that's one of the few major issues I've had with the game, along with workers' tendency to stay active way too long (and AI promotions' tendency to not recognize this), and the way workers tend to develop into all-rounders after a few years, regardless of how their skills were distributed they started. </p><p> </p><p> I don't know about the third, but I had hopes for the first two based on what I've read, and I'm glad to hear positive news from someone who might know more than I do. <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/smile.png.142cfa0a1cd2925c0463c1d00f499df2.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p>

<p>This is something that I hope will be made more realistic in TEW2020... it should be more possible to establish a worker's initial position on the card through booking, provided he holds up that position with his performances. </p><p> </p><p> The way it is now doesn't make sense from a storytelling perspective -- for national/TV-based promotions, if a guy shows up and gets a push, nobody's like, "that guy's not <em>really</em> able to beat random midcarders, he wasn't here three months ago." (Unless he's not believable for other reasons, of course.) If he's a good and entertaining wrestler, people accept that and are intrigued -- possibly more so. </p><p> </p><p> It's even goofier at the regional level: <em>this</em> guy was a midcarder in a similarly sized organization across the country, so fans accept him as a guy who could come in and win matches, but this <em>other</em> guy wasn't, so they're going to throw a fit if you even suggest that he might be pretty good, no matter what he does in the ring.</p><p> </p><p> In a way, it's like what is done now with gimmicks -- a guy shows up. The booking and storylines imply that he's a weasely coward, or a tough guy who knows martial arts, or a 3000-year-old mummy (etc.) Based on his skills and performance in his first few appearances, as well as a certain amount of luck, the fans choose to accept that or not. </p><p> </p><p> Card level should be something like the same thing -- the initial booking states to the fans, "this guy is a tough opponent," or "this guy is not able to beat most of the current roster," or "how can the champion <em>possibly</em> stand up to this monster?" And then, based on how well the worker looks doing the things that the booking says he can do, the fans decide whether to accept or reject the push implied by the initial booking.</p><p> </p><p> Now, what this does backstage is a whole different matter. I can see a guy coming in, getting pushed very quickly, and that angering some of the veterans. That's a good dynamic -- it makes sense. But under 2016, you need months of massaging/gaming the system before you can even suggest that a new worker can beat your borderline jobbers... and the worst of it is that skill level, charisma, etc. are relatively minor factors in determining the rate of rise.</p>

<p>A few names not previously mentioned -- just to note, I'm taking "luchador" here to mean "lightweight/cruiserweight/high flyer" in general. If you specifically want luchadors, that limits your options a bit. </p><p> </p><p> Fearless Blue is a surprisingly good comedy worker, and his character lends itself to a comedy promotion. (He's a positive influence too.)</p><p> Mark Smart is a great comedy worker with solid overall skills, and also a well-defined character to write for. </p><p> All of this is also true of Nathaniel Ca$ino.</p><p> Hugh de Aske is a charismatic, very gifted high flyer with strong comedy skills. He's also a pirate. What more can you ask?</p><p> Drake Young has been mentioned, but Ozzie Golden is another CGC lightweight who can put on strong comedy and high-flying matches. So can former CGC worker Grimm Quibble. </p><p> Quibble's ex-tag partner Whippy the Clown is great, but he's 40 years old and pretty popular in Canada, so he might not be worth the investment for a smaller company.</p><p> Speaking of clowns, Hellech from IPW is a natural fit for your company. (Though weirdly, his tag partner Pierrot is not a good comedy worker.)</p><p> Ariel Breaks is a really good prospect, weirdly enough.</p><p> Guillermo Marcos is a good comedy worker... not the most charismatic guy around, but a natural fit for a tag team with Mark Smart. </p><p> Speaking of tag teams, you could do a lot worse than the Gilbert Brothers.</p><p> Cheech Kong is a solid young comedy prospect.</p><p> In terms of guys with some name recognition in America, Donnie J and Greg Black are good choices, as are Fox Mask, Matt Sparrow, and Cheetah Boy. (Some of those guys get snapped up on written deals, though.)</p>

<p>Germaine's a ref with CZCW (and has been since 2003).</p><p> </p><p> In my most recent saved game, he was hired as the CEO of TCW... granted, that's a saved game, not canon. But it makes sense, honestly, if BriCo decides to cash out -- or if they stick around and replace Rhodes. Germaine has the background and connections (on the West Coast, even!) to work on a corporate level, and he obviously loves wrestling. </p><p> </p><p> Then again, Cliff Anderson is getting up there... he'll be 59 by the time the new save data kicks in. Germaine has over a decade of experience with CZCW, and everyone likes him, so he's a natural candidate for Cliff's successor. That's especially true if TCW falters and there's an opening for a workrate-based promotion in the US market...</p>

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="41392" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>For a storyline purpose who could eventually buy CGC and lead it into a new direction?</div></blockquote><p> 1. Ed Monton seems like a natural for this, as some have said. He's got a 65 reputation as an owner, has the money to pull it off, and he's the most accomplished face in CGC history not named DeColt. </p><p> </p><p> Monton could try to run CGC as something like a traditional '70s-style territory. That might be an interesting angle in the modern market, and it suits CGC, which has always been more specifically tied to British Columbia than NOTBPW or the US Big Three are to their home regions.</p><p> </p><p> (On top of that, he's the father of George Wolfe, a solid midcarder in the making... unless, of course, some booker tries to force him into a starring role that just doesn't fit his charisma or talent level. Am I saying CGC could switch from "Canadian Von Erichs" to "Canadian Gagnes?" I am not saying that... but I'm not <em>not</em> saying that.)</p><p> </p><p> 2. Another guy with a business reputation in the range of 60 and some personal wealth is Larry Wood. He just retired to Canada, and it seems likely he'll leave the ring for good by 2020. What's his next career move? Could be CGC.</p><p> </p><p> Sure, he has a reputation as a pure hardcore wrestler, but he's a smart guy, and has no preference in terms of promotional style. That fits CGC, whose roster has historically been surprisingly eclectic. Sure, guys like the DeColts, Christian Price, Eddie Chandler, and Joey Poison could fit into most promotions. </p><p> </p><p> But can you imagine USPW or SWF giving major roles to lightweight high flyers like Thrill Seeker, Ryan Powell, and Whippy the Clown, or technicians with limited mic skills like John Maverick and Sean Deeley? (I mean, USPW ended up with Trent Shaffer... but that still feels like a weird departure for them.) </p><p> </p><p> On the other hand, can you imagine TCW (let alone NOTBPW) giving title runs to guys like Dan DaLay or Gargantuan? Not saying TCW has <em>never</em> pushed giants with limited actual skill levels, but they haven't <em>really</em> since their HGC days (when guys like Dread, the Nation of Filth, and BLZ Bubb/Tyson Baine held titles... and Dread was almost definitely too talented to fit in that list.) Since then, the closest they've gotten have been guys like American Buffalo, Charlie Thatcher, or Killer Shark -- certainly not valid title contenders. </p><p> </p><p> (Hardcore workers are absent from the above list, but CGC has some history with them too -- from the McWades in the past to midcarders like Brent Fraser, Lead Belly/Grease Hogg, or Vin Tanner more recently.)</p><p> </p><p> Sure, the DeColts have always been the beginning and end of CGC, but their <em>other</em> top guys have been even more varied than TCW's. A guy like Wood could turn that into a hook, positioning CGC as the promotion that takes<em> all </em>styles of top wrestlers and lets them fight it out to see who's <em>really</em> the best. </p><p> </p><p> (3. I don't have a specific angle to pursue with them, but both Joey Poison and Thrill Seeker are top CGC workers and potential promotion owners...)</p>

<p>Most of my games start 5-10 years into the future... I just simulate out to 2021 or 2026 and add my user character from there. (I generally make sure that none of the major companies go bankrupt in that time -- providing cash infusions as needed.)</p><p> </p><p> __________</p><p> </p><p> On the "turns out <em>everyone</em> else does this" front, I also have a bad habit of hiring <em>way</em> too many young workers to developmental contracts. Blue-chip prospects, weird regens, any young big man who looks even kind of interesting... (You have to have a few monster heels kicking around, right? And most guys that size are lousy, right? So you have to develop them...)</p><p> </p><p> In any event, I usually end up with 80-100 developmental workers, 3-4 child promotions scattered around the country... even if the financial burden doesn't bring me down, managing all the prospects on top of running the main company is just a hassle. Half the time I don't even manage to play the game long enough to see them "graduate".</p>

<p>I'm not sure if this qualifies as a "feature," but the one thing I want is a more realistic approach to long-term booking/development. I like to start a dynasty by simulating 5-10 years into the future before choosing a promotion to take over, so this has an especially large effect on that, but any long-tern game ends up with the same issues. </p><p> </p><p> The trouble is, the AI very rarely treats their card promotions/demotions logically. You'll occasionally see a very talented wrestler get brought up to the main event, but it's extremely rare to see a guy in obvious decline brought down the card. So you end up in 2025, and the promotions are full of guys a decade past their prime, with almost no stamina or athletic ability remaining, but they're still in the main event. </p><p> </p><p> Of course, that's totally understandable in some cases. There are promotions where you'd <em>expect</em> a guy who's totally washed up in the ring but still has popularity and charisma to hold onto a main event slot. For that matter, there are bookers who are reluctant to bust a guy down the card, no matter how far past his peak he is. (Especially if the washed-up guy <em>is</em> the booker, or a friend or relative.) </p><p> </p><p> But it's not as though we're only talking about USPW/SWF/whoever, or about an FCW-esque regional promotion where the guy in charge books himself as unbeatable. You end up with guys with 0 stamina, still main-eventing for TCW, NOTBPW, the Japanese promotions, and so on. </p><p> </p><p> My suggestion would be to run some sort of specific AI check (separate from normal quality/booking calculations) when a worker's physical decline impacts the quality of his matches. The more damage done by the decline, and the more often it's affected ratings lately, the stronger the likelihood that it causes the promotion to re-evaluate the worker's long-term booking. </p><p> </p><p> A similar check could be (and maybe already is) applied to workers who overachieve or underachieve in general, but physical decline should be in its own category here. A guy who has a couple bad matches may not <em>keep</em> having bad matches. A guy who no longer has the physical capacity to work a full-length headlining match will only get worse with time, though. That is certain, and bookers should be aware of it.</p><p> </p><p> I thing the check should trigger on match results and be applied based on the magnitude of actual rating effects, rather than on AI bookers' evaluation of worker ability or condition/age. This results in increased realism, because it doesn't affect workers whose decline isn't actually causing serious problems. </p><p> </p><p> So the decline a worker in a less physically taxing promotion, or one based mostly on overness/charisma/etc., wouldn't actually harm match ratings that much. </p><p> </p><p> A worker who only appears occasionally as a special attraction might get dinged for blowing up, but he wouldn't suffer a cumulative penalty for <em>constantly</em> blowing up. (The same would be true of a worker in a smaller promotion that runs less frequent shows.)</p><p> </p><p> And a worker who was already lower on the card/wrestling shorter matches wouldn't be as strongly affected by time decline. (This would potentially allow the AI to stabilize the position of a star past his prime, bringing him down to the midcard but keeping him there.)</p><p> </p><p> Conversely, the decline of a main eventer working for a physically demanding national company should be taken seriously. That guy would presumably be completely ruining matches on a regular basis, racking up big penalties, and making it clear to the AI that he wasn't getting the job done. </p><p> </p><p> (Unless someone was carrying him, of course. If your opponent/tag partner/etc. makes you look good and gets good matches out of you, that should keep the booker from seeing you as a problem. Of course, the reverse is true: a bad run of matches should be cause for concern, even if the other guys in the match share the blame.) </p><p> </p><p> Of course, different bookers should respond to decline (or other struggles) in different ways. I know owners have hiring and firing tendencies, and bookers look for specific qualities, but there should be promote/demote tendencies as well: one booker might be slow to let rising stars move up the card, reluctant to get underachieving workers out of the main event, but a lot quicker to do so if their disappointing matches were caused by stamina/age issues. Another might display the reverse tendencies. And so on. </p><p> </p><p> (Of course, I don't know if some of this is already coded into the game. I'm just saying that, based on the results of TEW16 simulations, it's not resulting in reasonable long-term simulation results.)</p>

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Macca316" data-cite="Macca316" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="41392" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>So what do you guys do with the Tag Team scene? its an utter shambles and other than the McWade brothers I can't really think who to bring in as a good fit?</div></blockquote><p> Greg Black (the ex-Groucho Bling) is a lifesaver here -- great in the ring (strong performance, flying and tech), can play face or heel, average charisma and decent star quality. He's a Canadian who had his most success in a goofy SWF tag team, so there are a few ways you can write his character -- revive the Groucho persona or something like it, cast him as the self-important veteran he's playing in PSW, etc. He's not young, but at 35, he's not going to start declining for a long time.</p><p> </p><p> Moreover, he has logical tag teams with two other valuable and available workers. He's been teaming up with Grandmaster Phunk in PSW, and he's close friends with Art Reed. Phunk is strong on the mic and okay in the ring. Reed is no great talker, but an excellent all-rounder with elite star quality. (He's also an excellent locker room guy.) Both of them have some overness in Canada -- Phunk around 40, Reed around 30. They're definitely going to play as Greg's sidekicks rather than the opposite, and both are older, so decline is a threat, but either one can be a midcarder soon enough, and both are valuable additions to your roster in their own right.</p><p> </p><p> In my current CGC game, I signed up all three as a stable, and played up the angle of Black and Reed as old friends who trained together, went off into the world, and learned different styles of wrestling, from American sports entertainment to hardcore to (in Reed's case) puroresu. Now they're teaming up with all that experience under their belts. Phunk doubles as their manager, using his mic skills to cover for their relative mediocrity in that area, and his presence also allows them to compete in 3v3 matches. </p><p> </p><p> (I think of trios matches as a fairly big theme in CGC -- between the Elimination PPV, the long-time rivalry between the DeColts and Elite, etc. Having at least a few established alliances with 3 in-ring workers, whether they're stables or just kind of occasional associations, makes it easier to book those kinds of storylines, and that's especially important with Elite gone and only two DeColts still present/active in the ring.)</p>