TheChef

I love the CornellVerse and only play TEW in that world. That said, the 2020 default database is very disappointing to me and needs some work before starting a game. The biggest issue is that so little has changed from the 2016 database, despite what the game's narrative states. USPW has supposedly become the biggest and richest company in the world but they haven't made a single big signing in the four years since 2016. Not one! Even though their bio says fans are turning against them for poaching talent. They haven't poached anyone! Instead they've signed the likes of Jimmy Chipolata and Leaf LeBaum, rookies who can't cut it at this level yet and usually get released when their contracts come up. In fact, the only major US signing in the entire game world in those four years was Rocky Golden to SWF. Surely, a lot of contacts expired in this time but USPW couldn't lure anyone? The whole database is like this. TCW has something like 34 workers and 28 of them have been there for over 5 years. That company is supposed to be in the doldrums yet their two biggest stars Aaron Andrews and Wolf Hawkins seem to have both re-upped for 4 and 5 years. The few new workers they have brought include Maverick and Chris Flynn, while Davis Wayne Newton and Nelson Callum are still working once a month on the indies? TCW is supposed to be the workrate company, but the roster doesn't really reflect this. TCW and most other rosters are stale with 90% of the same workers from 2016, with only a few retirements and the odd new signing as changes. It feels like the database was not naturally updated based on how things would have gone had the CornellVerse been real. As such, I used the 2016 database as a starting point then thought about who may have gone where over the 4 years until 2020. As such, USPW is much stronger having signing the likes of Sammy Bach, Mighty Mo, Brandon James, Atom Smasher, Rogue and more. The SWF, who suffered no consequences from the Richard Eisen scandal in the default data, are weakened as are TCW, who I've populated with a lot of indie darlings who can work. The game world feels more realistic to me after the changes I've made, although to be fair, it might be a little imbalanced with USPW being so powerful now. But this makes playing another company more of a challenge. This is just my opinion, of course, but changing the data lets me play in a game world I feel is more in line with the game's narrative and the natural flow of events.

It's been interesting reading everyone's takes on what is happening at AEW. I've been gradually losing interest in the product for about a year now. The actual wrestling is still great most of the time, but I find myself caring less and less about it. My main issues are these: 1. Too many cold, low stakes matches. Not every match needs a long build of course, but every match should have a reason for taking place. The old rankings system was a bit of a crutch, but at least everyone had a reason to fight. Tomorrow's Dynamite, for example, will have Kyle Fletcher v Kenny Omega, which I'm sure will be a very good wrestling match, but why is it happening? And, more importantly, why does it matter who wins? 2. Too much outside continuity. I'm sure Copeland and Cage's feud will be great, but it relies on 25 year-old history from another company. What if I'm new to wrestling or only watch AEW? Adam Copeland turning up will mean nothing to me. Same thing with Kota Ibushi. Who is he and why should I care? I don't watch NJPW, I have no idea about his history with Kenny Omega, so when Don Callis threatens Ibushi to get to Omega, I just shrug. Rampage this week has a big CMLL title v title match. Why!!?? I never even heard of CMLL. Why is this match happening on AEW television? I could go on and on here... 3. Adam Cole. This is more subjective, but nothing says indie-riffic to me more than this guy in the main event. I like him fine as a midcarder, but he doesn't look like an elite athlete who can deal out and absorb physical punishment. This guy could kick out of like four spinning avalanche piledrivers and be back on the attack in seconds. It's not just Cole, it's the Bucks, Darby Allin, Sammy Guevara etc. All good guys to have on the roster, but when they're presented as the best the company has to offer, it just takes me out of the suspension of disbelief.

Great, thanks! This was exactly the info I was looking for.

I have a question about setting potential in the editor and would be grateful for any answers or advice that anyone has. As it stands, each skill set has its own potential (in-ring, entertainment, etc.) and these rank from poor to excellent. My question is, what do these rankings actually mean? What is, for example, very good potential? Is there a range where the stats can potentially reach, say 65-75? Or does putting a potential on a skill group cap it, eg, good might cap out at 70? Also, how likely is someone to fulfill their potential and can they ever break past their potential? Lastly, is potential similar to destiny rolls, so everyone gets randomly assigned potential at the beginning of every new save? Thanks in advance for any info anyone can provide. I'm trying to set up a historical mod and I want certain people to be almost sure of getting to the level I want them to get to without flooding the database with too much potential and throwing the balance off.

I'm currently working on adapting the CornellVerse default database to suit a project I want to work on. I'm just wondering how many new workers on average are generated per year in the CVerse? I want to turn off random gens but set up enough future workers coming through so that the database doesn't dry up too quickly. Thanks in advance for any answers.

Thanks Derek, you hit the nail on the head. I checked his attributes in the editor and he is a heavy smoker with the attribute hidden. Makes sense now why he can't work more than 15 minutes!

Dropping steadily. He's dropped six points of stamina in the past year, roughly one point every two months, and four points of athleticism in the same time. No weight gain or body change, he's a lightweight high flyer. His stamina is 56 now and had been 62 a year ago. You're saying he broke the cap temporarily and now it's going back down to where it should be? Can 56 really be the cap for a 26 year-old lightweight?

I just noticed that one of my worker's stamina and athleticism stats are dropping, which wouldn't be an issue on its own, but this guy is 26! He's not a smoker and a comprehensive drug test came back clean. His physical health stats are all still over 90 too. None of his other stats are dropping and are in fact, going up slowly as expected. He wrestles about 30 times a year on average, so he's getting his reps in. Any idea what could be causing this? I don't think I've ever seen this before and I'm baffled.

I just noticed that one of my worker's stamina and athleticism stats are dropping, which wouldn't be an issue on its own, but this guy is 26! He's not a smoker and a comprehensive drug test came back clean. His physical health stats are all still over 90 too. None of his other stats are dropping and are in fact, going up slowly as expected. He wrestles about 30 times a year on average, so he's getting his reps in. Any idea what could be causing this? I don't think I've ever seen this before and I'm baffled.

My favourite storyline that I've booked is still ongoing and is a sort of hybrid CM Punk / Cody Rhodes storyline involving Aaron Andrews. When the game starts, he's TCW champion for the third time but I wanted him out of the title scene for a while, so I booked him to lose a series to Jay Chord. He lost the title in their first match and lost the rematch. Chord goaded him into agreeing never to challenge for the title again if he didn't win the third match. Andrews agreed due to ego, saying if he couldn't beat Chord once out of three then he didn't deserve to be champ. He lost. Clean this time after shenanigans in the first two matches. After that, he spent some time in the upper midcard having decent feuds and matches but never getting near the title. Andrews' ego couldn't handle not being the ace and he began a long search for relevance. He reteamed with Chance Fortune and they won the tag titles, he won the International title, won a trios tournament with KC Glenn and Ernest Youngman, but it wasn't enough. Andrews then started to latch onto up-and-coming youngsters (including Glenn and Youngman, plus Frankie-Boy Fernandes and James Diaz). His entourage grew to include his girlfriend Jasmine Saunders and returning legend Liberty (James Justice) as his manager. None of this was enough for Aaron. He desperately wanted to get back into the World title mix, challenging Chord to get the stipulation reversed. He finally beat Chord, but Chord, ever the villain, refused to recind the stip. About this time, Andrews' contract was close to coming up. He got into the ring alone, and told the crowd how he regretted ever taking the stipulation, has done everything to try to overturn it, but couldn't. He's always been TCW's ace and poster boy, but he's thinking the unthinkable. He's thinking he might leave when his contract is up as the only way to win a World title is with another company. I signed him to a new contract, but in kayfabe, it was still ending. On the last night of his old contract, he had a match against the World champion, Mr. Lucha III and won clean. He said he wanted to prove himself one last time. But, then he turned heel, said this proves he is good enough, he's just beaten the World champion, so he should be the champ. With that, he took the belt and vanished. Next show, Mr. Lucha vacated the World title, saying Andrews was right, he lost the match and no longer deserves to be champion. A tournament was announced to crown a new champion. The tournament lasted a couple of months and when Greg Gauge won the thing, Andrews turned up with the old title belt, and said that Gauge is a paper champion and Andrews is the real World champ. This is where I'm at now and the plan is to have a unification match down the line and that Andrews will agree to a new (kayfabe) contract if the stipulation is removed. It's also kickstarted a Mr. Lucha heel turn, as he only made the quarter finals of the tournament, and feels that giving up the title honourably got him nowhere. This storyline has been going over four years now and probably has another year to run. It's easily the longest and most fun storyline I've booked.

It's a major problem in the game and as Sid says, it's an AI problem. When one of the big US companies signs someone who's a name in Canada or Mexico, etc, I usually manually edit their popularity to make sure they don't get wasted. It goes deeper too, as AI companies don't sign based on worker availabilty, they only sign based on their own needs. So the best worker in the world could theoretically become available, but if a company already has their minimum number of workers, they won't try to sign them! Unless another company offers them a certain amount of money that triggers a predator offer. Then, when they do need someone when others leave or retire, the AI looks at current popularity instead of ability, so Texas Pete always gets signed by USPW while they leave Ernest Youngman, Nelson Callum, Logan Wolfsbaine, Cougar, Frankie Perez, etc. floundering on the indies working one match per month. It's crazy and it really needs looked at if there is another game in the series.

I've convinced several workers out of retirement. In fact, after two years, I wanted Brent Hill of TCW to go back into retirement and concentrate on being a road agent but he said he didn't want to retire! High Silver Tongue skill helps, as do (I think) the Respect and Reputation stats. I also think the user character's status helps, ie it's easier for Jack Bruce to convince someone out of retirement than for Jack Avatar. Mostly, though, I think it depends on how beat up and far into decline the worker in question is. I have found if their physical stats and health stats are good enough to actually warrant bringing someone out of retirement, there's a much higher chance they will do it.

Another good way of getting to know the CornellVerse is to download the historical mods, starting with CV97. You can see how it got started, then hop to 2005 and see what's changed. You can also download demos of the older TEW games and have a look at their default databases to see how the world progresses. This is what I did; it took a bit of time but I think I have a good handle on the last 25 years of the CVerse now!

I start every save thinking this is the big one, the one that will go ten or more years, but the longest I've ever actually played is about six years, back in TEW 2016. Most games I struggle to get past two years. The problem is that the game isn't really built for long-term play. The longer a save goes, the more the game world becomes unviable. After a couple of years, there is so much money in the game that it's no longer a consideration. With WrestleWorld, it's also common that there can be as many as seven or eight companies in the US of medium size and above with not enough workers to go around. Plus, the lack of future workers in the game means you're relying on new-gens and re-gens and if you're unlucky, there aren't many decent new workers after a while.

I think it's based more on how many high-rated matches a worker has had than their average. So, they can have a high average but if they're not pulling off 95+ rated matches, they'll finish lower.