TEW2008: Adam's Developer's Journal

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#25: Availability Calendar[/B] In what will likely be one of the most popular "helper" additions to the game, TEW08 introduces the availability calendar. There are two types within the game; promotional and worker. The promotional availability calendar is available to you from the Schedule screen, and takes the form of a grid showing the next 28 days \ 1 month of game play. The calendar highlights any day where there is a scheduling conflict; that is, a day when one or more members of your roster will be working for another promotion. Clicking the day brings up a list of exactly who will be missing and where they will be. That means that with once glance you can quickly and easily select a "free" day where your entire roster will be available to you. This will prove extremely helpful to companies that share a lot of workers, and makes scheduling a breeze. The worker availability calendar appears in their profile, and is very similar to its promotional counterpart. It too shows the next 28 days \ 1 month of game play, and highlights all the days when that worker is scheduled to be taking part in a show. These calendars should dramatically cut down the amount of work that was needed to schedule shows, and result in a much clearer picture of who you can expect to be available at each show.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#26: Competitive Edge[/B] In an alteration that has one of the biggest impacts on the challenge of the game, the way that AI promotions handle matches has been changed. In TEW08 they now use an almost identical set of code to that which the player himself uses. The impact of this is that matches held in AI promotions now get virtually identical ratings to what they would get in a player-controlled promotion. This causes several effects. Most obviously, it makes the challenge of the game harder as AI promotions are now far more competitive, especially those who have a heavy bias towards sports entertainment style, as they can achieve much better match ratings (and therefore higher card ratings, leading to happier fans, more popularity, etc, etc.) It also means that there is a much greater unity within the game, as the grades a wrestler achieves in AI promotions will be much closer to what he would achieve in a human promotion. It also improves the subtlety of the game, as all the small items that a player has to deal with (fatigue, minor injuries, etc) now have to be dealt with by the AI too.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#27: Seeking Foreign Workers[/B] In TEW08 you will now be able to begin negotiations with workers who are not ordinarily available in the game area that you are in. There is of course a price to be paid for such an ability; workers will demand extra pay if you're expecting them to travel back and forth a lot, and may even want you to pay their relocation costs for them to come over and live in your game area. Of course, not every worker will be open to relocating, and may turn you down.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#28: Sick Bay[/B] In ones of the additions deliberately made to increase the ease of availability of data, there is a new section of Your Promotion called Sick Bay. A simple-yet-useful screen, it gives a listing of every worker in your promotion who is injured (either to the extent of being unable to wrestle or currently working through it) or currently not available (because he's in prison, in rehab, etc) together with information on when they are going to return. This adds to ability to manage a roster, as a single click will now give you all the information that would have previously only been available by scanning through your entire roster.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#29: On-Screen Ratio[/B] In a move primarily aimed at less-experienced players, but one that will probably find favour with experts too, the match \ angle ratio for a promotion is now shown on-screen while booking, and will give a warning when a show has been set up in a way that would likely annoy the fans. The idea behind this is to help out people who still struggle with working out the percentages involved, and to generally take out the need to memorise what your ratio is and analyze what you've currently booked.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#30: Wider Ranging Alter Egos[/B] The alter-ego \ alternate name system has been given an overhaul to allow for more flexibility. There are two key modifications to the old system. The first change is that a worker can now have multiple potential alter-egos per promotion, meaning a greater variety of possibilities. There are two types: promotion-specific or non-promotion-specific, the latter coming into play if the worker joins a promotion where he does not have alter-egos exclusive to that company. The second change is that alter-egos are now equipped with a frequency level, a number between 1 and 100, which indicates how likely they are to be picked. These aren't actually percentages, but work in a similar manner. (NB: If no promotion-specific alter-egos are found, the worker's default name automatically has a 75 frequency chance of being used.) To illustrate the new system, I will use a real world example. Let's say that Mick Foley is the default name for the character, and that he has the following alter-egos: Cactus Jack (WWE version, 30 frequency) Dude Love (WWE version, 5 frequency) Mankind (WWE version, 80 frequency) Mick Foley (WWE version, 40 frequency) Cactus Jack (WCW version, 80 frequency) Cactus Jack (non-promotion-specific version, 75 frequency) If he were to then be signed by the WWE, there are four potential names he could end up with. Adding all the frequencies together gets 155, so there is a 19% chance of him ending up as Cactus Jack (30 divided by 155, multiplied by 100 - don't worry if you're not good at maths, you only really need to understand that the bigger the number, the higher the chance.) If he went to WCW then he would become Cactus Jack, as that is the only alter-ego available to him. If he joined any other promotion then he would get one of two - his default name (Mick Foley, automatically frequency 75) or Cactus Jack (75 frequency). The benefits of this system are that it allows a greater range of possibilities, and therefore opens up some nice scenarios, especially to real world mods where people may have multiple gimmicks. For example, you could have it so that there's a small chance that rather than joining the WWF as Hulk Hogan, he came in under his old name Sterling Golden!

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#31: Handing Over Power[/B] This is actually two separate features, but I've included them together as they're vaguely related. The first is that the way that an owner stands down (and triggers potential inheritance) has been tweaked. Rather than giving up his or her promotion upon either in-ring or permanent retirement, an owner will now only stand down when he actually retires from the industry. This is to make the system more realistic. The second is that certain owners will be happy to do the job of owner and head booker by themselves, rather than always looking to hire someone else to take on the booker role. This is linked to their personality and their booking skill; an extremely greedy and controlling owner may choose to stay in complete control even if he is a terrible booker, whereas other owners - even if just as greedy - may be self-aware enough to realise that they're not that good and be willing to bring in an outsider. Again, this aids the realism of the game.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#32: Interfering PPV Carriers and TV Networks[/B] Both Carriers and Networks are now equipped with a risk level, an indication of what level of content they will find acceptable. New to the game is the fact that both can now actually block you from running content that they are unhappy with. For example, if you try to book a barbed wire death match on a mainstream TV station, or an offensive angle on PPV, you will likely get a message from the network \ carrier liaison blocking you from continuing. This adds a little extra realism and strategy, particularly when dealing with multiple networks per TV show.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#33: Internet[/B] Taking its cue from WMMA, TEW08 will now feature an in-game web site as its central hub for information. Rather than being a subsection of the Media area, the Internet is now the default first screen that you will see, and is therefore the way most information will be presented to you (although you can still access the old-style news ticker elsewhere). This improves the game's immersion factor, as well stylistically improving TEW.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#34: Improved Owner Goals[/B] The owner goals have been significantly overhauled for TEW08, with several changes to how they used to work. The number of goals has now increased, with up to eight possible at any time. These are divided into three categories: Corporate Direction - The most important, these are goals relating to the company itself, such as having to achieve a certain size or to reach a financial target. Creative Choices - Medium importance, these are goals relating to your booking. These are all new to the game, and include goals like having to get Wrestler X to a specific level of popularity, or to keep Wrestler Y about B+ Momentum at all times. Preferences - The lowest importance, these are general comments from the owner like not wanting wrestlers over a certain age to be signed, or not wanting anyone with low resilience. The way these goals are assigned has also changed, to be more in-line with the promotion's size and style. Furthermore, unlike TEW07, the owner can update the list with new goals at any point, rather than waiting until all of them have elapsed. The other big change is [I]Owner Patience[/I]. You will be able to see on-screen how happy the owner is via an "energy" bar. The level fluctuates, going up when you successfully complete goals, dropping when you fail a goal, with the amount depending on the level of goals (i.e. failing a Preference causes a much smaller drop than failing a Corporate Direction goal). If the level ever hits zero, you are automatically fired. As a result, there is no longer such a thing as a "critical goal", i.e. one that results in your sacking if it is failed. This does lead to the final change though; you can now choose to ignore goals if you want, purposely taking the penalty. For example, if your owner made a goal whereby you are not meant to sign anyone over the age of 40, but you really feel that 41 year old Wrestler X would be a really great signing, you can go ahead and start negotiations. You will be warned once when you first contact him and again when you make your contract offer, but you will not actually be blocked. Once you make the signing the owner patience will then fall because you have failed that goal. This allows you the realistic option of taking risks based on your success; if you are doing well and have 100% owner patience behind you, you can afford to break a few goals occasionally, as long as you believe you can then get it back. On the flip side, if you're struggling and start failing goals, obviously you cannot start breaking goals intentionally without risking getting yourself even further into danger. Overall, the changes to the system make for a more subtle and advanced feature that enhances the game play while providing extra challenges and strategy.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#35: Regional Battle[/B] A partner feature to [I]National Battle[/I] (see entry #3), Regional Battle takes the same concept but applies it on a smaller scale. The differences are that this feature applies to each region in turn, rather than to an entire game area, and sees battles between Small and Regional promotions (Local are excluded, given that they fall below the radar) who are within a certain popularity range, as long as there are three or more promotions running there. The popularity \ prestige penalties are also reduced slightly from the National Battle, and there is no cooling off \ warming up phase. This adds more strategy to where to run your shows (especially as prestigious locations will likely have lots of promotions) as well as adding realism. It also helps add a competitive edge for small promotions which, given that they are unlikely to have TV ratings to compare, is something that has never really been included before.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#36: Work Through The Pain[/B] Injuries in TEW08 now come with three levels of severity; Can Be Worked Through, Prevents Wrestling, and Prevents Any Participation. The idea behind the split is that this will now allow some injuries to stop a worker from actually getting into the ring to wrestle, but will allow him to continue in other roles, such as working angles, doing commentary, etc, etc. This is a change from the previous versions where if a worker was out injured he could not be involved in anything else.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#37: Promotion Rankings[/B] Returning after a long absence will be Promotion Rankings. Essentially this is a league table ranking all the promotions in the game world against each other. There are two views available, Influence (ranked by size and prestige) and Importance (ranked by promotion's fan base). Primarily this is used to give a good overview of where each promotion stands, and as a useful tool to measure progress. It is also referenced in some of the new owner goals, where you may be asked to not fall from your current ranking or to improve it, putting you in direction competition with the other promotions in the game world (in these cases the results are based on the promotion rankings by importance).

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#38: Surgery[/B] A new feature in TEW08 is that you have the option of sending certain injured workers to a surgeon. Only certain injuries come with this option, as defined via the database editor. As with most features, there are pros and cons to going ahead with surgery. On the plus side, successful surgery can reduce the amount of time a wrestler is out of action, and can also reduce the permanent damage that he would otherwise take. On the other hand, botched surgery can put a wrestler out for even longer than was originally estimated and also increase the damage to his body. The surgical risk is also defined in the editor for each injury.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#39: Industry Reputation[/B] A new statistic attached to workers is that of Industry Reputation. Unlike the existing Respect, which measures a person's contribution and success in the business, Industry Reputation is a measure of their overall behaviour and how they have handled themselves during their career. The rating goes up as the worker shows signs of being a good employee, such as staying with a promotion for a long period of time without getting any negative press. The rating goes down when the worker gets into trouble, such as by getting into fights or walking out on a promotion. Becoming known as a troublemaker \ lousy employee can effect a workers career, as it will become less likely that he gets signed to deals.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#40: Promotion Takeovers[/B] Promotion Takeovers (formerly "buy outs" in 07) have had an overhaul in 2008. It is now slightly easier to get a struggling promotion to agree to get takeover, as it seemed people thought it was too hard in 07. The other change is that once a promotion has agreed to your takeover attempt, you have three options as to what to do. [I]Disband[/I] is the simplest, and means that you simply close the promotion, putting them out of business. [I]Pillage[/I] does the same thing, except that before you pull the plug on them you get the opportunity to cherry-pick the members of their roster and the title belts that you want to bring in to your own promotion. [I]Development[/I] is the final option; the promotion is allowed to remain in business (with you paying off their debts) but they act as your development territory instead.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#41: Mail Reactions[/B] As a nod to the history of the series, a returning feature is that of mail reactions. In a nutshell, when you do certain tasks like hiring or firing, other workers will send pop-up messages giving you praise or criticism for your decisions. For example, one of your existing wrestlers may appear to tell you how glad he is that you've started negotiations to bring his wife in to the promotion. The feature is primarily cosmetic (although the reactions sometimes give you clues as to underlying change that will happen, such as really irritating someone) but is added to help the immersion factor of the game.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#42: Sexuality[/B] In order to better simulate relationships within the game a new statistic has been added, that of sexuality. It can be set as Heterosexual, Bisexual or Homosexual. The impact is obvious, in that it will effect who that character will be eligible to have relationships with. To keep things simple, it does not change over the course of the game.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#43: Simmering Tension[/B] A new relationship type in TEW08 is Simmering Tension. This is one step below a Strong Dislike, and basically means that the two workers aren't getting along very well, but the relationship hasn't completely deteriorated. It will normally occur due to a fairly minor event, one that isn't enough to totally turn two people against each other. This new relationship automatically lasts for six months. If that six months elapses without further issue, it disappears. However, if anything else negative happens, even if it's another fairly minor event, it will be enough to tip it over the edge into a full Strong Dislike relationship. The idea is that it allows relationships to be more subtle. Not every negative event now instantly results in years of dislike between two people, instead you can have this six month "waiting" phase, where the relationship is essentially finely balanced.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#44: Drug Testing Policy[/B] Promotions in TEW08 have the option to implement a drug testing policy. There are four levels to choose from (five if you include "None"), with the lowest level consisting of a small random selection of wrestlers being given a standard test after each event, the highest level consisting of all wrestlers being given a hi-tech test after each event. Obviously the latter costs more. One-off tests can also be ordered for specific workers at the user's requests. The advantage of a drug testing policy is that any worker caught with drugs in his or her system is reported to the user who can then handle the matter in private (via a menu of possible actions). This is important, as the alternative is that if a worker is caught in possession elsewhere, the media can pick up on the story and damage the prestige of the company. By handling it privately you can avoid this potentially damaging situation. It of course also allows you to potentially help the worker quit his habit, which can help a worker's performance and career in general.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#45: Angle Library[/B] In order to improve the ability to quickly find the angle(s) that you want, the concept of keywords has been expanded upon. Rather than having three user-definable keywords as in 07, the new game gives a list of 15 or so pre-defined keywords, ranging from Confrontation to Diva to Hype. Each angle can be set to be assigned to any (or all, or none) of these via simple tick boxes. When booking angles, there are three drop down menus at the top of the screen, each containing all the pre-defined keywords. The player can use these to quickly "drill down" and find the selection he wants. For example, if a new woman was debuting that night and wanted to have the announcers hype it, the player might select Diva in the first box, Hype in the second, and leave the third blank. This would instantly cut the list of potential angles to only those that have been set as being both Diva and Hype types. This system is essentially a "first wave attack" to break the list down into a much smaller, more manageable size. The regular filter is also available and can either be used instead of the keywords, or can be used afterward to refine the list even more. The end result is a quicker, smoother way of finding what you want.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#46: Backstage Environment[/B] The new Backstage section of the game is an overview of how harmonious your locker room is. Shown on screen are all the relationships that currently exist between your employees, plus a list of notable personalities (such as locker room leaders or particular troublemakers). The game uses these to calculate the atmosphere, ranging from being perfectly harmonious to being a nasty, chaotic place to work. This rating is important, as the worse it is, the more issues that you will have. The player can try and balance the backstage environment in a number of ways. Firing troublemakers \ bad influences is obviously one way, but there are also subtler approaches such as hiring friends and family of existing employees in order to make the locker room a friendlier place. Taking the time to construct a good environment backstage can be a very good idea, as it can mean less problems in the long run. The screen can also be broken down by brand if your promotion runs split shows.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#47: Opening Owners[/B] In TEW07 a promotion would open, sit around until it got an owner, then start trading. This has been altered in TEW08, and new promotions will always open with an owner \ founder already in place. As an addition to that, each promotion can be set to have a recommended founder. This is the person who would become owner in an ideal world. If the recommended founder is available when the new promotion opens, that person will automatically get the job (if he isn't available, it defaults to finding the best possible candidate as it would normally).

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#48: Alternate Quick View[/B] As TEW07 players will know, at the bottom of many screens that focus on workers there are the six quick view boxes (Rumble, Technical, etc, etc). While these are useful for getting a quick general feel for how good the wrestler is, they don't really apply to non-wrestlers. TEW08 solves this by having an alternate quick view. When viewing a non-active character, the normal Rumble, Technical, etc, boxes are replaced with more useful versions showing things like Announcing, Manager Skills, Refereeing, etc. The switch is automatic, and comes in extremely handy when you want to browse through commentary teams, referees, road agents, etc.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]#49: Title Reign Changes[/B] Today's entry will talk about two changes that have been made to improve the way title histories are handled and displayed. The first change is that the user can now fill in when the title reigns begin for championships that are active when a new game is started. This is because I disliked the fact in 07 that all reigns began in "Unknown". Under the new system, they will have a proper start date and so will blend in with the rest of the entries. The second change is that title histories no longer explicitly show when a title was vacant. I modified this as I felt that in 07, title histories became very ugly when they were dotted with "Vacant" entries, which is especially true for small promotions when their champions keep getting stolen. Although it is purely cosmetic, I think that omitting the "Vacant" entry makes for a much nicer view.