showtimes not allowing for breaks

[sebsy]

Hi, I am currently running a WWE dynasty on these boards, one which you might have read, it's called WWE - After The Bash. Ok, shameless plug over. Anyway, as I run WWE, I run RAW and Smackdown, not ECW, but anyway, RAW and SD are both 2 hr shows, as per real life, however these 2 hours don't allow for breaks, so I literally have to fit in 2 hrs worth of material for each show, and end up with far more segments than you get in a normal reallife show. I would like to limit this, but what is theb est way to do it, can I change my shows to 90 minutes?, 90 minutes being roughly around what a real life episode of RAW would contain once you have taken away the breaks, I'd say a reallife episode of RAW would be around 1hr35m in terms of actual showtime. Will this affect my copany though, dropping to 90 mins from 120? or will it make no difference. A way I have done it so far is to make angles longer than they actually would be, so if I have a worker come out and cut a promo on another worker and he has about 3 minutes of material, I would set the angle to say 7 minutes just to use up time. But this infuriates me as I want to have each angle last as long as it should last, not lengthen it out just to fill the time. I don't want to fill my show with loads of nothing angles where breaks would be, like divas coming to shoot t-shirts into the crowd. So what is best? Will lowering the shows time cause me any problems in any way? I could limit myself to 100 minutes for a show, and then beef up the angles to add the extra 20 mins, but like I say I would rather not do this.

[Wildcat]

Well one way to simulate this if you really want breaks is to create a few angles called commercial break, have the angles last four minutes and use four or five a show. - basically 4 minute long hype videos simulating a commercial break featuring worker(s) or hyping a feud taking place at the next ppv etc. - You may want to adjust your match/angle ratio in the settings a bit to account for the added angles. This way you still get the benefits of hyping and simulate commercials instead of having to extend angles that would normally be a certain length to an extended amount of time.

[arwink]

I can't think of any reason why dropping them down to an hour-and-a-half is problematic (although I'm not sure how to do it on a game in progress), but I'd suggest keeping them at two hours. While you might only get an hour-and-a-half of RAW on TV during the two-hour timeslot, I'm guessing that there's something happeing during the commercial breaks that keeps the live crowd from going flat. If it's becoming problematic while writing up the diary, why not just pretend that first half-hour of RAW/Smackdown are tapings for Heat and kick off the show write-ups from a half-hour in?

[Michael Wayne]

[QUOTE=arwink;369490]I'm guessing that there's something happeing during the commercial breaks that keeps the live crowd from going flat. [/QUOTE] well it's not as if matches stop and they go "okay, hang on.. Commercial break.." Matches continue, and when there are none happening, time is used for segments like kiss cam, shooting t-shirts into the crowd etc. They still book that time. They're just filled with angles. Angles which are used in T-Zone. This is accurate. It seems like it's wrong because of "commercials" but realistically you still have to book that time for the actual crowd. You have to remember. You're not booking FOR tv shows, you're booking for the live crowd. It just happens that your tapings air on tv. They make adjustments to the program for the tv, but the live crowd doesn't sit there twiddling their thumbs waiting for some "imaginary commercial break".

[CubsFan915]

One way to think of things as well is to think of the time that the game adds to each match as "commercial time". A 13 minute match gets expanded to a 15 minute segment, which allows two minutes of "commercials."

[Derek B]

You guys do realise that the RAW is still doing stuff even during the commericial breaks, right? It's not like they just sit there doing nothing.... *sigh* Seriously... if you are the WWE, the commercials will mostly be filled with wrestling or segments like the Kiss Cam. You might not want them to be shown on TV but the live audience are the people who are paying to see your show. They don't go away because of commercials... except perhaps to the toilet. Weirdly, that's the same place this idea ends up every time someone suggests it.... Anywho... changing from 120 minutes to 90 wouldn't hurt you at all. Just make sure to to get the negotiations timed right.

[sebsy]

Yeah, I fully appreciate that things happen at RAW in real during breaks but I am just talking from the aspect that I am purely running this particular savegame for the purposes of my diary and therefore want to present each show like it is on tv, the only difference being, I don't go for breaks midway through a match.

[Michael Wayne]

[QUOTE=CubsFan915;369526]One way to think of things as well is to think of the time that the game adds to each match as "commercial time". A 13 minute match gets expanded to a 15 minute segment, which allows two minutes of "commercials."[/QUOTE] those minutes are for entrances you know that right? Just making sure...

[tom_wk]

There are some moments of dead time btw. They don't pause the matches obviously, but there are, for example, times when wrestlers are just standing around twiddling their thumbs after their entrance(s) waiting for the show to come back from commercial break

[lordprimeau25]

[QUOTE=sebsy;369481] I don't want to fill my show with loads of nothing angles where breaks would be, like divas coming to shoot t-shirts into the crowd. [/QUOTE] One thing to consider though is the people in attendence. If you think about real life, during some commercial breaks at WWE events they DO ACTUALLY fill this time with crap likes giveaways and kiss cam and shooting shirts and all that crap.