wow.... I suck this year

[Eisen-verse]

I know that the difficulty levels have gone up, however, I must just suck now a days when it comes to booking the SWF. While I was never good with "maintaining" the popularity level of the SWF in 07... It never seemed to be this bad. After 4 shows... My best show is a B- and the others are all C+'s. My Main event's have pretty much been nothing... My last one being on a C (Faith & Lobster vs. Brandon James & Squeeky). I just wanted to vent! I suck. hah

[Comradebot]

I know the feeling. My diary fed is going somewhat rough. I'm gaining overness, but damnable NYCW is being little bitches.

[Ping von Erich]

I've been playing with SWF and have found a few key factors.. 1. Don't be afraid of booking "PPV quality" matches on regular shows.. you have enough main eventers to keep things fresh. So get that at least one A rated match (preferably the main event) on Supreme TV or your sunk. 2. Hire the big guns if your owner goals don't spooge it up.. Acid, Eric Tyler, Steven Parker, Gino Montero (when he becomes available).. get that midcard and upper midcard as talented as possible. 3. Drop as many of the schlubs you start with to development as soon as possible.. Brett Biggz and Big Smack Scott both were happy to drop and down and develop their skills a tad leaving Laramee and Bart to shine without the weight of their tag partners around their necks. 4. Keep the angles revolving around your main eventers.. at least until you can nab a 'B' show. 5. Expand expand expand your PPV right off the bat, and TV when you can.. the 'bigger' I make my on air presence the better I've seen my card ratings become as time slowly ticks by. Hope that helps.

[Eisen-verse]

[QUOTE] I've been playing with SWF and have found a few key factors.. 1. Don't be afraid of booking "PPV quality" matches on regular shows.. you have enough main eventers to keep things fresh. So get that at least one A rated match (preferably the main event) on Supreme TV or your sunk. 2. Hire the big guns if your owner goals don't spooge it up.. Acid, Eric Tyler, Steven Parker, Gino Montero (when he becomes available).. get that midcard and upper midcard as talented as possible. 3. Drop as many of the schlubs you start with to development as soon as possible.. Brett Biggz and Big Smack Scott both were happy to drop and down and develop their skills a tad leaving Laramee and Bart to shine without the weight of their tag partners around their necks. 4. Keep the angles revolving around your main eventers.. at least until you can nab a 'B' show. 5. Expand expand expand your PPV right off the bat, and TV when you can.. the 'bigger' I make my on air presence the better I've seen my card ratings become as time slowly ticks by. Hope that helps.[/QUOTE] Thanks! I fired Big Smack Scott pretty much right away when he tested positive for Steroids. Signed Eric Tyler and brought in some good younger talent to try to work them up the roster for the "Future of the SWF". All of my feuds have been built around my main eventers & I've seen some good matches... However, those ones have happened on accident (Jack Bruce vs. Enforcer Roberts = B+.... My best match so far). I expanded my PPV viewer ship to the UK, Mexico & Europe... So that should work too. My problem is that even my so called "Big matches" are pulling really bad ratings and it's kind of killing me. I've had really mediocre shows and I've seen my popularity fall to B in pretty much every region in the US... and B- in Puerto Rico. A critical goal of mine is to keep the company at the same level and almost a month into the game... I'm already falling and may end up bottoming out with falling. Knowing how hard it is to find a "new job" after you lose your job... (Most games in my 07 game where I left the company.. I ended up on unemployment for literally ever.. and had to end up quitting the game because of it)... I'm afraid of dipping my popularity so low and not getting a hang of it... Wasting my time on this game. ya know?

[hrdcoresidebrns]

It's been said about a million times already on this board, and I doubt it will get anywhere, but the difficulty is really a huge issue with TEW08. Even without the owner goals themselves, it's incredibly difficult to not lose popularity with the larger companies, particularly (it seems) the more straightforward styles. I admit that 07 was incredibly easy with some of the companies (NOTBPW & PGHW come to mind), but really, this may be too much. I just had a main event with Kunomasu and Tatsuko going at it with excellent chemistry, and they pulled out a B rating. It's bordering on killing my enthusiasm for this game, which I didn't think was possible.

[lazorbeak]

[QUOTE=Eisen-verse;437285]Thanks! I fired Big Smack Scott pretty much right away when he tested positive for Steroids. Signed Eric Tyler and brought in some good younger talent to try to work them up the roster for the "Future of the SWF". All of my feuds have been built around my main eventers & I've seen some good matches... However, those ones have happened on accident (Jack Bruce vs. Enforcer Roberts = B+.... My best match so far). I expanded my PPV viewer ship to the UK, Mexico & Europe... So that should work too. My problem is that even my so called "Big matches" are pulling really bad ratings and it's kind of killing me. I've had really mediocre shows and I've seen my popularity fall to B in pretty much every region in the US... and B- in Puerto Rico. A critical goal of mine is to keep the company at the same level and almost a month into the game... I'm already falling and may end up bottoming out with falling. Knowing how hard it is to find a "new job" after you lose your job... (Most games in my 07 game where I left the company.. I ended up on unemployment for literally ever.. and had to end up quitting the game because of it)... I'm afraid of dipping my popularity so low and not getting a hang of it... Wasting my time on this game. ya know?[/QUOTE] There's a few things you can do: you can start a new game with a small promotion and keep an eye on what the AI does, because they have their **** together. Just getting some familiarity with the game and the roster will help you out tremendously. The second big thing is: finish your shows with angles between your most over workers. Don't let a match between Frehley and Runaway Train be your last segment of the night: neither is a great wrestler. But both are over, and with some momentum, you could easily get a B+ or A rating for a longer than five minute angle. I've only booked two shows, and while I've only gotten one B+ rated match, I've also gotten three A rated angles, and have yet to get lower than a B rated show. As an addendum to the above, don't let your matches go long unless you've got some amazing workers out there.

[takertitan]

people are compaining that no talent hacks can't pull in good ratings? Whats the world coming to... Lazorbeak has the answer, don't book runaway train in the main event inless its vs someone amazing. I hit regional with APW in 4 weeks, so the game is fine.

[jesterx7769]

While I don't think it is too bad, the difficulty some seem off. In week two of my game I noticed the AI in NYCW got a B+ match out of Steve Flash and Rick Sanders( is that his name?) which I was very surprised at considering neither are very over and Sanders isnt a good worker.

[LoganRodzen]

I'm running a small based promotion (built it from Local) and it's extremely difficult. I'm financially in trouble, no star power, and very few talented workers. The difficulty of this game is freakin' amazing! I'm in Oct. 2010 of my game (I run one show a month) and I know that when I did this same scenario in TEW07, it was way easier - thank you Adam for giving me a challenge. It's going to take me years to build this company up! :D

[Eisen-verse]

[QUOTE]I'm running a small based promotion (built it from Local) and it's extremely difficult. I'm financially in trouble, no star power, and very few talented workers. The difficulty of this game is freakin' amazing! I'm in Oct. 2010 of my game (I run one show a month) and I know that when I did this same scenario in TEW07, it was way easier - thank you Adam for giving me a challenge. It's going to take me years to build this company up! [/QUOTE] I agree. The difficulty is a great sell. While it can seem crazy that the computer can put on such great matches... I like it. It keeps me on my toes and makes it actually challenging to create a powerhouse (or literally survive) for once. I just posted this forum topic because I was having a lot of trouble putting together a great show for the SWF even though I was happy with how I was booking. In the end, I'm deciding to go with a smaller company... Less of a roster to deal with and hoping that it makes it easier for me to "focus".

[DaMegaFish]

[QUOTE=Eisen-verse;438156]I agree. The difficulty is a great sell. While it can seem crazy that the computer can put on such great matches... I like it. It keeps me on my toes and makes it actually challenging to create a powerhouse (or literally survive) for once. I just posted this forum topic because I was having a lot of trouble putting together a great show for the SWF even though I was happy with how I was booking. In the end, I'm deciding to go with a smaller company... Less of a roster to deal with and hoping that it makes it easier for me to "focus".[/QUOTE] Thats actually what I decided. With all the new add-ons and such, I figured I would get a better feel for how things work if I made a promotion and just took them to the top, or attempted to at least, this way new features would kinda be introduced a little slower and I could take more time to get them right. Ive actually opened the help file a few times, Ive NEVER done that in ANY TEW before...that should speak volumes about this game. :)

[The Shape]

[QUOTE=Ping von Erich;437283]5. Expand expand expand your PPV right off the bat, and TV when you can.. the 'bigger' I make my on air presence the better I've seen my card ratings become as time slowly ticks by.[/QUOTE] Yeah makes sense...on my SWF game I'm trying to get a new show on Saturday evening called SWF Live! but the CANN network didn't like any timeslot, so I'm looking at America and USA sports hopefully to get a good spot, it's difficult though. As for your other points, angles being mainly main eventers is a weakness of mine cause from the start I've had stories in mind up and down the card...even the Bumfholes vs. Samoans had a string of D+ angles just so I felt like the matchup was worthwhile. :D And Eisen-Verse I know what you mean...my first PPV main event; Bruce vs. Vengeance, got a B-. Have had some much better results all round since then though and after the second PPV I think things will be shaping up the way I want them, in terms of overness, momentum and otherwise, sufficiently for me to be able to book the way I want without it hindering the show.

[LoganRodzen]

My best match has been a B- and my best show has been a C. It's really tough to pull out good matches and shows - I remember being able to pull A's out of a hat in TEW07. Freakin' Adam had to go and make things difficult, but I wouldn't change a damn thing. :)

[Blasphemywebleed]

My best match so far has been a C+ and my best show a D. I'm a MOSC die hard so picking up big ratings isnt going to happen. The best match was Edward Cornell v Harley Neil.

[LoganRodzen]

I'm attempting to get Davis Wayne Newton over because he has amazing talent, but it's hard to do so when you're a small promotion and financially can only handle one show a month. :(

[FINisher]

Last night I realised the one thing I've been ignoring completely: The highs and lows of a show. I mean really. No wonder I didn't get as good ratings as computer booked promotions. I just booked the card from worse matches -> better matches. I experimented, and when I was doing like it was supposed to be done, with the rating of a match/angle changing constantly to a lower/higher grade, I got a way better card rating and especially the main event was better than it would have been if I've kept the old style. Also look at the cards of other promotions and the ratings of the matches. You'll see that pattern that, that rollercoaster, the previous and next match/angle are both better/worse depengin on the angle/match. C, D, C, D+, C+, C-, C+, C, B+ for example. In TEW07 the same thing wasn't so important, as you could still book good cards with just going from average match, average match, good match, good match, awesome match etc.. Change it to good match, average match, good match, average match, great match, good match, awesome main event :P Just try it! Also I think there's some segment penalty in TEW08. When you run [B]events[/B], there should be atleast 7-8 segments going the rollercoaster or even more, depending on the length of the event. If you run an event of just 3 segments, it's gonna suck. No matter how good you thought it would be in theory. :P

[James Casey]

*Nods* I've been experimenting with this as well, trying ot have my two big matches separated by a lesser match, and likewise throughout the card. I can't say I've noticed any major differences yet - but virtually every match I book ranks a D or D-, so...

[hrdcoresidebrns]

Has anybody really had success with a pure company in TEW08 so far? Most of what I have seen in terms of success in booking has been based off of angles, which are the opposite of what pure feds like RoF and PGHW are all about. Has anybody been able to get good ratings without peppering in a lot of angles?

[benjacko]

I'm hitting D to D+'s so far for show ratings with my ROF diary game but I might worry if I lost one of my main eventers :).

[FINisher]

[quote=hrdcoresidebrns;442184]Has anybody really had success with a pure company in TEW08 so far? Most of what I have seen in terms of success in booking has been based off of angles, which are the opposite of what pure feds like RoF and PGHW are all about. Has anybody been able to get good ratings without peppering in a lot of angles?[/quote] I'm having constant B-, B cards with GCG just two months into the game ;) In my games I always do better with promotions where wrestlers are rated more on performance than popularity.

[hrdcoresidebrns]

[QUOTE=FINisher;442228]I'm having constant B-, B cards with GCG just two months into the game ;) In my games I always do better with promotions where wrestlers are rated more on performance than popularity.[/QUOTE] Are you using any angles or storylines? The reason I ask is that I've traditionally played as PGHW in every installment of TEW, and suddenly I seem to have no idea how to book them in TEW08. I've been trying everything (advanced booking, watching momentum, various road agent notes), and seemingly nothing I do can keep them from losing popularity or putting on good (above C level!) matches, even with the extremely talented roster. My main event can't seem to put out higher than a B match, even with good chemistry.

[Comradebot]

Seriously, this thread makes me feel better to know that I'm not the only one with struggles... In my diary fed, ABBA, a user-created low Regional fed, I've been struggling to put on D+/C- cards. Used to at regional I could hit C+s with little issue. And really I wouldn't mind so much, but since I'm in the Great Lakes it tends to result in NYCW putting on its B- cards with Steve Flash and as a result I take a hit at the end of the month. But I DID just put on a C+ match and a two Cs (thank you Jack Griffith) recently, and I'm still not very far into the game. Course, this could also have to do with creating a product I thought would be fun and then having little idea on how to actually run a promotion like that (another little spoiler, I had to slightly alter my product. Runnng medium Mainstream at Regional doesn't seem viable anymore.) This year the game definetly tries to steer you toward booking a wrestling show from the bottom of your card and up. Having that awesome angle or match to start the show seems to have a tendency to kill the next segment if it isn't up to par with what the fans just saw. I tend to now start shows off with a match or two that I'm comfortable will net a D or high D- and hopefully not drag the crowd's mood down, and keep my better angles to be placed around the time the Upper Midcarders are hitting the ring, as they can put on a quality enough match to not let the fans down. Truly, I think the one downside to this is my love of using ****ty wrestlers. For example, my current goal is to push Blackjack Robbins. But at 43, with mediocre talent, no charisma, and no overness, it seems like it'll be harder than ever to push a guy like him quickly as doing so could sink the whole card. But he's getting there, and as God as my witness Blackjack will one day reign supreme.

[Remianen]

[QUOTE=Comradebot;442268]This year the game definetly tries to steer you toward booking a wrestling show from the bottom of your card and up. Having that awesome angle or match to start the show seems to have a tendency to kill the next segment if it isn't up to par with what the fans just saw. I tend to now start shows off with a match or two that I'm comfortable will net a D or high D- and hopefully not drag the crowd's mood down, and keep my better angles to be placed around the time the Upper Midcarders are hitting the ring, as they can put on a quality enough match to not let the fans down.[/QUOTE] Not necessarily. You can still start your show off with a big match. But the key this year seems to be, don't do it with your main eventers. Use your upper midcarders. Using MEs turns out to be TOO good (generally speaking). So rachet it down a level and see how that turns out.

[Eisen-verse]

[QUOTE]Not necessarily. You can still start your show off with a big match. But the key this year seems to be, don't do it with your main eventers. Use your upper midcarders. Using MEs turns out to be TOO good (generally speaking). So rachet it down a level and see how that turns out.[/QUOTE] I always start my show off with a big angle from my "top superstar", so is that a bad thing to be doing so? Does that hurt my overall rating of my show? Cause when I ran my SWF game I would always start the show off with Jack Bruce doing something with the person he is feuding with.

[Remianen]

[QUOTE=Eisen-verse;442396]I always start my show off with a big angle from my "top superstar", so is that a bad thing to be doing so? Does that hurt my overall rating of my show? Cause when I ran my SWF game I would always start the show off with Jack Bruce doing something with the person he is feuding with.[/QUOTE] No no no, I'm talking about matches. If you're doing that with angles, it makes perfect sense. But in that position, I'd follow it with a midcard level match and then a low card match to bring the crowd down slowly (rather than dropping them off a cliff). Follows the "peaks and valleys" format of the so-called perfect show theory. Ideally, I think you'd want each of your peaks to be higher than the previous peak with the main event being the Everest.