TCW's Popularity Lowered From a B+ Show

[shipshirt]

I've been playing this game since TEW05 and I'm certainly not a novice. I book smart shows and really love the challenges like the "repetitive booking" limitation. One thing I'm still really foggy on is how a B+ TV can lower the popularity for TCW when they are B's (with a B+ in Southwest) nationally across the board. I held a solid show, got a B+ on it and checked the Edit Data to see if what, if any, increase I got and the popularity was actually lower by .1% So how would you be able to ever gain popularity in TCW? There's no way you can hold an A level show every time out without entering pretty ridiculous booking strategies. Why even bother having PPVs if you're giving away the top matches every single week on TV. But I digress.... Maybe I'm still not clear on how importance works. I thought it worked like this: Each region has a percentage of importance . You hold a show and then that show number is multiplied by the percentage in each region, resulting in the "show grade" for each region. Is that correct? How can TCW ever gain in popularity though if even a B+ show is lowering it?

[lordprimeau25]

Yea, my understanding is that even if you book a show that exceeds your popularity in that region, if the importance multiplied by the popularity doe snot exceed your popularity int he region, ultimately your ratings will suffer.

[shipshirt]

But they went down across the board...I'm only a B in popularity in Tri State and you receive 100% of the grade there (the grade being a B+) and it still went down, even though the B+ at 100% is still above the popularity there. I'm just wondering if I'm missing something because if that's the case...there doesn't seem any way to gain popularity once you get to the B level unless you're pulling A and A* shows every time and that's just not realistic. It doesn't even seem like you can really maintain what you have. Like I said, I might just be missing something....

[lordprimeau25]

Your right, and I agree with you about the PPV quality matches on TV. I am still foggy on the importance grade as well. "If the importance is set as being too low in too many regions, it can become impossible for promotions to reach certain size levels." I keep reading the definition in the guide over and over and it actually is confusing me more.

[shipshirt]

[QUOTE=lordprimeau25;474315]Your right, and I agree with you about the PPV quality matches on TV. I am still foggy on the importance grade as well. "If the importance is set as being too low in too many regions, it can become impossible for promotions to reach certain size levels." I keep reading the definition in the guide over and over and it actually is confusing me more.[/QUOTE] Right? lol I haven't touched the settings and I'm using the default Cornellverse settings...so you should be able to advance in the US, one would think.

[Comradebot]

Well, once you're about a B in importance in the USA, or anywhere for that matter, its just going to become impossible to get your importance any higher. Doesn't really matter, because after you're a C+ the only thing you can improve on is your ticket prices. But its true, if you had poorly made regions then it'd be impossible to grow. If the world was like Central Australia with 50% importance then it'd take... 97.5% overness to get to a C+. In other words, you would never reach National. MAYBE if you put on nothing but A* shows, and managed to keep your talent from leaving from getting too popular in the process, but probably not even then. Odds are your B+ show was just barely a B+ and still not high enough for you to break even. Odds are a high B+ and up will still give you some popularity. Even so, running nothing but B+s, even low ones, is more than enough to keep you from dropping to Cult (as long as you remember to visit EVERY region in your home country, of course. Don't forget to send a house show to Hawaii, or that single state will make you a Cult company.)

[Ironmike]

I've only ever play 07 and 08 but it seems impossible now for either of the big two in the US to stay at national for more than the first six months. No matter the grades they recieve they always drop to cult, in every single game I have started in 08 the US industry is always in decline which i'd imagine dosn't help.

[Bigpapa42]

[QUOTE=Ironmike;474373]I've only ever play 07 and 08 but it seems impossible now for either of the big two in the US to stay at national for more than the first six months. No matter the grades they recieve they always drop to cult, in every single game I have started in 08 the US industry is always in decline which i'd imagine dosn't help.[/QUOTE] The industry rising or falling is random, same as the economy. You can actually set that in the database.

[shipshirt]

[QUOTE=Comradebot;474342]Well, once you're about a B in importance in the USA, or anywhere for that matter, its just going to become impossible to get your importance any higher. Doesn't really matter, because after you're a C+ the only thing you can improve on is your ticket prices. [/QUOTE] Yeah I get that. I'm actually talking about popularity going down...which is directly impacted on the Imporatance. Really I just wanted to be able to maintain my US popularity. I think even constant B+ shows is really tough to get. B shows seem more like the average for your TV shows as you have to move stories along and can't just always put on PPV quality shows. It seems like a B or B+ should at least allow you to maintain.

[Rob4590]

Shipshirt - given that you've been here this long, you really should know this by now (given it's been the same in 05 and 07 as well)!! To get an improvement in POPULARITY (importance is calculated AFTER that - so is irrelevant for now) you need (nearly always) a show that is 2 grades higher than your popularity. A show one grade higher will either keep you the same or lose the 0.1% than you experienced. A show level or below your pop will hurt more. So yes - TCW and SWF are very hard to keep high - yes you need pretty much a B+ every week, with a few A's thrown in to keep it level. Onto importance: this is calculated by taking the popularity (in % - not the grade itself) and multiplying it by the influence of the individual region. eg: Tri State 100% influence, 80% popularity ---> 80% importance (80*100%) South West 85% influence, 80% pop ---> 68% importance (80*85%) Thus although you will have B pop in both areas, you will have B importance in Tri State, but only C+ in South West. Any better?;) EDIT: Just to add - the 2 grade thing is not EXACT - I believe Adam (in 07) said it was a specific % about the exact pop% to break even - think it was around 10% - which is pretty much the two grades. :)

[Hyde Hill]

And don't despair about dropping to Cult as long as you run B shows with the od B+ and even A you shoudl remain at National if you do not forget to visit all regions with events/house shows/ppvs. The problem with both SWF and TCW is that at the start both companies are way more over then their respective workers. If you surive those first 6 months or drop to cult and then get back you should be fine afterwards. For the rest Rob was spot on. So my advice is for the first 6 months is to give away ppv quality on tv.

[Supermercado]

I don't think one off shows should hurt your popularity. There should be a curve based around the month/three months/a year (whatever) which determines how you fall or rise.

[Rob4590]

[QUOTE=Supermercado;474430]I don't think one off shows should hurt your popularity. There should be a curve based around the month/three months/a year (whatever) which determines how you fall or rise.[/QUOTE] Losing 0.1% if you have an average show isn't exactly killing you LOL. On the other hand, if you constantly lose that EVERY show, then over the time period that you are talking about, then yeah - you will lose a whole grade (a grade is 6% in case you didn't know) - so it already does EXACTLY what you are saying anyway.

[Hyde Hill]

Just so ya know ya need to keep above 76.5 avarage in the US to stay national if all regions are the same of course.

[lordprimeau25]

[QUOTE=Rob4590;474412]Onto importance: this is calculated by taking the popularity (in % - not the grade itself) and multiplying it by the influence of the individual region. eg: Tri State 100% influence, 80% popularity ---> 80% importance (80*100%) South West 85% influence, 80% pop ---> 68% importance (80*85%) Thus although you will have B pop in both areas, you will have B importance in Tri State, but only C+ in South West. Any better?;) EDIT: Just to add - the 2 grade thing is not EXACT - I believe Adam (in 07) said it was a specific % about the exact pop% to break even - think it was around 10% - which is pretty much the two grades. :)[/QUOTE] Where is that influence rating shown?

[Hyde Hill]

World on the taskbar then click on a country.

[dPro]

[QUOTE=Comradebot;474342]Well, once you're about a B in importance in the USA, or anywhere for that matter, its just going to become impossible to get your importance any higher. [B]Doesn't really matter[/B], because after you're a C+ the only thing you can improve on is your ticket prices. [/QUOTE] Well, unless you're as lucky as I am in my game, when Eisen decided to give me a critical owner goal telling me not to lose any popularity in the US... I hope his Mrs. puts out the night before the end of that owner goal, cause if he's not in a good mood that morning I'm afraid I'll be FIIIIIIIIRED!

[Hyde Hill]

Yeah that owner goal with TCW or SWF is a killer especially compined with the do not sign from cult or above one.

[shipshirt]

[QUOTE=Rob4590;474412]Shipshirt - given that you've been here this long, you really should know this by now (given it's been the same in 05 and 07 as well)!! [/QUOTE] No need to be a dick. It's not like I'm in here asking stupid questions all the time. My point being, it doesn't seem very realistic (and please don't equate that to "in real life") to be able to hold shows that are B+ (which caused the drop) or higher every time out just to maintain popularity without just getting rid of any pretense of booking and just throwing top matches out there all the time. Sure, a .1% drop isn't killing you...but over time it does and if a B+ show can't even help you maintain what you have, that's just odd. Thank you everyone for your opinions and advice.

[Hyde Hill]

The B+ show because it was so good wil improve your workers overness which in the future wil make it easier to hold B+ and above shows etc. In the end B+ shows will keep you National easily.

[castorius]

[QUOTE=Hyde Hill;474647]The B+ show because it was so good wil improve your workers overness which in the future wil make it easier to hold B+ and above shows etc. In the end B+ shows will keep you National easily.[/QUOTE] Are you sure about this, Has anybody gotten far enough in the game to test this out?

[Hyde Hill]

Yeah me lol B+ keeps you national no probs.

[shipshirt]

[QUOTE=Hyde Hill;474647]The B+ show because it was so good wil improve your workers overness which in the future wil make it easier to hold B+ and above shows etc. In the end B+ shows will keep you National easily.[/QUOTE] Cool, I'll let the game progress and see what happens. Even with how long i've been playing it, I usually stick with small companies. This is my first real, serious foray with a large company. Thanks for the advice.