Balance issue?

[Cathcart Chiswick]

Hi. I'm playing the demo, enjoying it greatly, but I've got a question -- most of the time, when creating a wrestler, he starts with 100 or lower energy -- which is to say, maybe a third as much energy as the vast majority of his initial opponents. Now, I don't know -- maybe energy improves very quickly. But as it stands now, it's hard to start a career and not lose almost every time out. It's doubly hard if you're playing as a smaller/less physically powerful guy. (I created a guy -- a high flier, not too large, but I didn't unbalance the initial talent ratings too much -- and he had 35 energy. He lost stamina faster than his opponents when [I]he[/I] was hitting [I]them[/I].) So, is this something that is going to get fixed in my fighter's first year or two wrestling? Or is it going to be permanently difficult-at-best to play as a created wrestler?

[Adam Ryland]

It's intentional that a created fighter will lose quite a lot of his first few matches - as a green rookie that's realistic. It won't affect your morale though, as the character expects it. Your stats should build quite fast though, especially if you can pull off one or two victories. Your starting energy is based on overness and your toughness levels - both of which can rise even if you lose all your matches, just out of experience. The best way is to do like real life - get yourself as many jobs as possible, because the more you wrestle, the quicker you'll improve. As a sidenote, you've misunderstood stamina - it goes down when you're in the ring, regardless of whether you're on attack or defence, as either way you're being active. That's why it's important in tag team matches to use strategy - you don't want to keep your star wrestler in all match, or he'll be exhausted and useless by the end. You want to use quick tags, and keep him out for certain periods of time.

[Vladamire Dracos]

Heh. I've won 3 out of 4 of my first matches rather off handedly (including a 3 on 2 handicap elim. match with me and Maeda vs. Acid, Deano Machino, and Ninja Shunji, and my first match, my try-out match for WLW against Ketsueki Karasu, who hyped me up greatly to managment). Having a strong move set based around your prefered fighting style can really swing a match in your favor, as can going into a match with a plan (I fed Maeda to the wolves to break down the others, then had him tag out to me at the last minute so I could have at them with my mad neck attacks and submissions). Now, if I can only get Acid, Deano Machino, and Ninja Shunji to stop disliking me for the beat down I handed them. I guess accidently getting in a fight with Booger Man didn't help much in that regard. Fat man should learn to take a joke. :P Ah well, at least Blood Raven and Herb Stately still like me...

[Adam Ryland]

Yeah, tailoring your move set \ fighting in a complimentary style to your stats is definitely something to look into. For example, if you're fighting someone bigger and stronger than you, you should avoid using Irish Whips, as they'll reverse them simply due to their size\strength advantage.

[Cathcart Chiswick]

All right -- that was what I had figured. Am enjoying the game greatly, and eagerly looking forward to its release.

[Starman]

Yeah, putting your moves in a manner that suits your style is vital to success. I'm 3-0 to this point and two of those have come from my submission finisher. I'm a technical wrestler, so hitting an opponent with counters and moves to ground them, then forcing submissions on them works like a charm for me. I'm slower than most, but I can mat wrestle with some good opponents to this point. Which would probably explain my 29 minute win over Joey Beauchamp. I out-wrestled him, while he was trying to finish me off repeatedly with big DDTs