Creating a developmental territory

[James Casey]

I'm thinking of setting up a touring deve fed with SWF in my current game.

 

Is there any benefit to setting up a larger fed? If I'm paying all the costs for a 2/3 show a week fed anyway, can it just be a small.local fed, or should I be looking to splash out on setting up a large regional?

 

I'm also considering saturating the American scene with smaller feds, nominally to work as devt. feds, but mainly just to see what happens - bringing back the territorial era and so on. If I was to create, say, a half-dozen small/local feds throughout the US, I would imagine it would lead to almost everyone in employment, some overworked indy stars, but potentially some big skills increases.

 

Obviously there would be upsides and downsides, but the main one for me would be the costs involved. Has anyone tried this? A brand new fed with minimal popularity shouldn't cost that much to subsidise, but am I potentially setting myself up for a fall?

 

And with that in mind, can I end the relationship with a fed I've created, or am I stuck with them?

[LoganRodzen]

I feel like I have a good understanding of touring development promotions. I've purchased (created) a few in my WCW game and one of the things you NEED to do is setup AI Hiring Rules within the Editor. I suppose you don't need to do it... unless you want workers being hired who don't fit your promotions style and/or product.

 

For WCW, I have three rules in place for ALL of my Child Companies: Nobody over 30, Cannot be MMA Crossover or Psychopath.

 

I've never purchased one that was smaller than Low-Regional. The reason I do that is because anything smaller will keep the roster very bare and the more roster slots I have the better. I fill up most of my development promotions with young workers (and generated workers) and even referees / announcers. I have a TON of veteran workers spread throughout my touring promotions to train workers. One example is 47-year old Clark Alexander training people at Hawaii Wrestling Academy.

 

I'm also considering saturating the American scene with smaller feds, nominally to work as devt. feds, but mainly just to see what happens - bringing back the territorial era and so on. If I was to create, say, a half-dozen small/local feds throughout the US, I would imagine it would lead to almost everyone in employment, some overworked indy stars, but potentially some big skills increases.

 

This is one of the reasons why I created so many touring promotions. I wanted to see what would happen to all of the unemployed workers in the game world. I also wanted to monopolize wrestling and have WCW own the majority of promotions around the world. The only countries we haven't opened a development promotion in is Japan and Mexico and that's because we already initiated relationships with promotions in those countries.

 

And with that in mind, can I end the relationship with a fed I've created, or am I stuck with them?

 

I honestly don't know if you can. I've never tried to end a relationship with a promotion I purchased.

[Shutout28]

And with that in mind, can I end the relationship with a fed I've created, or am I stuck with them?

 

I'm almost certain you can. When I play as the WWE, I like to start one or two new development feds for them, just to make my starting mark. All you have to do is remove all the workers that are under contract to you from the development fed and you can end the relationship to them. Then they go on to becoming a real independent, hiring their own workers, etc.

[James Casey]

I feel like I have a good understanding of touring development promotions. I've purchased (created) a few in my WCW game and one of the things you NEED to do is setup AI Hiring Rules within the Editor. I suppose you don't need to do it... unless you want workers being hired who don't fit your promotions style and/or product.

 

Good point. Variety being the spice of life and all, I may have one or two companies operating outside of the normal range (DaVE2! DGUSA!) but generally I'll want the companies at or close to my product.

[Remianen]

For WCW, I have three rules in place for ALL of my Child Companies: Nobody over 30, Cannot be MMA Crossover or Psychopath.

 

Erm, I don't get the second one. Workers change over time to fit the game world and where they're employed, according to their skill level(s). MMA Crossovers and Psychopaths change styles (to Technician/Brawler or Brawler, respectively) when their skills reach a level where doing so will benefit their career. That's why you see so many 'Regular Wrestlers' turn into 'Entertainers' or the like. They need to be accessible to the promotions in the area(s) they can work in.

 

More to the point, dev feds don't cost much at all. Your only cost (besides the initial startup fee) are the contracts of developmental workers. If you provide the dev promotion with all of their staff, the only thing they pay for are the costs of shows and the owner & booker's salary/fees. In QoC, I set up the dev promotions after extensive testing on how these costs work. With two exceptions (LLX and PWC), each promotion starts with 5 million (LLX and PWC's owners contributed so they start with 10). Each promotion is ridiculously profitable with the Japanese touring promotion usually coming out ahead. That's with weekly shows (except for the touring promotions in Japan and the US who run three and four shows a week, respectively, when on tour). I can tell you this though. While running as a touring promotion gives workers ample time to develop (and quickly), there is a price to be paid. Depending on the owner or booker's (haven't figured out which yet) business settings, it seems it can retard the promotion's growth rate. This seems especially true in the US and Australia. As I set her up, Cat Quine takes her touring promotion to every region of the US (though it's based in the South East) at LOCAL. When I set her up conservatively, the promotion stayed in the South East to run its shows, venturing out only when it seemed like they were burning out their home crowd. In that test save, LFC went from Local to just about Cult in 32 months (4 shows a week, 9 months out of the year).

[ampulator]

Erm, I don't get the second one. Workers change over time to fit the game world and where they're employed, according to their skill level(s). MMA Crossovers and Psychopaths change styles (to Technician/Brawler or Brawler, respectively) when their skills reach a level where doing so will benefit their career. That's why you see so many 'Regular Wrestlers' turn into 'Entertainers' or the like. They need to be accessible to the promotions in the area(s) they can work in.

 

That's nice to know, but how do you know this? And do you know more?

[scorpion]

on creating rules, the one I usually use is "must be unemployed." granted I'm not looking the saturate the market like you are, but that way my development fed is helping workers get jobs

[Remianen]

That's nice to know, but how do you know this? And do you more?

 

How do I know this? I play a ton and pay attention. In previous editions, Cal Sanders would change styles almost as soon as a new game started (from cruiser to super/japanese junior, if I remember right). The junior style typically has a higher/more varied skill requirement (technical AND flying) than cruiser. Likewise with, I believe, Suzanne Brazzle who often switched to the junior style. A worker whose skills lie heavily in performance and entertainment skills might switch to the Entertainer style to reflect that (if there is an abundance of promotions that value that style in the areas they can work in).

 

It requires some legwork. If you see a story about a worker changing styles, you look at their current skill levels then check what they were before the change (in the base database, if necessary). Check the game world to try to get an idea as to the circumstances behind the switch and a correlation can be found. I've never seen someone switch from say, Brawler, to Psychopath. I'm guessing it's because psychopath is such a limiting style while Brawler is largely universally welcome. Just makes sense, to me.

[LoganRodzen]

Erm, I don't get the second one. Workers change over time to fit the game world and where they're employed, according to their skill level(s). MMA Crossovers and Psychopaths change styles (to Technician/Brawler or Brawler, respectively) when their skills reach a level where doing so will benefit their career. That's why you see so many 'Regular Wrestlers' turn into 'Entertainers' or the like. They need to be accessible to the promotions in the area(s) they can work in.

 

I have a promotion built within my game world for workers like this specifically. I imported UFCC (after stealing the logo and banner from WMMA2). This promotion is based in the Mid South and will hire any US workers who happen to be in those two categories (I set their AI Rules). Their product has Hyper Realism set to Key Feature and everything else set to none.

 

It has nothing to do with their style, Remi, it truly doesn't. The attitudes that those type of workers usually have (that I've seen) aren't very good and getting them to change styles isn't my concern. My concern is their initial skill set is usually very limited and if I want to "waste my time" with a worker like that, then I'll pick them up myself and turn them into a project of mine (like Christopher Ball). Basically, I don't want my development territories signing guys who are legitimately dangerous without my knowledge. If I want to sign a worker like that, then I'll find them and I'LL do it myself. Simple as that.

[ampulator]

How do I know this? I play a ton and pay attention. In previous editions, Cal Sanders would change styles almost as soon as a new game started (from cruiser to super/japanese junior, if I remember right). The junior style typically has a higher/more varied skill requirement (technical AND flying) than cruiser. Likewise with, I believe, Suzanne Brazzle who often switched to the junior style. A worker whose skills lie heavily in performance and entertainment skills might switch to the Entertainer style to reflect that (if there is an abundance of promotions that value that style in the areas they can work in).

 

It requires some legwork. If you see a story about a worker changing styles, you look at their current skill levels then check what they were before the change (in the base database, if necessary). Check the game world to try to get an idea as to the circumstances behind the switch and a correlation can be found. I've never seen someone switch from say, Brawler, to Psychopath. I'm guessing it's because psychopath is such a limiting style while Brawler is largely universally welcome. Just makes sense, to me.

I see. Here's the thing, though... sometimes I've seen workers going to a less ideal style for the promotions they are working for, though.

 

I had Wanda Fish go from a Regular Wrestler to a Supe Junior style while only working for AAA. She only works for that promotion. I don't reecall AAA being Super Junior friendly at all.

 

To be fair, though, I hired Pablo Rodriguez and he DID switch from a Luchador to an Entertainer style while I was working for me (better fitted my promotion, anyway).

[Remianen]

I had Wanda Fish go from a Regular Wrestler to a Supe Junior style while only working for AAA. She only works for that promotion. I don't reecall AAA being Super Junior friendly at all.

 

Super Junior would make her more attractive to promotions other than AAA. Remember, it's not just about who they're currently working for. It's about where they COULD be working (in all the areas they're available in). The example I gave of Cal Sanders, he started unemployed and would change styles before ever being hired. Wanda's available to work the US and.....where might a highly skilled female wrestler ply their trade outside of the US? It'd be totally different if Wanda was exclusive to AAA (which she is not).

[Big Roguey]

Super Junior would make her more attractive to promotions other than AAA. Remember, it's not just about who they're currently working for. It's about where they COULD be working (in all the areas they're available in). The example I gave of Cal Sanders, he started unemployed and would change styles before ever being hired. Wanda's available to work the US and.....where might a highly skilled female wrestler ply their trade outside of the US? It'd be totally different if Wanda was exclusive to AAA (which she is not).

 

I'll take 5SSW for a thousand Remi.

[smartman]

Just a few questions about development feds.

 

1. Since I went with the Mid-Regional level fed, do I need to have 20 wrestlers there (that's the min requirement for Regional feds)? Also, do your active/semi-active trainers count to that 20?

 

2. As a follow up to #1, I decided on a touring fed with 2 shows per week with a 20 intensity/40 danger (as opposed to my feds 40/40). Do I need a lot more than the 20 wrestlers to prevent a breaking down roster?

 

3. It may not matter as I may have more than 6 trainers anyways, but one of the guys I pegged to be a trainer came up with the note "I'm not a teacher, and I don't want to teach.". Is it still okay for him to be a trainer i.e. is he going to do me any good as a trainer, or is he just saying that since he's a moderately negative pesonality?

 

4. Do I need to send road agents (one of my retired trainers is an awesome one), refs, or announcers/color, or once I get a booker, will he/she do it?

 

5. This is an important question. Of course, they are all on Written contracts, but when I view their contracts in the development button, they show up as that amount PER APPEARANCE. Uh, please tell me that's just a glitch as I will be hemorraging money like crazy with 8 or 9 shows per month if that's the case as the min salary is $2,500.

 

I have my touring fed as 3 months on/1 off so they are on for 9 months. Is that about right?

[Gigas]

If all you want to do is see big skill increases, create 3-4 more feds in the US, and create 2-3 tv stations that will allow up to 7 shows, and set min pop and min prestige to 0. And min fed size to local.

 

Theres a lot of interesting results. And a lot of HOI. Reason for this is you now have 10+ feds with a weekly tv show, and some guys working in 2-3 feds. A Mainstream Hernandez would max out in 2-3 years.