New Game, New Guy, New Questions

[Devilb0y]

First off: Hi everyone - I'm Devilb0y (or Jim), I'm from the UK and I'm new here.

 

I've just recently purchased TEW2010 as I really love the idea of a booking simulator but wanted to come on here to pick the brains of the more experienced members about a few things which I seem to struggle with on a regular basis.

 

The first and most important is that I find it really hard to book anything that people want to see apparently. I put my top guys in main events, use advance booking to draw the fans, will have one or two undercard matches to either help improve youngsters or to showcase their talents and a few pre-match angles, but people still don't really seem to like the shows that I put on and I will consistently hurt the popularity of whatever promotion I'm playing as when it seems like I'm doing everything right. What do you think I'm doing wrong?

 

Leading on from this: the booking 101 section of the help guide is something that I want (some would say need) Adam Ryland to expand on, as the fundamentals of good booking are not necessarily something that come easily to me (as evidenced above). Do any of you guys know of any decent tips or tutorials for how to get the best out of your promotion, or failing that do you have any wisdom you could impart to me?

 

Thanks a lot for reading dudes and dudettes - I love this game but I don't think I'm very good at it, and hopefully with your help I can change that.

 

Cheers,

 

Dev.

[jhd1]

Welcome to the forum Jim!

 

The best place for tips is the small questions thread...

 

http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=73018

 

Reading it all will take forever and a day, but flick through it and you'll find useful bits and pieces.

 

More specifically, it really depends which promotion you are playing as. I, and many others, would advise playing the CVerse - it was designed for the game so you know it 'works' and it is also a lot of fun. Some mods (such as the 2001 mod), can be extremely difficult, even for experienced players, and this could be part of your problem.

 

If you are playing as a sports entertainment promotion, then you need to make sure your angles feature your most popular workers in roles that suit them (i.e. Vengeance is good for menace, while Jack Bruce is good for entertainment). Even in SE feds, putting two popular, but horrible-in-the-ring wrestlers together is likely to be a bit of a disaster.

 

If you could let us know which mod and promotion you are using we'll be better placed to help you. Perhaps even giving an example of one of your shows.

 

Hope that helps!

[Unregistered]

Quick bit of advice (Sorry, I'm about to pop off to work), is look at your promotions overness. I don't know what promotion you are using, but you may have misunderstood what a good show is. A rated 60 show for a promotion that only has 40 overness in the area it's run in is a fantastic show for example.

 

I know this may not be your issue, but I just always think the best first hint about the game, is to not worry so much about the overall show rating until you've gotten a bit into the career/save your in. And, even then, a lackluster show does happen to all of us.

 

Feel free to post more info about your shows/promotion and such here I'm sure everyone will be able to help more with info made avalable to us. But also, just have a bit of fun.

 

... And for something that was supposed to be short, that was a tad bit long winded.

[Devilb0y]

Thanks for the quick reply Jhd1 =)

 

I'm just using the CVerse (real world stuff is boring anyway) and I'll tend to chop and change between SWF, TCW and (showing my national bias here) 21CW to see if I can achieve any success, obviously with limited results!

 

TCW is the one I like the most as Tommy Cornell is an absolute beast, but it just frustrates me SO often. Case in point: my last maint event was a tag match between Cornell & Wolf Hawkins vs Ricky Dale Johnson and Bryan Vessey and this drew the top rating of the night: a 78! And I even had a hype angle before hand to get people extra pumped for it, so I just don't get how this only drew a 78. Ok, RDJ isn't a GREAT performer but everyone else in that ring is fantastic.

 

I'll have a read through the small questions thread as well to see if I can learn anything =P.

 

Thanks for the advice.

 

EDIT: Thanks for the advice as well Unreg, I'm just off to work too but I wanted some ideas to ponder over while not concentrating at my desk =P. In response to your point I tend to actually get told that I've hurt my promotions popularity in the summary, but I rarely make it past the first few game months because I feel like I'm doing a bad job and need to start over.

[jhd1]

Thanks for the quick reply Jhd1 =)

 

You're welcome And I'm glad you are enjoying the Cverse!

 

I'm not a huge fan of TCW, to be honest, but I'll try my best...

 

1) Try reading some of the (awesome) TCW diaries out there. If you haven't seen the Dynasty forum, then it can be found here...

 

http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=164

 

Off the top of my head, I know there are fantastic TCW diaries by LoNdOn and Bigpapa42. Phantom Stranger has written a true masterpiece in TCW: A Quiet Retirement but as it was started in TEW2008 it might not be the best example to compare against.

 

2) In TCW grades are weighted more on performance than popularity (hence why you'll find most people hate Rocky Golden). That said, popularity still plays a factor (albeit smaller), and both Wolf and Bryan Vessey are at B- popularity.

 

3) It would probably be easier to see the whole card to judge your grades, but a couple of thoughts on your 78...

 

-If you haven't already try turning on the dirt sheet (it's in user preferences). The dirt sheet allows you to see what affects match ratings (such as injuries, motivations, gimmick, length of match etc.), and can be used (once turned on), by clicking the relevant button when the matches are airing (i.e when you click Showtime).

 

-TV matches are penalised by wrestlers holding back. This is normal, and is meant to simulate PPV/monthly events having the 'big' matches.

 

-Each promotion has expected match lengths which can be found in your product. TCW's main event length is 35 minutes! Anything under this will be penalised and, if it were me, I'd consider knocking that down a bit (to 15, probably).

 

-Use your road agent notes wisely. In your tag match, Vessey and Cornell have more than enough ring psychology to Call In Ring, while setting your Victor is an obvious one. Open Match is one I often go for in bigger matches, although I must confess I'm not sure what impact it has on ratings. Finally, if the match is 16 minutes or longer then Slow Build should give the match a big boost.

 

-At 90% match-to-angle ratio, the vast majority of angles will tank awfully. Again, I'm not a big TCW fan (I'm more of an SWF/USPW type) so I'd change that to 80% to remove the penalty. You are allowed 10-15% either side of that percentage (it used to be 10% but someone mentioned it might now be 15) so at 80% you could effectively run anything from 65% to 95% matches.

 

-Don't worry too much about ratings early on, as usually you'll be building up your roster's popularity to a point where your match ratings will increase naturally.

 

-Following on from the last point (and I'm likely to be shot for this), consider using grades rather than numbers. I've found that a lot of forum members (new and old) get hung up on matches getting (for example) 85 instead of 87. It's an easy trap to fall into, and its much easier to accept a grade than what can appear an arbitrary number. To be clear - I'm not saying that's what you are doing at all (as 78 seems low to me too), but it's something to think about.

[Devilb0y]

I think diaries are definitely going to be a massive help - seeing how others book is probably the quickest way to learn yourself.

 

In regards to the advice you've given: The rest of my card had matches between Sam Keith and Aaron Andrews, American Buffalo and Edd Stone (I know, I know), and Joey Minnesota against someone (I forget who). All of these drew between the high 60s and mids 70s, and the angles were all in the 70s.

 

I'll actually post the card later to get some feedback on where I went wrong, but as far as I'm aware it's not a timing or angle/match split problem, I think it's just a case of who I'm using and how I'm building up to using them. For example, I will give a semi-main the same number of angles and build up as a main quite regularly because I want to increase the exposure of my upper-midcard and fringe main eventers in order to boost their popularity. I think this might be a mistake as it means detracting from the screen time of the main event which is obviously the main talking point of the show (or should be, at least).

[juggaloninjalee]

I think diaries are definitely going to be a massive help - seeing how others book is probably the quickest way to learn yourself.

 

In regards to the advice you've given: The rest of my card had matches between Sam Keith and Aaron Andrews, American Buffalo and Edd Stone (I know, I know), and Joey Minnesota against someone (I forget who). All of these drew between the high 60s and mids 70s, and the angles were all in the 70s.

 

I'll actually post the card later to get some feedback on where I went wrong, but as far as I'm aware it's not a timing or angle/match split problem, I think it's just a case of who I'm using and how I'm building up to using them. For example, I will give a semi-main the same number of angles and build up as a main quite regularly because I want to increase the exposure of my upper-midcard and fringe main eventers in order to boost their popularity. I think this might be a mistake as it means detracting from the screen time of the main event which is obviously the main talking point of the show (or should be, at least).

 

The most important thing is which road agent notes you use in each match and if you pay attention to your companies product.

 

Bryan Vessey does steroids and almost always gets penalised for it in his match/angle ratings.

 

Either way though need to know your road agent notes and the length of each match to accurately tell you why your shows and some matches aren't as good as expected.

[Devilb0y]

Ok, so I've just started a new game with SWF and this is the first show I ran, the ratings I've gotten and any notes:

 

No dark matches. Never use them. Should I? They just get crap ratings if I do because all I use them for is exposing youngsters to crowds but I don't want their lack of popularity to effect my overall rating.

 

1. Enforcer Roberts vs Valiant - 60

2. Hype Interview for Gilmore vs Captain Atomic - 79

3. Angry Gilmore vs Captain Atomic - 70

4. Hype Interview for Christian Faith vs Steve Frehley - 83

5. Marat Khoklov vs Lobster Warrior - 60

6. Kholkov watches Faiths match - 82

7. Christian Faith vs Steve Frehley - 72

8. Khoklov attacks Faith - 97

 

Overall: 73 - Some of the angles used definitely helped lift the show as a whole. I think this show might have actually hurt our popularity overall.

 

So once again, my main event SUCKED. OK, Frehley is only an upper midcarder coming off the back of a momentum killing injury but I still thought they'd work the crowd better than that. And Khoklov's squash match against Lobster warrior was heavily marked down for 'booking decisions' and being 'poorly positioned on the show'? Apparently telling them to work an already warmed up crowd is bad.

 

See I genuinely thought this would be a good show. Ok the main wasn't a firecracker but Khoklov is an international superstar and I thought Lobby could carry their semi main to a good match. Valiant vs Roberts was a big let down but then that was a match just designed to improve Valiants skills and Gilmore vs Atomic was decent for what it was.

 

So where did I go wrong?

[jhd1]

So where did I go wrong?

 

Very quickly (I'm cooking at the same time)...

 

-Your show doesn't seem very long - how long were the matches?

-Work the crowd only really needs to be used before the show begins (especially with SWF), or when you want to deliberate hurt a match's rating (such as when it might overshadow the main event).

-Faith and Frehley are both faces, you'll have been penalised for that. If I remember rightly Frehley's not the best worker ever either.

 

You left out Rich Money, Eric Eisen and Jack Bruce, all of which can get great angles which will increase your match rating. I'll be back in a bit with an example of my own if you think that would be useful?

[Blake Trask]

Wait wait. You told them to work the crowd in your main event?

 

I cannot express how bad an idea that is. Work the crowd is a note designed to prevent a match from being too good - as in, you don't want to get the crowd so fired up that they're burned out for the big matches. Like your main events. Working the crowd basically caps the rating you can get.

 

And Khoklov's squash match against Lobster warrior was heavily marked down for 'booking decisions' and being 'poorly positioned on the show'? Apparently telling them to work an already warmed up crowd is bad.

 

If you used a 'dominate' or 'keep strong' note, then that would reduce the rating. (-) Booking Decisions basically means that the competitors didn't get to look even, so the grade is penalised because there's only so good a match can be with one of the workers clearly having the upper hand over the other. Lobby is good and Khoklov is popular, but if it's a squash, then the rating will drag.

 

Poorly positioned on the show I suspect is because of it being a squash. A semi main event probably shouldn't be a squash match (and squashing Lobster Warrior is doing his abilities a disservice).

 

Valiant vs Roberts... that's probably that they're not popular enough to pop a great rating. SWF is VERY popularity based, which means midcarders aren't going to pull high grades unless your entire roster's average popularity has shifted up.

 

- You don't need to hype every match in advance. Use angles for storylines, not for individual matches. Don't hype Faith vs. Frehley, hype Faith vs. Kholov at the PPV, or have Faith talk about Frehley, but then mention that he has his sights set on Khoklov. You want to keep the storylines hot - don't just build towards what's already on your weekly TV shows.

 

 

Edit: Dark matches are good for brushing up the skills of workers and giving people who might not otherwise get time on the show some matches.

[Teh_Showtime]

Yeah leaving Jack Bruce off the show hurt since he is the ONLY wrestler with A or higher popularity in the US. Also no Rich Money or Eisen hurt because they are both (plus Bruce) in a very hot storyline.

 

In SWF main matches should be 22 minutes according to their product too, so slow building the match would work best.

[Devilb0y]

Thanks for the responses guys.

 

Should probably add all the matches conformed to the 6, 12 & 22 suggested times for SWF's expected product.

 

Not working the crowd is going to make a big difference overall. I literally have done this for every match bar the main event in most of my shows. So to make sure I have it straight work the crowd should really only be used for things like TLC matches that aren't the main but run the risk of burning out the crowd?

 

I didn't realise that a 'keep strong' note could penalise the rating. That's definitely going to make a difference too as I use that fairly often if I'm concerned about denting someone's popularity with a loss.

 

The last two points you made interest me Blake: I tend to always use hype interviews for matches out of fear that the matches rating will tank if I don't. And in the case of dark matches, do they effect your overall rating?

 

I think if I could book that again I would make the Roberts vs Valiant match a dark match, add a tag match and turn Khoklov vs Lobby into a non squash (minus a 'work the crowd' note). I also used 'keep strong' on Frehley as I don't want to gimp one of my more popular workers, which probably had a negative effect.

 

And no, I didn't use Bruce, Eisen or Money as they're up next week

[Blake Trask]

Not working the crowd is going to make a big difference overall. I literally have done this for every match bar the main event in most of my shows. So to make sure I have it straight work the crowd should really only be used for things like TLC matches that aren't the main but run the risk of burning out the crowd?

 

It's not necessarily the match type, just matches that you think might score too highly and get the crowd too fired up. (admittedly I'm quite rusty with the note because I don't like playing with perfect show theory on).

 

The last two points you made interest me Blake: I tend to always use hype interviews for matches out of fear that the matches rating will tank if I don't. And in the case of dark matches, do they effect your overall rating?

 

There is no requirement to hype the match before it takes place. Any angles leading up to a match won't have any effect on the rating, so you don't need to worry about that.

 

The beauty of dark matches - they have no effect on the overall show rating.

 

I didn't realise that a 'keep strong' note could penalise the rating. That's definitely going to make a difference too as I use that fairly often if I'm concerned about denting someone's popularity with a loss.

 

Yeah, you'll get a dink for that. It's a balancing act. If you used open match and say... slow build in Faith vs. Frehley, the rating would probably be higher and I doubt Frehley would lose popularity (he might even gain a couple of points) because Faith is more popular than him anyway. Don't quote me on that though, I have only a very small amount of experience with SWF and that wasn't using the default roster.

 

 

Edit: Also if you're practicing, turn off auto-save and keep backing out after booking the show. Play around with the notes and see what effect different ones have on the grades.

[juggaloninjalee]

Ok, so I've just started a new game with SWF and this is the first show I ran, the ratings I've gotten and any notes:

 

No dark matches. Never use them. Should I? They just get crap ratings if I do because all I use them for is exposing youngsters to crowds but I don't want their lack of popularity to effect my overall rating.

 

1. Enforcer Roberts vs Valiant - 60

2. Hype Interview for Gilmore vs Captain Atomic - 79

3. Angry Gilmore vs Captain Atomic - 70

4. Hype Interview for Christian Faith vs Steve Frehley - 83

5. Marat Khoklov vs Lobster Warrior - 60

6. Kholkov watches Faiths match - 82

7. Christian Faith vs Steve Frehley - 72

8. Khoklov attacks Faith - 97

 

Overall: 73 - Some of the angles used definitely helped lift the show as a whole. I think this show might have actually hurt our popularity overall.

 

So once again, my main event SUCKED. OK, Frehley is only an upper midcarder coming off the back of a momentum killing injury but I still thought they'd work the crowd better than that. And Khoklov's squash match against Lobster warrior was heavily marked down for 'booking decisions' and being 'poorly positioned on the show'? Apparently telling them to work an already warmed up crowd is bad.

 

See I genuinely thought this would be a good show. Ok the main wasn't a firecracker but Khoklov is an international superstar and I thought Lobby could carry their semi main to a good match. Valiant vs Roberts was a big let down but then that was a match just designed to improve Valiants skills and Gilmore vs Atomic was decent for what it was.

 

So where did I go wrong?

 

As I said before the road agent notes and time length of the matches are where the issues seem to be.

 

 

Thanks for the responses guys.

 

Should probably add all the matches conformed to the 6, 12 & 22 suggested times for SWF's expected product.

 

Not working the crowd is going to make a big difference overall. I literally have done this for every match bar the main event in most of my shows. So to make sure I have it straight work the crowd should really only be used for things like TLC matches that aren't the main but run the risk of burning out the crowd?

 

I didn't realise that a 'keep strong' note could penalise the rating. That's definitely going to make a difference too as I use that fairly often if I'm concerned about denting someone's popularity with a loss.

 

The last two points you made interest me Blake: I tend to always use hype interviews for matches out of fear that the matches rating will tank if I don't. And in the case of dark matches, do they effect your overall rating?

 

I think if I could book that again I would make the Roberts vs Valiant match a dark match, add a tag match and turn Khoklov vs Lobby into a non squash (minus a 'work the crowd' note). I also used 'keep strong' on Frehley as I don't want to gimp one of my more popular workers, which probably had a negative effect.

 

And no, I didn't use Bruce, Eisen or Money as they're up next week

 

I wouldn't use a work the crowd note for a specific match type. Just use it in your 1st or 2nd match but no more after that.

 

Anything in the preshow and post show won't effect your overall show rating. Use them to help get your guys more popularity that aren't very popular without hurting the show rating.

[Rob4590]

Ok let's try and give you some help here.

 

Firstly: Use Eisen, Bruce, Faith, Money on EVERY SHOW.

 

I repeat - EVERY SINGLE SHOW. Use each of them in an angle at least once per show - attacking each other, saving one of them from Khoklov / Vengeance.

 

Try and make the angles between them, plus Vengeance, Khoklov, Frehley etc have a reason - ie look at the starting storylines - you have Money, Bruce and Eisen battling over the World Title, you have Vengeance and Frehley fighting, and you have Faith and Khoklov feuding. Every show, try and figure out something that moves each of these stories forward - so you might have Khoklov and Eisen team up to attack Money - and Bruce and Faith make the save - that one angle moves 2 stories forward.

Yes - you want to put Khoklov in squash matches to increase his popularity - but put them early in the show and against lower wrestlers who you have nothing for - your Paul Huntingdons, your John Greeds. Then when Khoklov has his popularity up high, you have him lose to Faith at the PPV, probably by DQ, which then boosts Faith up more, while you then have Marat keep attacking him after the match (in an angle - which as you see from your show, will rate highly)

Get Bruce talking - his entertainment stats are good.

Have Vengeance attack Frehley backstage each week (rating Vengeance (And Marat in his segments) on Menace)

 

Road agent notes: If you want a good grade from a match then use OPEN MATCH.

Only use domination if you want the winner to get a big boost, and don't care about the loser (And don't care about the actual match grade)

If the match is less than 15 minutes, use all out, if >16 mins - use slow build.

 

Only ever use work the crowd for the first match on the show

 

Only use call in ring if at least one worker has 75+ psychology (And the other has at least 60)

 

Finally - reduce the expected match lengths - make them something like 6 / 8 / 12 and then you won't get penalised as much. Just think how many WWE matches on Raw / Smackdown go for longer than that (Answer - very few)

 

Finally - for SWF - put your main eventers in the main event - no one else (apart from Angry Gilmore, and maybe Lobby / Enforcer if they are in a tag match with other ME's)

 

EDIT: Finally - remember that 70% of the total show grade is the main event, and 20% is the semi-main. Get those two matches right, plus good angles = good show.

 

EDIT 2: Lots of 'final' advice!! Doh!

[jhd1]

Not working the crowd is going to make a big difference overall. I literally have done this for every match bar the main event in most of my shows. So to make sure I have it straight work the crowd should really only be used for things like TLC matches that aren't the main but run the risk of burning out the crowd?

 

I never, ever use work the crowd except for dark matches. You can use it on the main show, but usually it's not necessary.

 

The last two points you made interest me Blake: I tend to always use hype interviews for matches out of fear that the matches rating will tank if I don't. And in the case of dark matches, do they effect your overall rating?

 

Dark matches don't effect your overall rating, but can help to get the crowd warmed up for the main show (which can boost your ratings). It's also a good place to put workers you haven't got space for. Which leads me on to...

 

And no, I didn't use Bruce, Eisen or Money as they're up next week

 

Main eventers and some, if not most, of your upper midcarders will complain about every A-show and PPV they miss. Check the Talk To Worker screen - it's advisable to at least put them in dark matches if you haven't got time in the main show. I would also change Supreme TV to 2 hours for that reason.

[ewanite]

Work the crowd is meant for opening matches. Use midcarders with decent charisma as your very first match (including dark match) to get any benefit. In all honesty you could open with an angle with B or higher and it would have the same effect with less potential to fail. I'd only ever use it for the opening dark match, if ever.

[Devilb0y]

Once again everyone, this is all much appreciated.

 

Ok let's try and give you some help here.

 

Firstly: Use Eisen, Bruce, Faith, Money on EVERY SHOW.

 

I repeat - EVERY SINGLE SHOW. Use each of them in an angle at least once per show - attacking each other, saving one of them from Khoklov / Vengeance.

 

Try and make the angles between them, plus Vengeance, Khoklov, Frehley etc have a reason - ie look at the starting storylines - you have Money, Bruce and Eisen battling over the World Title, you have Vengeance and Frehley fighting, and you have Faith and Khoklov feuding. Every show, try and figure out something that moves each of these stories forward - so you might have Khoklov and Eisen team up to attack Money - and Bruce and Faith make the save - that one angle moves 2 stories forward.

Yes - you want to put Khoklov in squash matches to increase his popularity - but put them early in the show and against lower wrestlers who you have nothing for - your Paul Huntingdons, your John Greeds. Then when Khoklov has his popularity up high, you have him lose to Faith at the PPV, probably by DQ, which then boosts Faith up more, while you then have Marat keep attacking him after the match (in an angle - which as you see from your show, will rate highly)

Get Bruce talking - his entertainment stats are good.

Have Vengeance attack Frehley backstage each week (rating Vengeance (And Marat in his segments) on Menace)

 

Road agent notes: If you want a good grade from a match then use OPEN MATCH.

Only use domination if you want the winner to get a big boost, and don't care about the loser (And don't care about the actual match grade)

If the match is less than 15 minutes, use all out, if >16 mins - use slow build.

 

Only ever use work the crowd for the first match on the show

 

Only use call in ring if at least one worker has 75+ psychology (And the other has at least 60)

 

Finally - reduce the expected match lengths - make them something like 6 / 8 / 12 and then you won't get penalised as much. Just think how many WWE matches on Raw / Smackdown go for longer than that (Answer - very few)

 

Finally - for SWF - put your main eventers in the main event - no one else (apart from Angry Gilmore, and maybe Lobby / Enforcer if they are in a tag match with other ME's)

 

EDIT: Finally - remember that 70% of the total show grade is the main event, and 20% is the semi-main. Get those two matches right, plus good angles = good show.

 

EDIT 2: Lots of 'final' advice!! Doh!

 

This ^ is a really great post (they've all been helpful, but this especially so). I think part of what I'm doing wrong is pushing Marat vs Faith as my top feud when the matches are at best getting in the 70s for their ratings. Seems like even in SWF having two kind of crappy workers will produce not-great results.

[lazorbeak]

My thoughts:

 

I'd go with shorter matches if you want to use SWF's roster. I only have 20 minutes of in-ring action on TV in multi-man matches or situations where I know I can get a very strong rating (Christian Faith or Angry Gilmore or Enforcer Roberts vs. someone with very high overness and at least decent talent). Otherwise you're just allowing for a lot more to potentially go wrong. You'll also generally get higher ratings out of mid-level and poor workers if you keep their in-ring time down: think about how often a Lex Luger or Goldberg singles match went longer than six minutes- even their PPV matches were generally kept under 10. A guy like Marat Khoklov needs those same kid gloves- otherwise his horrible psychology and weak basics and non-selling get exposed.

 

By the same token, and to disagree with incorrect advice given earlier, there's no need to book every show exactly the same or to constantly end with 18 minute ME vs. ME matches. In my current SWF game my highest rated match was a TV semi-main event match where Rich Money beat Garcia in about 7 minutes- with good chemistry and no notes beyond maybe "call in the ring" I got an A*. With Christian Faith and Money's basics, charisma and overness they can get a "B" rating out of pretty much anyone in the midcard or upper midcard as long as the match doesn't go too long (the crowd doesn't want to see a guy like Garcia for 20 minute matches). Another of my top ten matches of the year was Christian Faith beating Danny B Bling (Grandmaster Phunk's SWF persona) in 6 minutes when Faith's overness was an A and Phunk's was a D+: don't use "open match," don't make it a long match, just let an amazing performer like Faith carry a mid-level midcarder to a great match (the match itself received a high A, and a similar re-match received a B+. More recently Jay Chord with C- overness lost to Jack Bruce in an 8 minute match that received a B+- the rare case where the mid-level guy carried the star to a great match).

 

Saying Christian Faith is "kind of crappy" is heresy: he's probably the second most valuable guy on the roster, and that's only due to his age. You just need to use him the right way. His basics stat mean he could carry a piece of plywood to a 64 match rating. Faith and Rich Money are the two guys that start the game with basically no weaknesses, other than feuding with people less talented than them. Bruce has more overness and star quality, but his performance stats aren't as strong. Gilmore is a better total wrestler than either Faith or Money, but he doesn't start with the same level of popularity, his style is a little different, and his star quality isn't nearly as good.

 

Finally, less is more when it comes to RA notes: don't try to use too many, in fact, let great wrestlers do what they do. Only use "open match" when the two workers are getting equal heat: if nobody cares about the heel, letting him control the super over babyface for six minutes is not a good strategy. Only use "keep strong" where you're trying to protect a worker losing to someone less over than them or where you're trying to build up an unknown's status in a losing effort. Otherwise, pick a winner (or don't, the AI road agent can do it for you) and maybe one or two notes on the finish or any storyline development, but otherwise let SWF's road agents work for you. The "slow build, open match, call in the ring, 20+ minute" strategy is sound if you've got two workers in the main event who have excellent psychology and basics along with great momentum, but unfortunately SWF doesn't have too many of those guys and their current world champion isn't one of them. Brandon James vs. Joe Sexy can get great ratings because of SWF's product and their relative strengths, but not if you book it like it's WCW in 1991- they're just not that kind of workers.

 

Oh, another note that may help, at least in the short term: move Emma Chase to color commentary: she's more over and more talented as a commentator than anyone else on the starting roster.

[Devilb0y]

That's my bad - I meant to infer Kohklov was the crappy one rather than both but did not relate that message in any way. FAITH IS LAW.

 

Would you constantly protect a guy like Kohklov (and to a lesser extent, Bruce and Eisner) as well to hide how poor he is in the ring?

[Eidenhoek]

http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=466273

 

Someone links to the diaries section and doesn't link to my NYCW diary, written FOR NEW PEOPLE TO HELP THEM?

 

I'm gonna go stabby-stabby on you.

[lazorbeak]

That's my bad - I meant to infer Kohklov was the crappy one rather than both but did not relate that message in any way. FAITH IS LAW.

 

Would you constantly protect a guy like Kohklov (and to a lesser extent, Bruce and Eisner) as well to hide how poor he is in the ring?

 

You can play with the "protect" note for Khoklov but I find that the note ends up doing as much harm as good- try running a show with the note vs. without (someone else mentioned turning off auto-save) and see if it makes a significant difference. I've had very strong results with Khoklov just using "script" and keeping the match length short: he's still not amazing, but he can pull off B and B+ rated matches in PPV settings (I only use him in squashes outside of this because of his poor skills, which end up doing pretty poor ratings since he needs to be carried by someone with great performance stats). Another thing to play with for guys like Khoklov would be "overbook."

 

I absolutely wouldn't use the "protect" note on Bruce or Eisen as both have pretty solid skills they're just lacking in the performance areas: both are still capable of B+/A rated matches (although probably not against one another), and my experience is you're never going to get a rating that high using the "protect" note.

 

Also as mentioned earlier, a lot of your troubles can be solved by just having a very highly rated main event on a regular basis.

[Devilb0y]

Hmm, yeah I think getting that big rating in the main is the kicker. I'm still struggling to get that consistently with SWF (particularly with their starting storylines). Note quite nailed down as to whether it's who I'm booking or how I'm booking them, but with the advice I've gotten so far my semi-main and angles are often oustripping my main.

 

For instance, the best MEs I've done so far were one at a PPV - it was Bruce, Faith & Money vs Khoklov, Vengeance and Eisen and drew an 85, and Khoklov and Vengeance vs Faith, which drew an 86. All my others have drawn way less than that: Faith vs Eisen drew a 77, Bruce vs Eisen drew a 74, and Vengeance & Khoklov vs Frehley & Money drew a 78. As far as I can see the only constant in those is Faith squaring off against big men. One day I will get this down.

[TakerNGN74]

I can't say much that hasn't already been said in this thread but if this hasn't been said, you only need to use the Work the crowd road agent note in the opening match and the match before the main event. If you use it more than in the opener and the co main event than by the time you get to the main event your crowd is going to be burned out beyond belief so like I said I would only use Work The Crowd during the opener and the co-main event.

[lazorbeak]

Putting "work the crowd" in the co-main event is actually a very bad strategy since it's the second most important match on the card. Hopefully you meant 2nd from main event (so 6th match on an 8 match card), as that's generally where you'd put a women's/cruiserweight title match on a big show- the CPU tends to book this way automatically because it realizes how the perfect show theory works.