WMMA: The Challenge

[Jingo]

The Challenge;

 

Can you take a small time Regional company and turn them into an International Powerhouse?

 

The Rules;

 

You can start a company in any Region of the world, Low Level Regional at 5.0% Pop.

Finances: Medium (Optional).

You start with 3 weight classes (any you choose (if in a Regulated Region they must be official weight classes)).

Your CEO must take a 'Lucky Dip' for his/her user talent levels.

 

Options;

 

Injury Rate, Drug Level, Death Rate and Relationship Rate all set to Very High.

Job Safety and Fantasy match Booking Off.

Scouting On.

Fantasy Banking Off.

Bypass CEO Off.

Regulated Tournaments off.

Anything else is up to you.

 

Signings;

 

At game start you can only sign Fighters who are based in your region and have a Unknown/Low Level Regional Popularity and are unemployed or are of the Nationality of your home Area and Low Level Regional or below.

 

At Regional Level you can only sign fighters to standard deals, and if another company one level higher than you (I.E if you are Low Level Regional and they are Mid Level Regional or above) starts trying to sign your guys you cannot stop them.

 

* New Rule;

When you get the website messages of people who are desperate for a fight you can sing those guys (unless you have competition for their signature).

 

Going forward you can sign/'steal' from companies below you.

 

Or the same level as you, but only on Associate or Standard contracts and if they 'outbid' you on first round, you lose out. (E.G you and GAMMA are both High Level National and bid they offer the fighter a better deal you cannot go in with an higher deal - you lose).

 

Once you hit National you can sign any Fighters based in your Neighbouring Regions (see below) and not just those you have 'scouted' at a local show.

 

*You can only offer Exclusive Contracts when you are the top Promotion in your Area.*

 

Once you hit International you can sign from anywhere in the World.

 

'Scouting Local Shows'

 

Anyone who fights at a Local show in your Region and scores a Good or above grade you can sign no matter their Popularity Level.

 

Anyone in a Neighbouring Region (see below) who scores a Great or above can be signed by you regardless of their Popularity.

 

Anyone anywhere in the World who scores a Fantastic or above at a Local Show can be signed regardless of popularity.

 

 

Neighbouring Regions;

 

Region - Neighbours.

USA - Canada, Mexico + South America.

Canada - USA, UK + Europe.

Mexico - Central America, USA + South America.

Central America - South America, Mexico + Africa.

South America - Central America, Mexico + Japan.

UK - Europe, Australia + USA.

Europe - Russia, Asia + Canada.

Russia - Asia, Central America + Africa.

Africa - Russia, Australia + UK.

Australia - UK, Canada + Japan.

Asia - Japan, Europe + Russia.

Japan - Africa, Australia + Asia.

 

Anyone on your roster can be re-signed no matter what their popularity is up to.

 

Titles;

 

You start with 3 Titles in 3 Weight classes, you can add a new Weight class each time you go up a level (E.G Low Level Regional to Mid Level Regional) or after 3 years game time without adding a new division.

 

 

[/code]

Info (For CVerse Redone);

Unfortunately Africa only has two fighters at game start available.
Central America has none.
Russia none.
Australia 3.

 

If anyone has any questions, suggestion, complaints, rants or if there is anything i have clearly missed just shout out and most of all lets not get too serious and just have fun.

[greywolf00]

Well I was just checking the forums before bed, now I think I'm going to start this. Always find building the small companies to be more fun and these rules definitely add to the difficulty.

[Jingo]

Well I was just checking the forums before bed, now I think I'm going to start this. Always find building the small companies to be more fun and these rules definitely add to the difficulty.

 

Good to have someone interested already, may need higher starting finances though, i'm losing around 17k a month when putting on a show and 5k when no show.

[Paatero]

Starting right now with RING Warriors out of Ireland UK, using weight classes from 155 to 185.

 

Edit: got fairly nice lucky dips, 7 negotiating, 5 eye for talent, 10 match-making and 3 promotion (actually not so nice for an upstart promotion).

 

Update: Have ran 4 shows, only managed to drop my popularity by 1.6, but only have lost 29k in cash. Have everything turned to as cheap as possible, and now I've groomed my first two budding stars, Gregory O'Hara and Jayden Karp . They're at Mid Level Regional, and will pull me some popularity in upcoming shows.

[Paatero]

Less than 40k left in the bank, the popularity's dropped down to 0.0%. How come? O_o

 

Update: Can't do it. Down to 22k and the popularity is still 0.0%. Can't seem to grow it no matter what, despite using my most popular guys and only putting on 3 fights at a time.

[Blackman]

In TEW 2010, this is really a challenge and seems really fun to do. In WMMA, it's basically easy street. With a fixed set of rules you impose on yourself you can basically sort this one out, no matter what happens. In fact, it seems that, with a minimal efford, you eventually become International anyway, no matter who you play. Unless you are somehow not interested in it and want to keep 'developing' people for the bigger leagues.

 

However, you still need a minimum of cash. This particular set of starting variables seems really hard, however. And by that I don't mean you need to be a skilled player (as the game is very easy to play and easy to master), but that it's just not possible to do given optimal circumstances. Have you even tested this? No matter how you book, with weak finances you are almost destined to fail. You basically bleed money for years and years. There is no positive financial balance for doing nothing (at least I thought there wasn't) or there is no way to gain cash from transfers as that's not a feature in the game (or irl ). Events with solely 3 fights are an option (or rather, a necessity), but you'll still bleed a lot of money as no one will want to see them at first.

 

In the light of these 'optimal circumstances', what would be the best weight classes to use? LW/MW/HW basically allows you to hire anybody you want. 3 consecutive weight classes however will allow for 'superfights' within the promotion. What would the best choice be? I assume the latter as it doesn't really matter if you have crappy fighters. It's obviously beneficial to select at least one 'good' skilled worker, but there's really no gain in hiring all skilled workers.

 

@ Paatero: this is really weird. Are your events rated 'Very poor' then even at 5% regional pop?

[Paatero]

My shows have been rated average, decent or good for the most part, the critical rating has been poor a couple of times since I don't really have any exciting fighters to produce great fights.

 

I went and cheated, added 50k to my balance, trying to grow somehow with that but even then it's looking dire - I'm at 5.6% popularity and 51k left at the moment.

[Paatero]

Now GAMMA stole my biggest up and comer, Gregory O'Hara (8-0, low level national), just couldn't compete with the money. That is devastating, I was just lining up a superfight between him and Jayden Karp (WW Champ, 7-0, also low level national).

[Hawk1665]

I've struggled to play WMMA3 as of late, so I'll give this a go. Using my mod (cheap plug) with Eyeball's pack and the original data rolled into one.

 

Promotion: HILIGTE Fighting

Home Base: Arizona

Weight Classes: MW - HW

 

Small question for clarification. Can I only sign freelance fighters after they appear on local shows (IE no free scouting or signing 0-0 guys) and are exclusive deals are completely removed and you can only sign to standard & associate? I'm going to play for now as if that's right but let me know if it's not.

[Paatero]

With these settings it's impossible to do, even with a bank of 250k I still think it'd be close to impossible. The low level regional fighters won't allow you to grow, I've gone dozens of shows without growing AT ALL, the only shows that help me grow are those with exciting matches and thus high critical ratings. I've used up almost 200k now and I'm at 12% low level regional. My main eventers are constantly being taken by BCF.

[Jingo]

In TEW 2010, this is really a challenge and seems really fun to do. In WMMA, it's basically easy street. With a fixed set of rules you impose on yourself you can basically sort this one out, no matter what happens. In fact, it seems that, with a minimal efford, you eventually become International anyway, no matter who you play. Unless you are somehow not interested in it and want to keep 'developing' people for the bigger leagues.

 

However, you still need a minimum of cash. This particular set of starting variables seems really hard, however. And by that I don't mean you need to be a skilled player (as the game is very easy to play and easy to master), but that it's just not possible to do given optimal circumstances. Have you even tested this? No matter how you book, with weak finances you are almost destined to fail. You basically bleed money for years and years. There is no positive financial balance for doing nothing (at least I thought there wasn't) or there is no way to gain cash from transfers as that's not a feature in the game (or irl ). Events with solely 3 fights are an option (or rather, a necessity), but you'll still bleed a lot of money as no one will want to see them at first.

 

In the light of these 'optimal circumstances', what would be the best weight classes to use? LW/MW/HW basically allows you to hire anybody you want. 3 consecutive weight classes however will allow for 'superfights' within the promotion. What would the best choice be? I assume the latter as it doesn't really matter if you have crappy fighters. It's obviously beneficial to select at least one 'good' skilled worker, but there's really no gain in hiring all skilled workers.

 

@ Paatero: this is really weird. Are your events rated 'Very poor' then even at 5% regional pop?

 

I did ask for any suggestion etc. So obviously you have played at the lowest level waay more than me, so would you suggest putting the finances up to Small or Medium!?

 

Once fighters put on 'Great' fights on local shows, thats your opportunity to sign more skilled fighters.

 

I just thought it would be a fun little idea to get some people playing and maybe even liven up the WMMA side of the forums. I guess Challenge was the wrong way of putting it then, i apologize.

[Jingo]

I've struggled to play WMMA3 as of late, so I'll give this a go. Using my mod (cheap plug) with Eyeball's pack and the original data rolled into one.

 

Promotion: HILIGTE Fighting

Home Base: Arizona

Weight Classes: MW - HW

 

Small question for clarification. Can I only sign freelance fighters after they appear on local shows (IE no free scouting or signing 0-0 guys) and are exclusive deals are completely removed and you can only sign to standard & associate? I'm going to play for now as if that's right but let me know if it's not.

 

Exclusive deals are fine. Anyone can be signed of your level and below (so at stars Low Level Regional and below) but based in your area. Anyone who appears on your regionas local shows and gets a Good or above grade can be signed plus anyone who appears on your Neighbouring Region and scores a Great or above can be and any other region who scores a Fantastic or above can.

 

You may want to give yourself a little extra money because it's been poited out i was a little unkind with the amount of cash i thought would be fine.

[greywolf00]

Medium should be more than enough. Haven't tested small but that may still be iffy. With signing only Low Level guys, till you get lucky and grab the medium regs. who score good or above depending on their location, it's hard to get the popularity and excitement for cards going in order to grow and stop the money hemorrhage (my horrible lucky dip isn't doing me favors either). Regardless, I do like these set of rules and this is much more challenging than other Low Reg. games I've played.

[Blackman]

No, it's a nice idea, really. I'm just saying WMMA is kinda the wrong game for it. I would suggest not involving money, but rather some set rules like you already made, but add something like: "you cannot outbid other promotions"

 

That way, you keep working with low-level talent, and it might even be a challenge to grow, or to find workers that GAMMA etc would not be interested in. Promoting crappy fighters etc. Now that might be a special game I'm interested in. Just start at medium (or high) finances so you'll survive. From the one point where you get a PPV deal, you can basically do whatever you want and hire everyone you want, as you'll swim in money.

[Hawk1665]

My observations so far are that the money might work better in a real life data. Those typically have more unknown or exceptionally low level known fighters who'll only want pitiful amounts. Even with mods, there aren't enough fighters who'll fight for less then 600 in the default universe. Two months in and I'm already down 25,000. I'll keep going until I run out of money and then decide how to proceed. Maybe take out a loan with interest that I have to "pay back" when I get settled.

[Jingo]

I've edited in a few of the ideas brought up, i like the you cannot "outbid" rival promotions rule Blackman, i think i've implemented it in a workable way. Obviously all of the rules require honesty and we are playing for fun afterall you only win an 'imaginary cookie' when you beat the game.

 

Rising Pop is very hard in the beginning with the Low Level 'Crappy' fighters i went bankrupt with AEON MMA in the end but had managed to rise 0.8 in 7 shows (not great but ok).

 

What did you guys think about the 'Neighbouring Regions;' i put in? I wanted each region to have 3 Neighbours and i tried to go with Regions whose nationalitys would more likely work there.

I like the Loan idea Hawk1665, might have to see if i can come up with a loan system but only usable for Regional level ... I may try a Real world data set as a test then.

[Paatero]

Don't take my negative tone comments the wrong way - this is a fantastic idea, I'm currently playing a small org in Arizona (HILITE), and am up to mid level regional. 100k wouldn't have cut it for me, but 200k could've been close. America is a much easier region to succeed in, though, as long as you standard contract those you want to keep away from GAMMA and associate others.

 

Currently my biggest stars are Jericho Stewart (8-0) and Toby Sorkin (8-0). Both of them will headline one more show before taking on each other (I'm fairly confident they'll pass the 'tests' I gave them ). I'm planning on saving that fight for my first TV show to get those ratings.

 

I like the neighboring regions rule - I've only Americans or people based in the US right now. I like the fact that you can't sign everybody and other companies build them up for you to hire later - it usually ends up working better for everyone. I mean, when I normally sign all the best prospects, not all of them end up getting the attention they deserve. Right now I'm only grooming a couple of stars per weight class, other fighters are just mediocre or worse and fight it out to stay relevant.

[Jingo]

Don't worry Paatero, i can take any Negative comments as long as it's not just come in criticise and jump back out never offering anything.

 

Yeah i think US may be the easiest region, i just wanted to bring in something that stops you using the same old fighters (although we'll for sure be trying to get to the point where we snatch them) and stops you just snatching the fighters from other promotions as soon as their contracts come up (we all do that right!?) and adds in some interest in each others games.

 

Any ideas or 'rules' anyone comes up with or wants to bounce around just shout out.

 

How long did it take you Paatero (shows) to get to Mid Level Regional by the way?

[Paatero]

I popped to mid level reg at around mid-1999, and going by the attendance levels change I had around 30 shows before that.

 

Also, I'm not signing any foreign fighters before National, not even those I'd scout at local shows - I'm not sure this is how you intended it, but I find it more realistic and fun. That way I'll be able to find many people with decent records already when I hit national, and they'll need less build-up and padding.

[Jingo]

My last ever show for AEON.

 

Ronald McAllister beat Don Norman by TKO in 2:15 of round 1 (Great)

Martin Marleau beat Moe Muschin by Split Decision (Very Poor)

Jemaine McKenzie beat Duncan Thistlewood by TKO in 0:26 of round 2 to retain the AON Middleweight Title (Good)

Danny Akabaro beat Reed Howlett by TKO in 2:51 of round 2 to Win the AEON Light Heavyweight Title (Fantastic)

 

FoTN: Danny Akabaro vs Reed Howlett

KOoTN: Danny Akabaro

 

Critical Success: Great

Commercial Success: Decent

 

I only put on 5 shows in 98 and 2 in 99 (up to March) in a naive attempt to save finances. Since i now know that is a little pointless i'll maybe go a show a month or 2 in 3 next game.

[Jingo]

Also, I'm not signing any foreign fighters before National, not even those I'd scout at local shows - I'm not sure this is how you intended it, but I find it more realistic and fun. That way I'll be able to find many people with decent records already when I hit national, and they'll need less build-up and padding.

 

I was going to implement something like this but the problem was it would be unfair to any Region other than Japan or the US i think, UK and Asia may work ok also.

 

I went with the 'Great' or 'Fantastic' scouting idea to represent agents showing you videos of their fighters and you'd sign the ones who looked promising.

[Paatero]

I like it. Fantastic is rare enough so you wouldn't be able to sign too many foreign people, I might just start doing that.

[Jingo]

Jingo's Attempt number 2;

 

User Talents;

Neg: 5

Eye: 6

M.M: 3

Pro: 1

 

COBRA MMA

Based: South Eastern Asia.

 

Since my region is Unregulated i'll be using modified weight classes to start with.

 

Welterweight: 156-176 (71-80kg)

Lightweight: 134-155 (61-70.5kg)

Bantamweight: 116-133 (50-60.5kg)

 

I'm just going to start with only South East Asian Nationalities (no Koreans yet).

[Paatero]

1 in Promotion, ouch!

 

In other news, HILITE Fighting finally reached High Level Regional and made a TV deal with National Pride in America. The first star-studded show is scheduled for October of this year (2000), and will feature HILITE Light Heavyweight championship bout between the promotion's top draws, champion Jericho Stewart (10-0) and challenger Toby Sorkin (10-0). Also on the televised portion of the card, former heavyweight champion Wilson Franklyn (12-2) faces GAMMA veteran Frank Sheedy (22-12) and middleweight contenders Nick Detroit (7-3) and Dwayne Alleyne (9-1) face off.

[Hawk1665]

I'm really enjoying the challenge with HILITE. The only issue is money. I've already given myself an extra 100,000 but I'm bleeding that down. I may just give myself a mystical sum of money. Aside from that I'm finding the restrictions on hiring very fun forcing me to actually use the lower-end of talent that normally gets passed over.

 

I'm also only hiring fighters to standard deals, and if another company starts trying to sign my guys, I back off. I'm going for a very low level indie feel.

 

HILITE

January 1999

 

Heavyweight Champion: Jake Smith (19-5)

Light Heavyweight Champion: William Harrison (5-0)

Middleweight Champion: Decided between Roy Bradley (4-0) & Nik Minear (11-2)

 

P4P Top 5

 

#1: Jake Smith (19-5)

#2: William Harrison (5-0)

#3: Roy Bradley (4-0)

#4: Nik Minear (11-2)

#5: Sly Twinge (5-0)