Derek B's Mod-Making Guide

[mrwhippy]

Derek, or anybody, can you elaborate a bit on how a bad Recent Fortunes will reflect visibly on a person? I don't know if it's my booking style, but I'm not sure if I've ever encountered this...

[Derek B]

Derek, or anybody, can you elaborate a bit on how a bad Recent Fortunes will reflect visibly on a person? I don't know if it's my booking style, but I'm not sure if I've ever encountered this...

 

Recent Fortunes is essentially a multiplier on potential gains or losses in popularity. If things are good, you'll find that you can gain more easily, while your losses won't be so bad. The opposite is true with bad fortunes... people will struggle to get over, even if they are doing well, at least until their fortunes have improved.

 

Generally speaking, you will probably find that your top guys are the ones you book strongest, so they end up with good fortunes even by accident. Your undercarders, and your jobbers to the stars will tend to have bad fortunes as you're going to be booking them to do badly. The most obvious sign that you've booked someone to have bad Recent Fortunes is when you try to push them and they just don't seem to do as well as you'd hope. You'll end up with matches where the winner loses more popularity than the loser gains, which is the most common way to spot it. It's why it's a good idea to give someone a string of wins before you try to push them, that way they are ready.

 

There are no hard or fast rules about judging how bad it is... storylines will give you the most accurate showing of how well someone has been doing, but won't take into account anything not part of the story. Otherwise, you've just got to be careful with how you book people. If someone loses a bunch of matches, have them win some on the B-show against jobbers.

 

Oh... and people pushed as Enhancement Talent or Openers don't see changes to their Recent Fortunes. However, when they bump up to Lower Midcard then they will start to change... and anyone moving downwards from Lower Midcard will stay with whatever their Recent Fortunes were at that point, which will then stay put the entire time they are down there. In short... someone moving up has a good chance to keep going up, but someone going down is seriously in trouble.

 

Hope that helps.

[Iceisle]

Oh... and people pushed as Enhancement Talent or Openers don't see changes to their Recent Fortunes. However, when they bump up to Lower Midcard then they will start to change... and anyone moving downwards from Lower Midcard will stay with whatever their Recent Fortunes were at that point, which will then stay put the entire time they are down there. In short... someone moving up has a good chance to keep going up, but someone going down is seriously in trouble.

 

Thanks for clearing that up. I always thought that Openers and Enhancement Talent saw changes to their recent fortunes even though they weren't effected by them, so it would be a disaster once I moved them up unless I improved their recent fortunes first. This is very, very good to know. Now I can give consecutive losses to guys like KC Glenn in their early days without feeling like I'm destroying their careers.

[We are APW]

Oh... and people pushed as Enhancement Talent or Openers don't see changes to their Recent Fortunes.

 

No freakin' way. Thank you for this! This doesn't really fit this thread, but does having ETs and Openers with very low momentum matter, especially if they're just jobbers? Other than not giving momentum, of course.

[Derek B]

Given that your Openers and ETs are going to be involved in your lowest rated segments and least important (in terms of how much they contribute to show ratings), it won't matter much. Whenever I run a company like the SWF, most of my Openers and ETs tend to have momentum no higher than E+. When I run a good sized touring company in Japan, I tend to let workers go when they get to F+ or lower... simply because they are almost entirely there to lose to people in unimportant segments that will generally be there to help someone else get over.

 

So yeah... momentum basically doesn't matter at that level. Once it gets low, get rid of them, bring in someone else to debut with better momentum, job, repeat.

[shipshirt]

Question: When you are creating a touring promotion in a mod, where do you create the actual weekly shows of the tour? You can create the Tour End big event but I can't find where to create that Mon and Tues (for example) show of the tour and name it (in the editor). There are tour names in the editor but does that mean they are created automatically and randomly assigned tour names?

[Derek B]

Question: When you are creating a touring promotion in a mod, where do you create the actual weekly shows of the tour? You can create the Tour End big event but I can't find where to create that Mon and Tues (for example) show of the tour and name it (in the editor). There are tour names in the editor but does that mean they are created automatically and randomly assigned tour names?

 

You don't need to set touring shows in the editor. The AI will set up the weekly shows for AI companies and human players should be setting up their own shows anyways. And as you have assumed, the tour names in the editor will be used to generate touring events for the AI, so the game will do all the work for you.

[shipshirt]

You don't need to set touring shows in the editor. The AI will set up the weekly shows for AI companies and human players should be setting up their own shows anyways. And as you have assumed, the tour names in the editor will be used to generate touring events for the AI, so the game will do all the work for you.

 

Ah ok, cool thanks! Any tricks/tips to creating a touring company? I created one with my own data that was a Cult size in Japan and had a few touring Americans and a handful of Japanese wrestlers on written. I ran a year's worth of shows (on Watcher mode) but they don't seem to run any tours after Jan and Feb. I have them set for March off but to start up again in April but no go. I have all my wrestlers open to be able to work in Japan for the basis of the test hoping that they would hire people to fill holes but it doesn't seem to happen. Then the promotion is down to "Local" by the end of the year (with about 3 million in the bank).

[jhd1]

Ah ok, cool thanks! Any tricks/tips to creating a touring company? I created one with my own data that was a Cult size in Japan and had a few touring Americans and a handful of Japanese wrestlers on written. I ran a year's worth of shows (on Watcher mode) but they don't seem to run any tours after Jan and Feb. I have them set for March off but to start up again in April but no go. I have all my wrestlers open to be able to work in Japan for the basis of the test hoping that they would hire people to fill holes but it doesn't seem to happen. Then the promotion is down to "Local" by the end of the year (with about 3 million in the bank).

 

Do they have any hiring restrictions? It could be that they are too strict for the company to hire the required number of people.

 

Alternatively, if it is a hardcore/risque product, it could be that there are not enough liberal workers willing to sign with the company.

[shipshirt]

Do they have any hiring restrictions? It could be that they are too strict for the company to hire the required number of people.

 

Alternatively, if it is a hardcore/risque product, it could be that there are not enough liberal workers willing to sign with the company.

 

I originally had "No Foreign Workers (except on Touring Contracts)" but then removed that. I based it off of All Japan's stats in DOTT so it's a pretty low risk, sports-oriented style.

 

I tried another test and switched it to Regular Schedule and it stopped running shows in July. I'm thinking maybe I don't have enough wrestlers BASED in Japan (instead of just able to work in Japan but based in the US)

[Derek B]

It sounds like the company simply doesn't have enough workers to be able to run shows. You guys have covered most of the reasons already, the main three being

 

1. Some kind of blocks on hiring (Hiring Rules, Emergency Firings fue to lack of cash, unfavourable product types)

2. Not enough workers in the area to actually hire. And yes, they do need to be based in the area. The AI will generally sign workers from their own area, with touring companies in particular signing people from other areas almost exclusively to touring deals.

3. Workers who have been hired are unavailable. Generally this is because they are working elsewhere.

 

For any of those reasons, a company may not have enough workers to run a show. And after a while they will lose popularity, though the timer on that is only active while a company is on tour instead of continuously for regular schedule companies.

 

If it's a mod in progress you've got going on then you'll just need to have more domestic workers to the game so that the company will stay active. IF you don't want to add more domestic workers then the company will struggle to run (as you've already seen) so it may not be worth keeping in.

[shipshirt]

It's an in-progress 1975 mod with all fictional characters I'm doing for myself as a hobby I'm doing the renders and all and keeping it pretty small since it's all from scratch. How many "based in" wrestlers do you suggest for an area?

[snakesonaplane]

In the default database, what real life promotions are the closest to those present? Obviously not every promotion is meant to be a sort of homage to a real life one, but some are clearly inspired by real life promotions in terms of product style. The reason I ask is I want to get a better understanding of how to set products, and I assume the default verse would be a good source of understanding. If I could relate those promotions to their real life counterparts or close, that would help thank you.

 

Another question which worker stats never improve with age or experience? I.e. which do I need to set correctly right from the start, this relates to creating yet to debut workers. Obviously you should keep their top row stats low, but im thinking physical stats and others.

[tambourin81]

In the default database, what real life promotions are the closest to those present? Obviously not every promotion is meant to be a sort of homage to a real life one, but some are clearly inspired by real life promotions in terms of product style. The reason I ask is I want to get a better understanding of how to set products, and I assume the default verse would be a good source of understanding. If I could relate those promotions to their real life counterparts or close, that would help thank you.

 

Another question which worker stats never improve with age or experience? I.e. which do I need to set correctly right from the start, this relates to creating yet to debut workers. Obviously you should keep their top row stats low, but im thinking physical stats and others.

 

For two obvious examples, the SWF product is rather transparently Attitude Era WWF/E (what with its high emphasis on Mainstream and Risque), USPW is close to 1980s WWF.

 

Others are more difficult to pin down, although the defunct DAVE's product is probably intended to be like ECW.

[hurri]

Excellent guide! Which software can one use to make their own pictures (worker pictures like in the C-Verse) rather than renders.

[thecoolestjedi12]

quick question, what software do i use to make my own mod?

[vtechguy]

Admin mode in the game

[dvdWarrior]

I have a question that's kind of been driving me crazy today, (it was a short trip though). About where should I set the overness for a guy who's the lead announcer for a fairly popular, high cult level promotion, and has been for nearly a decade? He's in his early 30s, and is comparable to guys like Joey Styles or Mitch Naess, if that helps any.

 

Seems like he should be fairly recognizable, as the voice of a company that size, but I figured I'd ask to be sure.

 

I always have a little trouble with the non-wrestling folk.

 

[Kitarzu]

I have a question that's kind of been driving me crazy today, (it was a short trip though). About where should I set the overness for a guy who's the lead announcer for a fairly popular, high cult level promotion, and has been for nearly a decade? He's in his early 30s, and is comparable to guys like Joey Styles or Mitch Naess, if that helps any.

 

Seems like he should be fairly recognizable, as the voice of a company that size, but I figured I'd ask to be sure.

 

I always have a little trouble with the non-wrestling folk.

 

 

Naess' popularity is set at 42 in USA. I would say into 50-60 range could reasonable.

[dvdWarrior]

Naess' popularity is set at 42 in USA. I would say into 50-60 range could reasonable.

 

That's about what I was thinking actually. About 55 or so, somewhere in there. Many thanks for the answer, it's much appreciated.

 

[dvdWarrior]

I'd hate to wander back in, looking for more help again so soon after my last visit, especially with the same sort of dilemma, (and especially when mine was the last post in the thread), but...

 

I seem to be having that same problem again.

 

This one should be the last time, I think.

 

I have a worker... a former worker, that is. Over 70 and out of the business. He was a big star in my wrestling world, way back in the 1970s and into the 80s, and was pretty highly regarded in Japan as well.

 

I was very much tempted to make him 'well known', along the lines of Micky Starr - thing is, this guy didn't have the time working as a color commentator for a promotion like USPW to help keep him over after he retired. He was, however, known for being a booker/promoter though, (his was one of the last standing regional territories before the WWE of my world brought an end to that), and he's also the head of one of those 'famous families' that seem to pop up from time to time in wrestling, like the Harts or the Von Erichs.

 

Just need some idea about what range his popularity should be in at this stage of the game, is all. I was thinking recognizable-well known in the US? Perhaps recognizable or even regional star in Canada or Japan?

 

Pretty sure I've got most of my stuff sorted out at this point, just had this one little thing giving me trouble.

 

[Infernalmiko]

That seems like a classic high respect middling popularity character. Recognizable seems reasonable. Only old school fans know who someone like Jimmy Snuka is these days.

[dvdWarrior]

That does seem about right. I like to have these things confirmed for me sometimes, I guess. Many thanks for the response.

 

[AlaricRose]

I'm working on a home brew mod that creates a new universe from the ground up. Thanks to Derek B's input, I have creating rookies down, but I'm now shifting to veterans. Thus far, I've been simulating them by creating them as rookies and fast forwarding to their experience levels, but I need help with creating them from scratch. So, I'd like your guys' input on three veterans that I'm creating. From here on out, these three are designed to be on the level of a Kazuchika Okada: solid experience (six to nine years) but young enough that they have plenty of room to grow into future legends (late 20's).

 

For my ranges, when I give a range, I mean the lowest number plus a dice roll of six. For example, 70's will be 70+1d6. I'll separate the first wrestler (the most in depth and detailed) from the second two by separate posts. Please tell me what you think.

 

First Worker

 

Name: Orlando Alvarez

Size: Middleweight

Home: Born in the Andalusia autonomous community of Spain, calls Seattle home.

 

Biography: Please bear in mind that a lot of the information on Andalusia as well the Romani and the drug problem is from Wikipedia, not first hand information. Anyone more familiar with these topics is free to correct me and I will update this. It's a relatively small part of his biography, but I do strive for accuracy.

 

A gitano from Andalusia, his family moved to America when he was four. His father had seen the booming drug trade in the region among his people and went to the American embassy to enlist in the US Army to give his family a fresh start. Orlando grew up bouncing from military base to military base as his father was reassigned (standard procedure for the Army. When my dad was in, I lived in Texas, Colorado, and Germany, respectively), living in North Carolina, Texas, and Japan before his father left the Army after twelve years and settling in Seattle, which was the family's last duty station. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the Army himself and served for four years as an Army Ranger. His career came to an end after an IED shredded his knee. He still has shrapnel in it that the surgeons couldn't get out without severing his ligaments and tendons.

 

After a brief identity crisis, he went back to Japan (where he had spent his 8th, 9th, and 10th grade years and still had friends) and trained in the dojos there and was also tutored by his uncle, who was a professional wrestler, though his uncle was relegated to jobber status throughout his 20 year career due to lack of charisma and interview skills. He's spent the last six years wrestling primarily in Japan, and while he primarily wrestles in Japan, he has a deal with most of the promoters that he's worked for that allows him to place his matches on YouTube in exchange for a pay cut and a cut of his merchandise sales.

 

Please note that this will be the biggest biographical section, as he's the one that I've put the most thought into.

 

In-ring and persona:

 

In the ring, he's well versed in both Wigan style wrestling (from tutoring by his uncle) as well as the Japanese King's Road style. He uses a lot of forearms, knees, kicks, and painful submission holds to wear his opponents down before busting out the high flying moves and head dropping suplexes. He's also adept at using the ring itself to his advantage, using maneuvers such as the reverse STO into the turnbuckles, DDT's and suplexes on the ring apron, and Brainbusters into the top turnbuckle. He uses a maneuver that he calls the "World Without Logos" as a finisher, which is a Vertical Drop Fisherman's Brainbuster. His personal is basically Spike from Cowboy Bebop, but a little smoother.

 

Abilities:

 

Brawling and Hardcore: I'm rating him in the 50's for both of these of these attributes. He's proficient in these abilities, but he's not playing to his strengths by relying on them.

 

Puroresu: I'm rating him in the 60's for this due to him training in the dojos of Japan. He uses a lot of kicks, forearms, knees, elbows, and head dropping suplexes that you see in Japan.

 

Technical skills: I'm rating him in the 70's for all three of them because of his training in Wigan style wrestling. He's good at making the fans care about how he grounds and works his opponents over. He's good at counter wrestling, staying on his opponents (if this were TEW 2010, I'd rate his intensity in the 70's) and chaining together different moves and holds. He's also great at applying leverage in an obviously painful way that makes even the basic submission hold look like a match ender.

 

High Flying skills: I'm rating these in the 40's. His flashiness primarily comes from his wide array of suplexes, not his top tope moves. For aerial, he tends to use the Misawa/Samoa Joe suicide forearm through the ropes to the outside, a slingshot move to the outside that rams both knees into his opponent's chest on the way down, springboard and diving European uppercuts, and Muay Thai knee strikes to the face from the top rope or a springboard, and a basic leg, knee, and elbow drops off of the top rope. He doesn't use these very often due to the aforementioned shrapnel in his knee making the landings very painful.

 

Entertainment: I'm rating his Microphone skills in the 80's and his Acting in the 70's. I'm picturing him being a promo on par with CM Punk whether he's delivering them in English, Japanese, or Spanish. During his down time, he's had a few minor roles and he has a sizable YouTube presence due to his ability to self promotion and use of social media to his advantage.

 

Camera skills: He has a very magnetic presence, and most people who watch his matches describe being drawn to him immediately and state that he just oozes "cool." He's quite good looking, and women tend to scream when he comes out (a la Tyler Breeze), and he has a lot of merchandise geared towards that demographic. Men can take him seriously due to his realistic and brutal style. Therefore, I'm rating Charisma and Star Quality in the 90's, Sex Appeal in the 60's, and Menace in the 30's.

 

Performance Skills: If you took his Entertainment and Camera skills away, he'd be a great mechanic. I'm giving him 80's in Basics, Safety, and Selling. He rarely has an off match, so I'm giving him 90's in Consistency, and his Psychology is in the 70's.

 

Physical skills: He's a tremendous athlete (due primarily to training). I'd give him 80's in Athletic ability (his knee holds him back), 90's in Toughness, Resilience and Stamina (he wrestles a lot of high impact matches without complaining, wrestles a lot of 60 minute matches, and the only time that he seems worse for wear is when his knee acts up). I'm giving him a power rating in the 50's, as that seems appropriate for his style.

 

Overness: I'm giving him a D+ in Japan. He doesn't allow himself to be tied down to one single promotion, so while he doesn't get much television time, he does have a size-able presence online and he wrestles five or six days a week. Due to his YouTube presence, I'd give him an E+ throughout the rest of the world.

 

Weaknesses: I'm giving him an 87 in the legs section, and he's a reformed smoker. He smoked cigarettes in the Army (prior to being diagnosed with PTSD), and since then he has gone over to the electronic cigarette. I'm rating him at 15 with the Reformed box checked.

[smartman]

Things that have been bugging me a lot about mods so I want to leave them here after reading Derek's logic which has tweaked my thinking a little. And note: This isn't saying anyone's rating is wrong, but how the game actually views that rating. You can think someone like Cena sucks at everything, but if the game worked that way, he would have been fired a long time ago.

 

1. The biggest thing about the rating scale in the game is that people see 0-100 and immediately think "Oh 50 is average.". That is only partially true. For the top row skills, yes. For a few other skills, yes. For the most important skills, absolutely not!

 

2. The game is a Pass/Fail system, and it is centered on the number 66.0. So, when you're doing most Performance Row and Looks row (actually 60 for SQ), you're really asking "Does this wrestler suck at this stat?" If he/she does, then by all means put it below 66. So, if you think no one outside of maybe 10 guys in America can put a wrestling match together, then have every suck on psychology (though look below because you run into a problem). If a guy can't sell well, put his selling below 66, but understand what you're saying when you do that. He's not a slightly above average seller, he's a crap seller. If you put Consistency low, you're saying that they put on lousy matches just as often as they put on good matches regardless of their opponent.

 

3. Back to Psychology and one thing that Derek omitted from his discussion of that stat. When you assign someone a psychology stat, you are immediately capping what the match rating will be if they are the one with the higher/highest psych in the match. That's the best way to keep someone's pop low too as it will cap their pop bumps from winning matches because they'll stop increasing in pop because their matches aren't good enough to raise it. Anyone who has played this game for long will remember when their big match got massacred by that "There was a lack of psychology in the match (so here is your 12-15 point penalty)". So, if you assign someone a psych rating of 50, they're now capped at around 70 rated matches when carrying the match. So, if you look at a guy and say, "This guy can never carry a 4 or 5 star match", congratulations because he now can't in the game.

 

4. Also, keep in mind that Calling in the Ring varies depending on your promotion's level with an ever higher psych level needed to keep doing that. As using that Road Agent note improves the match rating, you need to take that into mind as well.

 

5. Appearing in WWE DOESN'T MEAN YOU ARE INSTANTLY AMAZING!!! Dear God, I'm so tired with RW mods (and it has been this way for a decade so I'm not attacking the brave people making them now) all making the mistake that if you're in the WWE, were in the WWE, or everyone will instantly want to hire you in their WWE game, you are awesome. If you don't fit into that little box, then you're mediocre or worse. The same with pop too. I actually got told that someone had to be at a ridiculous pop because "If he entered the WWE again right now, he would instantly be an Upper Midcarder." Honestly, the WWE really doesn't work well at all with TEW right now. From the WWE Network to the really, really small roster yet 5 hours of A-level shows leading to repetitive booking every month, and matches not meaning anything, basically card position is irrelevant. I mean Kevin Owens def Cena in his first match could never happen in TEW without mammoth repercussions, so seriously rethink how you do WWE and their wrestlers.

 

6. Mod your universe to work WITH the game, not how you view people irl as TEW doesn't simulate real life well at all (It's a wrestling simulator NOT a real life simulator). Way too many mods focus on the "Big" companies and maybe a "Hip" fed or two meaning that most of the world is useless (mainly because everyone else sucks). This differs dramatically from the Cornellverse and even the Thunderverse where you can pick up any company and have a fun game. A company should be feasible to be successful unless you're doing an historical mod where they should fail.

 

The biggest takeaway should be understanding what it means to give someone a low psych or selling rating. It matters more than any other stat you're giving someone (excluding SQ). A 70 psych for a wrestler in a National company is quite mediocre actually for anyone above midcard. Hell, an 80 psych is mediocre at National for a main eventer. Well, unless you're happy with nothing but low-to-mid 80's main events and constant "Lack of psychology" notes. So, if you have the idea of taking ROH from Regional to National, you won't be using 95% of the current roster according to all the current mods. Hell, I don't know if you can unless WWE fires a bunch of their good wrestlers because their psych ratings preclude them from putting on the great matches necessary. Well, yeah you can if you just ride 4 or 5 people, but that's not fun or realistic as they actually wildly vary their matches unlike WWE.