TEW2016 Developer's Journal

[Adam Ryland]

The Developer's Journal is an ongoing feature where each weekday one or more additions or modifications that appear in TEW2016 are discussed. This serves both to help hype up the game and to set out what people can expect when the game is released.

 

There is no particular order to which features are revealed or when, it's done on an ad hoc basis. The Journal is scheduled to last throughout February and March.

 

If you have questions or comments, please use the TEW2016 Thread further down the board.

 

TEW2016 will also feature a "What's New In 2016?" button on the title screen; this both contains a quick link to this Journal and lists a lot of the features together with a short description. There are 352 features in the list at present. One rare-but-very-cool feature has been deliberately left out from the list (and won't be revealed in the Journal either) because it's a very nice surprise and I don't want to spoil people's enjoyment when they experience it. Around 75-100 features have not been included in the list, nor will be in the Journal, because they're either too small to merit mention, are purely visual \ cosmetic, or are background coding stuff that isn't particularly exciting or interesting.

 

Index

Feb 01: Alliance Titles

Feb 02: Contract Offer Templates

Feb 03: Home Bases & Travel Costs & Moving House

Feb 03: New Picture Formats & Automatic Custom Backgrounds

Feb 04: AI Created Alliances

Feb 04: Wrestler's Court

Feb 05: Organic Biographies

Feb 08: Tag Team & Clique Incidents

Feb 09: Canadian Breakdown

Feb 09: European Breakdown

Feb 10: Generic Venues

Feb 10: Venue Hiring Costs

Feb 11: Pregnancy

Feb 11: Backstage Influence Guide

Feb 12: Body Types

Feb 12: Immortal Tag Teams

Feb 15: Advanced Web Search

Feb 16: 3 vs 3 vs 3

Feb 16: 2013->2016 Converter

Feb 16: Themed Web Site

Feb 17: Incident Handling Upgrade

Feb 17: Rehab

Feb 18: Habit Effect Upgrade

Feb 18: Wrongful Termination

Feb 19: Broadcasters

Feb 22: Broadcasting Deals (Part 1)

Feb 23: Broadcasting Deals (Part 2)

Feb 24: Broadcaster Control

Feb 25: AI Broadcaster Switching

Feb 25: Broadcaster Changes

Feb 25: Exact Viewers

Feb 26: Creating Your Own Broadcaster

Feb 26: Giving Air Time To Children

Feb 29: One Night Only Deals

Feb 29: Search By Language

Feb 29: Search By Race

Mar 01: Advance To Next Show

Mar 01: Advance To End Of Month

Mar 01: Advance To End Of Year

Mar 01: Multi Advance Stop

Mar 01: Inactivity Tolerance Change

Mar 02: Tag Team Upgrade

Mar 02: Teams And Falls

Mar 03: Dynamic Spillover

Mar 03: Money Cap Change

Mar 03: Drug Testing Clarification

Mar 04: Match Aims

Mar 07: Mix Of Match Aims

Mar 07: Perfect Show Theory Overhaul

Mar 08: Sausage Fest Penalty

Mar 08: EWR Throwback Options (x7)

Mar 09: Botches

Mar 09: Refusal To Work With Botchers

Mar 09: Injury History

Mar 09: Botch History

Mar 09: Injury Notes

Mar 10: Singles Titles In Tag Matches

Mar 10: More Titles Per Match

Mar 10: Player's Handbook

Mar 11: Expanded Production

Mar 11: Half Year Awards

Mar 11: Painkillers

Mar 14: Screw Jobs

Mar 14: Injury Frequency

Mar 14: Global Injury Rate

Mar 14: Extra Injury Rate Setting

Mar 15: More Aggressive AI Hiring & Bids

Mar 15: Nepotism

Mar 15: Automated Admin Mode Check

Mar 16: Title Changes In Angles

Mar 16: Alternate Loading Screens

Mar 16: Free Picture Years

Mar 17: Screwed Up Endings

Mar 17: Trademark Spots

Mar 17: Creative Meeting Change

Mar 18: Development \ Child Split

Mar 18: Control Of Development Upgrade

Mar 18: One Night Developmentals

Mar 21: Freestyle Angles

Mar 21: Dirty Doctor

Mar 21: Fog Of War By Player

Mar 21: Suspension Delay

Mar 22: Locker Room Handling

Mar 22: Double Show Order

Mar 22: Blacklist

Mar 22: Interventions

Mar 23: Cash Ins

Mar 23: Keep It Simple

Mar 23: Intentional DQ

Mar 23: Intentional Count Out

Mar 23: Rage DQ

Mar 23: Eating Up

Mar 23: Make Not Break

Mar 23: Enhanced Match Report Details

Mar 23: Stunt Bumps

Mar 23: Better Jobber Matches

Mar 24: National Battle Upgrade

Mar 24: Pay Rise Requests

Mar 24: Toxic Workers

Mar 24: Psycho Complaints

Mar 24: More Backstage Incidents

Mar 24: Detailed Match Display

Mar 25: Excursions

Mar 25: Japanese Weight Split

Mar 25: Movies Upgrade

Mar 25: Sticky Window Position

Mar 25: Post Segment Incidents

Mar 25: Auto Area Opening

Mar 25: AI Takeovers

Mar 25: National Battle Impact

Mar 25: Classic Agers

Mar 25: Venue Opening & Closing Dates

Mar 26: Bits & Pieces (x100!)

Mar 28: Game Changers

Mar 28: Owner Types

Mar 28: Owner Min & Max Sizes

Mar 28: Owner-Booker Tolerance

Mar 28: Owner Investments

Mar 28: Company Strategy

Mar 28: Owner Defers Pay

Mar 28: Scumbag Owners

Mar 29: Gimmicks Upgrade

Mar 29: Preset Gimmick Settings

Mar 29: Gimmick Copying

Mar 29: AI Gimmicks

Mar 29: Manual Gimmick Changes

Mar 29: Gimmick Changes With A Turn

Mar 29: Default Gimmick Auto Pass

Mar 29: Harder Non-Aggression Pacts

Mar 29: Harder Working Agreements

Mar 29: Alliance-Mate Pacts

Mar 29: Pact Switching

Mar 29: AI Alliance Joining

Mar 29: Preset Alliance Membership

Mar 29: Leaving Alliance Reaction

Mar 29: Monday Night Wars

Mar 30: Auto Booker

Mar 30: AI Angles Upgrade

Mar 30: AI Tournament Events

Mar 30: AI Morale Impact

Mar 30: More AI Turnover

Mar 30: More Varied Reign Lengths

Mar 30: Better AI Expansion Planning

Mar 30: AI Loops

Mar 30: More Mixed AI Booking

Mar 30: AI Disposition Handling

Mar 30: AI Six Man Booking

Mar 30: More AI Angles

Mar 30: AI Booking Skill

Mar 30: Assistant Booking By Division

Mar 30: Worker Profile Quick Jump

Mar 30: Company Profile Quick Jump

Mar 30: Employment Quick Tab

Mar 30: Mask Log Enhancements

Mar 30: Victor Displays Mask Log

Mar 30: Preset Mask Log

Mar 31: Halls Of Fame

Mar 31: Hall Of Fame Overview

Mar 31: Hall Of Fame Induction

Mar 31: Free Picture Criteria

Mar 31: Last Booked Reminder

Mar 31: Learning The Ropes

Mar 31: Expanded Hiring Preferences

Mar 31: Announcers Affect Angles

Mar 31: Event Location Settings

Mar 31: Name & Picture Narratives

Mar 31: Enhanced Founding Dates

Mar 31: Pre Set Morale

Mar 31: Popularity Absorbing

Mar 31: Pre Set Absences

Mar 31: Movie Stars

Mar 31: Mentor Tips

Mar 31: MMA Hiatus

Mar 31: Colour Commentary Skill

Mar 31: Pre Set Power 500

Mar 31: Models

Mar 31: Bodybuilders

Mar 31: Personal Finance

Mar 31: Worker Refuses To Sign

Mar 31: Day By Day Finances

Mar 31: Data Dump

Mar 31: Advertising Impacters

Mar 31: Game Region Breakdown

Mar 31: Affairs

Mar 31: Loyalty Improvement

Mar 31: Importable Narratives

Mar 31: Pre Set Starting Loans

Mar 31: Website Mail & Decisions

Mar 31: Musicians

Mar 31: Global Morale

Mar 31: Top Workers

Mar 31: Auto Bio Fill

Mar 31: Dynamic External Relationships

Mar 31: Tour Days Reset

Mar 31: Pre Set TV Announcers

Mar 31: Property Of Benefits

Mar 31: Attendance Gradient

Mar 31: Sponsorship Gradient

Mar 31: Bankruptcy Leniency

Mar 31: Daily Contract Payments

Mar 31: Regional Industry Effects

Mar 31: Booker Stability

Apr 01: Company Figureheads

Apr 01: Merchandise Sales Effect

Apr 01: Casting Call

Apr 01: Harder Harmonies

Apr 01: Product Impacting In-Ring

Apr 01: Recent Fortunes Reset

Apr 01: Extra Product Settings

Apr 01: Judge Finishes

Apr 01: End Storyline Note

Apr 01: Track Title Prestige

Apr 01: Storyline Notifications

Apr 01: Storyline Heat Impact

Apr 01: Flash Pin Upgrade

Apr 01: Tour Regulars

Apr 01: Contracted For Matches

Apr 01: Too Small Note Upgrade

Apr 01: Furthered Storylines

Apr 01: Leaving Off Major Shows

Apr 01: Toxic Locker Room

Apr 01: Losing The Locker Room

Apr 01: Political Feedback

Apr 01: Sneaky Writtens

Apr 01: Female Role Models

Apr 01: Clique Building

Apr 01: Isolation Effects

Apr 01: Intimidating Presence

Apr 01: Try Out Contracts

Apr 01: Contract Offer Memory

Apr 01: Pulling Ribs

Apr 01: Negative Chemistry Reminder

Apr 01: Announcer Experience

Apr 01: Low Level Popularity

Apr 01: Momentum In Segments

Apr 01: Momentum Complaints

Apr 01: Show Grade Calculation

Apr 01: Six Man Team Names

Apr 01: Using Stable Names

Apr 01: Smart Fatigue

Apr 01: Contract Expiry Change

Apr 01: Freelancer Improvements

Apr 01: Improved Title History

Apr 01: Original Belt Owners

Apr 01: Narrative AI-Player Split

Apr 01: Locker Room Leader Search

Apr 01: Regional Battle Immunity

Apr 01: Being Sent Home

Apr 01: Impairment Complaints

Apr 01: Impairment Via Road Agent

Apr 01: Loyalty Change

Apr 01: AI Company Generation

[Adam Ryland]

Feb 01: Alliance Titles

 

By popular request, TEW2016 features the debut of alliance titles.

 

Alliance titles, as the name suggests, are title belts that do not belong to a specific company. Instead, they are linked directly to an alliance.

 

When booking a show, any member company has the ability to request to borrow a title from the alliance. As long as no other company is already using it, the request will be granted and the belt in question becomes the property of that company for the rest of the evening. It can then be used in exactly the same way as any other title that the company owns.

 

When borrowing a title, the champion(s) will automatically be added to the company's roster too, as long as they're available to do so. This essentially works as a special 'one night only' loan.

 

AI-controlled companies will also regularly use alliance titles, meaning that the champion(s) will end up defending their titles regularly for lots of different companies.

 

There are both pros and cons to having your own employees win alliance titles. On the plus side, those workers will improve faster and gain more popularity because they will be working more dates than usual for a variety of companies in a variety of locations. The downsides are that the increased schedule means they have the potential to get fatigued, their injury risk is obviously increased, and the increased exposure can mean that they'll naturally become targets for bigger companies.

 

Alliance titles, and their histories, can be viewed at any point via the alliance screen. The alliance also has the ability to vacate titles if the champion(s) end up being unable to defend the titles (for example, if they were to sign a written deal with a company who is not in the alliance).

[Adam Ryland]

Feb 02: Contract Offer Templates

 

This probably isn't the most glamorous new feature in the world, but a lot of people asked for it so I thought I'd get it out of the way early!

 

In the negotiation system the user now has the ability to save and use templates; these are specific combinations of offers and incentives that can be given an appropriate name. For example, you may put together a template called 'TV Try Out' which specifies a PPA two date / one month contract with an 'exclusively in-ring' usage attached. Any time you come to negotiate you can then click TV Try Out from the template list and that will all be automatically filled in for you. There's no limit to how many templates you can construct.

 

For those users who have specific 'go to' offers, this will obviously save quite a lot of clicking over time.

[Adam Ryland]

Feb 03: Home Bases & Travel Costs & Moving House

 

All workers now have a home base, which is the region in which they currently live. This can either be set as a specific region via the editor or simply given as an area in which case the AI will pick an appropriate region for the when a new game begins.

 

A worker's current location has several uses (some of which will be discussed in later journal entries). One such use is that it allows travel costs to be calculated, meaning that small companies now have more incentive to hire workers local to them to cut costs.

 

A worker's home base can change over time. This can both be temporary (for example, if a foreign worker joins a touring company he may choose to stay in that country for the duration of the tour) or long-term. If a worker chooses to move house the game will also recognise this as being a big move and his or her romantic partner may go too.

 

Feb 03: New Picture Formats & Automatic Custom Backgrounds

 

As well as JPG format, the game now also gives the option to support BMP and GIF pictures. Please note that PNG is not supported - as with WMMA, this is not through choice but because the programming language does not support it.

 

One advantage of this is that the game now offers automatic custom backgrounds for transparent GIFs. For example, if you view a worker who has a transparent GIF picture in a company specific screen (i.e. a roster screen) then the background behind him will automatically be that company's logo - this essentially creates a custom background wherever that worker goes.

[Adam Ryland]

Feb 04: AI Created Alliances

 

New to the game this year is the ability for AI companies to band together to form a new alliance; previously alliances could only be formed if a player chose to create one. New alliances are determined by company size, the personalities of the owners, their location, and whether it is mutually beneficial.

 

Feb 04: Wrestler's Court

 

To reflect reality, locker rooms can now have their own 'wrestler's court'. Essentially a self-policing method, a locker room leader acts as judge and can sentence workers who commit minor offences to punishments. This helps improve the personalities of some workers. The user has no say in the wrestler's court, it is something handled independently by 'the boys', but just adds more realism.

 

A massive amount of time has been spent making the backstage environment more alive and making the user's handling of the locker room a key element in the gameplay; Wrestler's Court is the first of many features that will be revealed over the coming months that play into this emphasis.

[Adam Ryland]

Feb 05: Organic Biographies

 

TEW2016 will be the first game in the series to feature the option of organic biographies for workers.

 

Every worker either has the option of having organic biographies enabled or staying with the traditional pre-written version. If organic biography is enabled, that worker will have his bio automatically created by the AI when the game begins and it will be updated whenever something noteworthy happens to him.

 

The setting can be changed on a worker-by-worker basis whenever the user wants. It can also be set via the Options menu so that newly generated workers will be set appropriately.

 

The organic bios are created by tapping into a series of pre-written templates and stitching together the sentences into a paragraph based on what has happened to the worker. Topics that can be referenced include the worker's basic details, employment (both past and present), tag teams, titles held, positions of power held, important relationships, honours, and outside interests (such as if they regularly film movies). Organic bios work for all workers, whether they're an active wrestler or not.

 

Obviously the organic bios are far more rigid than those that are pre-written and would tend to be very similar for workers who haven't achieved much, but they give mod makers the option of not having to write biographies for every single person in the game.

[Adam Ryland]

Feb 08: Tag Team & Clique Incidents

 

In previous games backstage incidents were limited to one person with an optional 'target'. This has now been expanded, allowing for tag teams (or simply duos) and cliques to be involved.

 

This adds to the realism of the game, especially as it plays into backstage relationships more, but can also add an extra wrinkle to the user's handling of the locker room as he must punish all of the offenders equally. This can make for some interesting scenarios, particularly if one major bad influence is dragging his clique buddies into trouble that they otherwise probably wouldn't be involved in.

 

There are also new tag team and clique incidents that are specifically written to revolve around them using their numbers advantage backstage.

[Adam Ryland]

Two short ones today.

 

Feb 09: Canadian Breakdown

 

The Canadian game area has been altered so that The Prairies has now been split into three regions: Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

 

Feb 09: European Breakdown

 

The European game area has been altered so that The Mediterranean has now been split into four regions: France, Italy, Iberia, and South East Europe.

[Adam Ryland]

Feb 10: Generic Venues

 

A new feature added to the game is Generic Venues. The way this works is that the user does not have to pick a specific pre-made venue when holding a show, instead he can simply pick the region he wants to hold it in and select the Generic Venue button.

 

The capacity is considered to be around the number of fans that the promotion draws (i.e. you don't get charged extra for seats you wouldn't have filled, nor are you turning people away).

 

When viewing show histories, the game simply uses the region name in place of the venue (i.e. it would say "X were in Scotland" rather than "X were in Glasgow City Complex in Scotland"). Not having an exact venue named is really the only drawback of the system.

 

The advantages are threefold. Firstly, this removes a massive amount of work for mod makers as there's no pressure to add even one venue, let alone multiple venues for every region - you could even leave the entire location file blank without causing any issues. Secondly, it removes the annoyance of being stuck 'between tiers', where, for example, you can draw 2000 people but only have the options for a 1000 capacity arena or a 5000 capacity arena - you no longer have to choose between turning away half your fans or shelling out money for 3000 seats that you can't fill. Thirdly, for users who don't care about having a specific venue then this makes booking a show even quicker as you can just grab a generic venue each time.

 

Feb 10: Venue Hiring Costs

 

In previous games, venue hiring costs were done in tiers, so there were big jumps when moving over certain capacity levels. This has been changed so that all hiring costs are now relative to the venue's capacity. This is a small change, but makes for slightly easier financial management and removes what was a previously pretty arbitrary price jump.

[Adam Ryland]

Feb 11: Pregnancy

 

New to the game in 2016 is pregnancy, if only because apparently some people have been adding it in as an defined injury in previous games which is just wrong on so many levels.

 

Pregnancies work in a three stage manner. The initial announcement gives warning that the worker in question will be taking time off shortly. The worker then goes on maternity leave. Then, to the surprise of nobody but the most biologically challenged, the birth happens. The mother will remain on maternity leave for a short while after the birth too, for realism.

 

Feb 11: Backstage Influence Guide

 

As another small user-friendly touch, in a worker's Personal quick tab (i.e. the list on the right hand side of the Characters screen) the game now gives a guideline on whether he'd be a positive or negative influence in a locker room. This allows you to see at a glance whether you're dealing with a good egg, a bad apple, or some other food based metaphor. This saves you from having to visit their profile to look at their personality, potentially saving you a mighty four clicks of the mouse per character in total. TEW2016: fighting carpal tunnel syndrome one click at a time.

[Adam Ryland]

Feb 12: Body Types

 

Workers in TEW2016 now have specific body types. Each worker can be one of the following eight categorisations:

 

Average, Skinny, Toned, Muscular, Ripped, Flabby, Bulky and Obese

 

This feature is primarily because there simply aren't enough petty arguments when making mods and I think a spirited fifteen page debate over whether Bull Dempsey is flabby or bulky will raise the level of discourse on the various forums immeasurably. (NB: If you are reading this paragraph over at the EWB forums, please replace the words "Bull Dempsey" with "Neville", and "flabby or bulky" with "bulky or obese".)

 

These types are dynamic, shifting over time both due to ageing and because of the worker's actions. For example, some of the stories that were attached to weight changes in TEW2013, such as a worker letting themself go or putting on muscle mass, will now also impact their body type. There are also new stories specific to body type changes.

 

Not just a cosmetic feature, when changing body type the worker can also see an impact on his stats. For example, a worker who becomes Ripped will see his looks and star power rise, but may lose a little stamina due to the increased muscle mass. Body types can also offer clues as to a worker's personality and habits; for example, somebody who has become Flabby is likely to not be the hardest worker in the world, whereas somebody who is Ripped could be secretly juicing.

 

The new body type system has been added to the search facility in the various worker-related screens and is also visible next to their size rating on all screens too.

 

The conversion process sets everybody from a TEW2013 database to Average as there is no data from which to make an informed guess. However, you can mass edit body types.

 

Feb 12: Immortal Tag Teams

 

The Hall Of Immortals has been expanded and can now also hold legendary tag teams as well as singles wrestlers. The criteria for tag teams is different to singles wrestlers but still only allows the best of the best to get in. This is primarily a cosmetic feature, but as a lot of people are fans of tag team wrestling it's nice to have it in the game anyway.

[Adam Ryland]

Feb 05: Advanced Web Search

 

This is more of a utility than an actual feature, but it should prove very useful for a lot of players.

 

Added to the web site part of the game is a new advanced search facility. This new area allows the worker to type in any piece of text and the game will search throughout the game for it, returning a list of all the workers who are in any way associated with it.

 

This can be used for multiple purposes, but the main one is to address one of the long standing issues which is finding workers under alternate names. If you've been on the forums for any length of time you'll be aware that one of the most regular questions we get, especially for real world mods, is "I'm looking for X but I don't know what name he is under, who is he in this mod?". You can now type in the name you want (or even just part of the name) and the game will search for any mention of it in the following:

 

Default names

Default biographies

Contract names

Contract biographies

Title histories (i.e. the name the wrestler used when holding a title)

Alter ego names

Alter ego biographies

Tag team names

 

For example, if you were playing a real world mod you might type in "Conquistador" and you'd get a list that might look like this:

 

Jose Estrada Jr - mentioned in biography, mentioned in Alter Ego "Conquistador Uno"

Jose Luis Rivera - mentioned in biography, mentioned in Alter Ego "Conquistador Dos"

Adam Copeland - mentioned in Alter Ego "Edge" biography, mentioned in title history

Christian - mentioned in title history

 

And so on. You can click on any result to go straight to that worker's profile. You can search for any text term at all, so even if all that you remember is that a random CornellVerse bio mentioned someone being a world calibre softball player you could type in "softball" or even just "calibre" and you'd find them.

 

This is also useful if you're reading through title histories or match results and come across a name you don't recognise; rather than having to do some detective work you can simply type the name in and have the game list all possible candidates.

 

Hopefully this powerful utility will prove useful to a lot of players.

[Adam Ryland]

Just a few short ones today: an often requested feature, a confirmation, and a very minor cosmetic touch.

 

Feb 16: 3 vs 3 vs 3

 

This was asked for a surprising amount of times, so TEW2016 now includes a 3 vs 3 vs 3 match type.

 

Feb 16: 2013->2016 Converter

 

To confirm, TEW2016 will continue the tradition of having a converter that turns a database from the previous game into one for the current version.

 

Furthermore, this one has been enhanced to automatically find and fix some minor errors that may be in some mods, and will also 'best guess' to fill in some of the new pieces of data to save the mod maker some time.

 

Feb 16: Themed Web Site

 

Purely a fun little cosmetic touch, but on certain dates (including Christmas, New Years, and Halloween) the in-game web site has custom themed skins to reflect the time of year.

[Adam Ryland]

Feb 17: Incident Handling Upgrade

 

The way that users can deal with backstage incidents has been upgraded to make it more useful, user friendly, and realistic.

 

As before, the user will be given a description of what happened together with a range of options (suspension, slap on the wrist, etc). However, each of the responses now has a much tighter definition of what you can expect to happen, with two key elements: how likely it is to improve the worker's behaviour and how much of a risk there is of the worker being upset by the decision.

 

As you'd expect, this works on the principle of risk and reward; a stern warning, for example, only has a small probability of improvement but equally only carries a slight risk of upsetting him, whereas a suspension has a high probability of improving the worker's behaviour but will result in a morale hit most of the time. As before, the worker's individual personality also comes into play here and can affect the likelihood of a positive or negative response.

 

As alluded to in an earlier journal entry, these options are available regardless of whether it's an incident involving one person, a duo, or a clique.

 

By making the risks and rewards much more explicit and clearly defined, this allows the users to take much more informed decisions and to strategise properly.

 

This features ties in strongly with a number of other features, many to be revealed later in the journal, as part of the vastly improved and much deeper morale \ backstage control part of the game which is one of the key parts of TEW2016's leap forward.

 

Feb 17: Rehab

 

Tying in directly to the above feature, a new response type has been added to the backstage handling - Send To Rehab. This is only available for those incidents that revolve around drugs or other substance abuse issues, and only for workers who are under a written deal.

 

This adds another tool to the user's arsenal when it comes to trying to successfully deal with workers who may have gone down a bad path.

 

Sending a worker to rehab carries a high probability of improving his behaviour and getting him to reduce or eliminate his personal demonds but comes with a mid-level chance of upsetting him and means they become absent for three to nine months while still getting paid.

[Adam Ryland]

Feb 18: Habit Effect Upgrade

 

In previous games a worker's lifestyle \ habits were always 'on'; i.e. if he was a heavy drinker it would impact every match and angle that he appeared in. This has now been upgraded so that they work in conjunction with his consistency stat, meaning that the effects are more hit and miss and therefore more realistic. This is particularly the case with low 'doses', which have much less chance of causing an issue.

 

This change, as well as being for realism, also makes workers with bad habits less of a burden in terms of their performance and therefore slightly more attractive in terms of hireability; this plays in to some of the other backstage features (to come later in the journal), as it creates more of a risk-reward balance where you can bring in a talented but 'troubled' worker to enjoy the benefits of his in-ring work but at the expense of the possible negatives that his habits may cause backstage.

 

In addition, smoking no longer impacts match ratings (as there are many real life smokers who don't seem to have any issues with long matches or general in-ring quality) and neither does historic (i.e. no longer ongoing) drug use. Instead, these habits impact a worker's life expectancy and physical decline only.

 

Feb 18: Wrongful Termination

 

In previous games there's was a slight loophole whereby if a worker you wanted to get rid of did something minor, like fart backstage, you could choose to terminate his deal - thus avoiding paying him the money he'd have been owed from ending his contract the normal way and not having to deal with his morale hit as he was not on your roster any more anyway. This was a useful but gamey way of occasionally avoiding a big severence fee while simultaneously removing some deadweight.

 

In TEW2016 this loophole has been closed because workers can take legal action if they feel it was a wrongful termination. If they choose to take this route, a legal claim is lodged and taken to the courts. A month or so later on a decision will be taken; either the claim is rejected, in which case nothing further happens, or it is accepted, in which case the company will be liable to pay him. The amount will usually be considerably higher than it would have been if you'd just terminated his contract the normal, legal way to begin with.

[Adam Ryland]

Feb 19: Broadcasters

 

The entire broadcasting \ media concept has been completely overhauled for TEW2016. Today will be looking purely at the broadcasters themselves, we will then be covering how they interact with the wider game world in next week's entries - essentially this is a multi-part entry given its size and impact on TEW2016.

 

Firstly, PPV Carriers and Networks no longer exist; they now both fall under the Broadcaster heading. The converter will automatically handle this for you.

 

There are four styles of Broadcaster available:

 

Pay-Per-View - Companies earn money based upon how many viewers it can attract. Revenue is quite variable as it depends on the 'draw' of the show being put on. This method is weak at growing a fan base but excellent at generating revenue.

 

Commercial - Companies earn money from advertising revenue; the amount depends on the company's size, show length and time slot. Revenue is pretty stable as a result of this. This style is solid at both increasing a fan base and providing a good revenue stream.

 

Free-To-Air - Companies earn no money at all but this style has the greatest rate of possible audience growth. It's an excellent way to build a fan base quickly, albeit a costly one as it doesn't generate revenue to offset any costs.

 

Subscription - Companies earn revenue based on the value of the content they provide; this is decided by the company's size, show length and time slot. This method is similar to Commercial except that it has slightly higher potential revenue, slightly less potential audience growth, and usually has stricter requirements from the Broadcaster.

 

The range (i.e. what regions the Broadcaster covers and to what level) is also editable, as it was under the old system.

 

To offer the maximum flexibility possible, the requirements of each Broadcaster, which used to be coded into the game itself, are now also editable. These include minimum company size, minimum popularity (defined by two values, minimum popularity and the minimum number of regions that must hit that level), and 'Must Cover Home' (yes or no), which means that only companies who are based within a region that the broadcaster is shown in are eligible (this is useful if you don't want, for example, an overtly American sports network to start signing deals with Japanese companies even if they were big enough to meet all the other requirements).

 

There are also product settings that allow the broadcaster to be more or less favourable to certain product types. There are also some other editable requirements that will be revealed at a later date as they are linked to another feature that hasn't been announced yet.

 

This flexibility allows mod makers to set up pretty much any scenario they care to do, so if you want to have small companies able to grab PPV deals, you can. The combination of Free-To-Air and the new editable requirements also allow you to simulate Internet content if you wanted to.

[Adam Ryland]

Feb 22: Broadcasting Deals (Part 1)

 

Broadcasting contracts \ deals have been revamped, making them more flexible and user friendly than ever before.

 

Firstly, the restrictive television seasons no longer exist; companies can now negotiate whenever they like, as much as they like. This is more user friendly, more inline with how flexible content is in today's world, and removes the fiddly process of having to wait for some contracts to end before you can start others.

 

Secondly, when negotiating, you are in full control of the length of the deal, being able to negotiate by length of contract (i.e. how many months, years, etc), the exact number of episodes, or both. This again is more flexible than the old system whereby contracts would run in strict seasons.

 

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, there is now a 'Minimum Quality Expected' value. This is what the broadcaster expects you to do with each show. The value is created by looking at the broadcaster's size, the company's size, and what time slot is being used. This replaces the old system whereby broadcasters would lose faith in you dependent entirely on your current size; the new method makes things far clearer in terms of what you need to achieve and means that the player is never in a situation where he can't control his destiny as to whether he stays on the air or not.

 

The way the minimum quality works is that whenever a company does a show that fails to meet that target it will upset the broadcaster; if you fail enough times, the broadcaster will cancel the show (the broadcaster's tolerance of failure is dependent on their Patience stat). You will be e-mailed whenever the broadcaster is upset.

 

Their annoyance can be reset back to zero in one of two ways; either when a new contract extension is signed or if the company requests to move to a worse time slot. Moving to a worse time slot means less revenue and less potential for audience growth for the company but means that the minimum quality expected is lessened, so there's a trade-off involved. (Of course, moving to a worse time slot will cause a block where you won't be able to move back up to a better slot for a while, otherwise you could simply bounce down and up to reset the broadcaster's annoyance level.)

 

A broadcaster who is upset may also refuse to extend a deal, even if they're not yet unhappy enough to actually cancel it.

 

To add to the stakes, being kicked off air for failing the minimum expected quality test will also result in the company getting a 'stink of failure' within the media community; this can result in other broadcasters not wanting to deal with the company at all until enough time has passed that the failure is forgotten. This can have devastating consequences for a company, as it may mean they get stuck 'off air' for an extended period of time. This adds to the drama, as you can end up in a situation where you can't afford even one bad show, and makes managing your broadcasters absolutely crucial. It also makes for an risk-reward split when it comes to signing long or short deals; a long deal offers more protection against failure but restricts your flexibility somewhat, a short deal does the opposite.

 

Tomorrow will be part two of this entry where we delve into some other aspects.

[Adam Ryland]

Feb 23: Broadcasting Deals (Part 2)

 

When making broadcasting deals you can either have them linked to general events or specific TV shows.

 

A TV show is only on air if it has at least one active deal, and when that show is held it is automatically shown on all the broadcasters who have a deal for it.

 

However, events work slightly differently. When running an event you get to choose exactly who, out of the broadcasters who have deals for it, will air it. This allows for ultimate flexibility, as you can customise each event to your requirements. For example, you could have one event shown on PPV in North America and nowhere else, have the next one not be aired anywhere, and the next shown on commercial TV in the US, PPV in Canada, free-to-air in Mexico, and on a subscription channel in Europe.

 

This also means that TV specials and the like can be simulated; all the user would need to do is create an event with an appropriate name and then show it only on that intended network.

 

Just about the only restriction is that the broadcasters cannot clash; so you couldn't, for example, show the same event on an American PPV broadcaster and an American commercial TV channel if they both cover the same regions.

 

To confirm, there is also no restriction on what type of broadcaster can be used. For example, you can, if you want, sign a deal that sees your TV show appear on a pay-per-view broadcaster and have all your events on a commercial broadcaster. It's a very flexible system that you can use however you want to.

 

One thing to note is that when you sign a deal you are creating a legal requirement to complete it. If a contract expires and you haven't completed the number of episodes \ shows that you said you would, the broadcaster is able to take legal action for breach of contract and you can end up with major legal fees. This is both realistic and, more importantly, stops players 'hogging' all the best broadcasters by signing a bunch of contracts that they don't need.

[Adam Ryland]

Feb 24: Broadcaster Control

 

Just a short one today.

 

In previous games if a company was owned by a broadcaster or media group then they were restricted to only being on the air with that entity and were unable to look for further deals.

 

By popular request, this restriction has been eased considerably and companies can now search out deals with other broadcasters as long as they don't clash with the owner's coverage.

 

For example, RAW in the CornellVerse are owned by The ASN broadcaster who are shown throughout Australia; RAW would not be able to deal with other rival Australian broadcasters, but they can now approach broadcasters from other areas in order to expand.

 

This change prevents some companies from getting 'stuck' in size due to their ownership.

[Adam Ryland]

'Broadcasting week' continues with three more new items:

 

Feb 25: AI Broadcaster Switching

 

The AI that handles a company's ability to intelligently move between broadcasters has now been upgraded to be more aggressive about chasing expansion and better finances and also smarter about not getting stuck with dead-end deals that are no longer suitable for them. This is another of the features that plays into making the AI act more like a human player and be more proactive.

 

Feb 25: Broadcaster Changes

 

In the editor, mod makers can now set up narrative-like 'events' that apply to a broadcaster during gameplay. This could be used, for example, to shrink or expand their range as the game progresses. For historical mods especially, this can be useful for simulating real progress \ expansion without needing to import or create an entirely new broadcaster.

 

Feb 25: Exact Viewers

 

As well as seeing the viewership numbers for a show in terms of a rating, it will now also be shown as a hard number. i.e. you will see "3.2 (4,100,000 people)" to give a better sense of how many eyeballs you had on the product. The numbers have also been adjusted to be closer to what you'd expect in reality.

[Adam Ryland]

Feb 26: Creating Your Own Broadcaster

 

New to the game is the ability for companies to create their own custom broadcaster.

 

The company can select a name, logo, coverage size and range, and any of the four broadcaster styles that have already been covered previously in the journal.

 

The advantage of this to a company is that they get guaranteed air time as the broadcaster, being owned by them, cannot refuse negotiations nor cancel a deal.

 

The disadvantage is that it is hugely expensive to set up initially and has running costs.

 

Pay-Per-View, Commercial and Free To Air all simply have monthly running costs, with the former two relying on actually running shows to generate revenue. Free To Air has no way of making money and so would be a big drain on resources.

 

Subscription broadcasters work slightly differently. They have monthly costs too but they also generate revenue based on the number of subscribers. The subscription levels are based on the company's current popularity. For each region covered, popularity of 71 means that that region has enough subscribers to break even each month. Above that generates a profit, below that means a loss. There is an on-screen guide to the current profit or loss being generated.

 

A company can expand its broadcaster's coverage whenever it wants, although it's more costly to do it post-creation than it is to do it when the broadcaster is first being set up; therefore it can be smarter to build up a 'war chest' of money and do the broadcaster right first time around.

 

Each company is limited to having one custom broadcaster.

 

AI companies have the ability to form their own broadcasters too, it is not just limited to human players.

 

Feb 26: Giving Air Time To Children

 

Companies that have both their own custom broadcaster and a child company have the option of gifting air time to the latter. This means the child company can gain a broadcasting slot even if they wouldn't normally qualify, and they benefit from being unable to be kicked off the air or lose the deal.

 

This plays into reality, allows the child company to gain popularity quicker, allows the child company to generate more revenue, and allows the workers to gain some national exposure.

[Adam Ryland]

(NB: Twenty five more days of the journal to go and there's still over three hundred items to get through, so most days I'll now be doing a main diary entry and then one or two quick ones from the 'minor features' list.)

 

Feb 29: One Night Only Deals

 

During the booking phase, the user now has access to a Hire Local button. This gives access to a list of all the unemployed workers who are local (i.e. those based in the same region as the show is being held) who can be contacted and offered a one night only deal. The negotiations are handled then and there with no delay, and if successful the worker is added to the roster.

 

This is useful for getting in local talent to act as jobbers for that night's show, or for getting a one-off mystery guest. It simulates being able to call up people who live relatively nearby (or are visiting backstage) on short notice.

 

The game recognises the one night only deal as a special type of contract that does not generate the usual 'too soon to re-sign' block, therefore meaning that if a local worker impresses during his one night appearance then there is no reason that you can't look into signing him on a more permanent basis afterward.

 

Feb 29: Search By Language

 

A much requested feature, you can now search workers by the languages they speak.

 

Feb 29: Search By Race

 

Following on from the above, you can also now search workers by their racial background.

[Adam Ryland]

Mar 01: Advance To Next Show

Mar 01: Advance To End Of Month

Mar 01: Advance To End Of Year

 

These three additions are all related so we'll handle them as one. The Multi Advance \ Fast Advance feature has previously required you to use a slider to select an exact number of days to skip through. This has now been upgraded with three extra buttons that allow you to move quickly to your next show (assuming you're employed and have one), the end of the current month, and the end of the current year. It's not ground-breaking by any means, but I know this will save a lot of people an awful lot of time.

 

Mar 01: Multi Advance Stop

 

By popular request, pressing space bar while on the loading screen will now cancel any ongoing multi advance that is in progress. i.e. when that day's loading is over you will return to the web site as normal and would need to manually restart the multi advance if you wanted it.

 

Mar 01: Inactivity Tolerance Change

 

In previous games all workers could get annoyed by being left off shows, even if they were under written contracts and therefore getting paid either way. As a slight upgrade to this, some workers - primarily those who are extremely money oriented or unambitious - will now not care if they're left off most shows as long as they're getting paid anyway.

[Adam Ryland]

Mar 02: Tag Team Upgrade

 

Tag teams have now been upgraded so that the AI can use them more realistically and logically. Duos are now defined as being either Units or Individuals.

 

Units are for teams who are closely aligned with each other; they will only ever turn together, never individually, thus preventing them from being split up accidentally by the AI. They are also much more likely to be booked to work together (even if they end up with radically different pushes) and also are far less likely to be teamed with anyone else.

 

Individuals are for loosely connected duos, for examples those who have just been stuck together short-term or who are singles stars in their own right. They can be split up via AI turns, and although they are more likely to be booked together they can also be booked with other people if needed.

 

These new definitions help tag teams act more like real life.

 

Mar 02: Teams And Falls

 

In previous TEW games everybody on the winning side of a team-based match got the same degree of impact for the victory and everyone on the losing side got the same degree of negative impact too.

 

This has now been overhauled so that the game uses a finer degree of control, taking into account the new Unit \ Individuals tag team split at the same time. For example, in a big one-fall multi man match, someone who neither won the fall, lost the fall, nor was a tag team partner of anyone who did barely gets any impact to his popularity due to the win \ loss because he was basically irrelevant as far as the result went. In another example, if Worker A gets pinned then he gets the highest degree of negative impact, his regular tag team partner Worker B would either get the same degree (if they're a Unit) or slightly less (if they're Individuals), and the rest of his team would get very little impact (assuming they have no other connection to Worker A).

 

This makes tag team \ multi-man booking far more realistic, especially in situations like Japan where you may have a couple of veterans tagging with a young boy; as long as it's the latter who takes the pin, the veterans aren't going to be particularly affected by it as nobody blames them. This also makes booking multi-man matches easier as you don't have to worry about hurting the popularity of guys who you only stuck in the match to make up the numbers.

[Adam Ryland]

Mar 03: Dynamic Spillover

 

In previous games the 'spillover' system worked by having surrounding regions receive a boost in popularity when one region reached certain pre-set levels. This worked fine, but did create a somewhat unrealistic effect with sudden increases and the associated impact on finances.

 

This has now been upgraded to 'dynamic spillover'. The system works as before, except that spillover effects are now created on-the-fly based on the current level of each region, no longer requiring pre-set levels to be hit. This means the spillover is a much smoother process that mimics reality much better.

 

The advantages of this, other than the realism, is that it means you (and the AI) can grow companies in a much more natural manner, as surrounding regions will grow in proportion to each other.

 

Mar 03: Money Cap Change

 

In previous games the most money a company could have was capped at 250 million. This has now been raised to $999,999,999.

 

This allows a much bigger 'war chest' to be amassed, which can be useful if you are planning to create a massive broadcaster of your own given their expense.

 

Mar 03: Drug Testing Clarification

 

In previous games, the cost of drug testing would catch some new players out, with them left wondering why a sudden increase had happened in the Misc Expenditure after a show. To counter this, the player will be mailed after each show to clarify that a drugs test has happened and exactly how much it cost.