Starting with a custom promotion

[monele]

Hello everyone! Seeking advice for a playthrough concept I'd like to set up in TEW 2016.

 

I've been running a fantasy promotion in WWE 2K14 for a year or so and I'd like to have the same one in a TEW game.

 

When I say fantasy, I do mean *fantasy*, as it involves werewolves, witches, giants, mummies, ghosts and various other supernatural archetypes (show's called Supernaturals, go figure!). I've never had to truly answer the question, but I've always tried to make it so it could work as kayfabe and be a real-world promotion with non-monstrous wrestlers

 

 

Since I tend to ramble, here's my main question:

 

What's the quickest and easiest way to play a game with a custom promotion with a specific product (mixed-gender being key) and specific characters/alter-egos (though not specific wrestlers -- that's what makeup and costumes are for!) ?

Probably asking too much, but I'm hoping for a setup that isn't the hardest to play ever, as I'm still a rookie at TEW.

 

I know you can start your own promo in-game, or add one in a database to start with. I'm looking for a good balance between game difficulty, customization and setup time.

 

--------

 

Now onto some details, in case they change the deal...

 

The promotion currently has two shows (main + sub) with 5 and 4 matches per week respectively. One PPV per month. All this follows the classic WWE show setup the game forces on you and I don't *need* this.

It has single and tag titles, for men and women separately, though I would love to have a mixed-gender mentality if doing it in TEW.

 

I don't mind starting as an indie company with a slow schedule at first. I still need to learn how to really play the game anyway and too much too fast might be overwhelming. I'd rather avoid database editing and build things organically, but maybe it'll be way too hard/uncontrollable.

 

 

Things I think I'll need:

 

* Create fantasy alter egos for every wrestler. I already have a bunch of characters and it'll be much easier for me to reuse the concepts than to come up with a whole new roster.

* ... with custom-made pictures

* Enough varied wrestlers to take on the characters. There are brutes, high fliers, entertainers, etc... varied bunch.

 

 

Things I'd like:

 

* Custom product with mixed-gender matches and a mix of entertainment and matches

* Mixed gender titles?

* A secondary show once things get going

 

 

Things that'd bother me:

 

* Too much randomness with the roster. I can keep the storylines on track through a few mishaps, but if my main eventers keep dropping or leaving left and right, my creativity (and fun) would be stiffled.

* Having to recreate everything piece by piece, stat by stat, just to be able to play the concept

 

 

My "history" with TEW, to give a sense of where I'm at:

I played a AAA game for less than an in-game year on TEW 2013. That's my experience with the TEW series so far. I also wouldn't call myself an expert at games, and even less so in management games.

[Dorian]

<p>There's no real "quick" way of playing a custom promotion. These take a bit of time to set up. I'm currently working on a custom promotion myself. Spent about 70+ hours setting it up. Then again, I'm a perfectionist, so I might be overdoing it.</p><p> </p><p>

A good idea if you are running a promotion of this type is to run a key featured lucha libre type of promotion. Lucha Libre is the type of promotion that would treat these types of things are real life. Also you'll want your company to be integrated in nature to allow for mixing of genders. Making it a storyline focused company (so say like 40/50% matches) will also be a good idea as well.</p><p> </p><p>

Since you seem to be fancying a product that's fantasy based, I'd probably stay away from Realistic and Hyper Realistic. These two tend to be treated as keeping things "to real life" and since you seem to be doing a fantasy federation, that's what you'll want to shy away from. I'd probably recommend adding Mainstream, since this seems like something that would appeal to a mainstream type audience and maybe add in some Daredevil (probably up to Medium at most) as it would likely have some high spectacle spots.</p><p> </p><p>

Another possibility to add to that Modern and/or Cult. Modern will increase the pacing of the matches. Cult usually have more mature storylines, so if you wanted a little more "High Fantasy" that would be the direction to take it. Cult would make it harder to get a TV channel to pick it up.</p><p> </p><p>

A neat concept is perhaps utilizing the custom angle to create long running angles that you can just say "Romeo and Juliet meet up with Hamlet who then devise a plot to kill King George, but Scotland's King MacBeth along with Prince Adam of Eternia and Camelot's Lancelot over here the plan" and play out the entire brief storyline. Like say 10-12 minute intervals, which could set up a match of Romeo, Juliet and King George face off against King MacBeth, Prince Adam and Knight Lancelot, but King MacBeth betrays his team mates.</p><p> </p><p>

The match could be the actual fighting that would normally take place in a TV series, just replaced with the in-ring action instead. Neat concept, really, if I must say.</p><p> </p><p>

If you are a rookie, it is to probably start with a small company to being with. Small companies aren't hard to run with, and also allow you to continue to build your wrestlers and get to know them as well. You might be able to pull off a regional, but a small company might be a better way to start.</p><p> </p><p>

For storylines, a good idea with the set up is to run around 5-6 storylines at most and start. Keep those strictly for your uppercard and main eventers to start with. This will make sure that the guys at the top of your card, stay at the top of the card.</p><p> </p><p>

If you want to do mixed gender, don't feel afraid to just doing it. After all, if you are doing a fantasy based company, the rules are yours and yours alone. Don't feel constrained for having men and women separately. The moment you make sure your federation is integrated (by actually checking the box for it) you don't get penalized if a man faces off against a woman and she wins. It is quite refreshing really.</p><p> </p><p>

If you want to start a federation that is probably closest to how you want to play, I'd recommend going into the database and activating the promotion called SAW. That's going to be as closest to the promotion you wish to run, if you want to get a feel for what running a promotion like yours (which is different than this) would be like. Even then, you'll still need to do all the Alter-Egos too.</p><p> </p><p>

In all honesty for titles, you could just have there be a title of "Show's MVP", "Show's Best Couple", and some such. For something like this, think outside the box. <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/biggrin.png.929299b4c121f473b0026f3d6e74d189.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /> Have fun with it.</p><p> </p><p>

If you don't want to worry about people leaving, you could make it a Japanese federation and set your best guys in the company as "loyal" to your company. Making it very hard for those guys to leave. This would allow you enough time to not only build the company but to be able to hire a guy you think might work out for the company and not worry about them leaving.</p><p> </p><p>

Just some thoughts from me. Hope you enjoy.</p>

[liontamer]

<p>I'm not sure I followed all that, but in regards to starting your own promotion, here are some thoughts on how I did mine and what I might do differently to see if they help you out.</p><p> </p><p>

1) I've never been, thought I am close, but everyone seems to say the biggest thing is surviving the jump to cult, read about, prepare for it financially. Have a plan in place.</p><p> </p><p>

2) When I started my current save, the game was just out and everyone was trying to figure out how to make money as sponsorship was low and show costs high. The thought at the time was you had to run as many shows as possible early to raise your home region pop enough to drive up attendance so that you could break even before being declared bankrupt. Things have been tweeked 28 times since then, not sure if this is still an issue. But related to it, the biggest difficulty determination is money It buys you time to grow before the bankruptcy ticker begins.</p><p> </p><p>

3) Never tried an intergender title, but I think if you don't specify gender, it should allow any mix. I had no titles for 6 months and then gradually started adding them as the roster grew.</p><p> </p><p>

4a) My thought was my fed is in the great lakes, if I only run shows in the great lakes, I'll only ever grow in this one area and get sponsorship from the areas it spills into and that won't be enough. Besides, my talent will want more money and it will negate any added earnings. So the problem as I saw it was how to raise revenues without increasing costs as much. I did this three ways.....</p><p> </p><p>

First, I turned on internet production. This allowed me to start making money early as my shows were seen around the world. So instead of getting just a few regions to grow, everything did - until about week 16 or so (posted the exact number in a thread somewhere) and then all of those places I hadn't been to tanked rapidly. So what I did is start a rotation where I picked specific places on each continent to make it to before they dropped to keep the continent up as a whole. Because of this every game area now has at least one region that is 30+ and that means that I'll have more in sponsors than most do when I hit cult (presently >100K sponsors and I am in the midst of my best month which should net >300K pre tax - this while running 11 shows/month).</p><p> </p><p>

This gave my workers a lot of time to build skill without getting over so fast that they wanted more than I could afford and raised sponsorship money.</p><p> </p><p>

Second, I wanted to keep my workers consistent both for skill and pop growth so I made very infrequent use of the one night only and similar deals, signing people to long deals instead so I could lock them in cheap. For people that were already way over, I put them on special attraction deals so that I could only use them when needed without upsetting them. Basically to get a good show rating for regional battles, only needed 1 good show a month, but it might take me more than one try to get it.</p><p> </p><p>

I now have several extremely talented wrestlers that are very over in my main regions.</p><p> </p><p>

One benefit to my giant roster (was 30+ early on, presently >130 wrestlers) is a lot of mentor/protégé relationships and a lot of good chemistry.</p><p> </p><p>

4b) So one thing I did was buy up other promotions. I will still absolutely advocate doing this, but hold a show in their most popular region the day you buy them out or pop will drop so fast you won't benefit (And don't make them a child promotion or you don't absorb their pop).</p><p> </p><p>

As I look back, what I would consider doing now, is maybe having a roster of 15 guys early on (in your case maybe 10 of your creatures and 5 people to fight them) and then supplement with one nighters to job to them. The one nighters keep the jobbing costs low and keep the people actually on your roster happy that they win a lot. Then when you actually have people on the roster face each other, they'll have good momentum.</p><p> </p><p>

The possible advantage here is that you can sky rocket up the ranks in your home region much more quickly, become profitable much more quickly, and use capital to purchase popularity by buying out other feds instead of raising it there yourself. For example, I think I had the mid atlantic up to about 18 by touring there before buying out MAW. I could have put that time into my main region, raising the attendance and therefore income and still had the same popularity sponsorship from the mid atlantic at the end of the transaction. If you go this route, try to buy companies out soon after they go negative, some fall so fast that it's only briefly worth it to buy them.</p><p>

Also because I'm not touring, I'd save the internet for later to see if I get bigger gains when my show ratings are so much higher.</p>

[monele]

<p>Well there we go, promotion is up and running and we just had our first show! Thanks for all the advice, it gave me confidence in trying out the concept <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/smile.png.142cfa0a1cd2925c0463c1d00f499df2.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p>

<a href="http://imgur.com/a/kqVbW" rel="external nofollow">http://imgur.com/a/kqVbW</a></p><p> </p><p>

Overall rating: 24... for a popularity of 25 in the Mid West. Um... well... for a first show that's not too bad? Right?</p><p>

Eh well, I did a few mistakes.</p><p> </p><p>

That's my best match of the evening: <a href="http://imgur.com/a/tI9J6" rel="external nofollow">http://imgur.com/a/tI9J6</a></p><p>

I got Cobra as a local one-nighter on a whim to be able to put one of my lonely Lower Midcard faces out there... and Pixie was auto-pushed as LowMid so I wasn't expecting much... well... they did better than all my veterans. Go yous!</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>

Here's the product I went for: <a href="http://imgur.com/a/I0v4x" rel="external nofollow">http://imgur.com/a/I0v4x</a></p><p> </p><p>

Compared to what you said, Dorian, I put more focus on matches for events since 1) I like matches to be important, 2) I find it hard to come up with enough story to fill a show, at least at first. I believe it can be changed later anyway?</p><p>

I definitely went with Integrated women. It's a blast to be able to have anyone fight anyone. Definitely something that stunted my creativity in WWE 2K14.</p><p>

In the definition I used some Modern, but wasn't sure about Lucha as I'm not familiar with it in real life and have no idea what it would imply in the game. The description of modern looked good to me (more speed and action). The bit of Daredevil was also going in that direction.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>

The company is Small, mostly because the way the game presents it, I was scared of starting with a "very difficult" game. Which might be a misdirection as I see many people recommending starting with the smallest company size to get a feel for things and not be overwhelmed. Oh well, AAA was Small too and I ended up doing okay with it.</p><p> </p><p>

The most time so far was spent just hiring workers! And finding those that would fit my preexisting character concepts. I did want to reuse most of them to speed things up. Having to come up with 15+ new characters can be overwhelming, on top of rediscovering the game.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>

So far I have 2 storylines as nothing else immediately makes sense to me. I'll probably get more ideas as I see matches and how wrestlers work with each other.</p><p> </p><p>

Interesting idea for titles. In my 2K14 universe, belts are actually artefacts of power, so it's not just about glory, it's often about getting the power to do various things (resurrecting people has been quite popular -- so yeah, I guess they're like Dragon Balls, hm). Still, I like the idea of having "prestige" ones too. Will have to think about it.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>

@liontamer:</p><p> </p><p>

For TEW '13 I read that you could lock in your size to avoid bad surprises before being ready, so I've already done that. I'll stay Small for now and until I feel I'm ready <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/smile.png.142cfa0a1cd2925c0463c1d00f499df2.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p>

Financially I was really scared at first... but it's going much better than I thought! Sponsors are rather generous and pay for a monthly show on their own... with the ticket sales paying for another one. So I've already decided to up the production value.</p><p>

That said, in the long run, I might get killed by regional battles and their penalties. Will have to see.</p><p> </p><p>

Does Internet production give money? I thought it only gave popularity?</p><p> </p><p>

Is it a good idea to do shows in varied sub-areas? I remember trying going out of my homebase with AAA and, because popularity was so low, I barely had any audience, any sales and it killed my finances.</p>

[d12345]

<p>Stay in your home region for now if you are concerned about finances.</p><p> </p><p>

Also a tidbit you should pay attention to match aims (or turn them off completely). Not putting a match with the match aim for storytelling if your fans expect it is one of the easiest ways to kill your final show grade.</p><p> </p><p>

That show would've been in the 30s with the proper match aim on at least 1 match.</p><p> </p><p>

Also there's not much of a point that I can think of to cap your promotion at Small. I would suggest capping it at Regional. The Regional to Cult jump is where you lose big money, but Small to Regional is good for your finances.</p><p> </p><p>

Internet is just for popularity. DVD/Home Video gives you some income. </p><p> </p><p>

You just need to make sure your final show grades are a little better than your popularity if you want to keep progressing!</p><p> </p><p>

Your product sounds cool btw. It reminds me of the ZEN promotion in New Zealand (Cornellverse).</p>

[monele]

<p>Yeaah, I totally forgot about aims that first time. New feature, new mistake <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/smile.png.142cfa0a1cd2925c0463c1d00f499df2.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />. I made sure to have one match with this aim on the second show I'm prepping.</p><p> </p><p>

Good to know for the size, I'll remove the block then.</p><p> </p><p>

I activated DVDs since I seem to earn enough money to take the "risk".</p><p> </p><p>

Ahh, ZEN does that? I'll have to check their description and roster then <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/smile.png.142cfa0a1cd2925c0463c1d00f499df2.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />... And thanks! Who knows, I might end up posting summaries of shows here.</p>

[d12345]

<p>Oh yea ZEN is awesome. Some of their worker bios talks about some of the crazy storylines. My favorite is John Gordon falling into a transcendental portal to another dimension opened by Guru Vishni. He then grew a goattee and became my favorite C-Verse character (for its ridiculousness) Mirror Universe John Gordon.</p><p> </p><p>

Anyway yea you should do a diary in the diary sections.</p>

[monele]

I probably won't have the drive to do what I see others doing with full in-character stories, but I'd be glad to share highlights and such, and possibly get some further advice along the way

 

Should such a thread be made in the Dynasty section, or is there a better place?

[d12345]

I probably won't have the drive to do what I see others doing with full in-character stories, but I'd be glad to share highlights and such, and possibly get some further advice along the way

 

Should such a thread be made in the Dynasty section, or is there a better place?

 

Hmm. There are threads for specific companies in the general discussions but I would say for a custom fed you'd want to start it in the Dynasty Section.

 

You'd just need to tell people about your company though and put some photos in it and do a recap style thing.

[CornetteVerse]

<p>Top Hacks</p><p> </p><p>

If you wish to begin on your own promotion I offer the following advice.</p><p> </p><p>

1. Start by running SWF, release their talent and then resign and start your own company. This runs a top competitor down. It also gives you a lot of top talent. Warning not everyone will sign. Some people hold a grudge (temporary) and others are too popular (initially). It also allows you to load the deck with top staff. Good announce team and ref can lift your matches. This move allows you to start with Duane Fry and Peter Michaels. Enforcer Roberts makes a hell of a Road Agent. Darren Smith or Ric Young are top refs. I personally lke picking up Adrian Garcia for Color. </p><p> </p><p>

2. Start an Alliance. Only select revenue and talent sharing. The other items are restrictive. Add TCW. You can add NOTHB or Pride Glory as well... the others you will want wont sign and smaller promos dilute the money you get. In the early going this will keep you from going broke.</p>

[Irish Wolf]

You want a challenge try try the Road to Glory challenge. Not only do you start your own promotion but you have to build a worker from the ground up to get an A* match in a national or hire promotion. Its good times.

[noknuckles]

Having workers leave is a reality for smaller promotions and working around having your best guys and gals poached by national feds is just a part of Regional and lower companies..

 

If you want, you could start with a Cult promotion and give everyone written contracts. If you're trying to make sense of a company that just pops out of nowhere and becomes Cult over night, it could just be a matter of a rich promoter with deep pockets and tons of marketing just injecting money into building hype for a product. I believe RAW in the C-Verse started like that.

 

If you get to the point where you can profit/break even running monthly shows, but you don't have the resources to consistently win Regional Battles, one idea I've tinkered with is running two shows one month and taking a break the second. That's still 12 shows a year, so storyline writing-wise it's the same as if I'm running a monthly show, but I'd only lose 6 Regional Battles a year instead of 12.

 

I personally don't like the idea of running the company into the ground with the intent to "make it up" later on. I kinda like to roleplay in this game, and I just don't think running intentional losses for 6+ months is something I'd do in real life. It makes sense with regards to the game mechanics (I KNOW I'll get X pop per month if the wrestling industry is at Y, so I KNOW 8 months from now I'll profit and make it up), I just don't think this "Trust me, it'll get better 8 months from now" would fly in the real world, and even if I was my own boss it would be really scary to just intentionally dig myself into a hole on the hopes that things'll get better.

 

As for the preset difficulties, I went with Rock Hard and gave myself a lot more starting cash (30-50k). Rock Hard is pretty balanced, but if you don't inject cash, you'll spend the first year or so just running shows with super cheap talent that you don't really care about. I wanted to start booking shows with people I wanted right away, but didn't want so much cash that I could just book an all-star team. I know I eliminated a ton of challenge by doing this, but it's a good in-between between Rock Hard and Hard. I get the feeling of building from nothing (10 pop isn't quite nothing, but it's hard to profit at that point) but I also get to book fun shows from day 1.

 

I know some people like to start with 0 pop and build their way up, but going Rock Hard seems pretty balanced. I think by skipping the 0-10 building phase, you don't have to do the whole intentionally putting yourself into debt strategy.

 

I believe you started with hard? Which is pretty good. 10k is not a lot of money at all and 25 pop lets you put on shows without bleeding money.

 

As far as growing outside the home area, I haven't tried the internet idea so I don't know how that works yet (it sounds pretty good, I think I'll try running one show in Tri-State area once every few months and see how that works). But what I did is I stayed in my home area until I became comfortably profitable. I then created a brand split, a "B" brand of sorts whose job is to just grow my popularity elsewhere. This is kind of a double whammy of increasing my pop and increasing my total # of shows booked so that I can get more user talents quicker.

 

Off topic: My current game is a C-Verse 2005 game where you have Angels, Serpent God worshippers, princes of fallen kingdoms and strip club managers wrestling each other, so I think our tastes are not far apart