Honor code

[Dr_Avalanche]

When you play, do you ever set restrictions on how you play the game because of "realism", "exploits" or other things in order to help immersion, or simply to not make the game too easy?

 

I can come up with one. I don't negotiate away travel costs when signing new wrestlers to my regional promotion, especially not if they are from oversea, because they seem to put absolutely no value themselves on having to fly back and forth between Europe and America, for example.

[phoxy]

<p>I guess it's more of a quirk than a code, but one thing I do is always sign new hires to 3 month to 1 year "trial" deals. No matter what size I am, they get a 1 year (or less) deal. A Dev deal if applicable. Super easy thanks to the template feature. </p><p> </p><p>

I have a pretty bad habit of filling up my roster with young people, unemployed people, and people I just like which leads to roster bloat very, very quickly. So, I came up with the trial deal so I could let go of people I don't use or have no plans for without feeling bad about it. It also let's me weed out bad apples fairly quickly. Get popped for drugs or law problems more than once or show up wasted a lot? Well, I don't want to fire you because I'm a softie, but you can bet you won't be getting a renewal. </p><p> </p><p>

No matter how good they are, even if I hire them every game, know they aren't a problem, and have a million storylines for them already written out, still get a trial deal to start with.</p>

[scorpion]

<p>I try to stick the spirit of whatever promotion I'm running. I often will look in the editor at the hiring rules and either force myself to follow them strictly or just use as a basic guideline. </p><p> </p><p>

For example when running CZCW I'm rarely going to hire anyone larger than a middleweight, focusing on luchadors and cruiserweights. I will occasionally bring in someone bigger, like Magwitch who I like to team with Babau and Moroi as a trio.</p><p> </p><p>

I also keep all the original talent for as long as their initial contact runs (unless they do something specific to get fired)</p><p> </p><p>

To each their own, but I always found the "I took over WWE and fired everyone who stinks on day 1, and then hired half of RoH" to not be a very fun or challenging way to play.</p>

[phoxy]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="scorpion" data-cite="scorpion" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="42612" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><p> I also keep all the original talent for as long as their initial contact runs (unless they do something specific to get fired)</p><p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Yeah, I do that too. I don't find it fun to play a promotion and just turn it into some other promotion immediately.</p>

[soxfan93]

<p>The new game is changing the way I play completely. I used to do the "fire everyone and start fresh" thing, but scorpion is absolutely right, it ruins the experience of enveloping yourself in that time period.</p><p> </p><p>

For example, simply because he has 76 Star Quality and isn't on time decline, I'm pushing "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff to the moon in my WCW game in COTT.</p>

[jean-vic]

<p>I recently made a similar thread, but it got no attention, so I'm glad someone else has brought it up. Here is my current list of rules:</p><p> </p><p>

1. Any worker who has a negative locker room incident receives a punishment relative to the severity of his actions. Shawn Michaels has made everyone hate Owen Hart, so he just lost a feud with Owen Hart. Any worker who has a positive locker room incident, such as lifting the locker room, is rewarded with a push commensurate with their actions. Christian helped morale, so I gave him the Light Heavyweight title. </p><p>

2. Heels can beat anyone lower than them on the card cleanly. Anyone level or above them can only be beaten in a tainted or cheap manner. </p><p>

3. Must have 7-8 storylines running at all times. Two/three main event feuds, two/three midcard feuds, one lower midcard feud and one Women's Division feud. Cannot exceed those numbers. </p><p>

4. Wrestlers will receive pushes based on their skills. As I am running WWF in the MA mod, only wrestlers with high SQ and/or entertainment can be pushed to main event. Anyone with low SQ/entertainment is capped at midcard unless their skills develop. I also frown upon workers who are entertaining but aren't great in the ring, but I don't actively limit them. </p><p>

5. No wrestler in Time Decline can win a major title, but they can win tag, midcard or lower belts in order to eventually put younger talent over. </p><p>

6. Every show is only allowed one match interference to further a storyline. This forces me to use more angles rather than spamming run ins like Russo did. </p><p>

7. Any wrestler who is subject to three or more negative opinions from other workers is capped at midcard (though they may be jobbed out if a lot of negative opinions are being voiced - You're on thin ice, Bob Holly!) Anyone who gets three or more positive opinions is pushed. I keep detailed notes of this so I can make amendments if the opinion trend for a worker shifts. </p><p>

8. Any negative incident between two or more workers backstage must be turned into an onscreen feud. This is to mimic Vince McMahon's propensity to use real life tensions onscreen.</p>

[woody316]

<p>I always like to give myself a set of rules to play with so that I don't sign and push the same guys each time but these rules have changed every time that I've played. Some of the ones I've used are:</p><p> </p><p>

- Only being able to use wrestlers that have come from my dojo. Generally I'll start with a small company, give them enough money to create a dojo and turn the new wrestler speed up for a bit to give myself a roster of 10 guys then turn it back to normal. I make myself use these guys as refs, road agents, commentary guys. Always an interesting one to do.</p><p> </p><p>

- Can only sign guys under a certain age, experience level and then they have to leave once they exceed those limits. Ensures I always have to push new people and plan for departures.</p><p> </p><p>

- I've played as WWE before and split the company into three weight divisions (heavyweight, middleweight and cruiserweight) and I have to main event wrestlemania with these divisions on a rotating basis (one year heavy, one year middle, one year cruiser) and people can only fight others from the same division. Can make it quite difficult to get good results some years and makes me have to put different people as the focal point every year.</p><p> </p><p>

- I normally will stick to the traditions of any company that I take over. So I'll look at their bio and hiring rules and stick to those. Again stops me from hiring the same people every game that I play.</p><p> </p><p>

- I've played as a tag team company and only had tag team matches on my cards. I could hire anybody I want on a short term deal but they could only stay on the roster if they had great chemistry with somebody. Led to my main tag team being a strange combination of Brock Lesnar and Goldust at one point. Led to some very strange storylines going on.</p><p> </p><p>

I don't think I would get anywehere near the same amount of play if I didn't give myself an honour code or set of rules at the beginning of a game. I love the RtG style game and the standard make yourself the biggest company in the world games but I feel like I end up with the same guys doing the same things if I play them more than once. I love playing games with rules that I've come up with to amuse myself.</p>

[ElChorizo]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="woody316" data-cite="woody316" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="42612" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>- I've played as a tag team company and only had tag team matches on my cards. I could hire anybody I want on a short term deal but they could only stay on the roster if they had great chemistry with somebody. Led to my main tag team being a strange combination of Brock Lesnar and Goldust at one point. Led to some very strange storylines going on.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I do something sort of like this for my tag teams, except I also allow myself to use any already formed teams. So for instance, Amazing Fire Fly and Riley McManus become a team because they have good chemistry, but I allow myself to keep legacy teams suck as Rich and Famous or Going Coastal because they started teaming up before I began creating teams.</p>

[lavelleuk]

<p>I've had a few, on my old SWF game anyone who wasn't a main eventer had to leave the company when they turned 40.</p><p> </p><p>

Any main eventer who entered decline had to lose and be written out at the next Supreme Challenge.</p><p> </p><p>

On my SWF game and my current game any none main eventer can never be kept more over than their star quality. I have some amazing talents with great menace, charisma, psychology, selling etc. sat as lower midcard guys because their star quality is only C</p><p> </p><p>

In current game I can only have 1 lightweight worker (Been KC Glenn all six years) and 5 middleweight guys. </p><p> </p><p>

I hire every new worker who is Big Heavyweight or more, and everyone who is an ex boxer, football player, sumo wrestler, MMA fighter etc. makes it interesting, gave a guy a good solid midcard push as things like performance stars and on camera stats said "strong" by time I could see his stats he had 8 star quality, selling and psychology were something like 30, his safety was in 40's etc. but all three entertainment stats were A*</p><p> </p><p>

If I didn't have those rules I wouldn't get interesting incidents like that where completely terrible, undeserving workers got given a solid 6 months-a year long push in a global company on world wide prime time TV lol</p>

[woody316]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="lavelleuk" data-cite="lavelleuk" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="42612" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I've had a few, on my old SWF game anyone who wasn't a main eventer had to leave the company when they turned 40.<p> </p><p> Any main eventer who entered decline had to lose and be written out at the next Supreme Challenge.</p><p> </p><p> On my SWF game and my current game any none main eventer can never be kept more over than their star quality. I have some amazing talents with great menace, charisma, psychology, selling etc. sat as lower midcard guys because their star quality is only C</p><p> </p><p> In current game I can only have 1 lightweight worker (Been KC Glenn all six years) and 5 middleweight guys. </p><p> </p><p> I hire every new worker who is Big Heavyweight or more, and everyone who is an ex boxer, football player, sumo wrestler, MMA fighter etc. makes it interesting, gave a guy a good solid midcard push as things like performance stars and on camera stats said "strong" by time I could see his stats he had 8 star quality, selling and psychology were something like 30, his safety was in 40's etc. but all three entertainment stats were A*</p><p> </p><p> If I didn't have those rules I wouldn't get interesting incidents like that where completely terrible, undeserving workers got given a solid 6 months-a year long push in a global company on world wide prime time TV lol</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I like the no main eventer can be more over than their star quality game. How do you make sure that they never exceed this though?</p>

[monele]

<p>In my urban fantasy promotion, I assign "characters" to everyone (always a new gimmick when they debut). That said, whether I have a character idea and then look for workers or find a worker that inspires me a character, I always try to keep the "transformation" to what would be possible IRL.</p><p> </p><p>

If it can be done with hair dye, hair cuts/extensions, wigs, colored lenses, makeup, body painting, costumes, props, etc... then it flies. But I'm not turning a 7 footer into a 4-foot-tall dwarf character and ignore the impossibility of it. If I really want that dwarf, I'll look for a Very Small male worker. At worst, I'd change my concept of "dwarves" and say they're taller than what most people would expect.</p>

[lavelleuk]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="woody316" data-cite="woody316" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="42612" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I like the no main eventer can be more over than their star quality game. How do you make sure that they never exceed this though?</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I don't do it with main eventers, they're the only ones I don't as I want them all at A& overness lol. However, I do have a rule each main eventer must be at least B+ star quality</p><p> </p><p> It's the none-main eventers I don't allow to go above star quality, for that I just have them lose, or bury them in victory to knock their popularity back down.</p>

[DarK_RaideR]

<p>I generally try to be faithful to every promotion's spirit. It helps improve narrative and the whole game experience, as opposed to being the munchkin that tries to exploit the game's code. It also adds a lot of variety, depending on what promotion I'm running.</p><p> </p><p>

As a general rule, I also follow the "heels only win equal or better opponents via cheating" rule when playing promotions that have a face/heel split. Besides that, here are some minor rules I've imposed upon myself depending on the promotion</p><p> </p><p>

<span style="text-decoration:underline;">EMLL:</span> Workers must be Mexican. No tag teams or stables</p><p> </p><p>

<span style="text-decoration:underline;">ZEN:</span> Workers must be from Australia or NZ. Being young, high flying and from NZ increases a worker's chances of being hired. Storylines and match stipulations should include a good amount of wackines (such as running a ladder match for the conceptual title)</p><p> </p><p>

<span style="text-decoration:underline;">WEXXV:</span> Non-japanese workers (gaijin) start as heels. Titles are defended in matches that have at least average injury and content risk</p><p> </p><p>

Also, here are the rules I'm thinking of using in my upcoming GSW Dynasty</p><p>

- Minorities (african-american and latino) have hiring priority. Since there is no clear face/heel division, white people will be portrayed through gimmicks and storylines as either wigger "faces" like Top Dolla or priveleged "heels". Asians are at the bottom of the priority list, but suffer no other 'penalties' otherwise.</p><p>

- Gimmicks must make sense within the context of the company and the worker in question. I don't care if it looks like it's gonna get an A* rating, if it looks like a gimmick ZEN would use, it ain't gonna fly in GSDub.</p><p>

- Interference is limited to 1 per show and only if it furthers a storyline. With most matches being no DQ, this could otherwise turn into WCW.</p><p>

- Title matches can only end via pinfall, submission or special stipulation (item retrieval, 10 count etc). No countouts, DQ, time limit or stoppage. I like how Lucha Underground has a similar rule for their title matches.</p><p>

- Finally, in a nod to the original ECW, lines between reality and wrestling fiction will be blurred whenever possible, which includes but is not limited to backstage incidents inspiring on-stage stuff.</p>

[cappyboy]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="scorpion" data-cite="scorpion" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="42612" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><p> I also keep all the original talent for as long as their initial contact runs (unless they do something specific to get fired)</p><p> </p><p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Oh indeed. That's what I always tried to do pre-08 as well and why I reacted so badly to TCW's new roster when 08 came out. I was always paranoid about buying out written deals when I played big. So I tried to come up with fun ways to work the dead weight off the roster. That's how I came up with my House Divided storyline in the Cappy Pack that gave birth to Jay Darkness' transformation into Danny Fonzarelli. I hate dark gimmicks and wanted an in story reasons why both The Dark Brotherhood and the remnants of Painful Procedure were going away under my management. A House Divided was my answer to the problem. But I came up with it so late in TEW 07's life cycle I never got to play it out for myself. So when 08 comes out, all the need is gone and the TCW roster is fixed up shiny and new I balked.</p><p> </p><p> But probably just as well in retrospect because that lead to me founding my training feds.</p>

[Rayelek]

Unless I planned a main event push for someone or need to win a bidding war, my signings typically get 1 year (1 season) contracts, especially for development. After that year, they get reviewed and see what I want to do with them. Also, I only allow myself one development company, but I'll usually acquiesce and make it the one where I have to staff the whole thing so that I can make a decent chunk of developmental signings without feeling too bad.

[The_Monk]

I live by the following (im Playing COTT)

 

1) New signings below uppermid get a 1 yr deal PPA basically like a trial deal.

2) New Signings Uppermid above get 1yr written deal again like a trial

3) All PPAs get travel covered, but written doesn't

4) anyone lifting the Dressing room either gets a little win on my A show (RAW) or if I cant fit them in (due to storylines and time) I give them a Holiday or Bonus

5) Any one brought before the locker room judge ends up on a show against the Judge, and the judge wins (Role permitting) if the judge cant wrestle I pick a suitable candidate and if the judge is a manager, I let one of his workers get the win.

[kingjames]

Running an Angel Athletic Association game right now. I've been limiting workers who haven't worked for another company/aren't dojo graduates to 1 year "try-out" deals. I've also self-imposed using zero sex appeal angles, because it doesn't fit with the vision I have for the company. Much like Wu-Tang, AAA is for the children.

[Mkelm44]

I try to mimic my play style of the real life owner. I'm 4 years into a game with Lucha Underground (got them up to cult status verging on National) and I try to stick within the basic idea behind LU as far as workers being hired- in my mind the characters have to fit in as either lighter faster guys or supernatural guys. The only heavyweight I've gone after was Undertaker after his contract was up with WWE (he beat Mil Muertes who was on his way out and off to WWE and lost to Pentagon Dark) and otherwise it's been light and middleweights.

 

When I play as WWF/WWE on the other hand I go in as Vincent Kennedy McMahon (DAMNIT!)- I aggressively go after companies that are threats, leave certain companies alone to act as minor leagues for me and buy out companies that are in distress to put them out of business. Especially if I'm playing a 90s mod and doing the Monday Night Wars, I'll create an alliance with ECW so I can poach guys when I need them and help them out against WCW, while I actively try to sign anyone with talent away from WCW.