WMMA5 Developer's Journal

[Adam Ryland]

#151 Quick Hire

 

A new option is to 'quick hire' a fighter, which means contacting them with the stated intention that you want them on an upcoming card at short notice. This guarantees a quick response and that the fighter, if signed, will not complain about a lack of preparation time for that bout. The downside is that their fee can go up to cover their inconvenience. Unemployed fighters are particularly open to these offers as they seek a chance to prove themselves.

 

#152 Short Notice Search

 

The characters screen can now be searched specifically for those who will accept a 'quick hire' approach. This makes finding short notice replacements a much easier task for players.

 

#153 Silver Tongue

 

A new user talent, Silver Tongue, has been added. This allows the user the ability to talk fighters into things more easily. This adds to the depth of the user talent section.

 

#154 Broadcaster Changes

 

Broadcasters can now be set up to undergo mid-game changes to their stats. This allows for expansions, decreases in size, etc, and so mimics reality better.

 

#155 More Random Incidents

 

The amount and scope of random incidents has been increased to breathe more life into the game world and keep it challenging and unpredictable.

 

#156 Decider Rounds

 

A whole new set of fight formats have been added that allow for 'decider rounds', rounds that are only activated if there is a draw at that point in the fight. This helps simulate reality, particularly in regard to reality shows.

 

#157 Attribute Suggestions

 

Many of the attributes suggested by users in the Suggestions forum have been added, including items like Body Puncher, Loves To Clinch, and Eye Poker.

 

#158 Historic Pro Records

 

When viewing a fighter's fight history, his or her pro record at the time of each fight are shown. This gives the user the ability to easily see the progression of a fighter's career.

 

#159 Historic Rankings

 

When viewing fight histories the fighters' ranking at the time of the fight are shown. This gives the user a better sense of the context of the fight, as you can see whether someone was in the world top 10 at that point, for example.

 

#160 Replacement Offers

 

When a fighter is forced off a card, other fighters can e-mail the user to volunteer to step in. This makes things more realistic and makes the game world more alive.

[Adam Ryland]

#161 Company Credibility

 

Each company now has a Credibility rating that shows how they appear to the fans / outside world as a legitimate fighting organisation.

 

By default, the level starts at 75%, which is considered neutral and has no positive or negative impact. As things happen over the course of the game, active effects are logged and these can raise or lower the rating. If the rating goes over 80% then there is confidence in the company and attendances will rise and more viewers will watch the shows. A rating below 70% does the opposite.

 

Each active effect begins at a certain level and then fades over time until it eventually disappears. A list of all the current effects is available by clicking on the rating wherever it is seen, or by visiting the Credibility area of the player's office.

 

Positive active effects include having highly rated champions and challengers, fights between highly ranked opponents, and having lots of highly ranked fighters appearing on shows. Negative effects include having weak champions, undeserving challengers, non-competitive fights on the main card, a lack of quality fighters, avoiding drug testing, using suspended or scandal-hit fighters, and drug test failures.

 

The overall effect of this feature is to make the game more realistic as it enforces 'good' booking practise.

 

#162 Company Stability

 

A companion piece to the Company Credibility feature is Company Stability. This works in the same manner - a 75% default and active effects that raise or lower it - but is a measure of the how organised and reliable the company is, not a reflection on their legitimacy as a fighting league. A high rating leads to higher revenues from sponsorship, advertising, etc, while a low rating again does the opposite.

 

The positive effects in this case are running shows, rising in size, and handling incidents well. Negative effects include cancelling shows, running bad quality shows, falling in size, fighter misbehaviour, financial issues, and becoming embroiled in scandals.

 

Again, this feature gives a more realistic air to running a company.

 

#163 Feints

 

The use of feints in the game engine has been totally overhauled. Skilled fighters can now use them to throw opponents off balance or to expose openings. The associated commentary has also been upgraded to better make this clear to the reader.

 

#164 Contract Overview

 

By request, the office now comes with a contract overview section where the player can get an overall view of all the people under contract with the organisation. This makes organisation much easier.

 

#165 Game World Changes

 

Canada's The Prairies region has now been divided into Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Europe's Mediterranean is now divided into Italy, Iberia and South East Europe. These requested changes give more depth to the game world and allow more targeted regionality.

 

#166 Spoiler Injuries

 

Several people requested that the game be changed so that reading a profile during a fight you don't see injuries as they could spoil the end result. This has been addressed, with effects from the fight invisible in profiles until after the fight has been read and advanced from.

 

#167 Weight Class Movement

 

To make things much easier for the player, fighters can now be moved between weight classes via the weight class screen itself, rather than needing to be done individually via the roster. As an addition tied into this, the weight class now includes not only lists of who is in each division but gives a running total so that you don't have to manually count them.

 

#168 Auto Renewal Enhancement

 

By request, the auto renewal contract system now allows the user to choose between full or partial control; previously it was limited to just partial. This allows players to avoid a lot of admin / clicking if they want to.

 

#169 Decision Scores

 

When displaying a fight's result, such as in a roster or fight history screen, if it ended in a judges' decision then the scores are now shown in brackets next to it. This saves having to click and view the fight report each time.

 

#170 Match Making Enhanced Sorting

 

To address people's issues and make match making easier, the screen now comes equipped with a series of one-click buttons that organise the lists. These are Sort By Name, Sort By Popularity, Sort By Reputation and Sort By Ranking. The latter is the default. So, by clicking Sort By Popularity, for example, the lists will automatically resort to show your most popular fighters at the top. This makes it quick and easy to find who you want, especially if you match-make by rankings most of the time.

 

#171 Time Management

 

Fighters are now much smarter about time management within fights. For example, they're not going to try and execute difficult passes if there are only a few seconds left, and they can throw in late flurries and takedown attempts to try and leave a favourable impression with the judges or "steal" the round.

 

#172 Automatic Signing

 

When delegating negotiations, the user can now specifically set that he or she wants the deal to be automatically signed if successful, completely side-stepping the new for them to actually do anything at all, not even use the Quick Accept button. The fighter simply gets added straight to the roster.

 

#173 Special Striking Text

 

The fight engine now includes special play-by-play text for a variety of common striking elements (like one-twos, flurries, etc) to make them more realistic, dynamic, and interesting to read. In addition, there is a lot of extra colour commentary where added detail - such as remarking on someone's hand speed, technique or defensive skills - is given.

 

#174 MDB File

 

To bring the game in-line with TEW, the user can export all the game's data to an MDB file that is not password protected via the Options screen. This is useful for people who are statistically inclined or prefer to use a spreadsheet program to sift through the data.

 

#175 Mass Editing

 

To make things as easy as possible for mod makers, the mass edit section has been dramatically enlarged to allow much more data to be altered. This includes things like automatically setting all base pays to their best level, editing everyone's experience to match what it should be for their pro record, being able to quickly remove / blank profiles, clearing team memberships, changing picture formats...and loads of other stuff.

 

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That concludes the Developer's Journal. As mentioned earlier, this doesn't include everything that has been added, but you can view all 380+ changes and additions in-game via the What's New? button that you'll find on the title screen.

 

As we've discussed in the Progress Report threads, the game is still looking to be released either in December or January, with the latter more likely. We're still working on finishing the testing, database work, and putting the finishing touches to the interface, so you can expect a definitive statement on the release sometime in the next few weeks when we've made more progress on them.

 

In the meantime, stay tuned to the forums or our Facebook page as we're planning on doing some competitions to win copies of the game in the coming weeks.