TEW2020 Announcement & Developer's Journal

[Adam Ryland]

<p><strong>#49: AI gimmick matches, ager / de-ager, bald free pictures, editing contracts</strong></p><p> </p><p>

To add to the realism of the game world, AI shows can now incorporate named gimmick matches like ladder, cage, etc, and these are shown in the match result text, i.e. "X beat Y in a ladder match".</p><p> </p><p>

A new addition to the editor is that there are automatic aging and de-aging facilities. The way this works is similar to a mass edit: you select the workers you want and how many years you want them to age or de-age, and the game will alter their skill levels accordingly to simulate that amount of time passing, using their age, debut date, settings, etc, to mimic what would happen in the real game. This takes into account context so, for example, you de-age an entire database and it's not going to regress people who haven't even debuted yet as clearly they've not even entered the game world. This feature can be a useful aid for database makers who wish to move their game worlds forward or backward.</p><p> </p><p>

As someone requested it recently, Free Pictures now have an extra piece of data that specifies whether the picture is bald or not. This allows the game to set the hair status of the worker who receives that picture correctly.</p><p> </p><p>

A small but useful change to the editor is that Contracts now have their own category, whereas before they were only available by going through Workers or Companies. This has the significant advantage that it means Mass Edit is available for them, potentially saving a huge amount of time when editing.</p>

[Adam Ryland]

<p><strong>#50: Pre Booking</strong></p><p> </p><p>

The pre booking system has been changed in the following way.</p><p> </p><p>

Firstly, each user can now set whether they want pre booking to be mandatory or not. If it's not mandatory then it follows the TEW2016 model whereby pre booking is purely an organisational tool.</p><p> </p><p>

If mandatory booking is turned on then a show's attendance will be reduced if the user does not book enough attractive segments to entice the audience. This works by looking at the 'draw' of the talent you've booked and comparing it to the fans' expectation levels - both matches and angles count, although angles are less attractive to fans. If you fail to provide an attractive enough show then the attendance will be lowered, with the level of penalty relating directly to how poor the pre booked content was: not bothering to provide any pre booked content would give the most penalties. For events, segments must be booked a week or more in advance to count, while for TV shows they only have to be at least one day in advance: this stops people from just doing the pre bookings immediately before the show takes place to game the system.</p><p> </p><p>

Lesser, Tour, and Throwaway events do not need pre booked content as the audience expectations are already lowered.</p><p> </p><p>

Pre booking does not increase attendances, it can only reduce them - this is because the attendance is already based on the assumption that you're providing the best quality card you can and so it's at its maximum by default.</p><p> </p><p>

While pre booking only directly impacts your attendance, you will be penalised if you advertise a segment and do not deliver it; this stops people 'cheating' by offering content that they have no intention of actually booking.</p><p> </p><p>

As an additional note, when pre-booking the match and angle screens follow the new streamlined approach that was outlined in an earlier entry, so booking is much swifter and more user friendly. Road agent notes can be pre booked.</p><p> </p><p>

The mandatory pre booking system is therefore for the players who like a more challenging or realistic experience as it forces them to act like a real booker and plan ahead in order to avoid penalties. For those who prefer a more casual gaming experience, they can simply continue with the simpler TEW2016 model.</p>

[Adam Ryland]

<p><strong>#51: Pre booking change, fast advance, multiplayer fast advance, tecnicos and rudos</strong></p><p> </p><p>

Based on recent feedback, a change to the pre booking system from the last entry is that there is now an additional option, "mandatory with bonus". This works in the same way as normal mandatory, but means that booking a particularly juicy match has the ability to give an attendance boost above the normal maximum. I don't recommend using this in multiplayer games if the other players aren't using it due to the fast that it would give a significant unfair advantage over those players.</p><p> </p><p>

The Fast Advance feature has been upgraded and enhanced to come in line with WMMA's. It is now a separate button on the side menu, removing the need to set it via Options, and includes many more options for how many days to advance, including the ability to set it to Unlimited (in which case the game advances until the user manually stops it by hitting the space bar).</p><p> </p><p>

Another enhancement to Fast Advance is that it is now available even for multiplayer games, meaning that one player can effectively 'go on holiday' and allow the remaining player(s) to do their day-to-day work without always needing to check in and hit the advance button. This makes multiplayer games much easier as there isn't the need for so much file swapping.</p><p> </p><p>

Finally today, the product screen now allows the user to specify whether the company uses the "face and heel" terminology or "tecnico and rudo". Previously this was location locked so that Mexican companies automatically used the latter. This allows companies like Chikara to be better simulated.</p>

[Adam Ryland]

<p><strong>#52: Financial model</strong></p><p> </p><p>

In TEW2020, the in-game finances have been redone and rebalanced to try and get closer to real world values. The most obvious example of this is with the worker wage demands.</p><p> </p><p>

With the new re-scaling, the lower end of the scale now goes down below $10 per show as basic pay. This would be for the very lowest tier of worker. This allows the independent scene to be better simulated as the lower reaches of a card can be populated with very cheap talent.</p><p> </p><p>

(NB: I know we have some people who really want the ability to have talent work for free - this was considered, but it would be far too easy to abuse, and so will not be in the game.)</p><p> </p><p>

At the higher end, the biggest names can be looking for $400,000 or more as their basic wage. Note that this is just their <em>basic</em> wage, this does not include the money they make from bonuses, merchandise, etc.</p><p> </p><p>

Due to the bigger scale, the user can now type in the value when making contract offers. This is because using sliders for such a potentially huge set of numbers gets very clumsy.</p><p> </p><p>

Obviously changing the wage system cannot be done in isolation as it has a knock-on effect on everything else, and so all the other parts of the financial model have also been reworked. I won't be giving figures here as we won't finalise them until testing, however, I will say that running smaller companies should be a little easier - at least from a financial point of view - in the new game. Overall, the new model and figures will be a culture shock to those who are very used to TEW2016, but they should lead to a better and more realistic game.</p>

[Adam Ryland]

<p><strong>#53: Regional battle addition, re-calibrated attendances, sticky screen position</strong></p><p> </p><p>

Back in entry #15 I mentioned that regional battles worked mechanically the same as before; what I forgot to mention is that there was actually a small exception to this. In the new game, you only take part in regional battles if you held a show (whether an event, TV, or house show) in that region during the preceding month. This ties in with the new company size system as it allows you to tactically avoid battles by skirting certain regions, but sometimes you will have to bite the bullet and get stuck into a battle if it's in a particularly critical region that you need to break into. It also aids smaller companies as they no longer get sucked into battles that have nothing to do with them.</p><p> </p><p>

As with the previously announced re-calibration of wage demands, attendances in the game have also been completely re-done so that they are closer to the numbers you'd get in reality, especially regarding TV shows.</p><p> </p><p>

Finally, to bring the game in line with WMMA5, it now has a 'sticky screen position', meaning that it does not reset to the center of your screen after each day's processing ends.</p>

[Adam Ryland]

<p><strong>#54: Brands</strong></p><p> </p><p>

The brands system has been upgraded in the following ways.</p><p> </p><p>

- The number of possible brands has jumped from three to five.</p><p> </p><p>

- Rather than just being Major or Minor, there are now several choices of level: Major, Showcase, Niche, Minor, Reserve, and Throwaway. These control the number of workers who will be on each brand and what level of worker will be eligible. For example, Reserve brands are specifically designed to be used for development, and so have no upper limit to the amount of workers and will have Recognisable and Unimportant level wrestlers.</p><p> </p><p>

- Each brand can be assigned a specific product (including an option to be "Company Default", which means it will automatically track to the one the company is currently using) as well as its own Match Focus and Angle Focus. This allows additional levels of customisation.</p><p> </p><p>

- A focus can be given, allowing the brand to be specifically biased towards Developmental workers, Veterans, Male Wrestlers, Female Wrestlers, Lightweight, or Heavyweights. This, again, adds to the customisation options.</p><p> </p><p>

- As mentioned right at the start of the journal, the Brands section is now a single screen in which everything can be done. This removes a lot of pop-ups and clicks and makes everything much more user friendly.</p><p> </p><p>

- The brand set-up for a company can be edited much easier than in TEW2016, in particular being able to drop one or more brands without needing to end the brand split entirely first.</p><p> </p><p>

- The Brands screen is now colour coded to make tracking easier. So when viewing the roster, those on brand 1 are in one colour, brand 2's workers are in another, etc.</p><p> </p><p>

- The Draft options include Full Draft, Sweep Up Draft (handling the workers who are currently unbranded), and Shake Up Draft (a mini-draft where a handful of workers from each brand get drafted to freshen things up). In all cases, the AI will automatically try and keep champions on their correct brand and keep tag teams together.</p><p> </p><p>

- The AI has also been improved in its use of brands. This includes their ability to use a near-annual brand shake-up to keep things fresh.</p>

[Adam Ryland]

#55: Merchandise figures and cuts, stables and products, clearing the decks

 

Workers now have individual merchandise sales figures each month. This gives the user a more accurate view of what is happening, is more realistic, adds a new revenue stream, and adds extra strategic elements (for example, you may give a big merch seller leeway when it comes to bad behaviour or avoid turning them heel because of how much extra money he or she brings in).

 

A worker's contract now includes his or her cut of the merchandise. The user can manipulate this to makes offers more or less attractive in conjunction with the worker's likely merchandise sales.

 

A company's usage of stables can be defined via their product. This allows database makers the power to control what happens. This is particularly useful for Japanese companies who many use stables as an integral part of their on-screen product.

 

When a new booker is installed in an AI company they will often now 'clear the decks'; that is, they will often refresh the roster to their own liking with several new hires and releases during the first few weeks of their reign, and they will also generally have many of the titles changes hands in order to underline the change in regime and stamp their own authority on the company. This adds a little extra touch of realism and helps keep the game world fresh.

 

Bringing phase 1 of the journal to an end

 

As mentioned previously, the intention is to bring phase 1 of the journal to an end soon so that we can start phase 2, the "live" journal. Although I've announced all the major features that have been completed, there's still a whole load of finished medium and minor features still to plough through, so starting next week we'll be changing the format slightly.

 

As of Monday, instead of two posts a week there will instead be one every weekday. Most, if not all, will consist of two or three features. A lot of these will be fairly minor, unexciting things, but I need to get them announced so that they're out of the way before phase 2 begins. I expect this to last three or four weeks. Once we're fully up-to-date with the announcements of completed features, I'll be taking one or two weeks off, then phase 2 is intended to last right through to the release of the game. We'll be covering estimated release dates, the current state of the game, etc, when phase 2 begins.

[Adam Ryland]

<p><strong>#56: Financial breakdown, developmental tolerance, transparent coloured lists</strong></p><p> </p><p>

The finance screen has been upgraded so that certain section can be clicked upon to access a more detailed breakdown. For example, the Workers row can be broken down into Basic Pay, Bonuses, Termination Fees, Signing Bonuses, Drug Testing, and Lawsuits. This allows for better financial analysis on the player's part, as well as making it easier to see why sudden increases happened.</p><p> </p><p>

Workers in developmental territories now decide when they want to leave based on their popularity compared to the child company's rather than by how much they can still learn. This makes it more user friendly as the user won't get messages asking for call ups very often and it allows the player to use their development territories in a more flexible manner.</p><p> </p><p>

Transparent lists are available throughout the game, which both look better than the usual solid versions because they blend into the background and also allow items within the list to be highlighted using different coloured text; for example, an injured worker could be highlighted in red. Unfortunately these new lists cannot have keyboard support due to a limitation of the programming language, so the user does have the option of using the old style lists from TEW2016 if they prefer.</p>

[Adam Ryland]

<p><strong>#57: Belt profiles, worker potential, downside changes, start data variance</strong></p><p> </p><p>

Title belts can now have a profile text, just like companies, workers, etc, allowing notable information to be stored. This is particularly useful for belts that have a specific intended function or have some other unique feature that the database maker wants to convey to the player.</p><p> </p><p>

A worker's potential is now split up into different categories, allowing database makers a finer degree of control. The categories are Primary Skills, Mental Skills, Performance Skills, Fundamental Skills, Physical Abilities, Announcing, Colour, and Refereeing.</p><p> </p><p>

Downside agreements are no longer required for small companies, only coming into play for Big or larger companies. This helps small companies to survive financially, as well as being more realistic.</p><p> </p><p>

Instead of just being on or off, the start data variance setting can now be Minor, Medium, Major, or Extreme. This allows the user to customise the level of randomness that the stats will encounter when starting a new game.</p>

[Adam Ryland]

<p><strong>#58: Skill change drip feed, PM options, health levels, star quality</strong></p><p> </p><p>

Rather than happening instantly, worker skill changes now happen in a 'drip feed' manner over time. For example, in TEW2016 if a worker gains 5 points of Brawling the skill increases immediately. In TEW2020, those 5 points would get stored separately and then the Brawling stat would increase by a small amount each day until those 5 points are 'consumed'. There is a limit on how many points can be stored for each skill at any one time, depending on the worker's skill level, experience, where they are in their career cycle, etc. This change has several advantages: it makes the game less linear, simulates a realistic learning curve (as, for example, it now becomes very easy to learn Brawling at a low level but becomes much harder to get up into the high 90s as the curve becomes steeper), means that people will learn at different levels, and also stops cheap 'power gaming' tactics (such as spamming dark matches to give a worker multiple boosts) because there's a limit to how much a worker can learn at a time.</p><p> </p><p>

The options menu is now available in PM mode too, allowing the user to alter settings, access remote assistance, etc, without needing to first finish their show.</p><p> </p><p>

The health system has been changed so that 0% now indicates a career-ending state rather than being below 30%; this makes the system more intuitive.</p><p> </p><p>

In previous games Star Quality was fairly static, only really moving in relation to changes in size or body shape. This has been changed so that during a worker's early career it can slowly rise to simulate them getting more confident and comfortable in the ring. There are now also more random incidents that can provide additional boosts.</p>

[Adam Ryland]

#59: Tournament tracker, swipe arrows

 

An all-new feature for TEW2020 is tournament tracking. The user can create either elimination tournaments (up to 32 sides, with a side being either a wrestler, tag team, or trio) or round robin tournaments (up to 10 sides, again with singles, tag, or trios) and the game will automatically track and manage what happens when a match in that tournament takes place. There is no limit on how many tournaments can be held at any one time.

 

For the elimination tournaments, the user can choose whether draws equal eliminations or lead to replays, can give byes, and replace any worker in the tournament whenever they want. For round robin tournaments, the user can choose the number of points for a win and draw, and can replace or remove entrants at will. There is also a new road agent note that allows a match to be specifically set not to be in a tournament for the rare cases where you want to hold a match that is scheduled to be part of a tournament but don't want it to count for whatever reason.

 

WMMA5 debuted 'swipe arrows', which are left and right arrows that appear at the sides of pop-up profiles and allow the user to quickly navigate through multiple profiles. This was a well received feature as it meant that you could speed through lists without needing to constantly load and close profiles. This feature will also be included in TEW2020 to improve the user friendliness.

[Adam Ryland]

#60: Delayed call ups, owners and other companies, match styles

 

When calling up a worker from developmental (or granting a release request from a developmental worker), the parent company will now give a one month warning to the child company. This allows them to have time to prepare for the change, such as taking titles off them. As a knock-on effect, this means that the AI is not forced to keep champions in developmental long-term in order to avoid spoiling title histories with lots of 'Vacants'. Both user-controlled and AI-controlled parent companies can give these delayed call up warnings.

 

The 'Other Companies' (formerly 'Pacts') selection in a worker's Business tab has been enhanced to include double the number of choices. These choices are also better defined in terms of what they actually do.

 

The Match Style setting has been removed from matches; the effect this piece of data used to have is instead controlled by the 'match aim' related road agent notes. For example, instead of needing a specific 1 vs 1 match with the style 'Comedy Based', you can just use the regular 1 vs 1 match and would use the 'Match Aim: Comedy' note. This saves database makers a lot of time, as they don't need to create multiple versions of the same match just to have different style settings, without adding to the player's workload as they would be using the match aim notes anyway.

[Adam Ryland]

#61: Moving titles, editing titles, owner preferences

 

Companies can now move title belts between themselves and their various child companies simply via the regular titles screen. This allows developmental titles to be get defended on main shows, main company titles to be taken out to child companies, the parent to buy defunct titles and send them out to their children, etc, etc.

 

To make life easier for database makers, when editing title belts the champion(s) can now be edited directly without needing to load a separate window, thus saving time and clicking. In addition, newly created titles no longer need to be saved and re-accessed in order to assign champions to them. These changes make things a little more user friendly.

 

The list of owner preferences, which controls what sort of company they will run, has been upgraded to both have more options and for the choices to be more intuitively named.

[Adam Ryland]

#62: Search by skill, technical wrestling, years of service

 

You can now search by minimum and maximum values for any of the various worker skill levels, making finding people significantly easier.

 

The Mat Wrestling, Chain Wrestling and Submissions skills have now been consolidated into one, a skill called Technical Wrestling. This change makes things more intuitive for players and reduces the workload on database makers, whilst removing a needless over-complication given that the three original skills were always considered as one by the game anyway.

 

Contracts used to have a 'years of service' value; this has now been replaced by a contract start date, allowing the game to calculate the years of service itself. This is both more accurate and means that database makers do not have to remember to update the number whenever they change the date.

[Adam Ryland]

#63: Skill comparison, popularity comparison, floating booking ideas

 

By popular demand, from the worker skills screen the user can now do a side-by-side comparison with the skills of any other wrestler. This is all done on one-screen and so this only takes one-click. This is very useful if you're debating who to push, who to sign, etc. As this and the precise searching that was announced yesterday wouldn't be viable if different workers are rated in different ways, this means that the fog of war system is removed and so you'll always see ratings in a 0-100 format. I don't really like to remove features, but as skill searching and comparison were two of the most requested additions and fog of war has never been particularly popular, I think this this change will have a positive effect overall.

 

In a similar vein, a side-by-side popularity comparison feature has also been added. This works in exactly the same way, just from the worker popularity screen, and again is very useful if you're having a dilemma about which of two workers you want to hire, push, etc.

 

A new feature related to the previously announced Talk To Worker is the ability to float booking ideas. This is done from the Booking tab in that screen. It means that you can float the idea of the worker unmasking, taking crazy bumps, putting somebody specific over, etc, and the worker will tell you whether they'd be willing to do it or not. Previously the only way you could find this sort of thing out would be to actually book it and see if you got a refusal. Therefore, by being able to ask in advance, it allows the user to plan ahead much more accurately and not get frustrated by finding that a worker won't do what they want.

[Adam Ryland]

#64: Worker promises

 

Workers and tag teams can now proactively approach the booker and offer to put a specific opponent or opponents over, in a feature that we're calling Worker Promises. When this happens the offer is logged in the Promises screen, which shows who has promised what and what the expiry is. The expiry is always in two parts: the number of matches it will last for and the amount of time.

 

If a worker or team have made a promise, it means that if you book them in a match against those opponent(s) where they'd normally complain about losing then the complaint doesn't happen. This lasts until the promise expires.

 

There is also a second flavour of this feature, which is reactive promises. The way this works is that you can approach a worker (via Talk To Worker) and specifically ask them to promise to put someone over, to which they can agree or disagree. The difference between the two flavours is that the proactive version is more powerful - it will almost always be for multiple matches and last a few months, meaning you can create a feud around it - whereas the reactive version is only for one match and lasts just one month.

 

The idea behind this is to add to the realism, potentially give you a way around situations where somebody refuses to lose, and means that your booking plans can potentially change to embrace promises that you didn't expect.

[Adam Ryland]

<p><strong>#65: Scouting, Pro Mode, Contextual Rosters</strong></p><p> </p><p>

With Fog Of War not being viable in TEW2020 due to some of the other changes, its direct replacement is Scouting. This is a very similar system, with a few crucial differences that allow it to work within the TEW2020 framework.</p><p> </p><p>

Whereas the old Fog Of War used a combination of grades, textual descriptions, and numbers, the Scouting system instead is entirely numerical. The way this works is that you'll see a range, for example "Brawling: 23 - 40" meaning that the Brawling skill is somewhere between 23 and 40. It's not a case where it's automatically in the middle, so in that example it could well be that the real value is 24. As different wrestlers will use different ranges and number placement, it is not possible to simply memorise patterns - for example, if one worker has a range of "20 - 40" and you happen to know that the number is really 25, that doesn't mean that another wrestler who has "20 - 40" is also 25. The higher the Scouting level goes, the smaller the range, until eventually you reach maximum Scouting in which case you get to see the exact number. </p><p> </p><p>

Using this system means that it's like-for-like when doing worker comparisons, which is far more intuitive and visually appealing than having different data types. This also means that the new ability to search for specific skill values is still viable; for example, if you search for Aerial of exactly 50 then you'll return workers whose Aerial scouts as "40 - 60" (even if their genuine Aerial is only 41) because it still fits within the range.</p><p> </p><p>

Whereas Fog Of War would take a long time to reach completion, the new Scouting system is far brisker, and generally you'll get very close to full scouting well before the worker has reached the ten year mark of their career (at least in the modern era).</p><p> </p><p>

Under the new system, some items are exempt. In particular, things that are visual - for example, Menace and Sex Appeal - are not scoutable and so are automatically shown as their exact number, to simulate that you don't need to see someone in action to know how they look. Physical skills, such as Power, also now have their own separate scouting level, one which is significantly faster than the others; this takes into account that you don't need to see someone very much to get a good sense of how strong they are, whereas you do to gauge someone's technical ability, for example. The other categories are similar to their Fog Of War counterparts: In Ring, Performance (for the gimmick performance skills such as Babyface, Heel, Cool, etc), Entertainment, Broadcasting, and Refereeing.</p><p> </p><p>

Continuing the game's ongoing theme of being era sensitive, Scouting also automatically takes into context the time frame that you're playing in. So, for example, if you're playing in an historical scenario set in the 1970s then the spread of information is obviously far slower than it would be in 2019, so scouting takes a lot longer to happen.</p><p> </p><p>

As with the old Fog Of War feature, Scouting can be turned on or off via the Preferences menu.</p><p> </p><p>

Related to this is the new Pro Mode (NB: this name may change before release as I'm not 100% happy with it) option, again available via Preferences. Pro Mode requires Scouting to be active, and is for those players who like a bit more of a challenge or realism. The way this works is simply that no matter what a worker's scouting level is the game will never show their exact skill level - it will always have at least some vagueness (it equates to the penultimate scouting level). So, the result is that even when you're viewing a seasoned veteran you will always be seeing a range of values and won't know what level they're truly at, only an approximation.</p><p> </p><p>

Another new feature in TEW2020 is Contextual Rosters. What this means is that no matter where you access a roster from, you'll always have the appropriate options. For example, if you access your child company's profile via a link, you'll still find the option to recall workers, etc, just as you would if you'd gone in the "proper" route via the office. This is another quality of life thing as it just saves you a lot of clicking and frustration.</p><p> </p><p>

<strong><span style="color:#0000FF;">Editor's Note</span></strong></p><p> </p><p>

It has been brought to my attention that I misspoke in entry #62. While talking about Technical Wrestling I wrote that "<em>...the three original skills were always considered as one by the game anyway...</em>" Please note that using the word "always" was a mistake on my part; while the average or highest of the three values was used in the vast majority of places, there were several minor instances where that was not true and those stats were either looked at individually or only one of the three was involved. So it really should have read "<em>...the three original skills were NEARLY always considered as one by the game anyway...</em>" to be totally accurate.</p>

[Adam Ryland]

<p><strong>#66: Stored performance, contract offer auto set, editorial skill comparison</strong></p><p> </p><p>

A worker's in-ring performance from each match, whether booked by the player or AI, is now stored and visible when looking at old match results.</p><p> </p><p>

When negotiating with a worker and being rejected because they want a specific amount of money there is now an on-screen button that will appear that allows the player to auto set the offer to match the worker's demands. This removes the need for remembering the value and typing it out.</p><p> </p><p>

The worker editor includes a version of the skill comparison feature that is in the main game, but includes the added ability to copy across the skill if needed; this makes skill balancing / filling in a lot quicker.</p>

[Adam Ryland]

#67: Child company size, closing child companies, game world screen, sub-medium costs

 

I think I already alluded to this in a reply elsewhere, but to make it official: unlike previous games, a child company is no longer limited in how big it can grow.

 

If the parent company wishes, it may now choose to close down any or all child companies that it currently possesses. While a drastic move, this means that the company can respond to financial difficulties or effectively hit the 'reset' button if it wants to start again for whatever reason.

 

The game world screen has been totally overhauled. It now gives all the necessary information in one place, removing the need to open multiple windows, and has also been redesigned to better explain the game areas and regions in a user-friendly manner, such as giving definitions of key locations that fall within those boundaries.

 

To better simulate reality and to help smaller companies survive, sub-Medium companies no longer have ongoing monthly costs for things like admin and legal. These costs, where they exist, are instead primarily done on a show-by-show basis instead.

[Adam Ryland]

#68: Close company, more accurate visibility, young lions, in-game skin change

 

The user now has the option of voluntarily closing down their company if they're the owner.

 

When viewing a company's visibility (i.e. from the Size screen) it is now accurate to the day. This just makes things a little clearer for companies that run more than one show a week.

 

The young lion system is now no longer area-wide but can be set on a company-by-company basis, giving database makers and players a finer degree of control.

 

The user can now change the game's skin while within a save game, via Options. Previously you would need to exit back to the main menu to do this. This small touch just adds a little extra user friendliness.

[Adam Ryland]

#69: Popularity caps, crowd burn out, editing relationships, editing chemistry

 

In previous games a worker had a maximum popularity cap that would limit how well known they could possibly become. As this was fixed at the start of the game and so didn't take into account changes in context, this could both prove restrictive and lead to unrealistic behaviour from players. The new method is that the cap is now calculated on-the-fly with each segment based on many factors including the worker's current skills, destiny, and who he is working for. This makes for a more realistic and dynamic game world.

 

Crowds can now get burned out if forced to sit through far too much content, simulating the apathy that starts to build when real life shows go on for many, many hours.

 

The Edit Relationships section of Options has been upgraded both to be more user friendly (by giving the current relationship when two people are selected) and also to allow a relationship to be deleted (rather than just being able to be edited to something else).

 

Options now includes an Edit Chemistry button. This works the same was as Edit Relationships in that it allows existing chemistry to be added, modified, or deleted.

[Adam Ryland]

<p><strong>#70: Era details, name searches, AI tag signing, aggressive predator hiring, visible expiry dates</strong></p><p> </p><p>

Clicking on the date in the taskbar during gameplay will now launch a window that gives you a breakdown of the current era, if any, and its related settings. This information was previously not available to the player without going into the editor.</p><p> </p><p>

Most screens that involve a list now include an on-screen name search; this allows you to type in any text and have the list filtered to only include items that include it. This is the same as with the search that you can do in TEW2016 via the website, but more useful as you don't have to switch to a different screen to use it.</p><p> </p><p>

The AI can now bias towards signing tag team partners of members of it roster if they are part of a known duo. This makes it far more likely that teams will end up in the same place.</p><p> </p><p>

The AI predator hiring, which is the code that allows bigger companies to go after major names, has been changed to make the AI far more aggressive. This will make the game more competitive.</p><p> </p><p>

Contract expiry dates are now visible via the Employment tab on rosters and profiles even for workers who you do not employ. This information was previously only visible via the editor and so this is more user friendly.</p>

[Adam Ryland]

<p><strong>#71: Legacies, import employment history, default area status, worker overuse</strong></p><p> </p><p>

The old legacy system was that a worker could generate a successor upon retirement or death if they'd reached a minimum Respect level. This system has been reworked so that the worker is now checked once a year between the ages of 30 and 50 - if they are still an active wrestler and have achieved an average of 60 popularity across any area then they can spawn a successor (once per career). This is both a more realistic benchmark and also means that potentially Worker Sr and Worker Jr can be active in the game world at the same time.</p><p> </p><p>

When importing a worker his or her employment history is now automatically imported at the same time, assuming the companies are also in the database. This saves database makers time.</p><p> </p><p>

Database makers can now set whether each area is active or inactive by default. This can be changed by the player when starting a new game, but saves some clicking if the database is specifically designed for a certain set up.</p><p> </p><p>

Overusing a worker on a show now reduces their momentum to simulate the fans getting sick of having someone shoved down their throats. In addition, rather than just being calculated at the end of a show, overuse is now monitored as the show progresses, allowing the reaction of the fans to get increasingly muted if they are seeing the same person over and over again. These changes therefore incentivise players to book more realistically.</p>

[Adam Ryland]

#72: Belt prestige, randomness control, painkiller benefits, coming off steroids

 

The prestige of titles is now absolute, trending towards the recent ratings of matches it is involved in. This is different from the previous games, where the prestige was relative - for example, a main event title was always between 70 and 100 prestige even for the smallest of companies, whereas in TEW2020 it'd be quite normal for a tiny independent company to have a main title that's only in the 20s or 30s for prestige. This change means that titles can be compared across companies and that they are not restricted by their level.

 

The frequency of random incidents can now be set via the Options menu.

 

Being on painkillers now has advantages as well as disadvantages for workers, with their usage helping to 'mask' their true physical condition. This allows the worker to perform as if they're less physically banged up than they really are, thus producing better matches. The downside remains that their usage can spiral and lead to long-term problems with addiction.

 

When a worker comes off steroids there are now extra features in play. Not only will you generally see those workers experience a drop in their physical abilities and physique, but often they will also end up dropping a size category. This provides a more realistic simulation.

[Adam Ryland]

#73: AI pushes, AI feuds, new nationalities, starting money, inactive alliances, player job applications

 

The AI can now assign hidden push / de-push data to its workers, allowing them to be booked in certain ways. For example, a new signing can be given a "strong opening" push that means they'll rarely if ever lose for the first few months that they're with the company, a promising young talent can be strapped to the proverbial rocket so that they rise fast through the rankings, or an ageing veteran can be given "phase out" instructions where they'll start losing more and more to gradually move them down the card. This allows the AI to have a more realistic long-term plan.

 

The way AI feuds are handled has been completely redone, allowing them to be better integrated into the booking engine and allowing for 'triggered' feuds, such as when a tag team breaks up.

 

Over fifty new nationalities have been added, taking the total number close to 200.

 

Companies can now be given an exact starting amount of money via the main editor, rather than needing to take one of a preset selection.

 

Alliances that close are no longer automatically deleted, instead remaining in an inactive state so that their data and previous members can still be viewed by players (just like how you can still view closed companies).

 

When the user applies for an owner or booker position, they are now automatically given a slight advantage to make it more likely that they will get the job rather than a similarly skilled AI character. This allows players who get fired or start unemployed a better shot at staying engaged with the game world.