Contract Demands

[JonButterfield]

Having gone in deep on WMMA5 for quite some time, one thing I noticed is that increasing the length of a contract increases the fighter's happiness with the deal on offer.

 

What ends up happening is companies are signing fighters on 10 year deals, which is extremely unlikely in the real world - the UFC might offer a 10 year deal to a legend to stop him signing elsewhere (Anderson Silva springs to mind), but in most cases that type of contract makes no sense for promotion or fighter.

 

On the fighter's part, signing a 10 year deal means they have ZERO negotiating power for a decade. They're just not going to go for it. While fighters enjoy security, they also want to have the chance to make a better deal.

 

Also, a 10 year contract is going to need to be worth around 30 fights (15 guaranteed), since fighters are always wary about being locked into long deals where they aren't guaranteed to fight often enough to make enough money.

 

To tweak the contract negotiation scenarios, I'd say a fighter on the verge of retirement is likely to sign relatively short term deals so that they can discuss terms with as many companies as possible as often as possible. I'd say a fighter entering the 'big leagues' for the first time is going to be most interested in fighting often, so if you're offering a 5 year contract with 5 guaranteed fights, they're just not going to sign that. Fighters who are settled might sign long term contracts, but unless they're elite stars, why is a company going to sign them for that long? Even with all the release clauses in a normal contract, you just don't see it.

 

I'd also like to see certain fighters (maybe driven by a loyalty or happiness stat?) announce that they want to 'test the open market' and not sign contracts right away. An in-game effect might be to increase the likelihood of the fighter switching promotions, or encouraging other promotions to offer deals where they might not in normal game play.

 

Finally, it would be REALLY cool for fighter's to effectively punish bad booking by having a 'morale' or 'happiness' statistic - if you hire an experienced fighter and feed him to an unknown prospect, 1) he should be looking to reject that fight 9 times out of 10 unless you've enabled fantasy booking, and 2) if he loses and his name value or credibility takes a hit, he should be unhappy with the promotion as a result.

 

Finally, and to reiterate the point in the previous post, fighters will want to know WHY you're offering them a fighter that isn't a good match in terms of record. If you're offering a dude who is 15-7 a fight with a guy who is 0-0 because the debutant happens to be a beast, they're going to want to know what's in it for them. Is it name value for the inexperienced opponent? Is it because they're being fed a can and they're likely to win? Conversely, why is a debutant going to accept that kind of fight? Is it because the experienced fighter is actually a realistic opponent? Or because a financial incentive is being offered to take such a tough fight?

 

Either way, booking actions and crucially booking success should affect fighter morale.

[raufbold]

well, WMMA is not quite a sports manager game, but rather a MMA promotion simulator - the fighter relationships and overall economy and contract management have always been its weak point. Which doesn't take away how awesome it is as a simulator.

[JonButterfield]

well, WMMA is not quite a sports manager game, but rather a MMA promotion simulator - the fighter relationships and overall economy and contract management have always been its weak point. Which doesn't take away how awesome it is as a simulator.

 

It's a wonderful game, I play it most days - I'm not knocking anything, just trying to make some suggestions for improvement