Road to Glory - TEW IX Edition

[alpha2117]

Look I think we all know how to game the system in one way or another.  Like you want a 50 match - hire some good looking girls and do eye candy for a bit and 50 is dead easy really early.  Want good angles Get Mr Menace to beatdown Mr. Selling.  The thing is thats actually the way real wrestling works.  It's not that complicated especially at lower levels.  Same goes with shows.  In reality most small indy feds actually run shows every week and they move around to different venues.  Sometimes 2 or 3 shows a weekend.  Heck at the Easter Show in Sydney I've seen a company run shows every day for 2 and a bit weeks.  It might be different elsewhere I can only talk about Oceania but 4 to 15 (Fri/Sat/Sun) shows a month isn't actually unusual for a very small fed if it's in a populated enough region.

[Goliathus]

12 minutes ago, Bad Collin said:

Very true and I wasn't trying to police anyone. My monthly shows are gamey anyway because the AI never uses them. 

Not implying you are policing at all, just sharing my opinion on the subject. As the creator of this version of the challenge though, you are in the position to make rules change if you think they are needed. Like starting booking skill and what not is worth a change if needed. Much harder to put control to the "path to glory"(how players make progress) though so I am fine with less rules on this aspect. Cuz IMO whenever someone try to control this, more and more limitation would be made and it all came down to a strict style of gameplay.

I think ultimately, it's more or less the AI's fault for not being good enough to do a lot of stuff, like aggressively putting more shows when they can. Or take advantage of their money when they have a chance to do so. Either this or the game is designed as a sandbox first so Adam doesn't put a lot of penalties on gamey stuff. I feel like most Adam's games are sandbox-y by default anyway. Plenty of cheeses can be done in WMMA and Wrestling Spirit too, it's really just the player's decision to do it or not.

Edited August 24 by Goliathus

[Charasmatic Enigma]

Finished up my first year with 9 pop in both the  Great Lakes and the South West.

During the year my UC had 24 matches, with 19 wins and 5 losses and an average rating of 49. My best match was against Remmy Skye in October, which got a 61 thanks to a Creative Finish idea. My ratings in the South West are definitely higher than in the Great Lakes, mostly because of the higher pop of the workers I'm facing. This means at the end of year one, despite my promotion being nominally based in the Great Lakes, my pop is higher in the South West.

While this is great in the short term, I will eventually have to stop running shows in the South West once I hit Tiny or get dragged into the Regional Battle with CZCW/IPW/GSW which I can't win. For now though, it's giving me access to lots of talented workers.

For my 50 rated match roll I got 35. "Whose line is it anyway" (Add 'Improv Training' attribute, +10 Microphone)

For my end of year roll I got 37. "Acknowledge Me!" (Add 'Easily Marketable' attribute, +5 to Star Quality)

Two good rolls, I think the SQ will be especially helpful down the line. The screenshot below was taken before I added the end of year roll.

My current plan is to continue as I am until we hit Tiny, then move my South West shows somewhere else to avoid the regional battles. I'm thinking the Mid South may be where I go, but will see where makes sense when we get there.

[alpha2117]

25 minutes ago, Goliathus said:

Not implying you are policing at all, just sharing my opinion on the subject. As the creator of this version of the challenge though, you are in the position to make rules change if you think they are needed. Like starting booking skill and what not is worth a change if needed. Much harder to put control to the "path to glory"(how players make progress) though so I am fine with less rules on this aspect. Cuz IMO whenever someone try to control this, more and more limitation would be made and it all came down to a strict style of gameplay.

I think ultimately, it's more or less the AI's fault for not being good enough to do a lot of stuff, like aggressively putting more shows when they can. Or take advantage of their money when they have a chance to do so. Either this or the game is designed as a sandbox first so Adam doesn't put a lot of penalties on gamey stuff. I feel like most Adam's games are sandbox-y by default anyway. Plenty of cheeses can be done in WMMA and Wrestling Spirit too, it's really just the player's decision to do it or not.

One of the beauties is how much you can modify the experience and make up your own rules for yourself.  Like right now I am doing that scouting report of the expansion packs and I fully intend to import those workers to give the CVerse more flavour.  I know how good people are - I know who to pick up and who to avoid - is that gamey or it just simulating someone who is knowledgeable about the workers available in their world. Who knows.  All I know is it will make me happy to play with the shiny new toys.  In the end something like RTG isn't really about getting to the end - it's really about giving people some structure and a potential sense of achievement whilst they play.  If they choose to be gamey then thats how they choose to play.  It's not like any of us really care when someone reaches the end of the challenge other than ourselves - we are happy for other people of course but it's sort of in a "Oh that's great, congratulations" then moving on and forgetting it happened sort of way. We are actually more interested in the little steps other people make along the way rather than the end goal.  It's basically a "No Prize" at the end of the challenge - just something that the individual themselves can feel happy and a sense of achievement about but that has no great meaning to any other player.        

Edited August 24 by alpha2117

[lr10540]

8 hours ago, Bad Collin said:

So 4 monthly shows a month works? That is a massive exploit. 

Monthly events draw the same as Annual events. Weekly events draw about half of that and tv shows draw about a sixth of the annual show. It's the same number of shows but what we call them has a drastic difference on how useful they are. 

Yes. It worked the same way in TEW2020. Id have my named event that would eventually be my PPV and book them as such in order to build up importance. Then Id have 4 monthly shows that I treated as television.

 

I don't have to give my most expensive workers the night off 4 times a month and still clear around 8k a show in profit. You can still make profit doing a weekly event, it just requires more micromanagement with giving nights off.

[lr10540]

6 hours ago, Bad Collin said:

According to the manual we should be penalised for running more than one monthly ppv but it doesn't say anything about ticket sales. @lr10540, are all of these events running on WrestleWorld? Are you getting the same number of viewers?

They're not yet on PPV. I'm just over 40 pop in my home region at this point and still small. The shows have between 26k and 30k viewers, and yes they're all broadcast. I'll have to look at the per show broadcast revenue to see if multiple shows are penalized, but it's only a couple grand. I don't broadcasting less shows would change that in any meaningful way.

[moststay]

Ok, not sure if I'm doing something wrong but UC entertainment skills just grow so slowly, while other workers are gaining points like every month it takes my character like 4 months to grow and sometimes more to grow.

[Jaded]

18 minutes ago, moststay said:

Ok, not sure if I'm doing something wrong but UC entertainment skills just grow so slowly, while other workers are gaining points like every month it takes my character like 4 months to grow and sometimes more to grow.

How often is your UC doing angles, and how long as they? Are they with people more entertaining than your UC?

[moststay]

3 minutes ago, Jaded said:

How often is your UC doing angles, and how long as they? Are they with people more entertaining than your UC?

Im running two shows a month and my UC is cutting a promo with his manager and tag partner each show. My UC is 51 in charisma, microphone and acting, my manager is about 10 points better in all 3 and my partner is literally at 90s for all 3. My manager has been able to grow massively from mid 50s and even my partner grew a point. Is this just my worker's cap?

Edited August 24 by moststay

[lr10540]

To add to the gamey-ness a bit, I vaguely recall in the past you could sign legends and if it was someone like Jack Bruce, their merch sales would pay for their contract and then some. With the inflated contract numbers on TEW9, I don't think that's possible at the higher end levels anymore, but it's happening now with my promotion. Prior to changing the weekly events to 4 monthly events, I was only booking guys like Frankie Perez and California Love Machine on 1 show a month (my named, future PPV event) while giving them the night off on the weekly (eventual TV) shows. These 2 guys are on 1k+ an appearance contract. Their combined merch generation is about 3k with 2500 coming to me. Now, with changing to 4 monthly events, these guys are on every show, so I can book better talent more often and still come out in the positive. The only meaningful thing this "exploit" has done is allow me to sign KC Glenn to a written contract a few months before I'd otherwise be able to financially. That said, were the rules to be amended, I'd change to fit them. If I ever complete this, I'll probably do another with a harder/stricter rule set. I was already planning to do another when DerekB's 04 CVerse mod comes out.

For the actual 6 month update since the last one was mostly bragging lol. Merch sales in December was 6.8k a month. January, out first full month with 5 shows on WrestleWorld, merch was up to 15.6k a month. Now we're at the halfway point of the year and July's merch sales ended at 47.1k, an 8k increase over the previous month. We've increased by at least 5k every single month, except 1, and following the month of stagnation, we jumped 12k to make up for it. We've got KC Glenn signed through his early 40s (fingers crossed no time decline) and Tommy Cornell on a 5 year written and being made figurehead. I don't anticipate being able to keep him after the 5 years are up. I'm almost certain USPW will swoop in and steal him, unless he has the career goal to stick with 1 place. Considering signing Austin Smooth, Chip Martin or Deacon Darkhold as my next written deals, but neither of the 3 have really high SQ, so not sure it would be worth it long term. Texas Hangman is a consideration as he has the best SQ outside of a declining Masked Cougar on my roster, but he's currently recovering from a broken neck, and I don't think he'll be worth the investment post recovery. There's a few free agents that are interesting, primarily Brandon Saito, Jack Holder, Prime Time Jack Pryde and Super Massive Destroyer as well as a few regens. 

Financials and roster aside, we're up to the 22nd ranked company in the world. 21CW got their financial warning last month and I'm definitely willing to go in debt to purchase them, but as of yet, they're uninterested in selling up. I would love to absorb their pop and the merch sales that would come with it, along with a select few members of their roster. Namely, the slowly declining father to our soon to be figurehead. I would love love love to get a Tommy Cornell Sr. vs Tommy Cornell Jr. feud going. That would actually likely lead to me scrapping my current "storylines," meaning 3 stories with 1/3rd of my roster in each one for product requirements towards actually booking legit thought out stories, which I generally save for once I'm able to have my whole roster on written deals and can reliably plan things out. We're now reliably booking shows in the upper 50s with regularity despite numerous penalties to production values. I don't think I can yet book a 75 event and I'm not in any regional battles, so I don't feel the need to improve those at this point in time. My highest rated match is tied for 2nd highest rated match in the promotion and it was a 6-man throw away tag in June of 2025. I usually get low to mid 50s for individual performance, so we're still likely a ways off from that 75 match rating as well. KC Glenn vs Desert Storm was a highest rated match at 69. I'm confident Glenn v Cornell will exceed that, but I'm saving that match, probably for our first actual PPV. World Title is up to 44 prestige after being created in January and held by Cornell Jr who took it from Frankie Perez in April of this year. Had to fire Sgt. Bubba Lee earlier this year due to repeated pre-show/locker room incidents. He was in a team with Desert Storm, another military themed gimmick and I lovingly dubbed them The Old Wave, of course an homage to The New Wave of TCW fame. 

As a last note, I've gotten really lucky with chemistries on this play through. My owner, Brady Prince is my current CC and he has good chemistry on the cans with Lee Bambino. My UC has great chemistry when teaming with KC Glenn AND Tommy Cornell Jr. Fox Mask II has good chemistry teaming with King Lion. Frankie has great chemistry fighting Cali Love Machine and Chip Martin. Forgot to mention it in the last paragraph, but I've got a contract out to Angry Gilmore to come in and be a road agent as he retired last month. I meant to sign him to have a 1-off match with my UC but I completely forgot. Gilmore (along with Rich Money and Skull DeBones/Vengeance) has been my favorite CVerse character, so I'm pretty thrilled to (hopefully) be getting him in the coming days. 

[Bent]

Welp, there goes my savings towards a broadcaster. Suddenly I'm down to 400k in the bank, and my company's image is hurt for the next 4 months. Luckily im already making around 200k per month and I should be able to switch my pvp's from U-Demand to PPV-4-U in a couple of months, increasing my profit even more.

And my UC is now only 2 weeks away from being fit, so at least i have that going for me.

[moststay]

Done with Year 1 of my second RTG attempt and have already gotten two achievements booking a 50 overall card and gotten a 50 overall match. The 50 Overall match gave me grounded in reality wiping away the not being able to play realistic gimmicks and given my UC the tag team specialist attribute. My yearly role was Nose to the Grindstone giving me +10 to any primary skill so now I have an 85 in Puroresu.

My company's pop is at 9 and I have around 35k in debt, but by the end of year 2 I should be turning a profit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 24 by moststay

[moststay]

For primary ratings do you want multiple average to good stats or 1 great stat.

[Bad Collin]

1 great stat. The game takes the highest number from brawling, technical etc

[Goliathus]

2 hours ago, Bad Collin said:

1 great stat. The game takes the highest number from brawling, technical etc

Does it look at "just the technical stat" if the match aim is "technical masterclass"? And vice versa for "wild brawl" and "high spot"?

[Fabibi]

I finished my 3rd year. I rolled 18 so I added 10 points to basics. I also got a 75 rated match during 2024 meaning I got another roll which gave me the 'Improv Training' attribute and 10 points between Charisma and Microphone.

I did pretty good with my starting company popularity and money, I'm on the way to making it a Small company !

I didn't really got the opportunity to become the booker elsewhere because my booking skill is still pretty low.

I could eventually get a TV deal but I would have to improve my production values a lot so I'm not sure it's a good idea for my finances. For now I'm just improving my merchandising level.

 

[LK_Lance]

Since payday finally came around I've been able to grab TEW9 and finally get started on my first Road to Glory (besides the test run I was doing in 2020 while waiting for payday).

My user character is Sigurd Halversson:

I've decided to start in Northern Europe with a Viking-themed promotion called Halls of Valhalla Wrestling. Really struggled to pick a product type that would fit with my vision and ended up going with Competitive Entertainment for its good balance on work-rate to popularity as well as what match types would be allowed.

I know Europe can be a bit sparse in the C-Verse so wish me luck!

[fourbrothers366]

Just finish my first year as LPR. I went with the plan of doing a few extra shows thought out the year. Once every 3 months or so, a 2-night event for Dia de Muertos and another November one for a Mexican Revolution Holiday.  Got Merch to level 4 which I think was too early to do and slowly increasing it to level 5 and will stop if I don't think I'm ready for that. Got POP to 9 in my home region so I'm hoping to get to Tiny by the end of next year. 

The other new AI companies are struggling a bit with growing POP. I think having a very low booking skill is really affecting how good the shows are and with their spending habits. FEW and QPW opened within the year and just wanted to stay with LPR to see if I can dig them out of the hole before switching to any new company. 

Lastly, I got a 20 for my end of year roll and got +10 to safety, which I'm going to be honest, don't know how useful it is. But it is now 35 so I think that is good. 

I guess if people care, my roster so far has:

Firebird as our champion. He won it off Latin Lion Jr, who was our first champ in September. 

El Enigma is part of the booking team/Velvet Suarez is our Morale officer/Zebra Man is our Travel organizer/Concepcion Gomez is the Male Trainer and dating Zebra Man/Sabra Man Jr trains the Females/El Bandido Jr left EMLL so i got him and he is dating Estela (on his first night, dude's a charmer, I guess) and overall, Morale is doing pretty well. 

Let me know if you have any questions about the world. 

[lr10540]

21CW declared bankruptcy instead of selling to me. So that's annoying. My dreams of doing a Cornell Sr. vs Cornell Jr. feud are dashed. Another point of annoyance is TCW's booking position also opened up in my save in the 4th quarter of 2025 following the dismissal of Kyle Rhodes as CEO. Unfortunately for TCW, BriCo sold the company outright (I think because he's listed as owner and not CEO) to Giant Redwood, and given his egomaniacal attitude, he thinks he can book TCW better than anyone. So I got the email of it being opened, only to have my hopes and dreams dashed once more.

[alpha2117]

1 hour ago, lr10540 said:

21CW declared bankruptcy instead of selling to me. So that's annoying. My dreams of doing a Cornell Sr. vs Cornell Jr. feud are dashed. Another point of annoyance is TCW's booking position also opened up in my save in the 4th quarter of 2025 following the dismissal of Kyle Rhodes as CEO. Unfortunately for TCW, BriCo sold the company outright (I think because he's listed as owner and not CEO) to Giant Redwood, and given his egomaniacal attitude, he thinks he can book TCW better than anyone. So I got the email of it being opened, only to have my hopes and dreams dashed once more.

So TCW is going belly up then.

[Bad Collin]

I don't know if my 21CW are bugged or something but they are still in business in September 2026. They are $12m in debt and have been in the red since near the start of the save but I haven't seen a single warning about them being in financial trouble.

[Bad Collin]

[lr10540]

28 minutes ago, Bad Collin said:

Mine happen on Sept 10th, 2025. I wonder if this is somehow scripted to occur if everyone is experiencing this in September of 2025 or if it's just a matter of they'll never compete with USPW and he's the scapegoat like Peter Michaels was with SWF in TEW2020.

As for 21CW, they may have had a month in the black. I think that would've reset the 18 month timeline for bankruptcy.

[Bad Collin]

I think it's a matter of time, they can't compete with USPW and SWF and fall to Medium. Pee Wee Germaine took control. I applied for the job but my booking rep is 18 so...

Also, I don't think one month of profit would reset the bankrupcy timeline, if so that seems like a bug

Edited August 26 by Bad Collin

[alpha2117]

14 minutes ago, lr10540 said:

Mine happen on Sept 10th, 2025. I wonder if this is somehow scripted to occur if everyone is experiencing this in September of 2025 or if it's just a matter of they'll never compete with USPW and he's the scapegoat like Peter Michaels was with SWF in TEW2020.

As for 21CW, they may have had a month in the black. I think that would've reset the 18 month timeline for bankruptcy.

If you look at their Roster it's really old.  They have 4 big guys and two much wealthier predators who go after those guys when the contracts come up too.  It's a perfect storm situation where they just lose a ton of people fairly quickly and that leads to the booker getting blamed and canned when the ratings go down and they go into rebuild mode.  It's a bit like 21cW bleeding cash - the data is set up in a way that means it's very hard for the AI to avoid what happens.

Edited August 26 by alpha2117