[HYPE] Going In

[bhutapati]

It has been just a few weeks since Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada have had what many are calling the greatest match ever at Osaka-jo Hall.

In Mexico, the unthinkable has happened as Pentagon Jr., Rey Fenix and LA Park all appear in CMLL in the leadup to AAA's Triplemania 26.

Women's wrestling reaches a new plateau in North America with the 2nd edition of the Mae Young Classic, as Io Shirai departs Stardom and enters the WWE.

But though WWE goes from strength to strength, having signed a multi-million dollar deal for events in Saudi Arabia that will reshape their business, they are now in a creative nadir; they made Jinder Mahal champion for crying out loud.

The significance of what's about to happen cannot be overstated -- the largest independent wrestling event in history is about to take place in Chicago, and though no one fully realizes what's about to happen, it will reshape the wrestling world entirely.

It is August 2018 and you are Going In.

[Teasenitryn]

Unhinder Jinder!  

I suspect this is going to be a popular one, pretty sure I saw people asking for something around the time AEW started and it is a huge shift in the business.

[alexhudson1996]

One of the best times in the modern era, cant wait for this great work

[RaptorMcFly]

When I saw the title, I was reminded of Brandi Rhodes ROH theme 

[bhutapati]

[KB24]

Cant wait

Hugh hype

[SaberZerOne]

I hope this will have a lot of future workers to debut/return included. I can't stand starting a new game and finding out workers like dominik, cm punk, logan paul, sting, etc aren't in the database or set to return, etc.

[Bailey1985]

I wonder how the narrative or if the narrative works to change to AEW and Khan to supplant Rhodes...consider this a very interested bookmark.

[shotz]

I am so looking forward to this. 

[Teravangalo]

As someone who likes starting as an Indie company will this mod have plenty of workers that work on the independent scene or is what you are focusing on solely the big name companies

[bhutapati]

47 minutes ago, Teravangalo said:

As someone who likes starting as an Indie company will this mod have plenty of workers that work on the independent scene or is what you are focusing on solely the big name companies

My goal is for the indies to be well-represented. I've done the stupid thing and started the database from scratch so it will be a long way to get there, but that is the goal.

[bhutapati]

I have a few questions I'd like to put to the floor. I'd like for anyone who's interested in the mod to answer, but I'm especially interested in hearing from other, more experienced modmakers how they'd solve these problems.

• How do we feel about the inclusion of New Japan Strong and NXT UK as child companies? Both were not really long for this world, in retrospect, but as far as I can tell the AI doesn't close down child companies and you can't shut them down with narratives either. I liked in the 'Before the Fall' mod for 2020 how CMLL Guadalajara was included as a child company and I might go in that direction too.
• I plan on having 'The Elite' start as their own company to run All In, then use narratives to transform into AEW on January 1, 2019. This does mean that the company goes eight months between shows, and I don't know if that's tenable. I guess I have to actually finish the database and do some sims to figure this one out.
• Celebrities in the database. I'm glad to have this feature and I'll probably include Bad Bunny, Mike Tyson, Paul Walter Hauser and anyone else who's popped in to WWE or AEW the past few years, but beyond that, would people want to see more speculative stuff like Conor MacGregor? Part of me wants to include Taylor Swift based on her connection to Jeff Jarrett because, you never know, he could always call in a favour to come to Wembley...

Also, the list of promotions I'm hoping to have, at a minimum, for version 0.0001:

WWE
AEW
NJPW
CMLL
ROH
Impact/TNA
AAA
MLW
NXT
NWA
WXW
Progress
RevPro
BJW
DDT
DG
NOAH
Gatoh Move
Stardom
PWG

 

Edited August 19 by bhutapati

[Dalton]

Quote

How do we feel about the inclusion of New Japan Strong and NXT UK as child companies? Both were not really long for this world, in retrospect, but as far as I can tell the AI doesn't close down child companies and you can't shut them down with narratives either. I liked in the 'Before the Fall' mod for 2020 how CMLL Guadalajara was included as a child company and I might go in that direction too.

Yes to NXT UK, no to New Japan STRONG. NXT UK had a mostly separate roster than the rest of WWE. As for STRONG, I'd go with just adding the events to NJPW proper accurate future dates. The reason STRONG became a de facto separate company with its own roster is the pandemic, and I'm assuming you're not trying to replicate that. And now in TEWIX, you can add the STRONG titles and restrict them to the USA (or North America). I don't agree with the CMLL Guadalajara child company anyway honestly, since the uppercards on those Tuesday shows often feature top guys. I've watched a bunch of Mistico matches in the main event in Guadalajara this year alone, let alone the rest of the top names.

Quote

I plan on having 'The Elite' start as their own company to run All In, then use narratives to transform into AEW on January 1, 2019. This does mean that the company goes eight months between shows, and I don't know if that's tenable. I guess I have to actually finish the database and do some sims to figure this one out.

This would be difficult, if your goal is to accurately simulate the opening of AEW. Namely, some of the workers on All In were never going to work AEW, and having a company be dormant from Sep-Dec (and then Jan-May) may cause gameplay issues but I'm not entirely sure. So this isn't me asking for it by any means, but if your goal is to simulate AEW opening (a mod I've wanted for ages lol), I'd recommend starting January 2019, even May 2019 to avoid AI issues with gameplay, starting a TV show way too early, etc.

Quote

Celebrities in the database. I'm glad to have this feature and I'll probably include Bad Bunny, Mike Tyson, Paul Walter Hauser and anyone else who's popped in to WWE or AEW the past few years, but beyond that, would people want to see more speculative stuff like Conor MacGregor? Part of me wants to include Taylor Swift based on her connection to Jeff Jarrett because, you never know, he could always call in a favour to come to Wembley...

The inclusion of celebrities is a neat feature that I haven't fully examined yet, but I'd say go for it. If anyone doesn't want them, they can just delete them anyway. Adding them as UCs is an easy way to make that happen, if the player wishes.

Edited August 19 by Dalton

[bhutapati]

On 8/19/2024 at 3:39 PM, Dalton said:

This would be difficult, if your goal is to accurately simulate the opening of AEW. Namely, some of the workers on All In were never going to work AEW, and having a company be dormant from Sep-Dec (and then Jan-May) may cause gameplay issues but I'm not entirely sure. So this isn't me asking for it by any means, but if your goal is to simulate AEW opening (a mod I've wanted for ages lol), I'd recommend starting January 2019, even May 2019 to avoid AI issues with gameplay, starting a TV show way too early, etc.

I'm inclined to agree that May 2019 would be best for an AEW mod, but the previous summer is so interesting because so much happens specifically because of the lead-up to AEW -- Edge is medically cleared to return to WWE, ROH commits to Marty Scurll, signs Rush, Bandido, Brody King etc... It's easy to imagine things shaking out entirely differently, which is what I want to convey, maybe at the expense of realism.

That reminds me of the other question I wanted to pose to the board: Lucha Underground ends a few months later; the final episodes are already taped. The showrunner has already said that if they were to do another season they'd have to basically do a reboot because all the recognizable talent was too expensive. Would people be interested in playing it as it lays, as of Ultima Lucha?

Edited August 21 by bhutapati

[Teravangalo]

1 hour ago, bhutapati said:

I'm inclined to agree that May 2019 would be best for an AEW mod, but the previous summer is so interesting because so much happens specifically because of the lead-up to AEW -- Edge is medically cleared to return to WWE, ROH commits to Marty Scurll, signs Rush, Bandido, Brody King etc... It's easy to imagine things shaking out entirely differently, which is what I want to convey, maybe at the expense of realism.

That reminds me of the other question I wanted to pose to the board: Lucha Underground ends a few months later; the final episodes are already taped. The showrunner has already said that if they were to do another season they'd have to basically do a reboot because all the recognizable talent was too expensive. Would people be interested in playing it as it lays, as of Ultima Lucha?

100% I would be interested in trying to save a failing or just relaunched Lucha Underground

[Jose13]

On 8/19/2024 at 4:39 PM, Dalton said:

Yes to NXT UK, no to New Japan STRONG. NXT UK had a mostly separate roster than the rest of WWE. As for STRONG, I'd go with just adding the events to NJPW proper accurate future dates. The reason STRONG became a de facto separate company with its own roster is the pandemic, and I'm assuming you're not trying to replicate that. And now in TEWIX, you can add the STRONG titles and restrict them to the USA (or North America). I don't agree with the CMLL Guadalajara child company anyway honestly, since the uppercards on those Tuesday shows often feature top guys. I've watched a bunch of Mistico matches in the main event in Guadalajara this year alone, let alone the rest of the top names.

While the other CMLL arenas such as Puebla and Guadalajara use the big talent for their upper card, the venues shows are booked entirely independent of Mexico City shows. They have their own booking team and all, tho all the stuff is approved by the mexico city team first. There is a definite case to have Puebla/Guadalajara as a child company, but also TEW is not really made to simulate CMLL's model in any way xP. Having Occidente as a child company could be very interesthing tho, as this is the build up to CMLL starting to finally take women's seriously and that starts with Guadalajara and their female booker.

[Dalton]

6 minutes ago, Jose13 said:

While the other CMLL arenas such as Puebla and Guadalajara use the big talent for their upper card, the venues shows are booked entirely independent of Mexico City shows. They have their own booking team and all, tho all the stuff is approved by the mexico city team first. There is a definite case to have Puebla/Guadalajara as a child company, but also TEW is not really made to simulate CMLL's model in any way xP. Having Occidente as a child company could be very interesthing tho, as this is the build up to CMLL starting to finally take women's seriously and that starts with Guadalajara and their female booker.

I know what you mean 100%, but there is way too much of an overlap for the non-Mexico City shows to be considered "separate" in TEW terms, IMO. The child company mechanic in question just straight up wouldn't work in TEW, which is the biggest issue. So you'd either end up with a pissed off roster,  "loan" contracts that would only work for a couple months max, or have unrealistic shows missing all the Mexico City-based names that are typically there. All in all, it would be impossible to accurately simulate the Monday Puebla and Tuesday Guadalajara shows if they were a child company. 

Leaving all of CMLL together, and having the Puebla and Guadalajara shows as Lesser weekly events is the best option, IMO. *Maybe* brands would work but I don't know for sure. If anyone disagrees feel free to express your opinion. 

[Jose13]

25 minutes ago, Dalton said:

I know what you mean 100%, but there is way too much of an overlap for the non-Mexico City shows to be considered "separate" in TEW terms, IMO. The child company mechanic in question just straight up wouldn't work in TEW, which is the biggest issue. So you'd either end up with a pissed off roster,  "loan" contracts that would only work for a couple months max, or have unrealistic shows missing all the Mexico City-based names that are typically there. All in all, it would be impossible to accurately simulate the Monday Puebla and Tuesday Guadalajara shows if they were a child company. 

Leaving all of CMLL together, and having the Puebla and Guadalajara shows as Lesser weekly events is the best option, IMO. *Maybe* brands would work but I don't know for sure. If anyone disagrees feel free to express your opinion. 

Oh I agree, that is why I even said CMLL's schedule canot be replicated on TEW (I mean two tuesday shows in seperate venues? The audacity!). Tho instead of lesser they are more of tour shows tbh, not like it matters for Guadalajara since it has to be omitted from the database in order to add the Tuesday Arena Mexico show, which is far far more important to the stories than Guadalajara is. Really the main reason to have Guadalajara as a child company would be to have the shows happen without moving from day, but still it wont work to simulate the company well

[blaustein]

I’d definitely stick to your guns and keep the mod to August 2018, developing what you’re interested in is always best.

By default you have a couple of options for AEW’s founding. My feeling is the key players should remain signed to NJPW and ROH alongside ELITE, and enter hiatus via narrative after Wrestle Kingdom until Double or Nothing. Likewise, I’d have the ELITE promotion closed via narrative after All In and AEW set to open on 1st May 2019 (yes, it started in January but it’d be difficult to simulate those four months of nothing).

I also think the current ELITE set-up does enable a lot of what-if scenarios if a player chooses to remove the narratives - namely, if Tony Khan never got involved, would Cody and the Bucks have still kept running independent shows or would they have focused on building up ROH instead?

NJPW Strong may not have existed as a separate entity if not for the COVID pandemic keeping a lot of the gaijin roster stuck in America, so I’d personally default to not having it as a child company but rather giving NJPW some American-based events to simulate them dipping toes into the US market.

Edited August 26 by blaustein

[SpinningBackFist]

9 hours ago, blaustein said:

NJPW Strong may not have existed as a separate entity if not for the COVID pandemic keeping a lot of the gaijin roster stuck in America, so I’d personally default to not having it as a child company but rather giving NJPW some American-based events to simulate them dipping toes into the US market.

That's also pretty much what was actually happening. They had the G1 Special in the US in 2017 where Okada beat Cody. They had the Global Wars events all over the US. They did Strong Style Evolved a couple times in Long Beach. They did War of the Worlds at the ECW Arena in like 2014 or something. 

NJPW had multiple events in the US (and Canada [and sometimes the UK]) every year from like 2010 to 2020. Even in 2021 they managed two events in the US headlined by Ishii and Tanahashi. So yeah I wouldn't bother by putting NJPW Strong or NJPWoftheUSA in as its own child company or even as a show yet. I'd just give them their 2018 touring schedule and lock the US events they did to the US region. 

[bhutapati]

In one of many ways I am similar to Jamie Hayter, I have been laid up with a back injury and disappeared on you all.

I intend to show some of the progress I've made presently, but I have another question to put to the floor. The European scene is kind of a blind spot to me. Outside of wXw, are there any promotions that people would consider relevant for inclusion for this time period?

[bhutapati]

If a dog could wear pants, would it look like this:

Or like this?

[Marmo]

On 9/6/2024 at 8:55 PM, bhutapati said:

In one of many ways I am similar to Jamie Hayter, I have been laid up with a back injury and disappeared on you all.

I intend to show some of the progress I've made presently, but I have another question to put to the floor. The European scene is kind of a blind spot to me. Outside of wXw, are there any promotions that people would consider relevant for inclusion for this time period?

wXw is the biggest promotion in Europe but if you wanted to expand you could add International Catch Wrestling Alliance (ICWA) or Federation Francaise De Catch Professionnel(FFCP) both in France and have pages on Cagematch/Wikipedia or Italian Championship Wrestling(ICW). 

But realistically wXw is by far the biggest

 

[RubyFan727]

On 8/26/2024 at 3:07 AM, blaustein said:

I also think the current ELITE set-up does enable a lot of what-if scenarios if a player chooses to remove the narratives - namely, if Tony Khan never got involved, would Cody and the Bucks have still kept running independent shows or would they have focused on building up ROH instead?

More interesting for me is have ELITE close via a narrative on September 1st of 2018 and then you could do the Elite invasion of WWE that was implied by WWE themselves.

[bhutapati]

48 minutes ago, RubyFan727 said:

More interesting for me is have ELITE close via a narrative on September 1st of 2018 and then you could do the Elite invasion of WWE that was implied by WWE themselves.

That's a really good idea, but I don't think companies can close by narrative. I've been going back and forth whether to start the mod before or after All In just because there's not really any other way around that, and I don't know how many people are actually interested in revisiting the event itself.

In the meantime, some more looks of where I'm at, to give you all a sense of the tone of the mod: