Merch Department Overhaul | Production tweaks

[Travis]

Hi, I think it would be great if we could just pay to upgrade the Merchandise department by the tier like we do under the Production section. If you went that route instead of having "Current Level", "Upgrade Progress", and "Upgrade Options" you could have 4 different things to upgrade like under the Production screen's: "Production Values", "Live Event Experience", "Broadcast Quality", and "Music."

Under Merchandise you could have "Supply Line" which would have tiers like "Out of House Small" "Out of House Medium" "Out of House Large" "In House Small" "In House Medium" "In House Large". These would control the amount of merch that can be sold and the profit margin. Out of House would give you very little profit per shirt sold but it won't cost you anything to get started on the base tier. You'd upgrade and pay a small monthly fee so they can prioritize you so you can move more merch. Going to In House will require a bit more up front capital to cover equipment and supplies and you'll have ongoing costs and labor.

"Live Event Merchandising" could have tiers: "Online only" "Company Branded" "Major Stars/Stars" "Whole Roster Basic" "Whole Roster Deluxe". This controls the amount you make at shows on merch with Online Only not resulting in any merch sales from shows alone. It would have very low monthly fees($25/month for the website) and $0 per show fees. Company Branded would have a small per show fee as you're now staffing someone to sell merch at shows and a small monthly fee. Once you get to Company Branded you'll make money per person attending, like how it is already. Major Stars would act how it currently does in the game when you've upgraded to that point. You'll make money more money off of your stars as you upgrade your tiers, and it'll have higher per show and per month fees. Live Event Merchandising is basically how the whole merch department works as it is in the game. Everything else either adds or subtracts, multiplies or divides off those settings.

"Merchandise Quality" could have tiers: "Bottom Of The Barrel", "Basic", "Deluxe", "Premium." This feeds directly into the Supply Line but acts as a percentage that's taken off of your Supply Line margins. Bottom Of The Barrel will be a -0% of your sales. Basic will be a -10% of your sales, and so on. The higher the quality of the merch the lower your profit margin. The only reason this matters is if you're in a regional or national battle this could weigh into how those battles are won or lost, and affect your momentum and prestige accordingly.

"Artwork Quality" could have tiers: "Family Friend", "Freelance Cheap", "Freelance Expensive", "In House Cheap", "In House Expensive." Family Friend would be the free option, while the rest just get progressively more expensive per month. This doesn't need to cost anything per show as it doesn't affect quantity of sales. Going to In House would require an initial fee as office space and equipment have to be covered before work begins and any subsequent upgrades would need upfront fees to expand. This also affects your regional and national battle scores. 

So if you're starting out as an insignificant company with "Out Of House Small", "Online Only", "Bottom Of The Barrel", and "Family Friend", you'd be paying $25 a month just to have your website or mail service, and could make around $4 per popularity point. At the default 10 popularity in your starting region and a few spillover points, you could make a tiny profit of $15 to $30. Upgrading your Supply Line increases your money per popularity point. Upgrading your Live Event Merchandising increases your merch sales per fan in attendance. Upgrading the quality lowers your profits slightly but can help you win regional and national battles. Upgrading the Artwork Quality costs more per month, and can help you in regional and national battles. The Merch quality and Artwork quality can really play a big part in public perception.

For example, WWE's merchandise is a powerhouse. They'd be at the highest settings, or very close to. They have a history of making stuff in house and at a large scale, use fairly high quality materials, and invest in the quality of the artwork on their merch, but I've heard that they've outsourced to Fanatics recently and their quality has dropped. Then you have AEW, who would use "Out Of House Medium or Large" because they outsource to Pro Wrestling Tees and don't have a huge overhead that an In House department would. Their Live Event Merchandising would be "Major Stars/Stars" as they often have a limited quantity of merch at live shows and only for a limited amount of wrestlers. Their Merch Quality is just as high as WWE's so their profit margin would be slimmer than if they had lower quality. And I'd controversially put AEW's Artwork Quality at either Family Friend or a lower Freelance level, as it was one of the Young Bucks' wives that was doing all the design work and not a team of professionals.

I think this would add a bit more depth and build on what's there. The primary reason I'd love to see an overhaul is because the current way is a nightmare if you're starting a new company that you want to be big right off the bat. You've got the money but you really don't have the time, and the lack of a properly grown merch department can sink you easily. You're in the same situation whether you're running an insignificant company or a medium or large company. You have to wait through nearly 2 years of upgrading at a rapid pace just to actually make decent money that reflects a company of that size. The current method really only works if you're starting out from insignificant.

I'd also like to see free tiers in the Production section under "Production Values" and "Broadcast Quality." These could be just 1 step under what's currently there. Instead of "Limited" being at level 1, you could have Volunteers or Family Friend. For Broadcast Quality you could have another Volunteer or Family Friend where they film the show with either a phone or very outdated equipment. It's worse than Amateur. I have seen and experienced this in real life, lol. 
This would really help in doing zero to hero games as I've found it completely unattainable in this game because of the current base production costs. You could keep the defaults where they're at, but just give the option to downgrade to the free tiers if possible.

Thanks for reading my Ted talk, lol