Hiring Rules - "No Toxic Personality", "Nobody with _________ Attribute", "No current/former Adult Entertainers"

[thadian]

I need new hiring rules.

No toxic personality trait

Does not have ______ Personality Trait

Does not have ______ Attribute

No Adult Entertainer

No Former Adult Entertainer

Edited August 30 by thadian

[GrindhouseArts]

Yeah, the hiring rules are still pretty lacking.

I'd also like "Does have __________ Attribute" for the sports backgrounds attributes (or a tweak to the 'realistic wrestling' and 'MMA influenced' owner preferences, so they'll hire MMA/Martial Arts/Boxing/Gymnastics/Amateur Wrestling specifically, not just 'high Physical stats') and the deathmatch/weapon attributes (or tweak to the deathmatch and hardcore owner preferences). And some kind of nepotism setting that makes anyone more likely to hire workers they have positive relationships with, especially blood relatives, spouses, and proteges.

Edited August 30 by GrindhouseArts

[thadian]

Does have ____ is very important, how could I have forgotten that? I have an alliance (public, consortium, tiny size company in every US region - one region in each other country, every company owned by a media group and can only run shows in its own region. The media group owns one cable commercial broadcaster in each area, Very Small size in that area. It also owns a PPV Cable network that is tiny size in every area of the world. Each company has a "Morality Wrestling" product, and runs a weekly A-Show, B-Show, and monthly event.

I want to ensure that one of them doesn't hire an inappropriate worker who gets a scandal and kills the entire alliance (consortium).

I also have a few shoot style and mma based companies who I want to ensure don't hire people with certain histories.

With all the rainbow settings, I think "does not hire" ______ (gender/sexuality/pronoun). I understand why it might never be added, but I am considering when I create a few rainbow companies I want to ensure they remain a very dominantly rainbow roster.

I would like something that tells the company what rough percentage/how many workers of gender/pronoun/race to keep on the roster, or to avoid having. I might tell a DEI Wrestling Inc company "do not have more than 40% of the roster be the same race" along with "maintain equal ratios, where possible, of each race". Again, I understand why this might never be added.

I would like Rainbow products to not be Risque, except the ones which are. A company like a TNA or WCW or AEW, where all is "normal" wrestling - but the characters are all rainbow, have rainbow storylines and relationships, but otherwise have normal beef over things you would expect in "normal" wrestling. Family Friendly Rainbow Entertainment, Classic Rainbow Wrestling, etc.

For such companies, "prefers to hire Rainbow folks" or "Prefer a racially diverse roster" would be great.

[GrindhouseArts]

Yeah, I'm also mainly concerned with the companies in my mod to maintain their style and 'public image', so to speak. Some examples of what I'd like to do, but can't because there are no hiring rules that help:

A company that is all about their Irish-American identity; has an Irish nationality owner. I would like him to hire workers that are either also Irish by nationality, or more broadly, British workers. The company is way too small to fly people in on the regular, so I don't want to allow Foreign Workers in general. I'd like a hiring rule, exception setting from the existing 'No Foreign Workers', or a preference 'Excursions/Per Appearance from (Region)' - in this case, obviously British Isles.

A company that is a safe haven for recovering addicts. Owner is a Former Pain Killer Addict who got clean, and a good amount of workers also have Former Addict attributes. I would like the company to specifically hire workers that fit this concept. (There's a new attribute 'Soft Hand' in the patch notes, so that could work to make the owner and his booker more lenient with low key drug issues.)

Since my pleas for a 'Loves Controversy/Any Publicity Is Good Publicity' attribute (that makes an owner hire toxic workers, people with active scandals, and so on) seem to fall on deaf ears, the next best thing would be a hiring preference for negative traits/personalities (Agitator, Troublemaker, Checkered Past, Often in Trouble...).

My solution that could solve a pretty long list of these fine tuning preferences would be an attribute 'Birds of a Feather'. The effect would be: preference for hiring workers with similar traits; an owner who prefers workers that are as similar as possible to him/herself. Same nationality? 50 % more likely than normal to hire. Same sexual orientiation? 50 % more likely to hire. Same Checkered Past, Former Martial Artist, Extremely Old School, whatever? 50 % more likely to hire. That way, you wouldn't need a long list of 'prefers to hire X'. You'd just slap all the things you want on the owner and give him the 'Birds of a Feather' attribute, boom, he'll try to create a clone army. (For non-owners/bookers, the attribute could just increase the chance to befriend similar-attribute workers.)

With that in place, tweak relationships/existing attributes, so opposites repel. Straight Edge dislikes any (non-Former) Addiction. Anti-Hardcore dislikes Deathmatch Worker. Highly Moral dislikes Adult Entertainment. Just to decrease the chance for hirings that go against the owner's preferences some more. For good measure, throw in a new 'Opposites Attract' attribute that does the opposite of 'Birds of a Feather' - increased chance to befriend/hire workers with opposite attributes.

[Big Roguey]

"Since my pleas for a 'Loves Controversy/Any Publicity Is Good Publicity' attribute (that makes an owner hire toxic workers, people with active scandals, and so on) seem to fall on deaf ears"

Not every suggestion posted gets a response from Adam but they are, at the very least, looked at with consideration. Nothing falls on deaf ears. 

[GrindhouseArts]

12 minutes ago, Big Roguey said:

"Since my pleas for a 'Loves Controversy/Any Publicity Is Good Publicity' attribute (that makes an owner hire toxic workers, people with active scandals, and so on) seem to fall on deaf ears"

Not every suggestion posted gets a response from Adam but they are, at the very least, looked at with consideration. Nothing falls on deaf ears. 

I know. I have seen other people ask for an attribute with a similar name/effect, so I'm hopeful this gets added at some point. It's just a bit difficult to tell what actually gets added - like, my recent suggestion 'Amateur Wrestler' attribute is in the patch notes for the next update, but there's no indication in the Attribute Suggestion topic that this one was picked.

[thadian]

2020 let us select for/against attributes and had "no toxic personalities" which was nice for a few companies.

[GrindhouseArts]

2 minutes ago, thadian said:

2020 let us select for/against attributes and had "no toxic personalities" which was nice for a few companies.

Only in the worker search though. Or is there a hiring rule I overlooked all this time?!

[thadian]

It was a hiring rule. I set it for EVERY "A Level" company and every company I just wanted to be Scandal-Free (mostly). I did this because I noticed an inordinate amount of toxic workers being generated and saw my child companies stacked themselves with toxic workers who began to influence my developmentals. Instead of "part of the fun of the game", I took it as "part of the anti-fun that I should find a way to get around" so I was happy to find it in the hiring preferences.

Me belief - Adam probably thinks these features made the game "too easy" and wants it to be "harder", same as the REAL reason we can't design our own products any more, ala TEW 13 and 16. We were able to maneuver the sliders in a way that could give us products that "were easy to use" and "didn't have enough pitfalls". I had a wrestling-based company that was rated on wrestling - but was not hard on the body, did not require 10, 15, 20 minute matches, was friendly to sponsors, and had a cult following. I had a lot of fun with that. I can see that the sliders were not really a good method of build-a-bear product creation.

Now all of my companies, period, are somewhere between No Style, Three Ring Circus, and Classic Balanced. Not because I want my mod full of that, but because I find match length and "hard on the body" to be unfun. But I also want fans to appreciate Technical Masterclass/Wild Brawl/Storytelling matches - no options for me unless I also want a big list of rules to obey, which are often against the grain of the product I am trying to create.

I could just disable all the elements when starting a new game, but then why have product types at all, right? I wish there were a middle ground between being oppressed by a product's "thing" you don't like and "just turn off all product effects". When "create your product" was removed, I had fears that a lot of us would want products that will never exist because "the dev doesn't see the need".

[GrindhouseArts]

18 hours ago, thadian said:

I noticed an inordinate amount of toxic workers being generated

Yeah, I noticed that, too. I did a lot of testing with the training facilities, mostly to see how many non-wrestlers would be generated to balance future debuts in my mod. There was definitely a bias in favor of the really bad personalities. Every batch of graduates, without fail, had at least one Troublemaker, Agitator, or Bully. But I rarely got the really good ones like People Person. My test was with 5 fully upgraded PCs over 5 years, so a fairly large sample size of graduates. Too large to be just a coincidence. So I balanced my future debuts not only by style and role, but also handed out more neutral and positive personalities, just so I wouldn't see a constant stream of 'X quitting drama! Y is a scumbag! Z walks out on company!' That's not realistic. In real life, tensions simmer for months, if not years, until the drama reaches a boiling point and makes headlines.

As for products, I actually don't mind the concept, but I'm still puzzled why the factors that determine a product are what they are. In many cases, I could either name 0 or 20 real life promotions that fit the criteria. 45 % matches, 55 % angles, easy on the body, gets penalized for Technical Masterclass and Deathmatches? No idea. 90 % matches, 10 % angles, matches must be 10+ mins, penalty on Eye Candy? That could be at least 80 % of all shows I've ever seen. Those factors just don't make a company what they are. If I think of CHIKARA, I think 'masks, crazy gimmicks, family friendly, luchadors and highflyers', not '75/25 match/angle ratio' or whatever. And I would be utterly puzzled if a CHIKARA show didn't have any masks or crazy gimmicks, and the main event was two dudes in trunks doing flips instead. Mandatory Match Length is also a weird one to me. I review shows, and 'was this match long enough to be good' is rarely a consideration when I pick my MOTN. If it's absurdly short, yeah. But whether it's 10 or 11 minutes has never been a deciding factor.

What I think should be in Products:

- Type of Fanbase (are the fans 'filthy casuals' or 'smarks' or something in between; style preference) that modifies how workers are perceived. Smart marks would be in the know about workers from other regions if they fit the style preference - say, a Hardcore fanbase reacts positively to Joel Bateman on a US show even if he only has 3 pop there because these are 'smart marks, preference hardcore' that follow all hardcore wrestling, US, Australia, doesn't matter. A 'puro smark' fanbase would know that one obscure Joshi worker who has cult status in Japan and is virtually unknown everywhere else. (Effect: Worker's highest pop in any region is considered the local pop if the worker has a style the fanbase prefers.) And on the other extreme of the spectrum, a 'casual' fanbase wouldn't give a shit about foreign stars because 'who are you???'. They may not even know big indie names from their home region (Effect: worker is rated on Entertainment more than pop), but they would be excited to see celebrities, musicians, actors - people they recognize from other forms of entertainment, and react better to gimmicky stuff (Comedy, Entertainer style, Eye Candy, Stunt Bump) than smart fans who've seen it all a thousand times and aren't as easily impressed/surprised.

- Gimmick Prefererences or even Mandatory Gimmick Types. To go back to what I said before: a CHIKARA-style product would have a requirement of X masked workers per show, get a better reaction to Comedy and Gimmicky/Cartoonish gimmicks, or might even have a mandatory minimum of such gimmicks per card. Products with Anti-Establishment, Edgy Entertainment, Hardcore would get the same for Bad Ass and Offbeat/Unstable. The various Sports Entertainment/WWE era-style products could be set apart a lot more by giving 'Attitude Entertainment' a boost on Realistic and Bad Ass gimmicks, vs. the early 90s WWE style with Gimmicky/Cartoonish characters, and so on. The Mandatory X type gimmicks could be handled like storylines - depending on company size, the audience expects to see X Legitimate/Comdey/whatever workers on a show, if you don't book them, boom, audience is bewildered, penalty. This would also make the 'Plays X well/Can't play Y' attributes more relevant. You'd actually have a reason to care if a worker you hire is good/bad at a gimmick type and get rewarded for using the real category (instead of just saying 'well, it's technically more Bad Ass, but he sucks at it, guess he's a Legitimate bad ass then' and call it a day. THAT feels very game-y to me.)

Those would make so much more sense to me when it comes to defining a company's identity and style. Far more than match length - unless a match is ultra short or extremely long, I probably won't ever think about it. The 'hard/easy on the body' also doesn't match reality. In-game, workers in their mid-twenties complain about their declining physical abilities when you have plenty of real life examples who are going strong in their 30s or 40s in those styles. People just don't drop dead from exhaustion after a tour or a 2 day event or a tournament where they had 3 - 4 matches per night. I think that should be determined entirely by their Athletic Abilities. not the product.

I guess that's pretty off-topic, so I'll just point to the part about gimmick-related attributes again and hope that's on-topic enough. lol

Edited September 1 by GrindhouseArts

[Spoons]

19 minutes ago, GrindhouseArts said:

Yeah, I noticed that, too. I did a lot of testing with the training facilities, mostly to see how many non-wrestlers would be generated to balance future debuts in my mod. There was definitely a bias in favor of the really bad personalities. Every batch of graduates, without fail, had at least one Troublemaker, Agitator, or Bully. But I rarely got the really good ones like People Person. My test was with 5 fully upgraded PCs over 5 years, so a fairly large sample size of graduates. Too large to be just a coincidence. So I balanced my future debuts not only by style and role, but also handed out more neutral and positive personalities, just so I wouldn't see a constant stream of 'X quitting drama! Y is a scumbag! Z walks out on company!' That's not realistic. In real life, tensions simmer for months, if not years, until the drama reaches a boiling point and makes headlines.

As for products, I actually don't mind the concept, but I'm still puzzled why the factors that determine a product are what they are. In many cases, I could either name 0 or 20 real life promotions that fit the criteria. 45 % matches, 55 % angles, easy on the body, gets penalized for Technical Masterclass and Deathmatches? No idea. 90 % matches, 10 % angles, matches must be 10+ mins, penalty on Eye Candy? That could be at least 80 % of all shows I've ever seen. Those factors just don't make a company what they are. If I think of CHIKARA, I think 'masks, crazy gimmicks, family friendly, luchadors and highflyers', not '75/25 match/angle ratio' or whatever. And I would be utterly puzzled if a CHIKARA show didn't have any masks or crazy gimmicks, and the main event was two dudes in trunks doing flips instead. Mandatory Match Length is also a weird one to me. I review shows, and 'was this match long enough to be good' is rarely a consideration when I pick my MOTN. If it's absurdly short, yeah. But whether it's 10 or 11 minutes has never been a deciding factor.

What I think should be in Products:

- Type of Fanbase (are the fans 'filthy casuals' or 'smarks' or something in between; style preference) that modifies how workers are perceived. Smart marks would be in the know about workers from other regions if they fit the style preference - say, a Hardcore fanbase reacts positively to Joel Bateman on a US show even if he only has 3 pop there because these are 'smart marks, preference hardcore' that follow all hardcore wrestling, US, Australia, doesn't matter. A 'puro smark' fanbase would know that one obscure Joshi worker who has cult status in Japan and is virtually unknown everywhere else. (Effect: Worker's highest pop in any region is considered the local pop if the worker has a style the fanbase prefers.) And on the other extreme of the spectrum, a 'casual' fanbase wouldn't give a shit about foreign stars because 'who are you???'. They may not even know big indie names from their home region (Effect: worker is rated on Entertainment more than pop), but they would be excited to see celebrities, musicians, actors - people they recognize from other forms of entertainment, and react better to gimmicky stuff (Comedy, Entertainer style, Eye Candy, Stunt Bump) than smart fans who've seen it all a thousand times and aren't as easily impressed/surprised.

- Gimmick Prefererences or even Mandatory Gimmick Types. To go back to what I said before: a CHIKARA-style product would have a requirement of X masked workers per show, get a better reaction to Comedy and Gimmicky/Cartoonish gimmicks, or might even have a mandatory minimum of such gimmicks per card. Products with Anti-Establishment, Edgy Entertainment, Hardcore would get the same for Bad Ass and Offbeat/Unstable. The various Sports Entertainment/WWE era-style products could be set apart a lot more by giving 'Attitude Entertainment' a boost on Realistic and Bad Ass gimmicks, vs. the early 90s WWE style with Gimmicky/Cartoonish characters, and so on. The Mandatory X type gimmicks could be handled like storylines - depending on company size, the audience expects to see X Legitimate/Comdey/whatever workers on a show, if you don't book them, boom, audience is bewildered, penalty. This would also make the 'Plays X well/Can't play Y' attributes more relevant. You'd actually have a reason to care if a worker you hire is good/bad at a gimmick type and get rewarded for using the real category (instead of just saying 'well, it's technically more Bad Ass, but he sucks at it, guess he's a Legitimate bad ass then' and call it a day. THAT feels very game-y to me.)

Those would make so much more sense to me when it comes to defining a company's identity and style. Far more than match length - unless a match is ultra short or extremely long, I probably won't ever think about it. The 'hard/easy on the body' also doesn't match reality. In-game, workers in their mid-twenties complain about their declining physical abilities when you have plenty of real life examples who are going strong in their 30s or 40s in those styles. People just don't drop dead from exhaustion after a tour or a 2 day event or a tournament where they had 3 - 4 matches per night. I think that should be determined entirely by their Athletic Abilities. not the product.

I guess that's pretty off-topic, so I'll just point to the part about gimmick-related attributes again and hope that's on-topic enough. lol

You oughta bring this to the Product Suggestion Thread.

[GrindhouseArts]

14 minutes ago, Spoons said:

You oughta bring this to the Product Suggestion Thread.

Isn't that topic for requesting new products? But yeah, maybe I should make a new topic for this.

[Spoons]

9 minutes ago, GrindhouseArts said:

Isn't that topic for requesting new products? But yeah, maybe I should make a new topic for this.

Well yeah, but requesting that the products change entirely and how to do it might count. You never know. 😛

[Spoons]

18 hours ago, thadian said:

When "create your product" was removed, I had fears that a lot of us would want products that will never exist because "the dev doesn't see the need".

I also feel like a decent amount of this comes from "well there are no products like that in real life, so therefore we shouldn't need that," which is weird when the entire main database the game comes with is a fake one to begin with, and therefore shouldn't reflect reality.