Time Decline Options

[Tiberious]

Time Decline is a necessary part of TEW to keep companies from simply using the same top stars for decades on end, but I find that it sometimes feels like it goes too far in the other direction with any worker in decline becoming a liability and having to immediately be phased out, when I see a lot of wrestles in modern days going strong through their 40s and 50s. It can also be disappointing when you start playing as a company and have a guy on top of the card whose older but is apparently having a career reneissance, but when you actually start the game it turns out he's already several years in decline.

I have two seperate suggestions related to time decline.

1. An option for "Not Yet In Decline" for workers Decline Age & Relevancy Age in the editor. So the period they start Time Decline would still be random, but it would always be a date after the start of the game. This would allow a database maker to ensure an older worker is still in their prime at the start of a game, but still allow some randomness for how long it will last and not have to set an arbitrary exact age their decline starts.

2. Options to lessen (or even completely negate) the match penalties for Time Decline in the options menu. You might call this more of a sandbox/fantasy option for people who want to be able to use older talent more without it absolutely tanking their ratings. I think there's a solid argument for at least the option for a lessened version as well as well, since there are a lot of real world examples of older wrestlers in their 50s who still put on good matches pretty consistently, even if it was clear they weren't as good as in their prime.

Edited Friday at 04:10 PM by Tiberious
typo

[ExRufas2000]

In those cases I set the time decline age in the editor. There's also an attribute "Age is Just a Number" that slows the process down.

[Tiberious]

14 minutes ago, ExRufas2000 said:

In those cases I set the time decline age in the editor. There's also an attribute "Age is Just a Number" that slows the process down.

That is a way to get around it, but as someone who enjoys a degree of randomness I'd prefer an option where I didn't have to pick a specific year for the decline to begin.

Age is Just a Number is a cool attribute, but I've tested it and as far as I can tell it only affects the rate at which skills decline and doesn't change the match performance penalty for physical decline that scales based on how long they've been in decline. So for someone whose already in the later stages of decline the penalty is massive enough that even with great stats they'll still put on terrible performances. I did end up throwing up a couple of attribute suggestions in that thread though since I was thinking it would be nice if their were a complementary attribute to Age is Just A Number that lowered/negated the in ring performance penalty rather than just the stat decrease.

Edited Friday at 04:42 PM by Tiberious

[Derek B]

There's a second tweak I think is needed based on how the way Time Decline works has been changed over the last two games.  It used to be Decline straight up hit the stats, but now it hits the stat caps, which I like.  But in older TEWs there was an additional penalty applied that got steeper for the number of years into decline a worker was, which was originally meant to help the AI promotions phase people out faster by hitting their segment ratings harder.  That doesn't feel needed at all now, and removing this would go a looooong way towards having time decline work better for older workers.

As an example.... two workers with identical stats should get roughly the same results.  If one of those workers is ten years into decline and the other just one year into decline, the first one would get a far lower rating.  Which is counter-intuitive, as out of those two the one who is further into decline must have peaked with far higher stats in the first place, but now with equal stats is perceived as far worse in the eyes of current fans.

It would go a long way to adding value to some veterans who haven't retired from the ring yet too, as they'd be worthwhile hires for smaller promotions looking to squeeze a little juice out of them when they are no longer able to compete at the highest levels, which is a VERY common thing in real life.

[NotTheAEWCody]

I love these suggestions, Time Decline as a mechanic is probably one of my biggest gripes with the game. Half of AEW's main event scene would be unusable if real life played by TEW rules lol, look at Christian Cage having some of the best matches of his career at 50. He'd be at least 5 or 6 years into time decline and putting out 40/50 match performances in-game. I understand TD existing to cycle people out but as it stands now its way too harsh(especially with half of the C-Verse favorites reaching geriatric age) , I think the additional penalty that Derek has mentioned above needs to go. Good post!

[Tiberious]

17 minutes ago, Derek B said:

There's a second tweak I think is needed based on how the way Time Decline works has been changed over the last two games.  It used to be Decline straight up hit the stats, but now it hits the stat caps, which I like.  But in older TEWs there was an additional penalty applied that got steeper for the number of years into decline a worker was, which was originally meant to help the AI promotions phase people out faster by hitting their segment ratings harder.  That doesn't feel needed at all now, and removing this would go a looooong way towards having time decline work better for older workers.

As an example.... two workers with identical stats should get roughly the same results.  If one of those workers is ten years into decline and the other just one year into decline, the first one would get a far lower rating.  Which is counter-intuitive, as out of those two the one who is further into decline must have peaked with far higher stats in the first place, but now with equal stats is perceived as far worse in the eyes of current fans.

It would go a long way to adding value to some veterans who haven't retired from the ring yet too, as they'd be worthwhile hires for smaller promotions looking to squeeze a little juice out of them when they are no longer able to compete at the highest levels, which is a VERY common thing in real life.

Agreed with all of this. One of the big reasons I made this thread is I was playing a game where my starting roster included a 50 year old legend who had great stats, 85 Brawling, 90s+ in all performance stats, and 70 popularity in the country. If he was 30 he'd be one of the top in ring guys in the world. My product was 40:60 to 60:40, but his in ring performances on my first two shows were high 50s meaning they were even lower without the 70 pop pulling them up and adding age is just a number didn't help since it was the time decline penalty, not the stats, that were the issue. Given his age I knew his time on top would be limited, but I was hoping I could give him a good initial run before I phased him down the card.

[Spoons]

2 hours ago, Tiberious said:

I did end up throwing up a couple of attribute suggestions in that thread though since I was thinking it would be nice if their were a complementary attribute to Age is Just A Number that lowered/negated the in ring performance penalty rather than just the stat decrease.

I put one in there that'd help as well:

"Benjamin Button Syndrome: Like a fine wine, this worker actually gets better with age! They will never experience time decline, and will put off retirement from in-ring competition for 10-20 years longer than expected."

For workers like Dustin Rhodes and Bryan Danielson who are having the best matches of their respective careers, even though they're at an advanced age. I think this attribute would solve a bunch of the problems you're describing with the time decline system, by removing it from the picture altogether, but only for certain wrestlers.

Edited Friday at 07:09 PM by Spoons

[Peter.1986]

Time declines a very hard one

Each set of skills decline at different times (eg psychology carries on improving when the worker is in decline physically)

 

One main way to combat it i think

Peak age:

Decline age:

This stops people who were good early one, either getting ridiculously good, or it stops them from declining far too young.

Its currently a situations where you think, I don't want them to get that good, but don't want them to get that bad too early. 

[ExRufas2000]

Looks like Adam took the suggestion.