Total Extreme Wrestling 07: Developer's Journal

[Adam Ryland]

[B]September 6th[/B] Coming to TEW07 via WreSpi2 is the [I]geographical breakdown of Japan[/I]. For those of you who haven't tried WreSpi2, first of all you suck, secondly you will have missed that Japan has been altered from being broken down into four regions to being broken down into eight regions. This allows for a more realistic depiction of the area.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]September 7th[/B] A feature that has been modified for 07 is the [I]Owner Goals[/I]. The feature is now spit into two, with Critical Goals and Block Goals. You will normally get two of each (obviously meaning that there are now four slots rather than three), although you can get as few as one. Critical Goals are the same as was in TEW05 - a task that you have to complete within a set time limit, or you lose your job. The same eight goals as in TEW05 remain as potential selections, with a handful of new ones added. Block Goals are slightly different. They are instructions on running the promotions handed down to you by the owner. They also have a time limit, but the difference is that rather than being something you have to achieve, they are tasks that you are prevented from doing. They are automatically enforced, so you do not have the options of failing \ breaking them. Some examples are: * The owner may decide that wrestlers who constantly get injured are cost-inefficient, and so you will be banned from hiring anyone with less than a C+ in Resilience * The owner may tell you that steroid use in wrestling needs stamping out, and so you are banned from hiring or re-signing anyone who uses them. * And the toughest one, the owner may tell you that you need to start developing "home grown" stars and so ban you from hiring wrestlers who are already working for other promotions, meaning you will have to rely on talented unemployed workers. The idea behind the Blocks is to add an extra layer of strategy to your hiring and firing policy. As with TEW05, Owner Goals are not active in Freestyle mode or when you are also the owner of your company.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]September 7th[/B] A feature that has been modified for 07 is the [I]Owner Goals[/I]. The feature is now spit into two, with Critical Goals and Block Goals. You will normally get two of each (obviously meaning that there are now four slots rather than three), although you can get as few as one. Critical Goals are the same as was in TEW05 - a task that you have to complete within a set time limit, or you lose your job. The same eight goals as in TEW05 remain as potential selections, with a handful of new ones added. Block Goals are slightly different. They are instructions on running the promotions handed down to you by the owner. They also have a time limit, but the difference is that rather than being something you have to achieve, they are tasks that you are prevented from doing. They are automatically enforced, so you do not have the options of failing \ breaking them. Some examples are: * The owner may decide that wrestlers who constantly get injured are cost-inefficient, and so you will be banned from hiring anyone with less than a C+ in Resilience * The owner may tell you that steroid use in wrestling needs stamping out, and so you are banned from hiring or re-signing anyone who uses them. * And the toughest one, the owner may tell you that you need to start developing "home grown" stars and so ban you from hiring wrestlers who are already working for other promotions, meaning you will have to rely on talented unemployed workers. The idea behind the Blocks is to add an extra layer of strategy to your hiring and firing policy. As with TEW05, Owner Goals are not active in Freestyle mode or when you are also the owner of your company.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]September 8th[/B] Today's feature is [I]Promotional Buy Outs[/I]. If a company is in financial difficulty you can make them a cash offer to take them over, paying off their debts and putting them out of business. There are certain advantages to this; you can gain a Prestige boost based upon their size and prestige, and by putting them out of business you therefore make their roster available and so can attempt to cherry-pick sign the best of the bunch. It is also useful if you are feeling some megalomania, and want to simply destroy all your competition. When taking over the company, you get the option of whether to steal their titles before putting them out of business. If you choose to, all their titles are transferred to your company, including their full title histories. As an extra feature, any of those title holders who are already on your roster will remain champion, meaning the title history remains unbroken (as oppose to the other belts, which would be vacated if the champion doesn't work for you).

[Adam Ryland]

[B]September 8th[/B] Today's feature is [I]Promotional Buy Outs[/I]. If a company is in financial difficulty you can make them a cash offer to take them over, paying off their debts and putting them out of business. There are certain advantages to this; you can gain a Prestige boost based upon their size and prestige, and by putting them out of business you therefore make their roster available and so can attempt to cherry-pick sign the best of the bunch. It is also useful if you are feeling some megalomania, and want to simply destroy all your competition. When taking over the company, you get the option of whether to steal their titles before putting them out of business. If you choose to, all their titles are transferred to your company, including their full title histories. As an extra feature, any of those title holders who are already on your roster will remain champion, meaning the title history remains unbroken (as oppose to the other belts, which would be vacated if the champion doesn't work for you).

[Adam Ryland]

[B]September 11th[/B] Returning to the game are [I]Pre-Game Injuries[/I]. This feature allows you to assign injuries to wrestlers via the editor, so that they are in effect when a new game begins. You can specify the wrester, the injury, and how many weeks is has left before it is healed.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]September 11th[/B] Returning to the game are [I]Pre-Game Injuries[/I]. This feature allows you to assign injuries to wrestlers via the editor, so that they are in effect when a new game begins. You can specify the wrester, the injury, and how many weeks is has left before it is healed.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]September 12th[/B] A new idea to help people who like to create their own data is the addition of the [I]Quick Worker Creation[/I] tool. Found in the database editor, the QWC is essentially a replica of the normal Edit Worker section, except with far less information to fill in and a great deal more AI, and is used to create a worker in far less time than it would normally take. For example, rather than having to fill in his skills, you simply select a few basics from a set of dropdown menus (such as what sort of wrestler he is, how good he is, etc) and the AI will automatically assign him stats based upon that selection. This process is used to fill in lots of stats with only a few menu selections. What this means is that you get a playable character created in far less time than it would normally take. Once he is made, you can then access him via the normal editor to "polish him up" into a finished character, so there is no loss of accuracy of data.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]September 12th[/B] A new idea to help people who like to create their own data is the addition of the [I]Quick Worker Creation[/I] tool. Found in the database editor, the QWC is essentially a replica of the normal Edit Worker section, except with far less information to fill in and a great deal more AI, and is used to create a worker in far less time than it would normally take. For example, rather than having to fill in his skills, you simply select a few basics from a set of dropdown menus (such as what sort of wrestler he is, how good he is, etc) and the AI will automatically assign him stats based upon that selection. This process is used to fill in lots of stats with only a few menu selections. What this means is that you get a playable character created in far less time than it would normally take. Once he is made, you can then access him via the normal editor to "polish him up" into a finished character, so there is no loss of accuracy of data.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]September 13th[/B] A new feature that is designed to make booking simpler is the addition of [I]Advance Booking Auto Fill[/I]. Quite a simple feature, it is used when selecting the competitors while booking a match. One button clicks pops up a list of matches you currently have Advanced Booked, and you simply select the one you want - the competitors will then automatically be filled in. The only restrictions are that the workers must be available, and the match type must be the same (i.e. if you are booking a singles bout you wouldn't be able to Auto Fill from an advance booked tag team match). Any "To Be Announced" slots are obviously left unfilled.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]September 13th[/B] A new feature that is designed to make booking simpler is the addition of [I]Advance Booking Auto Fill[/I]. Quite a simple feature, it is used when selecting the competitors while booking a match. One button clicks pops up a list of matches you currently have Advanced Booked, and you simply select the one you want - the competitors will then automatically be filled in. The only restrictions are that the workers must be available, and the match type must be the same (i.e. if you are booking a singles bout you wouldn't be able to Auto Fill from an advance booked tag team match). Any "To Be Announced" slots are obviously left unfilled.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]September 14th[/B] A further new addition is [I]Big Star Attendance Boosts[/I]. This is a feature for smaller promotions. It is very simple; if you have a "big name" star appearing on your show, you will get a boost to your live attendance due to his name value attracting more fans. This adds to the strategy for small feds, as it means you can gamble on paying a bit extra to bring in a star in the hopes that the extra revenue from ticket sales will justify his higher price. This is especially true when used in combination with the new Short Term contracts, which would allow you to bring in a star for one or two big matches only.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]September 14th[/B] A further new addition is [I]Big Star Attendance Boosts[/I]. This is a feature for smaller promotions. It is very simple; if you have a "big name" star appearing on your show, you will get a boost to your live attendance due to his name value attracting more fans. This adds to the strategy for small feds, as it means you can gamble on paying a bit extra to bring in a star in the hopes that the extra revenue from ticket sales will justify his higher price. This is especially true when used in combination with the new Short Term contracts, which would allow you to bring in a star for one or two big matches only.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]September 15th[/B] Two features will be unveiled today, both relating to tag team wrestling. The first is the addition of a [I]Tag Team Betrayal[/I] road agent note, that allows you to end a tag team match with a worker turning on his partner. This also allows a worker to be turned (if he is set to be ready to turn). The second is the return of [I]Tag Team Finishers[/I], which are of course the double team equivelant of a worker's regular finishing move.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]September 15th[/B] Two features will be unveiled today, both relating to tag team wrestling. The first is the addition of a [I]Tag Team Betrayal[/I] road agent note, that allows you to end a tag team match with a worker turning on his partner. This also allows a worker to be turned (if he is set to be ready to turn). The second is the return of [I]Tag Team Finishers[/I], which are of course the double team equivelant of a worker's regular finishing move.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]18th September[/B] Today's feature involved [I]footage distribution[/I], which is a fancy way of describing how your shows are sold. There are three options. Internet, DVD\Home Video or None. With the Internet option, you put your shows on the 'net for free. This has the advantage of allowing anyone and everyone to view your product, meaning you can gain overness all around the globe. The disadvantage if that you don't get any income from it. With the DVD\Home Video option, you sell your shows on those formats. The advantage is that you get income from sales, and can get to a wide audience, people who weren't at the live show. The disadvantage is that as the content is being sold, you will get less people watching than with the free Internet content. With the None option, the footage is not used.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]18th September[/B] Today's feature involved [I]footage distribution[/I], which is a fancy way of describing how your shows are sold. There are three options. Internet, DVD\Home Video or None. With the Internet option, you put your shows on the 'net for free. This has the advantage of allowing anyone and everyone to view your product, meaning you can gain overness all around the globe. The disadvantage if that you don't get any income from it. With the DVD\Home Video option, you sell your shows on those formats. The advantage is that you get income from sales, and can get to a wide audience, people who weren't at the live show. The disadvantage is that as the content is being sold, you will get less people watching than with the free Internet content. With the None option, the footage is not used.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]19th September[/B] Given that it has been a hot topic on the forums, I felt it was time to reveal the introduction of [I]Dynamic Wrestler Styles[/I]. A relatively simple, yet effective feature, essentially it means that wrestlers can evolve their in-ring style over the course of the game. Once a year the AI takes their current style, and then sees if their statistics are actually better suited to a different one. If so, the wrestler changes. So, for example, if someone was set as a Brawler to begin with, but over time has developed Technical and Aerial skills of a similar level, he may turn himself into a Regular Wrestler instead. The advantage of this is that it keeps things dynamic, as a change in style effects employment opportunities amongst other things.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]19th September[/B] Given that it has been a hot topic on the forums, I felt it was time to reveal the introduction of [I]Dynamic Wrestler Styles[/I]. A relatively simple, yet effective feature, essentially it means that wrestlers can evolve their in-ring style over the course of the game. Once a year the AI takes their current style, and then sees if their statistics are actually better suited to a different one. If so, the wrestler changes. So, for example, if someone was set as a Brawler to begin with, but over time has developed Technical and Aerial skills of a similar level, he may turn himself into a Regular Wrestler instead. The advantage of this is that it keeps things dynamic, as a change in style effects employment opportunities amongst other things.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]20th September[/B] Today's feature is the [I]Game World Editor[/I]. Via the editor, you can edit the definitions of any of the pre-defined thirty-three regions in the game. There are currently two available areas for editing, Community Size and Affluence. Both are given a value between 1 and 100%. Community Size is a measure of how big the wrestling community in the region is. This is important as it gives an idea of how many potential fans there are to draw. This has an effect on attendance levels, TV ratings, and PPV buy rates. Affluence indicates how rich the region is. A low level means that fans are less likely to buy merchandise or spend money on high ticket prices. A level of 100% is the equivelant of the default TEW05 settings. i.e. if you set every region to 100% then your attendance levels will be roughly the same as an indentical show in TEW05. If you set them to 50% then you will get roughly half as many people coming to an identical show to that in TEW05. The idea behind this feature is to better model the game world, as it means certain regions are more or less desirable than others. For example, you might make the region containing Tokyo to be 100% in both values, while one of the small Japanese islands may only get 25% in each. The impact is clear - there'd be far more money on offer in Tokyo, and so that's where most of the Japanese feds would focus their attention. Not being able to crack that market would leave you in a weak position.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]20th September[/B] Today's feature is the [I]Game World Editor[/I]. Via the editor, you can edit the definitions of any of the pre-defined thirty-three regions in the game. There are currently two available areas for editing, Community Size and Affluence. Both are given a value between 1 and 100%. Community Size is a measure of how big the wrestling community in the region is. This is important as it gives an idea of how many potential fans there are to draw. This has an effect on attendance levels, TV ratings, and PPV buy rates. Affluence indicates how rich the region is. A low level means that fans are less likely to buy merchandise or spend money on high ticket prices. A level of 100% is the equivelant of the default TEW05 settings. i.e. if you set every region to 100% then your attendance levels will be roughly the same as an indentical show in TEW05. If you set them to 50% then you will get roughly half as many people coming to an identical show to that in TEW05. The idea behind this feature is to better model the game world, as it means certain regions are more or less desirable than others. For example, you might make the region containing Tokyo to be 100% in both values, while one of the small Japanese islands may only get 25% in each. The impact is clear - there'd be far more money on offer in Tokyo, and so that's where most of the Japanese feds would focus their attention. Not being able to crack that market would leave you in a weak position.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]September 21st[/B] Today's big feature is [I]Independent Wrestling Shows[/I]. The premise is quite simple; once a month, in each game area, there is a fully independent wrestling show. By independent, that means that it is not attached to a specific promotion, but rather is assumed to be a one-off shot put together by a low-level promoter (like the ones you often see mentioned that are held in school gymnasiums and have guys like Doink and Tony Atlas working them). As they are not associated with a promotion, and therefore have no workers, the show is populated via the unemployed workers in that area. The criteria are that they must be an active wrestler, with no contracts, who hasn't worked in the last two weeks, who is based in that game area (as obviously nobody would travel far to get on such a small show) and who has less than B- overness. The reason for these shows is to help utilise the lesser wrestlers in the game world. A lot of guys can end up never getting employed, especially if the game world has a lack of small promotions. This way, even the lowest of the low, the rookies with 0% overness, can get some in-ring time. This has several advantages. It allows them to develop their overness slightly, they can develop their skills (just like if they were on a proper promotion's event), and it allows them to showcase themselves to promotions. It also means that just about everybody will at least have a shot at working some matches in the game world. The shows appear in the News Ticker just as they would with any promotion (they appear under the name "American Independent Show", "Mexican Independent Show", etc), and the matches are fully recorded in the wrestler's match history, as you would expect.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]September 21st[/B] Today's big feature is [I]Independent Wrestling Shows[/I]. The premise is quite simple; once a month, in each game area, there is a fully independent wrestling show. By independent, that means that it is not attached to a specific promotion, but rather is assumed to be a one-off shot put together by a low-level promoter (like the ones you often see mentioned that are held in school gymnasiums and have guys like Doink and Tony Atlas working them). As they are not associated with a promotion, and therefore have no workers, the show is populated via the unemployed workers in that area. The criteria are that they must be an active wrestler, with no contracts, who hasn't worked in the last two weeks, who is based in that game area (as obviously nobody would travel far to get on such a small show) and who has less than B- overness. The reason for these shows is to help utilise the lesser wrestlers in the game world. A lot of guys can end up never getting employed, especially if the game world has a lack of small promotions. This way, even the lowest of the low, the rookies with 0% overness, can get some in-ring time. This has several advantages. It allows them to develop their overness slightly, they can develop their skills (just like if they were on a proper promotion's event), and it allows them to showcase themselves to promotions. It also means that just about everybody will at least have a shot at working some matches in the game world. The shows appear in the News Ticker just as they would with any promotion (they appear under the name "American Independent Show", "Mexican Independent Show", etc), and the matches are fully recorded in the wrestler's match history, as you would expect.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]September 22nd[/B] There have been lots of smaller additions\modifications made to the game that aren't really worthy of a diary entry to themselves, so I've decided to make today's post a "bumper edition" where I tackle lots of them at once. NB: I am not going to be noting down changes that have been made to stop users "cheating", as these aren't really interesting or proper features. For example, I think it is relatively widely known that an easy way to stop a worker walking out of negotiations is to simply press Close before the final offer, then re-enter the screen to get three more goes - this is now blocked by disabling the Close button once the first offer has been made. [U]Additions and Modifications[/U] * The [I]frequency of injuries[/I] has been increased to be more in-line with the real world. * The [I]wages of the owner[/I] of the company are no longer part of the worker wage bill, to stop big name owners inadvertantly bankrupting their own promotion (their wages are assumed to be taken as a divided given that they are the owner). * The [I]frequency of relationship changes[/I] has been altered to match the database size, rather than a set number, meaning that bigger databases do not suffer from the phenomenon of mass changes on a specific day. * The AI will automatically search a promotion for "[I]aces[/I]" - these are star workers who have the popularity to headline your promotion well. If a promotion suffers from a lack of aces, the public will notice a lack of "name value" and it will hurt the company's popularity. This is to simulate reality, as I can't think of any decent promotions that have not had a proper "ace \ figurehead". * The [I]default graphics [/I](such as the "?" worker who replaces anyone without a picture) are now database specific, so the CornellVerse can have one set of graphics, DOTT another, etc. NB: This is the default graphics, NOT the actual interface itself. * The in game [I]importer[/I] now gives a summary at the end of the process, rather than with each item. So if 200 people are rejected because they have the same name you will get 200 error messages in a list box, rather than having to click a pop-up window 200 times. * AI [I]created tag teams[/I] will only have "wacky" names in entertainment based promotions. Realistic feds will just use the form "Short Name 1 & Short Name 2". * The rate of [I]skill increases for non-wrestlers[/I] has been altered, to make it easier for referees, for example, to gain reffing ability. * A [I]Shortlist All[/I] button has been added to other promotion's roster screens, for ease of use. * Wrestlers [I]on hiatus[/I] can return to active competition earlier if a big enough offer comes their way. Also, the hiatus is now timed, and so does not have the possibility of potentially lasting their entire career. * [I]E-mails include links[/I] at the bottom to their subjects. So if you had an e-mail telling you Lobster Warrior had re-signed for SWF, you'd be able to jump straight to either his or the promotion's profile with one click. * The [I]Worker Performance[/I] skills (Face, Heel, Comedy, etc) have been altered to be based on a number from 1 - 100, rather than High, Low, etc, in order to increase accuracy. * In the editor, [I]Personality and Attitude[/I] can be set as Random, and will be filled in at the start of each new game. This is for workers who you may not have any idea about, and would like a bit of extra surprise in your game. * In a Worker's Personal data, "[I]Past Steriod User[/I]" has been added on top of the existing Drink Problems, Law Problems, etc. This is to simulate people who may have been users at one point in their life, but have now stopped. * The [I]relationship section[/I] has been redone to make it more realistic, as I was not happy with the amount of divorces, break ups, etc. * In a Worker's [I]Match History[/I], you can now search by opponent. * There has been AI changes for which [I]regions[/I] an AI promotion will go to for each show.

[Adam Ryland]

[B]September 22nd[/B] There have been lots of smaller additions\modifications made to the game that aren't really worthy of a diary entry to themselves, so I've decided to make today's post a "bumper edition" where I tackle lots of them at once. NB: I am not going to be noting down changes that have been made to stop users "cheating", as these aren't really interesting or proper features. For example, I think it is relatively widely known that an easy way to stop a worker walking out of negotiations is to simply press Close before the final offer, then re-enter the screen to get three more goes - this is now blocked by disabling the Close button once the first offer has been made. [U]Additions and Modifications[/U] * The [I]frequency of injuries[/I] has been increased to be more in-line with the real world. * The [I]wages of the owner[/I] of the company are no longer part of the worker wage bill, to stop big name owners inadvertantly bankrupting their own promotion (their wages are assumed to be taken as a divided given that they are the owner). * The [I]frequency of relationship changes[/I] has been altered to match the database size, rather than a set number, meaning that bigger databases do not suffer from the phenomenon of mass changes on a specific day. * The AI will automatically search a promotion for "[I]aces[/I]" - these are star workers who have the popularity to headline your promotion well. If a promotion suffers from a lack of aces, the public will notice a lack of "name value" and it will hurt the company's popularity. This is to simulate reality, as I can't think of any decent promotions that have not had a proper "ace \ figurehead". * The [I]default graphics [/I](such as the "?" worker who replaces anyone without a picture) are now database specific, so the CornellVerse can have one set of graphics, DOTT another, etc. NB: This is the default graphics, NOT the actual interface itself. * The in game [I]importer[/I] now gives a summary at the end of the process, rather than with each item. So if 200 people are rejected because they have the same name you will get 200 error messages in a list box, rather than having to click a pop-up window 200 times. * AI [I]created tag teams[/I] will only have "wacky" names in entertainment based promotions. Realistic feds will just use the form "Short Name 1 & Short Name 2". * The rate of [I]skill increases for non-wrestlers[/I] has been altered, to make it easier for referees, for example, to gain reffing ability. * A [I]Shortlist All[/I] button has been added to other promotion's roster screens, for ease of use. * Wrestlers [I]on hiatus[/I] can return to active competition earlier if a big enough offer comes their way. Also, the hiatus is now timed, and so does not have the possibility of potentially lasting their entire career. * [I]E-mails include links[/I] at the bottom to their subjects. So if you had an e-mail telling you Lobster Warrior had re-signed for SWF, you'd be able to jump straight to either his or the promotion's profile with one click. * The [I]Worker Performance[/I] skills (Face, Heel, Comedy, etc) have been altered to be based on a number from 1 - 100, rather than High, Low, etc, in order to increase accuracy. * In the editor, [I]Personality and Attitude[/I] can be set as Random, and will be filled in at the start of each new game. This is for workers who you may not have any idea about, and would like a bit of extra surprise in your game. * In a Worker's Personal data, "[I]Past Steriod User[/I]" has been added on top of the existing Drink Problems, Law Problems, etc. This is to simulate people who may have been users at one point in their life, but have now stopped. * The [I]relationship section[/I] has been redone to make it more realistic, as I was not happy with the amount of divorces, break ups, etc. * In a Worker's [I]Match History[/I], you can now search by opponent. * There has been AI changes for which [I]regions[/I] an AI promotion will go to for each show.