Small rosters: penalty for being repetitive?

[Remianen]

In my mind, Loyalty to a promotion is to prevent other promotions from poaching. Nothing more, nothing less. It's not there so you can mistreat or insult your workers and they're stuck with you. I'm not saying you mistreated Thunder but IMO, she is one of a handful of workers who can name their price and I'd pay it, no questions asked. I'm not 'rounding down' her asking price because she's worth every red penny in my eyes. But like I said, these are things you learn the hard way (or at least I did). I had severe difficulty in some areas in 05 until I picked up on the subtleties (and this game has TONS of subtleties, quiet as it's kept). Wait til you develop someone like a Maruya or Nakajima to the point where skill wise, they're a bonafide main eventer (not an Ogiwara or Hike, but main event quality) and then they ask for more money than your top two workers asked for. Had that happen with Saori Nakadan in one of my first runthroughs with 5SSW in 05. It shaped my 'interchangeable parts' approach where no one is irreplaceable. I'm sure many folks can relate stories where they put all their eggs in one basket, so to speak, by developing one or two talents only to have them get signed away from them by the big promotions and left with nothing (relatively speaking). These are lessons to be learned. Personally, I like all the additional options that I can't take advantage of yet. It's far better than the alternative. But then again, I know what many of those options are and what they do and when I can take advantage of them BUT I learned most of that by doing. Cutting my teeth, as it were. It'll take some time before you find an approach that works for you. Me, I love developing talent, so losing a headliner isn't that big a deal for me as I usually have more than a couple people waiting to take that spot. Thunder Hike is a HUGE loss for 5SSW, don't get me wrong, but the game's not ruined by any stretch of the imagination. You just have to find a way to survive until such time as you can get/find/create a suitable replacement OR get Thunder back. That's why Sakurako's paying you the big bucks, after all.

[Anubis]

The big thing with me was her getting "insulted" and refusing to continue negotiations. I've negotiate pretty much the same way with everyone, and this is the first time this happened. That is the part I feel may be a bug, the getting "insulted" over it and refusing to continue any negotiations. It just doesn't make sense. Now if I'd offered her contracts way below what was acceptable, I could understand, but this just came completely out of left field. Mr. Ryland's reply to my bug reports also makes me think that he's assuming I tried to keep her on the cheap by abusing Loyalty, but that really isn't the case at all. Rounded down to the nearest $100 is all I did, and rounded down to the nearest contract length. I did that because she was asking over $2000 per appearance, which is a bit much, even with my new income source (since I still have a lot of losses to make up for and then I still have to make $55,000, so it's not like I can offer big contracts yet). Funny thing is, Nene Ebina and Dragon Assassin are both costing me over $1000 per appearance, and to be honest, they don't feel worth it. Kit Hatoyama is far superior to both of them, and costs less. Now it looks like I have a really expensive jobber on my roster, because I sure as heck am gonna bury her before she goes for this stunt. This is so frustrating!

[Remianen]

Like I said, Thunder Hike is easily worth $2000 per appearance. Without a doubt. She's the second best women's worker in the entire game. How much would the second best male worker in the game cost you per appearance? Depending on how you rate them, that could be folks named McFly, Mushashibo, Cornell, Stone, etc. If she's not worth $2000 per appearance to you, that's fine. Find someone to replace her. In my opinion, Nene Ebina is garbage. Probably good as a "gatekeeper" type of worker but not for $1000. There are at least a dozen workers available to 5SSW that would typically be cheaper AND better than Nene, and none of them would be potential locker room cancers like she is (Bitter/Selfish). And that's not even including any of the North American workers that might be available in Japan now (if they've been unemployed all this time). It's just different approaches, really. A familiarity with the workers helps tons but it also comes down to what you value as a booker. Like, there are several new women's workers that came with 07. As soon as I saw the profile of Shiori Jippensha and Agent 69, I knew I'd always try to put them on my roster. Paige Croft too, to a lesser extent. In my current game running 5SSW, I'm on track to be National either by the end of 2008 or not far into 2009. My young talent is developing nicely and the only thing I have to do is make sure Alicia Strong doesn't get too over before I can lock her into a written. Hopefully I'll be International well before 2012 so when Sae Akutagawa debuts, I'll lock her up as well. I wouldn't job Thunder out too bad though. I'd be afraid to risk a strong dislike relationship forming. In 6 months, she'll probably talk to you again since no one else is going to sign her, unless she develops a hankering to work in North America. She may even retire by then (I've heard of that occurring). The only concrete, universal advice I can give is to figure out what YOU value in a worker (and if you say 'overness', you've totally missed the point. Overness costs MONEY). Why is a Kiko Sakakibara more valuable to me than a Yuma Maruya? Because I value Performance skills (capital P) extremely highly. Not everyone's going to agree with that but that's my 'thing'. Figure out what your 'thing' is and run with it.

[Anubis]

[QUOTE=Remianen;182877]A familiarity with the workers helps tons but it also comes down to what you value as a booker.[/QUOTE] I definitely don't have the familiarity thing going. Heck, I doubt I could name most of my roster, including the champions. I know one is Yuma something, and I have a Kiko Something and Otsune something (The Rainbow Girls) as my Tag Team Champions. I know the top people like Sensational Ogiwara and Thunder Hike and Crusher Ichiwara. I know my user character Kate Avatar. I also know those overpaid freaks Dragon Assassin and Nene Ebina. Other than that, I have about 15-20 people I can't name, although I might be able to say yes or no if you asked if I have them. I remember wanting to sign Agent 69, but she's not available in Japan . . . [QUOTE=Remianen;182877]The only concrete, universal advice I can give is to figure out what YOU value in a worker (and if you say 'overness', you've totally missed the point. Overness costs MONEY). Why is a Kiko Sakakibara more valuable to me than a Yuma Maruya? Because I value Performance skills (capital P) extremely highly. Not everyone's going to agree with that but that's my 'thing'. Figure out what your 'thing' is and run with it.[/QUOTE] I usually look for the in-ring skills and performance (basics and psychology and such). I don't think I've ever even looked at popularity once when hiring. Maybe CornellVerse isn't for me. I just can't identify with [i]anyone[/i]. Well, except Richard Eisen = Vince McMahon, but I digress. I just can't get a hold on the workers at all.

[mvargus]

[QUOTE=Anubis;182887]I definitely don't have the familiarity thing going. Heck, I doubt I could name most of my roster, including the champions. I know one is Yuma something, and I have a Kiko Something and Otsune something (The Rainbow Girls) as my Tag Team Champions. I know the top people like Sensational Ogiwara and Thunder Hike and Crusher Ichiwara. I know my user character Kate Avatar. I also know those overpaid freaks Dragon Assassin and Nene Ebina. Other than that, I have about 15-20 people I can't name, although I might be able to say yes or no if you asked if I have them. I remember wanting to sign Agent 69, but she's not available in Japan . . .[/quote] I know from a bit of experience that you have a few wrestlers with decent performance skills that can be midcarders and work up to main event status. Megumi Nakajima is one who won't cost too much and is a better all-around wrestler than many male wrestlers. Mitsu Ariwa also can put on good matches if booked right. Don't be afraid to experiment and find good pairings. [quote]I usually look for the in-ring skills and performance (basics and psychology and such). I don't think I've ever even looked at popularity once when hiring. Maybe CornellVerse isn't for me. I just can't identify with [i]anyone[/i]. Well, except Richard Eisen = Vince McMahon, but I digress. I just can't get a hold on the workers at all.[/QUOTE] It does take a while. I have played since TEW'04 and I'm still learning who all is good out there. Just don't despair and keep notes on what works for you is all I can recommend.

[D-Lyrium]

Are you new to 2007? It took me a good 6 months of playing quite regularly in 2005 to get used to the 'verse (I did play TEW2004, but I largely ignored the Cornellverse, as staggeringly stupid as that now seems to me ¬_¬). Like you, it took me ages to get to know even the workers that were on my roster (and back then there were very few pictures for the wrestlers either). Especially the Japanese ones, because Japanese names are naturally difficult to familiarise yourself with if you don't live in the east. Hell, I've only met one [b]real[/b] Japanese person (2.0 reference!), and he was called Ken ¬_¬ I don't even know most of the NOAH roster, even though I watch it regularly. I know Kobashi, of course, but the rest are just "the fat bastard tag team, the guy with bleached hair, the guy with purple kneepads" etc. I know who they ARE, but can't think of their names for the life of me. Watching Battle Royale 2 was hell, because despite it being an awesome movie, I had no idea who anyone was half the time :( These days, I'm fairly sure I know more Cornellverse wrestlers than I do real ones (relatively). Outside of pre-2006 WWE roster, TNA's roster, and 2004-era RoH roster, there aren't very many wrestlers at all that I could actually name with any sort of idea who they are (I can name Ken Kennedy for example, but other than knowing what he looks like and knowing that he says "Kennedy.... KENNEDY!" when he enters, I have no idea who he actually is). Whereas in the Cornellverse I know a hellova lot more, because I've been following them over the course of many games, for many game-years (and real years). So yeah, it just takes time. Some people just don't click with the 'verse at all and play real data.

[Remianen]

Anubis, lemme holler at you for a minute. You can build your entire promotion around two workers: Megumi Nakajima and Shiori Jippensha. Those two, properly developed, can put on matches on par with Ogiwara v Ichihara....eventually. Man, I love me some Megumi Nakajima. I have four core tag teams and she's the center of them all (Megumi-Alicia Strong, Megumi-J.Ro, Megumi-Kiko, Megumi-Otsune). Before I'm done playing, she's likely to hold the tag titles with 8 different partners (the above four plus Umeko Karube, Kinuye Mushashibo, Chitose Ariwara, and Mitsu Ariwa). Before 2008 is over, there's going to be a clash of the titans as Megumi and Shiori finally go head to head (I'm keeping them apart to maximize their momentum leading up to that event). But it's a process. Just like you didn't know everything there is to know about your favorite real world workers in 2 days, it's the same thing here. The difference is, you have the benefit of quantitative analysis in that you know roughly what every worker can and can't do. All it really takes is time spent booking and seeing who does what well.

[Anubis]

Yeah, new to TEW2007 (I played TEW2004 before this, as I didn't like TEW2005), and very new to the CornellVerse (this is the first time I ever played it since the first time I played TEW2004 and dropped it after a few hours of not knowing anything about anyone). So yeah.