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1TEW2020 Announcement & Developer's Journal
2http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=542407
3
4TEW2020 Discussion Thread
5http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=542408
6
7TEW2020 Attribute Suggestion
8http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=544243
9
10TEW2020 Product Suggestion
11http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=544415
12
13Total Extreme Wrestling 2020 Announced
14
15I'm pleased to officially announce that my next game with Grey Dog Software will be Total Extreme Wrestling 2020 and that the ever-popular developer's journal will be starting this coming Monday, the 10th December.
16
17Below I've put together a short FAQ on the subject.
18
19When is the game coming out?
20
21The original aim was to release the game in the summer of 2020. However, things have been progressing so well that I suspect we may now be looking a little earlier than that, possibly even Christmas 2019. You'll be reading about the progress in the upcoming developer's journal, and so the release date will be clearer as we move through the next year.
22
23Why is it such a long way off?
24
25The game has already been under development for some time and will have likely had about two years of work before it is released. The reason that this is so long (about double what we normally do) is simply that this is the biggest, most ambitious project to date.
26
27Usually each TEW game gets written on top of the previous one - this is the most efficient way to do it as it means that I don't have to "reinvent the wheel" each time. The drawback of this is that some often-requested features are simply not possible because the structure / architecture can't support them.
28
29For TEW2020, I've instead completely taken the game apart, rewritten the underlying architecture, and then put each feature back in one-by-one, revamping and upgrading as I go along. The end result is that while you're still going to recognise the game as being part of the TEW series, it's effectively a much sharper, quicker, more intuitive, better quality piece of work. This is going to be the biggest jump forward in terms of quality the series has ever seen (I can say that with confidence because it's already blowing TEW2016 out of the water and there's still at least a year of work to come!)
30
31What will the developer's journal cover?
32
33You've probably noticed that the journal will be running for a long time. Normally it lasts a month, this one will last over a year!
34
35The journal will effectively be split into two. For the next few months we'll be in 'catch up mode'. During this time I will be explaining what we've done so far - what changes have been made, what new features are in, etc. Once we've gone through all the changes (and there's already hundreds!) we'll move into a "live" journal. This will last for the remainder of the project and will effectively let you follow along with the game's progress as I'll be telling you what I'm currently working on, how testing is going, etc.
36
37The journal will not be a daily thing, purely because that would take away too much time from the development. Instead, you can expect two or three entries per week.
38
39How can I get involved?
40
41The game is already fully designed and work is well under way but there's still scope to incorporate some new suggestions, so if you have sudden brainwaves the Suggestions forum is the best place to go and post.
42
43I will be inviting a limited number of playtesters later in the project's life cycle. As usual, this will be invitation only and based on people's behaviour and attitude on the forums. Applications / requests are not accepted and will automatically mean that person will not be considered.
44
45The main place to get involved will be the TEW2020 discussion thread which is further down the board.
46
47Developer's journal contents page
48
49Phase 1: "Announcing and discussing features that have already been completed"
50
51#1: Playing as child companies
52#2: Quality of life changes
53#3: On-the-fly booking
54#4: Switching Player Order
55#5: Event Intent
56#6: TEW2020 save game to database converter
57#7: Venues and locations
58#8: Areas and regions
59#9: Attributes
60#10: Company sizes
61#11: Indy Wrestler Of The Year, injury effects, day one narratives
62#12: Scheduling
63#13: AI event instructions, "sticky" searches
64#14: Dojo revamp
65#15: Area and regional battles
66#16: Company relationships, excursions
67#17: Various title belt changes
68#18: Talk To Worker
69#19: House Shows
70#20: Merchandising
71#21: Ticket pricing
72#22: Contract structure
73#23: Spiritual homes and politics
74#24: Angles
75#25: Angles II
76#26: Pushes & perception
77#27: Cosmetic immersion touches
78#28: Broadcasters
79#29: Broadcasting deals
80#30: More about broadcasting
81#31: Even more about broadcasting
82#32: Independent wrestling
83#33: Match booking
84#34: Experience
85#35: User reputation, free pictures
86#36: Stables
87#37: Loans
88#38: Stars and attendance levels
89#39: Tag team types, worldwide tag search, numbered TV shows, new match types
90#40: Worker styles
91#41: New road agent notes
92#42: Products
93#43: Five small changes
94#44: AI Booking
95#45: E-mail settings
96#46: Momentum
97#47: Relocation and luchas de apuestas
98#48: Editor changes, quick fill addition
99#49: AI gimmick matches, ager / de-ager, bald free pictures, editing contracts
100#50: Pre Booking
101#51: Pre booking change, fast advance, multiplayer fast advance, tecnicos and rudos
102#52: Financial model
103#53: Regional battle addition, re-calibrated attendances, sticky screen position
104#54: Brands
105#55: Merchandise figures and cuts, stables and products, clearing the decks
106#56: Financial breakdown, developmental tolerance, transparent coloured lists
107#57: Belt profiles, worker potential, downside changes, start data variance
108#58: Skill change drip feed, PM options, health levels, star quality
109#59: Tournament tracker, swipe arrows
110#60: Delayed call ups, owners and other companies, match styles
111#61: Moving titles, editing titles, owner preferences
112#62: Search by skill, technical wrestling, years of service
113#63: Skill comparison, popularity comparison, floating booking ideas
114#64: Worker promises
115#65: Scouting, Pro Mode, Contextual Rosters
116#66: Stored performance, contract offer auto set, editorial skill comparison
117#67: Child company size, closing child companies, game world screen, sub-medium costs
118#68: Close company, more accurate visibility, young lions, in-game skin change
119#69: Popularity caps, crowd burn out, editing relationships, editing chemistry
120#70: Era details, name searches, AI tag signing, aggressive predator hiring, visible expiry dates
121#71: Legacies, import employment history, default area status, worker overuse
122#72: Belt prestige, randomness control, painkiller benefits, coming off steroids
123#73: AI pushes, AI feuds, new nationalities, starting money, inactive alliances, player job applications
124#74: AI releases, new match aims, manager upgrades, picture requirements, eye candy penalties, financial warning mails, venue name size, body type change detail, new language, tag team copying, battle scores
125#75: The remaining minor features
126
127Phase 2: "A 'live' journal of how the project is going and what's currently being worked upon"
128
129#1: Current status of the project and upcoming schedule
130#2: Recently added features
131#3: Recently added features (part II)
132#4: Recently added features (part III)
133#5: Intro screens, talent trades
134#6: A peek-behind-the-curtain look at gimmicks
135#7: Pre-phase II additions
136#8: Pre-phase II additions (part II)
137#9: Social media storms
138#10: Regular social media
139#11: Gimmick week, initial testing
140#12: Gimmicks
141#13: Performance skill revamp
142#14: Tidying up
143#15: A quiet week
144#16: Masked worker names
145#17: Testing and other things
146#18: Grunt work and prepping the CornellVerse
147#19: Attribute suggestions
148#20: Auto booker, redo schedule
149#21: More auto booker
150#22: Products and matches
151#23: Coming schedule
152#24: This week's attribute additions
153#25: More attribute additions
154#26: Unsurprisingly, it's even more attribute additions
155#27: General status update
156#28: Initial database work
157#29: More database work / new products
158#30: Product suggestions
159#31: Progress report
160#32: Continuing database work
161#33: Moving into 2020
162#34: Start of 2020 progress report
163#35: Adding Europe, upcoming
164#36: Japan
165#37: Completing Japan, roster sizes
166#38: New products and attributes, Japanese feedback
167#39: Mexico, long term testing
168
169#1: Playing as child companies
170
171A new addition to the game is the ability for the user to play as the owner or booker of another promotion's child company. This mode works in the same way as running a normal company, except that the player must deal with several extra challenges - primarily that the parent can send workers there for development, call workers up, fire workers, and has the final say on all matters which means that they can, for example, block certain actions that the child company wishes to take. They do, however, have the advantage of not having to worry too much about finances (as any profit or loss is absorbed by the parent and so it's impossible to go bankrupt), although the parent is not going to be happy if the financial performance is overly poor.
172
173The child company has the option of whether to proactively sign talent or just utilise the workers they are provided with by the parent. However, they have no power to fire workers who have been sent there on developmental contracts and so must be very careful about roster management, especially when it comes to negative influences.
174
175This mode is unrestricted in that the player can run a child company regardless of whether the parent is human or AI controlled. If the parent is AI controlled, they will always give the child a warning ahead of time if they are planning to call someone up, giving the user time to switch any titles, do a farewell match, etc. If the parent is human-controlled then it is entirely up to that player - they are free to do things without warning if they so wish.
176
177#2: Quality of life changes
178
179In this entry, rather than looking at a new feature I'll instead be discussing some of the small changes that have a big improvement on the user's quality of life.
180
181As we've confirmed before, TEW2020 is going to be at a 1366x768 resolution which means that it's physically wider than previous games. One of the things you'll notice when playing the game is that the extra space has been used to combine many screens into one. To give just one example, the Brands screen, which used to consist of many separate windows, is now housed entirely on one screen. This means less clicking for the user and is more intuitive as you'll have access to more information in one place.
182
183TEW2020 will also feature the same sort of interface as WMMA5 given that that was so popular with people (if you haven't played WMMA5 you can see an example in screen shot #3 here). This means that there'll be a customisable control bar at the bottom of the screen where you can have quick links to various sections, jump to worker or company summaries, etc. This makes life a lot easier for the player as you can set it up, for example, so that you can go straight to your roster or past results without ever leaving the main web site screen. Again, this potentially saves you lots of clicking and is more intuitive.
184
185A very small change that will have an enormous benefit is the new "flash message" system. In the horizontal taskbar at the top of the game is an area that tells you what version you are currently playing. This doubles as a message display too. For example, suppose you hit the Save button. Normally you'd get a pop-up confirmation window which would require you to pause and click OK to shut it. In TEW2020 this confirmation window is entirely removed. Instead, the version text disappears and the word "Saved" will flash up (in a different colour to get your attention) for two seconds before fading out and going back to showing the version. This system replaces all the confirmation windows in the game, thus potentially saving you hundreds, if not thousands, of pauses and clicks.
186
187The final small change I'll be discussing today is the new look for windows. Each window in the game now has three icons in its taskbar (as in the bar at the top of the window you use to drag it around): Notepad, Handbook, and Close. Firstly this means that the notepad is always available, no matter where you are. Secondly, it means that you can always get to the Player's Handbook with a single click. The Handbook is extremely detailed in TEW2020 and also has the added advantage that it will automatically jump to the correct section - so if you're in the Finance section and hit the Handbook icon, you'll not only open the Handbook window but also immediately be looking at the section related to finances. Finally, the Close button is now in the top right hand corner rather than it's traditional place in the bottom right. This will take you a few days to get used to when you play, but is ultimately more user friendly as it means the windows make better use of the available space.
188
189A quick (unrelated) note about operating systems
190
191There has been a few people asking about whether the game will be available for Apple devices. To clarify, the game has been taken apart and redone but is still in the same (Microsoft-based) programming language as before. So, if you want to use it on an Apple product (or any other non-Microsoft platform) you would still need to use emulation software.
192
193#3: On-the-fly booking
194
195This will be a very short journal entry for a very large change!
196
197TEW2020 will feature on-the-fly booking for the first time. This means that when you're running a show you can "drop out" of the live event and back to the booking screen whenever you like. Obviously you won't be able to alter segments that have already taken place, but you can edit the rest of the show.
198
199This allows for both proactive and reactive changes. In the former camp, you might feel you're losing the crowd and so move one of your more exciting matches forward in order to wake them back up. You might want to change someone's character details so that they can work multiple matches on the same show under different identities. As far as reacting goes, injuries or audibles might force you to rebook parts of the show, or you may just be so impressed or horrified by someone's performance that you want to rebook a later segment to add them in or write them out.
200
201All in all, this just gives you a lot of extra flexibility and makes the shows feel more like a real live experience.
202
203Spoilers: Christmas is next week. As a result, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to post much, if at all. So, what we're going to do is go old school dev journal this week - one post every week day. That way if I am not around next week we're not getting behind schedule, and if I do post...well, you've got bonus content. Win-win.
204
205#4: Switching Player Order
206
207In previous games you've always had to play in turn order but that's now been thrown out the window. During AM mode, there's now a Switch Player button on the left hand menu. You can switch back and forth to your heart's content, even multiple times per turn. So, player A can do his thing, player B can then come in and do some stuff, player A can come back and do things, etc, etc. The turn only ends when all the players have set themselves as being done. Obviously this has no impact if you only play single player games, but I think this is a real bonus if you're doing a multi player game or like to control multiple companies at once.
208
209(This next bit is super minor, but I'm going to throw it in as it's so closely related to the above.)
210
211In PM mode, in the past it was always split so that all the players ran their shows, then the AI. There's nothing particularly bad about this method, but it did mean there was one annoying niggle in that the AI would have to "guess" who would have been used on the big AI-controlled shows and this was not always 100% accurate - it meant that occasionally smaller companies did not have access to talent that technically they should have.
212
213What happens in the new game is that the shows happen in size order, regardless of whether the company is controlled by a human or the AI. This means that the guesswork is removed, so if a bigger company does not utilise one of their roster then that worker is potentially available to work for a smaller company that night. As I said above, this is a really minor change and, honestly, I doubt if most people would have even noticed, but it does get rid of a small irritation and I wanted to flag it up so that people didn't mistakenly think that they could switch player order in PM mode too.
214
215#5: Event Intent
216
217Each event in TEW2020 can be given an intent; this tells the game how it is being promoted to the fans and what its aim is. The four levels are Normal, Lesser, Tour, and Throwaway.
218
219Normal is the default and is what you're used to from previous games.
220
221Lesser shows get a slightly reduced attendance level and are less powerful with regards to altering the company's popularity - a show needs to be much better or worse to trigger gains or losses. This type of show is for events that have a relatively weak line-up or aren't being treated overly seriously.
222
223Tour shows are specifically meant to be part of Japanese-style tours (more on them in a later entry) and are not designed for use outside of a company that is running that sort of schedule. These shows are automatically not broadcast (but can be taped for highlights) and the attendance levels are much lower than normal. The fans are more lenient however, so a show has to be particularly awful to lose popularity. It's very hard to gain popularity from these type of shows due to their nature.
224
225Throwaway shows are specifically designed to be used for charity shows, one-off tributes, etc, where there is no pretense that the card is going to be a serious spectacle (or even fit continuity). Attendances will be very low and a show would have to be absolutely amazing or dire to have any affect on popularity.
226
227These intent levels therefore give the user a little more creative leeway and allow for some real life situations to be covered.
228
229#6: TEW2020 save game to database converter
230
231I think this is one of the more requested features over the years, so I'm glad to finally be able to include this one.
232
233TEW2020 contains a new feature which turns a save game directly into a new database. It's located in the Options menu (right above the existing button to make an MDB file). The resulting database then works like any other mod - you can edit it via the main editor, use it to launch new games, etc.
234
235(I know some people only skim read these posts, so I'm just going to highlight that this is converting a TEW2020 save game into a database. It does not mean you can continue TEW2016 saves in the new game.)
236
237This could potentially be useful in a number of ways. If you're playing and end up with a particularly interesting game world, this would be a great way to turn it into a mod and share it with people. I'd imagine it's going to be incredibly useful for those of you who like playing organic mods. It's also has a lot of potential for ageing scenarios - for example, you might take the default data, run ten years, and then use this to create a "CornellVerse 2030" mod. It's also going to be good for creating "what if?" scenarios.
238
239As the resulting database is made directly from the save game there shouldn't ever be any need to do any subsequent work to make the mod playable, although as I'm guessing most people strip out the unused avatars at the start of each game you might want to do a quick import to add some back in.
240
241The one thorny issue that this does bring up (at least on these boards, this wouldn't be a problem elsewhere) is the ownership of the database you create if you are playing a game based on someone else's mod. For example, if you play 10 years into the future and use this feature, the resulting database is going to have literally tens of thousands of changes to it. Could you then be considered the co-creator? If the game world is utterly unrecognisable is it realistically a new piece of work? Would you need the original maker's permission to distribute it? I'm really not sure what the best way to handle this will be. What I suspect we'll do is just play it by ear post-release and see what the general feeling is.
242
243#7: Venues and locations
244
245This is more of a structural / conceptual change rather than a playable feature, but I think it will have a very positive impact overall.
246
247The Locations that you're familiar with from previous games are now categorised into two groups, Locations and Venues. (They're still within the same file within the editor, so there's no extra clicking involved.)
248
249Venues are specific buildings (like "Madison Square Garden"). These have all the detail you're used to, like a capacity and open and closing dates. They also have a new field, "Limited to one company per night", which you can use if you don't like seeing multiple companies occupying the same place at the same time.
250
251Locations on the other hand are geographical (as in "Brooklyn" or "Melbourne"). These have less detail, being limited to a maximum capacity (to stop situations where you might have 100,000 people turning up to some small rural town) and an importance rating.
252
253The big advantage to this is that a singe Location can give a region all the destinations it needs to serve any number of companies of different sizes, so database makers are potentially saved a ton of work.
254
255For example, if you take the Southern England region, in previous games you'd need to realistically provide at least eight different places to work - one to hold a few hundred people, one to hold a thousand or so, one to hold several thousand, and so on. Under the new system, you could make a single Location, "London", with a high maximum capacity and that provides for everyone. Whether a company is drawing 30 or 30,000 fans, they're covered. Or you could make "East London", "West London", etc, if you want to just give a little more variation. So database makers who are happy with that level of detail (or just want to have placeholders for a short time) can fill their game world extremely quickly and when you're reading the results you're going to see "Promotion drew 150 people to London", "Promotion drew 20,000 people to London", and it'll all make sense and look correct.
256
257Of course, the database makers who want to go super detailed and have nothing but real venues can also do it their way, they just use multiple Venues rather than Locations. Or you can mix and match, so you might have nothing but real life Venues filling somewhere like Tri State but give Hawaii just a single Location.
258
259I hope that's all clear, I appreciate that this might be one of the features that's a little tricky to appreciate without seeing it in action. If you have any questions, ask them in the usual thread.
260
261Just a reminder that tomorrow is the end of this run of having a journal entry every day, and as I'm away for Christmas there probably won't be another entry after that for a while.
262
263#8: Areas and regions
264
265I've been asked to provide a breakdown of the areas and regions of the game world, so that will be today's entry.
266
267USA: Great Lakes, Mid Atlantic, Mid South, Mid West, New England, North West, South East, South West, Tri State, Puerto Rico, Hawaii
268
269Canada: The Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, British Columbia
270
271Mexico: Occidente, Centro, Sur, Sureste, Noroccidente, Noreste
272
273British Isles: Wales, Ireland, Southern England, Scotland, Northern England, Midlands
274
275Japan: Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku, Chugoku, Kansai, Chubu, Kanto, Tohoku
276
277Europe: Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Central Europe, Southern Europe, Southern Mediterranean, Iberia, Northern Europe, Russia
278
279Oceania: New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand
280
281India: North India, Central India, South India
282
283So, you have an expanded Mexico, Wales coming in, Europe getting reorganised, and India debuting.
284
285The game world screen has also been totally redesigned so that's it's a single screen, no pop ups, and each area and region has a proper bio and stats screen giving you text descriptions of exactly what each region covers (i.e. what states are in each US region, what countries are in each Euro region, etc), the spillover, etc, so that should be much more intuitive and user friendly.
286
287I'll finish by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. As I said elsewhere, I don't know whether I'll get a chance to post next week, so you'll either be getting the next entry late next week or in the first few days of 2019. Have a happy and safe holiday everyone.
288
289I hope everyone had a good Christmas.
290
291I need to make a quick correction to the last journal entry: I gave "Northern Europe" as one of the regions, that should have read "Western Europe".
292
293#9: Attributes
294
295Coming into the game from the WMMA series, Attributes will be making their debut in 2020.
296
297Attributes are essentially tags that can be assigned to workers to give them specific quirks or abilities. These range from personality changers (like "Party Animal" and "Troublemaker") to lifestyle effects (like "Former Hard Drug User" or "Straight Edge") to ones that change what a worker is willing to do (like "Daredevil" which means they are always willing to do crazy and stunt bumps). A worker with no attributes simply uses the default behaviour.
298
299As you can guess from the above examples, this replaces the old personality system and the old lifestyle system. It also incorporates what used to be represented by the acting / musician / etc tick boxes.
300
301Attributes can be assigned via the editor and will also be gained, lost, and developed over the course of gameplay.
302
303Each attribute can also be set as Permanent (meaning that it can never be lost, obviously) and Hidden (meaning that it will be invisible during gameplay; otherwise it will be freely seen when viewing a worker). Hidden attributes lose that designation if they become known (such as if a worker fails a drugs test).
304
305There are several advantages to this system. From a player's perspective, it's now far more intuitive; rather than having to try and figure out what a worker's personality settings might mean, you can see immediately whether they are going to be someone who'll be up for taking crazy bumps, etc. Their personality and outside interests are also going to be clear in one look rather than having to search through sub-menus. You're also getting more unique workers who can have all sorts of different quirks to make them feel more alive.
306
307For people writing or editing databases, this marks a significant cut in workload when creating workers. It also removes a lot of guesswork when it comes to behaviour as you don't need to try and fiddle with the various personality settings to try and create specific effects - you just pick the effect you want from the Attribute list and apply it. This also opens up options that weren't previously available; for example, if you really want a wrestler who is quite conservative in terms of personality but will happily engage in hardcore matches you can do this very easily.
308
309Another advantage of this system is that it's very easy to add in new attributes when and if they're needed, so if there are any real life (or fantasy) situations where a specific quirk is needed to model a specific person, it's very easy to patch in the necessary Attribute.
310
311I won't be giving a list of the Attributes at this point simply because we're nowhere near finished with them - at the moment only the basics and a few specific quirks have been added - and I expect there to be at least a hundred or so more added by the time we get to the testing phase.
312
313As a side note, the TEW2016->TEW2020 converter automatically fills in Attributes for you, so that will also remove a lot of work for database makers.
314
315As this is the last entry of 2018, everyone here at GDS would like to wish you a happy new year. See you in 2019!
316
317Happy new year everybody.
318
319#10: Company sizes
320
321The way that company sizes work has been totally redone for TEW2020.
322
323First of all, the names of the seven categories have changed. They are now Insignificant, Tiny, Small, Medium, Big, Large, and Titanic. This is primarily a cosmetic change as I didn't like Cult (as it has some pejorative associations and also has a different meaning in regards to products) and the old National and International names don't necessarily fit anymore.
324
325The criteria for each level has been totally redone, with two particularly important changes.
326
327The first change is that there's no longer both Importance and Popularity - now you just have the latter. This makes the system easier to understand as there's only one set of values and absolutely no maths involved, and it means you can't drop in size "out of the blue" because a region's importance level changed. Regions can still be more or less important though, as we'll cover in a moment.
328
329The second change is that the criteria for each size is unique to your company's home base. That means that playing a company in the Tri State region will involve different challenges and strategies than playing in the North West, which will be different to Puerto Rico, which will be different to Scotland, etc, etc.
330
331We'll now look at this in more detail.
332
333Taking a Puerto Rican company for example, the criteria are as follows:
334
335Tiny: "Laying The Foundation" - Achieve 17 popularity in your home region.
336Small: "Building a Fanbase" - Achieve 35 popularity in your home region.
337Medium: "Establishing A Stronghold" - Achieve 65 popularity in your home region.
338Big: "Seat Of Power" - Achieve 89 popularity in your home region, plus 77 in Mid Atlantic, Mid South, and South East regions.
339Large: "International Expansion" - Achieve Big size and also 71 throughout the regions of either Canada or Mexico.
340Titanic: "American Domination": Achieve Large size and also 77 in every region of the game world.
341
342The "Laying The Foundation" and "Building A Fanbase" are the same for every company in the game world, for reference, as they simulate building your company up.
343
344By contrast, a Great Lakes based company would have:
345
346Medium: "Expanding East" - Achieve 59 popularity in your home region, plus 35 in either Mid Atlantic or Tri State.
347Big: "Taking The East" - Achieve 77 popularity across eastern America (Great Lakes, Mid Atlantic, New England, South East, Tri State).
348Large: "International Expansion" - Achieve Big size and also 71 throughout the regions of either Canada or Mexico.
349Titanic: "American Domination": Achieve Large size and also 77 in every region of the game world.
350
351As you can see, with a Puerto Rican company you're going to be concentrating hard on your home base and will be very insular until eventually making a move into mainland America only when you're already firmly established, whereas the Great Lakes company is going to be spreading outward pretty quickly. The same thing applies throughout the world, so a Scottish promotion is going to want to be looking to Ireland and the north of England before eventually spreading down towards London, whereas Mexican companies are always going to be drawn towards Mexico City. The expansions are always logically based on geography, but you'll still have a lot of freedom as to where you want to go: for example, if you start with a company slap bang in the middle of America you're going to be able to have a lot of freedom over which direction you want to expand toward.
352
353The criteria are shown on the Size screen in-game so that you'll always know what is expected of you to go up (or down) in size. They take exactly the same form as I've written them out above, where you have a "title" and then an exact description of what popularity you need in which regions.
354
355The nice thing about this system is that key markets become strategically very important, more so even than in TEW2016. For example, if you're playing as a Mexican company then you know that to be a player on the national stage you're going to have to go into Mexico City at some point because that's the most important place in the country - without making a splash there, you're not going to be able to rise to the bigger sizes. However, everyone else knows that too: whether the other companies are AI or human controlled, they're also going to be eyeing up Mexico City. So, as a consequence, regional battles are going to naturally flare up and become very important. This makes the game world feel more alive, more competitive, and will make you feel more apart of it rather than operating in isolation, as well as making real life key markets feel much more important than they ever have before.
356
357The criteria are designed to be pretty similar in terms of difficulty, so there won't be huge advantages or disadvantages just by virtue of where you are based (other than the natural pros - obviously if you're in Tri State you've got access to a lot more people than a company in Hawaii). For American companies in particular, it's a little easier to get to the bigger sizes than in previous games. As you can see from the Great Lakes example, getting to Big (what used to be "National") doesn't require you to take the whole country, just to be a powerhouse on one coast. This allows situations like WCW in real life, where a company can be a player on a national scale but have the majority of their popularity be in only one half of the States.
358
359Overall, these changes not only make it more intuitive for the player, but it also allows the AI to be smarter about being able to build their companies up over time too so the game should be more competitive from that standpoint. It also makes writing databases slightly easier as you no longer have to play around with regional importance to get the sizes right.
360
361Just three minor items today.
362
363#11: Indy Wrestler Of The Year, injury effects, day one narratives
364
365The criteria for the Independent Wrestler Of The Year has been changed so that it is no longer limited only to workers on independent (i.e. not attached to a specific company) shows; instead, matches from companies below Medium size are also eligible. This gives a wider pool of potential winners and makes the award more realistic.
366
367Injuries now contain an extra piece of information that informs the game how much of an effect they have on a worker's in-ring performance if they wrestle while carrying that injury. Previously this was decided by the injury's level, and so the new way allows a little more accuracy.
368
369Narratives are now allowed to take place on the day the game starts, meaning that mod makers can populate the opening website with welcome messages, special events, etc.
370
371You might want to get comfy before you start this one, it's likely to be long and pretty complex...
372
373#12: Scheduling
374
375The scheduling of shows has been totally redone for the new game. Here's how it works.
376
377Firstly, each company has a Schedule Strategy. These are the options:
378
379Monthly - The AI creates a schedule with a minimum of one event per month.
380Almost Weekly - The AI creates a schedule of around one event per week; occasional weeks will be left free.
381Weekly - A minimum of one event per week, every week.
382Constant - The AI creates a schedule with regular events throughout the year so that the company never goes more than a few days without a show.
383TV Or Monthly / TV Or Weekly / TV Or Constant - The AI creates a schedule using the Monthly, Weekly, or Constant strategies that have already been discussed. At the start of each month the company is checked for whether they have an active TV deal; if they do, the events are made dormant, if they don't then the events are made active.
384Preset Tours - The AI creates a Japanese-style touring schedule based on the parameters it is given (see below).
385Created Tours - The AI creates a Japanese-style touring schedule from scratch.
386Preset Seasons - The AI creates a Chikara-style seasonal schedule based on the parameters it is given (see below).
387Created Seasons - The AI creates a Chikara-style seasonal schedule from scratch.
388
389In all cases, any preset events that have been added via the editor beforehand are incorporated into the schedule.
390
391For Preset Tours and Preset Seasons, the user can give any number of start and end dates and the AI will work within them. Unlike previous games, there are no limits on these, so tours can start mid-month and can be as long or as short as you like. This also ties into the aforementioned Intent feature, as tours will feature lots of smaller shows leading to big tour-ending major events. The difference between Tours and Seasons is relatively minor, it's just that Seasons will consist of normal events (i.e. no touring shows) and they tend to be longer and have bigger "off seasons" than tours do.
392
393When a new game is initialised the AI will create a schedule for every company (whether they're active or not) based on the settings given. This is different from the past where the AI would check every promotion at the start of each month and react according to what it found. This means the initialisation of a new game is several seconds longer, but it cuts down your daily loading times by half a second or more and so overall you're saving a lot of waiting.
394
395The advantage of this new method is not only speed, but also that the player will always have a fully set up schedule when they take over a company - particularly important if you're running a touring company, as it means you don't have to spend ages putting together smaller shows.
396
397There is also one final Schedule Strategy that I didn't include in the above list, and that's Fixed. This means that the AI will stick rigidly to whatever the database maker has preset for them in the editor. This is quite powerful as it gives total control. For example, if you want a company that has an irregular schedule - say two or three big events some months, some months where it's just one event, and sometimes big stretches without any events - that's entirely viable. This allows the database makers to simulate any schedule they want quite easily.
398
399There is one potential drawback with this new scheduling system and that's that because the schedules get set-up at the very start and aren't then checked each month it means that AI companies don't have the ability to alter their events over time (with the exception of the TV Or schedule that I outlined above). That's where a second new feature comes in, Wake and Sleep settings. For every event, database makers can add in a specific date for when the event should "wake" and when it should "go to sleep" (these are optional). When the "wake" date is hit, the event will go from dormant to active (nothing happens if it is already active), and vice versa for the "sleep" date.
400
401What this means is that database makers can create evolving schedules. For example, if you were making a real world historical database you could have the WWF start with the "Big Four" PPVs, with the other eight months having no events at all. Then you could "wake" the In Your House events in the 1990s, then have them go inactive ("sleep") after a few years to be replaced with newer events, then have the schedule change to its modern irregular style of having big events every few weeks.
402
403Of course, player-controlled companies always have complete control over their schedule as they always have, so the player can do what they want, when they want.
404
405So, overall, these new features mean you can effectively model any schedule you like, no matter how crazy; it gives you realistic Japanese tours; it allows, for the first time, you to get away from the "one event a month" model that TEW has been based on since its inception; and it gives database makers extremely powerful tools to create evolving, real-world scenarios. It makes for a much more active, realistic, and lively game world as a result too, as you're likely going to see independent companies in particular running shows far more often. This gives TEW a totally different feel.
406
407I think this is one of my favourite new features and really freshens up the game. This is also one of the ones that would have been impossible without the rewrite.
408
409The journal will resume on Saturday with another "small feature" entry.
410
411Two more smaller changes to report on today.
412
413#13: AI event instructions, "sticky" searches
414
415The possible instructions for AI events have been expanded, including new match types and the ability to set specific main events as well as 'whole show' booking styles. The possible choices are:
416
417Defend all valid titles (i.e. for "Night of Champions" style shows)
418All 1 vs 1
419All 2 vs 2
420All 3 vs 3
421All 4 vs 4
422All 5 vs 5
423All three way singles
424All four way singles
425Main event is 1 vs 1
426Main event is 2 vs 2
427Main event is 3 vs 3
428Main event is 4 vs 4
429Main event is 5 vs 5
430Main event is three way singles
431Main event is four way singles
432
433These new options allow for a wider variety of shows to be simulated.
434
435Search criteria are now "sticky", meaning that they remain in place unless the player explicitly resets or alters them. Furthermore, they are unique to each player, so the same screen can have different criteria saved for each user. This makes searching more user friendly as you can leave a screen, come back, and not have to re-enter your parameters.
436
437#14: Dojo revamp
438
439The dojo system has been overhauled and expanded to cover wrestling schools, dojos, and performance centres. The new name for this part of the game is "Training Facilities". The three types of facility are as follows.
440
441Wrestling schools are usually owned by a specific worker although they can be privately owned (which simply means they are not attached to anyone in particular). Schools exist purely to pump out new graduates at a regular rate and these workers go directly into the free agent pool. Some graduates will gain a positive relationship with their trainer.
442
443Dojos differ from wrestling schools in that they are linked directly to a specific company who get "first refusal" on graduates. A graduate who gets hired this way is considered a "true born" and will be very loyal to that company.
444
445Performance Centres are effectively super dojos; they do everything a dojo does but have extra benefits. The first benefit is that they have a much higher chance of generating graduates who are former stars from other sports, and unlike dojos and schools, can also produce non-wrestlers like announcers and managers. The second benefit is that the company who owns the PC can send existing workers there to sharpen their skills.
446
447Each facility has two ratings, Training and Facilities. The training level indicates the quality of instruction; the higher the level, the more likely the graduates are to have good skills and potential. The facility level is the size of the premises and how many classes it can support; this impacts how many graduates will be produced per year, and also how many workers can be sent to a PC to sharpen their skills.
448
449Both these ratings can be raised over the course of the game through investment. Increasing the training level is cheaper but leads to higher running costs to pay the staff, whereas increasing the facility is more expensive as a one-off cost but does not raise the running costs as much.
450
451The type of graduation can be set for each training facility. It can either be fluid, which means that graduates will appear throughout the year, or it can be fixed to a specific month when an entire class will graduate at one time. There's no real advantage of disadvantage to this, it's purely for the player's preference.
452
453This new system both better simulates reality and increases the strategic element of the game as choosing if and when to invest, and what to concentrate on, becomes more important. This also makes training facilities less of an afterthought, as under the new system they play a much deeper role in providing the talent pipeline that keeps the game world running.
454
455#15: Area and regional battles
456
457Area battles are reverting to their pre-2016 method whereby they are judged on show quality rather than roster star power due to the feedback from players. Area battles will take place if two companies of Big or greater size hold at least one show in an area during the month. The winner avoids any penalty, second place takes one point of popularity loss in each region of that area, third place loses two points, and so on, with a maximum of five points lost.
458
459Regional battles happen the same way as in previous games, but the pros and cons have changed. The winning company gets a 5% boost to their attendance in that region for the following month. Every other position takes a 5% penalty to their attendances in that region for the following month, except for last place who take a 10% penalty.
460
461Area battles therefore directly hit popularity whereas at a regional level the damage will be primarily financial, reflecting the different priorities of companies at each size range.
462
463As a related change, the options menu now allows the user to toggle area and regional battles as two separate items rather than treating them both as one thing; this means that you can, for example, have area battles turned off while regional battles are turned on (and vice versa).
464
465Editor's Note
466
467As the feedback on the previous entry has been that people do not like the idea of area battles being decided purely on show grades, we've decided to alter the game accordingly; as such, area battles will now be decided on a combination of the best show grade from the previous month and a score that reflects the star power of the roster.
468
469#16: Company relationships, excursions
470
471The new-look company relationships are as follows.
472
473Each relationship consists of two sections; their respective opinions and the current status.
474
475The opinions show what each company thinks about the other, ranging from Extremely Negative to Extremely Positive, with Neutral in the middle. These will change over the course of the game depending on their actions, and impact how they will react to the other company. Opinions are saved even if two companies have no other visible relationship, meaning that the game can "remember" previous acts of friendship or hostility.
476
477The status consists of multiple statements that can either be true of false. They are:
478
479A Owns B
480B Owns A
481They Are Sister Companies
482A Is Friendly Toward B
483B Is Friendly Toward A
484A Has Declared War
485B Has Declared War
486A Is Hostile
487B Is Hostile
488They Have Agreed To Talent Trade
489A Agrees Not To Steal From B
490B Agrees Not To Steal From A
491A Agrees Not To Sign Workers From B
492B Agrees Not To Sign Workers From A
493A Will Accept Excursions From B
494B Will Accept Excursions From A
495A Will Accept Developmental Workers From B
496B Will Accept Developmental Workers From A
497
498(Obviously some combinations are blocked, so a company cannot both have a hostile and friendly attitude at the same time.)
499
500Any of these terms can be proposed / imposed or withdrawn over the course of the game. When a user is dealing with an AI company the response is instant, with players there are Decisions generated instead. With the AI, the opinions come into play - for example, if you've annoyed another company by rejecting all their proposed developmental deals, they may become hostile to you or at least be less likely to accept any further deals. The respective sizes, owner preferences, and relationships between the power players can also come into play.
501
502On top of that, company relationships can have knock-on effects. For example, if you declare war on company A and they have a positive relationship with B, both A and B may declare war on you in response.
503
504Sister companies are a new term introduced in TEW2020. This is an unbreakable bond and means the two companies are always on positive terms, always allies, and will be more willing than normal to interact positively with each other. This is a relatively rare relationship type which does not get generated organically during gameplay - it's designed to simulate real-life companies where they're so closely related that they share a lot of the same workers, staff, and even backstory / canon, such as Chikara and WiF.
505
506This new system offers more flexibility than before as it allows many different combinations. You could, for example, have an agreement to send developmental workers to a company without actually owning them. You could have a one-sided war relationship. Or you could own someone but not have any relationship beyond that (although if you are the parent you can of course always impose a change to the relationship whenever you want). The introduction of the opinion mechanic also means that things are far less black and white than in previous games, and relationships can slowly (or sometimes quickly!) strengthen or weaken over time.
507
508As can be seen from the status list, this also brings about another change from TEW2016 which is that excursions are now controlled and initiated by the companies, not the workers. The mechanic remains mostly the same - a worker is sent out to a foreign company for an extended period of time in order to mature - but it's now for the company to proactively make it happen.
509
510A few title-related announcements, changes, improvements:
511
512#17:Various title belt changes
513
514The length of AI title reigns has been overhauled to make them more realistic and less likely to always fall within a narrow band of possible number of defences. This better takes into account the time frame and product of the company too.
515
516Titles can now be set as Achievements; this means that the game knows that they're not a physical title and so will not append the word "title" when talking about them. This is useful for real world situations like the Royal Rumble or Money In The Bank where a physical belt is not present as it avoids having immersion-breaking text like "X has won the Royal Rumble title" - instead it'd be simply "X has won the Royal Rumble".
517
518Titles can be set to be an Annual Competition. If this is ticked, the title can be specified as taking place at a specific event (this is optional) and given a format - this tells the game whether it should be competed for in a tournament, a battle royal, or a specific match type. The title can also then be set to either be retained or not; if retained, the champion(s) remain with the titles like normal (useful for things like Money In The Bank where it's an ongoing thing), otherwise they are simply added to the title lineage and the belt goes vacant until the next year (like tournaments in TEW2016). This new system allows better targeting of annual titles (i.e. a tournament no longer always needs to be the first event that a company holds that month) and allows better simulation of real world events like the Royal Rumble or King Of The Ring. It also means you can have more than one annual title per show, so you could have both the Andre The Giant Battle Royal and Money In The Bank set for WrestleMania if you were designing yourself a real world database.
519
520Title belts can now be set to only ever be defended in a specific match type; for example, you could create a singles title that is only ever defended in three-way bouts, or a tag team title that is only ever defended in straight two-on-two action. This is useful particularly if you have titles that you specifically want for multi-wrestler bouts, but also is useful if you have a really prestigious title that you would prefer to only ever be defended head-to-head. These restrictions are for the AI of course, the player can choose to ignore them if he wants.
521
522#18: Talk To Worker
523
524Taken from WMMA5, a new feature to appear in TEW is the ability to 'talk' to workers.
525
526The user can choose to talk to anybody (except other users) in the game world. They are then given a list of possible questions / suggestions / comments that are context-dependent that they can select from. The worker will then give an appropriate response. There's no limit to how many questions you can ask or how often.
527
528A key part of this is 'influence', which is a measure of the user's position within the game world. For example, a user who runs the largest company in the world is going to have a lot of influence and his suggestions will carry considerably more weight than another user who runs a backyard company in the middle of nowhere.
529
530This feature is still being added to as we go along to take into account new and modified features, but at the moment the questions can be subdivided into four categories: Career, In-Ring, Physical, and Lifestyle.
531
532Career includes things like asking someone to consider becoming available to work in a new area, asking them to move their base, to reconsider retirement plans, consider retiring, or consider taking on new roles (like becoming a road agent, for example).
533
534In-Ring includes things like asking them to change their style or change things relating to their in-ring related attributes.
535
536Physical includes things like asking them to get bigger or smaller or proposing that they change body shape (like getting fitter or putting on more muscle mass).
537
538Lifestyle allows you to suggest changes to their behind-the-scenes attributes, like trying to persuade them to stop drinking, drugs, etc
539
540As well as giving a more naturalistic feel to the game, this also makes things more user friendly as a lot of different options are now in a single easily-accessible space rather than being spread across multiple sections of the game. It also adds in things which previously you couldn't directly impact; for example, if you're running the biggest American company and you spot a British talent that you like the look of, you could dangle the carrot of a spot on your roster to get them to become available in the US or even to move house to live near your development territory.
541
542As I said, this feature is still being added to as we go along, so expect to see more on this when we enter the second phase of the journal and do "live" updates.
543
544#19: House Shows
545
546House shows have changed from TEW2016 in the following ways.
547
548Firstly, the user now has control over exactly what days house shows fall on, and can edit that schedule in just a few clicks whenever they want.
549
550Secondly, the house show loop (the regions to be visited and in what order) can be set and modified with just a few clicks too. The user can also move the "next place to visit" whenever they want, so if you want to skip places or reset the loop it's very easy to do in just one or two clicks.
551
552A Smart Booking feature has been added, which can be toggled on or off, that means that the AI will automatically take fatigued or tired workers off the house show schedule temporarily until they recover.
553
554House shows themselves also now have a bigger impact on workers; they can get fatigued over time if they're constantly working and injuries can now occur too (although both at a lesser rate than regular events).
555
556Finally, the finances of house shows have been redone to make the ticket and merchandise sales more realistic and to make running house shows more of an important part of running a larger company due to the revenue they bring in.
557
558#20: Merchandising
559
560Your company's merchandising operation works as follows in TEW2020.
561
562Firstly, you have an overall level between 1 ("Ramshackle") and 10 ("World Class") which tells the game how good your current operation is. The higher it is, the more money you're going to be generating.
563
564There are two revenue streams that fall under merchandising, "live event" and "mail order".
565
566With "live event", this is selling directly to the fans at shows. Based on your overall level you will see a value of revenue per fan; for example, at level 5 you may be told you're getting $3 per fan - so if you then draw 100 people to a show then you can expect to be making $300 that night.
567
568With "mail order", this is selling to your wider fan base on an ongoing basis. This is based on your popularity points in each region. For example, at overall level 5 you may get $10 per popularity point, so if you have 30 popularity points in Quebec then you're going to be getting $300 each month from general sales in that specific region (regardless of whether you hold shows there or not). The wider your popularity, the more money you're going to start to rake in (which makes getting your product onto people's screens even more important than ever before).
569
570You will always be able to see the exact "$ per fan" and "$ per pop point" via your merchandising screen - I've done them in that format because its very easy to understand for everyone. They are estimates however, and can be affected (for good or bad) by things like the economy and whether you have big merch sellers on your roster.
571
572The advantage of this system is that as you grow in popularity and draw more fans you're going to see a direct and measurable impact on merchandising, as you would in reality.
573
574From level 4 onwards, your merchandising operation involves running costs due to its size. These are clearly stated on screen in the merchandising section so that you know exactly what you're paying. It's a single "X per month" figure.
575
576Moving from one overall level to the next requires you to invest in an upgrade. You have three choices: Normal, Conservative, and Rapid. The choice you make affects two factors: how much the upgrade costs per week and how many percentage points of progress it will give you. For example, if you're at the very bottom level then a Normal upgrade costs $50 a week and gives you 12.5% progress per week, whereas Rapid costs $125 per week but gives you 25% - so, as you'd expect, Rapid is going to get you up a level much quicker but you're paying a premium for that benefit. You can change which system you use (or temporarily stop it) whenever you like so that you can take into account your financial situation. This system means that the financial behemoths can flex their financial muscle to power through the process whereas those with tighter purse strings will have to be a little more canny, as in reality.
577
578Upgrading at low levels is quite quick but at high levels it's very slow and expensive. However, getting to the high levels, especially level 10, can result in enormous levels of profits. The idea behind this is to simulate the way the WWE, with its well-established and world class merch operation, has a natural advantage over any potential rival because they've been able to build it up over a long period of time. If you create a new company in game then you're going to have take a lot of time to build up your own operation, and eat the associated costs, whereas a rival with a high level merchandising operation will be sitting pretty making lots of money and not having to worry about further upgrades.
579
580As usual, you can preset all this via the editor.
581
582#21: Ticket pricing
583
584In TEW2020 the user can now set ticket pricing strategies for events, TV shows, and house shows. This allows the user to play around with audience size, expectations, and potential revenue.
585
586This is all controlled via the new Ticket Pricing section of the user's office. This allows you to set the pricing strategy for each different type of show (you can also set specific events to override the settings via the schedule screen if you want) as well as see a display of what your current prices are (to help with financial planning).
587
588The strategies are:
589
590Normal: Gives no special pros or cons.
591
592Premium: Tickets cost significantly more. This means that you will earn more money per ticket sale but that you will draw less fans and the crowd will have higher expectations with regard to being entertained. The level of attendance drop depends on how popular the company is and how attractive the show is.
593
594Cheap: Tickets cost a little less. This means you draw more fans but get slightly less revenue. The attendance boost is tied to company size and the attractiveness of the show. This can be a useful strategy if you sell a lot of merchandise, as you can offset the loss of ticket revenue by selling more shirts, etc.
595
596Very Cheap: Ticket prices are slashed. You get a lot more fans as a result but lose out on a lot of potential ticket revenue. The fans will be more tolerant of bad matches and angles due to the price reduction.
597
598Free: No charge for entry. You can get a lot more people through the door but you're not earning anything from it. The crowd will be very tolerant of bad segments. As with the other methods, the change in crowd size is tied to company size and the attractiveness of the show.
599
600Ticket prices on the whole have also been redone to better match reality.
601
602This new system therefore reflects reality better and allows the user more options on how to do business, particularly in trying to grow a company and use merchandising as a money maker.
603
604#22: Contract structure
605
606The basic contract structure in the new game looks like this:
607
608Type: Written or Handshake
609
610Written contracts mean there is a legal agreement involved and so there are more restrictions. For the company, the worker is locked into the agreed amount and cannot demand pay rises and also cannot simply walk out, they must offer their notice first. For the worker, they cannot be released without being paid off the remainder of their contract.
611
612Handshake deals on the other hand are not legally binding and so are much looser. Both parties can end the deal whenever they want and the worker is free to ask for pay rises.
613
614Exclusive: Yes or No
615
616Exclusive deals mean that the worker is tied to that employer can cannot work elsewhere unless specifically allowed to (such as being sent out on loan).
617
618It is worth noting that, unlike previous games, a worker who signs an exclusive deal does not have to wait for his handshake (formerly PPA) deals to end before beginning his new job but can instead start immediately.
619
620Pay: Monthly or Per Show
621
622This is exactly as it sounds and has worked in previous games.
623
624Iron Clad: Yes or No
625
626Formerly known as the non compete clause in TEW2016, an Iron Clad contract is effectively extra security for the company; it means the worker cannot simply hand in their notice and depart. The worker can only leave if the contract expires or the company chooses to end the deal. This is only available for written contracts as handshake deals lack the legality to enforce this term.
627
628Expires: Length or Ongoing
629
630While contracts can still be for a specific amount of time, handshake deals now have the option to be "ongoing". This means that the contract does not expire and runs until either the company or worker decides it's time to end it (and which point a one month notice period would begin, normally). This is specifically designed to better simulate the independent scene. It also has the advantage that it means there's less negotiating and re-signing to do at the lower levels of the game. Most smaller AI companies in the game will use ongoing contracts.
631
632
633The advantage of this new set up is that it gives much more flexibility than ever before; you could, for example, have a written pay-per-appearance deal that is not exclusive to simulate a "legends" style deal, or you could use a written per month contract but not make it exclusive. You can mix and match the terms as you see fit.
634
635To reflect this increased flexibility, the in-game restrictions have been massively loosened. Notably, large companies are no longer forced to only offer written deals, so you could have a roster that has lots of different contract combinations to fit specific roles.
636
637For example, if you're a big company you could have your core of workers on exclusive written deals but bring in a specific worker on a short-term pay-per-appearance non-exclusive written deal; as long as you're the biggest employer then you know you'll always have access to him (as already covered, shows are run in size order so the biggest company always has 'first dibs' on who they use) but that he's still free to work elsewhere on days you're not using him and you're only paying him if and when you do use him, plus you're protected against him simply walking out or being stolen.
638
639Related to all this, downside agreements are no longer required to be offered until you reach Big size (although you can offer them below this size if you wish) in order to make small companies more realistic and manageable.
640
641Two small ones for the pot today.
642
643#23: Spiritual homes and politics
644
645Companies can now be set to have home arenas AKA spiritual homes. This means the company is linked to a specific place in the Venues & Locations file. When in that particular region the company will always try and use the home arena (unless it'd be financially absurd to do so). This allows real-world situations such as ECW biasing towards using the ECW Arena to be simulated.
646
647As an addition to the "reasons why a worker is absent" list, workers can now go into politics. This works in the same manner as the existing choices, like being in prison or on hiatus.
648
649#24: Angles
650
651The angle booking process has been streamlined considerably to improve how user friendly it is: the three main screens that people are used to (angle selection, angle booking, and freestyle angle booking) are now all the same screen in order to reduce clicking.
652
653This modification also brings about another structural change in that when you go to modify a booked angle you are no longer stuck with the angle type that you began with. So if you booked a tag team interview and wanted to turn it into a tag team brawl, or even if you want to switch it to a freestyle angle instead, you can do that without the need to delete and re-add the segment. Changing the type doesn't affect the workers you've already booked either, so you wouldn't have to rebook them if you're just making a minor change.
654
655On top of this, angles now have road agent notes just like matches. This allows you to add in crazy and stunt bumps, set workers to make cameo appearances, etc, etc. Turns are also now handled via notes, and there's a new road agent note that allows you to 'force' a storyline to advance even if you're not meeting the minimum requirements (useful if you want to do a one person interview and don't want to go to the trouble of booking a target / subject just to advance the story).
656
657There is also a new Rated On category for angles, Fighting. This is for when you want brawls to break out.
658
659Finally for today's entry, the way that angle ratings are calculated has been revamped so that there are more variables and randomness involved in order to make the process more detailed and realistic. The idea behind this is to make the ratings less predictable in general.
660
661#25: Angles II
662
663Searching through angles for the one you want is always problematic due to the sheer amount and possible variance of angles. To address this, the old system of angle categories has been removed and replaced with a new 'tags' system.
664
665The way this works is that each angle has a line of tag text which can be up to 100 characters long. It is entirely up to individual database makers what format they use, but in the default data I use terms divided up by commas; so, for example, a wedding angle might have "Wedding, Marriage, Romance, Ratings, Heel Turn" as its tags. (For reference, the 2016->2020 converter automatically fills in some 'best guess' tags for each angle using the existing categories.)
666
667When booking angles, right at the top of the page is a text box which the user can type any term in. The game then searches the angle's name, description, and tags for any matching term. So if you had an angle set up like this:
668
669Name: "Pre-match interview"
670Description: "A backstage interviewer grabs a word with a superstar."
671Tags: "Backstage, interview, interviewer, short, talking, microphone"
672
673Then searching for "interview" or "backstage interview" would return this angle.
674
675Because this system removes the restrictions of having pre-set categories it means that database makers have a lot more freedom for how they divide their angles up, and the fact that the search looks at titles, descriptions, and tags means that it's quite powerful.
676
677Another angle-related change is that the pre-booking screen has been updated to take the same format as the main angle booking screen that I described in the last entry; so it's primarily a single easy-to-use screen. On top of that, road agent notes can be pre-booked, and you can now add a pre-booked angle to the booking sheet even if one of the participants is not available (you'll obviously then need to replace that unavailable person, but this way you don't have to re-book the entire thing like you do at the moment).
678
679Finally, I forgot to explicitly state this in the last entry, but with the addition of road agent notes this means that angles do now have a specific road agent assigned to them, just like matches do.
680
681#26: Pushes & perception
682
683One of the reasons I pulled the code apart and rebuilt it was to allow a rethink of some areas, particularly as some features had been in from the very earliest days of the game (and even back to EWR) simply because "that's how they've always been". Today we'll be looking at one of those fundamental changes.
684
685In the past, pushes have always been done by picking your desired choice from a list, telling the game how you want the worker to be perceived. This was a system that worked fine, but it was very much a game-y feature rather than being realistic.
686
687For TEW2020, we're ripping that system up and going with something far more natural.
688
689So, first off, picking pushes from a list is totally gone, as are any related systems (such as auto pushing, complaints about being at the wrong push level, etc). Instead, you will now see a Perception level for each worker.
690
691The Perception level, which ranges from Major Star down to Unknown, is how the fans see the worker. It is based on the worker's popularity and current momentum in comparison to the company's popularity. Unlike the old push system, this is not something you can directly edit, but is instead sensitive to how you actually use someone - so if you want to take an Unknown guy and make him into a Major Star you can't just pick it from a list, you need to book him strongly and get him over with the fans.
692
693Because momentum plays a key part in how a worker is perceived this makes Perception far more volatile than pushes, so a worker can get hot and jump up a level or two and then go back down as he cools. This makes the roster more dynamic.
694
695Of course, one major advantage of this new system is that it opens up the opportunity for fans to simply not take to a worker (or conversely to latch on to someone you weren't counting on) much more than in previous games - although you can of course try and book your way around any unexpected result.
696
697Looking at the Perception gives the user a clear view of what effect that worker is having. A Major Star is somebody who you know is going to "move the needle" when it comes to attendances and ratings, whereas your Unknowns, however talented they may be, simply haven't connected with the fan base yet. This makes it more intuitive for users to get a feel for their roster.
698
699Perception applies to everyone on the roster, which has the added advantage that it allows any divisions to be automatically taken into account - for example, unlike previous games where a women's division was a single push, in TEW2020 you could have a whole range of different Perceptions within the women.
700
701Unlike the push system, Perceptions are absolute. That is, how the worker is perceived is not calculated in relation to the rest of the roster. This means that unlike previous games you don't have to have a certain roster "shape" - you could have an entire roster of Major Stars, or only Major Stars and Unknowns and nobody in between. This makes things considerably easier for database makers to put workers in their "correct" place on the roster without needing to fudge values.
702
703It should be noted that although workers do take into account Perceptions when making decisions, they also still know their popularity too. So if you have one worker who is 10 popularity across the US and one who is 40 popularity, both working for a company that is 80 popularity, both would probably be Unknown to the fans but the second worker would still "know" that he's significantly higher up the food chain. So although Perceptions flattens out the roster in terms of the number of tiers, it doesn't make the game less detailed or nuanced.
704
705So, overall, this makes the game more realistic both in terms of how booking impacts workers and how momentum affects the fans' view, removes a lot of annoyances regarding the necessity of auto-pushing and dealing with push-based complaints, takes away a lot of clicking and general admin work from the user due to the feature's automatic nature, makes database creation significantly easier, and allows women's division (and non-wrestlers) to be better integrated into the roster.
706
707#27: Cosmetic immersion touches
708
709As such a large proportion of the community likes to play historical scenarios, a couple of small cosmetic touches have been added to help with immersion in those situations.
710
711Firstly, the Website (now just known as "Main Screen") has multiple skins that come into play depending on when you are playing. This includes a monochrome newsletter from the early days of wrestling, a colourful magazine for the end of the 80s / start of the 90s, and a garish 'early design' website for the late 90s / early 2000s, before the regular-look website becomes the standard. This doesn't change the functionality of the screen, it just helps give a better feel for the era you're in.
712
713Secondly, all the news stories for that screen have been rewritten so that references to the modern world are time-appropriate. This means that you won't see references to social media until the quite recent past, and websites / the internet won't start popping up until the mid 1990s.
714
715These changes aren't in any way ground-breaking of course, but they're just nice little extras to help people feel more connected to the game world.
716
717This week will have daily entries and cover everything about broadcasting. It's like Shark Week, but less bitey.
718
719#28: Broadcasters
720
721The following are the changes that have been made to the Broadcasters themselves.
722
723By request, each broadcaster can now have profile text to explain a little about them. As with workers, companies, etc, this just adds some colour.
724
725The types of broadcasters have been expanded; there are still Pay-Per-View, Commercial, Free-To-Air, and Subscription, but each of those now has three versions, Terrestrial, Cable, and Internet. So that makes twelve in total. (I'm not sure there's actually such a thing as Terrestrial PPV in reality, but it would actually be more work to take it out, so I've left it in - it might be useful to someone somewhere down the line.)
726
727The difference between the three new sets is one of power. Terrestrial offer the greater revenue sources but are the most demanding and hardest to negotiate with, whereas Internet broadcasters offer the least revenue per viewer but are pretty undemanding. This adds in a new layer of strategy when it comes to choosing who to deal with, as well as allowing things like iPPV to be properly simulated.
728
729The old product settings for each broadcaster have been removed and replaced with a broadcaster style, which can be No Focus, Mainstream, Pure Sports, All Sports, Kids, Adults, or Sci-Fi. (The difference between Pure and All Sports being that the latter are more willing to allow entertainment-related wrestling). These styles do pretty much exactly the same thing as the old product settings, but the advantage is that it's significantly easier for database makers (one setting rather than twelve to achieve the same thing) and it's far more intuitive for the player.
730
731The old Must Cover Home setting has been reworked to be a minimum requirement for the company base: it can be set so that the company must be in a specific region, a specific area, or a combination of areas ("North America" for example). This is far easier to understand and offers more control.
732
733Each company can now be set to have maximum limits for how many companies in total they'll have deals with at any one time, and also how many individual broadcasting deals they'll have. This reintroduces and upgrades the ability for database makers to limit a broadcaster.
734
735Coverage remains as it was, but the different levels are now absolute. That is, a "Big" rating means the same number of people regardless of the type of broadcaster (whereas before it didn't - for example, a PPV broadcaster with Big across America was not reaching the same number of people as a Commercial broadcaster with the same coverage setting). 
736
737The reason for this is that you can now see in-game the number of people this (roughly) equates to and how the various viewership numbers are calculated - this should make it easier for database makers to get in the right ballpark for what they want. The figures themselves have also been reworked to be more accurate, with an emphasis on trying to replicate WWE's real life numbers given that this is what I'd imagine most real-life database makers are most concerned with.
738
739This will mean that database makers will need to spend some time rebalancing their broadcaster coverage levels if they convert them from 2016 to 2020, as otherwise you're likely to end up with overly high pay-per-view revenue for example, but I'm afraid that's not something I can really automate as it's something that requires a judgement call on a case by case basis.
740
741Tomorrow we'll move on to broadcasting deals / contracts.
742
743#30: More about broadcasting
744
745Here are some more changes that have been made to the broadcasting section of the game; today is all about ratings.
746
747The viewership figures / ratings for each show are now more closely linked to the revenue that will be generated for Commercial and Subscription broadcasters. In previous games this was not the case, where big swings in how many people were watching would not have affected the revenue very much as long as the company and broadcaster had not changed in size. This new change makes the ratings you receive more important, and means that losing or gaining viewers will have a real impact on your finances.
748
749To tie-in to this, there is now "rating disruption". That is, if a company is running a show in the same time slot as another, the more popular show can potentially hurt the viewership of the lesser show because viewers are tuning in to the former. This allows the use of counter-programming as an attacking strategy, for example putting a big event on the same day as a rival is running a show in order to take eyeballs off their product and cost them money.
750
751In addition to this, Other TV Shows are returning to the game. These are non-wrestling shows. They can either be one-offs (like the Super Bowl) or serial (i.e. running on a regular basis) and have controls that allow them to be set to run only in specific times (both in terms of years and what days / weeks / months they are on air). This is intended to be used for big shows that actually impact the wrestling world, not an exhaustive selection of what is on TV. These shows also tie-in to the "rating disruption" feature described above, so you can simulate things like getting killed in the ratings if you try and run opposite a ratings behemoth or major cultural event.
752
753When viewing ratings, TEW2020 is returning to the old style of showing them split up by broadcaster. So if a show is on multiple broadcasters you will see an overall total and then how that is broken down. In addition, as well as PPV buyrates and TV ratings, you'll also now see viewership - this allows subscription networks to be better covered.
754
755The broadcasting section also now has a Ratings Centre, which can also be accessed via the player's information bar at the bottom of the screen. This, by default, shows all the previous night's ratings so that the player can see what shows attracted the most viewers. It can also be used as a fact sheet of sort, giving highest buyrates / ratings / viewership for that night, that year, or all-time.
756
757Broadcasting week continues tomorrow.
758
759#31: Even more about broadcasting
760
761We will end broadcasting week by going through the remainder of the loose ends that haven't been covered yet.
762
763Parent-child broadcasting has been altered to be more intuitive and easier to use: a parent now has access to a special child version of the broadcasting screen and so can negotiate deals on the child's behalf; children automatically qualify to be on their parent's own broadcaster; and if the user is playing as a child company then they can negotiate deals with the parent's own broadcaster without the need to wait for the parent to proactively do anything.
764
765Continuing with self-owned broadcasters, companies are no longer limited to having just one; they can have as many as they like. The cost of creating small broadcasters has also been redone so that smaller companies can potentially make their own VoD services (like Chikara in real life) without needing massive amounts of cash.
766
767Following on from the above, Subscription broadcasters no longer have a set break-even point that is the same for everybody, it is instead based on the coverage level. This means that smaller companies can run their own low-level subscription services without losing tons of money each month because they don't need 70+ popularity in each region. Again, this makes things like Chikara's real life Chikaratopia service viable.
768
769Previous entries have already covered how ratings / viewership will be very important in TEW2020, and one of the new features that gels with that is the ability for companies to 'block tape' TV shows. A company can now tape up to four episodes at once. The advantage of this is that it slashes the cost of producing the show (because everything is already in place so there's no need to transport of set-up multiple times), but the disadvantage is that the further ahead a show is taped, the more its ratings are going to get reduced, therefore the company will potentially be losing out on valuable broadcast revenue.
770
771In addition to the above, tapings have been slightly reworked so that any broadcast-related revenue does not come in until the show airs. This just makes things a little more realistic.
772
773Although a lot of new stuff has been added to broadcasting, the actual process of negotiating / dealing with broadcasters has been streamlined to be more intuitive and quicker than previous games. One of the main factors involved in this is that negotiations now have "live" feedback; that is, when you change one of the drop-down menus to pick, for example, a new time slot, you'll get immediate on-screen feedback about how this impacts the broadcaster's happiness, costs, etc, rather than needing to actually hit the Make Offer button to find out.
774
775Finally, when booking shows there is now an Auto Selection button that automatically calculates the best choices for you; you can of course choose to overwrite the selection afterwards, but for the most part this saves a bunch of clicking, especially if you happen to have a lot of different broadcasting deals. Part of this is the broadcasting deals can be given Purposes and the AI can use that information to work out what you would want.
776
777#32: Independent wrestling
778
779Those of you who have played WMMA5 (I highly recommend you do if you have any interest in MMA!) will know that the local shows, WMMA's equivalent of the independent wrestling scene, are divided up into different size categories so that fighters can work their way up as they gain experience. We're taking that same concept and applying that to TEW.
780
781Instead of one level of independent show, TEW2020 will instead have three. They break down as follows.
782
783Small-time indy shows are pretty much what you're familiar with already: little shows featuring unemployed, not-particularly-popular wrestlers who either reside in the same region as the show, or live within travelling distance.
784
785Mid-level indy shows expand that slightly further. Now, contracted workers are allowed to appear, providing they're not under an exclusive deal anywhere. Also, the maximum popularity is raised slightly to allow some bigger names to come in. The shows feature more matches and get a bigger attendance.
786
787Big-time indy shows then expand that further. The maximum popularity is raised again, and now workers from anywhere in that game area can take part, not just those who are relatively local. The shows are, again, slightly longer and get slightly better attendance.
788
789The split is roughly 25% small-time, 25% big-time, 50% mid-level for each game area. As in TEW2016, indy shows can either be regular (mostly male wrestlers but with occasional women's matches) or entirely dedicated to women's wrestling.
790
791To add to this, the frequency of indy shows is now linked directly to the free agent pool in that area. The more free agents there are, the more indy shows are going to happen. With a huge pool, it's possible to get 8 shows (4 normal, 4 women's) per month at maximum with this new system.
792
793Finally, rather than use "American Independent Wrestling", "British Independent Wrestling", etc, as the names for the shows, you'll now see them listed as "Independent Wrestling From Brooklyn", "Independent Wrestling From Glasgow", etc, etc. This is purely cosmetic, but in my opinion it's just a little nicer to look at and adds slightly to the immersion.
794
795So, overall, this makes the independent aspect of the game a lot more dynamic and lively, means that wrestlers who are outside the big leagues will have more opportunities to work over the course of a year, and generally adds more realism to the package.
796
797#34: Experience
798
799A new part of a worker's skill selection is Experience. As the name suggests, this is a measure of their career's in-ring time so far. The value increases every time they wrestle, with the longer the match, the bigger the jump.
800
801Unlike most of the other skills, there is no cap on Experience; if they wrestle for long enough, everyone will eventually reach 100. Experience cannot go down.
802
803Experience affects a worker's in-ring performance; the more experienced a worker is, the better he is able to cope with problems and mistakes when they happen. This also allows workers to mitigate poor booking. For example, a highly experienced worker is better able to cover the fact that he has been gassed by being put into too long of a match. These "covers" take the form of reducing or removing the penalties that you'd normally see.
804
805Rookies on the other hand are more likely to be flustered and make things worse as a result of how green they are.
806
807If something out of the ordinary happens, like a botch, as long as there is at least one experienced workers in the match they will be able to help everyone else through it. This makes keeping the old guard around quite useful at times.
808
809Also, high experience makes a worker better at passing on their knowledge during matches. Therefore working with experienced veterans leads to quicker learning for rookies.
810
811The other significant use of Experience is with road agents, as this is one of the two major stats (alongside Psychology) that affect how good they are at their job (Respect being the third, lesser aspect).
812
813Overall, this addition adds to the realism and means that veteran wrestlers become more valuable members of the roster because of their teaching potential and the fact that their experience can be crucial in helping keep matches on track at times. Simply kicking workers out the door when they start declining therefore becomes a far worse move than it has in the past and can have serious repercussions over time if a roster gets too green overall.
814
815Two small ones today, both of which are based on ideas that were recently posted in the Suggestions forum. As a reminder, if you have ideas you want to share, I'd suggest you post them there in the near future as we're starting to get into the territory where parts of the game are being finalised and suggestions will start to be too late to be considered.
816
817#35: User reputation, free pictures
818
819There's been a few changes to the user's reputation in the new game. It is now more dynamic, being far more sensitive to your booking performance and also now being affected by rises and falls in size. In line with this, your reputation will now be a standard 0-100 number, not just a handful of text categories, so this will allow you to see the changes more clearly. Also, if you choose to leave the game then the character you were using as your avatar will change their booking reputation to match your user reputation, meaning they can carry on (under AI control) with the rep you built for them.
820
821In a related change, the block whereby you could only start your own company if you had High or above reputation has been removed; you can now start your own company whenever you like, as long as you're unemployed. However, your reputation is used to decide how successful you are at attracting investors / backers, and so your starting money is affected by both your reputation and the challenge level you select. So, for example, if you choose Rock Hard you're going to not get much money to start with, but you're going to get significantly less if you also have very little reputation too. As a final related change, your reputation no longer goes to zero when you start your own company as this game-y block is no longer necessary.
822
823These aren't huge changes, but they do add a little more realism and make the user experience a little nicer as you have more freedom.
824
825The second change I'll be talking about today is to do with the Free Pictures section of the editor, and this is for database makers rather than an "everyday use" feature. When you choose to Add a new record to this section the game will now automatically select the first unused picture in the file for you (unused meaning that it's a picture that isn't already a free picture and isn't attached to a worker or alter ego already). Likewise, when you hit Save And Continue it will jump to the next unused picture in the file after the one you just saved.
826
827This potentially save an enormous amount of clicking and scrolling for database makers as you can bash through large amounts of pictures very quickly, particularly if you've got the files named so that they are already organised in some sort of order.
828
829#36: Stables
830
831This entry will cover how stables have been upgraded for TEW2020.
832
833Starting with the editor, here is how stables are broken down.
834
835Firstly, there are the basics: their name, the company they are assigned to, their status (active / inactive), and their biography-style description.
836
837Secondly, there are the following in the details / settings section.
838
839Type: This can either be Faction, Brotherhood, Cult, Gang or Alliance; this controls how they act and are rated. 
840
841Formed: This is text to show when they were created.
842
843Important: Yes or No. This simply says whether they get made inactive or get removed entirely when they are closed.
844
845Min / Max Members: This controls the number of people in the stable.
846
847Must Involve: This can link the stable to a specific worker; the stable can only operate as long as that worker is a member, otherwise it is shut down.
848
849Disposition: This controls whether the stable is Babyface, Heel, or can be either.
850
851Genders: This controls whether the stable is Male Only, Female Only, or Mixed.
852
853No New Members: This says whether the stable is "closed" or not, i.e. whether new members can be added after the stable is established.
854
855Thirdly, there is the members section, which lists who is in the stable. This has been reduced from 20 members to 18 in TEW2020 because when viewing stables you no longer see a list but get the entire stable pictured, but I could only fit 18 people on screen. As I think most people would prefer the much nicer visual presentation, and that hardly anyone actually ever used slots 19 and 20 anyway, I think this is a minor drawback. Each of the members has the following potential roles (replacing Major / Minor):
856
857Leader: As it sounds.
858
859Deputy: The worker (or workers) who are second in command and will likely take over if the leader leaves.
860
861Heir: A (usually younger) worker who is being groomed to eventually take leadership.
862
863Member: This is the generic role that just means a worker is part of the stable.
864
865Muscle: This is for workers who are members to act as enforcers or bruisers.
866
867Lackey: This is for members who play a minor, servile role.
868
869Fodder: This is for the bottom-rung members who exists basically to get beaten up and do run-ins.
870
871Support: This is for non-wrestlers, such as managers, valets, etc.
872
873These roles inform the game how that worker's performance, status, etc, affects the stable's rating.
874
875On top of this, there is now a Stable Names section of the editor. This workers just like Team Names, TV names, etc, in that it lists a bunch of potential names that can be applied to stables. These are subdivided by gender, disposition, stale type, stable size, and company location.
876
877As you can probably tell from some of the features I've just announced, the really big change in stables is that they are now fully integrated for AI use. That means that the AI can open its own stables, add new members, remove members, change stable roles, close stables, and incorporate all of this into its booking. That means that stable members will team with each other, not outsiders, they'll band together in tournaments, avoid fighting each other, etc. In conjunction with this, there's a new Stables section (located next to Tag Teams) when viewing AI companies so that you can see what their current groups are, who is in them, and what their roles are.
878
879As a minor addition, stable names are now also fully incorporated into match reports, both human and AI. So you'll see things like "The Infernal Horde (Snap Dragon, El Rey, and Soul Taker) beat ....." when viewing results, which looks nicer and means that you can better see why people are teaming together.
880
881Two smallish changes to the loan system(s) today.
882
883#37: Loans
884
885In previous games the amount a worker was paid per appearance when traded or loaned was based on their existing contract's wage. This had a flaw in that it could result in unfairly high amounts being charged, especially with written deals. To counter this, traded or loaned workers will now always use their genuine pay-per-show worth (i.e. the amount that you'd be quoted when starting negotiations with them). This means that the value is always a fair reflection of their true worth.
886
887In previous games there was a cap on how many loans in total an alliance member could make within a six month period. This limitation has been removed from the game to allow for more flexibility and to open up the option of doing more "invasion" style actions.
888
889#38: Stars and attendance levels
890
891Unlike in previous games, attendance levels are now directly impacted by the star names on a show (previously this was limited to figureheads).
892
893One realistic effect from this is that smaller companies who bring in workers with name value will be able to see a noticeable bump in their attendances, making it worth shelling out the extra cash.
894
895This also means that regional stars have more of a place in the game world, especially when it comes to companies vying for position. This opens up new strategic options. For example, stealing a regional draw from a rival can help you break into a new market while hurting them at the same time, or you could make clever use of loans and trades to help you do one-off shows in new markets and still draw.
896
897This will also affect companies who fail to build or protect their own stars - if they end up with a roster short of name value then they're going to see their attendances start to dwindle as the fans have no reason to turn up.
898
899Overall this adds more realism to the game and several new strategic elements.
900
901A small entry today with a quick burst of four changes...
902
903#39:Tag team types, worldwide tag search, numbered TV shows, new match types
904
905The tag team types have been changed slightly with the addition of Permanent Units (meaning that you now have Permanent Units, Units, and Individuals; as before, there are active and inactive versions of each).
906
907Permanent Units are for teams who are strongly identified as always being together. They will share the effects of tag wins and losses equally regardless of who was involved in the finish. This also has strong ties to the AI, who will never break the team up, will never use them with other partners, and will rarely use them outside of the tag team division.
908
909Units are as they were in the previous game; they're basically Permanent Units but the AI can break them up if there is a good reason (if one of them becomes a much bigger star, for example) and can use them occasionally in singles situations.
910
911Individuals are as they were before; they're for when it's two singles wrestlers tagging, or temporarily alliances. They don't share effects equally, and the AI will treat them as singles workers, which means it can break them up and is free to give them solo runs.
912
913The new addition won't really affect the player very much, but it makes the AI significantly better at handling the tag team booking and usage parts of the game.
914
915In a separate change related to tag teams, from the tag team screen there is now a section that allows you to search through all tag teams across the game world, as this had been requested a number of times to make seeking out established duos earlier. As I know this will trigger people asking: I realise that people also want the ability to be able to negotiate with tag teams rather than having to do it individually, but this will not be in the game as I cannot get it working well enough.
916
917As it has been requested a few times, numbered TV shows will be in TEW2020. This is optional. If turned on, it means that a counter will keep track of which episode it is and you will see "SWF Uprising #141", etc, in the results and histories.
918
919Finally for today, four new multi-man match types have been added as possible choices: seven, eight, nine, and ten way singles matches.
920
921--
922
923As I'm away next week and then have end-of-year University assignments to deal with the week after, I'm now going to put the journal on hiatus for two weeks. So, we'll be restarting in the week beginning 22nd April. There's several big entries to come as we head into the summer and then it'll be the start of phase II, the "live" version of this journal, where I'll be going into more depth about where we are, what we're currently working on, etc.
924
925#40: Worker styles
926
927With the game being rebuilt, it seemed like a good opportunity to redo the worker style classifications, so today we will go through the new selection.
928
929The eleven styles that were in TEW2016 have been replaced with the following sixteen:
930
931Regular
932
933Entertainer
934
935Comedy
936
937Powerhouse
938
939Impactful
940
941Striker
942
943Brawler
944
945Hardcore
946
947Psychopath
948
949Luchador
950
951High Flyer
952
953Technician
954
955Technician Flyer
956
957Technician Striker
958
959Daredevil
960
961MMA Crossover
962
963I think they are pretty self explanatory, but for those who are not sure: Impactful refers to the more modern hard-hitting style of mixing strikes, suplexes and submissions - Samoa Joe being one real world example; Striker and Brawler differs in that the former involves more finesse; Luchador refers to the stereotypical fast-paced mix of technique and high flying that is best exemplified in Mexican wrestling; a Technician Striker would be someone who mixes technical wrestling with a lot of (probably MMA influenced) striking.
964
965There's intentionally quite a blurring of the lines between the categories to allow for leeway; for example, Luchador, High Flyer, and Technical Flyer are all closely related and there isn't going to be a huge amount of difference between them, although obviously lucha libre companies are going to have a mild preference for the former, whilst companies with a high degree of emphasis on technical expertise are likely to favour Technical Flyers over High Flyers. Similarly, Striker, Brawler, and Technical Striker aren't radically different but offer a degree of subtlety that the game can use.
966
967As before, styles don't affect in-ring work, they're simply a handy "tag" that the game can use to make sure that it's making the best / most realistic use of someone and to allow for a more intuitive game play experience. Styles can still organically change during game play.
968
969As you'd expect, all the features of the game that involve styles - such as owner goals - have been updated to reflect the new groupings.
970
971Overall, these new styles not only give more choices and cover the real world better, but they can better tie in to the way products work, which is what we'll be covering next Tuesday.
972
973#41: New road agent notes
974
975As you'd expect, there are new road agent notes in TEW2020. The following are some of them:
976
977Double Pinfall: This allows a match to end with a double pin, such as a german suplex where both workers' shoulders are down.
978
979Dusty Finish(es): This allows a finish whereby one worker wins only to then have the previously-bumped referee recover and reverse the decision because of something that happened before. There are two flavours of this note, count out or DQ, which reflect what the reversed decision becomes.
980
981Partner Miscommunication: This allows a finish whereby a worker gets beaten because his or her partner screwed up accidentally.
982
983At Ringside: This simply allows the booker to have a worker specifically appear at ringside. This is a multi-purpose note as it allows you to have extra valets, ringside enforcers, workers scouting future opponents, to specify lumberjacks, etc, etc.
984
985In addition, the Interference finish has been changed so that you select the interferer as part of the note rather than having to do it separately, to save time.
986
987As a related change, by request, two out of three falls matches are now allowed to end in a time limit draw, and so that road agent note is now available in that match type.
988
989#42: Products
990
991Although I like the product set up from TEW2016, it does have several big issues. Most notably, a lot of people don't seem to really understand it, it's extremely fiddly for database makers and players to use, and, having looked through most of the major databases currently available, it's very rare for people to actually use it for anything other than a handful of 'standard' product definitions.
992
993With that in mind, for TEW2020 we'll not be continuing with that set up and instead taking the previous method and upgrading that instead. This entry of the journal will cover how it now looks.
994
995Rather than having each product broken down into parts - Mainstream, Comedy, Risque, etc - TEW2020 instead has numerous pre-written products. So, if you're in the product screen, you'll see a list which includes things like Classic Sports Entertainment, LuchaResu, Wrestling As A Sport, Extreme Hardcore, Deathmatch, etc.
996
997Each company will pick one from this list for their Current Product (how they are currently presented) and one from this list for their Core Product (what the company is about at its most fundamental) - you can select the same for both, incidentally. The Core Product is used by the game to make sure that companies don't stray too far from what they're really about (so you won't see Ring of Honor evolve into a death match company, for example) and basically replaces the old Minimum / Maximum product settings. To be clear, you can still give the product a custom name, just like in TEW2016, you're not limited to the name the game uses.
998
999When making these selection you get both a text description of what the product means and also a full list of how this impacts the game (unlike TEW2016, this is all on the same screen so you don't need to keep loading sub-windows to check this). So, one big advantage of this is user friendliness - what took 36 drop-down menu selections and multiple clicks in TEW2016 now takes 2 drop-down menus in TEW2020 while actually giving a greater level of depth.
1000
1001The upgrade to this is that each of the products has been custom made. So whereas TEW2016 gave you a list of pros, cons, and effects that were fairly generic, the new system makes sure that each product has been hand crafted to be as accurate as possible, and is therefore much deeper.
1002
1003Once you're in-game, you can still change your product but the system now works by comparing your old and new product and working out the level of change. So, for example, going from PG Rated Sports Entertainment to Classic Sports Entertainment is obviously a very small change as they're very closely related - therefore the change takes less time to complete and there's minimal disruption. Going from Attitude Entertainment to Comic Book Lucha Libre is a much more severe change in direction and so will take much longer to complete and involve more disruption.
1004
1005There are also a couple of other changes to the product screen to discuss.
1006
1007Firstly, the Women's Wrestling selection has been expanded so that if you give a company a division, you can now select the size of it: small, medium, or large. This allows you to better reflect reality, especially with how the WWE has greatly enlarged the size and importance of their women's division over the past few years.
1008
1009Secondly, you can now set a Match Focus and Angle Focus. What this does is allow you to tinker with the way show grades are calculated. As most of you will know, currently your matches affect the final rating by taking a certain percentage of the main event, a certain percentage of the best match, and a certain percentage of the remainder of the show. With these new settings, you have the option of altering these ratios. For example, one option is Main Event Spotlight focus: with this, the ratio is 90% of the main event's rating and 10% of the average of the remainder of the matches, which is ideal if you're modelling a company for whom the undercard is pretty much an afterthought. By twinning this with the selection of products you're increasing the depth of what you're able to model.
1010
1011So, overall, the advantages to this change are that it is significantly easier to understand, it makes life much easier for database makers as their workload is massively reduced and they no longer have to fiddle around to try and get the results they want, it's far more intuitive to use (whether in the editor or main game), and you're opening up products that you couldn't accurately model previously. There is the disadvantage that you're losing some flexibility in that you can no longer make up crazy thinking-outside-the-box products, but as already discussed, virtually nobody was actually ever doing this in TEW2016 anyway, so I think that's a fairly minor drawback.
1012
1013Of course, there is one potential pitfall in that the system slightly falls apart if the selection of pre-written products is too shallow or doesn't cover certain real world products. This should be addressed in two ways.
1014
1015Firstly, I've set it up so that adding new products is pretty easy, so if there is anything missing then it's really easy for me to patch it in after release.
1016
1017Secondly, we're going to be opening up a new thread in the coming months where we're going to be listing all the existing products that have already been done and inviting users, whether they're database makers or just regular players, to submit their suggestions for products that they feel aren't already covered and need to be added. That way we can make sure that the game will release with a selection that meets everybody's needs.
1018
1019As usual, Thursday's are where we'll cover some of the more minor additions and changes.
1020
1021#43: Five small changes
1022
10231 - Match times for user-booked matches are now stored and are visible when reviewing old bouts.
1024
10252 - Events can now be fixed to a specific venue, in addition to the previously announced ability to fix them to a specific area or region. This allows events that reference a specific place in their name, for example, to be held in the correct place.
1026
10273 - [NB: This was an announcement about workers being able to 'come out'; this feature has since been removed.]
1028
10294 - When negotiating a 'first refusal contract with a recent graduate, 'blocking' style owner goals no longer apply. This makes it easier to bring your own development talent through the ranks. For example, the owner may say that you can't hire anyone with Basics less than a certain figure, but that wouldn't apply to graduates because they're unlikely to have the skills to ever get around that goal.
1030
10315 - Stables can now have logos.
1032
1033#44: AI Booking
1034
1035In the past you'll have been used to seeing a handful of sliders in the product screen that set the percentage of singles matches, tag matches, etc, that the AI will use. I've been wanting to get rid of this system for a while as it's got some major flaws (namely that it's very rigid, doesn't take context into account at all, and makes creating realistic AI very difficult) so, as the AI booking system has been totally rewritten from scratch, I've removed these from TEW2020. In today's entry we'll be looking at what replaces them, and how the system as a whole works.
1036
1037In the product screen you'll now see an AI Booking Style menu. This contains a series of options:
1038
1039Old School Western: This is primarily singles and tag matches, with trios and battle royals appearing as special attractions.
1040Old School Puro: This is primarily singles, tag, and trios matches. Touring shows in particular are heavily tag and trios oriented so as not to overtax the workers.
1041Old School Lucha: This is again based on singles, tag, and trios, but with tag and trios being much more prominent than you'd get elsewhere.
1042
1043Modern Western: Singles and tag form the core, but then you've got multi-man matches coming in to add spice to the card.
1044Modern Puro: Singles, tag, and six man form the core, with occasional multi-man matches appearing.
1045Modern Lucha: This uses the basic lucha format of singles, tag, and trios, but then with multi-man matches coming in to the equation too.
1046
1047Evolving Western, Evolving Puro, Evolving Lucha: These are special versions which are time-dependent: they'll start at the Old School version until they reach a certain preset date, after which they'll start evolving towards their Modern equivalent.
1048
1049Basic Singles: This is for companies who only use singles bouts.
1050Basic Singles and Tag: This is for companies who only use singles and tag team bouts.
1051Basic Tag And Trios: Again, for companies who only use tag team and trios matches.
1052
1053Multi Man Singles: For companies using only three and four way singles matches.
1054Multi Man Overall: For companies using only three and four way matches for singles and tag teams.
1055
1056Variety: This is for companies who use all the different match types and have very eclectic cards.
1057
1058(NB: This is not necessarily the final list; I wouldn't be surprised if at least one or two more options get added once we've got to the testing phase.)
1059
1060These get used when building the card, taking into account what type of show is being used, how long it is, etc. There are five levels of show: basic TV show, regular event, end-of-year / "season finale" event, tour show, and basic show (used for indy shows, for example). Each of these are slightly different to give better results. For example, tour shows naturally make much heavier use of tag team and trios matches to protect the workers' health than the other types, especially if you're using one of the specifically Puro styles. This ability to take context into account is a real boon, and makes it a massive upgrade on the old slider method.
1061
1062So, in short, these settings tell the AI the basics of what a show should look like. If you think of creating an AI card as being like building a house, the AI Booking Style is making the foundation and frame.
1063
1064When creating a card, the AI Booking Style then gets modified by the Product, which we looked at last week. The Product allows the AI to work out what matches to use, what ratio of matches to angles there should be, what sort of finishes are appropriate, whether certain matches are more appropriate than others in certain situations, etc - basically, it's taking the generic structure and making it unique to that product. To take the house analogy further, this is like putting in the brick work, connecting up the electrics and plumbing, etc.
1065
1066I don't normally cover things that are yet to be done in this journal, but I will add a side note here that there is planned to be a third layer in this system. The idea is that the head booker's style and stats will come into play to add a further level of modification. To really stretch the house analogy to breaking point, this would be adding in the furniture and painting the walls. This is something that we'll likely be returning to in the next phase of the journal when we go "live".
1067
1068The final phase is then to apply the bits and pieces of AI-improving features that we've already mentioned in the journal: things like the new tag team settings and stables, for example, which are designed to do a better job of teams than we've managed in the past. There's also some stuff that we'll be covering in the future: for example, the way that title reigns work has been changed to be more realistic. All these little things just boost the AI's realism a little more.
1069
1070Now, with all that being said, I realise that most people don't actually care about what system is being used or anything I've just written, what they care about is one question: does this result in good output? This is again something that we'll be covering more in the "live" journal that'll be coming, but I can say that the results we've been seeing in testing are very, very promising even at this early stage. In particular, the booking of tag teams, trios, eight man teams, etc, are working ridiculously well, far better than I'd anticipated. Tour shows are also a real highlight, as they're looking like real New Japan tour shows.
1071
1072Obviously, with this being core to the entire game, this is something that's going to continue to be tweaked all the way through the development of TEW2020, and there'll likely be other features that get added that continue to modify some aspects of this. What I'm hoping to do in a few months, during the "live" journal, will be to post some show results from various companies and eras so that you can get a better sense of what you'll be seeing when the game comes out.
1073
1074#45: E-mail settings
1075
1076To bring the TEW series in line with WMMA, the new game will feature the ability for the user to set exactly what types of e-mail he or she wishes to receive, as well as how important each type is.
1077
1078This is quite a dense section (currently it's 9 pages of options), but you will only realistically be needing to set your preference once, so it's not too bad.
1079
1080For each option you will be able to set it as either Ignore, Receive, or Important. Ignore means that the mail never reaches your inbox, getting deleted automatically. Receive means that you do get it. Important means that you get the mail and it's considered important enough to stop any fast advance that is in progress.
1081
1082I'm not going to list all the categories as there's so many of them, but to give people who don't play WMMA an idea, they are things like "Company Falls In Size", "Worker Negotiations End", "PPV Buy Rate Report", "House Show Held", and "Worker Relocates".
1083
1084As with WMMA, this gives you a greater degree of control and is more user friendly as you can both turn off mails you don't care about and stop the fast advance from being interrupted by things you don't really care about.
1085
1086#46: Momentum
1087
1088The momentum system has changed in the following ways.
1089
1090The scale in TEW2020 is different to what you're used to in TEW2016. Instead of simply being Major / Medium / Minor Positive or Negative, the new scale goes from White Hot at one end to Ice Cold at the other. This is just a cosmetic change to make things a little less clinical.
1091
1092The things that affect momentum have also changed. In the previous games momentum was entirely about kayfabe success. In the new game, momentum covers both kayfabe and general performance. This simulates the fans being able to appreciate someone killing it in the ring or on the microphone even if they're not necessarily getting a lot of victories.
1093
1094The biggest change is that TEW2020 now uses a two-tier system for momentum, with it being split into Short Term and Long Term.
1095
1096Short Term momentum is a behind-the-scenes stat (i.e. it's not visible anywhere) and is what gets affected by matches, angles, and some external events. This is very volatile and goes up or down a lot. Its only effect is on Long Term momentum, which will be covered in a moment.
1097
1098Long Term momentum is the stat you can see (via roster screens) and is what is used in any momentum-based calculations. It is rarely directly impacted by what you do in your booking (although there are some special instances where it can be) and is much more stable than Short Term.
1099
1100The way these interact is that Long Term will slowly move towards the Short Term value each day, basically forming an average. For example, you could have a worker having lots of wins and lots of losses over the course of a month, meaning Short Term is moving a lot, but as Long Term is only moving slowly it will end up being a reflection of the booking over that period as a whole. This therefore gives a more subtle, nuanced simulation of a worker's current momentum and cannot rely on "quick fixes" - long-term strategy is much more effective.
1101
1102As mentioned before, there are some circumstances where Long Term can be sharply changed. These tend to be bigger one-off things - for example, a worker getting busted in a scandal could kill their momentum off almost immediately, while a worker appearing in a movie could give them a quick boost.
1103
1104This isn't a change that's going to hugely impact your game play - and indeed, you don't even need to be consciously aware of it - but it does add a little big extra oomph to the simulation aspect of the game and lets things unfold more naturally, so it's a noticeable step up from TEW2016.
1105
1106#47: Relocation and luchas de apuestas
1107
1108A new addition to the TEW series is the ability to relocate a company from one region to another. You can do this on your own company or a child. You are limited to doing this at most once every five years.
1109
1110To help better simulate lucha libre, luchas de apuestas can now be specified via the road agent notes system. This 'betting match' means that the loser(s) is supposed to lose either their mask or hair (I know that they sometimes also include careers and titles as being wagers in reality, but this feature is only for masks or hair). This adds drama to a match, but if you do not book someone to either be shaved bald or get unmasked then the fans will be seriously annoyed.
1111
1112#48: Editor changes, quick fill addition
1113
1114The main editor has been revamped in TEW2020 to make life easier for people who want to create their own custom content.
1115
1116In the first change, the major screens have all been consolidated into one. That is, the main screen (the one with Create Database, Clear Database, etc), the hub (the one that lists all the different parts of the database and how many items are in each), mass edit screen, and mass delete screen are all now a single screen. By putting them all together it takes away a lot of clicking for the user.
1117
1118In the second change, mass editing has been upgraded significantly. It is now available for just about every part of the database and covers every piece of data where mass editing makes sense. This is a big quality of life thing for people who are converting databases or planning to make wholesale changes to them, as well as being a nice addition even for those who only dabble in editing.
1119
1120The editor now also includes a name search feature - this works like the one you're used to from in-game, where you can type in a word or partial piece of text and you'll get back all the results that match it (i.e. you can type in "John" and get every record that contains that within it). This is again another quality of life thing as it can help find records when you may not remember the first name or can't remember how to spell something.
1121
1122These three upgrades won't directly impact a lot of players as they're specifically designed to help database makers, but as it should allow mods to be created with less effort it should benefit everyone overall.
1123
1124Finally, taken from WMMA5, a Quick Fill feature is available. This allows you to quickly add workers, companies, or broadcasters to your game. The way this works is that you fill in some basic data and the number of records you want to create and the game will auto-generate the content for you. For example, you may decide there's a lack of female talent in the British Isles area, so with a few clicks you can pop 25 new rookie female wrestlers there. This feature is available both in the main editor and in the in-game options menu, so you can use it either to build up your database or to freshen up an ongoing save game too. Therefore this benefits everyone, even players who don't care about the editing process.
1125
1126#49: AI gimmick matches, ager / de-ager, bald free pictures, editing contracts
1127
1128To add to the realism of the game world, AI shows can now incorporate named gimmick matches like ladder, cage, etc, and these are shown in the match result text, i.e. "X beat Y in a ladder match".
1129
1130A new addition to the editor is that there are automatic aging and de-aging facilities. The way this works is similar to a mass edit: you select the workers you want and how many years you want them to age or de-age, and the game will alter their skill levels accordingly to simulate that amount of time passing, using their age, debut date, settings, etc, to mimic what would happen in the real game. This takes into account context so, for example, you de-age an entire database and it's not going to regress people who haven't even debuted yet as clearly they've not even entered the game world. This feature can be a useful aid for database makers who wish to move their game worlds forward or backward.
1131
1132As someone requested it recently, Free Pictures now have an extra piece of data that specifies whether the picture is bald or not. This allows the game to set the hair status of the worker who receives that picture correctly.
1133
1134A small but useful change to the editor is that Contracts now have their own category, whereas before they were only available by going through Workers or Companies. This has the significant advantage that it means Mass Edit is available for them, potentially saving a huge amount of time when editing.
1135
1136#50: Pre Booking
1137
1138The pre booking system has been changed in the following way.
1139
1140Firstly, each user can now set whether they want pre booking to be mandatory or not. If it's not mandatory then it follows the TEW2016 model whereby pre booking is purely an organisational tool.
1141
1142If mandatory booking is turned on then a show's attendance will be reduced if the user does not book enough attractive segments to entice the audience. This works by looking at the 'draw' of the talent you've booked and comparing it to the fans' expectation levels - both matches and angles count, although angles are less attractive to fans. If you fail to provide an attractive enough show then the attendance will be lowered, with the level of penalty relating directly to how poor the pre booked content was: not bothering to provide any pre booked content would give the most penalties. For events, segments must be booked a week or more in advance to count, while for TV shows they only have to be at least one day in advance: this stops people from just doing the pre bookings immediately before the show takes place to game the system.
1143
1144Lesser, Tour, and Throwaway events do not need pre booked content as the audience expectations are already lowered.
1145
1146Pre booking does not increase attendances, it can only reduce them - this is because the attendance is already based on the assumption that you're providing the best quality card you can and so it's at its maximum by default.
1147
1148While pre booking only directly impacts your attendance, you will be penalised if you advertise a segment and do not deliver it; this stops people 'cheating' by offering content that they have no intention of actually booking.
1149
1150As an additional note, when pre-booking the match and angle screens follow the new streamlined approach that was outlined in an earlier entry, so booking is much swifter and more user friendly. Road agent notes can be pre booked.
1151
1152The mandatory pre booking system is therefore for the players who like a more challenging or realistic experience as it forces them to act like a real booker and plan ahead in order to avoid penalties. For those who prefer a more casual gaming experience, they can simply continue with the simpler TEW2016 model.
1153
1154#51: Pre booking change, fast advance, multiplayer fast advance, tecnicos and rudos
1155
1156Based on recent feedback, a change to the pre booking system from the last entry is that there is now an additional option, "mandatory with bonus". This works in the same way as normal mandatory, but means that booking a particularly juicy match has the ability to give an attendance boost above the normal maximum. I don't recommend using this in multiplayer games if the other players aren't using it due to the fast that it would give a significant unfair advantage over those players.
1157
1158The Fast Advance feature has been upgraded and enhanced to come in line with WMMA's. It is now a separate button on the side menu, removing the need to set it via Options, and includes many more options for how many days to advance, including the ability to set it to Unlimited (in which case the game advances until the user manually stops it by hitting the space bar).
1159
1160Another enhancement to Fast Advance is that it is now available even for multiplayer games, meaning that one player can effectively 'go on holiday' and allow the remaining player(s) to do their day-to-day work without always needing to check in and hit the advance button. This makes multiplayer games much easier as there isn't the need for so much file swapping.
1161
1162Finally today, the product screen now allows the user to specify whether the company uses the "face and heel" terminology or "tecnico and rudo". Previously this was location locked so that Mexican companies automatically used the latter. This allows companies like Chikara to be better simulated.
1163
1164#52: Financial model
1165
1166In TEW2020, the in-game finances have been redone and rebalanced to try and get closer to real world values. The most obvious example of this is with the worker wage demands.
1167
1168With the new re-scaling, the lower end of the scale now goes down below $10 per show as basic pay. This would be for the very lowest tier of worker. This allows the independent scene to be better simulated as the lower reaches of a card can be populated with very cheap talent.
1169
1170(NB: I know we have some people who really want the ability to have talent work for free - this was considered, but it would be far too easy to abuse, and so will not be in the game.)
1171
1172At the higher end, the biggest names can be looking for $400,000 or more as their basic wage. Note that this is just their basic wage, this does not include the money they make from bonuses, merchandise, etc.
1173
1174Due to the bigger scale, the user can now type in the value when making contract offers. This is because using sliders for such a potentially huge set of numbers gets very clumsy.
1175
1176Obviously changing the wage system cannot be done in isolation as it has a knock-on effect on everything else, and so all the other parts of the financial model have also been reworked. I won't be giving figures here as we won't finalise them until testing, however, I will say that running smaller companies should be a little easier - at least from a financial point of view - in the new game. Overall, the new model and figures will be a culture shock to those who are very used to TEW2016, but they should lead to a better and more realistic game.
1177
1178#53: Regional battle addition, re-calibrated attendances, sticky screen position
1179
1180Back in entry #15 I mentioned that regional battles worked mechanically the same as before; what I forgot to mention is that there was actually a small exception to this. In the new game, you only take part in regional battles if you held a show (whether an event, TV, or house show) in that region during the preceding month. This ties in with the new company size system as it allows you to tactically avoid battles by skirting certain regions, but sometimes you will have to bite the bullet and get stuck into a battle if it's in a particularly critical region that you need to break into. It also aids smaller companies as they no longer get sucked into battles that have nothing to do with them.
1181
1182As with the previously announced re-calibration of wage demands, attendances in the game have also been completely re-done so that they are closer to the numbers you'd get in reality, especially regarding TV shows.
1183
1184Finally, to bring the game in line with WMMA5, it now has a 'sticky screen position', meaning that it does not reset to the center of your screen after each day's processing ends.
1185
1186#54: Brands
1187
1188The brands system has been upgraded in the following ways.
1189
1190- The number of possible brands has jumped from three to five.
1191
1192- Rather than just being Major or Minor, there are now several choices of level: Major, Showcase, Niche, Minor, Reserve, and Throwaway. These control the number of workers who will be on each brand and what level of worker will be eligible. For example, Reserve brands are specifically designed to be used for development, and so have no upper limit to the amount of workers and will have Recognisable and Unimportant level wrestlers.
1193
1194- Each brand can be assigned a specific product (including an option to be "Company Default", which means it will automatically track to the one the company is currently using) as well as its own Match Focus and Angle Focus. This allows additional levels of customisation.
1195
1196- A focus can be given, allowing the brand to be specifically biased towards Developmental workers, Veterans, Male Wrestlers, Female Wrestlers, Lightweight, or Heavyweights. This, again, adds to the customisation options.
1197
1198- As mentioned right at the start of the journal, the Brands section is now a single screen in which everything can be done. This removes a lot of pop-ups and clicks and makes everything much more user friendly.
1199
1200- The brand set-up for a company can be edited much easier than in TEW2016, in particular being able to drop one or more brands without needing to end the brand split entirely first.
1201
1202- The Brands screen is now colour coded to make tracking easier. So when viewing the roster, those on brand 1 are in one colour, brand 2's workers are in another, etc.
1203
1204- The Draft options include Full Draft, Sweep Up Draft (handling the workers who are currently unbranded), and Shake Up Draft (a mini-draft where a handful of workers from each brand get drafted to freshen things up). In all cases, the AI will automatically try and keep champions on their correct brand and keep tag teams together.
1205
1206- The AI has also been improved in its use of brands. This includes their ability to use a near-annual brand shake-up to keep things fresh.
1207
1208#55: Merchandise figures and cuts, stables and products, clearing the decks
1209
1210Workers now have individual merchandise sales figures each month. This gives the user a more accurate view of what is happening, is more realistic, adds a new revenue stream, and adds extra strategic elements (for example, you may give a big merch seller leeway when it comes to bad behaviour or avoid turning them heel because of how much extra money he or she brings in).
1211
1212A worker's contract now includes his or her cut of the merchandise. The user can manipulate this to makes offers more or less attractive in conjunction with the worker's likely merchandise sales.
1213
1214A company's usage of stables can be defined via their product. This allows database makers the power to control what happens. This is particularly useful for Japanese companies who many use stables as an integral part of their on-screen product.
1215
1216When a new booker is installed in an AI company they will often now 'clear the decks'; that is, they will often refresh the roster to their own liking with several new hires and releases during the first few weeks of their reign, and they will also generally have many of the titles changes hands in order to underline the change in regime and stamp their own authority on the company. This adds a little extra touch of realism and helps keep the game world fresh.
1217
1218Bringing phase 1 of the journal to an end
1219
1220As mentioned previously, the intention is to bring phase 1 of the journal to an end soon so that we can start phase 2, the "live" journal. Although I've announced all the major features that have been completed, there's still a whole load of finished medium and minor features still to plough through, so starting next week we'll be changing the format slightly.
1221
1222As of Monday, instead of two posts a week there will instead be one every weekday. Most, if not all, will consist of two or three features. A lot of these will be fairly minor, unexciting things, but I need to get them announced so that they're out of the way before phase 2 begins. I expect this to last three or four weeks. Once we're fully up-to-date with the announcements of completed features, I'll be taking one or two weeks off, then phase 2 is intended to last right through to the release of the game. We'll be covering estimated release dates, the current state of the game, etc, when phase 2 begins.
1223
1224#56: Financial breakdown, developmental tolerance, transparent coloured lists
1225
1226The finance screen has been upgraded so that certain section can be clicked upon to access a more detailed breakdown. For example, the Workers row can be broken down into Basic Pay, Bonuses, Termination Fees, Signing Bonuses, Drug Testing, and Lawsuits. This allows for better financial analysis on the player's part, as well as making it easier to see why sudden increases happened.
1227
1228Workers in developmental territories now decide when they want to leave based on their popularity compared to the child company's rather than by how much they can still learn. This makes it more user friendly as the user won't get messages asking for call ups very often and it allows the player to use their development territories in a more flexible manner.
1229
1230Transparent lists are available throughout the game, which both look better than the usual solid versions because they blend into the background and also allow items within the list to be highlighted using different coloured text; for example, an injured worker could be highlighted in red. Unfortunately these new lists cannot have keyboard support due to a limitation of the programming language, so the user does have the option of using the old style lists from TEW2016 if they prefer.
1231
1232#57: Belt profiles, worker potential, downside changes, start data variance
1233
1234Title belts can now have a profile text, just like companies, workers, etc, allowing notable information to be stored. This is particularly useful for belts that have a specific intended function or have some other unique feature that the database maker wants to convey to the player.
1235
1236A worker's potential is now split up into different categories, allowing database makers a finer degree of control. The categories are Primary Skills, Mental Skills, Performance Skills, Fundamental Skills, Physical Abilities, Announcing, Colour, and Refereeing.
1237
1238Downside agreements are no longer required for small companies, only coming into play for Big or larger companies. This helps small companies to survive financially, as well as being more realistic.
1239
1240Instead of just being on or off, the start data variance setting can now be Minor, Medium, Major, or Extreme. This allows the user to customise the level of randomness that the stats will encounter when starting a new game.
1241
1242#58: Skill change drip feed, PM options, health levels, star quality
1243
1244Rather than happening instantly, worker skill changes now happen in a 'drip feed' manner over time. For example, in TEW2016 if a worker gains 5 points of Brawling the skill increases immediately. In TEW2020, those 5 points would get stored separately and then the Brawling stat would increase by a small amount each day until those 5 points are 'consumed'. There is a limit on how many points can be stored for each skill at any one time, depending on the worker's skill level, experience, where they are in their career cycle, etc. This change has several advantages: it makes the game less linear, simulates a realistic learning curve (as, for example, it now becomes very easy to learn Brawling at a low level but becomes much harder to get up into the high 90s as the curve becomes steeper), means that people will learn at different levels, and also stops cheap 'power gaming' tactics (such as spamming dark matches to give a worker multiple boosts) because there's a limit to how much a worker can learn at a time.
1245
1246The options menu is now available in PM mode too, allowing the user to alter settings, access remote assistance, etc, without needing to first finish their show.
1247
1248The health system has been changed so that 0% now indicates a career-ending state rather than being below 30%; this makes the system more intuitive.
1249
1250In previous games Star Quality was fairly static, only really moving in relation to changes in size or body shape. This has been changed so that during a worker's early career it can slowly rise to simulate them getting more confident and comfortable in the ring. There are now also more random incidents that can provide additional boosts.
1251
1252#59: Tournament tracker, swipe arrows
1253
1254An all-new feature for TEW2020 is tournament tracking. The user can create either elimination tournaments (up to 32 sides, with a side being either a wrestler, tag team, or trio) or round robin tournaments (up to 10 sides, again with singles, tag, or trios) and the game will automatically track and manage what happens when a match in that tournament takes place. There is no limit on how many tournaments can be held at any one time.
1255
1256For the elimination tournaments, the user can choose whether draws equal eliminations or lead to replays, can give byes, and replace any worker in the tournament whenever they want. For round robin tournaments, the user can choose the number of points for a win and draw, and can replace or remove entrants at will. There is also a new road agent note that allows a match to be specifically set not to be in a tournament for the rare cases where you want to hold a match that is scheduled to be part of a tournament but don't want it to count for whatever reason.
1257
1258WMMA5 debuted 'swipe arrows', which are left and right arrows that appear at the sides of pop-up profiles and allow the user to quickly navigate through multiple profiles. This was a well received feature as it meant that you could speed through lists without needing to constantly load and close profiles. This feature will also be included in TEW2020 to improve the user friendliness.
1259
1260#60: Delayed call ups, owners and other companies, match styles
1261
1262When calling up a worker from developmental (or granting a release request from a developmental worker), the parent company will now give a one month warning to the child company. This allows them to have time to prepare for the change, such as taking titles off them. As a knock-on effect, this means that the AI is not forced to keep champions in developmental long-term in order to avoid spoiling title histories with lots of 'Vacants'. Both user-controlled and AI-controlled parent companies can give these delayed call up warnings.
1263
1264The 'Other Companies' (formerly 'Pacts') selection in a worker's Business tab has been enhanced to include double the number of choices. These choices are also better defined in terms of what they actually do.
1265
1266The Match Style setting has been removed from matches; the effect this piece of data used to have is instead controlled by the 'match aim' related road agent notes. For example, instead of needing a specific 1 vs 1 match with the style 'Comedy Based', you can just use the regular 1 vs 1 match and would use the 'Match Aim: Comedy' note. This saves database makers a lot of time, as they don't need to create multiple versions of the same match just to have different style settings, without adding to the player's workload as they would be using the match aim notes anyway.
1267
1268#61: Moving titles, editing titles, owner preferences
1269
1270Companies can now move title belts between themselves and their various child companies simply via the regular titles screen. This allows developmental titles to be get defended on main shows, main company titles to be taken out to child companies, the parent to buy defunct titles and send them out to their children, etc, etc.
1271
1272To make life easier for database makers, when editing title belts the champion(s) can now be edited directly without needing to load a separate window, thus saving time and clicking. In addition, newly created titles no longer need to be saved and re-accessed in order to assign champions to them. These changes make things a little more user friendly.
1273
1274The list of owner preferences, which controls what sort of company they will run, has been upgraded to both have more options and for the choices to be more intuitively named.
1275
1276#62: Search by skill, technical wrestling, years of service
1277
1278You can now search by minimum and maximum values for any of the various worker skill levels, making finding people significantly easier.
1279
1280The Mat Wrestling, Chain Wrestling and Submissions skills have now been consolidated into one, a skill called Technical Wrestling. This change makes things more intuitive for players and reduces the workload on database makers, whilst removing a needless over-complication given that the three original skills were always considered as one by the game anyway.
1281
1282Contracts used to have a 'years of service' value; this has now been replaced by a contract start date, allowing the game to calculate the years of service itself. This is both more accurate and means that database makers do not have to remember to update the number whenever they change the date.
1283
1284#63: Skill comparison, popularity comparison, floating booking ideas
1285
1286By popular demand, from the worker skills screen the user can now do a side-by-side comparison with the skills of any other wrestler. This is all done on one-screen and so this only takes one-click. This is very useful if you're debating who to push, who to sign, etc. As this and the precise searching that was announced yesterday wouldn't be viable if different workers are rated in different ways, this means that the fog of war system is removed and so you'll always see ratings in a 0-100 format. I don't really like to remove features, but as skill searching and comparison were two of the most requested additions and fog of war has never been particularly popular, I think this this change will have a positive effect overall.
1287
1288In a similar vein, a side-by-side popularity comparison feature has also been added. This works in exactly the same way, just from the worker popularity screen, and again is very useful if you're having a dilemma about which of two workers you want to hire, push, etc.
1289
1290A new feature related to the previously announced Talk To Worker is the ability to float booking ideas. This is done from the Booking tab in that screen. It means that you can float the idea of the worker unmasking, taking crazy bumps, putting somebody specific over, etc, and the worker will tell you whether they'd be willing to do it or not. Previously the only way you could find this sort of thing out would be to actually book it and see if you got a refusal. Therefore, by being able to ask in advance, it allows the user to plan ahead much more accurately and not get frustrated by finding that a worker won't do what they want.
1291
1292#64: Worker promises
1293
1294Workers and tag teams can now proactively approach the booker and offer to put a specific opponent or opponents over, in a feature that we're calling Worker Promises. When this happens the offer is logged in the Promises screen, which shows who has promised what and what the expiry is. The expiry is always in two parts: the number of matches it will last for and the amount of time.
1295
1296If a worker or team have made a promise, it means that if you book them in a match against those opponent(s) where they'd normally complain about losing then the complaint doesn't happen. This lasts until the promise expires.
1297
1298There is also a second flavour of this feature, which is reactive promises. The way this works is that you can approach a worker (via Talk To Worker) and specifically ask them to promise to put someone over, to which they can agree or disagree. The difference between the two flavours is that the proactive version is more powerful - it will almost always be for multiple matches and last a few months, meaning you can create a feud around it - whereas the reactive version is only for one match and lasts just one month.
1299
1300The idea behind this is to add to the realism, potentially give you a way around situations where somebody refuses to lose, and means that your booking plans can potentially change to embrace promises that you didn't expect.
1301
1302#65: Scouting, Pro Mode, Contextual Rosters
1303
1304With Fog Of War not being viable in TEW2020 due to some of the other changes, its direct replacement is Scouting. This is a very similar system, with a few crucial differences that allow it to work within the TEW2020 framework.
1305
1306Whereas the old Fog Of War used a combination of grades, textual descriptions, and numbers, the Scouting system instead is entirely numerical. The way this works is that you'll see a range, for example "Brawling: 23 - 40" meaning that the Brawling skill is somewhere between 23 and 40. It's not a case where it's automatically in the middle, so in that example it could well be that the real value is 24. As different wrestlers will use different ranges and number placement, it is not possible to simply memorise patterns - for example, if one worker has a range of "20 - 40" and you happen to know that the number is really 25, that doesn't mean that another wrestler who has "20 - 40" is also 25. The higher the Scouting level goes, the smaller the range, until eventually you reach maximum Scouting in which case you get to see the exact number.
1307
1308Using this system means that it's like-for-like when doing worker comparisons, which is far more intuitive and visually appealing than having different data types. This also means that the new ability to search for specific skill values is still viable; for example, if you search for Aerial of exactly 50 then you'll return workers whose Aerial scouts as "40 - 60" (even if their genuine Aerial is only 41) because it still fits within the range.
1309
1310Whereas Fog Of War would take a long time to reach completion, the new Scouting system is far brisker, and generally you'll get very close to full scouting well before the worker has reached the ten year mark of their career (at least in the modern era).
1311
1312Under the new system, some items are exempt. In particular, things that are visual - for example, Menace and Sex Appeal - are not scoutable and so are automatically shown as their exact number, to simulate that you don't need to see someone in action to know how they look. Physical skills, such as Power, also now have their own separate scouting level, one which is significantly faster than the others; this takes into account that you don't need to see someone very much to get a good sense of how strong they are, whereas you do to gauge someone's technical ability, for example. The other categories are similar to their Fog Of War counterparts: In Ring, Performance (for the gimmick performance skills such as Babyface, Heel, Cool, etc), Entertainment, Broadcasting, and Refereeing.
1313
1314Continuing the game's ongoing theme of being era sensitive, Scouting also automatically takes into context the time frame that you're playing in. So, for example, if you're playing in an historical scenario set in the 1970s then the spread of information is obviously far slower than it would be in 2019, so scouting takes a lot longer to happen.
1315
1316As with the old Fog Of War feature, Scouting can be turned on or off via the Preferences menu.
1317
1318Related to this is the new Pro Mode (NB: this name may change before release as I'm not 100% happy with it) option, again available via Preferences. Pro Mode requires Scouting to be active, and is for those players who like a bit more of a challenge or realism. The way this works is simply that no matter what a worker's scouting level is the game will never show their exact skill level - it will always have at least some vagueness (it equates to the penultimate scouting level). So, the result is that even when you're viewing a seasoned veteran you will always be seeing a range of values and won't know what level they're truly at, only an approximation.
1319
1320Another new feature in TEW2020 is Contextual Rosters. What this means is that no matter where you access a roster from, you'll always have the appropriate options. For example, if you access your child company's profile via a link, you'll still find the option to recall workers, etc, just as you would if you'd gone in the "proper" route via the office. This is another quality of life thing as it just saves you a lot of clicking and frustration.
1321
1322Editor's Note
1323
1324It has been brought to my attention that I misspoke in entry #62. While talking about Technical Wrestling I wrote that "...the three original skills were always considered as one by the game anyway..." Please note that using the word "always" was a mistake on my part; while the average or highest of the three values was used in the vast majority of places, there were several minor instances where that was not true and those stats were either looked at individually or only one of the three was involved. So it really should have read "...the three original skills were NEARLY always considered as one by the game anyway..." to be totally accurate.
1325
1326#66: Stored performance, contract offer auto set, editorial skill comparison
1327
1328A worker's in-ring performance from each match, whether booked by the player or AI, is now stored and visible when looking at old match results.
1329
1330When negotiating with a worker and being rejected because they want a specific amount of money there is now an on-screen button that will appear that allows the player to auto set the offer to match the worker's demands. This removes the need for remembering the value and typing it out.
1331
1332The worker editor includes a version of the skill comparison feature that is in the main game, but includes the added ability to copy across the skill if needed; this makes skill balancing / filling in a lot quicker.
1333
1334#67: Child company size, closing child companies, game world screen, sub-medium costs
1335
1336I think I already alluded to this in a reply elsewhere, but to make it official: unlike previous games, a child company is no longer limited in how big it can grow.
1337
1338If the parent company wishes, it may now choose to close down any or all child companies that it currently possesses. While a drastic move, this means that the company can respond to financial difficulties or effectively hit the 'reset' button if it wants to start again for whatever reason.
1339
1340The game world screen has been totally overhauled. It now gives all the necessary information in one place, removing the need to open multiple windows, and has also been redesigned to better explain the game areas and regions in a user-friendly manner, such as giving definitions of key locations that fall within those boundaries.
1341
1342To better simulate reality and to help smaller companies survive, sub-Medium companies no longer have ongoing monthly costs for things like admin and legal. These costs, where they exist, are instead primarily done on a show-by-show basis instead.
1343
1344#68: Close company, more accurate visibility, young lions, in-game skin change
1345
1346The user now has the option of voluntarily closing down their company if they're the owner.
1347
1348When viewing a company's visibility (i.e. from the Size screen) it is now accurate to the day. This just makes things a little clearer for companies that run more than one show a week.
1349
1350The young lion system is now no longer area-wide but can be set on a company-by-company basis, giving database makers and players a finer degree of control.
1351
1352The user can now change the game's skin while within a save game, via Options. Previously you would need to exit back to the main menu to do this. This small touch just adds a little extra user friendliness.
1353
1354#69: Popularity caps, crowd burn out, editing relationships, editing chemistry
1355
1356In previous games a worker had a maximum popularity cap that would limit how well known they could possibly become. As this was fixed at the start of the game and so didn't take into account changes in context, this could both prove restrictive and lead to unrealistic behaviour from players. The new method is that the cap is now calculated on-the-fly with each segment based on many factors including the worker's current skills, destiny, and who he is working for. This makes for a more realistic and dynamic game world.
1357
1358Crowds can now get burned out if forced to sit through far too much content, simulating the apathy that starts to build when real life shows go on for many, many hours.
1359
1360The Edit Relationships section of Options has been upgraded both to be more user friendly (by giving the current relationship when two people are selected) and also to allow a relationship to be deleted (rather than just being able to be edited to something else).
1361
1362Options now includes an Edit Chemistry button. This works the same was as Edit Relationships in that it allows existing chemistry to be added, modified, or deleted.
1363
1364#70: Era details, name searches, AI tag signing, aggressive predator hiring, visible expiry dates
1365
1366Clicking on the date in the taskbar during gameplay will now launch a window that gives you a breakdown of the current era, if any, and its related settings. This information was previously not available to the player without going into the editor.
1367
1368Most screens that involve a list now include an on-screen name search; this allows you to type in any text and have the list filtered to only include items that include it. This is the same as with the search that you can do in TEW2016 via the website, but more useful as you don't have to switch to a different screen to use it.
1369
1370The AI can now bias towards signing tag team partners of members of it roster if they are part of a known duo. This makes it far more likely that teams will end up in the same place.
1371
1372The AI predator hiring, which is the code that allows bigger companies to go after major names, has been changed to make the AI far more aggressive. This will make the game more competitive.
1373
1374Contract expiry dates are now visible via the Employment tab on rosters and profiles even for workers who you do not employ. This information was previously only visible via the editor and so this is more user friendly.
1375
1376#71: Legacies, import employment history, default area status, worker overuse
1377
1378The old legacy system was that a worker could generate a successor upon retirement or death if they'd reached a minimum Respect level. This system has been reworked so that the worker is now checked once a year between the ages of 30 and 50 - if they are still an active wrestler and have achieved an average of 60 popularity across any area then they can spawn a successor (once per career). This is both a more realistic benchmark and also means that potentially Worker Sr and Worker Jr can be active in the game world at the same time.
1379
1380When importing a worker his or her employment history is now automatically imported at the same time, assuming the companies are also in the database. This saves database makers time.
1381
1382Database makers can now set whether each area is active or inactive by default. This can be changed by the player when starting a new game, but saves some clicking if the database is specifically designed for a certain set up.
1383
1384Overusing a worker on a show now reduces their momentum to simulate the fans getting sick of having someone shoved down their throats. In addition, rather than just being calculated at the end of a show, overuse is now monitored as the show progresses, allowing the reaction of the fans to get increasingly muted if they are seeing the same person over and over again. These changes therefore incentivise players to book more realistically.
1385
1386#72: Belt prestige, randomness control, painkiller benefits, coming off steroids
1387
1388The prestige of titles is now absolute, trending towards the recent ratings of matches it is involved in. This is different from the previous games, where the prestige was relative - for example, a main event title was always between 70 and 100 prestige even for the smallest of companies, whereas in TEW2020 it'd be quite normal for a tiny independent company to have a main title that's only in the 20s or 30s for prestige. This change means that titles can be compared across companies and that they are not restricted by their level.
1389
1390The frequency of random incidents can now be set via the Options menu.
1391
1392Being on painkillers now has advantages as well as disadvantages for workers, with their usage helping to 'mask' their true physical condition. This allows the worker to perform as if they're less physically banged up than they really are, thus producing better matches. The downside remains that their usage can spiral and lead to long-term problems with addiction.
1393
1394When a worker comes off steroids there are now extra features in play. Not only will you generally see those workers experience a drop in their physical abilities and physique, but often they will also end up dropping a size category. This provides a more realistic simulation.
1395
1396#73: AI pushes, AI feuds, new nationalities, starting money, inactive alliances, player job applications
1397
1398The AI can now assign hidden push / de-push data to its workers, allowing them to be booked in certain ways. For example, a new signing can be given a "strong opening" push that means they'll rarely if ever lose for the first few months that they're with the company, a promising young talent can be strapped to the proverbial rocket so that they rise fast through the rankings, or an ageing veteran can be given "phase out" instructions where they'll start losing more and more to gradually move them down the card. This allows the AI to have a more realistic long-term plan.
1399
1400The way AI feuds are handled has been completely redone, allowing them to be better integrated into the booking engine and allowing for 'triggered' feuds, such as when a tag team breaks up.
1401
1402Over fifty new nationalities have been added, taking the total number close to 200.
1403
1404Companies can now be given an exact starting amount of money via the main editor, rather than needing to take one of a preset selection.
1405
1406Alliances that close are no longer automatically deleted, instead remaining in an inactive state so that their data and previous members can still be viewed by players (just like how you can still view closed companies).
1407
1408When the user applies for an owner or booker position, they are now automatically given a slight advantage to make it more likely that they will get the job rather than a similarly skilled AI character. This allows players who get fired or start unemployed a better shot at staying engaged with the game world.
1409
1410#74: AI releases, new match aims, manager upgrades, picture requirements, eye candy penalties, financial warning mails, venue name size, body type change detail, new language, tag team copying, battle scores
1411
1412The code that governs how and when the AI makes releases has been totally overhauled to be both more realistic and far faster to process.
1413
1414Two new match aims, Hardcore and Deathmatch have been introduced to help give more possible content types.
1415
1416Previously managers could only really be promoted if they were being used in angles; this has been reworked so that their performance at ringside is taken into consideration, allowing for managers to get over and improve their skills even if they're not being specifically used in angles. This makes managers a more useful and evolving part of the game.
1417
1418Via Options, the user can now set the game to not generate workers unless a suitable picture is found for them. This is useful for those who find pictureless workers a distraction or immersion-breaking.
1419
1420Companies are no longer penalised for using Eye Candy matches in immediate succession or to a cold crowd if their product means that those sort of matches are a major part of what they are about.
1421
1422In previous games it was sometimes difficult to spot when a company was in financial trouble until they had already gone bust. There is now the option to be e-mailed whenever a company reaches the stage of getting financial warnings from the bank, making them easier to identify and exploit.
1423
1424The maximum possible length for venue / location names has been increased from 30 to 75 to allow more real world places to be included. The maximum size of the profile text for each venue has also been increased from 250 to 1000.
1425
1426When the user is mailed to say that a worker has changed body type the text now specifies what they were before, making it easier for the user to understand whether it is a positive, neutral, or negative change.
1427
1428With the addition of India as a game area, Hindi has now been added as a new language. This allows the new area to be better simulated.
1429
1430The editor now allows database makers to copy tag teams, saving time as they no longer need to be filled in by hand each time.
1431
1432The scores for the monthly area and regional battles are now shown on-screen, giving the user a clearer picture of how close the companies came to each other.
1433
1434#75: The remaining minor features
1435
1436When viewing a company's history, the user can now order the list by type and rating, date, or attendance. This makes finding things much easier than in the past.
1437
1438The ability to differentiate between loyalty and the Japanese-style 'true born' has been added, allowing better simulation of reality.
1439
1440The new Company Info screen, available from the office or child company screen, allows the user the ability to quickly edit basic details such as the name and logo of the company. Previously this would have required the use of the editor and so makes the game more user friendly.
1441
1442The editor now allows multiple records to be copied at the same time, a change that potentially saves an enormous amount of time for database makers.
1443
1444Workers can now choose to go away on hiatus during gameplay; previously this was limited to being preset only.
1445
1446Eye candy based matches are now only limited if the company's product is not based on risque adult content; this allows certain companies to function better.
1447
1448Workers are now allowed to take multiple crazy and stunt bumps per show; previously this was limited to one per show.
1449
1450Rather than sit around clogging up the database, older valets / managers who relied on their looks but now have very little to offer will tend to leave the business instead, opening the way for younger talent.
1451
1452The worker names section of the database has been upgraded and enhanced to include more possible groupings with a finer degree of control.
1453
1454The owner's 'favours' selection has been moved to the booker's section for better realism, renamed to Hiring Preferences, and the selection has been expanded to allow for a greater degree of accuracy.
1455
1456The in-built roster sizes that the game uses for calculating the numbers used in a company's hiring and firing dealings have been increased to better simulate reality.
1457
1458Minimum ages can now be set for when a worker will be able to become an owner or head booker. This allows characters to be given the necessary skills but to not necessarily use them until they've reached an appropriate age, stopping business-minded young wrestlers taking over companies at an absurdly young age.
1459
1460The files for potential event and TV show names have been combined, significantly cutting the amount of work database makers have to do (by removing duplications) and also allowing TV show names to be divided by gender.
1461
1462By request, when adding new tag teams the user is automatically shown information on the chosen workers' respective disposition, perception levels, and brands, plus information on any existing tag teams and already-found experience. This removes a lot of clicking, searching, and remembering.
1463
1464Giving road agents or referees a massive workload on a show will harm their performance due to overwork and stress. This stops players from relying only on one or two people to do everything and forces them to play more realistically. The better at their job they are, the more a worker can handle, and the smaller the company the lower the workload per match.
1465
1466The 'super predator hiring' feature, where opposing companies can react to human-controlled companies making contract offers to top talent, has been upgraded to be less one-dimensional and to make the AI a little more aggressive about taking on the player(s), especially when they have either a competitive advantage or have a negative relationship.
1467
1468The age spread used for newly generated workers has been increased so that they are not always going to be in the narrow 18-21 range. This allows for more realistic character generation as older people can get into the business.
1469
1470The storyline screen now explicitly tells the player when the last advancement and major advancement, if any, happened, giving both the show name and date; this makes it easier to judge which storylines have been neglected.
1471
1472A sixth user talent, Silver Tongue, has been added, giving the user the ability to talk workers into booking decisions like being unmasked or taking stunt bumps.
1473
1474User talents have been altered, with a key change being that only successful shows count towards giving the user bonus points, rather than every show as it was in the past. In addition, the user talent screen has been redesigned to be more intuitive and to include everything on one screen.
1475
1476The maximum length for an event has been expanded from four hours up to a possible eight.
1477
1478The maximum length for a TV show has been expanded from three hours to four.
1479
1480End of Phase 1
1481
1482Seventy five posts in and we've now covered the majority of the 220+ features that have so far been added to the game, so phase 1 of the journal is now complete.
1483
1484The journal will now take a short hiatus while I complete some other features and get everything set up for the next part. Phase 2 will begin on 29th July and then continue all the way through to release. This second phase will be a 'live journal', meaning that I'll be doing regular posts explaining what's currently being worked on, how the project is progressing in terms of potential release dates, how testing is going, etc.
1485
1486Phase 2 of the developer's journal
1487
1488#1: Current status of the project and upcoming schedule
1489
1490At the moment the game is in a good state, with 250+ additions and changes completed and initial basic testing going well. While we're still using an unmodified TEW2016 database that has been converted over, and so not all new features are enabled, the game is stable and is getting very positive reactions from the team. In particular, the new booking and finance systems seem to be working really well and are big step up from the previous game.
1491
1492The upcoming schedule currently looks like this.
1493
1494August: This is meant to be the final month for adding new content. Effectively it's going to be an exercise in completing as much of the remaining ideas from the TEW2020 Design Document (the document where all the hundreds of possible ideas and suggestions were logged and outlined) as humanly possible before the end of the month.
1495
1496September to December: This will see the addition of the 'second wave' of testers; that is, I'll be bringing 3-6 new people on board (*) to provide fresh eyes and to begin initial play-testing of the game. The focus of the project will change, moving from 'adding and upgrading content' to polishing up the new stuff, bug fixing, and adjusting any values that need it. I'll also be starting work on creating the default data so that we can do full testing, filling in the Player's Handbook with all the necessary information that hasn't already been done, and adding in the interface graphics as they arrive. At some point during this period the idea is to also open up threads to allow people to suggest Attributes and Products.
1497
1498January to March: The hope is to arrive at 2020 with a game that is close to a finished state and with a fully updated database with which to test everything out properly. This will then be the launch of full scale final testing, where we aim to eradicate any remaining bugs and get the trickier elements, like finances, properly adjusted to provide an optimum level of difficulty and realism. We'll also convert over some other TEW2016 databases to make sure that the data converts without issue and that they run pretty well (while taking into account that they won't have some features enabled, naturally). At the same time we'll also be adding in whatever interface graphics are left to do.
1499
1500April to July: Depending on how testing goes, TEW2020 should be launched sometime in this time frame. It's a large window simply because of the size of the game and the fact that there's so much new content that it's not really possible to gauge how long testing will take. I'm not sure whether we'll be releasing the editor earlier than the game, as we have in the past so that database makers can make an early start, that will depend how things go. 
1501
1502This second phase of the developer's journal will continue all the way through to release, so as we get into 2020 the likely release date should become more apparent and you'll read about it here. The intention is to do 2-3 entries per week, although I may do more or less depending on what's actually going on that week.
1503
1504For the next few entries, however, we'll mostly be covering the features that have been added since phase one ended.
1505
1506(*) To recap, I do not accept requests to be testers - anyone who does apply is automatically disqualified from consideration as they clearly don't have very good attention to detail if they didn't bother to read this. People will be selected based on their behaviour on the forum, as obviously if I'm going to be working with someone daily for several months I want to have a fairly good idea that I'll get on with them!
1507
1508#2: Recently added features
1509
1510Today we'll be going over the first three of the features that were added while the journal was on hiatus.
1511
1512Booking Analysis: The booking analysis tool has been significantly upgraded, now warning players in advance about things like worker overuse, booking complaints, and other potential penalties. In addition, there is now an on-screen warning to alert players if there are items in the booking analysis that they should look at, removing the need to check it so often.
1513
1514Complete All Signings: When in the Decisions screen, the user can now choose to automatically complete all worker hirings / resignings that are awaiting action. This potentially saves a huge amount of time, particularly at the start of games or when you've founded a new company.
1515
1516Audience Boredom: Fans can now get bored of a company if it is producing mediocre or uninteresting programming. If this happens, there are knock on effects on merchandise sales and sponsorship income, meaning the company starts paying a financial price. This stops companies resting on their laurels and punishes those who are on auto pilot.
1517
1518#3: Recently added features (part II)
1519
1520Minimum Skills: By request, active workers now have minimum levels that their skills can fall to, rather than potentially reaching absolute zero.
1521
1522Time To Hang Up The Boots: Workers will now better take into account their in-ring levels when considering whether to retire. This means that workers who have severely deteriorated to the point of no longer being able to put on passable matches can call it quits.
1523
1524Manager Analysis: As a side addition to yesterday's booking analysis change, that tool also now takes into account the passive use of managers (i.e. the manager is at ringside with a client but not actually doing anything in particular). Previously the analysis would not explicitly take into account that they are still in use, so this removes that confusion for players.
1525
1526Road Agent Advice: When booking the road agent will give the user input on stamina and psychology issues. This removes the need for guesswork or remembering exact figures, thus making it a little more user friendly.
1527
1528Tomorrow will be the final four of the new features, then next week will be moving fully to the new format.
1529
1530#4: Recently added features (part III)
1531
1532Auto Fill Hall of Fames: The mass editor now includes the ability to create a company's hall of fame from scratch by looking through title histories; this potentially saves a lot of time for database makers.
1533
1534Gimmick Body Types: Gimmicks now have an additional setting whereby you can set what body types are viable to make them work. This adds an extra level of detail, as it allows, for example, only muscular or ripped workers to use gimmicks like Power & Paint.
1535
1536Fire Sales: AI companies in financial peril now have the ability to potentially sell off venues and dojos / performance centres in order to raise emergency cash and, for the latter, cut monthly costs.
1537
1538Offering Cash Boosts: Companies can now offer other companies (as long as they're not hostile, a child, or a parent) a free cash boost via the Relationships screen. This can act as a good way of improving diplomatic relations, be a way of helping keep a company in business if you have use for them (such as being a place you send workers to develop), or just be a way to help out to be nice.
1539
1540That now gets us fully up to date, so next week we will be going through what is being worked on at the moment.
1541
1542#5: Intro screens, talent trades
1543
1544Over the weekend I completed a feature that is comparatively small but that I suspect will prove very popular - intro screens. The way this works is that there's a new subfolder in Pictures called Intros. When a user starts a new game, right before the avatar selection, TEW will check whether there's anything in that folder. If there isn't, it's ignored. If there is, however, it will load them up in alphabetical order for the user to see. The user can skip back and forth through them or exit at any time.
1545
1546This system allows database makers to have custom-made introductory splash screens, which can therefore be used for all manner of things - whether it's just a title page, a couple of pages describing the setting or backstory, background information on major characters or scenarios, etc. Each graphic is 1000x500, and there's no limit on how many you can put. As I said, it's a very simple idea, but one with a lot of potential to allow for some creative and interesting applications, and leans into the fact that we have a very graphics-heavy community.
1547
1548The other feature that I've been working on (it's mostly finished, I'm just testing it at the moment) is an upgrade to talent trades. The big change is that there are now three types, which are:
1549
1550Talent Trade: This is what you're familiar with; you offer workers from your roster in exchange for workers from someone else's and they get taken on loan for a limited number of dates.
1551
1552Talent Offer: This is where you offer a worker or workers from your roster to someone else for a loan period, but don't ask for anything in return. This can be because you want to send out a rookie to gain some experience, because you want to help out an ally by giving them temporary access to a big star, or anything else you can imagine.
1553
1554Talent Swap: This is an old-school feature in that you propose permanently swapping a worker or workers from your roster for a worker or workers from someone else's. This is potentially great if both sides have workers who are talented but have grown stale, as they can both benefit from getting fresh new talent they can use.
1555
1556Given the changes, I've also redone the AI entirely to make the opposition smarter about what deals it will accept. As before, you can still make all of these talent trade options with AI or human-controlled companies. I've also made the limits on how often you can do these a little looser to allow more freedom.
1557
1558#6: A peek-behind-the-curtain look at gimmicks
1559
1560One of the things I wanted to do in this second phase of the journal was to give people more of a 'peek behind the curtain' when it comes to the creative process and what me and my development team talk about, so that's what this entry will be about.
1561
1562One thing we've been kicking around is a big change to the way gimmicks work. Below I've given a (mildly edited) version of the 'concept post' I made about it so you can see what sort of thing we consider, how things get built, etc. The general feeling is that this could be quite a cool change, although no final decision has yet been made and I certainly haven't yet nailed down precise details or an exact implementation. I thought posting it would give people a nice look behind the scenes and also be a nice way to take the temperature of the board with regard to whether this would be a welcome change or a step too far.
1563
1564Concept: The current gimmick design isn't the best. You have a large list (and a lot of effort) into making a lot of gimmicks which are quite similar, often just variations on the same thing, and a lot of the stats are there just to say if someone is suited to a gimmick - realistically this is unnecessary data as it's safe to say that no user is dumb enough to intentionally pick a gimmick that doesn't meet the requirements.
1565
1566Solution
1567
1568We remove the gimmick file entirely.
1569
1570When you want to give a new gimmick to a wrestler you give a name for the proposed gimmick in a text field (just for cosmetic purposes, you could use "xxfsdfsdfsdfsdf" if you really wanted) and then select how you'd like to build it. This would consist of things like how safe you want to be with it (in terms of do you go for an easy off-the-peg approach where you're using a common archetype or do you go for a thinking outside the box approach), how tailored to that specific worker it is, how it lands on the generic-unique scale, etc.
1571
1572When the gimmick debuts the game uses the "build" information, together with things like the user's creativity score, to decide how it is perceived. It assumes that the worker is suited for the gimmick in terms of size, race, etc, etc. So if you've gone ultra-safe then you've got a very low chance of it being awful, but on the flip side it's very unlikely to really catch on either because it's so generic and everyone has seen it before. You get a rating, as you do now, to show how effective the new gimmick is, plus the existing bit about how long it is likely to last before you need to tweak or re-do it (again, this will be based on the build - something totally off-the-wall might be a flash in the pan that needs redoing fairly soon). What's new is that there will also be many "tick boxes" (some hidden, some not) that show what special features the gimmick got. So an ultra-generic approach might lead to it getting a "boring" tag that means that the worker will find it hard to generate momentum, for example.
1573
1574Tweaking would work the same way as it does now, but the way you initially built the gimmick would have some effect too.
1575
1576You'd be able to preset all of the above in the editor for existing workers.
1577
1578Pros and Cons
1579
1580The pros are that we get rid of the gimmick file which means far less work for database makers, and the new system is both more realistic and very flexible as it can literally account for any gimmick that could possibly exist.
1581
1582It also makes assigning new gimmicks more interesting, as rather than just picking from a list you can put some thought into the risks and rewards - go super safe for your midcard mainstay because you don't want to land him with something awful but aren't bothered if he gets a killer gimmick either, but maybe you go for a completely bonkers gimmick for a promising youngster in the hope that you land on that once-in-a-generation Undertaker-style gimmick that they can build a superstar career on.
1583
1584The cons are that removing the list of gimmicks means people might struggle for inspiration (possibly solvable by having an in-built list of suggestions?), it's a radical departure from what people are used to so that generally means a backlash, it possibly puts too much of the onus on the user's shoulders for generating their own ideas (although, again, that can possibly be addressed by having an in-built list or some sort of automatic 'do it for me' button), and it risks making the process of gimmick selection more time intensive than it is now. 
1585
1586#7: Pre-phase II additions
1587
1588At the moment development on the game is slightly stilted as I'm setting up the team for next month's 'second wave testing' and can't make any major changes to the game until that is done. As a result, the past few days have been going through and making a lot of smaller changes that I can code and test in a short space of time. In this entry I'll just be going through some of them.
1589
1590Filtering Alumni: The alumni page for each company can now be filtered. By default, it no longer shows people who were only in short-term (such as loans / trades / etc), but on-screen tick boxes allow you to filter them back in if you want.
1591
1592Disposition Strictness: A new setting in a company's product is how strict they enforce their disposition split, if they have one. This ranges from not at all to extremely strict. The stricter it is, the bigger the penalties when you do face vs face, heel vs heel, etc. This would allow, for example, a company to have faces and heels in effect but to be able to book them against each other without penalties.
1593
1594AI Surgeries: The AI can now send its injured workers for surgery just like a player can.
1595
1596Spoils Of War: If a company goes bankrupt then anyone they're in a significant war with automatically gains a company-wide morale boost for "winning the war".
1597
1598Neutral Chemistry: When the player finds neutral chemistry this is now stored, a handy reminder that you don't need to re-check it in future.
1599
1600Apply All Broadcaster Changes: Similar to the existing Apply All Agers in the worker mass editor, broadcasters can now have all their relevant Broadcaster Changes applied automatically too.
1601
1602The plan is to keep making smaller changes like these for the next few days, then get to work on the final design and implementation of gimmicks, as per my last post.
1603
1604#8: Pre-phase II additions (part II)
1605
1606As with the previous entry, I'm still adding in smaller features while I give the new testers a few days to get used to the new game, so this is just keeping everyone up to date with what those are.
1607
1608Upgrading Venues: If the user owns a venue they can now choose, via the Investments screen, to spend money to upgrade the capacity.
1609
1610Reign Length: On the various title screens, the current reign's length in days is now shown (unless it's vacant or the database has been set up in a way where the reign's start date is unavailable).
1611
1612Product When Choosing Company: When choosing a company to play as the product screen is now available, giving the user more information as to what they can expect / would be expected of them if they go ahead and become booker.
1613
1614PM Event Rename: The user can now rename events while in PM mode. This is useful if you want to reference the main event's name but don't know exactly what that will be until you've finished booking.
1615
1616Narrative Chance: Narratives can now be given a chance between 1% and 100% of whether they happen or not. This allows database makers to include a degree of randomness.
1617
1618#9: Social media storms
1619
1620While finishing off the design work for the new gimmick system I'm adding in a new feature, social media storms.
1621
1622The way this works is that every now and again a worker will find themselves at the centre of a social media storm whereby something they've done - 'liked' a controversial post, made some ill-advised comments, criticised the wrong person - blows up and becomes a major story. Their employer will then have to decide how to deal with it, whether by simply waiting for it to blow over, not using that worker for a while, making a statement, releasing them, etc.
1623
1624These are slightly different to other decisions in the game in that they're not always one-off; they can branch out based on what approach you take and become multi-part stories. So, bungling your handling of it could make things worse and stretch it out for longer than it should run, for example.
1625
1626This isn't going to be a huge part of the game, but it's a nice extra dose of reality and something extra to make the game world come alive.
1627
1628Obviously this feature is time-locked to the modern age.
1629
1630#10: Regular social media
1631
1632With the social media storms now finished, the rest of the week's work will be devoted to a related feature, the regular use of social media.
1633
1634The way that this works is very simply to produce regular social media based stories that make the game world feel more alive. Usually this will involve two workers interacting in some way; this could be a grouchy veteran complaining that 'kids these days can't work' and get rebuked by a hot young talent; it could be a star giving props to a promising youngster; it could be two workers getting into a pointless argument over something; and so forth. There'll be a ton of different types so that it doesn't get repetitive. It's linked to personality and the individual's stats, so people won't be acting 'out of character'.
1635
1636Sometimes nothing will come of these interactions, but other times it will trigger fall out. This could be the development of a new relationship between the workers, a morale boost, or even a small skill boost if they learn something from the encounter.
1637
1638The hope is to finish this by Sunday and then get to work on the new gimmick stuff on Monday.
1639
1640#11: Gimmick week, initial testing
1641
1642This week will be spent entirely on the new gimmick feature. The design work is finished - it's based very closely on what I've posted previously, so there's no big surprises there - so it's just a matter of coding it all in now. Given how tightly wrapped into the game gimmicks are, this is one of the more fiddly and time-consuming changes and so I'm probably not going to be making many, if any, posts for the rest of this week. The hope is to have it finished in seven days so that I can do a post detailing the finalised feature next Monday.
1643
1644In the meantime, testing is continuing behind the scenes. At this early stage it's mostly tidying up errors that have slipped through the cracks and polishing up features that the new testers think are too confusing / not working well enough.
1645
1646Early reactions have been super positive, which is always nice, and it's been particularly good to see that some of the new AI features are working well. To give just one example, a tester reported that SWF managed to turn Jefferson Stardust into a star by strapping a rocket to him and getting him from 58 to 81 popularity in a twelve month period. With the AI now being much better at making stars, it really opens up a whole new aspect of the game as it becomes less about relying on signings.
1647
1648#12: Gimmicks
1649
1650With the new gimmicks feature now added, today's entry will go through how it looks. I'm really pleased with how it has ended up and the reaction from the testers has been very positive, so I think this will probably end up being one of the most popular alterations.
1651
1652When you're in the game and viewing a gimmick what you'll see is its name, it's rating, and a list of pros and cons. In TEW2016 some gimmick types had in-built pros and cons, such as 'legitimate' gimmicks getting penalised if they list to 'comedy' gimmicks; TEW2020 takes this further by having many different possible pros and cons which can be linked to a gimmick. More on this in a little while.
1653
1654In terms of how long a gimmick lasts, tweaking it, and how its rating goes up and down over time, that is all the same mechanics as TEW2016.
1655
1656When you want to make a gimmick change you first pick a name for the new gimmick, then select a Basis: this is from a selection that includes things like Realistic, Legitimate, Comedy, Mysterious / Occult, etc. They're slightly different from the TEW2016 categories as I wanted to make them a little more intuitive (I'll give a full list at some point in the future when they're finalised). The Basis is important as it tells the game what the underlying feel of the gimmick is, how it will interact with other gimmicks, and what sort of pros and cons are potentially appropriate.
1657
1658Once you've done that, you then select your aim. You have a 5 x 5 grid and you position your aim simply by clicking the square you want to use.
1659
1660Running from left to right is the Generic - Unique scale. The more Generic your aim (i.e. the further to the left you go), the more familiar and easy to grasp your gimmick is. This means its unlikely to get a poor rating, but its also correspondingly unlikely to get a really high rating. However, the more Unique you go (i.e. the further to the right), the more 'out there' it is, so you run a bigger risk of it flopping badly but also get a better chance of catching lightning in a bottle and getting a really high rating.
1661
1662Running from top to bottom is the Creative - Safe scale. The more Safe you go (i.e. the closer to the bottom of the grid), the longer the gimmick is likely to last but it can generally be tweaked less and you'll get less pros and cons attached. If you go more Creative (i.e. upward), again, the opposite happens; you run the risk of it burning out quicker but you will likely get more pros and cons attached.
1663
1664As the player, you can therefore pick the approach that you feel is best for each worker. You might go into the extreme bottom left hand corner - Ultra Generic, Ultra Safe - because you are happy with just a standard gimmick that isn't going to have much in the way of a positive or negative effect on the worker. You might go dead in the center of the grid and take the 'standard' approach. Or you might decide to go into the bottom right, taking a big risk with the rating but playing it safe in terms of the pros and cons and length. It gives the user a lot of freedom to try different things. It also means that for workers you're not that bothered about you don't really even have to put much effort in - leave the aim in the center, pick a name, pick a Basis, done: literally a few seconds at most.
1665
1666Unlike TEW2016, there's no need to fiddle around having to find a gimmick that 'fits' as the game takes it as granted that you aren't doing something stupid like giving a female-only gimmick to a man, etc. This was always a flaw in the old method anyway, given that it was easy to get around just by cloning a gimmick and altering its requirements.
1667
1668When you perform a gimmick change the game uses the basis and aim to work out how the gimmick turns out. The rating is the same format as you have with TEW2016 - you'll see that it is Awful, Adequate, Legendary, etc. As discussed above, the number of pros and cons you get is linked directly to how Creative you've gone. You might end up with absolutely none, or you may end up with 5 or 6 (or more!). There is an in-built list of potential pros and cons, some of which are only available for specific Basis types, some of which are universal. For example, "Gets a bonus for being in comedy matches" is a possible pro if you've chosen to use a Comedy Basis, but isn't available for Legitimate. "Extremely marketable, boosts a worker's merchandise sales" is available for almost all the Basis types however.
1669
1670The pros and cons cover lots of things: who they can lose to ("Is penalised for losing to Comedy gimmicks"), their merchandise sales (see above), their skills ("Receives a boost to their Star Quality during matches and angles), how wins and losses affect them ("Wins have more impact on popularity than normal"), etc, etc, so they can really impact how you're likely to book someone.
1671
1672Overall, this removes a lot of the fiddliness from the gimmicks section - no more scrolling through lists or searching for specific variations of the same gimmick - in favour of a much more user friendly, intuitive approach. The only limit is the user's imagination. With the new pros and cons system, you're adding a lot more depth too, as the pros and cons you get can significantly impact your future plans for a worker. Having a risk pay off and land you with a gimmick that's highly rated and that comes with some great pros and few negatives could be the difference between a worker being your next world champion or an also-ran.
1673
1674Incidentally, as they're such a big part of the game, the pros and cons are easily accessible throughout the game - they're one click away on all the rosters and booking screens.
1675
1676The TEW2016 Gimmick file does remain in TEW2020, but is now renamed Gimmick Ideas. The way this works is that when you're making a gimmick change you can click a button called 'Give me inspiration' and this will load up a searchable list where you can see all the gimmicks that would fit that worker based on the criteria. Clicking one will automatically fill in the name and Basis of your proposed gimmick change for you. This file isn't required, so if database makers don't want to fill it in there's no penalty or potential issue, but it's there for people who like having something to jog their memory or give them ideas.
1677
1678#13: Performance skill revamp
1679
1680One area that has been totally revamped in the worker performance skills, which in TEW2016 covered face and heel performance and each of the gimmick-related performances (i.e. Brute, Weasel, etc).
1681
1682Faces and Heels
1683
1684The old face and heel performance skills are now replaced entirely with attributes. The time-saving concept here is that as most real life wrestlers are perfectly capable of playing babyface and heel, if there are no related attributes present then the game assumes that they can play both. This saves database makers a significant amount of time as it means that for most workers they don't have to do a thing, and is more intuitive for players as you're not looking at abstract numbers but seeing text telling you explicitly if they can or can't play face or heel.
1685
1686There are a variety of attributes present, allowing workers to be set as only able to play one or the other, to be able to play both but have a preference, and also to be extremely good at one, both, or neither. These attributes allow the game to know whether someone is in a role that they struggle at, whether they should get bonus points, and (for AI hiring) what their initial disposition should be.
1687
1688Gimmick Performance
1689
1690Likewise, the gimmick performances are now also no longer 0-100 stats but are entirely done by attributes. Again, this allows some major time-saving because the game can assume that if it isn't explicitly told so via an attribute that the worker is neither horrible at the role nor amazing at it - they're simply capable of playing it without any bonuses or penalties being needed. As most workers are able to play a wide variety of roles this means far less work for database makers and less abstract numbers for the player to go over.
1691
1692For each gimmick basis there are two attributes, allowing the database maker to say whether the worker is unable to play that role or whether they should get a bonus because they're so good at it.
1693
1694Obviously the gimmick performance attributes have slightly different names from the ones you're used to in TEW2016 as they match the new basis types used in TEW2020, as mentioned in the previous entry.
1695
1696With all these new attributes this also improves the user friendliness of the game because you can clearly see each worker's attribute list from rosters, worker screens, etc, so you don't have to click multiple windows to find out what dispositions and gimmicks they can do.
1697
1698Note that the TEW2016->TEW2020 converter automatically fills in attributes based upon each worker's TEW2016 stats, so a converted database will already be set up with all of this filled in.
1699
1700#14: Tidying up
1701
1702The last few days have mostly been spent polishing up the new gimmick feature. This has primarily been about cleaning up the screens, adding in extra pros and cons, and working on making it user friendly.
1703
1704With the latter in mind, there are a couple of new parts when running a show. When you made a manual gimmick change in TEW2016 you'd just get a message saying what its initial rating was. In the new game, what we have instead is a custom pop-up that gives you both the rating and a list of the pros and cons; as they're so important, it's more user friendly to have them listed immediately rather than having the user have to go and investigate later. In addition, there's a new "Gimmick Recap" button at the bottom of the screen. Clicking this gives the same pop-up as above, but for everyone whose gimmick has changed during the segment; this means that you cover both manual gimmick changes and those that happened automatically (such as for debuting workers).
1705
1706As I mentioned when phase 2 of the journal started, today also marks the cut-off point where we move from adding new features into polishing up what we have. This is always a bittersweet part of the development cycle as it's a big milestone in moving towards the eventual release but also means that a lot of features don't make the cut - although the game has well over 250 additions and changes, when you consider that we start out with well over 1500 possible features / suggestions it means that more things don't make the cut than do. I had been hoping to add a feature to include blading in matches and angles for example, but ultimately that didn't come to fruition and so won't make the final cut (pun unintended).
1707
1708That's not to say that there won't be more changes or smaller additions over the next few months - sometimes testing throws up places where it's necessary or appropriate - it just means that that is no longer the focus. As such, the journal will be more about talking about the process from now on rather than being about announcements.
1709
1710Next week I'll be particularly concentrating on adding in a bunch of new products and attributes in preparation for eventually making the lists public and opening it up for suggestions.
1711
1712#15: A quiet week
1713
1714This week has been pretty uneventful, hence the lack of posts. As I mentioned in my last entry, this week was all about adding in new product types, nearly doubling the amount that were previously in. This took far longer than expected due to the complexity. In the meantime, I was also busy fixing various bugs that the testing team found.
1715
1716There are a few very minor changes that have been made over the past few weeks that haven't been commented on yet, so I'll be using today's entry just to go over them for completeness.
1717
1718New Narrative Types: A handful of new types have been added, including the ability to alter alliance, media group, and training facility details, change a worker's star quality, and have workers gain attributes that see them enter into a world outside of wrestling (like acting).
1719
1720Warning On Title Matches: As someone requested it, the game will warn you if you book a title match and don't select a winner; this helps avoid unintentional title changes.
1721
1722Meddling Changes: When meddling with relationships (in the PM locker room controls) the screen has now been redesigned to give the user a clearer idea of the chance of success or failure when positively or negatively interfering. This makes things more intuitive and user friendly.
1723
1724Editor's Whiteboard: The editor now has a 'whiteboard' integrated into it; this is effectively a big notepad where people can record notes, thoughts, future plans, etc. This can be used to help keep track of what's going on or what is needed, and should be helpful for databases that have more than one person working on them.
1725
1726#16: Masked worker names
1727
1728A new addition that I made on a whim over the weekend is to have masked wrestlers now get gimmicked names when they debut into the game world.
1729
1730The way that this works is that when a freshly generated character appears who has a mask, the game will try and give them a gimmicky name - this will usually be a two-term phrase like "Blue Eagle", "Golden Tiger", "Midnight Ninja", etc.
1731
1732They will automatically create a Legacy entry, so if you do happen to play for several years and that character is successful, you will likely see the mask get passed on to a younger character - "Blue Eagle Jr", "Golden Tiger II", etc.
1733
1734As the game has no way of knowing what the mask in the picture actually is, you can of course end up with mismatches, such as "Blue Eagle" having a red-coloured mask, but, as the only way around that would be to have database makers fill in a whole bunch of information on the colour and design of every mask in the Free Pictures section, I think this this is a relatively small minor negative for a feature that brings a big positive to the game - the user can always rename anyone who ends up with a mismatch if they really want to.
1735
1736The worker's real name is still generated at the same time, and is referenced in their biography (i.e. you'll see "Golden Tiger (James Smith) is a....").
1737
1738#17: Testing and other things
1739
1740This will be more of a peak-behind-the-curtain type of entry as frankly there isn't a lot of interesting stuff happening to talk about this week.
1741
1742At the moment the main focus of the team is on general testing; that is, just play-testing over and over to try and uncover bugs and issues. We're only seeing 2-3 errors per day of testing at the moment, which is a really positive result at this early stage. We are doing a lot of tweaking at the same time. To give one example, a tester noticed that the Classic Mainstream Puro product, designed as an analogue of NJPW, was too severe on comedic wrestlers, thus making Toru Yano unable to work there. As a result, some tweaks were made to address that. While these little tweaks aren't particularly newsworthy, they add up over time and will give a much better end product.
1743
1744While the testing team are doing that, I'm working on the task of getting the screens designed so that they're ready to have their interface graphics applied. This is spectacularly dull for the most part as it's literally just moving borders around, but where possible I am also updating screens to make them more user friendly.
1745
1746For example, the old availability calendar has been reworked so that rather than using green ticks, red crosses, and "ticket" icons to show the information - a system that works but requires a fair bit of clicking - this is now done by having the date written down the left hand side, any events on that date to the right, then a list of unavailable workers beside that. This means that the same information is available as before but without the need for any clicking at all, taking advantage of the new wider screen size.
1747
1748In a similar vein, a new calendar has been introduced that gives a "desktop diary" style view where you can see three months at once where all the events and TV shows you have are shown. This gives the user an instant overview and is much handier when planning ahead during booking, advance booking, etc, scheduling, etc. To avoid confusion, the old calendar is now simply called Availability, the new "desktop diary" one is called Calendar.
1749
1750There is one actual new addition to the game to announce, which is that the Hall of Immortals and Hall of Fame(s) now have an additional entry, Epic Reigns. These are for major title reigns that go ten or more defences. Simply winning a title is now less powerful than it used to be. This allows the game to differentiate between short and long reigns and rewards the latter as being more impressive.
1751
1752#18: Grunt work and prepping the CornellVerse
1753
1754There's not a great deal to talk about at the moment as while development on the game is continuing to run smoothly, most of what we're doing at the moment is basic 'grunt work' - that is, the team are running lots of basic tests to iron out any bugs while I'm doing the super-tedious job of going screen by screen getting them laid out properly in preparation for the interface graphics to eventually be added. There's probably about a week left until I'll have finished going through them, as while there's far less screens than TEW2016 (due to so many screens being combined together to be more user friendly) it's still a huge game in terms of the number of parts.
1755
1756One thing I am doing in addition to the above is starting to prepare for starting work on the CornellVerse default data. I've been writing plans, idea, name suggestions, plot points, etc, for the past few years and have a whole heap of papers, notebooks, and backs of envelopes stuffed with information, all of which now needs to be collated into a format that makes sense. This part of the creative process is actually one of my favourite parts of writing a new game and it's a nice diversion from the tedium of doing screen designs.
1757
1758I had been toying with the idea of dropping in some spoilers or previews of the data eventually, but I've decided that this won't be the case - I know there's a lot of people who really enjoy exploring the database on release day and seeing all the surprises and changes, so I don't want to spoil that. The only thing I will confirm is that the data will be set in 2020, so you'll be looking at a significant leap forward in time since the last time you saw the game world. As usual, the aim will be to have a level of change the reflects what would happen in reality over a similar period of time.
1759
1760#19: Attribute suggestions
1761
1762After a marathon coding session over the weekend I finished the redesign of the game much earlier than expected, so this week I'll be working on tidying up some loose ends and also re-establishing the auto booker feature; the latter always has to be redone in each new game because it is based on the AI code, so every time that changes the auto booker needs to be redone too. With TEW2020's AI booking being entirely overhauled, this is a significant task but does mean there's opportunity to make it more user friendly than it was before.
1763
1764In the meantime, as mentioned back at the start of phase II, I'm opening up the first of the two suggestions thread that we'll be using, starting with Attributes (Products will be coming later in the year). This gives you the chance to make suggestions on what you want in the game. You will find the TEW2020 Attribute Suggestion Thread posted below, please see there for the current list and rules.
1765
1766#20: Auto booker, redo schedule
1767
1768With work on the auto booker well under way, I thought I'd outline some of the design work that's gone into it. Bear in mind that I'm still in the very early stages of writing it given that it's such a huge task, so things might change between now and completing it.
1769
1770The first and most significant change is that I'm trying to allow it to take into account the existing bookings. This means that you should be able to book a few matches if you wish, then hit the auto booker to fill in the rest, with the game understanding what you've already done. Or you could use the TEW2016ish method where you give it a blank canvas to work from. This approach should be more user friendly and useful.
1771
1772Another change is that along with the on-screen list of which members of your roster you want to be eligible for inclusion, there's now an "Auto Selection" button - this automatically excludes people who aren't appropriate, whether that's because they're too fatigued, or the show isn't one they'd be likely to work (such as not having your superstar main eventers on a B show). You can of course then disregard any or all of what the selection comes out as. Again, this is just some extra user friendliness.
1773
1774In terms of the actual booking, as previous mentioned this uses the AI code - which is working extremely well and giving out some really cool, realistic shows in testing - as the basis, just tweaked so that it takes into account that this is a player-controlled how rather than AI (so doing things like match lengths). As it is based on the AI, this means that it can automatically take context into account - i.e. it's not going to put a killer card together for a throwaway show, tour shows will have an abundance of tag matches, etc, etc.
1775
1776Currently the four options you'll get are Book Whole Show (which takes into account your existing bookings, as covered previously), Book Only Matches (which is the same, just leaving angles to you), Book One Match (where you'll get a suite of options similar to the ones in TEW2016 where you can specific what level, what division, etc), and Book One Angle. The latter two are there primarily for "gap filling".
1777
1778As I mentioned, this is a huge task - it's the last major coding part left - so this is probably going to take a week or two to get finished, but if everything works out this should be a big upgrade on TEW2016.
1779
1780--
1781
1782There's one new addition to the game to mention, which is in the scheduling section. Players now have a Redo Schedule button. What this does is allow you to totally recreate a schedule from scratch, with the ability to choose from any of the pre-written options (such as Monthly, Tour, Seasons, etc). This isn't going to be a feature that'll get a lot of use for most players, but for those who move from a normal to touring schedule (or vice versa) this is going to be invaluable as otherwise you'd be looking at a fairly major amount of work - this new feature gets rid of that task for you.
1783
1784--
1785
1786As a quick update on testing, everything is going superbly at the moment - the reactions from the testers have been unanimously positive to the point that I think TEW2016 is now unplayable for them, which is always a good sign. There's still a lot of testing to do, especially once we move to using a proper TEW2020 data set rather than simply a converted TEW2016 one, but right now I'm feeling extremely positive about it.
1787
1788#21: More auto booker
1789
1790This will just be a small update to keep everyone in the loop.
1791
1792Work has continued on the auto booker all through this past week and is going extremely well. Getting it to be able to successfully understand what the player has already booked and take that into consideration was the hardest part, but that is now done and working well. As you'd expect, it works best with a completely blank slate because it doesn't have any restrictions, but it's certainly nice that you can book a few key matches that you really want to see and then fill in the rest via the auto booker.
1793
1794There is still some tweaking and adjusting to do to get the feature to a finished state, but it's already producing some really good bookings and will only get better with further work. Next week will be all about finishing that part off and also giving the option to auto book single segments rather than an entire card.
1795
1796#22: Products and matches
1797
1798With the auto booker now pretty much complete, needing little more than some final polishing at this stage, that means that all the big coding-intensive features are done. The next few weeks are therefore going to be about going through and tidying up, adding, and tweaking some of the other features.
1799
1800One thing that is a continual process is adding to the products. There's two things in particular that I'll be working on for the next few days.
1801
1802The first is to have products recognise unsuitable matches. The way this is going to work is that the crowd will react badly to certain match set ups. For example, if you're using a 1990's AJPW-style product and book a match which has tables, ladders, and chairs in it, the fans will be annoyed. Book a match with barbed wire or fire and they'll be totally turned off.
1803
1804The second is having certain match aims either be turned off or penalised by product. For example, if you're using a very kid-friendly product then the Deathmatch and Hardcore aims will either be automatically hidden from the list of potential aims or you'll get penalised for using them. At the moment I'm leaning towards the former method, as I think that's the most user friendly option and removes the chance of someone accidentally booking an aim that would cause them to get heavily penalised.
1805
1806As with all the other product-related pros and cons, these will be listed on-screen when viewing the product so the user will have all the information visible to them.
1807
1808#23: Coming schedule
1809
1810The product-related additions that I mentioned in my previous entry are now done. Rather than hide the match aims I've instead decided to leave them available, but you will get a warning from your road agent if you try and use one that would result in a penalty. This seems like a good compromise between being user friendly but still allowing people to go full-on sandbox if they want.
1811
1812The current schedule is to now move on to start adding in a lot of the attributes that people suggested (in the Attribute Suggestions thread) and to let my testers do some longer-term games to see how that unfolds. That should take us nicely into November where we can start finishing up the product section.
1813
1814Regarding the default database, I have made some progress on putting together a lot of my notes - when I say that I've got over 30 A4 pages on new character names alone, that should give you an idea of how much content we're talking about. I've also been busy collating a lot of the various pictures that the artists on the board have been pumping out since 2016's release, and I've also commissioned a few new pieces specifically for TEW2020's game world. I'll be going into more detail with the world-building aspect later in the year when I have the initial plans finalised.
1815
1816#24: This week's attribute additions
1817
1818As will be the case for the next few weeks, the past seven days have been entirely about fixing errors and adding attributes. Below are this week's additions:
1819
1820Personality
1821
1822Passes On Knowledge: The worker is more likely to take on proteges than normal.
1823Unapproachable: The worker does not act as a mentor to others.
1824Highly Strung: The worker tends to react very strongly to events; positive and negative morale changes are amplified.
1825Positive Outlook: The worker is noted for always having a positive outlook; all positive morale changes are amplified and all negative morale changes are dampened.
1826Thin Skinned: The worker is noted for their negative outlook; all negative morale changes are amplified and all positive morale changes are dampened.
1827
1828Performance
1829
1830Canny Operator: The worker is known to hold back on shows that don't matter.
1831Dynamo: The worker never holds back during matches, even on unimportant shows.
1832Tag Team Specialist: If the worker is used in a tag team that has at least 15 experience and does not have negative chemistry, the team gets a special performance bonus on top of any chemistry bonus (the boost is only applied once, even if both have this attribute).
1833Selfish Performer: The worker has a selfish tendency to 'eat up' lesser performers in order to make themselves look good.
1834Giving Performer: The worker has a kindly tendency to 'shine up' lesser performers, making them look better than they are and improving the match.
1835Explosive Ring Style: The worker's extremely explosive in-ring style means that they get a bonus when allowed to dominate a match but a penalty in bouts that are slowly built, go over 10 minutes, or are aimed at working or calming the crowd.
1836Squash Master: The worker knows exactly how to work squash matches in order to make themselves shine; they get a bonus when booked to dominate in a match.
1837Scatterbrained: The worker is infamous for their abysmal memory; trying to get them to do a scripted match is pointless as they'll have forgotten everything by the time they get to the ring.
1838
1839Misc
1840
1841Healing Factor: The worker seems to recover from significant injuries far quicker than a normal human should.
1842Career Woman: The worker will not become pregnant as long as she is set to potentially be an active wrestler.
1843Prodigy: The worker improves their skills at a faster rate than normal during their maturity phase.
1844Not A Natural: The worker improves their skills at a slower rate than normal during their maturity phase.
1845Age Is Just A Number: The worker loses their skills at a slower rate than normal during their decline phase.
1846Can't Fight Time: The worker loses their skills at a faster rate than normal during their decline phase.
1847Ahead Of Their Time: The worker is ahead of their time and so is completely unaffected by leaving the relevancy phase of their career.
1848Homebody: The worker will not become available in new game areas (other than via an excursion).
1849World Traveler: The worker has a higher chance than normal of choosing to become available in new game areas.
1850Deep Roots: The worker is settled where they are and will never move house to a new region.
1851Fitness Fanatic: The worker is less likely to become out of shape than normal and is better able to achieve and keep a toned or muscular physique.
1852Bodybuilder: The worker is more likely to get bigger than normal and is better able to achieve and keep a muscular or ripped physique.
1853Skinny Genes: The worker is less likely to get fat or out of shape and finds it easier to achieve and maintain an impressive physique.
1854Fat Genes: The worker is more likely to get fat and out of shape and will find it hard to achieve or maintain a toned, muscular, or ripped physique.
1855Masked For Life: The worker will never agree to lose their mask.
1856Troublesome Neck: The worker takes more wear and tear to the head section of their physical health than normal and, if injured, is more likely for it to be a neck-related injury.
1857Troublesome Back: The worker takes more wear and tear to the body section of their physical health than normal and, if injured, is more likely for it to be a back-related injury.
1858Troublesome Shoulder: The worker takes more wear and tear to the arms section of their physical health than normal and, if injured, is more likely for it to be a shoulder-related injury.
1859Troublesome Knee: The worker takes more wear and tear to the legs section of their physical health than normal and, if injured, is more likely for it to be a knee-related injury.
1860History Of Concussions: When injured, the worker has an increased chance of the injury being a concussion.
1861
1862#25: More attribute additions
1863
1864Here are some more additions to the attribute section.
1865
1866Personality
1867
1868Horndog: The worker has an increased chance of starting new dating relationships, having them collapse early, of cheating on or with someone, and of getting involved in scrapes because of their one-track mind.
1869Notorious Ribber: The worker has an increased chance of pulling ribs on people backstage.
1870Anti-Hardcore: The worker is outspoken about disliking 'garbage' wrestling and will not want to sign deals with companies that present a hardcore product.
1871Keeps Kayfabe: The worker is outspoken about disliking 'cartoon' wrestling and will not want to sign deals with companies that present an entertainment product.
1872Extremely Old School: The worker is a purist and will not want to sign deals with companies that present entertainment or hardcore based products.
1873Money Motivated: When evaluating contract offers, the worker only really cares about the financial aspects.
1874Loves The Business: When evaluating contract offers, the worker places a lot of value on how happy they'd be in the company rather than just looking at the money.
1875Fame Hungry: When evaluating contract offers, the worker puts a premium on the size of the company as they are looking to become famous.
1876Has A Temper: The worker is known to have a temper and so has an increased chance of starting or getting pulled into fights and arguments backstage.
1877Born Fighter: The worker is known never to back down and so while they are no more likely than normal to provoke a fight, they do have an increased chance of getting pulled into physical altercations backstage.
1878Bad Ass Reputation: The worker has a reputation in the industry for being a bad ass. They will protect their image by not getting involved in games or gossip backstage, are more likely to act as a judge in a wrestler's court, and will always stand up for themselves if provoked.
1879Motormouth: The worker never shuts up and so has an increased chance of getting involved in gossip, giving opinions on other workers, and telling stories.
1880Story Teller: The worker is well known to be one of wrestling's great story tellers and has an increased chance of entertaining people backstage with tales.
1881Prudish: The worker is prudish and so will not pose for magazines or get involved in things like sex tapes.
1882
1883Misc
1884
1885Loyal: When under an ongoing contract, the worker is more inclined to stay for a long time rather than seek out new challenges.
1886Itchy Feet: When under an ongoing contract, the worker is more inclined to leave after a few years to see new challenges.
1887Future Referee: The worker will choose to be available as a referee upon retirement (they may take other roles too).
1888Future Announcer: (Same as above, just a different position.)
1889Future Colour Commentator: (Same as above, just a different position.)
1890Future Manager: (Same as above, just a different position.)
1891Future Personality: (Same as above, just a different position.)
1892Future Road Agent: (Same as above, just a different position.)
1893Wrestling In The Blood: The worker eats, sleeps, and breathes professional wrestling - they will never retire from the business no matter how old they get.
1894Outside Interests: The worker has interests and / or financial income outside of the wrestling business. They're much more likely to stop competing if their career stalls as they don't need the money.
1895Modelling Experience: The worker works or has worked as a model and so has a higher probability of posing for magazines and doing photo shoots.
1896
1897#26: Unsurprisingly, it's even more attribute additions
1898
1899As several people guessed, one of the extras that attributes bring to the table is that they can be set to expire after a certain amount of time has passed. This allows them to model temporary boosts and penalties. Today's entry covers the first seven of these.
1900
1901Hot New Move: The worker recently invented a new move or spot that everybody is talking about; they get a bonus to their performance in every match. [This attribute is automatically temporary and lasts between three months and two years.]
1902Hot New Catchphrase: The worker recently invented a new catchphrase that has caught on in a big way; they get a bonus to their performance in every angle in which they get to talk. [This attribute is automatically temporary and lasts between three months and two years.]
1903Flavour Of The Month: The worker recently did something that has everybody talking about them; they get a small bonus to the rating of every match and angle they are in to simulate the increased interest. [This attribute is automatically temporary and lasts between one and three months.]
1904Personal Issues: The worker is currently going through some severe personal issues; they get a penalty to their performance in every match and angle. [This attribute is automatically temporary and lasts between three months and two years.]
1905Groundswell Of Support: The wrestling public have connected with this worker on a deeply personal level; the worker gets a bonus to the rating of every match and angle they are in to simulate the rabid support. [This attribute is automatically temporary and lasts between six months and two years.]
1906Midas Touch: The worker is enjoying a sudden burst of amazing form; they get a bonus to their performance in every match. [This attribute is automatically temporary and lasts between three months and two years.]
1907In A Funk: The worker is enduring a period of extremely poor form; they get a penalty to their performance in every match. [This attribute is automatically temporary and lasts between three months and two years.]
1908
1909The first two are reworkings of existing features, making them play out in a more realistic way. They're also the only two that are immediately visible in the worker's attribute list; the others are hidden, meaning that the have an impact but don't actually appear when viewing a worker's profile. The idea behind this is that the player will need to apply some judgement / look for clues to figure out if they're in play. For example, if someone has a "Yes movement" style Groundswell Of Support then you should notice a significant upswing in the ratings that worker is generating and can choose to follow up on that. I think this is a far more rewarding way to play than dumbing it down and just have people scrolling down lists searching for people with that attribute that they can exploit.
1910
1911I'm taking a break from writing attributes now, so this'll be the last entry on the subject for a while. Note that that doesn't mean that there aren't going to be more attributes added, there will be, I just want to hit pause on them for a while as they're pretty boring to code.
1912
1913#27: General status update
1914
1915Having spent the past few days finishing up all the news stories and assorted text relating to the new attributes, the rest of this week is going to be all about the booking engine; running tests, seeing if we can squeeze out some extra user friendliness, making sure it's as easy as possible to use, etc. So far the feedback about all those areas from the testers is really good, but it's nice to get it all polished up so that it's ready for final testing.
1916
1917At the moment things in general are going really well - early testing has been very positive and large parts of the game are now in a finalised state and just need playtesting. Unless there's any major issues thrown up by testing or the database work takes significantly longer than I anticipate, I'm pretty confident that we'll be looking at hitting the estimated release date of April without too many problems.
1918
1919Finally for today's entry, a few people have PMed me to ask if any of the renders that have been released over the past few months in The C-Verse Rerender Project: 3rd Strike thread are going to be in the default data. I thought this had already been confirmed, but to clarify yes, most (all, I think) of the artists have kindly agreed to have their work appear in the game again this year.
1920
1921#28: Initial database work
1922
1923This week is going to be all about doing initial work on the database, it's effectively a breather week for me before I start adding in the final set of 'generation 1' products to the game.
1924
1925As I mentioned in a previous entry, I'll be outlining some of the things I'm doing during this process. Not because it's terribly interesting - at this early stage it most definitely isn't as it's almost all grunt work - but because it should help database makers get an idea of what sort of things they'll need to be doing to get their own converted TEW2016 databases up-to-scratch after converting them.
1926
1927So far, the work has involved:
1928
1929- Mass editing all the injuries to fill in the two new data points: the impact they have on in-ring performance and what type they are (Generic, Neck-Related, Back-Related, etc - this ties them in to some of the attributes that have been announced).
1930
1931- Adding in first names and surnames to the worker name file for Indian characters, so that if people choose to have that area active then the game can generate new workers.
1932
1933- Mass editing the match file to fill in the new 'is this a default match' data point.
1934
1935- Updating the Venues And Locations file with all the new locations. Note that this is optional; the game can run perfectly well with the existing venues that you'll have from TEW2016, adding in locations just enhances the experience.
1936
1937Having done all of that I am now going through dealing with all the companies from TEW2016 that have closed by the start of 2020. This likely won't be a step that most database makers have to take, but it's something I like to get out of the way early as it makes it easier to get a good view of the free agent pool when filling in rosters for the active companies later on.
1938
1939--
1940
1941As a completely unrelated note, there was one change that was made over the weekend to the game engine that I need to announce. The new addition is that when an AI company calls up a worker they will now almost always take that person's partner too, assuming they've available and the team is an active Unit or Permanent Unit. This means that teams can gain experience in developmental and come up together. This will allow teams to stick together more often.
1942
1943#29: More database work / new products
1944
1945Work on the database has been going well, with all the companies that have closed now being completely done and work beginning on the remaining companies. As before, I'll outline the process below.
1946
1947- Firstly I work out how the titles would have changed hands, either up to the date of closure of until the start of the game. I keep a master list of all the title reigns, complete with any notes or reminders. The belts and title lineages are then updated accordingly.
1948
1949- I then map out any roster movements whether that's incoming workers or people leaving. Again, I have a master list of dates for any changes so that I can make sure there are no inconsistencies (such as someone holding a title after they've left a company). I then go through them in turn: the additions, the removals, and then the roster members who remained throughout. For this section I also take into account whether the company has a training facility and whether graduates would have joined.
1950
1951- When doing the workers, it's a fairly straightforward process: update the bio (and name and picture if needed), check their basic information is still correct (i.e. moving people to new locations if needed), update their health (this isn't strictly necessary, but as TEW2020 uses a slightly different scale to TEW2016 it's worth doing to be consistent), adjust any contracts (including gimmick pros and cons - again, not necessary, but if you want full use of TEW2020's new features this is a good one to do), then update their skills (this can be done via the mass editor but I prefer to do it by hand), popularity, job history, and then their attributes. Doing the attributes is probably the most time consuming part, although the converter does a pretty good job of giving you a good starting set so database makers with large numbers of works can certainly tackle this in small batches and not have to worry about issues.
1952
1953One thing that the testers have found is that the new ease-of-user features - such as being able to do side-by-side comparisons for skills and popularity, and the company recommended roster levels - are a major benefit and make database work a lot easier.
1954
1955For the past couple of days I've switched to adding in six new products. I expect this to take a few days at most. Once they are done it will open the way for allowing suggestions for more additions, which I think will take place either at the start of next week or the week after that. I'll also be going back to doing database work once the new products are complete.
1956
1957#30: Product suggestions
1958
1959The database work continues to go well, with several companies now complete and many new workers added to the game. In the meantime, I've also been busy upgrading the editor based on what parts of the database work have been challenging or not user friendly enough, and I've also been fixing whatever the testers have found.
1960
1961As previously announced, today I'm opening up the suggestions thread for Products. This gives you the chance to make suggestions on what you want in the game. You will find the TEW2020 Product Suggestion Thread posted below.
1962
1963#31: Progress report
1964
1965After a very busy week the database is continuing to take shape, with all the Canadian companies now totally finished as well as good chunk of the independent scene. A couple of entries ago I put the focus on what a database maker would need to do for workers, so today I'll go through the work that is needed to take companies from TEW2016 to TEW2020 after they've been converted.
1966
1967- It won't apply to many companies, but setting a Home Arena may be appropriate in some cases, especially for historical real world databases.
1968
1969- Starting money is now settable to the exact dollar, so that is likely to be something that most database makers will want to do (although obviously this is not necessary as it will automatically default to whatever they were set to have in TEW2016).
1970
1971- The converter does a good job picking an appropriate product, but for obvious reasons it's not going to be able to get it right 100% of the time. This therefore needs a quick check. The AI Booking Style, Match Focus, and Angle Focus can also be checked (although they'll be at the right setting automatically most of the time), and some database makers will probably want to adjust the size of the women's division for some companies.
1972
1973- Popularity won't need changing in most cases, but fictional databases may want to be tweaked to fit in better with the new system.
1974
1975- In the vast majority of cases no work will need to be done on a company's schedule because you can just choose "Fixed" and it will lock the company down to using the same set of events it was using in TEW2016. The exception to this would be touring companies, as some database makers might like to fill in a realistic touring schedule manually. However, it can be left to the AI to fill in and testing has so far shown that it will do a really good job of producing a schedule on its own.
1976
1977- As roster sizes are bigger in TEW2020 than in TEW2016 most fictional databases will likely want to beef up the number of contracted workers to bring them more in line. Real world database aren't likely to need to worry about this. Testing has shown that the new Estimated Roster button does a really good job of telling the database maker exactly what to aim for.
1978
1979- Finally, Company Relationships don't need to be adjusted as they'll function perfectly well straight after conversion, but to take full advantage of them some tweaking is useful, especially to set the opinion levels that the companies have of each other.
1980
1981--
1982
1983Unrelated to the above, one new alteration to announce is that the events editor now allows importance to be edited as a number rather than by selecting categories. This gives the database maker a finer degree of control and is much better for smaller companies as it means that any progress they've made towards moving up a level can be included, whereas before they would always be starting from zero even if they'd been in business for a while.
1984
1985--
1986
1987Very little work will be done this week as I have University work to be concentrating on, but the idea is that as of next week I'll be returning to database work and will be looking to finish up another game area. If all goes well, I hope to have three area in total finished before Christmas as that will leave us in good shape going into the new year.
1988
1989#32: Continuing database work
1990
1991Work has now resumed on the database, with America being the next area I'm tackling. The idea is that I'll be finishing off North America and giving that to my testers to play while I do the rest of the world. The game world is really starting to come together nicely, with the wealth of new renders that I have available helping give it some extra visual pizzazz.
1992
1993There's been a few minor tweaks and fixes in relation to what my testers have found thus far, but for the most part the game is very stable. I have had to adjust the hall of fame criteria as the new levels turned out to be too severe - quite a few workers who were obvious HOFers were not making the cut, so I've tweaked it accordingly - but that has been the only really significant change. We have discovered that the finances for big touring companies are definitely wrong - they lose huge amounts of money and can't last more than a few years - so that is something that will be addressed once the Japanese data is finished and we can properly delve into the precise figures.
1994
1995One data issue that did come up is that the Respect levels from TEW2016 don't really match up to the new system particularly well. This isn't something that can easily be remedied - there's no real way for the converter to know how to adjust the figure - but fortunately it's not really a huge issue given that Respect doesn't have a particularly important role and the TEW2016 values being too high means the game would be erring on the side of caution anyway. So database makers don't really need to do anything, although if they want to be absolutely in line with TEW2020 then some work with the mass editor is likely to be a good idea - I'm doing so for the default data.
1996
1997#33: Moving into 2020
1998
1999I've been putting a ton of work into the database over the past week-and-a-bit, so things are moving at quite a pace - over half of the US scene is now finished. As I'll be working over most of Christmas that means I hope to have North America complete before the end of 2019 and can put that in for full testing.
2000
2001As I won't be working on anything else in the meantime, this will be the last journal entry for the year. To cap off the year, I'll end with a quick summary of where the project is currently at.
2002
2003- We're still looking for the release date to be around April; things are progressing very well and so I'm currently very confident that we'll be hitting that projected date.
2004
2005- Almost all the coding is complete, there's just a few minor bits and pieces to tidy up and the user-suggested products and attributes to add in.
2006
2007- About 60 to 70% of the interface graphics are done.
2008
2009- Testing continues to go well and the testers are all giving extremely positive feedback. Based on their reactions and my own play tests, I don't think there's any doubt that the game is light years ahead of TEW2016 and will be very well received.
2010
2011So, all in all, everything is super positive right now.
2012
2013From everyone here at GDS, we hope everyone has a safe and happy Christmas and New Year and we look forward to having TEW2020 for you to play with in just a few months.
2014
2015#34: Start of 2020 progress report
2016
2017Happy new year everyone.
2018
2019To kick off the year I'm going to go over what was achieved over the Christmas and New Year periods.
2020
2021In terms of the database work there's been a huge amount of progress: all companies in USA, Canada, and Britain have been 100% completed. That's every bio updated, all the rosters balanced, all the title lineages advanced and recorded, schedules rewritten where necessary, plus and tweaks needed. That just leaves the free agent pools to do, which is always the last part. I'm confident that I can do a further three areas by the end of this month.
2022
2023Testing has continued throughout the holidays, and I've been busy going through all the feedback. As well as the obvious of fixing any errors that came up, we've also redesigned some parts of the interface to make them more user friendly and tweaked some features that were proving too confusing or unclear for the testers. There have been some additional smaller features put in too, such as the new Compare Prestige button on the various title screens which allows you to check out how that company's titles stack up against all the others in the game world.
2024
2025The feedback in general continues to be excellent, with a lot of the testers having said that they can't now play TEW2016 because it's so lacking compared to the new game - which is, of course, what we're aiming for.
2026
2027There's also been a bunch of new interface graphics added. This is the part of the game that is likely to be the last to be completed, but we're in pretty good shape to have it all done by April.
2028
2029#35: Adding Europe, upcoming
2030
2031The past week has primarily been spent on two things: adding in a lot of new interface graphics and adding in Europe to the database. The latter is now complete, and I think has made that game area a lot more interesting to play than before. For those keeping track, that leaves Japan, Oceania, Mexico and the free agents to do.
2032
2033A few people have asked what's left to do on the project, so here is a reminder of what's upcoming between now and the release.
2034
2035- Finishing the default database
2036
2037- Adding in the remaining interface graphics
2038
2039- Writing the remainder of the in-game player's handbook
2040
2041- Adding in the remaining suggested products and attributes
2042
2043- Tidying up any features that have yet to be 100% completed, such as Talk To Worker (as this can't be completed until all the attributes are done as they reference each other)
2044
2045- Final playtesting
2046
2047#36: Japan
2048
2049Work has now started on Japan, which is the area that traditionally takes the longest to do. As I had to miss a few days of work due to illness and have some university work to tackle next week, I'm not expecting to be finishing this section until early next week.
2050
2051In the meantime, there has been some promising testing done, in particular with regard to smaller companies. Early tests appear to show that small AI touring companies can make a small profit each month, which is one area that was potentially going to be tricky (due to the high number of shows that they run). In addition, one of the testers has been doing a long-term game using a British women's company, the idea being to see how viable it is to create a company from scratch when you'll effectively having to work your way up from ground zero with very little in the way of available talent. This too has been promising, as the tests have shown that if the user is careful with finances and books well then it's possible to do well. It has also shown that building your own talent base via training facilities works well.
2052
2053#37: Completing Japan, roster sizes
2054
2055Japan has now been completed. Due to the size of the area and the amount of work required, this was easily the most labour intensive part of the database work so I'm glad that's out of the way.
2056
2057I'm taking a break from database work for a while now; next up will be adding in some of the products and attributes that have been suggested.
2058
2059I've had several PMs from people asking about roster sizes in regard to making databases, so I thought I'd cover that here rather than doing the same reply multiple times:
2060
2061- There is an Estimated Roster button in the editor that tells you exactly what minimum and maximum levels the company is currently using. By changing the various factors, like the owner's roster size, you can manipulate these figures and see what works. I've used it extensively in my work, and the feedback from the testers is that it's an extremely useful tool and a good quality of life upgrade.
2062
2063- In terms of the minimum levels, this is something that database makers do not really need to worry about. If a company is below its minimums then the AI will simply go out and hire people to fill those gaps.
2064
2065- In terms of maximums, there's no real need to be too wary of going over. In previous games the AI would check the numbers once or twice a week and make firings if the number of workers exceeded the maximum levels, which could lead to early mass firing sprees if a company had been given a bloated roster. In TEW2020 the AI only checks if it needs to make firings once or twice a year and, even then, won't be making firings unless there's a financial reason to (i.e. they're losing money month after month).
2066
2067- So to take a real world example, even though the WWE's swollen roster would likely be well above the maximum levels for a company that size, it isn't likely to be making mass firings because of their financial reserves and profitability. Note that this does not mean the roster is "frozen"; people can still leave through contract expiry, being stolen, walk outs, etc, so even if a company is not actively making firings on a regular basis the roster is unlikely to get stagnant.
2068
2069So in short the way it functions is very easy to work with regardless of what sort of database you plan to make, but still allows the AI to be competitive and reactive when needed.
2070
2071#38: New products and attributes, Japanese feedback
2072
2073As I mentioned in the last entry, I've been working on adding in new attributes and products from the user suggestions that were made. I'll be continuing to add in attributes right up until the game's launch, but the products are now finalised for release. [As previously outlined, both products and attributes will likely be added in via patches to fill whatever is needed.]
2074
2075The remaining products that were added are:
2076
2077Silver Age Pro Wrestling - Existing somewhere midway between Golden Age Pro Wrestling and Respectful Wrestling, workrate is more important than in the former but the wrestling is not yet as intensive as the latter.
2078
2079Lucha Libre Entertainment - This is effectively an Americanised version of Classic Lucha Libre, with in-ring action becoming less important and more emphasis being placed on angles and storylines.
2080
2081Grindhouse Lucha Libre - Although based around (often quite dark) storylines and characters, match quality is still important. Hardcore matches and fast-paced, exciting spectacles form the core of the in-ring output.
2082
2083Catch Wresling - Presented as a shoot, this is no-frills competitive technical wrestling.
2084
2085Royal Puroresu - This is a very physical style of wrestling with an emphasis on brawling, impactful throws, and submissions. The use of in-ring psychology to tell stories is at the absolute heart of everything. There's little concession to glamour or glitz.
2086
2087Strong Puroresu - Heavily influenced by the martial arts and combat sports, this style revolves around realistic strikes and submissions - it's midway between Wrestling As A Sport and full-on Shoot Style Wrestling. Everything is treated very seriously.
2088
2089Historic Lucha Libre - Lucha libre from ye olde days, this is all about mat-based hold-for-hold counter wrestling with very little in the way of high spots.
2090
2091Deathmatch Lucha Libre - This is a straight-up Deathmatch product but with the addition of the usual trappings and quirks of lucha libre.
2092
2093Avantgarde Puroresu - Not really found outside of Japan, this product blends modern wrestling with subversive comedy that relies on the audience having an intimate knowledge of puroresu tropes.
2094
2095Slobberknocker - Designed for big heavy-hitters although there's no reason why it can't be adapted for smaller workers, this is all about workers just going toe-to-toe and hitting each other hard in brawls that are treated seriously.
2096
2097Lucha Libre Slobberknocker - This is the Slobberknocker product of serious hard-hitting brawling but with the trappings and quirks of lucha libre.
2098
2099Hardcore Evolved - This takes the ethos of hardcore wrestling but removes the more immature parts, such as the obsession with blood and sex, and instead treats the in-ring aspect with a lot more seriousness. It's still an edgy alternative in the vein of Anti-Establishment Hardcore, just grown up a bit.
2100
2101No-Style Style - The most meta of all the products, this style....has no style. There's some wrestling, some entertainment, but no real guidelines for how it all fits together. As long as the fans get variety they're not going to mind too much what they're served up.
2102
2103Modern Throwback - Used by modern companies who are looking backwards, this takes the approach from the golden age - wrestling treated seriously but with a little showmanship - but adds the workrate and style of the modern age.
2104
2105That takes the final tally to 62.
2106
2107While I've been doing that, testing has been continuing. The new-look Japan has been extremely well received by the testers, which was great to hear. There's been a lot of effort expended in trying to make the Japanese area feel both realistic and a unique part of the world, and from the comments I've received that has been achieved.
2108
2109I'll be taking a break for the next 3 days to work on some university related tasks, when I return to TEW I'll be setting to work on completing the lucha libre scene.
2110
2111#39: Mexico, long term testing
2112
2113After a short break to work on other non-TEW stuff, work has now resumed on the project. Most of my time has been spent on the Mexican companies, which are now finished, but myself and the team have also been doing some long-term simulations to see how everything evolves.
2114
2115One of the things that came up quite quickly was that the rate of stat progress was too high, with rookies becoming too good, too fast. Fortunately altering the rate is quite easy in this version of the game, unlike 2016, so I've made some alterations there and we're now seeing how that will change things.
2116
2117The booking engine continues to work really well, especially with regard to the AI. Tag teams in particular are working superbly, and there have been several instances of independent teams building themselves up to the point of getting hired by major companies.
2118
2119In terms of crashes, the game is looking extremely stable. In Watcher games, we've been able to get through five years plus without any issues. Most crashes tend to be from player-led activities however, so we'll be looking to do a significant amount of play-testing of actually running companies properly to eliminate any other bugs.
2120
2121I've mentioned before about how the AI can now assign hidden booking strategies to its workers, and that is definitely coming through in the tests. For example, 21CW (correctly) identified that one of their new graduates was a potential star and so effectively turned him into what was effectively a version of Goldberg, having him go on a long undefeated streak. We actually found that the AI was too clinical about getting people over, so we've dialed that down a little to make it
2122more realistic.
2123
2124As I've said before, one of the hardest parts is getting the finances balanced, which is due to the large number of different situations companies can be in. We're still tweaking this, but at the moment it's looking quite nice - while the big guns still make massive amounts of money (as they should), the smaller companies can turn a small profit each month if they are well run. I'll probably tweak this to make it a little harder as currently not enough companies struggle, but not too much - I'd rather err on the side of caution as I think it's going to be more enjoyable for players if they can survive as a smaller company without having to engage in huge cost-cutting measures all the time.
2125
2126As I have more University work to do this week, I'll be taking a break for a few days and letting the testing team spend some time trying out the new Mexico data. When I return I'll be doing the final game area, Oceania, and then start finalising the database in preparation for final testing.