TEW 2016

[Jiji]

The Total Extreme Wrestling 2016 demo hits Monday (perhaps even as early as Sunday night for us North Americans) and I cannot be more excited for it. You can play with any mod as many times as you want for up to two months of game time. The full game comes out a week later on May 2nd. Price is $35 USD. 

The features that developer Adam Ryland revealed in his journal throughout February and March were stunning, ranging from giving users the choice to disable a lot of the complexities that turned them off of TEW to finally fulfilling a lot of the bigger requests. Here are a few highlights:

LINK TO THE JOURNAL WITH ALL 352 FEATURES DETAILED

• EWR-like simplicity! A lot of people never made the jump from EWR's basic booking structure to TEW's more advanced simulation style of management because there was just too much shit to do and worry about. There are a bevy of options to disable a lot of the penalties TEW has added since switching from EWR. DFA, I know this was an issue you've talked about and you're definitely not alone. Here are the options you can disable:
  • Show length penalty (shows can now be any length and not receive a penalty for being too short or too long)
  • Match-to-angle ratio penalty (WWE in the attitude era having too many matches and not enough angles, for instance)
  • Worker complaints for being left off shows
  • Match aims requirements (for example, needing a certain number of comedy matches or what not. This is a new feature to TEW 2016)
  • Momentum (workers needing to be built up via wins and positive actions in angles)
  • Sex appeal (needing attractive women on your show if you're mainstream, again a new feature for 2016 called the "sausage fest penalty")
  • Worker overuse (if you use a jobber/undercard worker too much, you'd get penalized)
  • There are more from TEW 2013, in which a lot of the complexities can be turned off.
• Autobooker (even more EWR-like features!)
• Alliance champions so you can now recreate a touring NWA champ (fuck yes! This will make the Death of the Territories mod starting in '83 even more amazing!)
• More control over development territories
  • This is both an excellent addition and probably the biggest disappointment for most fans, as many expected to be able just to run NXT/other developmental promotions but that's not happening. Instead, you have pretty much full control of who works for your child company, their push, tag teams, titles, etc. Just can't book the shows, unfortunately.  
• Revamped networks (you can recreate WWE Network, SNME-like specials)
• Figureheads/company aces
  • Including main event babyfaces sometimes complaining when you want them to turn heel because of the loss in merchandise revenue
• Hall of Fames for each promotion (on top of the general Hall of Immortals)
• Much more realistic backstage environment
  • Wrestlers' court (featuring Judy Bagwell!)
  • Cliques
  • Toxic workers (brother)
  • Nepotism
  • Wrongful termination
  • Rehab
  • Interventions
  • Scumbag owners (AKA the Ian Rotten Effect)
  • Young workers demanding raises if you lock them into long contracts

For me, the most intriguing features are all about making the AI more aggressive and smarter (and the morale changes). The game world should develop in a far more organic and dynamic way now. 

I'm also working on a modern day mod for the game. Instead of one person just making all of the ratings calls, somebody had the excellent idea of creating a forum dedicated to discussing ratings and finding a consensus. It's a very small community with one mod maker posting a lot of workers and mostly me making suggestions, but the WWE section had a decent number of people inputting ideas. The more voices the better, particularly for those that watch lots of Japanese/Euro/smaller US indies, joshi, or lucha libre. Even if you just watch WWE, you'd be more than welcome as the more discussion and more voices, the better end product.

Here's a link to the forum.

When the game is out, people can post here about their saves and what not too. The world needs to know how you'd book Roman Reigns! How many world championships does Cesaro have in your game?! Can you save TNA from both Nazis and bankruptcy?! CAN YOU GET ROH BETTER LIGHTING (this is an actual feature in the game ffs)?! CAN YOU BOOK PWG SO THAT SUPER DRAGON DOESN'T GET A CONCUSSION EVERY TIME HE COMES BACK?! CAN YOU BRING ORDER TO AAA?!

The questions are limited only by your imagination. I know a lot of folks love the fictional universe that the game comes with, but I've never really been able to get into it. It's pretty darned neat though.

[The Man Known as Dan]

Super Excited for this as well. Can't wait to rejump into the 87 Mod for an NWA play through.

[Jiji]

I know Genadi is working on updating the mod but it'll probably be a month or two before we see fully converted quality mods. I can't imagine how big of a pain in the ass it's going to be to assign body types to those 2000+ worker databases, much less have properly set gimmick freshness settings and recent turns set. 

I think the first super long term game I get into will be a modern day with fantasy draft against two of my buds. Multiplayer games are awesome and drafts are such a blast. It'll be hard not to just go after all the top international talent like Rush, Muertes, and Naito because I'd have to really get all of them over. 

Until then, I'll continue to slowly update my database and dink around with the C-Verse.

Any idea of what that super secret surprise feature is? I thought it was going to be organically debuting promotions but he revealed that in the dev journal.

[zev]

Ok, I must ask. Where in the forum does it say that better lighting for ROH is an option?

[Jiji]

Quote

Mar 11: Expanded Production

The production department now contains four new areas: Production Values, Broadcast Quality, Music and Live Event Experience.

Production values are things like sets, entrance ways, professional video editing capabilities, etc. Broadcast Quality is the crew and equipment used to shoot the shows, i.e. things like HDTV. Music covers all the licensing of music used for entrances, videos, etc. Live Event Experience is the event crew who organise and run the shows in regards to fans, for example organising the seating, organising VIP packages, etc. Some of these elements mean a monthly ongoing cost, some are done per show, and some are a combination of both; the costs are dependent on the level used. All costs are clearly shown on screen when selecting levels.

These have two major impacts on the game.

The first is in relation to your rivals (NB: a rival is any company of similar size in the same game area, except for International and Global companies where it is a company of similar size anywhere in the world) - if you hold a show and are running any of the elements at a lower level than them, you will get a penalty to your overall show grade for looking amateurish in comparison.

This opens up a potentially brutal game of cat and mouse with companies being able to raise the stakes to try and force opponents into difficult situations. This is especially true of financial powerhouses who can use their might to make life very difficult for their more cash-strapped opponents. For example, a rich company may decide to up all four of their production elements by two levels; this will make things very expensive for them in the long run but instantly puts a lot of pressure on all their rivals, who are now left with the dilemma of whether to take the same, potentially killer, financial hit or to try to weather the storm and just take the penalties. This of course makes life very tough for companies who lack money, but that's business.

The second major impact is in regard to broadcasters. Every broadcaster has minimum requirements for the first three elements mentioned at the start of the journal. A company that does not meet those requirements each show will annoy them and potentially get kicked off the air if it lasts long enough. This again adds another dilemma, as some companies may get the opportunity to snag a good broadcast deal but need to factor in whether they can meet the requirements without putting themselves under too much pressure.

For ease of use, player's are e-mailed whenever a rival alters their production values in a manner that could potentially cause penalties. The production screen also gives clear on-screen warnings of any potential penalties and includes a View Rivals button that allows you to see exactly what levels your rivals are currently using. 
 

Lighting is totally covered by production values and/or broadcast quality.

[Petey]

Glad they're simplifying things. I played the older TEW's a bit and played EWR a lot. I loved EWR's simplicity but always wanted just a little bit more when it came to the actual booking. TEW was too much for me to really get into. For example, and I may be in the minority, stuff like contract negotiations and stuff were so much simpler (albeit less realistic) with EWR. You just offered, it was either accepted or rejected and you moved on. Similar with sponsorships. TEW was more realistic with the back and fourth and that it'd take days at a time to get an answer, but I just wanna get going and not really be concerned with a lot of the non-booking stuff. Hoping this version of TEW will let me have my dream of EWR but a little more detailed.

[jstout]

God, no matter what I did in TEW, I could never get a promotion to grow. I forget the version I played, but I tried to use the Seattle-based women's fed (AAA?) from the Cornellverse, and I would just kinda stay static for years. I never could get a really good sense of when a promo was too short and when it was too long, a match length to use, etc.

I took a chance and tried to expand into a different territory once, and I think I started getting literally 3 people attending the new shows. RETREAT!

I will take a look at the demo, though. Can't see me buying, but I wanna see how much the game has changed since I played it years ago.

EDIT: I wonder if a smartphone port of EWR could be made? That'd be money right there. My Stone Cold Steve Austin in EWR? Jay Lethal. I have no idea why. I'd never seen him, but he was HYOOOOOOGE in my promotion.

 

 

 

 

 

[RandomAct]

I just remembered that I have TEW 2013 and p much never played it.  I played the one before it quite a bit, but lost interest.  Like others have said, there was just a bit too much to do.

[Jiji]

Demo is up!

[Craig H]

On 4/24/2016 at 2:26 PM, jstout said:

God, no matter what I did in TEW, I could never get a promotion to grow. I forget the version I played, but I tried to use the Seattle-based women's fed (AAA?) from the Cornellverse, and I would just kinda stay static for years. I never could get a really good sense of when a promo was too short and when it was too long, a match length to use, etc.

I took a chance and tried to expand into a different territory once, and I think I started getting literally 3 people attending the new shows. RETREAT!

I will take a look at the demo, though. Can't see me buying, but I wanna see how much the game has changed since I played it years ago.

EDIT: I wonder if a smartphone port of EWR could be made? That'd be money right there. My Stone Cold Steve Austin in EWR? Jay Lethal. I have no idea why. I'd never seen him, but he was HYOOOOOOGE in my promotion.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm almost surprised there isn't a version of TEW for smartphones or tablets, but then I think of how stripped down OotP is for each.

[Death From Above]

Love all the configurable settings. That's exactly what I think people want out of this kind of game at this point.

 

My first instinct at this point is to mod in Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter as wrestling companies to compete with the WWE. I had a lot of fun pissing around with a Mortal Kombat Wrestling thing back in the EWR days. Never did get to run that Goro vs. Goldberg match for control of the Earthrealm because of how contracts worked in that game though.

[Jiji]

Somebody is making a DC Comics mod for 2016. There were two major fa(u)ntasy mods for 2013:

Diablo X (hype thread) - Diablo X 2.5 release thread

9000-verse

Diablo X has a Mortal Kombat promotion. Neat. I'm almost positive Fleisch said he's going to eventually convert Diablo X to 2016. I know he's hard at work converting his real world mod at the moment.

[Craig H]

How long does it take for a real life mod to come out?

[Jiji]

For most of the new features to be working, probably June. 

[The Man Known as Dan]

Been having a blast in my "Testing the new Cornellverse" 8 company game. I prefer to have just shit loads of things to keep track of.

[Jiji]

First real great real world mod is out. 1987: The Golden Age. There's a nice hypothetical mod based on it coming out in the coming days that sees Magnum not get into the crash, Snuka intentionally injure Hogan, and some other things. I'm doing a run as Watts with UWF. They had some great talent still. I made sure to delete the narratives that kill off companies (including UWF).