This was announced a little over a month ago, and the Developer's Journal just started, so I figured I'd bring the information over here for those that might be interested. I don't see any point trying to get a forum for it, as the TEW forums never last. Much better off keeping all the Adam Ryland games centred in one active forum than a whole host of dead forums.

quote Adam Ryland - TEW2008 FAQ

Here are the answers to some of the questions you may have about Total Extreme Wrestling 2008.

TEW2008?

Total Extreme Wrestling 2008 is the fourth title in the TEW series of wrestling simulation games. It is being written by Adam Ryland and produced by Grey Dog Software.

Do you have any details on the release?

TEW2008 is currently scheduled to be released on June 1st 2008. It will cost $34.95.

What will the game be like?

The game is being written using TEW07 as a base. The reason for this is because TEW07 has proved to be a popular and stable program, and so it does not make a lot of sense to "reinvent the wheel". The design of TEW08 is based around three concepts; improving the performance, improving or replacing features that need work, and adding all new features.

If it uses the previous game as a base, aren't you worried that cynics will dismiss this as "TEW07 II"?

No. The design for TEW08 already has close to 200 changes and additions to TEW07, so the end result will be a vastly superior program. I am so confident of this fact, and to make absolutely sure that people can see just how much has been improved, a complete list of changes will be released alongside the program. This list will also form the basis for the Developer's Journal, which will return sometime in 2008.

How were the changes decided upon? I made some great suggestions...

The TEW2008 design document was based around suggestions made in the TEW07 Suggestions Forum as well as my own ideas. I read every single thread in the forum before writing the document, so if you made a suggestion in the past, it has been at least considered.

Six months doesn't seem like a long time to write a game...

Six months would be a short period of time to write a game from scratch, but the fact that TEW07 is being used as a base removes the need to spend months writing the framework - this is usually the largest and most time-consuming task. With that removed, the development time can be reduced. In reality, six months is the longest time for any of my games that has been spent entirely on writing features.

I have problems running TEW07 under Vista, has this been addressed in the new game?

My last game, WMMA, had a lot of work done to it to make sure that it worked well under Vista; this seemed to be successful, judging by the lack of technical support queries about it. TEW08 incorporates (and improves upon) the techniques that were applied to WMMA, and so hopefully should perform just as well, if not better.

When will we start hearing about what the changes and additions are?

The Developer's Journal (a daily blog-like post where I reveal information about the features) will be started at some point in 2008, and that will be the main source of information.

I want to be involved with the game, can I?

The creative and testing team has already been chosen and confirmed, no further places are available.

Can I still make suggestions?

All suggestions in the TEW07 Suggestions Forum are read, and will continue to be read, although realistically the closer we get to the release, the less chance there is of new suggestions being used.

Will an editor be released so that people can start working on writing real-world databases before the game comes out?

I am pleased to be able to announce that TEW08 comes complete with an in-built TEW07->TEW08 database converter. Therefore, when the game is released, you can literally plug your favourite TEW07 database in, have it converted in a matter of seconds, and go straight into a new game with it. Obviously some editing will need to be done on the database to achieve optimal results (i.e. to take advantage of new additions), but you will instantly get a playable database out of it. Therefore, there will be no waiting after the release of the game until the first real world database is available.

quote Adam Ryland - Developer's Journal Introduction

Total Extreme Wrestling 2008: The Developer's Journal
"100 Reasons To Stay In This Summer"

I'm pleased to announce the start of the developer's journal for TEW2008. For those of you not familiar with the concept, this is an ongoing thread where I reveal the additions and modifications that will be part of the game.

This will not be a complete list; some features will remain a surprise for the release. Neither is there any pattern to what will be revealed and when; somedays it may be a relatively minor feature, somedays it will be one of the "show stoppers", somedays I might stick do two features in one post, somedays it might be a screen shot. All that is certain is that there will be 100 entries in total, one a day (excluding Sundays) from now until the release of the game on June 1st.

Only features that are already completed will be referenced.

quote Adam Ryland - Developer's Journal Part One

#1: Personality Plus

In TEW07, a character's behaviour was defined by a combination of Personality and Attitude. This has been significantly upgraded to become the new Personality Plus feature.

Instead of two static categories, every single character in TEW08 has their own Personality, which takes the form of a modified version of a neural network. This network consists of ten traits, each defined as a scale moving from one extreme to another. These ten traits are:

Humble - Egotistical
Generous - Selfish
Compassionate - Ruthless
Optimistic - Pessimistic
Naive - Manipulative
Dependable - Flaky
Social - Antisocial
Loyal - Mercenary
Timid - Bold
Hesitant - Driven

In each case, the trait is defined by a sliding bar - the closer it is to one end of the scale, the more extreme the character's bias. For example, if a character's Humble-Egotistical bar is set almost entirely to the left hand side, he will be virtually entirely without ego. Setting it near the middle would result in a well-balanced character who is neither lacking in self-esteem nor an egotistical jerk.

In any situation where a character must "think" - which can be anything from considering a contract offer to deciding whether to form a relationship, from demanding a better push to how upset he has to be to walk out on a promotion - his (or her) Personality is consulted and his response based upon his network as a whole (this is a key point; their response is never based on just one trait, meaning that you never get one-dimensional responses).

The important factor is that, like any neural network, this personality can evolve over time. Pushing a young worker to the moon may result in what was once a sweet kid developing a monsterous ego. Blasting a free spirited worker with a huge fine because he was late may help him straighten out into being a more dependable figure (or may just push him towards becoming a more anti-authority figure). For this reason, dealing with character's becomes more like dealing with a real person - with all their quirks and personality - and less about getting the same response each time.

The TEW08 editor comes equipped with many "personality templates" that allow you to quickly assign a certain type of personality to a character, taking out the hassle of having to define a personality each time. All the traits are described in more detail in the help file.

quote Adam Ryland - Developer's Journal Part Two

#2: Bad Blood

TEW08 introduces a new relationship type called Bad Blood. This is essentially a "negative Blood Relative"; it allows the game to know that two people are related to each other, but also that they should not get the positive effects that a family connection normally brings.

This is ideal for scenarios where family feuds need to be simulated.

quote Ripten Interview

The “reality” of professional wrestling is as shunned as it is guarded. Adam Ryland, Grey Dog Software designer, however, cracks this world open with a new update to his deep simulation, Total Extreme Wrestling, where fans are given the chance to tinker, crafting the industry into their own vision.

And they do it for hours; Ryland’s product’s addictive nature means many players have amassed days of gameplay, perhaps weeks, in the year-and-a-bit stretch since the last entry in the series.

It’s not surprising, then, that fans erupted with the announcement of TEW 2008.

The game’s community, which the designer keeps so close to, wants to know more. People are desperate to hear any information about the anticipated next instalment in the series.

Well, Ripten’s got it. We sat down with Adam to discuss his latest launch, and the game behind it.

Adam Montgomery: Total Extreme Wrestling 2008 was announced at the end of a series of cryptic videos on Youtube. They were reminiscent of Chris Jericho’s return videos, rife with suggestion and ambiguity. Were you involved in this?

Adam Ryland: Yes, it was my idea to experiment with viral marketing. About 50% of the clues left in the videos were created by me. The rest, and the actual video production, was handled by the game’s lead artist Steve Smith.

Adam M: Many wanted a new TEW, which was finally revealed on January 1st. What were the hints pointing to this in the video?

Adam R: There were many. The “product ID” that flash across the screen was actually “TEW08” in base-8 format.

Some of the references and phrases were taken from the game’s design document. “Neural Networks” is mentioned – the basis for one of the suggested features.

Adam M: How much work have you put into designing this sequel?

Adam R: I read through every thread in the suggestions forum, as well as going through my own notes. Then, as ideas have been expanded upon, it’ll be continuously updated until the game is completed.

Adam M: How many new ideas for the game have a base in a suggestion you read?

Adam R: That’s pretty tricky to answer. My own notes had numerous duplicates in the forum. Probably about 60-70% I read in the suggestions forum, whether I had also thought of them or not, and about a quarter were “originals.”

Adam M: Many developers don’t have such a direct relationship with their audience as you have. Do you appreciate this link?

Adam R: Well I won’t be initiating a group hug any time soon - not least because I suspect a great deal of my audience is still in school, and I think the authorities would frown upon that, but, in all seriousness, yes, I do. A fan base that doesn’t talk wouldn’t be much fun.

Adam M: Onto your MMA foray, then. It seems to have gone down well. Despite being centred on a legitimate competition, will World of Mixed Martial Arts have an impact on your new wrestling game?

Adam R: The two worlds are so deceptively far apart there are very few features that are appropriate to bring across, but there are definitely still a number of new WMMA features that can be taken to the TEW party. I think the feedback is that the speed, simplicity, and streamlining that WMMA has are a step forward.

Adam M: When factoring that this is the first of these games to be designed with Vista in mind, do you believe you can manage to improve on 2007’s performance?

Adam R: There’s a two-step answers to that.

In terms of writing specifically for Vista, there’s a limit as to how much can be done – many issues are down to things like motherboards and chipsets, which can’t be beat by code techniques. That said, WMMA is very stable on Vista, so some techniques clearly do help, and they will be ported to TEW. So, in that respect, performance will be improved.

Secondly, in terms of loading times, that’s guaranteed. That work has already been done; the times measured in this early stage are considerably fast and smoother then the last installment.

Adam M: You pre-empted queries with a “frequently asked questions” post. Inside that, you mentioned that one of your objectives was to refine. What will you be refining?

Adam R: The interface. A lot of people have mentioned that there is too much clicking. It’s not a coding task, more of a redesigning one. We’ll be relocating things and ensuring everything’s easier accessed.

Adam M: Do you feel challenged by the charge to improve upon TEW 2007?

Adam R: No: I’ve never felt challenged with coming up with new stuff for any of my projects – computer gaming or otherwise. I just seem to have one of those mindsets where I’m constantly spitting out new ideas and concepts. The only difficulty is in self-editing (separating the good ideas from the bad) and choosing what fits into each project, and choosing what needs to be left out.

Probably the hardest part of my job is knowing when to stop. When I finish a project, I already have a fair idea of what’s going to be the major features in the next one. There’s many new features I’ve added that I knew would be since prior to the last game’s release.

Adam M: Now, the Cornellverse. When we begin a new game, are we going to see something, some happening, that will shock us?

Adam R: Well, I keep things realistic in terms of time frame, as there’s only so much that can happen in a year. There’s plenty of smaller changes as characters have changed.

But, in one area, there’s a big change to the landscape.

Adam M: I’m sure people are looking forward to finding out what that is. Something people are discussing now is “auto-booking,” delegating control over shows to the computer. What’s your take on this issue?

Adam R: I’m not a big fan. Players would have to put so many restrictions on it, such as “don’t use this guy because he’s resting” or “no, he’s in a feud”.

I think a lot of people remember auto-booking with rose tinted glasses. In the past, it wasn’t detailed. In TEW, it would have to be something much more then that skeletal system, which would be a big problem to add.

Adam M: Do you plan changes to the contract system?

Adam R: The whole negotiation system is going to be re-written, so contracts will likely change as a result of that. We haven’t got far into the specifics of it yet.

Adam M: As a matter of your own opinion, what new planned feature do you believe fans will be particularly happy with?

Adam R: I’ve mentioned that not many features of WMMA are applicable to wrestling. I know one that is: the Hall of Fame. The concept will be making its TEW debut in 2008. The difference will be that it’s name “The Hall of Immortals,” and will be reserved for the very best of the best – only the legendary will get in.

Adam M: A lot of people are calling for a promotions “back catalogue” to be a feature of the game. Suggestions include the ability to pick a “Best Of…” collection or air highlight shows. Do you plan to include this?

Adam R: At the moment, no. With my Designer Hat on, while I can see why people are suggesting it, I don’t think it’s really been thought through very well - I can see it being cool the first couple of times you put together a Best Of… video, but I can also see it getting really boring, really quickly. I see it as more of a novelty item, and given how much information would need to be added to have it working correctly, I don’t see the rewards being worth the effort.

It’s a lot like the often-suggested feature of being able to pick what songs your wrestlers come out to - it’d be fun the first few times as you get a killer song for your fastest-rising star, but six months into the game are you still going to be that excited about picking songs from a list, songs you can’t even hear? A year into the game? Two years….?

Adam M: Finally, developmental. Will this change? Specifically, will you have more control over child promotions? Will you be able to birth a child promotion, or send a worker to development without requiring them to sign to a new contract?

Adam R: “Re-design it” constitutes my entire entry for it in the design document. I like how it works in 2007 – it does the job – but I don’t think the majority “got” the feature. The team will discuss it and we will come up with something more detailed in the future.

Adam M: Thank you, Adam.

Total Extreme Wrestling 2008 is set to launch June 1st 2008.

For the first time since TEW originally came out, I don't think I'm going to get this one. Time and time again it always sounds really awesome, but then when I buy it I can just never get into it. I always start setting things up, but then I get so exhausted from that when I get to the booking screen, I lose interest in the save.

I wish TEW would get that "EWR" feel again where it has some really awesome features to make it worth the buy, but simplistic gameplay to make it have a bigger lifespan.

I'll definetly get this one, I still find TEW07 amazing, but I can't wait for this to come.

quote Adam Ryland - Developer's Journal Part Three

#3: National Battle

One feature that should prove an additional level of strategy to the game is the new National Battle system. In layman's terms, "this town ain't big enough for the three of us!"

A National Battle scenario occurs whenever a game area becomes home to three or more promotions who are above Cult size. As no industry can support that many titans, it becomes a war zone. At the end of every month all the eligible promotions are rated based upon the best show they have produced in the past four weeks. It then becomes a domino effect: whichever promotion comes first damages everyone below them; the second-placed promotion damages everyone below them; and so on. Of course, the worst place to be is last, as that means you take damage from every promotion above you, but don't get to damage anyone else.

"Damage", in this situation, entails a loss of popularity in each region of the area in question. The amount is greater if the winner was already more popular, smaller if the winner was less popular. If the winning promotion has less prestige, it can also steal some from the losing promotion. Of course, the cumulative effect of this is that eventually the losses will cause one of the promotions to fall back to Cult size and out of the battle.

There are certain extras at play. Firstly, if two promotions already have a War relationship, any damage done during a battle is automatically increased by 50%. If two promotions have a friendly relationship, no damage is done.

There are also 'warming up' and 'cooling down' periods. When a promotion first rises to National size, it has a one month warming up period to get ready for the coming battle; during this time, it is exempt from taking part. This allows the company time to get ready. Furthermore, when a promotion falls back to Cult size, it enters a mandatory cooling down period. This is a six month time frame where the promotion cannot rise back to National size (even if it achieves the necessary popularity). This stops promotions zig-zagging between Cult and National, and makes losing the national battle all the more painful!

The monthly "battle results" are available for everyone to see, in the form of a league table of sorts.

The reason for this feature is to stop games becoming "top-heavy", i.e. loaded with big, successful promotions. In previous games it seemed to be the case that once you'd attained National status, your worries were over; or as King Louie eloquently put it, "I've reached the top and had to stop, and that's what's bothering me." Now you will have things to deal with; establishing yourself in the first place, potentially having to fight the big dogs that are already there, and then watching your back as up-and-coming promotions try to take you down.

It also adds a huge amount of strategy when making your company a power player; it's no longer good enough to reach National size and then start slowly enhancing your roster, as chances are you might be just 28 days away from having to fight established super-powers. Furthermore, having your star workers stolen becomes even more dramatic, as not only does their loss hurt you, it actively helps your opponents attack you.

In short, this feature adds a whole new set of strategy, worries, and challenges for the big promotions, putting an end to their relatively easy life.

quote Adam Ryland - Developer's Journal Part Four

#4: Injury Realism

A small feature that has been added in order to improve realism, injuries now have the option of being defined as In Ring, Out Of Ring, or Either. As the definitions suggest, this means that the injury can be restricted to occur only in certain situations; this stops people getting Food Poisoning, for example, from in-ring activity.

quote Adam Ryland - Developer's Journal Part Five

#5: Multi Advance

After making its first appearance in WMMA, the Multi Advance feature will be making its TEW debut in 2008.

The Multi Advance is an optional tool that allows the player to skip through a specified number of days in a row, taking away the need to keep clicking. It will automatically stop if an event needs booking, an important e-mail comes in, a pending decision needs addressing, or a diary alert has been set.

The TEW08 version is vastly larger in its scope than its WMMA counterpart, as it allows the user to skip up to one year at a time. Furthermore, when selecting how many days to advance, the on screen display shows what the date will be at the end of that period so that it is easier to stop exactly where you want.

quote Adam Ryland - Developer's Journal Part Six

#6: Worker \ New Worker Combination

In TEW08, the information that used to be divided into both "Workers" (people who start active) and "New Workers" (characters that become active at a later date) has now been combined into one section.

Some of you will probably be thinking that that's not much of a change, but it actually leads to several subtle improvements, especially for mod makers.

The first of these improvements is the obvious one, it makes organisation of files much easier. Rather than forcing mod makers to switch between the two groupings and keep them consistent, everything is in one place. Similarly, this means they can all be filtered in one go, there's no more importing from one file to the other, etc, etc.

The second improvement helps both the realism of the game and mod makers. As everything is now in the same place, the former New Workers are no longer isolated from the rest of the editor. This means that they can happily given relationships, alter egos, etc. To take a real world example, if you have a historical database and have Harry Smith appear several years after the game begins, he can now not only come into the game with all his Hart-family relationships in place, he can also be set to correctly turn to the DH Smith moniker if he gets signed by the WWE.

Of course, as everyone is now in the same file, you can also correctly set up entire generations of family relationships. There are no limits on time, so you could end up seeing existing wrestlers' great-great-grandchildren debuting if you wanted to.

To answer a question that I'm sure will be asked, the in-game 07-08 converter handles the combining of the two files automatically, including generating the relationships.

quote Adam Ryland - Developer's Journal Part Seven

#7: The Hall Of Immortals

The Hall Of Immortals is the in-game "Hall Of Fame", similar to the one found in WMMA. Unlike its earlier counterpart though, the HOI is specifically meant to be far more exclusive, so that only the best of the best get in.

As the game progresses, a record of achievements is kept on each wrestler. When a wrestler retires (or dies) that record is looked at, and if deemed impressive enough, results in them being inducted into the Hall. There are five possible achievements:

Major Champion (Has won a main event title in a major promotion)
Headliner (Has main evented a major promotion's historic or legendary event)
Show Stealer (Was in a legendary match with a major promotion)
Year Of Glory (Has been voted Wrestler Of The Year)
National Icon (Has reached iconic levels of popularity in a game area)

All but the final achievement can be done multiple times, with each gives a certain amount of points (i.e. one Headliner achievement may give the character 20 points, but fifteen Headliner achievements may give the character 50 points; there are maximum levels though). If the final points tally is greater than a certain level, the character qualifies as a Hall Of Immortal candidate.

Therefore, there are multiple ways to get into the HOI. One character may get the majority of his points because he was world champion multiple times and headlines years' worth of pay-per-views. Another character may get the bulk of his points because of the amount of legendary matches he was involved with, even if he never actually won any world titles at all.

As with WMMA, all of this is also able to be edited; not only the Hall Of Immortals initial membership, but also what achievements a character has attained before the game has started (for those who are already on their way to becoming a legend).

quote Adam Ryland - Developer's Journal Part Eight

#8: Champion Replacement

A small addition to the title belt section is that the user now has the option to instantly Replace a championship-holding wrestler with somebody else on the roster. When the replacement is done, the user has the option of having it count as a new title reign (i.e. the title history gets updated to show the wrestler who was replaced as the former champion) or a continuation of the existing one (i.e. the wrestler who was replaced does not show up as a previous champion, and the reign continues with the new champion in place).

This was primarily added to simulate the "Freebird rule" of being able to swap tag team titles around a stable of wrestlers rather than being stuck with just the two who won them, but it can also be used to award a title to someone (i.e. replace Vacant with a wrestler; similar to just handing them the belt without them needing to wrestle for it) or to do a "phantom title change" (i.e. starting a new reign with a new champion, but without the need to actually have a match).

This is all done via the regular title belt screen.

quote Adam Ryland - Developer's Journal Part Nine

#9: Potential

A new stat for workers in TEW08 is Potential. This is a measure of how good they are likely to become. This is used when the game is creating the "stat caps" for each person, and is used in conjunction with the existing Destiny stat. The higher the potential level, the greater the chance that the stat caps will end up being quite high, which therefore means the worker has a better chance of turning into a really good performer.

Of course, it has little to no effect on workers who are already established or old, as clearly potential doesn't really apply to them.

The main use of this stat is for young or "future" workers, particularly in historical scenarios, as it allows for added realism.

Potential can be set to Random via the editor for those who want to keep the random element in place.

quote Adam Ryland - Developer's Journal Part Ten

#10: Chemistry Store

A small but probably popular feature that has been added to TEW08 is the Chemistry Store. Very simply, every time you discover a new piece of chemistry in the game it is stored on file. You can then access that information at any time by viewing a worker.

This allows an easy and convenient way to keep track of everything.

quote Adam Ryland - Developer's Journal Part Eleven

#11: New Game World

The thirty-three region game world that was in TEW07 has been upgraded to become a forty region game world in TEW08.

The biggest change is the (re)addition of one new game area, Australia, which consists of four regions.

Europe has been upgraded, and now also consists of four regions; Central Europe, Scandinavia, Mediterranean and Easter Europe.

The UK has been expanded by one, and now includes Ireland as its fifth region.

The final addition is that the USA has been expanded by one, and now includes Hawaii too.

To address the question that I'm sure is to be asked, no, the USA is not changing to a state-by-state breakdown as it was in WMMA. The positives that would come from that change (being able to fine-tune popularity to a greater degree; being able to see what state you are in) are outweighed by the negatives (it would make the US alone bigger than the entire rest of the game world put together; massively increases the amount of data that needs to be held and edited; makes displaying data a lot harder as it can't fit on one screen; adds little or nothing to the game play; unbalances America compared to the other areas; etc.)

quote Adam Ryland - Developer's Journal Part Twelve

#12: Location Prestige

Coming over from WMMA, albeit with a slight change, is the location prestige feature.

Every region of the game is given its own prestige; this is a measure of how important it is in the game world, so traditional wrestling hotbeds like the Tri State region would be very prestigious, whereas somewhere with very little history like Scotland would have a fairly low prestige.

Prestige is used in deciding a promotion's size. So if you were 80% popular in a 50% prestige region, that counts as 40% Prestige Points (80 x 50%). These are then used in the size calculations (i.e. "you need to get 25% Prestige Points in one region to reach Small size", etc). Don't worry if that sounds complex, there is an on-screen display that shows you exactly what is going on, you don't need to do any maths yourself.

This feature adds more strategy to the game, as it means that not every region is as "valuable" as the others.

quote Adam Ryland - Developer's Journal Part Thirteen

#13: Medical Exam

When negotiating with a worker, you will now have the option of requesting that he (or she) take a medical exam prior to signing. For a small fee you will get back a report that will highlight any history of substance abuse that the lab can pick up.

Although only a small feature, it does present a useful tool for those who prefer to keep a clean roster and do not want to unwittingly bring in a bad influence.

quote Adam Ryland - Developer's Journal Part Fourteen

#14: Ring Rust

To heighten the realism, TEW08 introduces ring rust. A wrestler who has been away from the ring for a lengthy period of time - whether that be through injury, unemployment, jail, hiatus or whatever - will accumulate ring rust. When he does return, it will take him some time to re-adjust to wrestling and to "shake off" the ring rust. Until he does, his performance will be slightly impaired. The amount of matches it takes to shake it off will depend on how long he was out for, plus his own ability to recover.

This means that when you bring in workers who have not been very active recently, you will have to be careful to slowly get them back into fighting shape and won't simply be able to stick them straight into the middle of a 60 minute iron man match, for example.

This game is looking better and better. I'll probably end up buying it, I just hope I don't end up getting disapointed.

I wonder if when a wrestler accumulates ring rust, you would just be able to have them start working house shows to remove said ring rust? That would defidently involve some planning as you would have to bring a returning wrestler back with enough time to work it off at house shows to get them back on tv when you want them to be there storyline wise.

I think you could already do House Shows, like Pre-Shows.

Right. What I'm wondering is with the inclusion of ring rust, instead of having it affect your, "on tv," performance, could you set the wrestler to start working at house shows specifically to work off the ring rust and get them back into, "ring-shape."

An example would be Matt Hardy takes a vacation for 6 months, accumulating ring rust for not being in the ring during that time. When his vacation is over, what I'm wondering is could you have him appear exclusively at house shows to work off the ring rust, or to specifically have him work off his ring rust there before bringing him back to tv 3 weeks later for a small feud, just so it doesn't affect the tv rating and match quality.

That's one of the things I love about the house shows. I mean, I never bought 07 so I never got to test out how the testing of chemistry at house shows worked out, but I'm thinking that if this is possible it would be terrific as well. I'll probably be picking this up when it comes out in June.

Blah I agree with KCW, it doesn't have the EWR feel and when I finally get my whole save set up and such I get tired of it.. Won't be buying 08, 06 is still fine with me. Not that I haven't gotten tired of it already and went back to EWR.

I think 2007 was a bit of a Downer. I will probaly Download '08 Before I buy it.

quote TheKingofKings

I'll definetly get this one, I still find TEW07 amazing, but I can't wait for this to come.

quote TheKingofKings

I think 2007 was a bit of a Downer. I will probaly Download '08 Before I buy it.

quote Adam Ryland - Developer's Journal Part Fifteen

#15: Less Predictable

Taken from WMMA, TEW08 brings on board the concept of making the timing of certain incidents less predictable.

An example is the retirement of workers. In previous games, as everybody will have noticed, a worker always announces his retirement on the last day of the month, gives himself 28 days, and then officially retires on the last day of the following month. There is nothing wrong with that, but it does get predictable. In TEW08, people can announce their retirement at any time, adding to the realism.

This applies to lots of different possible incidents, and so means that there is no longer certain "trigger" days to watch out for. This makes the game flow better and with a more realistic edge.

quote Adam Ryland - Developer's Journal Part Sixteen

#16: Development Territories

The way development territories work has been overhauled in 08, in order to make them simpler to use and more effective. There are several modifications that have been made.

The system for sending people to and from development has now been made much simpler, and is done simply by clicking a Send \ Recall button when viewing a worker. People can be moved around at will, there is no longer any negotiations necessary.

When sending someone to a development territory you can now give them a reason \ focus. This can be; skill development, conditioning, to remove ring rust, or to act as a trainer for other workers.

Development territories remain as separate organizations that are run by the AI, but a slight change is that the "parent" company now has to pay some of the "child" promotion's costs. This is to make up for the fact that you have such a large say in their booking by lieu of the fact that you can move people in and out of the promotion at will.

The speed that a worker will develop has also been altered, to allow characters to improve at a more realistic rate. This is done by having him improve on days when he is not wrestling, to simulate the fact that he is training. Therefore, even if the promotion is only running one show a month, the worker can still improve quite a lot. As usual, the level of improvement depends on their personality, their Destiny, their maximum possible skill levels, and who they have to train with.