jjsquirrel

Super Macho Man: The fans want to see me, naturally, I mean why else would they be there? So I keep the top position and give them their moneys worth. Always think of the fans. Tapping? Pfft, crazy idea, could lose me minutes of prime time exposure now that I reached the final, won't happen.

Suggestion: Fighter status items Suggestions Description: Cars, houses, luxury watches, their own whiskey brand or whatever. Let there be things to spend fighter money on. Some discussion on luxury items already happened here. Let each such item have a status value roughly scaling with price. The more hype a fighter has the higher total value of status he will expect. Not meeting his expectations there will make him unhappy = morale loss. Below some hype threshold the expectation would be 0. Ideally there would even be a new hidden added that is a modifier to the expectation level making it individual per fighter, similar to other such non-fight attributes suggested here. A fixed relationship for expected status level and hype may not age well as the game economy grows or shrinks. So consider making it dynamic. Since everything is in a database you could split hype levels in a couple tiers, calculate an average per tier once per week or so. Then use fighter luxury desire hidden x current average for his tier to determine if he is happy with his current level or not. That way the expectation level shifts dynamically when fighters compare themselves to their peers. Like there is a floor with the bottom tier having 0 expectation there should probably be a roof as well or things may get silly for the top guys. Cap the max expectation at some percentage above the second tier maybe. Maybe holding a title would add a little extra expectation, at least as long as it also comes with some additional benefits so it doesn't become a disincentive to holding belts. Reaching a certain level of status items can also be a thing in itself, there should certainly be a fighter trophy for it. Could be a current and all time high list of the fighters spending the most on status items. Eventually something could also be done with manager hype being gained from retiring a fighter in the top status tier (as opposed to being robbed in shady laundry deals fighters would like to work with managers who get their guys luxury cars), but I think I made enough suggestions for a while now. Morale depending mainly on repetitive clothes changing is silly and I hope we can one day move away from that. Pros: Money sink Better model for fighter happiness, more realism Reduces laundry incentive Cons: Will in practise only be a limit for players not sitting on "old money"

Costs could be increased in various ways, maybe also add some potential high energy loss from the seminar which effectively loses you more training sessions? Out of all my suggestions this is the one i feel is the least thought out so far so I welcome some discussion.

Suggestion: Cornermen Suggestions Description: Make it possible to select up to two cornermen for a fight. Could be on same page as where you set sliders. For each cornerman you select one secondary skill that they will provide a bonus to based on their own skill level. This can work similar to the training bonus. Cornermen can be selected from other active fighters or from coaches at your gym. It would be nice if you can also invite fighters from other players to act as cornermen. Cornermen would have to be free for the event, so not fighting on the same day or giving a seminar etc. Cornermen bonus could also be weighed by coaching skill (if that is added). Having a friend in the corner could add a morale or confidence bonus, maybe even enough that it would make fighters with bad hiddens on those stats more viable overall? If your fighter fails an intelligence roll (whenever those are made) the corner may get a roll to save him and change the result to a better one. Could result in some text about fighter taking instructions from his corner. There is already some flavour text saying something about a fighter moving closer to their corner. make that have an actual effect and provide increased corner bonus for the rest of the round or similar. Cornermen would also factor heavily into getting a read on your opponent in round breaks. Base that on their experience and intelligence. You would not know in advance what cornermen your opponent has but it will be revealed in the fight text and possibly some commentary with clues on which skill they boost. Pros: Provides some adaptation possibilities for different types of opponents Nice role for older fighters to fill Cons: One more per fight setting to make, but it is optional of course

Suggestion: Special moves & seminars Suggestions Description: Add the concept of special moves. This would be rare things that can work a little bit as a signature move for fighters, like Imanari roll or some of the things suggested for advanced submissions or strikes. Each one could have some prerequisite for being able to learn it, like a combination of maybe takedowns, submissions and flexibility for an Imanari roll. But if the fighter has the move or not is binary. If they do it will have a chance to replace a move of the appropriate type during fights, like a takedown for the Imanari roll. But it would be a slightly stronger version like the Imanari roll landing you straight into a leglock position.. which I realise may not be a thing in the fight engine now but you get the idea, it can maybe let you get straight to the next action and get a submission attempt. So how do fighters pick up the special moves? One way could be by very rare random events given that a fighter has the prerequisite skill. This would be how a new move initially enters the MMA Tycoon world. And Vlad, you don't even need to tell us when new moves are added, people will find out eventually. Another could be that we add seminars. Something that takes a full day (two training sessions) for the fighter holding them. It will be at a specific gym with a fee for attending fighters and a paycheck for the instructor fighter holding it. Note that the gym should be able to take a cut here and gym and instructor does not necessarily belong to the same manager. It works as two regular training sessions in one specific skill for attendees and will also have a chance for each of them to learn a special move the instructor has related to that skill. Chance to learn depend on the instructors coaching skill. The instructor will lose the two training sessions but gets the money instead as well as their coaching skill trained. I could imagine people being willing to pay a lot for a chance to learn attractive special moves even if they only offer a slight advantage over regular ones. I suppose seminars could be invite-only or open to anyone but should have a max attendance of maybe 12. Having a fighter run seminars could also be used as a mechanic to earn money from the simulated general public. Another thing (or an alternative to adding seminars) should be that ex-fighter coaches working at your gym have a small chance to spread any special moves they have every week. There should be a limit to how many special moves a fighter can have in total, like 3? There are probably ways to improve this suggestion, I'm not 100% happy with it as is but throwing it out there for discussion. Pros: Special moves makes fighters more unique Spreading moves drives player interaction Realism, seminars are very much a thing happening irl Cons: May introduce balancing issues with OP moves Could make luck more of a factor in fights May be difficult to keep moves a rare thing and they become just a standard thing that every fighter has

Suggestion: Press conferences Suggestions Description: Make it an option for orgs to run pre-event press conferences and select one or two fights from the card to be featured. A successful event will gain some benefits like increased event attendance or hype. Add an option on the fighter bio page how to act during press conferences, like neutral, confrontative, sportsmanlike, crazy etc. (like post fight options). And of course an optional custom line to be quoted from them. Depending on fighter options, media skill, any friendship/rivalry, and some randomness generate a result. Results like fights almost breaking out should probably count as positive for the org as it generates more interest. There could even be options for the org to try and stage fake incidents for increased risk/reward. Outcome of the PC could have some effect on fighter popularity (we may not want it to affect hype?). And if media skill is a thing being featured on a PC should work like a training session to increase it. Another cool thing would be mind games. If one fighter manages to get under his opponents skin let it result in a morale drop. The roll for this could be based on confidence. I think there should some org hype level requirement (above id org) before you can use this option and it should cost a small amount of money for the org. Message all managers on the card when the PC happens (like 2 days before) and include link to the org forum thread to encourage continued smacktalk there. A successful press conference could also gain some little hype for the event sponsor. Clothes worn by a fighter featured on a PC could earn the producer company a few hype points. Pros: Adds to feeling of different tier orgs Would be a nice tie-in to make use of media skill and make such fighters more desirable for orgs Could inspire players to some forum follow up smack talking Cons: May discourage/replace player driven press conference events via forum, but i have not seen any of those in a long time now anyway

Suggestion: Friendship/rivalry Suggestions Description: Allow managers to set friends or rivals for their fighters. Use this setting to trigger interesting fight flavour text. If sportsmanship is added this setting would act as a heavy modifier on that during fights like +50 if you have opp set as friend or -50 for a rival. Probably has to be a limit on how often you can change to make this more of a long-term thing and not have people swap around before every fight. Pros: Flavour, roleplaying Cons: ?

Suggestion: Benefits from holding titles Suggestions Description: Holding a belt doesn't really do much beyond the bragging rights. I think it would improve the game if there was some actual effect attached to it. Could be as simple as periodic S&W credits for title holders. Or create a few new random events with positive effect that will only happen for title holders. Such events could also make use of non-fighting skills like media training so you can reap even more benefits (for org or for yourself) if you have a title holder that is also a media personality. But ideally I would like something more advanced like hype gains over time for managers holding top titles. At the same time top 10 managers not holding a top title could lose hype to offset that gain. That would fit nicely into the architecture the game already has in that it could run as a periodic script. And you would still have the bragging rights. When I say top titles it should be determined by org hype. Holding a title in the top few orgs in the game should be worth more and have more hype impact. A hard cap on minimum org hype before any effects kick in can be used to avoid pushing new orgs into running title fights right away.. and also make the mechanic harder to exploit using fake orgs. The intended effect is: More competition for the belts themselves, make you WANT that title shot. Being a top 10 manager should be harder without success in any top org, some tie-in with Manager rank weighting. One possible side effect is some champions may not be in any hurry to take fights and risk losing their belt and perks that come with it. This is however one driver for player interaction and maybe also somewhat realistic. And it goes both ways, if you are being difficult as a champ it may also be more difficult to get future title shots. And there is the strip title option if someone becomes unreasonable so I think it should work out. Original thread from years ago: Pros: Make titles more desirable Cons: Could make managers more reluctant risking their titles

And I finally found where I first posted about ideas like this, could be some variation from what I wrote in recent suggestions:

Maybe.. but I'd still take a guy stuffing his granite chin with pizza over someone whos most distinctive attribute is eating healthy.

How many per team? We cannot field more than 3 at the moment. But as that was enough to just snipe the alliance pyramid league trophy ahead of the big alliances I feel we need to double down with an AWC title as well 😁

Suggestion: New company type, fight equipment Suggestions Description: Gloves, pads, shin guards, wrestling dummies etc. anything that is used in training. For each type you can develop a product as an investment somewhat similar to nutrition (btw this system should probably be changed overall so higher quality items have a higher production cost and not just an one-time fee). But we do not want to deal with purchasing/replacing every little piece of gear for individual fighters like we do clothes. Instead this would be treated as consumables for gyms. A gym would be able to set a supplier for each product type. Quality of the kit has some small effect on training level. Private gyms will want top quality and pay more for that. Public gyms can do quite well with lower quality creating a market for both. For gyms and equipment companies there will be some supply chain management to keep track on that you don't run out of any specific type of gear. But no micromanagement hell, just let the gym set a level of stock for each equipment type and have it be automatically refilled as long as there is product available (same could be done for vending machines btw). Could even be that different types of training use different equipment - if we want to take the detail level that far, but would be cool actually since consumption rate would differ depending on what skills are trained the most. Which in turn would add some little strategy for the equipment companies to be on top of any new trends and have products available. For fight orgs (MMA/KT) we add a similar option as for gyms to select their approved fight glove and keep a stock, some are consumed at every event. having any less than top quality here should result in some small hype loss. Consequence for running out? Not sure, but hype or money penalty maybe. As for other companies we also have general public sales following a similar mechanic with total sales based on overall game economy size. Equipment companies gain hype mainly from sponsorships and shoutouts. Having your gloves used at events should also gain a small amount of hype based on the org hype. Another category would be gym machines/equipment, this is only sold to gyms. We already have the replace equipment option. Let that be an actual purchase of specific equipment produced by a company. Split that also up in some more specific categories. Replacements are done manually, are high cost but happens rarely. Pros: More tycooning for the tycoon game Tie economy together via player/company interaction Cons: Need people running the companies, maybe add some default magic quality 100 eq always available to buy just in case?

Suggestion: Public gyms Suggestions Description: The public gym situation has been complained about since I started playing. There was something added a while back as an incentive to run them (cannot remember the details). I think that could be changed into a mechanism where you can actually make a profit from running them by having simulated people train there as hobbyists, similar to this idea. It would probably also go well together with franchises. Let gyms get a hype rating. That together with values for cleanliness, equipment is baked into a formula that provides an extra weekly income for public gyms only. Also add some investments that be purchased and increase this income but add some small extra maintenance cost, could even split up what is just purchasing new equipment into specific equipments. Base value for available income from hobbyists should be some value based on total game economy (per city). That creates a market per city that gyms have to compete for, you can only have so many public gyms per city making a profit purely on simulated hobbyists. But you do still have the pro fighters paying their fees as before on top of that. Market share should have some inertia so it is also based of the previous weeks value. Public gyms would compete with each other for the hobbyist market. So how to gain hype for gyms? Having high hype fighters train there is a given, add some for ever week they train there. Having coaches with high experience, extensive records or similar could also add hype up to some point, could create some competition for retired fighters. Sponsorships, could maybe be a thing. Sponsor events. If sponsoring individual fighters it could be cool if it can be done in some form involving him giving a seminar at the gym. Seminars is also something that could be a mechanic on its own. When fighters win fights a small bit of hype could be added to the gym they train at (scaled for the fight hype level). Typing that I'm starting to see in my head how dojo stormings could become a thing when two competing gyms have an org set up an event for them to fight it out.. that would be a totally cool thing if it happened Pros: Make public gyms a viable company option Expand the tycoon aspect of the game Provides natural incentive to open public gyms where needed Cons: A lot of balancing (that is the hard part here, I'm just throwing out ideas, but it has to be done anyway to eventually achieve a working economy) Could be tough to get into the public gym market, but that also depends on how saturated it is so could hopefully be self-regulated once you find the right balance

Or maybe add it as part of this: ..and come on now, free CK, we want his input on discussions like this.

I should add also that it would be cool if you could hire any retired fighter as a coach, not just your own. Except the ones that went to Bahamas I suppose. I think it could be nice if the majority (maybe even all?) of gym coaches are made up of actual ex fighters. You would of course always have the first opportunity to hire your own ex fighters as you can retire them directly to coaching.

Suggestion: Non-fighting skills Suggestions Description: This would be similar to skills or in some cases more like hiddens for personality traits that mainly affect things outside the fight engine. Some example I could think of are Media training: Skill, affects outcome of events like the interview ones and similar. Should go up slowly as the fighter has more high-level fights, as results of interview events and there could also be an option to send him on media training for a cost. The general idea is that a high level should help generate a little occasional bonus hype.. or maybe popularity instead if we don't want to give out hype this way. It would also be used if we eventually add things like pre-fight press conferences or similar. Coaching: Skill start from 1 and then starts increasing slowly once the fighter has reached a certain experience level. Can be increased by sending him on coaching courses for a cost. if he is retired as a coach it can directly influence how much coach skill point he gets. But before then it can also be used for other things like being a cornerman for another fighter or holding seminars (if we add those features). Sportsmanship: This would be more like a hidden with some randomness to the exact value assigned at fighter creation. The player should have some input on high/low so it can match how you want to roleplay your guy but not be able to know the exact value. This would be checked when generating finishing texts and could have some impact on how many injury days the opponent gets. I think it would be fine if that is all it does for now, but could also have a future use for warnings/DQ:s. Low sportsmanship could increase the chance for illegal moves that can actually give you some advantage but would be a higher risk/reward thing that you may also get DQ:ed if they happen too many times in a fight. I think making the unsportsmanlike conduct into something more than just flavour text will generate more attention and roleplaying/smacktalking interactions.Sending a guy on a rules seminar could be an option that increases both coaching and sportsmanship Pros: Roleplaying value Good building block to expand with more mechanics later Adds a little bit of a money sink for training courses Cons: May feel restricting for roleplayers if their characters get assigned personality traits

I personally think the right level to aim for is removing the need for laundry services but still leave the possibility. It should not be the most efficient way to get money and should not result in any major secondary benefits like company hype or similar. Nerf it instead of kill it outright just because leaving different ways to achieve your goals makes the economy more dynamic and interesting. Maybe just leave laundry as it is for now and revisit it later to find how/if to fit it in once a working ingame economy is starting to take shape?

Yes should maybe have been clearer on that but my idea was that this should not go in until we have to fix the income side for nutrition companies among other things. Getting the economy into a working state will have to be done in several steps but I'm posting them in separate topics to keep discussions focused and make it possible to accept/reject/modify them individually.

Means fighting is probably not his thing and he would be better off hanging with the crowd that like gardening, musicals and such.

Suggestion: Production capacity Suggestions Description: For clothes and nutrition, instead of having a fixed number of new items you can produce per month make that number variable, lets call it production capacity. It should start out low, much lower than the current hardcoded one. Expanding it is done by paying an upfront cost. There is also a running monthly cost based on current production capacity (regardless of if you use it or not). Scaling it down should also be an option, but takes time (notice periods for layoffs, labour unions whatever). Generally companies should make a profit of course, but if they are not selling products it should be possible to make a loss. Also add a small monthly storage fee for unsold items in stock. Pros: Moneysink to balance simulated sales Lets make this a tycoon game Cons:

Suggestion: Simulated sales Suggestions Description: This is only one small step on the long road to achieve a working economy, more to come. Add a simulated consumer base that will buy clothes and supplements every month. This represents sales hobbyists etc. and happens in addition to what in-game fighters buy. The total simulated sales could be some fixed percentage of the total economic activity in the game per month. This is then split up between companies based on hype, product price and some randomization. Companies compete mainly by gaining hype. Hype drives sales, not the other way around. So sponsorships will be necessary to get a slice of the general public sales. The hype gained from sales to fighters/managers should be heavily scaled down. Base it on fighter hype so sales to a high hype fighter still gives hype to the company. Laundry can still have a place in the economy, but I think it should not be a way to boost company hype so there should be some cap on how much a single fighter can boost company hype per month. Pros: May eventually add some actual strategy for companies where they can exploit different niches like targeting pro fighters or the general public. Give <160 supplements a reason to exist as aimed for the hobbyist market and at the same time providing a way to start building up a new nutrition company without the extreme initial investment for going straight to 160. Cons: As this injects more money into the game it will need to be balanced out by money sinks (separate suggestions).

Suggestion: Retired fighters as coaches Suggestions Description: Make it possible to convert your fighters into coaches. This is mainly for roleplaying purposes and letting players keep their favourites around. But it could also let you use them if we add a feature like cornermen or specialist training. So don't be too harsh on their coaching attributes. Maybe give the player a pool of points to distribute based on number of fights they had. I don't think it should be linked to current skill level as that may have declined from their peak. But the BJJ max level should be limited by their belt level. The same could be done for other primaries but would require the game to track historic max level for them too. Let ex-fighter coaches keep an avatar (could maybe even spawn a new market for avatars of older guys?). Pros: Roleplaying and sentimentality Has possible future game mechanic use like cornermen Cons:

Suggestion: Intelligent counters Suggestions Description: Add a new variable to the fight engine for "having a read" on your opponent. Let it build up over the fight based on your fighters intelligence + experience. Maybe slow the buildup a bit if opponent is high on SHIG. At a certain threshold level you get a bonus for hitting with counters. If things like cornermen (that will be another suggestion, edit: now added here) is eventually added your corner can also affect reading the opp every round break. As this will boost the importance of intelligence somewhat it can be balanced by instead slightly decreasing the impact of intelligence for "going for the kill" once your opponent is rocked. Instead make aggression play a role there. Pros: Cool mechanic that I think will be interesting for high level slidering Cons: ?

Suggestion: Physicals cap Suggestions Description: A physical cap was about to be implemented a few years ago. My suggestion is a lighter variant modeled on irl body/muscle types. Instead of a general cap we put in some more targeted limitations. Strength vs Cardio: If one is 15 the other can max be 13, or you can have both at 14 but not both maxed. Strength vs Flexibility: Same thing. Speed vs Cardio: Same thing. So you could have Cardio 15, but then both Strength and Speed would be capped at 13. I'm thinking it can be explained as big muscles burn more energy and fast/slow muscle types. But the goal is that you have to make some hard choices which should create more build variety. Pros: Build variety Realism? Cons: Existing fighters above the cap

Suggestion: Tutorial fights Suggestions Description: We want to keep new players and I think the best way is to show them the best part of the game right away.. which is the fight engine that kept all of us coming back year after year. There is already a series of PM:s for a new player I think but cannot remember what they say. I think this could be expanded and add a couple fights. They would be against predefined "bot" opponents and not count for your record. Maybe your own fighter would also be a predefined allround one. Give some hints before each fight on how to slider against the different opponent builds you face.. and the noob may even learn something. And make sure the tutorial point them to the pbp version of the fight.. I remember squinting and covering part of my screen for quite some time before I found that myself. Pros: New player experience More things for a new player to do Cons: Will get repetitive and boring for the poor multis having to go through this time after time trying to look like a noob