Total Extreme Wrestling IX | BetheBooker (2024)

The Inner Circle

Each company can now have an inner circle; this is a series of optional roles that you can hand out to people on the roster. The benefit of this, outside of the effects specific to each role (which we'll get to in a moment), is that it can improve your relationship with the person chosen, positively impact their morale, and build loyalty. However, like the booking team, removing someone from a role will hurt their morale and can lead to ugly scenes, and you'll also have to deal with the politics of people getting upset if they're not chosen, if someone they dislike gets a plum role, etc. The roles are:

Locker Room Leaders: You can have up to five different locker room leaders, and this replaces the old system whereby locker room leaders happened outside of your control. The LRL are the core workers who are known to have the booker's ear. Their impact on the locker room is heightened, which can either be a pro or con depending on who they are and their current status. Having two locker room leaders who have become rivals can be really damaging to the locker room environment as they jockey for prominence. Good LRL tend to be well-respected, positive role models and the booker generally will take care of them because of the potential negatives if they get unhappy. They also need to have experience of being in the ring, so they should be an active wrestler or a retired one.

Chief Enforcers: You can have up to three enforcers and they are the ones who impose discipline on the backstage area, which if they're doing it well will have the effect of lowering the chance of fights breaking out, people turning up late, etc. The downside is that the power may go to some people's head and negatively impact their behaviour over time. On top of that, they're more likely to fall out with those who misbehave. Good enforcers need to be tough and should be well-respected.

Head Of Talent Relations: The HOTR is effective a buffer (or human shield!) between you and the locker room. If the position is filled, they automatically handle all but the most major locker room incidents on your behalf and any blowback goes to them, not you. The major downside is that you hand over some of your autonomy; you no longer get a choice of how most incidents are handled and so you may end up with outcomes you wouldn't have chosen (although they'll never suspend or fire anyone without consent). Additionally, by their nature, the HOTR has an outsized effect on the backstage area and if they're doing the job poorly it can have massive ramifications. A good HOTR should be well-respected, have a professional or people-oriented personality, and not have an active in-ring role. Due to the added responsibility and workload, holding this position brings about much higher wage demands.

Morale Officer: The morale officer is in charge of keeping the backstage area happy. The benefit is that their own positive impact on the locker room is amplified, they lessen the penalties of anyone who feels isolated, and they increase the chance of positive events happening. The downside is that if they become unhappy it will have a much worse impact than usual and can spread quickly to other people. Also, they may clash with unhappy or negative people. Good candidates have people-oriented personalities and strong morale.

Senior Road Agent: The SRA is in charge of the road agent corps and making sure the booking team's instructions are carried out (if you only have one road agent then this position has no effect). The person chosen gets regular morale boosts for being in power and will tend to develop positive relationships with the booking team. The downside is that the power can go to some people's heads. A good SRA is good at their job and has a professional or people-orientated personality. Due to the extra workload, this comes with higher wage demands.

Senior Referee: The senior ref is in charge of the referee corps and is responsible for making sure the ring crew sets everything up pre-show. If you only have one referee, this position has no effect. The person chosen gets regular morale boosts. There aren't really any downsides unless other referees get jealous. A good candidate is skilled at their job and has a responsible personality. Due to the extra workload, this comes with higher wage demands.

Head Men's Trainer and Head Women's Trainer: The trainers are responsible for running pre-show training drills for the less experienced workers in the respective divisions. This can help boost basic skills and makes it more likely that they'll take on a mentor role. Good trainers need to be solid in-ring workers and generally have professional or people-orientated personalities. They do not need to be part of the division that they're training. Due the extra workload, this comes with added wage demands.

Travel Organiser: This role is responsible for arranging the travel and accommodation for workers who are not local. The benefit is that they get regular morale boosts for being given responsibility. The downside is that they may annoy other workers if they are irresponsible or screw up. This role is only available for Medium sized companies or smaller as bigger companies have admin staff to handle this. A good candidate has a steady personality. The role comes with added wage demands due to the extra work.

Stooge: A 'secret' role, the stooge is the booker's eyes and ears backstage. The benefit is that the stooge can report on happenings that otherwise might be invisible to you and they are likely to develop a bond with the booker. The downside is that they must be kept happy, as if their morale becomes low their relationship with the booker may deteriorate and they can start spreading hurtful rumours. There are no particular skills needed for this role, but as it's an underhanded position finding someone willing to take it on can be problematic...and you have to be careful who you ask!

This feature is another that adds to making the backstage environment and politics more lively and engaging than in previous games, and adds some extra decisions, wrinkles and knock-on effects for the booker to have to deal with to keep things interesting. Note that this is not limited to the player-controlled companies, the AI will make use of this too and you'll see regular stories on the website as the positions change or lead to incidents.

Geo Tags

A new system, 'geo tags', has been introduced to companies, events and locations in order to allow an easy way for database makers to subdivide the game's regions and create more realistic restricted access for where companies go. This allows, for example, a Glaswegian company to be limited to only running shows in Glasgow while at a small size, rather than them showing up all over Scotland. As this system, despite being quite simple, can be quite difficult to explain when you don't have the game in front of you to see it in action, I've done a detailed description below that includes a follow-along example. (Please note that I use "venues" in the following text; to be clear, this refers to the whole system, so venues and locations are covered.)

Each venue may have up to five geo tags of up to 30 characters each. If used, they allow the venue to be situated within specific sub-divisions of a region. For examples, let's make three venues in the Southern England region with their geo tags in brackets: Lambeth Hall ('London', 'South London', 'Lambeth'), Chelsea Arena ('London', 'West London', 'Chelsea') and London Pub (no geo tags).

Companies and events work in exactly the same way. Each can (optionally) have one geo tag defined for each of the first three company sizes; Insignificant, Tiny, and Small. If a tag is given, this means that - at that size - the company should not be venturing outside that regional subdivision. To continue our example, you might have a company that is defined as 'Lambeth' (at Insignificant), 'South London' (at Tiny) and 'London' (at Small). This would simulate the company slowly expanding as it got bigger. Note that sizes above Small do not have geo tags; that is because once a company is above Small then they would naturally not be restricted below the regional structure.

The way the system functions is that if the company is at a size that has an associated geo tag, the AI will only be able to go to a venue that either has the same geo tag OR has no geo tags at all. (If the company has no geo tag at that size then they have no limitations on where they can go.) So, looking at our earlier examples:

At Insignificant size, our example company would be able to go to Lambeth Hall (because they share the tag 'Lambeth') or London Pub (because that venue has no tags at all). It cannot go to Chelsea Arena because that venue does have tags but does not share the 'Lambeth' tag.

At Tiny, our example company can again go to Lambeth Hall (because they share 'South London') and London Pub (no tags), but still can't go to Chelsea Arena.

At Small, our example company can go to Lambeth Hall (shares 'London'), London Pub (no tags), but now CAN go to Chelsea Arena because that also shares 'London'.

Once past Small, the company can go to any venue within Southern England as it is no longer bound by the geo tag system.

If an event has any geo tags then that is what is used for the calculation, not the company's; if an event has no geo tags filled in then the company's are used instead. This means that you can set it up so that certain events can break the company's normal restrictions (e.g. maybe you have a show that is intentionally an anomaly, like a London company heading down to the Edinburgh to perform an annual show each summer).

It is important to note that this only applies to AI booking (the user is free to go wherever they like, whenever they like) and is automatically ignored if an show has been assigned a fixed location.

In order to make life easier both for database makers and people setting up things during a save game, whenever there's a place to fill in a geo tag you will find an icon next to it; clicking this brings up a master list of all the geo tags currently in the game, together with information on what they're currently linked to. You can then just click the one you want to automatically fill it in. This takes away a lot of typing and also removes any chance of typographical errors.

To summarise, this is a very simple system to use - it's literally just text tags - but it means that you can effectively subdivide any of the game's regions into as many smaller subregions as you want, giving database makers the option to make it as super-detailed and geographically precise as they want. Once in place, this means that you can create very realistic simulations of how small companies grow. It's entirely optional - just leave the tags blank and you've turned it off - and can also be on a region-by-region basis (for example, you could apply this to some regions and not to others without any issue).

Real Heights And Weights

By popular request, instead of size categories workers will now use real heights and weights. Heights range from three foot to eight foot. The weight range is from 75 to 800lbs. As a natural consequence of this, everything that used to refer to size categories - such as the weight limits on title belts or the search facilities - is now also switched to use the new system. This gives a more realistic feel to the game, makes it easier to get a sense of how big a worker is, and allows a finer degree of control.

The converter will automatically 'best guess' appropriate values for TEW IX based on the 2020 size category used. This means that databases will be usable without requiring any editing but, for obvious reasons, it does mean that database makers will need to put in some significant work in order to get everyone to their exact real height and weight if they want absolute precision. There are editing tools to help with this, which will be described in an upcoming journal entry.

Adjustable Weight Division

Tying into the previous change, the junior heavyweight limit for each company can now be set to a specific weight. This allows different companies to operate slightly differently if wanted.

Toned Down Politics

By request, the departure of workers into politics has been toned down in terms of its frequency. Additionally, there is now a three month warning period before the worker actually leaves.

Training Facility Weights

Training facilities can now be set with minimum and maximum weights for graduates, allowing database makers to have a finer degree of control over which students come out of each place.

Expanded Belt Descriptions

By request, the available space for writing profiles for title belts has been quadrupled, now standing at 1000 characters. This allows people more room to refer to the belt's history, former champions, etc.

The CornellVerse / Pictures

This isn't an addition or change, but some people asked about the Cornellverse / default data and so I'll cover that here.

The CornellVerse will move forward two years, meaning that it will begin in January 2022. The reason I decided not to go all the way to 2024 is that I thought the four year jump was too much when we did that previously, and I know a lot of people like to be able to see things evolve over time. Two years seems like the sweet spot where you're getting forward progress but not missing out on the rookie years for new workers, not seeing wholesale roster changes that alter a company's identity, not losing a ton of legends at once, etc.

Additionally, the old "blue background" style renders will no longer be used. Instead, everyone has been re-rendered using AI to give the game world a much fresher and cleaner look. As I know some people have strong feelings on AI content and don't like to use it, I will also be making available a version of the default data that is set up to use the old style renders. This will not be an official part of the game (and therefore won't be in the installer) but will be made available via the forums on release day. However, please note that if you use this pack then there will be some picture gaps, at least to begin with, as obviously any character who is brand new to TEW IX doesn't have a corresponding old render. I'm sure some fans will continue to provide "blue background" content going forward for those who prefer that style, it just won't be something that will be officially supported.

The Booking Team option, as well as the chance of having workers giving you their own ideas, particularly stand out for me. Great additions.

It's insane that we're having a new TEW game just the next month. I was thinking to myself it would still take a year or so.

Definitely. It was a very appropriate mechanic that should be added to the game.

What do you think about The Inner Circle feature?It will make the game very realistic, I can't wait to experience it.

Real World Calendar

In a change I'm sure will be very well received, TEW IX will be switching to a real world calendar.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, the game has been in development for well over eighteen months; one of the big tasks that required so much time was ripping up the underlying architecture and changing everything to work with a different calendar. As you'd expect, this has knock-on effects on pretty much every aspect of the game. To be absolutely crystal clear, this is game-wide, so everything from birthdays to the scheduling of events has now changed to reflect this.

As this uses Windows' in-built calendar system, it can handle multiple formats. For example, you can type "July 4 2024", "2024-7-4" or "4th July 2024" and it will understand what you're referring to. However, it is recommended that you use the international standard of "YYYY-MM-DD" to avoid any chance of ambiguities. Wherever a date input is found, you'll find a calendar icon - clicking this will launch a pop-up calendar so that you can simply click the date you want rather than having to always type it.

As with the heights and weights from yesterday's journal entry, the converter will automatically "best guess" when turning a TEW2020 database into one for TEW IX, and the result will be playable immediately, but this does mean that if database makers want absolute precision this will mean quite a lot of work. As before, there are tools to help with this task and these will be discussed in a future entry.

I've talked about this a lot in the past, but one of the main reasons that the TEW series didn't use a real world calendar previously was the difficulty in running a flexible event scheduling system (that worked for every company type) when months had an inconsistent number of days without events ending up "drifting" out of place over time. To address this, I've introduced what I think is quite an elegant and easy-to-use system. We'll now delve into that.

The New Scheduling System, Bi-Weekly Events & Avoiding Holidays

For each event, there are now five settings that work in harmony to make up the scheduling system.

The first is Schedule; this is what you're familiar with from the previous games, telling the game whether it's an annual event, weekly, etc. This governs how the event will move forward in time. The selection of choices has one that is new to TEW IX, and that, by request, is "bi-weekly".

The second is Positioning. This can either be "Exact Same Date" (meaning that the event retains the same date each time; e.g. you can set an annual Independence Day event to always happen on July 4th) or a selection from a range that includes different combinations of things like "First Monday Of The Month", "Fourth Sunday Of The Month", "Last Friday Of The Month", etc. This allows the event to be oriented properly within the month.

The third is Positioning Shift, which can either be No Shift or a +\- value going from 1 to 31 Days. This works in conjunction with Positioning and acts as an adjustment. For example, if you wanted a show to happen on Black Friday then you could use Positioning of "Fourth Thursday Of The Month" and a Shift of "+1 Day" to create the effect of "the day after Thanksgiving" (for those who aren't following why this is needed, it's because the "Fourth Friday Of The Month" is not necessarily the day after "Fourth Thursday Of The Month" as it depends on what day the month begins on).

The fourth is Base Month, which is exactly as it sounds - it tells the game what month to "anchor" the event in so that it doesn't drift out of synch.

Finally, there is Avoid, which can either be turned off or you can select from a list that includes things like American Holidays, British Holidays, etc. This allows the database maker to add a little extra bit of realism by making sure the event doesn't land on a major holiday (the holidays are in-built, for reference, and what they cover is listed in game). For example, if you set it to avoid American Holidays and had an event set to be on the "First Thursday Of The Month" with a Base Month of July and that happened to fall on July 4th, the game would know to push it either a week ahead or behind (context dependent) in order to avoid that date.

Once you (or the database maker) has set the event up, it rarely needs looking at again - everything will be handled automatically by the game in terms of moving the schedule along as time passes.

As with all the other entries, the converter will automatically "best guess" the correct settings via the 2020 data and will be playable immediately; those who want absolute precision will need to do some editing, and again there will be tools to help with that which will be discussed in a later entry.

In summary, by using these five settings it means that you can guarantee that events happen where they should and won't end up drifting around over time whilst still retaining all the flexibility of scheduling that you had from the previous game.

To address something that I imagine will be asked: the inherent edge cases (such as having an event set to be on the Exact Same Date of February 29th) are all handled in various context-specific ways - the various rules for these are covered in-game.

Multi Day Events

As the name suggests, Multi Day Events are to cover situations where a show takes place across two or more successive days, such as how modern WrestleManias work.

The way this works is quite simple; you just have to give all the events involved the same Multi Day Event tag, such as "WrestleMania". If events are on successive days and share the same MDE tag then they are considered to be part of the same series. Any number of events can be linked this way, but they must be from a single company. They do no need to be held in the same place each night.

A series is considered to have started when the first event with an MDE tag is run and it ends the next time an evening completes when that company did not run an event with that tag. When a series is active, any worker complaints about missing that event are 'suspended'. When the series ends all the suspended complaints are reviewed and appropriate action taken. For example, if Wrestler A was annoyed at being left off the first event but was on the second show then the initial complaint would not take place as he understands that he ultimately was used. However, if Wrestler B was annoyed at being left off the first show and didn't appear on any of the subsequent evenings either, his complaint would activate and it would be made more powerful (because not only wasn't he on one event, no spot was found for him across the entire series). To be clear, this works both ways - e.g. if someone is on the first show but not the subsequent events, they'll understand that they have been used and won't complain.

Additionally, MDE comes into play when calculating how many shows in a row a worker has been left off, all the shows in the series count as a single event for all appropriate calculations (such as working out if the company is over-using PPV), and the overall ratings for later events in the series are compared to what came before; the crowd can become annoyed if the quality dips over time.

This simple system therefore allows you to properly simulate modern multi day format shows with a minimum of effort.

On This Day

Tying into the new calendar system, the website now has an On This Day section. This lists different important things that have happened on the current day in history, like legendary matches, births & deaths, and title changes. These can also be preset in the editor for database makers who want to add history to their game worlds.

Other TV Dates

The scheduling system for Other TV shows has now been upgraded (as well as being brought into line with how events are scheduled) so that database makers have a lot more precision over exactly when they run. This allows much more realistic TV schedules to be simulated.

Venue List

A full list of venues and locations in each region is now available from the game world screen. Previously there wasn't an easy way to see this information, so this may help some people.

Mass Editing Dates

The mass editor has been upgraded to allow a lot of date-related things that were previously not available, such as when a contract starts, to be done.

Anniversary Reminders

The Personal Assistant will now alert players if any of the company's significant anniversaries are coming up in the near future. For example, it might tell you that next month is the 10th anniversary of the company being founded. This can be useful for remembering to put on special events to celebrate.

Improving Cardio

By request, the user can now apply pressure on workers to improve their cardio using the post-show speech system.

Importing Lineages

By request, the editor now supports being able to import individual title lineages.

Importing Movesets

When importing movesets there is now a setting to simultaneously import any moves that are contained within them. This is a little quality of life change that saves database makers from having to do it manually.

Random Starting Absence Time

Starting absences can now be given a value of Random for their time remaining. This was requested by some database makers who didn't like having to pick a specific date.