Final Fire Pro Wrestling Management of the Ring Guide By Asplagis (aka Zettaijin aka HORGH, Moon God of Thoth, Nabob of the Nile, and stuff like that!) e-mail: [email protected] Version 1.0 was completed on March 27th, 2010 ****************************************************************************** I)Version history II)Introduction III)MOR Fundamentals i)Balancing your budget ii)Managing your roster -Basic needs -Popularity -Morale -Compatibility IV)Starting out in MOR i)Picking a promotion ii)MOR goals -Short term goals -Medium term goals -Long term goals iii)Booking a card in MOR iV)Working with the random number generator V)Promotion guide i)Established promotions guide -WWE -WCW -AJPW -NOAH -FMW -Toryumon -AAA -Michinoku Pro ii)New promotion guide VI)Acknowledgements & Copyrights ************************************************************************ V E R S I O N H I S T O R Y ************************************************************************ Version 1.0: -First version ************************************************************************ I N T R O D U C T I O N ************************************************************************ It's come to my attention that of all the regular members of this board, I seem to be the one with the most luck using FFPW's Management of the Ring (MOR for short) mode. In hopes of perhaps giving back to the community, I'll be posting some of my thoughts and strategies on how to approach this very cool feature. Management of the Ring often puzzles players due to its surprising complexity for a handheld game. But in truth, you can break it down into three keys for a successful run: balancing your budget, increasing your popularity, and building an efficient roster. This guide will start with a look at all three of those crucial steps to a profitable promotion and I'll follow up with a quick step-by-step guide for a run through MOR using a custom fed. This is a work in progress and should be updated according to my tests. ����������������������������������������������������������������������������� M O R F U N D A M E N T A L S ����������������������������������������������������������������������������� ---------------------- | Balancing the budget | ---------------------- The first aspect is in all likelihood the main stumbling block of most new players, especially those starting with a non-established promotion. Yet, balancing your budget isn't all that hard - one merely needs to set realistic goals and closely monitor the promotion's progress. Every month you need to pay your wrestlers for their services, ensure the upkeep of your amenities, and make various outlays (new talent, new training amenities, merchandise, publicity for your card, TV deal, and random events). These costs must be at least offset by the money you make (gates, wrestlers borrowed by competitors, merchandise sales, and random events). If costs are fairly easy to estimate, but hard to downplay, profits can still be maximized through smart booking of cards, investing in merchandise, and not spending 2000MP to negociate a contract with Goldberg during your first month if the promotion starts with a meager 5000MP or so. There are no hard, fast rules for balancing a budget, seeing as different promotions have different needs and all. In fact, a look at the new promotion guide will probably help you better understand the mechanics of the game in this case. ---------------------- | Managing your roster | ---------------------- -_-Basic needs-_- Obviously, as a wrestling promotion, cards and performers are the meat and potatoes of your company. But as far as the roster is concerned, your goals should include keeping your staff happy, having at least 11 performers on call, and ensuring that they are able to have good matches with each other on a fairly frequent basis when simmed. As we'll se later on, having 5 matches on a card is a must and the National TV deal requires you to have at least 11 guys/gals on your roster, which is why you might want to consider having at least 11 on hand early on. Furthermore, a promotion should have at the very least one or two stars in its home region. A couple of B-level popularity wrestlers will make a difference, trust me. Later on, as the promotion expands its operations, looking into booking or even hiring performers who are perhaps less popular in your area, but more in another can be a strategic way to get more fans to attend foreign events. -_-Popularity-_- This is a pretty straightforward value: the higher the ranking, then more people the performer will attract. Simple as that. And the more matches you win in a given area, the more popular your character will become. Your promotion's popularity is equally important, but then if your performers are becoming more popular, chances are your promotion is also progressing nicely. Other factors can increase popularity, such the talk show random event, but you'll find out that winning matches is the way to higher popularity ratings. Good matches (80%+ ratings) dole out a bigger popularity bonus, while poor ones might actually drop it. 100% rated matches cause less of a popularity drop for the loser apparently (to be tested). Also, TV deals increase the number of people who come to your shows and the popularity gains of your performers and promotion. Global TV will give out popularity points to ALL regions at once, the others are strictly for your home region. So even if you hold a card abroad, all TV deals will increase popularity in your home region to a different degree. -_-Morale-_- Morale gives you an idea of how happy the performer is working for you, as well as the likelihood of him leaving for another fed. Mind you, other factors related to personality traits are probably involved in this, but it's always best to keep this value up. So here are a few key points to consider: -Being mindful of their health condition is perhaps the easiest way to keep morale up early on. Have your guys perform regularly when healthy, but refrain from using them when their status drops to OK. With better amenities, the status of your performers will rarely drop to OK. -Winning matches, especially matches in their established style, is another important way to increase morale. Title victories boost popularity gains and help with morale as well. -Giving the top slot of your card to bigger stars with bad morale might help them turn around (to be tested). -When your staff demands a raise, give it to them for a noticeable boost. -The vacation random event will have the biggest impact of all on morale, but at the cost of a full month's worth of income. You really shouldn't agree to this unless you're really having morale issues. There are still a few grey areas which require testing. For example, some guys are happy just wrestling for you, whereas others are a little more jaded. This may be related to some character traits such as ambition and the like. In almost all my games, The Great Muta was one of the more difficult wrestlers to please. Same goes for Hansen and Brody who were both very eager to leave me for the competition. Is there a per promotion loyalty factor involved? Say, Fuchi being loyal to his starting promotion of AJPW and actively hostile towards NOAH? I can't say. It's not impossible that the wrestler's loyalty rating impacts his morale. I surmise that attempts at recruiting a loyal performer might result in a lesser morale drop than for a disloyal one. Furthermore, would a shoot style promotion manage to seduce RVD as easily as FMW? Does the popularity of the promotion impact its chances of stealing away a performer? Again, I can't say for certain until I have access to the proper addresses. -_-Compatibility-_- The other issue I adressed was compatibility, which is the way wrestlers perform with each other in various matches. But really, this is for simmed matches as those matches played by a human player are likely to be rated better (or worse) depending on how familiar you are with the gameplay. This brings up the issue of simmed versus player handled matches. Only the most insane players will wish to play every single match themselves, and even then cross-promotional events will force you to let the computer do the wrestling for you. Leaving the computer to its own devices can lead you down the path of disaster soon enough. Face it, the more you sim, the more likely you are to reload to get better outcomes. Is this cheating? Well, if you feel like succeeding in MOR, you may not have much of a choice in the matter, especially early on. Remember, match ratings can affect so many other aspects of your game that you'll want to maximize the number of 80%+ rated events, and short of handling most matches yourself, reloading can be a necessary evil. Of course, you could simply build a highly compatible roster, but sooner or later you'll notice that said rosters tend to look alike and might not include some of your favourites. It the end, it comes down to your playing style and what you want out of the game. The fun thing about MOR is that it gives you a lot of leeway as to what you can do with a given promotion, right down to firing everyone and rebuilding from scratch. ����������������������������������������������������������������������������� S T A R T I N G O U T I N M O R ����������������������������������������������������������������������������� --------------------- | Picking a promotion | --------------------- So you're ready to start a new MOR game. Great! So what should you do first? First timers starting from scratch should choose either WCW (AWG) or UFO (UNO). WCW will force you to actually learn some of the basics while offering you a fairly well established promotion with a talented, mostly compatible roster, including some tough as nails, top rank superstars. UFO, on the other hand, is a shoot fed, meaning you won't be all that concerned with compatibility or getting a huge roster, leaving you plenty of money to unlock guys for a superior WCW run. Of couse, unlocking Inoki means you'll have to run UFO as a strong style fed, which may prove a little more challenging due to roster concerns. But then again, you could simply use a code and unlock everyone... After that, it's all up to you. The WWE should be unlocked, but it could overwhelm inexperienced players as they try and out muscle the opposition through sheer monetary dominance, overlooking other crucial aspects of the game. AJPW unlocks NOAH, unfortunately, AJPW can be a real pain with its odd mixture of highly ranked yet too often incompatible Strong Style and King's Road wrestlers, so getting NOAH is not for the impatient. which is a shame since Misawa's upstart promotion would have been awesome for beginners. It's a lot like WCW, only with better, more flexible performers all around, and a more inter-compatible roster. Smaller promotions like Toryumon and Michinoku Pro are more challenging, but certainly a lot easier if a number of top performers have been unlocked in previous runs through MOR mode or if you used the code. Lastly, a custom promotion represents the highest challenge as you start off with no popularity in any of the four regions, not to mention that you also need to hire ALL your talent from the free agent pool. And chances are Stan Hansen and Tiger Mask will not readily accept your invitations during the first few months (not that you could afford them, really). ----------- | MOR Goals | ----------- Once you've picked your promotion, you need to set goals for yourself. At the risk of repeating myself, your goals will be more or less the same for every company (with the exception of MMA promotions), it's your time frame that changes. Obviously, you want to achieve a #1 ranking overall no matter who you choose, but you need to establish a basic game plan to make this a reality. In all scenarios, getting a solid cash flow and balancing your budget should always be on your mind whenever you make a decision. All the goals you'll find listed are steps to ensure that these two overarching objectives are met. -_-Short term goals-_- Regardless of which promotion you chose, your immediate goals should include building an 11-15 man (or woman) roster, purchasing the key amenities as quickly as possible, and to secure a TV deal appropriate to your current level (Toryumon aren't likely to go national before their first six months are over, while NOAH should be able to afford it right off the bat). Once you've secured all of the above, try buying some inexpensive merchandise to bring in some extra money each month and the rest of the amenities (they'll make your guys stronger and more likely to win in all CPU controlled cross-promotional matches). -_-Medium term goals-_- Bolstering your roster to include better, and more varied performers and planning for future events (the Gracies and "star" battles, along with the Legends challenge) would be a good idea. You'll need someone who is able to perform in strong style, a shootfighter capable of scoring lightning quick criticals, a hardcore monster who'll choke and gouge his way to the top, and someone who can last through 30-45 minute matches while pulling out some really hard hitting moves for King's Road purposes. King's Road specialists, including most of the NOAH roster, can achieve a surprising amount of success in showman, same goes for Toryumon-like lucharesu stars, while NJPW's strong style is not quite as suited as a background for showy wrestling, nor is old school lucha libre (Dos Caras, El Hijo del Santo). Luchadores don't seem to have any special challenges associated with them, therefore they may be overlooked. And in a pinch, remember that you might be able to just bring in someone for a one night only performance. Having your crew scour the globe and holding events abroad, even in smaller venues than your are used to, is something you should look into as soon as you've achieved the early goals. Try adding performers who happen to have established popularity outside your home region to help draw crowds when far away from home or bring in stars for one night only. Remember that your local popularity will rise regardless of where you hold your card, so once you've managed to gain a solid foothold in your home region, try working on another one. In the case of the WWE, this isn't much of a challenge, but custom promotions will have long road ahead of them. Cross-promotional events help tremendously in that regard, but your guys may have to face off against incompatible opponents or be overwhelmed by superior opposition (damn those Road Warriors...). -_-Long term goals-_- Later on, winning belts will become a focal part of your strategy. In the case of the �ber popular WWE, this is actually something you'll be doing within your first few months! This requires talent trades and alliances, or if you're feeling adventurous, some cross-promotional wars. This should translate into a higher belt rating for you and a lower one for your opposition. Remember that MMA promotions never book tag matches, henceforth those belts will not give them points, so don't bother stealing those titles unless you're really bored/obsessive compulsive. TV deals increase the number of people who come to your shows and the popularity gains of your performers and your promotion. Global TV will give out popularity points to ALL regions at once, the others are strictly for your home region. So even if you hold a card abroad, all TV deals will increase popularity in your home region. National TV requires you to have at least 11 guys/gals on your roster, but anything below is open to any promotion with sufficient funds. Unlocking the Global TV deal is pretty much mandatory in order to reach the top and outshine the WWE, but getting it requires various steps which eludes me at the time. My tests show that money and popularity alone are not responsible. Still, I've yet to fail getting Global TV during the course of a game, although it may take anything from 6 months to a year after reaching S level popularity in your home region and establishing a higher level of popularity everywhere else. You can live without dome shows, but chances are you'll get them before you get Global TV anyway. I can't say I've ever played a game where I had access to Global TV _before_ Dome venues. Dome shows are unlocked once you achieve 240 popularity points in total (which roughly translates to S/A/C/D or S/S/D/D if you don't have access to HEX values). Eventually, you'll be powerful enough to put your energy into improving your entire roster's popularity, including any jobbers and/or jobbers to the stars. This, along with more actual performers, should contribute to a higher roster rating. Following all of this, you should be able to slip into cruise control for the remainder of the game. ----------------------- | Booking a card in MOR | ----------------------- No matter what promotion you use, you'll have to book card. While you could let the computer do it for you, its choices tend to be haphazard and weird, not to mention less than optimal at times. Oh sure, it might be fun to let the computer decide when you're firmly in control and none of your competitors can hope to beat you, but for those early months, especially when working with a smaller or custom promotion, a good series of cards can make a sizeable difference down the road. First things first, the purpose of a well booked card is to maximize two things: attendance and rating. Higher attendance means more money, while a higher rating leads to greater popularity, and therefore selling more tickets for your next card. Smart booking might also impact morale, but that's a minor concern. So our next step would be to determine what influences attendance and match ratings. In the later case, I can't say I have a solid grasp of what the actual calculations are like, although I assume it's close to what one might find in FPZ due to the similarities between the various FP engines. Fortunately, attendance is a little easier to gauge. What can you do to get more butts in those seats? -Booking more than 3 matches boosts attendance, with 5 matches being better than 4. -Charisma and popularity (both for the individual performers and the promotion itself) are used to determine base attendance. -Events held in your own region have a slight attendance boost modifier added. -Events held in large-type venues get an attendance boost modifier added. -Ad campaigns to promote your card will improve attendance considerably. -Titles matches boost attendance based on the popularity of the promotion in the region where the card is being held. However, we're talking about the title where the belt originated! So if you stole the WWE title, you're likely to get a much bigger attendance boost in the US than with the FMW title. Styles titles have a flat attendance boost value of 220, it seems. -The game takes into consideration both the individuals AND the matchups, so having the Undertaker battle Kane in the undercard while Austin and the Rock do their thing in the Main Event may get more (or less) people in the seats than Taker/Ausin and Rock/Kane. What does the computer look for to determine how popular a given matchup will be? No clue, as my tests have given me rather unpredictable results. -Special rules work in your favour in some circumstances, but not others, meaning that a hardcore rules match may attract fewer people than a match under normal rules depending on various factors. It's not impossible that this is linked to a promotion's style or those of the participants. Match evaluation styles and referees don't actually have any impact on attendance, they only influence match ratings. -Managers won't improve the actual attendance, but might impact the match rating. So what should a good card look like? -You booked 5 matches, with all titles being defended. -You played to your strengths and offer matches that fit your promotion's style with the appropriate performers. -You used wrestlers that are in Good condition, and OK condition only if you are short on staff. -Ensured yourself that your biggest draws are going to wrestle on the card. -Guys with low morale should be placed higher on the card to help turn them around (to be tested). -Given the above, mix and match performers to see what combination will result in the highest attendance. -Booked a large-type venue near or over capacity. There's no rule, but I tend to think that you should never dip below the 90% capacity rate. Book a smaller venue if you're in the range of 80% and less. -Used an appropriate ad type to ensure maximum attendance effeciency (don't be afraid to downgrade if you can't book a larger venue but go way over for a smaller one). The idea is to get as many 80%+ rated matches as possible while getting as many people in the place without going too much over or too far under the listed capacity. ------------------------------------------ | Working with the Random Number Generator | ------------------------------------------ As you've probably noticed by now, I've talked a good game about saving and reloading, and how the RNG (random number generator) comes into play. So what will affect the RNG ? When should you save and what can you do to change the outcomes (manipulating luck)? Once you've booked your card, match outcomes and ratings are pre-determined (hey, it's pro wrestling!) for each CPU level and skip type. The only way to change these is to change something on your card. Anything from changing refs to changing the host region to changing the order of the performers in a given match will do the job. OK, that last one might seem a little odd, but it works. Kane vs. Austin will generate a set of results, but go back and make that Austin vs Kane (choosing Austin first, then Kane as the opponent) and the results will be changed as the game assumes you're making a new match. Thing is, the outcome of a match will change those of other matches on the card, so just because Austin vs. Kane with Kane as the winner by pinfall got 100% on CPU level 5 for skip type Half doesn't mean it willl always get 100% nor will Kane always be the winner, and a pinfall victory might change to a submission win if the match before it has a different outcome than the one it had when you got that 100% rating. Look at this fictional WWE card lineup: RVD vs. Shane - RVD Frog Splash 83% TAKA vs. X-PAC - TAKA submission 73% Vince vs. The Undertaker - Taker KO 67% Austin vs. Kane - Kane pinfall 100% The Rock vs. Mike Awesome - Rock pinfall 89% Skip type is set to half and CPU level is at 5 for all matches. Once you start simming, the game will generate a set of results for each of these, the ones you see above. But you decide to change the skip type of RVD/Shane to Full. The CPU will then alter the results of all the upcoming matches for all scenarios. RVD vs. Shane - RVD pinfall 75% TAKA vs. X-PAC - TAKA submission 79% Vince vs. The Undertaker - Taker pinfall 87% Austin vs. Kane - Kane submission 74% The Rock vs. Mike Awesome - Rock pinfall 95% This is what the card will look like if you change the results for the first match. All other matches will keep the results listed unless you change something in the second match. RVD vs. Shane - RVD pinfall 75% TAKA vs. X-PAC - X-PAC pinfall 86% Vince vs. The Undertaker - Taker pinfall 81% Austin vs. Kane - Austin pinfall 98% The Rock vs. Mike Awesome - Awesome top rope powerbomb 87% You changed the CPU level for the second match to ensure an X-PAC victory, so the game automatically gives you new results for all the other matches. See the pattern? Now no matter what, as soon as the outcome for the first match is decided, all outcomes for the second one are pre-determined according to the various scenarios, which are finite in nature. Meaning you have 10 computer levels, two skip types with outcomes based on CPU level and Full has one set result. That gives you 21 different outcomes for the following match and no matter how many times you let the computer do the match, the outcome for a given skip type and CPU level will remain the same unless you change the outcome of the previous match. So there's no guarantee that you'll get that Austin win at 98% since its an outcome based on three other outcomes. So, sometimes you might need to redo an entire card just to get a single outcome! So be careful when booking complete mismatches thinking you can just reload until you get what you want! Some guys will squash you 99% of the time (I'm looking at YOU, Andre the Giant). Now what about the RNG outside the simming of matches? For special events, the RNG will decide once its done with the results of everyone's cards, so you can save before the card is over and reload the last match, doing it over and over with the same outcome until you get the events you want (or avoid those you don't want). Your results will impact those of the opposition, but I've yet to discover the order in which matches/cards occur. Do some promotions go first? Does it sim these matches at the same time it sims yours? For recruiting, alliances and such things, your actions might impact your chances of success. The problem is I don't have access to reputation ratings data and how it changes according to who you hire, who you grant favors to and those you refuse. It seems as if asking someone for something and being refused or accepted will set off the RNG or add/substract points to some invisible counters which are then used to determine the outcomes. So trying unsuccessfully to recruit Stan Hansen might make WCW accept to lend you Hulk Hogan, but if you managed to recruit Abdullah the Butcher after being rebutted by Hansen, Hogan might not be yours for the month. But if they agree to lend you Hogan, they might be friendlier to you from now on and allow you to pick the tag champs Hawk and Animal. But maybe they won't accept for Animal if you try him first, but will if Hawk is picked first. Confused yet? Until which time I get full access to reputation HEX data, I won't know anything for sure and the save/reload perfectionist will be left to try all manners of combinations to obtain what they want. And now I just read that Jason Blackheart went into the RNG for FFPW, and started taking it apart as only he knows how to do. But for the average MOR fanatic, the info above should suffice. If you want more, go to Fireprozomg. ����������������������������������������������������������������������������� P R O M O T I O N G U I D E ����������������������������������������������������������������������������� ----------------------------- | Established promotion guide | ----------------------------- Established promotions fall into four "basic" types: small, mid-size, big, and MMA. These basic types allow for some shared realities and therefore common strategies can be used to have successful MOR runs with promotions of a similar type. So look at a promotion similar to your own to determine what a sound strategy should be like before you start. Small promotions are those which start with less than 10 wrestlers, have a home popularity no higher than B-level and no more than C in one other region and D in the remaining ones, and they tend to lack higher edit point count/higher popularity "stars" generally. Zero-1, UFO, M-Pro, FMW, Toryumon and AAA are all considered small promotions, although UFO can also become an MMA promotion depending on how you decide to play it. Mid-size promotions have 11 performers and more, have at least B-level popularity in their home region and at least C outside their home, and boast a handful of mega stars with high edit points count and high popularity. WCW, AJPW, NOAH and NJPW are the mid-size promotions, although NJPW is straddling the line bwtween mid-size and large size. MMA promotions are... well... you figure it out. And there's only one big boy in town: the WWE. It has popularity of A in every region except a B in Japan, big name stars that attract huge crowds, and lots of money to play around with. Its reality is completely different from that of the other promotions and its challenge is not getting to the top, but rather to stay on top for 3 years. Here are some promotion by promotion guides. I haven't played as UFO, Zero-1, NJPW or any of the MMA promotions yet, so I can't give you much info besides the fact that they should all more or less stick to the gameplan of promotions of a similar size. -_-WWE-_- Roster concerns: Well, Vinnie Mac and son are dead weight compared to the rest of the roster. And while I'm not fond of X-PAC myself, he's ok, I guess. As negative as I try to be, the truth is the WWE has a very solid roster filled with big name stars who'll quickly fill large arenas in the States and abroad. Even midcarders like DDP, Booker T and Mike Awesome are capable of kicking a lot of asses and start off with respectable popularity, while your main event contingent is beyond reproach. Rock, Austin, 'Taker and their pals will be doing fine in all sorts of situations and are all sorts of undefeatable in simmed competition. The unlock code gives you access to Shawn Micheals and Mick Foley, just in case you REALLY needed help. Add Goldberg if you're really desperate. MMA is a weakness, and garbage wrestling is Foley-only territory, still, you don't get this level of quality anywhere else. Plus, you start with enough money to buy anyone you want! What to buy/TV deals: National TV, duh, and everything else. OK, in terms of amenities, get the main three and a couple of others and stick to that for now. Look into merchandise early (a few months in at the latest) and you shouldn't have any problem with your finances for the rest of the game. Just don't spend it all in one shot, allow a card or two to rebuild your MP stash before your next splurge. Booking concerns: People have trouble with the WWE due to the fact that their main competitor often ends up being PRIDE whom they can't really run into the ground as per the fact that PRIDE is an MMA promotion. Still, get a good enough early lead and put on stellar events and you should be #1 (or stay #1) with ease. NJPW may start growing, and NOAH has plenty of potential, so feel free to cut them down to size with well timed and carefully planned 5 on 5 challenges. Guys like Benoit, Jericho and Angle are quite capable of strong style, and King's Road can be handled by the bigger guys. Do it early and do it often! Stealing belts is just a matter of building relations (which isn't hard considering the popularity of the average WWE star). And with their skills, they might actually win belts through talent exchange alone! -_-WCW-_- Roster concerns: Your starting roster includes popular, highly rated (meaning high edit point count) superstars like Hogan, the Road Warriors, and the Outsiders, along with solid, versatile midcarders like Scott Steiner, Randy Savage and Bret Hart. Sting, Rick Steiner and Bam Bam are iffy, but good in a pinch against most American style guys, just don't expect miracles. Flair will either become available later on or you can unlock him with the unlock all code. The Nature Boy not only adds a great showman/strong style guy to your already stellar roster, but he comes with a belt too. Good times! The top guys are great at showman/American style and should be able to pull off solid King Road matches if you're careful when simming. Yes, Kevin Nash can do King's Road, Misawa might be rolling in his grave right now. Savage, and especially Hart can do strong style with ease. Bam Bam works well against the NJPW/AJPW gaijin contingent (Williams, Vader, Gordy, Hansen etc.) and is a fair tag team wrestler. The Steiners and Road Warriors are naturals at tag teaming. Heck, the Road Warriors happen to be one of the most fearsome duos in the game. Most of my matches against them end up extremely chaotic as they CONSTANTLY break up pins and get in my way. You should try and bolster your roster with a hardcore guy like say Abby or, better yet, Terry Funk if either man is available. Obviously, a Gary Albright, if available, would be a good idea for the eventual Legends challenge. Various gaijin stars should be able to fill in the ranks, with the Miracle Violence Connection (Williams and Gordy) and Hansen being high on this list. Vader is a gamble, as he's worth a surprisingly low amount early on and gains popularity fairly quickly, but doesn't fare all that well compared to others in terms of match quality and overall success rate. Dynamite Kid can work wonders with Bret Hart, but may have problems with the rest of the roster. Obviously, Goldberg is possibly the best addition to your roster. With high charisma, popularity and tremendous ability to adapt to various match styles, you'd think the makers of the game saw him as a Godlike figure. Seriously, I've seen Goldberg do ok lucha matches, barely acceptable shoot/free style, along with poor garbage, but he's going to be a marvel otherwise. Smarks everywhere weep at the idea of a King's Road Goldberg, but there you go. It's not only real, but it's a damn good idea. Scary stuff people... What to buy/TV deal: You should be able to afford the basic amenities and a National TV deal in your first month without breaking the bank, so go ahead and go nuts. Merchandise should be easily accessible to you within the early months, but go for a full range of amenities first as they'll help you win 5 on 5 challenges which are worth a lot more to you on the long term than T-shirt sales. Booking concerns: Your goal is to fill a 30,000 seat American venue ASAP. TV ads will be needed, but you have the money for it. Go with a couple of smaller cards to get some cash and raise the popularity of your guys, then start booking 30,000 seat venues exclusively while in the States. By the end of your first 5 months, you should be able to look to Japan for either cross-promotional wars or merely holding events. Then, follow the established pattern, steal belts, and hope you get on the WWE'S good side eventually to better ransack them. -_-AJPW-_- Roster concerns: With popular superstars like Keiji Mutoh, Hiroshi Hase, Taiyo Kea, Genichirou Tenryu and Toshiaki Kawada, AJPW sounds like a great promotion for beginners. Problem is, Hase and Mutoh are strong style guys, while Kawada, Kea and Tenryu are King's Road. Plus, Kawada is arguably one of the more difficult King's Road guys to handle: his kick-heavy move set would make him a great free style guy, I guess, but that's neither here nor there. Your upper midcarders of choice are Kendo Ka Shin and Satoshi Kojima. Have I told how much I loathe Kendo Ka Shin? He makes my head hurt as he's something akin to a strong style performer but with a little too much shoot style added. I suppose he'd do well against a portion of the NJPW roster or maybe even in ZERO-One, however he's rather useless in AJPW. Kojima seems built for showman style, yet he can do fair Strong and King's Road matches in a pinch. Mitsuya Nagai is average at best, while Fuchi is a good tag team expert and can work fine in both Strong and King's Road styles, just don't expect miracles out of the veteran. Nobutaku Araya is one I've mocked enough as it is. Clearly the jobber to the stars of the venerable AJPW, my "rehabilitate A-chan" campaign was a pain, to say the least. How in the Hell are you supposed to survive against higher rank opposition with this guy? This unsual and somewhat uncompatible roster will probably be your main obstacle. While not as random as say Toryumon's or FMW's starting roster, these guys wrestle in very different styles and you'll have a tough time pairing them off properly. You'll be doing mostly King's Road matches with some strong style here and there for Hase, Muta, and Ka Shin. Expect to handle matches yourself more often than you'd like. I'm not sure how to unlock Baba, but you can win without his help, I'm sure. If you do use the unlock all code, then you get the King's Road belt and a freakin' giant, a popular giant mind you, but a giant nonetheless. Various gaijin stars should fill in the ranks nicely, with the Miracle Violence Connection (Williams and Gordy) and Hansen being high on this list, obviously. But you need to decide: will this be a Strong Style or King's Road promotion. The above gaijins are great foils for Tenryu and Kea, but might have problems with Hase and Muta. As with almost all promotions, a hardcore star is missing, while Ka Shin might just do the trick for MMA - I think. What to buy/TV deal: Like WCW and NOAH, you should be able to afford the key amenities and a National TV deal in your first month without going broke. In fact, you should follow WCW's game plan money-wise as the two promotions are in similar positions. Booking concerns: Your booking goal is to fill a 30,000 seat Japanese venue within a two to three month time frame. TV ads will be needed, but your finances should allow you to make that outlay. It may not be as easy to fill such a venue with your current roster as with WCW, but you'll probably be adding big name stars anyways. Otherwise, it's the standard mid-size promotion strategy. -_-NOAH-_- Roster concerns: Are you kidding me? What roster concerns? Their midcarders are as good as some promotions' main eventers! The fab four (Misawa, Taue, Kobashi and Akiyama) are likely to kill any and all opposition with or without all amenities bought. And short of MMA and pure hardcore, their starting roster should be able to have good matches in every other style. If you're using the unlock all code, then you also get Jumbo F'N Tsuruta, seeing as you weren't dominant enough as it is. Alright, to be fair, guys like Takeshi Rikio and Takeshi Morishima aren't very showy all in all, while Ikeda and Shiga are more strong style than anything else. Still, they all rock in their own special way. Weak links would include Tsuyoshi Kikuchi and possibly Kanemaru and Iizumida, but keep them in tag matches and they'll do fine. Be careful about Ogawa and his tendency to win by way of flash pins which is very much against the basis of King's Road and likely to bring about poor ratings. As with WCW and AJPW, hardcore and MMA are your only blind spots. What to buy/TV deals: National TV should be available to you during your first month, get it right away otherwise you'll have to wait for a number of months until the computer decides you're financially able to support it. Buying two out of three key amenities is perfectly reasonable during your first month, maybe even all three, but two is fine for now. A month or two more and you should be able to afford the third one and possibly a few more. Booking concerns: NOAH should be very dominant by the end of the first year, easily placing second or third (perhaps even first with some luck!). Booking 30,000 seat venues by the time month 4 or 5 comes up isn't at all impossible with proper ads and a few extra superstars. Begin raiding promotions with 5 on 5 challenges ASAP. Once you have all amenities, look to the U.S. (WCW and the WWE), building up your relations with them and eventually sacking them. If 5 on 5 challenges are not being accepted, then borrow their top guys and bury them! Again, NOAH is like WCW on 'roids or something. -_-FMW-_- Roster concerns: Your roster starts off fairly weak, but you're better off than Toryumon in terms of bigger stars. Hiromichi "Kodo" Fuyuki and Hayabusa will be the ones carrying your promotion in the early goings: both are upper midcarders and work really well together in showman style matches and can hold their own against a lot of performers. The rest of the crew consists of various misfit midcarders like GOEMON (lucha/showman/some garbage), Hikasatsu Ooya (acceptable in strong style), Tesuhiro Kuroda (showman/possibly lucha), Mr.Gannosuke (showman/possibly some garbage), Ricky Fuji (showman) and Kintaro Kanemura (showman/poor garbage). You'll need more people here and quick. The unlock code should make your life a lot easier since you'll have Onita leading the promotion. He's not the greatest wrestler out there, but he's better than all the guys on your roster! Still, if you want garbage, then Pogo and Matsunaga are top choices, along with Abby, Sheik, and Tiger Jeet Singh. Come to think of it, of all the promotions, old school FMW is one of the few that you can "recreate" easily through free agents. Getting Mutoh and Hase in NJPW again isn't easy, and raiding NOAH as AJPW would be a major hassle. But old school FMW is quite doable. Hayabusa works very well with Ricky Fujii, try making matches between the two of them. Fujii by himself is a rather poor performer when simmed, but can be used for highly rated showman style matches, provided he doesn't get squashed too easily. Kanemura should stick to tag matches as he'll blow up early and easily, while super heel Mr.Gannosuke is a hard one to figure out. Goemon and Kuroda make a serviceable team for showman purposes. Try to avoid bloating your roster and concentrate on quality matches. Once you hit B-level popularity in Japan, more people will agree to work for you. Bring in flexible gaijin stars and remember that almost everyone can work a proper showman style whether simmed or not. At worst, bring in lower midcarders then release them once you get bigger and your needs change. What to buy/TV deal: Regional TV is the best you can get in your first month, but it's better than nothing. I suggest buying at least one key amenity right away, but you could save that money for better performers and then furnish your facilities - your call. National TV shouldn't be too hard to achieve before the year is over and merchandise is not to be considered until you've achieved a certain amount of fame (I stayed away from merch until I could easily book a 10,000 seat venue without ads). Booking concerns: Your first goal is to be popular enough to fill a 10,000 seat Japanese venue. Basic promotional tactics may be needed, so go slowly at first. A couple of smaller cards (3,500-5,000) to get some cash and raise the popularity of your guys, then start booking 5000 seat venues only and check to see if filling a 10,000 seat venue is possible and what types of ads you'll need. Getting 16,000 seat venues almost filled up with promotional aid at the six months point isn't all that hard with established performers like Abby and Funk. Speaking of which, Abby and Funk should make the road toward bigger stardom in the States a lot simpler. The second year should be filled with foreign shows as you scramble to gain popularity outside of Japan. -_-Toryumon-_- Roster concerns: Your roster starts off weak, with CIMA, Tokyo Magnum, and Dragon Kid being your top stars (despite being above average midcarders at best). The unlock code gives you Ultimo Dragon right away instead of waiting for a year, which should help you out a bit since he can actually defeat the better wrestlers from other promotions. SUWA, Don Fuji and Masaaki Mochizuki are not without their charm as far as showman style is concerned, but they can't keep up with the above foursome. And for the record, SUWA is a poor garbage wrestler, but makes up for it in showman style. You won't be going anywhere with such a small roster, so hire away until you reach at least 11 to 15 workers! Be careful as old school lucha guys don't always work well with Dragon's lucharesu showboaters. If in doubt, stick to Japanese wrestlers like Gran Naniwa, Spel Delfin, or even Orihara if you're really trying to avoid non-DG/Toryumon style performers. By the the time your first year nears its end, you might have no choice but to prepare for the Legends Challenge. You know the drill: get a shootfighter or someone with good chances of scoring a critical against Gotch, a hardcore wrestler (maybe Sabu could do the trick in a pinch, and you could keep him around afterwards), and make sure your big stars (Ultimo, in your case) are healthy! What to buy/TV deals: More or less follow the FMW model/smaller promotion model. Booking concerns: Much like FMW, Toryumon should start with the 5000 venue and inch slowly towards the 10,000 within your the first six months. Again, CIMA/Dragon Kid/Tokyo Magnum are going to keep you afloat for some time. During the year, try going to Mexico to work with AAA as you already have a reputation over there, and most of your guys have a small measure of popularity in the region to boot. The U.S. is a large market with lots of money to be made, but Ultimo is your only link to the States early on, so it might take some time to get a good foothold over there. -_-AAA-_- Roster concerns: You start with a pretty good roster for lucha libre action, with big stars like Rey Mysterio Jr., El Hijo del Santo, Eddy Guerrero, and El Dandy~~~~! With the unlock code, you also get super megastar and legend Mil Mascaras and his lucha title at the start. Again, the unlock code means Dos Caras can be hired, something I strongly suggest you look into as early as possible. His son isn't bad, but you could definately do better. You'll be needing help for the Legends, but then again isn't that the case for every promotion save the WWE? So look into a temporary deal with a shooter, and maybe Sabu or something. Lucha Terry Funk is an awesome, awesome concept that needs to be explored more fully. What to buy/TV deal: As per the smaller promotions (FMW and Toryumon). Booking concerns: Again, be careful of the old school lucha vs. junior style clash, otherwise you'll be doing great lucha matches for a while until you easily reach top popularity in Mexico. I suggest you look to Japan for some action, possibly a couple of challenges to MPro and Toryumon in the middle part of your first year or so. While your popularity in Mexico is pretty high at the start, remember that this region suffers from the lowest venue sizes, which is why you should be booking cards in Japan as soon as you have the basic amenities. And with 8000 in the bank to start and a handful of guys to recruit (at a discount price), it shouldn't be that hard. -_-Michinoku Pro-_- Roster concerns: Well, Shinzaki, Tiger Mask IV, and The Great Sasuke are your top stars with support from Dick Togo and Gran Hamada. Curry Man is no great shakes, sorry Christopher Daniels fans. And that's it. You need more wrestlers, obviously, so look to the Toryumon section for some ideas as the two promotion share a certain number of similarities. MPro simply has a lot less money to throw around for new stars at the start of the game. What to buy/TV deals: As per Toryumon. Booking concerns: As per Toryumon, save for the fact that your guys are more popular overall and your progression closer to that of a new promotion due to financial concerns (many amenities may have to wait). --------------------- | New promotion guide | --------------------- So you decided to start a new promotion to go through MOR mode. Good for you! Here are a few questions you need to answer before you start: -How much challenge do you want? Little money and little time will make you sweat bullets as you micro-manage every last aspect of your game. Expect reloading to avoid having too many unlucky random events and having too many people refuse your initial offers. More money and more time will make things a lot smoother for your first run with an edit fed. -How long before you get bored? Too much money, too much time, and too good a roster and you'll be hitting cruise control sooner than you might like. Are you going to survive 3 grueling years of cruise control to finish off your 5 year run? Trust me, don't choose 5 unless you're starting with as little money as possible and plan on using a less than optimal roster. -How many free agents are available, and how good are they? If you haven't unlocked anyone yet, you might find the starting choices to be a little limited. And edit characters might be good, but their low starting popularity might be a bit of a hindrance at first. This is especially true of those trying to recreate a real life promotion using a new promotion instead of just gutting an existing one and recruiting free agents. Once you've figured out what you want, we can proceed with the actual game. Month 1 As I said before, you need at the very least 10 performers for your first few months, but 15 is better. Sadly, even lowly nobodies can refuse to work for you, leading to some quick save/reloading. Depending on your starting MP, luck and feeling towards reloading, you may end up with anywhere between 6 and 11 characters for your first card. If you're going for an all-edit characters promotion, then make sure some of them have at least a C-rating in popularity in your home region. If you're open to non-edit characters, then try and find someone with B-level popularity to make things easier. Again in the case of an all-edit promotion, it may be difficult to recruit all of your creations in one month. To this end, I suggest hiring then on a one night only basis so you can get 5 matches on your first card. Even non-all edit promotions may have problems hiring 11+ wrestlers in the first month of existence, so they may also benefit from hiring special guest stars. Plus, in both cases it allows you to test various matchups and see what might work in the future. Think of it as a "try before you buy" deal. Once you have your roster, look into TV deals. Most promotions should be able to afford a local or regional TV deal. Even if the TV deal turns red in the following months, don't worry, it'll still be active! Just be careful not to downgrade it by accident. If Local TV is out of your range at this time, you can always negotiate a deal during your second month. That should be it for your first month. If you have plenty of money left over from your roster building and TV deal, you can either buy towels/t-shirts or invest in some of the key amenities. I strongly suggest the later. Try and keep at least a couple hundred MP in your bank at the end of your first month, just before running your first card. You're now ready to book your first card. Refer to the card building primer to get the most out of your first event. As a new fed, you'll need to create titles and crown champions. The computer will ask you whether you want a given match to be for a title or not, so choose your franchise player(s), the guys around whom you want to build your promotion and go for broke! Month 2 Hopefully your first card was a success. Next up, you either need to build up a larger roster (if you're still below the 11-15 performers mark) or get some key amenities. Remember, the key amenities are the Ring Doctor, Locker Room and Medical Room, the others are useful, but they can wait for a bit. Examine your budget to decide what might be realistic at this juncture. If you started with the smallest amount of cash, then go for the ring doctor first and add a different amenity each month (if MP allows it). Take into consideration that these amenities have monthly upkeep costs, so be careful! If any promotion sends someone your way, book them! You'll want to work on building good relations with various promotions as early as possible, and agreeing to book their performers on your cards is a great way to do so. You'll mostly receive lower rank guys, but WCW seems particularly eager to do business in Japan, sending in better midcarders like the Steiner Brothers or Bam Bam Bigelow. The WWE seems fond of sending DDP, Booker T and TAKA Michinoku. This said, it should be time to book your second card. Months 3 and 4 If your promotion put on a good showing, then others might want to borrow your wrestlers. Of course, the computer does tend to throw you a bone when you have little money and low popularity. Unless they're asking for your singles champ, you'd be advised to say yes to every offer. Many of your guys have low popularity at this point and even if they lose, at least they gave you a little money and a better reputation. Unfortunately, your performers might be a little worse for wear and you'll need to consider giving some of them a day off. This is where a 15 man roster can become essential. Other than that, you shouldn't be able to make enough of a profit each month to afford anything too fancy just yet. If Toryumon or M-Pro challenge you, you might want to accept, especially if your performers are likely to have good matches against these outsiders. Sadly, a promotion challenging you is a rare occurance. While you could do so yourself, I usually wait until the 5th or 6th month before trying. Months 5 and 6 From here on out, your actions depend on various cirumstances. If you were challenged by another promotion, you might have some serious MP in your coffers and should look into buying some extra key amenities. Otherwise, you might not be all that better off than a few months back and progress might seem slow. Well, if they're not coming to you, then you should go to them! Your popularity should be high enough at this point to impress smaller promotions. Toryumon, FMW, AAA, Zero-One and M-Pro are the five promotions most likely to accept your challenge. Remember that you must fight matches that suit your opponent's style if you're the one issuing the challenge, not the other way around. So choose carefully before your make that challenge! Oh yeah, UFO might also be interested in metting your challenge, however, it's MMA-style rich roster might not be suitable for non-MMA promotions. Send as many of your healthy guys to other promotions if you're going for a 5 on 5 cross-promotional card. Might as well make these guys useful! Take advantage of foreign promotions having better popularity than you in their home region and go abroad for the challenges. Establishing your promotion on foreign soil requires touring, unless you have Global TV, which isn't going to be the case until much later. Months 7 to 10 Depending on various factors, you might have access to a better TV deal at some point near the half year mark. If not, then keep your eyes peeled as it should happen sooner or later before the year is over. All three key amenities should either have been bought or be bought in the very near future. In fact, if you've successfully won a 5 on 5 card, you should be more than able to afford the locker room and/or medical facilities. If you've bought them, then look into adding the other less essential ones. Depending on your cash flow and expenses, buying cheaper merchandise might be an interesting option at this point. Also, keep an eye out for trade opportunities with slightly bigger promotions such as WCW and AJPW. FMW and Toryumon are easy pickings for a 5 on 5 encounter, but if you try your luck against the mid-size promotions, you'll quickly find out that you have some serious muscle to contend with. You'll have to deal with the likes of Hogan, Flair, Mutoh and Kawada, all very powerful wrestlers who can dispose of most "realistic" edits in short order. That doesn't mean you can't try and get these guys to come over and leave their title belts in your hands! This is where building up good relations comes into play. Around the end of the year, your promotion should be setting itself up to complete with mid-size promotions. Stealing their belts is a time honoured tradition in MOR, a profitable and useful one at that, but it won't happen unless you've established yourself as a faithful partner. WCW are pretty easy, readily accepting most offers from reasonably successful smaller promotions. AJPW are equally quick to put out, while NOAH can often grow a little too big, a little too quickly to be open to such friendships. Alliances will not only make it easier to borrow performers, but you'll get easier access to their champs. And title belts do add a bit more to your total attendance along with increasing your belt score, which considering the fact that alliances cost nothing, makes this a serious boon for any promotion. If you feel your roster is strong enough to complete with that of WCW or AJPW, then by all means challenge them, multiple times even! 5 on 5 challenges will do wonders for your cash flow and your popularity, but only if you get good matches out of your opponents. Months 11 and 12 All the key amenities should have been bought by now, if not, then your promotion is probably having some major issues. Perhaps you bloated your roster with highly paid superstars? Assuming that you did buy the three key amenities, start looking into purchasing the other, less vital ones, if you haven't already done so. Your roster shouldn't have changed too much, but take a moment to look at the kind of performers you have. Do you have what it takes to tackle the Legends? If the answer is no, then this is a good time to start looking for what's missing as you're progressing quickly and you don't want to be caught off guard! Overall, things should be getting rather simple. You've already set up a rather successful routine that allowed you to survive up to this point. Your cash flow should be increasing and your popularity soaring. It's just a matter of time and patience as you continue stealing belts, holding cards abroad to boost your popularity around the world, and buying amenities while progressively investing in merchandise. By the start of your second year, your promotion should be close to the top 5 and dealing with the WWE isn't entirely out of the question. You should know how to handle most situations and your path is a fairly straightforward one from this point on. ************************************************************************ A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S & C O P Y R I G H T S ************************************************************************ First off, a big thank you to Jason Blackheart, the all knowing, all seeing, God of Fire Pro engines. Without his constant efforts to rip open Fire Pro games to reveal their complex, albeit flawed inner workings, none of us would be here. Fire Pro is also probably still real to him! Furthermore, I wouldn't even have bothered with this game were it not for Fire Pro Club's Tiger Mask and his translation patch. He picked up where others left off to give us the most complete translation of the game available today! All Final Fire Pro fans owe him a huge debt of gratitude! Megaxero's codes allowed me to verify various theories, invalidate rumours, and make astounding discoveries. Clearly lacking the proper knowledge to hack or rip apart games, I relied on is information to find various addresses that went into the making of this guide. Cactusj00's encouragement, questions, and curiosity fueled my early attempts at a guide. He's been my most loyal supporter from day one and I owe him for that. I'd like to extend thanks to everyone at Fire Pro Club and Fire Pro ZOMG for their help and contributions, be they great or small, and especially for bringing that photot of The Destroyer with a snowman in Tokyo. Damn if that wasn't the greatest wrestling related picture of all times! As always, heads up to the former cast and crew of the Heroes of the Lance GameFAQs message board, as well as to Sturm and his moustache of pure AWESOMENESS~~~~~ Their tales of heroic glory have been a major inspiration in my life. Remember to never let those damn nude midgets kick you in the shins. While we're at it, thanks go out to Hokuto no Ken's Kenshirou, who would like you to know that you are all already dead! Aaatatatatatatatatatatatatata!!! Oh and how could I forget HORGH, skinsman for Immortal and my namesake. Remember, if a man has grown tired of Horgh's nipples, he has grown tired of life itself! Copyrights issues : Of course, I, Asplagis aka Zettaijin aka HORGH, made this guide. I don't mind seeing this thing on anyone's personal page, so long as you tell me beforehand and give me proper credit for my work. If you don't, then Kenshirou will explode your head! Aaaa-tatatatatatatatata!!!!
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