OGpistolpete

Twilight Struggle anyone?

THE ONE WEEK THE BROWNS ARE ON NATIONAL TV THEY HAVE THE LIONS PLAYING THE FOX EARLY GAME

So I'm pretty torn on the Hoyer/Manziel situation. First thing first is that Hoyer will obviously always be fighting for a job, no matter where he is. He obviously doesn't have the "superstar" appeal that someone like Johnny Manziel does, and rightfully so.

In defense of Hoyer, he clearly didn't play well in Buffalo this past week, but one could attribute his first interception to a miscommunication with a receiver who is only playing his second game of the season and is bound to run into miscommunication with. And to blame Hoyer for the mistake is being naive just because of the way Gordon reacted right after. Gordon is an emotional guy and in the moment would probably think he was the one who was right and Hoyer was wrong, while he could have easily gone to the sideline and have been informed of his mistake. With 12 games under Hoyer's belt, I'd put my money on Gordon making that mistake as opposed to the guy who has been running the offense all season. His second interception was definitely his fault, but at some point you have to take some risks instead of throwing to the check down guy when the coverage is tough. To be fair the play call for a play action pass, the kind of play Cleveland has been relying on all season in terms of big yard gains. They just got caught with it this time and you can't expect to beat the D every play. At that point the the Bills were up 17-3 only because of making some offensive adjustments during halftime to get a few yards out of the goal line after catching a pass interference call against Haden, and then scoring their second touchdown off a fumble by West which is no one's fault but Terrence West's.

So then you throw Manziel in, who's adrenaline is pumping more than anyone else on that field. Watching his highlights, Manziel is alllllll over the place, and not necessarily in the a good way. Cleveland offensive line isn't too impressive, and has been missing Alex Mack greatly, so having a mobile quarterback is beneficial given the circumstances. Buffalo's defensive line is also one of the best in the league, but definitely had to take a few plays to adjust to the fact that they were now facing an extremely mobile quarterback. Out of all eight of his dropbacks, Manziel stayed in the pocket only two times. He was throwing over his shoulder way too much and left himself very exposed to Buffalo's defensive linemen. Sure he can get away with that for one drive like he did on his first one, but after he develops enough film for defenses to analyze, and misreads a blitz or two, he is going to be very susceptible to taking major hits and facing serious pressure. He only made two legitimate passes that weren't check downs, and the 24-yard gainer to Jim Dray could have easily been intercepted just like Hoyer's triple coverage interception was. Follow that up with his second drive where he loses the snap and looks like he has no control over what is going on, it's tough to really say whether Manziel is ready to start next week.

The NFL is obviously a win-now league like never before, but when you are in an opportunity to find yourself in second place in the division with only four weeks left, you can't just throw in your rookie quarterback hoping he will score touchdowns on his first two drives and lead your team back from down two touchdowns. If you really wanted to do that, you would leave in the guy who has been as clutch as they come for most of the season in Brian Hoyer, instead of affirming your lack of confidence in him for the rest of his career with the team. It's obvious that the organization doesn't have any faith in Hoyer long-term, and quite frankly, I don't even know if I have faith. But if you think Manziel gives you a better chance to win this late in the season, I'd say you're being foolish.

You could probably just roll the clock back on my August 1996 mod and it should suffice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbcAJk2C0kc

Why do I love this songgg

Hoyer 16/41, I'm not sure why they didn't bench him.

Really? Why would they want to destroy his confidence?

Big Lions fan, but can't lie, the referee gave them that win with that pass interference call on 4th and 5.

EDIT: Pettine blew that game for the Browns with that try on 4th and 1 and then that awful, awful personnel switch that resulted in absolutely nothing. Then that motherfucker tries to catch a punt on the third yard line, yuck!

Halfway through The Knick on Cinemax. What a great show.

One month later and I'm finally finished! All of the data is up to standards for December 1997.

The only things left I have to do are update pictures for all workers (which is gonna take awhile since I don't have Photoshop anymore and will have to go to my school's computer lab to do so), and mess with the sponsorships. Implementing the new pay scale, the WWF and WCW should now be making an acceptable amount of money. Now I want to test what regional and small size promotions will be making with the current sponsorship set-up, and see whether or not it needs to be adjusted. I'm pretty sure it does because I like to play small sized promotion games and end up making a few $100,000 every month, when I should just be scraping buy. Of course, I will keep it this way for my "Easy Mode" Sponsor list, but I do want to make one that is "Hard Mode", like I mentioned a few weeks ago.

So be on the look out for this! Will post a separate thread, and may or may not re-release my previous two scenarios.

So I think I've come up with the final pay scale to accompany the game's embedded overness scales which will be used from here on out. I have to adjust a few of the promotions to this new scale, but I think this along with an adjusted sponsorship pay scale will completely revamp game play to maximize its efficiency. Feel free to use this for your mod making.

EDIT: By the way, OV for Managers and Non-Wrestlers means that their pay should be equivalent to the overness of a wrestler in that size promotion.

That Lions game was a joke. But I knew Cleveland would come back and win. It was like their game plan was to injure Locker and then take over.

Whacky punt return in Carolina. That hit was brutal, too. Sucks I'm going against their D/ST.

With a salary scale I think is applicable designed for WCW and WWF, my initial test run of a month saw WCW walk away with a profit of ~$2.5M. This is without sponsorship decrease. Decreasing sponsorship numbers should bring this down to around ~2.0M, so I'd say I'm making progress. I'd say that's a fair income for WCW to bring in around this time.

WCW's roster is just about finished. Just have to do the tag teams which takes no time, as well as stables, and adjust pictures and they are all set. Funny seeing how these roster's change over a half a year's period. WCW definitely cut a lot of dead weight between April 1997 and entering 1998.

ECW's roster is just about finished as well. Just have to make sure things look good and polish pictures. However, I did try to adjust their roster's salaries. This resulted in the company losing a ridiculous amount of money in just one month. They are certainly at a disadvantage just running one small-time TV show weekly and one large show (not a PPV) a month. Thought what I adjusted to was appropriate, but definitely have to bring that back down.

At this point I'm about ~30% finished. Adjusting non-contracted workers takes awhile since the data set is about 70% of them. Still have to adjust sponsors which may take awhile too. But other than that things are looking good.

I think rushing the passer is just far too easy this year. Despite missing 5 games with injury, I had Anthony Spencer smash the sack record with 37.

With sliders?

I do wish there was an easy "reset formation" button in terms of subs. Managing personnel makes the game much more interesting and challenging, especially when your players are tired all the time, but having to switch people back before you can choose your next play really makes it more of a hassle than anything. Right now I'm playing on some guy's Franchise mode, All-Madden sliders and boy are things much more difficult than they were before. Running the ball is harder than ever. I started a franchise with the Lions and Stafford throws like shit half of the time. But hey, more interesting than default All-Madden.

EDIT: And the Panthers defense is insane. Their pass rush is brutal.

EDIT 2: YOU CANNOT ESCAPE KUECHLY

Having autobooked a month with the complete WWF roster finished, I have come to the conclusion that sponsporship pays too much and workers don't earn enough. Here are the numbers for the first month I ran.

Ticket Sales ..............5570400

PPV Rev. ..................2050000

Sponsorship .............6342000

Merchandise .............2400000

Total Revenue ......16362400

Worker Costs ...........3086000

Staff Costs .................324000

Production Costs .....3700000

Merchandise Costs ..2000000

Advertising Costs .....1000000

Total Expenses ....10110000

Monthly Profit ........6252400

Given this situation, the only real options I see to sort this out is to adjust worker and staff wages in order to increase how much they cost, as well as lowering the amount of money that companies earn from sponsorship. Merchandise and Advertising are at 100%, and I believe would increase a bit as Public Image would increase (correct? WWF starts at 20% PI, Global). Considering that the WWF was in really bad shape financially in 1997, I would like to see their profit decreased to around only a few hundred thousand per month, which means cutting almost $6 million from what they are making right now per month. That is just way too much.

I'm also thinking that with different sponsorship files, the ease of the game could be increased or decreased. Sort of like choosing between playing Easy, Medium, or Hard. With the current sponsorship file, I would consider the mode "Easy" and just lets you book things without having the worry about finances.

Thoughts?

EDIT: This is what happens when you read the rest of the post after posting XD

That's what I have been worried about. The only problem is it's hard to estimate how much a company like the WWF spends and makes per month. On average they would make $2.8M from sponsors a month given what I have in the game. The part I have difficulty calculating is the revenue from TV and PPV's. Anybody willing to run through a month and do the numbers for me?

So I am just about finished with the WWF roster. My only hold up right now is the salary scale. I have been using one scale I developed when I first started this project that has been working out fine I believe, but I am considering taking a more realistic approach to it. Reading Dave Meltzer's comments on the Montreal Screwjob episode of the Monday Night War on the WWE Network, he mentions that at the time of the screwjob Bret Hart was guaranteed $1.5 million, while Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker were making double that. At $1.5M a year, that is $125k a month, while Michaels and Undertaker would hypothetically be making about $60-70k a month. Right now I have guys like Michaels at $200k a month and the Undertaker at $175k.

Are there any thoughts on a potential adjustment of everyone's salaries in the game?

Does anybody have any other information concerning wrestlers salaries around this time?

The WWE Network is a great source now. Can give you a good idea about someone's overness, disposition, gimmick, etc. The only problem is they don't have minor shows or old RAW's, but checking out PPV's is a good way to understand some of the main roster players. I'm glad I have access to it now to work on my MASTERS scenarios.

And so it begins. Another new adventure into the EWR MASTERS scenario timeline. August 1996 is complete. April 1997 was completed a few months ago. Now I would like to move on to your next moment in time…

November, 1997.

Yes, oh yes, what a month this was. Of course, the events which took place on the night of November 9^th, 1997 have forever lived on in infamy. The Montreal Screwjob is perhaps still to this day, the most controversial happenstance to take place during a live show. It is truly one of those rare moments where Kayfabe seceded to the reality of what was taking place backstage. Where Vince McMahon screwed Bret Hart, or if you so please, Bret Hart screwed Bret Hart. No matter what your opinions on the matter, there is no doubt the landscape of professional wrestling changed dramatically on November 9^th, making the month of November the next logical stop on our passing through the times.

But do not forget what is coming in just a month from November 1997. Arguably one of WCW’s biggest blunders on their biggest night in the company’s history. Starrcade 1997. It’s been almost an entire year since Sting has stepped foot in a WCW ring with wrestling as the intention. Since then, the New World Order has revolutionized professional wrestling forever, and WCW has never been the same. But the first glimpses of their beloved hero has turned into attack after attack against the nWo, as Sting appears to be the only man who can challenge the “immortal” ‘Hollywood’ Hulk Hogan and recapture the WCW World Heavyweight championship.

Don't forget, the WWF Attitude Era is right around the corner...

Will you lead the WWF into your version of the Attitude Era?

Will you save WCW from their own demise?

Will you lead ECW to the national stage?

Or will you find a different path?

Plenty of work to be done. Not much time for me to do it. But I will try my best!

So the the worst Super Bowl on paper just turned into an epic loss for me. Still the Raiders, I destroyed the Texans in the AFC Championship and it's the Packers waiting for me in the Super Bowl, with Aaron Rodgers on IR with a dislocated ankle, and guess who as their starter: MATT FLYNN. I lost MJD in the AFC championship game too, so that sucked. McFadden got wrecked my first few running plays and Green Bay's defense off the bat was applying a lot of pressure on me. So I responded with a ridiculous passing game. Derek Carr threw one touchdown and four interceptions, before I finally really let the guns fly and was within a touchdown at the half. My defense really dropped the ball, giving up a 78-yard touchdown catch to Cobb to end the third quarter, putting GB up 24-10, but I responded with a complete drive down the field, finding Greg Little to bring it within a touchdown again. GB gets a field goal off my fifth interception, but I didn't give up and drove down the field for another scoring drive. I was able to score a second touchdown off a few big plays and horrible pass coverage by GB, finding James Jones on a drag route where he ran it right up the middle for a 29-yard touchdown pass. This game GB like 4 minutes left, and they failed on their drive. I got the ball back, and the running game was going no where once again, so in a 3rd and 9 situation, I threw a pass to Moore on the left side in a curl route and of course this motherfucker intercepts me for the third time in the game! He runs back and puts GB in field goal range, where they go up by three points. This gives me one last drive that's looking good, but of course I try to force a pass when I could have taken the field goal a few downs later, and throw another interception to end the game.

Can't say I didn't do it to myself. Oh well.

When I scout I save my points until the end of the season, then just reveal the development stat on a few guys.

I've been trying to figure out my scouting strategy, and with my Raiders franchise I am now saving all of my points for the end of the season because it's easier to allocate them in bulk it would seem, and my needs change during the season. Revealing development stats is a good tip though, because that is definitely very important to their value over future seasons.

So MJD is second in rushing yards and first in TDs after 4 games. And the TE I brought in, Jermaine Gresham, is leading the lead in receiving yards. This is all despite us being a game behind because we had an early bye week.

I lost 37-36 to the Patriots in week three. Started Matt Schaub because Carr got hurt in game one, then Schaub got injured in this game forcing me to use McGloin. Still, we had the ball and were in field goal range. Just needed to run some clock so we could kick it in and win with time running out. Instead, MJD fumbled and Brady was able to end the game. Bastard.

I'm working on a Raiders franchise right now too. I've gone through Schaub in the first weeks until he was throwing INTs like crazy, to Carr who got injured in his third start, to Schaub who got injured in the next game, to McGloin who lasted me four weeks before getting injured, to Carr who is now my starter. Quite a whirlwind at the QB position, but I love the receiving corps. Jones is a solid possession guy. Moore is great for speed. Streater is a great slot receiver, and having Little come in and out as my fourth is just unstoppable. MJD is either hit or miss, but I think that has to do more with my O-Line which has had a few injuries as well. Their defense is solid and usually backs me up very well (I SuperSim the defense). If I could suggest anything to you, throw McFadden into the fullback slot in a few packages and you can do some interesting stuff with him. He has great acceleration to get out of the backfield very quickly.

Just reached the playoffs going 12-4 in the first season on All-Madden. Got Carr to about an 83 OVR now, and have my first playoff game against the Patriots. A little worried because we didn't play well at all against Denver in Week 17. If Carr is cold, he's cold. And if I don't have a productive running game, the offense is usually dead in the water.

My only real complaint about this game is that the receivers barely have a chance on anything long. You have to seam it perfectly leading the pass on, or it's batted down or intercepted. Not to say that's completely unrealistic, but I feel as though receiver's never, ever have a chance to just jump up and grab the ball like real life. As soon as the ball arrives within the secondary's radius, they immediately have the awareness and ability to just jump and turn around to make the interception, even though in real life the receiver is usually the one going for the grab even if it's a lobbed pass. Other than that, I love it on PS3. Played on Xbox One at my buddy's place and honestly think it's ten-times worse. The graphics and presentation are better, but the way it plays is pretty brutal.

Also, in my first franchise with the Browns, I got Manziel to like a 93 OVR by the end of the season, and broke the NFL passing touchdown record with 8 total touchdown passes (although that was on All-Pro while I was getting the hang of things). Will probably end up doing a Browns franchise again on All-Madden with some better sliders to give myself a challenge, but might stick with this Raiders one for awhile, then maybe do a Jaguars or Lions franchise. A little ticked off with how fast these guys progress though. Might have to give myself some in-house limitations on improving players, especially quarterbacks and their accuracy ratings.

EDIT:

@Toe: I LOL'd at your Charlie Whitehurst post because I had the exact same thing happen to me in my Browns franchise on All-Pro. He literally tore apart my secondary and I was baffled because he is like a 68 OVR.

I feel as though any Browns fan should know this kind of win well. The kind of win where we upset the heavy favorite by a margin less than a touchdown, although usually not thanks to a final offensive possession to capture the victory. Good win, but the pessimistic side of me says this doesn't amount to anything. The Browns will continue to stumble against teams more on their par.