Xartanz

One of my favorite things on this game is when you get a message and one of your fighters happened to be in a documentary or was on the radio, and you go like, "Oh, how fun." But it doesn't happen that often. I'd like it if random stuff like that happens with the fighters more, and it got a little more chaotic. Not a lot, but a little. Like they were drunk in public and had to spend a night in jail, but the story was all over the news and everyone knows him now. So their popularity goes up but their morale goes down a little. Or they were invited on a sports entertainment talk show to give their opinion, and all he did was insult the competition and talk about how great he is and insult his fellow broadcasters, so his hype goes up.

I've got 9 fighters between -3000 and -16000. For most of 'em it's inconvenient, but I've got enough money myself to make up for it, but it's horrible for my two Island guys.

I'd like to see strikes from the bottom be more effective. Not in the, like, you can get a knockout off of it sense (but that may be a part of it-- like a small chance if the guy's taken a bunch of damage or something or if the person has a lot of knockout power), but in that they'll be thrown- and land more often and gas out your opponent sense. I know you don't often see strikes from the bottom in fights, but that's not cuz' they're not effective. It's cuz' a lot of fighters are trained (falsely, I'll add) to think that's a useless thing to do, but a lot of fighters who do like to strike from the bottom have had a lot of success with it (Miguel Torres is one, and Bas Rutten's a big one.)

That tick slider's always frustrated me. It's just silly-- like, if you don't wanna circle your opponent, you obviously have to clinch with 'em. Those are, of course, your only options. It's just ridiculous to think otherwise. Those're two separate things. A whole bunch of fighters prefer to strike and don't like being on the outside, nor do they wanna clinch (think Mizugaki.) Much like that, a lot of fighters that wanna clinch don't always move forward (a lot of guys prefer to circle and dart in and out to get a clinch-- Brandon Girtz did that just last Friday.) I think it'd be better if it got switched to two sliders: "Stay on the Outside/Move Forward" and "Try to Strike/Try to Clinch"

O RLY?

I'd assume I need to contact the owner of the fight org my fighter's contracted to?

I wanna enter my fighter Jiggle Jiggle into it.

That's pretty much how it's done IRL anyways. Nobody forces any promotion to have a 155-lb division separated below it by no less than 10-lbs and above it by no less than 15. They can choose whatever weight they want, and that's part of what makes combat sports fun. I think this'd be a cool thing to do with the game; it'd add a fun level of realism to it, it'd make using the weight gain- and loss supplements more practical, it'd satisfy the people who want a sub-135 division or a 230-lb division or whatever, it would make the organizations more individual, the people who want "less divisions" can have them and still, because they can modify the weight categories, have a good size range. I think it'd be fun. You could do something similar to what Fight Matrix does to rank the fighters on a divisionally-global level; I.E., a weight-class between 176 and 190 is considered "middleweight" and fighters are ranked as such, 162-175 is "welterweight", 130-138 is "bantamweight", et cetera. You'd limit it to one division per weight-range, though, so no organizations with 80 divisions each separated by a pound.

I thought it might be cool if you could, for your fighters, have the ability to make them something like a trophy room. A fighter pays for it, you could control what you put in it (organizational belts, fight bonuses, fights you particularly enjoyed on your fighters part, trophies, maybe even statistics, et cetera), it costs a fighter money for extra stuff, you could organize it all fancy-like. It might be kinda fun. I just noticed how many fighters end up having thousands of dollars in their bank accounts that ends up going to nothing except gym fees (or, if you really wanna use the money, on hundreds of shirts and supplements you'll probably never end up using), and this would be a cool way to spend it.

Another idea I thought of today that would fairly easily begin to implement footwork into the game (and get people's feet wet with the concept) was to make an adjustment to the sliders. You know "Try to Clinch/Stay on the Outside"? That'd get changed to two separate sliders; "Try to Strike/Try to Clinch" and "Move Forward/Stay on the Outside". It'd add another element to infighting and would add some very interesting elements to the wrasslin' aspect of the game.

That's the thing, though. Footwork and positioning isn't something that high level strikers just have; it's a skill they have to work on extensively, and working on it extensively is what separates the movement (and striking effectiveness-) of Anthony Pettis from that of Chris Leben. Kind of lumping it all under vague umbrella terms like "striking defense" and "stay on the outside" is like having it be "strikes" instead of "punches/kicks/knees". This kind of stuff is the reason that transitions and escapes got added to the game instead of just having it all as "defensive grappling". Also, the amount of strikers in this game is a big reason why I'd like to see this get implemented; ya gotta make the system more challenging for strikers if there really are that many of them (and, from what I've found, there are). Finally, avoiding counters is one of the big reasons that footwork and positioning is so important. It's hard to get countered when you're not in a position to get countered. On an unrelated note, does flexibility have any effect on TDD in this game? Cuz' a lot of those guys who're flexible enough to do the splits in the air tend to have at least above-average TDD (Lorenz Larkin, Cro Cop, a few others).

I understand this may seem like a big undertaking, but hear me out first. Footwork and positioning are some of the most directly-related- and important aspects of striking, and it's very often something which gets overlooked. What separates a knockout blow from a glancing shot (and being on the receiving end of said strikes) is very often simply a matter of foot positioning. An immediate example of this principle was the Alexander Shlemenko-Brett Cooper II fight; because of Shlemenko's poor foot positioning, he ended up getting dropped by Cooper twice in the first two rounds, and what separated the left hand that Shlemenko had landed a bunch of times throughout the fight from the left that knocked Brett Cooper down in the fourth round was, again, a matter of foot positioning. Proper footwork has much more to it than just simply circling, as well. It's what separates the beautiful lateral movement of Frankie Edgar from, say, the lateral movement of Rony Jason in his fight with Jeremy Stephens (I.E., circling to his left the entire fight with his back to the cage and walking right into a knockout-blow head-kick). It's what separates the in-out movement of Eddie Alvarez and Miguel Torres (in Torres' prime) from, oh, I don't know... anybody who's ever been knocked out from walking into a punch in an attempt to land a jab (I can't think of any specific examples, but that's happened a bunch of times, as we all know). There's also a lot more to footwork than simply moving around a lot, as well. Even fighters at a high level who seem to be fairly stationary (I.E., "flatfooted") very often have an overlooked level of footwork. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson is a premier example of this; while most people considered him to be a very flatfooted fighter, he actually possessed a very underrated pedigree of footwork. His style at his best was built around covering up and then exploding on his opponents, which required him to have a masterful-understanding of every subtle naunce required to maneuver in the pocket the way he did; to be able to cover up in the pocket and then, immediately afterwards, get his feet into a position which would allow for the maximum amount of power to be put into his strikes which would, inevitably, knock out his opponents. That's, in its own way, a level of footwork which can be argued to rival even the most predominant footwork-based fighters like Frankie Edgar and Dominick Cruz. Here's maybe the most important thing about this: proper footwork and positioning isn't a talent that's difficult to harness if you're not born with it (though for some people it can be, but they're a very small minority as far as fighters with great footwork go), it's a skill. It's as much of a skill as keeping your hands up mid-combination, and it's as important a skill as that. Proper understanding of footwork and positioning keeps fighters from tripping over themselves; it keeps them safe in times of trouble; it allows them to attack their opponents with more effectiveness and allows them to avoid their opponent's attacks with, again, more effectiveness; it does all this and more. It's a very important skill to have, and, if it were implemented in the game, it would improve the realism of it immensely. Now, here's one of the biggest questions: how would you work it into the game? Well, I figured out some of that. First off, footwork would be specific skill like striking defense, and speed would be the primary physical attribute it would be associated with (agility and balance would be the secondary ones). As to how it would be applied, I figured two ticker boxes would be easy and effective. You'd have one ticker box to decide whether the fighter utilizes a lot of movement or whether they stay stationary (both with pros and cons; more movement = less power and more evasiveness, stationary = more power and less evasiveness, among other things), and the other would be to decide whether or not they move laterally or vertically [i don't know if vertical is the right word, but one involves a lot of circling, the other is moving in and out]. The footwork skill would determine how effective they are using said footwork; for example, if a fighter would have a very low footwork stat and would use a lot of lateral movement, they would likely end up backing up to the cage and moving in the same direction the entire time, whereas a high footwork skill under the same ticks would result in the fighter circling in different angles constantly (like the aforementioned Frankie Edgar). Vertical footwork would result in some Eddie Alvarez-esque in-out punching when the skill's high, and may result in some Ryan Bader-Lyoto Machida situations otherwise. Footwork would also tie directly into striking defense. If they've got high footwork and they're balanced between staying stationary and moving, they'd probably end up with a style similar to Eddie Wineland. Also, much like Eddie Wineland, if they have low striking defense and keep their hands low and head up, they'll get hurt a lot more. High striking defense and low footwork while remaining stationary would result in them not taking much damage, yes, but it'd also likely result in them getting picked apart from the outside, assuming the fighter has high footwork and decent-enough striking defense. Low footwork and a lot of movement while they have high striking defense would result in them tripping over themselves a lot, gassing them out, sapping their morale, and maybe getting hurt a lot more. Remaining stationary while having high footwork would also result in a very effective, powerful infighting game. Again, there are a lot of kinks to work out, but I really do feel that footwork and positioning is a very significant aspect of striking that isn't right to be overlooked, applying it to the game would make the game much more realistic and, if it was implemented properly (similar to the way I described), it would make the game much more fun. This's all also just the striking aspect of footwork; I'm sure people who're more privy than myself can explain how good footwork and positioning can greatly improve a fighter's wrestling and clinching game, as well.

I own Blacksmith gym in Las Vegas now and I need a nutrition partner. Hit me up.

Body shots don't finish fights in the game. It would be better if that was amended.