Road Agent Feedback

Road Agent Feedback
During matches and angles you will see comments from your road agent in the Road Agent Report section at the bottom of the screen. This section of the handbook lists some of these comments and what they mean.

The comments that are simply descriptions of things that happened or that are so obvious that they require no further explanation have been left out to make the list easier to scan through.

Vocal Crowd
A vocal or rowdy crowd reacting to a worker can happen with certain products if the worker's key skills are too weak.

For example, in a deathmatch based product the fans would react if the worker's Brawling and Hardcore skills are low, with the lower they are, the worse the reaction.

Getting this feedback means the worker's performance rating is being penalized.

Eating Up
Feedback that a worker 'took most of the offense, completely eating up' his or her opponent means that the worker in question selfishly dominated the match in order to make themselves look better and harm their opponent.

This can happen depending on the worker's attributes, morale, and relationship with the 'victim.'

This feedback means that the match suffers a penalty as a result and the 'victim' is eligible to take some damage to their popularity or momentum.

Made To Look Strong
Feedback that a worker made their opponent 'look particularly strong' is the polar opposite of eating them up; it means they went out of their way to make the opponent look strong.

This can happen depending on the worker's attributes, morale, and relationship with the person they're helping.

This feedback means that the person being helped gets a boost to their performance levels.

Don't Seem To Click
If two workers are said not to click it means that they have negative chemistry. The resulting penalty level depends on the strength of the negative chemistry.

Recent Matches
Feedback relating to 'recent matches' means that the match is considered to be repetitively booked (i.e. it's been seen many times before). Penalties will occur if the match is not as good as what has come before, with the impact getting greater the more the match has been seen in the past.

Phoning It In
A worker may 'phone in' their performance if they have very low morale and an appropriate personality. This will impact their performance negatively.

Type Of Match
Feedback that the type of match was poor / inappropriate for the audience that a combination of the match aim, match set up (i.e. whether it involves tables, overhead wires, barbed wire, etc), match injury risk, and match content risk were considered a poor fit for the company's product.

The level of penalty depends on how bad the clash was considered to be.

The Match Finish
Fans being turned off / hating the finish of the match relates to the product being used (e.g. using a cheap ending with a product that wants only clean finishes).

The level of penalty depends on how bad the clash between what you provided and what the fans wanted was.

Worker Looked Good
Being told that a worker 'looked good out there' / shone / 'stood out' means that their performance rating far exceed the original segment rating (before any subsequent penalties were applied to it).

This doesn't give any bonuses, it simply alerts you to a worker who is doing particularly well.

Cinematic-Style Approach
When using a cinematic-style match there is a random chance of it going particularly badly or particularly well. This brings bonuses or penalties to the segment rating. There is nothing that you can do to influence this.

Crowd Management
Feedback about segments 'cooling' the crowd, getting them 'hotter,' being 'poorly placed,' etc. are all to do with crowd management. This refers to how the rating stacked up compared with the segments that came before it, what level the crowd's heat was at before and after the segment, and how the match aim fit with the segment's position on the show.

This feedback indicates that penalties and bonuses may be involved, but also that the crowd heat is being altered (which will then knock-on to any following segments).

Looking Stale
Being told that a worker is 'looking stale' means that their gimmick is likely long overdue for a freshening up.

Young Female Demographic
Being told that worker 'has a strong connection with the young female demographic' means that some combination of their various stats makes them particularly good at connecting with young female fans and so they get a bonus to any popularity growth that they experience.

Road Agent Performance
Feedback about a road agent not putting together the match very well or doing a good job means that their skill in the role (as usual, made up of their Experience and Psychology, with a little influence from Respect) was either particularly low or high.

This is an absolute value and the segment rating has absolutely no bearing on it. For example, a road agent whose skill is rated at 25 is always going to be marked down for being poor, even if it's a 10 rated match in an Insignificant company.

This feedback indicates a penalty or bonus has been applied to the overall segment rating.

Please remember that the road agent's skill rating can be reduced if they are being overworked. The skill rating will get more and more penalties as the show goes on, to simulate them becoming more and more overwhelmed.

Referee Performance
Feedback about a referee doing poorly means that their Refereeing skill was less or equal to 40 (remembering that their normal skill can be reduced if they are being overworked).

This is an absolute value and the segment rating has no bearing on it. So, a rating of 40 or less will get the same penalty whether the company is Insignificant or Titanic.

Announcing Performance
Feedback on an announcer or color commentator doing poorly means that their skill level was significantly higher or lower than the segment rating as it was at the time of the calculation (which is fairly early on, before a lot of the 'extra' bonuses and penalties are applied).

Therefore, unlike road agent or referee performance, the announcers are being rated in the context of the company size and segment quality, not on an absolute value.

Lack Of Selling
A note about a lack of selling occurs if the total of all the Selling in the match divided by the number of competitors is significantly less than the match rating at that point in the calculation. If the highest Selling of any of the competitors is also low then the resulting penalty is increased (i.e. having one good seller can help mitigate the damage).

Battle royal matches are exempt from selling penalties.

Lack Of Psychology
The feedback about lack of psychology occurs if the highest Psychology in the match is significantly less than the match rating at that point in the calculation.

Bear in mind that a talented road agent can artificially boost the highest Psychology rating a little bit, simulating their influence on putting together the match.

There is a secondary penalty for 'lack of flow' / 'match dragged in the middle;' this happens if the highest Psychology rating is too low for the match length in question. For example, a match over an hour requires at least 85 Psychology.

Battle royal matches are exempt from psychology penalties.

No Investment In Workers
The feedback 'The crowd were totally turned off by having a match on the main show between workers they don't have any investment in' means that you had a match between Unimportant workers, all of whom had less than Very Warm momentum, outside of the pre-show - in essence, a jobber match. This would be heavily penalized. The match only needs one competitor whose perception is above Unimportant, or who is Unimportant but with Very Warm or better momentum, to avoid this penalty.

This penalty does not apply to companies below Medium size.

Good Work At Ringside
A manager will be said to 'do good work at ringside' if their Charisma rating is significantly better than the match rating at that point in the calculation. It gives a small bonus to the match rating.

Off His / Her Game
The feedback that a worker was 'off their game' relates to their Consistency skill level. The resulting penalty is more severe in singles bouts due to there being less ways of hiding that they're not performing well.

Shoot Comments
A worker throwing in 'shoot comments' into an interview is the angle-based equivalent of phoning it in during a match (see earlier in this section). It again depends on morale and personality and creates a penalty to that worker's performance.

Lack Of Anything Interesting
The angle feedback that 'the lack of anything interesting happening in this segment was a problem' will occur if everyone in the angle is being rated entirely on passive types (i.e. Overness, Sex Appeal, Menace, Star Quality) because nothing is actually happening. Only one participant needs to be rated on an active type (i.e. any other choice) to avoid the penalty.

This penalty only applies to angles of five or more minutes.

Manager Help In Angle
Feedback saying that a manager helped a client during an angle means that the client was being rated on Entertainment or Microphone and that because the manager has superior Microphone or Charisma skills they were able to artificially boost the rating.