Tips for longer simmed matches?

Think I have to lower the % I have on the Rainmaker and one-Winged Angel from 25% to 20%. That could lengthen the match a bit as that is the primary way I have it ending.

Params are key. Lower them from those (pretty damn) high bases they have if you kept them.

What do you mean 2 up 2 down? I was thinking about taking 5 points away from offense and adding 5 points in total to defense. Is that similar?

This is pretty much my bread-and-butter topic. I was going to write a guide or post on having edits with different workrates, including the few that work ***** matches together. A few tips...

-LOW offense, HIGH defense. This is a key to making any edit into a good worker who has longer matches. But particularly, make two edits that are supposed to have great matches be strong against each other's specialties. My Bret Hart has EXTREMELY high kicking defense, for example, and Shawn Michaels has extremely high submission defense. This not only works in the matches, it makes sense. Rivals know each other's strategies.

-Have the wrestlers circle a lot early, go for weak grapple moves etc., you have a defined "beginning stage" to the match which helps pace it out into long form.

-After that, spread out the percentages, so guys continue to do some weak grapple moves in medium damage and some weak and medium damage moves in high damage. When you have long matches, VARIETY is key to keeping them interesting.

-Have logic to what they do. My Ricky Steamboat tends to work on arms throughout a match, I link his armdrag into an armbar, use arm snaps and things like that. SEEING the opponent's arms droop throughout the match really adds to the appeal. Flair goes crazy attacking the opponent's legs, but it doesn't trigger until the opponent hits critical damage ("and now we go to school!"). Bret Hart links together the Russian Legsweep, Elbowdrop off the top, Sharpshooter etc.

-Use priority to make them do things that make sense in general. Make them try for pins after their big moves, so the goal and believability of the match stays there, with them TRYING to win. Also, you can link headlocks, shoulderblocks etc. in low damage, and so on. Watching and waiting for those priority moments makes a match interesting in and of itself.

-And of course, have a designated referee for longer matches! Give them slow movement, slow count and so on. I also like to make the matches 2/3 falls or Iron Man-style to let them show everything they can do.

-ROPE BREAKS. I forgot to say this before. When I want two guys to have a long match, I always turn on Rope Breaks. Likewise, you can turn off the Outside Count to let them spend more time fighting on the ground as well.

-When you combine these things with edits who are made to resist each other's strategies, you often get magic. My Ricky Steamboat has good matches, my Ric Flair can carry almost anyone to something decent, but when you put Flair against Steamboat, expect a WAR. On Fire Pro Returns, it wasn't uncommon at all to have a 45 or 50-minute match between them.

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By contrast, edits who can't work have high offense and low defense, repetitive moves, only pin after finishers etc. And put them with your fast-counting ref. They can be fun to watch in short squashes, but anything over 20-minutes or so is quite boring. Unless you have someone like Flair to carry them.

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I've heard a lot about Okada and Omega. I may watch some of their matches and make two edits out of both of them as well.

Just re-did some logic and parameters and testing an Okada/Omega match now since I am basically using them as my templates for the NJPW style.

Decided to go with a +/- 3 points (5 seemed extreme). Basically just moving 3 points in total from the offensive parameters column to defense, particularly focusing on areas like throw, lariat, etc.

As for CPU Logic, what % is good for "circle opponent" in the early half of the match? Right now, I have it at 15% for S Damage and 12% for L Damage right now.

Thanks again for the advice!

Don't mess with your edits. The answer is a slow ref with a slow count. That will fix all your problems.

Those Offensive Parameters seem a bit high to me. Given that most of Steamboat’s big moves use Punch, Agility, Technical, wouldn’t you want to lower those more if aiming to have a longer match?