Diary of a Boxing Manager

Boxing management simulation game
KnockOut
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Diary of a Boxing Manager

Post by KnockOut »

I'm going to be writing an in character diary of Universal Boxing Manager.

1) To help illustrate feedback that will help future versions of the game
2) For fun :)

And we're off to the races...

My name is "Iron" Mike Mayweather. I've been boxing since I was 12 years old. I had a great amateur record and at age 18 I was geared up to complete in the Olympics but that all changed. Aliens invaded and they changed the rules of boxing.

I remember teaching my last class at my personal boxing gym. I remember teaching the basics of keeping your hands up, the orthodox stance of left foot forward and right foot back, the 1-2 punch combo, and the basics of boxing. But once the aliens came the whole world changed. Gone were Amateur fights. Gone was Boxing in the Olympics. Gone were referees. Gone were four and six round fights.

All boxers were now robots which were mass produced by the aliens. All the android boxers in the same weight class had the same height, the same wingspan, the same weight, the same arm length, the same shoe size, the same bodyfat percentage, and the same foot length. The only things that were different were their potentials, their styles, and their age.

I was no longer eligible to be a boxer. Having little skills to compete in the alien driven workforce, I acquired my Boxing Manager License. I was assigned 30 units of the alien currency to work with. I used part of it to buy a professional training kit and part of it to buy a useless doctor to hang around and do nothing(hey, the aliens had some stupid rules). I was assigned the 30 year old android boxer Rastislav Beno. A right hander who was very agressive and was manufactured in India. He was 176cm tall, competed in the strawweight(105lb) division however he weighed 44.9kg.

I tried to work with the android the first day. The androids were all programmed with the inability to foul so I wasn't worried about getting hurt. I stepped into the ring and when I started fighting with him I started to cry. I realized how much boxing was ruined. Jabs were now hooks. The only punches that existed were hooks to the body and the head. The android was flat footed. The Boxing Stance was with your hands down around your waist and your feet right next to each other shoulder width apart. There was hardly any circling around the ring and the android moved straight back.

There was no blocking punches with your arms or your gloves, no slipping, no bobbing and weaving. Just moving back and to the side to result in punches missing.

I gave up.

I assigned him to do some running, heavy bag, speed bag, jump rope, sparring, and weights all in equal quantities because I was tired with dealing with the tragedy that had become boxing.

I mean I'm a great trainer. I'm a great scout and I'm as good a trainer as I am a scout. I can't negotiate my way out of a paper bag, I have less charisma than a block, and I walk under ladders, break mirrors, and see black cats all the time. The last time I saw a four leafed clover was when a black cat was smashing it with a mirror.

Beno had slightly below average quickness, speed, and technique. He had absolutely terrible strength, endurance, and stamina. And I didn't see anything in the anroid to make me think that he had the potential to go further. I tried to motivate him but it didn't work.

I scheduled a match this month against an even worse boxer named Gay Maurice for 11AC(Alien Currency). It was a ten round fight. Beno had 3 wins, 1 draw, and 8 losses with no K.O.'s. Gay Maurice had 6 wins, 1 draw, and 6 losses with 3 K.O.'s. On paper things seemed to be in favor of Gay Maurice. My scouting said otherwise.

I talked to my boxer beforehand and saw that he had absolutely no motivation but his fitness was really good. Still my strategy for Beno going into the fight was to go for a mixture of body and head shots and to constantly move around the ring. I wanted the fights to take as long as possible so I could build up his morale and fitness. Right now I was focused on fitness so all I was going to do in between rounds was to heal him.

His fitness was at maximum after the first round which was scored a 10-10 on my score card so during the break I started focusing on inciting him but I still wanted him to run. The next round I scored 10-9 in favor of my boxer but it lowered his fitness greatly so I decided to work on a mixture between inciting and healing. I still wanted him to run.

In the third round, after an uneventful two rounds of a lot of missed punches. Beno scored a flash knockdown(Maurice got up after a five count) resulting in a guaranteed 10-8 round. I still wanted him to drag out the fight, even though I saw that Gay Maurice only had one punch left in him just so I could heal and motivate Beno some more.

The fourth round was all Maurice who scored a flash knockdown on Beno.

The fifth round was a 10-10 tie.

6th round was another 10-10. Beno's fitness was going down fast and my inciting wasn't raising his morale up.

7th round was another 10-10. With Maurice landing two extremely weak shots and only seven missed shots from both fighters.

Round 8 had Beno trap Maurice in the corner. Beno proceeded to land a couple weak shots. Resulting in a boring 10-9 round for Beno.

Round 9 had Maurice land a whole bunch of shots including one power punch resulting in a 10-8 round in his favor. Worse both Beno's morale and fitness were shot. I told Beno to go out on the offensive and to head hunt. The score was even now.

Beno landed an incredible punch in the tenth but Maurice didn't go down. That last round was definately Beno's but some corrupt alien judging resulting in a draw.

But hey, spilt milk. Let's worry about the next match...
Ken_Goding
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Post by Ken_Goding »

LOL... it's not THAT bad. I don't think you got to use many of the earlier versions of the game, but compared to what we have some of it was frightening. Having programmed a very simple virtual pet and spending hours and hours on it, I know that he'll need a lot of time to get things perfect. He'll get there eventually. :lol:
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jack1974
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Post by jack1974 »

Lol not bad, it's very good writing... about the contents. ahem! :roll:
It's very good though because I'll keep it as reference to make the changes. Never thought about the referee for example, that would be a very easy addition (not sure if would be really useful or would distract the player).
About weights and wingspan ok ok I know... :p I'll get there eventually - maybe even with UBM2, with match in full 3d. I think is the only way to represent properly different weights / arm length.
But will take surely a while!!!
KnockOut
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Post by KnockOut »

Hey it's for a good cause. It gets me back into the game and I'm having fun. Something I wouldn't normally be doing unless it was right after a new version was released. And without further ado...

The more I thought about the judging, the more it left a bad taste in my mouth. Round Number 10 could've been scored a 10-8 round for Rostislav Beno. Yeah, there were several 10-10 rounds that could've been scored either way but for all the judges to score it a draw. I would've expected a lot more variance. Well, it's improbable not impossible I guess.

Another month passed. Beno was torn up from the last fight, so I gave him a month off between fights. I tried to motivate him but I didn't know the right words for his android body.

I tried to find some people to start a rebellion to get the aliens off our planet so we could get boxing to be the way it was. However, I couldn't get a lot of people to join because they said boxing was more exciting now. No more clinching. No more jabs. No more annoying referees. Just two guys basically standing in front of each other and hooking it out. The people who said that I guess were entitled to their opinion. I, however, was determined to bring back boxing.

In good news, I managed to get a gloves sponsor to pay 10 units of AC for having Beno wear Alien Regime Forever gloves for five months.

Another month passed and another motivational attempt failed. I wanted to schedule a rematch with Gay Maurice but he had retired from boxing.

There were no boxers currently out there that were as bad as Gay Maurice, the more worst I could find was a boxer ranked 99 named Fabula Tomislav a 23 year old boxer from Bulgaria who held a record of 3 wins 1 draw 7 losses with no K.O.'s.

It was going to be an 8 round fight. The basic strategy was for Beno to run away, mix it up to the body and head, while I worked on healing him and inciting him in the corner. Sometimes there are things that a boxer can only hear when he's in between rounds. The more rounds Beno was in between the more he was going to be able to hear.

First round 10-10, with only about 5 weak punches landed total from both sides.

Second round 10-10, Fabula threw more punches but landed zero. Beno through less but managed to land two "pokes". At least Beno's fitness was going up and I thought maybe the fire in his eyes was too.

Third round 10-10, Fabula threw 12 punches to Beno's seven but they both landed 2.

Round 4, Beno landed a lucky punch straight across the chin resulting in a knockdown that didn't have Fabula getting up until the 9 count. The robot referee observing from ringside cleared Fabula to go. Most of the crowd and the announcers could see that Fabula's legs were gone. Beno knocked Fabula down again. Fabula got up at the six count but Fabula was wobbling around with no bodily control so the robot referee at ringside called a stop to the fight.

I was mad because Beno didn't deserve the T.K.O. he got lucky. But, hey there would be more fights and secretly I was praying that Beno would get T.K.O.'d because that's what he deserved for both his performance in the gym and in the ring so far...
Ken_Goding
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Post by Ken_Goding »

Hehe I sometimes have arguments with the judges about scoring, but I never get anywhere. I finally took the view that in the big picture they are overall fairly accurate. Sometimes I'm given rounds I don't think I deserve, other times I think they've committed highway robbery against me. But when the scores are finalized, they usually have decent accuracy overall for the fight. Different judges look for different things, and we have some huge controversies in real life too. I'm going to have bits and pieces on that in my manual/strategy guide, which BTW will be oodles more than 8 pages hehe. I hit 8 pages last night (including a few pictures) and I'm just getting started.
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jack1974
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Post by jack1974 »

Wow amazing... passed 8 pages!! :shock:
Going to put the guide also in the official website, beside including it in game folder, it deserves that!

About the referees yes, some are weird and gives wrong ratings but that's what happens also in real life, and over the course of the fight it should balanced overall.
Ken_Goding
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Post by Ken_Goding »

Well I've wanted to do something like this for a while, and I like the style Prima uses, so.... pictures, hints, tips, basics of boxing... gotta have it all! Granted I'm using size 14 font, which I thought was nice and readable. My only problem is how much of my insider tips to share in case you decide to close my holes. :lol:
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jack1974
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Post by jack1974 »

Mouhahah FEAR... :twisted:
Well depends if what you write I'll think it's a "bug" of the game, or more likely a "smart cheat". There's difference between those two things ;)
Ken_Goding
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Post by Ken_Goding »

Okay, the bug stays with me, I like it *evil chuckle*
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jack1974
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Post by jack1974 »

Ehehe ok - got your email, will take a WHILE to read all those pages!!! thanks again for your work :)
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