The Showdown Tournament is over now, Malfest Goat-Monster has taken the win. Our shows can now have the tried and tested seven matches again.
I say this every time, but Kayu could indeed finally get rid of the Jabroni this time. A newcomer, Midas, will go against five others, including Suzan Blades and Manic Misanthrope. Last week Palpy challenged Freddie to a fair-and-square match, though, we don’t really believe him that it’ll be fair. It’s been a while since we’ve seen either Lawful Good or Pineapple Pizza, so they will face-off this week. And finally, Grace, along with Showdown runner-up Harmony will go against the 1 1/2 Dragons for the Legion Tag Titles.
What a weird episode this was.
Something unexpected, planned or not (mostly not) happened in basically every match. There were upsets… one match went obscenely long (on that note: our previous longest match with over 45 minutes is no longer our longest match) and an old rivalry heats up in the way you’d least expect…
All right… uh… since this episode had our new longest match let’s contrast this episode with the one that has our second-longest match. This happens to be the first episode.
This is just some basic stats, really. Such as Number of matches, Scenes, Wrestlers booked in matches and so on but since I compiled it I might as well show it.
Between those two episodes, we had 268 matches. Out of those only 9 were longer than 30 minutes in game-time while 31 were nine minutes or shorter. Only one of those was less than five minutes. The average time across all matches was 15:46 (14:15 for singles matches)
Including those two episodes, the average match time for all matches goes up to 16:04 (while the average time for singles matches goes down to 14:10)
The below is a post from my former Patreon which is no longer in use. I’ve appended it to the corresponding update post to preserve it.
Week 33: Modifications
Well, damn. This episode was a weird one. Almost every match had something unusual or unexpected happen. Only one of these things was planned.
I guess this is a good time to talk a bit about the use of mods and how they enhance OHPW.
There’s some under the hood stuff you might not notice, such as AI behaviour in tag matches being altered or people who are in tag teams not actively ruining each other’s day in multi-person matches. Then there’s some that have more immediately obvious effects. Such as the Free Cam mod which lets me set up dynamic camera angles or the Arena Texture Database mod which… well lets me swap out textures to make arenas look more unique. I haven’t done that yet, though. But that mod also lets me add custom nameplates and it also lets me change the texture of the dodecagon mat, which would not have been possible otherwise.
If you wanna look at what’s KINDA the main window here it is. This is a mod that is required for most other mods I use to run correctly but I rarely ever touch anything here aside from the Health Bars, which are invaluable for testing and I have at times forgotten to turn them off for the show. You can see there’s a couple of non-standard things I have enabled, but they are either cosmetic or expected behaviour (such as 5-Count Rope Breaks)
This mod here let’s me add some more classic heelish behaviour to specific wrestlers. Inf you’re wondering why there’s multiple entries for a lot of these it’s because I have multiple versions of these wrestlers and I forgot which was which so I just made identical entries for all of them. You can see the settings available here and can probably make an educated guess as to who has which based an what you’ve seen them do in matches.
Now, I use a crapton of mods by this point. Some of them don’t have a UI (the one that replaces the fight graphic with the Let’s Rock from Guilty Gear, or a different one thet lets me add custom voice files to refs, wrestlers and venues. Those just involve naming files correctly and putting them into a folder.
Let’s go over the mods I used for the Palpatine vs. Freddie match, our first worked match and most likely only for a long time (if it even happens ever again, I like to use techniques like these very sparingly, but a feud with history like that kinda warrants something special)
What happened in the match was that Palpy and Freddie just kinda fought until Flamander showed up, Freddie’s former tag partner, friend and rival and attacked Freddie. After Flamander left again Palpy also left, forfeiting the match.
So, first up you probably never noticed even though I did it for a while is that the Arena Texture mod lets me turn off the smoke during entrances in the Spike Dome Venue, which we’re using. I just found it too distracting sometimes so I turned it off. That’s Mod #1. Next there’s a custom name-plate but that’s part of the same mod. Then you’ll probably have noticed that Palpy’s entrance attire and match attire were different. Well, of course that’s Mod #2, the Alternate Entrance Attire mod. It looks something like this.
There’s a couple other wrestlers that have those and you’ll notice buttons for Entrance Weapons and Stage Taunts. Which you’ve seen before. Kelsey usually enters matches with a Barbed Wire Baseball Bat and some wrestlers do a taunt on the ramp. Normally they just do one in the ring.
The altered Fight Graphic would be Mod #3, the different ref sound for starting the match (the Let’s Rock in this case) is Mod #4. Mod #5 is the Free Cam mod.
You didn’t see it during the match and it doesn’t always work anyway, but Palpy can do the Nightmare, which is a move that just kind of looks like he’s teabagging his opponent. The game gives these moves a “sexual” flag. And since the game is a bit homophobic maybe biphobic depending on how you see it these only work on the opposite gender. However, I removed the sexual flag from those moves. That’s Mod #6 that was active, technically, but we didn’t get to see.
This is what the interface for that looks like if you’re wondering. It gives you some insight in how moves work in Fire Pro even if you’re just seeing that one Tab of that mod.
Up next is the Rivals and Referees mod. Aka #7. You probably don’t notice it most of the time, but the Referee part is active every match. It allows to enhance refs a little. I set them up to eject seconds if they interfere too much and that they will restart the ring-out count when a new wrestler exits the ring. Something Mama Bear gloriously ignored the match prior. The Rivals part is what let me set up the interference from Flamander. While I can technically let these happen more or less at random I don’t quite like that. Instead I like to set up interferences myself. And this is the first time I’ve done this. You can set someone to interfere on behalf of either wrestler or neither of them. I can’t control what happens when the interference starts. I just know that they will attack their “teammates’” opponent for a bunch and then leave again.
In our case, during the interference, we saw Mod #8. The Throw Out Logic mod. Now, this does not mean we literally throw out logic, instead it adds a small window that let’s me set the AI to throw their opponent out of the ring to set up dives. Otherwise they are very rare. Freddie threw out Flamander and followed with a springboard cross-body, which started their brawl outside the ring that almost lost Freddie the match.
Finally, since this match is a work (and again, will likely remain the only one for a long time if not forever) I wanted there to be no mistake about this match not really counting. So I used Mod #9. A Mod I use semi-regularly but not for what you might think…
The Match Pacing and booking mod. I should have mentioned this as a mod right after the match started but I don’t think what I set up there actually fired. Because to be safe that the match doesn’t end prematurely I set it up so the match can’t be one by either (by setting one of them as the winner and selecting a move that can’t end the match as the finish move) What you saw at the end of the match, Palpy leaving, was triggered through this mod though. This was supposed to both communicate that Palpy was kind of in cahoots with Flamander here as well as, as mentioned, drive home the fact that this match won’t count because it had a predetermined outcome. The post match scene also makes more sense if it happens this exact way as the dialogue directly references what happened. Normally I don’t use this mod to select a winner. But I set the Finish Move to Signature/Finishers only for Hellweight Title matches.
This shouldn’t be why the last two took so long, though. I used that setting before. In fact, I do tests a lot and most of the time my wrestlers finish matches with Sigs or Finishers anyway, but for a match like this I kinda want to make sure it doesn’t end off a nothing move. However, I turned off that setting by the end of the last two Hellweight title matches because if they last too long it feels like they drag. However, in case of the most recent one it didn’t even make a difference because Pantha finished with the Pantha Claw.
Anyway, slight tangent. I used a whopping 9 mods for Palpy vs. Freddie alone. There might be some more under the hood ones or ones without UIs that I forgot. But I’ll be honest, I can’t imagine this game without mods anymore. When I started I was very wary of them but as I tested more and more of them and noticed that none of the caused issues. (except the one time they wouldn’t load properly, but I figured out why that was)
What I haven’t used yet is stuff like custom moves, as relying on those might prove detrimental when, for whatever reason, mods stop working. I like to be on the safe side here basically. I also didn’t use any custom parts yet. Those are a pain to set up anyway. But I’m not using them for the same reason. Also custom parts and moves are memory intensive and Fire Pro World is a 32-Bit application so we’d hit a ceiling sooner than later.
Anyway, hope you liked my little bit of writing on mod use in OHPW. Those weren’t all, there’s others too that only get used rarely but this should give you an idea of how they enhance the show.
(Note: At the time of the writing of the above I didn’t even use the best mod, the MoveLists mod yet. Part of it is because it hadn’t been expanded with the features that I think really make it as great as I think it is, though it was always powerful, just not for my purposes. I may write more about this in the future but here’s a quick explanation. The mod allows you to add multiple moves to a single move slot, giving you control over how often it happens. You can set conditionals for thes moves to happen, restrict them to only happen a set number of times and you can set whether they can actually end a match or not. With some creative thinking tis allows for a lot of unique possibilities, such as Family Man’s “going nuts” state that would not be possible otherwise.)
Last week’s show was full of weirdness. Among other things, VACANT was defeated by Malfest Goat-Monster. Much like the other time VACANT has been defeated they will take a week off after a 21 match long undefeated streak. You could say that Malfest Goat-Monster is the 1 in 21-1. Though if we include all the matches before that it’s more like 26-2.
Anyway. Next show will begin with Rick Wreckage trying to rid himself of the Jabroni Royale he acquired from Kayu Zakisaka last week. Family man will wrestle his first match against Midas. Following up on on a random remark last week Manic will team with IGgy to see if he is any good at tag matches. In our two title matches, we’ll have Samio challenge Flamander for the Bunny Title :3 and Sadim going up against Black for the Darkweight belt. The full match card is below:
We are one week removed from DETERMINATION so let’s get ready for that with, you guessed it, more wrestling.
Punk has finally earned the Jabroni Royale, but can he get rid of it again? Or will Weeb destroy him.
It pains me greatly but The Dash Rendars are in the No. 1 Contenders match for the Tag titles. Muscle Wizard is here to try and win the Bunny Title :3 for a second time, but Flamander is the one in his way so good luck, pal!
VACANT is back and ready to destroy while in our main event Kelsey will attempt to defend the Seven Deadly Pins Title against seven challengers.
This Saturday our 9th Special Event, called DETERMINATION, will take place.
In our Main Event Malfest Goat-Monster challenges Pantah for the Hellweight Title after winning the Showdown Tournament in impressive fashion and even getting a shock victory over the legendary VACANT.
Speaking of beating VACANT: Only one person can get a shot at the Hellweight title on this show but EGO also managed to beat VACANT. So EGO will do battle with Fomore who is clawing their way into the title picture on an effort to become the first Quadruple Crown champion.
With Freddie Hope’s match against Flamander not happening for another four weeks he postpones his training at the Old Dojo for a little warm up against the entirety of the oRa 66. But not without the help of the Young Devils he’s been training.
Meanwhile, Flamander continues to hold the Bunny Championship :3 heading into his fourth defense against none other than Roy, who defended the Title four times before he lost it.
On a lighter note: Our Seven Deadly Pins match this time is all Hosses. The Battle of Hoss Angeles… or Hoss Diavolos, I dunno.
If you want to get a glimpse at some new people that might be joining the main roster at some point sooner or later here’s a show from our developmental territory. To avoid confusion:
Different from Main Show
Pre-recorded.
Shorter runtime (30-45 Minutes)
No Commentary
Mostly different Roster (there’s some overlap, don’t worry, Maharaja is still in the main roster)
A Tournament, currently, the finals of which will happen at the next PPV of our main show.
This isn’t a regular weekly thing, but a “If I feel like it and got time” thing, though, this week and the next two will have an episode.
If you don’t have time or don’t want to watch it here’s the results
But now back to our regularly scheduled show.
DETERMINATION is over, but the show goes on. Flamander and Freddie are still locked into their feud, Fomore managed to earn an opportunity to become a Quadruple Crown champion at JUDGEMENT NIGHT the next PPV. We had a lot of title changes in general. In fact, the only title that didn’t change hands was the Hellweight. Changing our landscape quite a bit. And well, if you count the Jabroni Royale as a title then that also didn’t change. Poor Punk.
I swear, though, if the 7DP on this card lasts longer than 45 kayfabe minutes it’s gotta be Spike Chunsofts fault somehow… Ah well. The full card is below, of course.
Week 38: Day
Click here for the exact time of this Saturday’s show, as usual.
Before getting to the card for this week here’s another episode of Hell’s Gate
OHPW - Hell’s Gate #2: Battle Cocks - (Twitch VOD)
If you’re only gonna watch one match from that card I recommend the first one. Steve Dirt vs. Florida Man vs. Sexton Thicc in a Landmine Deathmatch. Many explosions and buckets of blood.
Here’s the Results
As for our regular show:
Punk doesn’t deserve to face Anus. He did nothing wrong. Then again, Anus is kind of on a downward spin, having lost to Family Man, so who knows how this will go. Flamander’s first match after losing the Bunny Title :3 and possibly the last before facing Freddie in two weeks.
Guzma, meanwhile, attempts to capture said Bunny Title :3 from Palpatine who may or may not be trying to match his reign from the LPFWA days. And in the Main Event, Canada attempts to recapture the Darkweight Title in a match against Ryu.
It’s time for our Go-Home to JUDGEMENT NIGHT but it’s also time for the third and for now last (I don’t know for how long) episode of Hell’s Gate, determining our showcase match for the main show’s PPV.
Our last show before JUDGEMENT NIGHT which will double as our Halloween episode. Punk struggles again, this time against Anna May, the evil clown gets a shot at the Bunny Title :3 and Plumeria and Pink, the two ladies from A HEEL STABLE CALLED TEAM SKULL have earned the right to be considered ultra babyfaces by facing The Dash Rendars for the Legion Tag Titles.
