Changes Implemented on August 2, 2004

1. Less penalty for targeting cuts. The penalty has been reduced from -20% damage and -20% scoring to -10% damage and scoring.

2. More value to using cut resistance of 2 or 3. Cut resistance of 2 makes it unlikely for a single cut to "blow up" by more than 2 levels in a single round. Cut resistance of 3 makes it unlikely for a single cut to "blow up" by more than 1 level in a single round.

3. Change to weight rules. There will be no CHN advantage for a heavier fighter, but the STR advantage is doubled.

4. No penalties for unintentional foul unless there has already been a warning for an intentional foul.

5. Changes to graduated region: The number of rounds will start with 4 and increase by 2 rounds every three rating points - . 6 rounds when the two fighters are at rating 3, 8 rounds at rating 6, 10 rounds at rating 9, 12 rounds at rating 12. Fights will be 15 rounds at rating 15 and above.

Changes to be Implemented on September 29, 2003

Reduction in Randomness

The standard deviation used to randomize the number of punches landed and the damage inflicted is reduced form 7.5% to 5%.

Recovery in Bare Knuckles Rules

Endurance recovery between rounds under the bare knuckles rules is reduced to 5% (from 10%). This should eliminate some of the draws.

TKOs in Amateur (Olympic) Rules

To better follow actual olympic rules, if a fighter fighting under Amateur rules falls behind by 15 or more punches, the fight is stopped and a TKO is declared. The timing within the round is proportional to the punch differential for that round. For example, if a fighter starts a round 5 points behind, lands 3 punches in that round while his opponent lands 23 punches, the fight will be topped at the 1:30 mark. This is calculated by dividing the # of additional punches needed to get the TKO (10, in this case) by the total punch differential for that round (20) and multipling by the length of the round (3 minutes).

Changes implemented on October 29, 2002

Summary

1. More realistic scoring of knockdowns.

2. Less influence of luck on stuns and knockdowns.

3. Small changes to inside and outside style.

Details

1. Scoring Improvements

   1. The round scoring is somewhat modified when a fighter wins by stun or knockdown. As before, a fighter who scores the most knockdowns automatically wins the round, with a stun treated as half a knockdown. However:
      1. Each knockdown scores gives the winner one additional point. A fighter who wins by a knockdown typically wins the round 10-8. A fighter who wins by two knockdowns typically wins 10-7.
      2. A stun counts as half a knockdown, and a fighter who outpunches his opponent by a ratio of 4-1 or more gets credit for an additional half a knockdown. So a fighter who stuns his opponent and severely outpunches him wins round 10-8. A fighter who scores a stun, a knockdown, and severly outpunches his opponent wins 10-7. A half a knockdown is not, in itself, worth a point, so a fighter who wins by a knockdown and a stun only wins 10-8.
      3. Each stun or knockdown scored by the loser negates one stun or knockdown by the winner, and the loser also gets credit for a stun if he (somehow) outpunches the winner 4-1. Thus, a fighter who knocks down his opponent twice but is stunned or knocked down himself once himself wins the round 10-8 rather than 10-7.

   2. As a cosmetic change, a fighter who knocks out his opponent will not be knocked down more than twice in that same round.

   3. In bare knuckles, in the event of a tie, the referee will award the bout to the fighter who has stunned his opponent the most.

2. In the regular simulator the effect of luck on stuns and knockdowns is doubled. This makes certain fights into a "dice roll" and so has been eliminated in the experimental simulator.

3. Style Rules.

   1. The automatic SPD and AGL bonus for fighting outside is changed from +1/+1 to +0.5/+0.5 to be commensurate with other styles. Outside was formerly given an extra point bonus because the 20% POW penalty was so severe, but fighting with POW of 1 or 2 has become much more common, and the 20% POW penalty is not signicant in that case.

   2. The penalty for fighting inside is changed from a 10% AGL penalty to a 10% damage bonus for the opponent. (A 10% AGL penalty is really an 11% increase in damage, and a slight scoring disadvantage.)

Changes implemented on July 2, 2001

Summary

1. High rating fighters should consider training SPD.

   Fighters will need to increase their SPD with rating to keep landing the same percentage of punches. The diminishing value of SPD as rating increases is corrected. AGL also has slightly more effect on scoring.

   This change is by far the most important, as most fighters currently have nearly identical SPDs at the highest status levels and various tactical options are closed to them (more SPD is nearly useless).

2. Fighters with very low CND need to train CND

   Fighters are penalized for having very low CND. A fighter who uses 4/8/8 tactics (for example) needs a CND of 8 to avoid any penalty, and a fighter who uses 5/10/5 needs a CND of 10.

   This change eliminates the type of fighter who must win in the first round or lose the fight. This is the first time we have intentionally eliminated any type of fighter, but the overwhelming opinion seems to be that it's no fun to face this kind of fighter -- winning or losing is usually just a coin toss.

3. Improvements to Practice Fights This version of the simulator also has some enhancements for the practice fights page, such as showing endurance levels for the sparring partner and an option to turn off randomnesss in damage and punches landed. There is also support for another feature which I'm keeping secret :)

Details

Percent of Punches Landed

SPD is made more important at higher rankings. Currently, the formula as a built in "diminishing return" behavior so that very high SPD becomes almost useless. To fix this, a "fudge factor" is introduced to keep the percentage of punches landed roughly constant as fighters improve

The above change is certain to be implemented at some point.

In addition, however, the formula in the experimental simulator is a little simpler and a little more sensitive to the defensive fighter's AGL (fighters with high AGL also seem a bit weak at the uppermost levels). That part may or may not become permanent.

The formula in the current simulator is

PERCENT = SPD*SPD / (SPD*SPD + 40 * square_root(opponent's AGL))

PERCENT = SPD*SPD / (SPD*SPD + k * AGL)

Also, the number of punches thrown per point of AGG is increased from "8" to "9". This way, a fighter throws 3*POW power punches and the mental arithmetic is a little easier. (In the current simulator the number is 8/3).

Fatigue

In the current simulator, the effect of fatigue in one round is always delayed until the next round. In the experimental simulator, if a fighter earns N points of fatigue in a round, and N > CND (his conditioning), then N-CND points of fatigue are applied *immediately*. For example, if a fighter with CND of 10 incurs 15 fatigue points in round 3, then under current rules there is no effect in round 3, but his STR, SPD, and AGL are reduced by 10% ([15-10/2]/100) in round 4. (Actually this is only 9% after recovery.) In the XP simulator, his STR, SPD, and AGL would be reduced by 5% ([15-10]/100) in round 3, and then reduced by the remaining 5% in round 4 (for a total of 9% after recovery).

However, this rule only applies to fatigue earned from AGG and POW, and not to fatigue for extremely heavy fighters, or fatigue penalties for using styles such as ring or feint.

This punishes fighters with absurdly low conditioning.

Bug Fix

The one fatigue point deduction for a nose injury, as described in the rules, wasn't implemented. This has been fixed.

Changes implemented on March 5, 2000

What these changes mean to you

1. If you have given up ever using AGG > POW in your fight plans, reconsider. Jabing is given a "speed bonus" so that high AGG scores a little better. The effect is more pronounced if a fighter has a low SPD.

2. The "ropes" style is a little more effective.

3. If you have a heavyweight fighter who is between 200 and 210 pounds, he should either beef up a little (train STR) or slim down to Cruiserweight (train AGL).

4. Consider adding conditionals to "throw in the towel" if your fighter is taking a beating and has no chance of winning the fight. This may save him some injury points.

Speed Bonus for Jabbing

Jabs land at a higher rate than other punches, so that using a high AGG is somewhat more effective (Based on a suggestion from Riverside Boxing.) Many managers find that it is rarely useful to use high AGG (jabbing). To remedy this, fighters will land a higher percentage of jabs than other punches. A fighter now gets a 50% increase in SPD when determining the percentage of jabs he lands. This works out so that a fighter landing 50% of his power punches will land 60% of his jabs. Fighters with lower SPD benefit a little more from this and fighters with higher SPD benefit a little less.

Variability

The randomness in the number of punches landed and damage inflicted is reduced somewhat.

Reduced Penalty for Weighing over 200 Pounds

The penalty for weighing over 200 pounds is now based on a fighter's minimum safe weight instead of on the fighter's fighting weight. This is consistent with the way weight is handled in other divisions, where there is never any disadvantage at fighting at your minimum safe weight.

Throwing in the Towel

There is a new fight plan command called towel that causes your figher to "throw in the towel" at the start of a round, (well, actually fail to make the bell for that round) as in

if endurance_percent < 20 and opponent is strong then towel

This allows your fighter to avoid injury points when he has no more chance of winning the bout.

Note however that throwing in the towel causes a loss by TKO, which is an automatic +25 injury points. [Note: The +25 Injury points was later removed.]

Also, throwing in the towel is ignored until the fighter has used up at least 50% of his endurance points.

Using the Ropes

Using the ropes is made slightly more effective by reducing the opponent's AGL towards 8 instead of towards 10. This typically means an additional point of AGL lost by the opponent, unless his AGL is 8 or less.

Scoring rounds 10-8 and 10-7 made easier:

Judges now award 10-8 rounds for a stunning blow if the stunning fighter also outpunches his opponent 4-1 (currently a knockdown is required for a 10-8), and awards a 10-7 round for two knockdowns unless the knocked down fighter somehow outpunches his opponent (currently the round winner must outpunch his opponent 2-1 to win by 10-7).

Double TKOs

I took a stab at fixing the bug that occasionally makes it look like the referee had to stop the fight twice.

12th Round TKOs

The referee allows three knockdowns in the 12th round. (If the guy can finish the round with a decision, he gets to win the fight.)

Small change to hiscuts and mycuts variables

If one eye is swollen shut and the other eye is not swollen at all, the eye that is swollen shut contributes nothing to "hiscuts" or "mycuts". This is because the closed eye cannot be "aggravated", and without swelling of the other eye there is little chance of a TKO on cuts.