WORD OF WARNING
This part of the game can get VERY involved. It has math and is very strategy heavy. This warning out of the way lets dive in.
THE BASICS:
You get 20 points to use each round they are distributed as follows aggression/power/defense.
An example would be 4/8/8. Or 5/5/10. Or 5/1/14
As a manager, you need to distribute these to maximize your fighter's potential in any given round.
For example, a fighter with a strength of 35 would get more from 4/8/8 as the 8 power means he is hitting fairly hard. A fighter with a strength of 7 would get more from 5/5/10. He is throwing a decent number of punches, hitting hard enough that the judges probably won't give the round to his opponent based on the damage and enough defense that he won't get his face punched in. A fighter with a strength of 1 would get more from 5/1/14. He isn't strong enough to take advantage of something like 5/5/10 so his best option is to raise his defense to a very high level and just try to not get hit.
While it is acceptable to use aggression of 1 or a power of 1, I would highly discourage ever taking your defense to 1. Nothing is more embarrassing than having your slugger lose by KO to a slapper because you threw all defense out the window.
What happens if you don't use all 20 points? This is called "resting" and most fighters will actually need to use it during a fight. 1/1/12 for example leave 6 points unaccounted for and these will be used to replenish your fighter's endurance. More on this later.
To tell a fighter what you want him to do in any given round you use a number and a ) symbol.
Example:
1)5/5/10
2)4/8/8
6)4/6/10
Above would be telling the fighter what to do in round 1 and round 2 and round 6. The resolver reads fight plans from the bottom to the top. It also will continue to have you fight the last written round until it finds a round to supersede it. In the above example the fighter would fight 4/8/8 for rounds 2 through 5. After round 6 he would fight 4/6/10 until the end of the fight.
Caution: Remember what I said about the resolver reading bottom to top? Take care when writing a plan. Nothing like wanting your fighter to flail 11/1/8 in round 11 only, but accidentally omitting a 1. Now your guy thinks 11/1/8 is the round 1 strategy. Not only that but since it is at the bottom of the fight plan the resolver only will see that and nothing you wrote above it. Even those of us who have played over 20 years still get bit by this from time to time. You have been warned.
STYLES
This is going to be a severe generalization of styles.
INSIDE: Inside is used mainly by strong slugger types. Can also be useful as a strong-ish dancer or balanced when not being hit hard as a way to reduce the opponent’s endurance. It increases strength by 1.5 and amplifies any strength advantage you have by 50%, but cuts any height advantage by 50% and reduces agility by 15%. Remember the loss of agility is going to translate directly into getting hit more which translates directly into receiving more damage. Unless you know your opponent is weak or that you can knock them out before you succumb to incoming damage, beware of inside.
RING: Ring is the staple style of dancers and slappers. It increases agility by 1.5, agility advantage is increased by 50% while strength is reduced by 15%. Fighters trying to win primarily by decision use this style to avoid heavy shots while taking rounds by punch count. It can also be utilized against a stronger slugger as the weaker slugger to win rounds and force the slower guy into a desperation all-out late in the fight. While there are going to be better styles for particular circumstances, its hard to go wrong with ring.
CHASE or CORNER: Both commands execute the exact same style. Its main advantage is that it reduces your opponent’s agility by your fighter’s agility advantage, to a maximum of 10% of their agility. The disadvantage is 0.25 endurance lost for every point of aggression. Something like 4/8/8(chase) will net you the loss of 1 point of endurance for that round. This is on top of the endurance lost to your opponent’s damage and general fatigue from the 4 points of aggression. It is primarily used by more agile sluggers when fighting stronger sluggers. The stronger slugger with less agility will be penalized and take more damage. A strong dancer or balanced fighter can also use this style, usually in rounds where you expect an all-out and want to hunt for a knock out.
CLINCH: If ring is the staple style of dancers, clinch is the bread and butter of sluggers. Clinch takes 50% of your strength advantage and adds it to your agility. The downside is one aggression point goes to resting. While this does not sound too bad, bear in mind that if you clinch with the intention of winning that round, a 4/8/8(clinch) round is read by the resolver as 3/8/8 and 1 point resting, so if you needed an aggression factor of 4 to ensure winning the round on points, you are going to have to make some adjustments. Caution: make sure you are stronger and less agile than your opponent before using clinch. If you are more agile than your opponent, you will get a 50% agility advantage loss. Additionally, if you are clinching and are taller, tying up with your opponent will cut your height advantage bonus by 50%. If you use more than 10 defense points like 4/5/11(clinch), your fighter can be penalized for not breaking the clinch.
OUTSIDE: Taller fighters get a speed and agility bonus over shorter opponents and the Outside style is built to take advantage of this. A taller fighter has his height bonus increased by 50%. The downsides are a 15% decrease in strength and if your opponent goes allout, the entire bonus is shifted to speed only. Outside is mostly used by taller fighters looking to win a decision. The general rule of thumb when using Outside is usually a 6 inch or more height advantage. Caution: a fast, tall fighter looking for a decision using this style must be particularly wary of sluggers. The penalty to strength is compounded if the slugger goes allout and your agility bonus for being tall is shifted to speed only. If facing a slugger and you are more agile it is strongly advised to use ring as it does not loose the agility bonus to the allout style.
COUNTER: Counterpunching is a very situational style and cannot be relied on to win a fight. Your aggression will automatically be lowered to a point below your opponent’s but never lower than 1. This means that if you use 4/6/10(counter) and your opponent uses 3/7/10, your fighter will actually be using 2/6/10 and the lost point will be used for resting, similar to clinch. So why use it at all? If your fighter is faster than your opponent, you will have 25% of your speed advantage added to your agility and your opponent will have 25% of your speed advantage subtracted from his agility. The only fighters who should consider this style are builds that are much faster than their opponent. You have to be able to still out-land your opponent to take the round with one point less of aggression. If you try and use counter often, managers are going to lower their aggression and up their damage. Damage is factored into the judges scoring so they may very well win with something like 2/10/8(ring) against your 4/6/10(counter). Additionally if you are actually the slower fighter and use counter in error, your fighter will be penalized 50% of his speed bonus from his agility. Counter is an advanced style and until you understand the game mechanics I would highly recommend staying away from it.
FEINT: Feint is best used by faster fighters. Using feint increases your speed by 1.5 and your speed advantage over an opponent is increased by 50%. Like clinch, using feint will remove one point from aggression and use it for resting. So 4/6/10(feint) is read as 3/6/10(feint). It is a useful style when you get into a slap-fest between two dancers or two slappers who are trying to edge out a decision based on blows landed. While it situationally can be used with balanced and sluggers, it is not a style usually seen in their repertoire.
ALLOUT: Allout doubles your delt damage and quadruples any damage that your receive. It is best used by sluggers who are fighting weak dancers or slappers where even the quadrupled damage is nothing to worry about. It is also often employed by sluggers who have battered their opponent into a pulp and are looking to end a fight quickly or the slugger has lost too many rounds to win by decision so the manager has him give 200% in a Hail-Mary attempt.
MODIFIERS
Now that we know how a fight plan aggression/power/defense works and what the styles do, it is time to cover modifiers. Using either the h or the b modifier will lower the total number of punches thrown, as opposed to a round where no modifier is used. This is because rather than throw in any available opening, your boxer is trying to just target his designated area. Keep this in mind when using the b or h modifier. These are not just for sluggers, although sluggers do like their modifiers. A well placed 4h/6/10(ring) round in a dancer plan, for example can catch a desperate slugger going allout with a few nice headshots and put him away. Strong dancers and balanced can also sprinkle in some 4b/8/8(ring) against another dancer in hopes that the body shots will slow him down, giving an edge to winning by decision later in the fight. There are no style, power or defense requirements to use any requirement
The h Modifier:: The h modifier tells the fighter to primarily target the head. There is a random element to the game and occasionally a body shot might be thrown, but 99% of the round, your fighter is going to throw head shots. These are good for two reasons, first because of cuts. A really bad cut or eyes swollen shut can get a fight ended by the doctor, awarding you a TKO victory. The second reason is simple: you want to knock the guy out and best way is a headshot. The h modifier is placed after the aggression number. An example would look like this: 4h/8/8.
The b Modifier: The b modifier tells the fighter to target the body. Like the h modifier there are random head shots that might be thrown in a b modified round but 99% of the fight your fighter is going to throw body shots. Body shots tire your opponent out faster and is a common strategy for sluggers who want to beat the stuffing out of a dancer or slapper before ending with a late-fight allout against an opponent no longer able to mount a defense. The b modifier, like the headshot modifier, is placed after the aggression number. An example would look like this: 4b/8/8.
The ! Modifier: The ! modifier tells the fighter to fight dirty. This is telling your fighter to intentionally throw illegal shots. The advantage to you is increased damage on your opponent, an increase in the chance of injury, knock down or even possibly knocking your opponent out. The disadvantage is you risk being warned by the referee and if you continue to throw illegal punches you can be penalized points or loosing the match outright by disqualification. The warnings, points and disqualifications are random and some fights you might get away with using it the whole fight, others you might be warned in the first round, or that same first round with the first illegal blow your opponent will be too injured by it to continue and its automatically a disqualification with no warnings at all. The ! modifier is a calculated risk that you as a manager must weigh before putting it into a fight plan. The ! modifier is put after the power number. An example would look like this 4h/8!/8.
VARIABLES:
Round: tells the resolver that if the round is equal to, less than or greater than to do a certain style in a certain way
hiscuts and mycuts: hiscuts tracks the injuries of your opponent, mycuts tracks your injuries.
opponent or opp and strong, hurt, weak and tired: opponent or opp for short is used to measure your opponents remaining endurance. Strong means he is at 66% of his starting endurance, tired is between 33% and 66%, weak or hurt is less than 33%.
warnings tracks how many times you have been warned for using illegal blows.
CONDITIONALS
The < = > and then if Variables:The game uses the less than, equal and greater than symbols in addition to if, then, than, and and. Any good fight plan against a capable manager will almost require them.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:
Here is a very simple plan for a slugger vs a weaker slugger:
1)4h/9/7(clinch)
If warnings<1 then 4h/9!/7(clinch)
If hiscuts>mycuts+2 then 4h/10/6(inside)
If hiscuts>mycuts+2 and warnings<1 then 4h/10!/6(inside)
if round>=10 and opp=”tired” then 4h/10/6(inside)
if round>=10 and opp=”hurt” then 4h/11/5(inside)
This plan is telling your fighter to use 4h/9/7(clinch) as the base plan, but to use illegal blows as long as you have not been warned. It further instructs the fighter that if the opponent has been cut with a minimum of two more cuts than your fighter has received, to go inside with strength, but not only that, if the above condition is met, and you still have not been warned for fighting dirty, to go ahead and fight dirty too. The last two conditionals are checking, after round 10 to see if the opponent has tired or is hurt and to try for a KO if either condition is met.
An example dancer plan:
1)4h/6/10(ring)
2)4h/6/10(ring)
If score<1 then 5/5/10(ring)
3)4h/6/10(ring)
If score<1 then 6/4/10(ring)
If score<0 then 8/2/10(ring)
If score<-1 then 10/2/8(ring)
If end<160*.75 and score>2 then 1/1/12(ring)
10)4h/6/10(ring)
If score>2 and end<160*.50 then 1/1/18(ring)
If score>2 and end>160*.75 then 4h/8/8(chase)
This plan starts with 4h/6/10(ring) and assumes that as long as you are winning, to go back to it as the default. It then instructs the fighter to use more and more aggression and less and less power to win rounds, providing that the fighter is loosing by the specified amounts. After round 3, your fighter who, in this case, started with toughness of 16, which translates into 160 endurance points, will start resting if he is winning by three points and his endurance has fallen below 75% of his starting endurance. After round 10, if he is winning by at least two points and his endurance is only 50% of the starting, he will turtle up with 1/1/18(ring) and maximize his chances of surviving the fight and winning by decision. Conversely, if he is winning, his endurance is still 75% or greater, your fighter is going to up his damage output and look for an opportunity to catch a loosing opponent going allout in the late rounds.
This sums up the tutorial on how to write a fight plan. I would highly recommend you look at the entry about Alcatraz Gym in the Help Files, it contains the fight plans used by the auto-piloting Alcatraz fighters. They are actually decent plans and good spring boards if you take them, modify them to match your circumstances and use them to learn how to make your own.