Hi,

you'll be glad to know that EWR 2.0 is going pretty well. I've got rid of some bugs from the old versions, and added some new features. I will be including a data converter that will make 1.4 data files compatible with the new version. As usual, you will not be able to use save games from previous versions with 2.0.

NEW FEATURES (these are already done and in the game, so are guaranteed to be in):

* Roster Split
* Brand new TV Network section
* Experience value for tag teams
* Multiple teams per person
* Creative Control clause for contracts
* Written and Verbal contracts for staff
* Brand new merchandising and advertising methods
* Buy-outs have been improved
* New angles (75+ in total now)

NOTES:

*** Roster splits are finally in, as i came up with a pretty cool way (well i think is anyway!) to put them in the game, without making them so like the WWE version that it took away your flexibility. They work as follows - each federation has four slots for possible "splits". You can name them, leave them blank, whatever you want. For example, the WWE starts with "Raw" as one split, and "Smackdown" as the other. If you wanted, you could add a further two ("Heat" and "Velocity" i guess). They don't have to be done like this of course - you could just as easily use them as divisions - "Super Junior", "Hardcore", "Tag Team", etc. It's totally up to you what you want to do. Each worker on your roster can be either in one of the four divisions, or be in "None". What does it do? Well, when you look at your roster, you can now alter the criteria to show only people from a certain split (so, for example, only "Raw" talent). When you go to the booking sheet, there is a button that says "Use only people from split..." and you can choose which one you want (or none). This ONLY applies to the actual competitors. So if you chose to select only "Raw" workers, the list you are presented with to choose workers would only have Raw people in it. However, you are free to choose from any worker at all to do run ins, angles, interviews, etc, so you can easily do "invasions".

*** The new TV Networks feature time slots, which affect what risk level and possible audience level you can get. You can negotiate with the network to move you around the schedule to try and get the best possible deal. If you run head-to-head with another show, it does affect your ratings as well, so you can recreate the Monday Night Wars ™ if you wish.

*** Tag team experience goes up by 1 point for every match they tag together in. New teams start at 0 experience. The higher the experience level, the more comfortable the members become teaming together, and so the better the matches are. Each worker can be in more than one team, with each team having a different experience level - for example, Bubba is in the Dudley Boyz with D-Von at 100 experience, but also with Spike as New Dudley Boyz with 40 experience. This way, it is better for you to either sign up experienced teams, or create them yourselves.

*** Creative control clauses can be written into contracts for big names, like Hogan. It means that they can refuse to job, do feuds, etc, if they don't like your plans, and there is nothing you can do about it. Makes booking harder, and means politics come into play.

RUMOURED FEATURES (not done yet, but possible new additions):

* A fourth Internet site
* Handicap matches
* Press conferences after major shows
* More angles

The game is likely to be released in late November \ early December (definitely before Christmas).

Original von Silk
HOLY SHIT THIS ROCKS TOTALLY!

Hi,

OK, here's update #2 for EWR 2.0:

-- the main addition since last time has been time slots \ number of booking slots. If you have a show at 2am in the morning, you only get 5-6 booking slots for your TV show. If you're running a prime time show, you get the full amount. This is pretty cool, as it means if you start out as a low level fed, planning who gets TV time is a lot more important

-- Scott Keith is now tougher in his ratings.

-- There are a bunch of new angles. My new strategy is to play the game as normal, and everytime i come up with an angle that i think "wow, this would be cool" i add it. At the moment, i'm running a RoH game where Chris Daniels' Prophecy is running rampant as an evil "ministry"-like stable, and so there are a bunch of new "darker" stable angles. I've also added the debut \ hype videos that have been asked for, and also a few angles to reveal the stalker. Using a Scotsman idea, i've also added "date specific" angles (i.e. - angles that are only available on certain days of the year). Overall, there are currently 75 different angle types in the game, i think there will probably be around 90-100 by the time EWR2.0 comes out.

-- I'm still planning on adding handicap matches, but i keep thinking of other more important stuff which is delaying them. They'll end up in the game eventually....i hope.

-- Contract negotiations are now a bit more flexible, i've made it so that you can play off certain bits against each other - so by giving them more money than they asked for, you can pesuade a non-wrestler to become active again, etc.

The game is still planned to be released around December time, depending on how much time i spend playing Smackdown 4.

Adam

Hi,

got a whole bunch of stuff done at the weekend:

* the stats update is now complete. The new game will start with 31 promotions, 1270 workers, 220 tag teams, etc. Basically, it's more detailed than ever before.

* I found a few small bugs that hadn't been reported before, one involving the editor, the other involving the booking sheet. The former is fixed, the latter is my next task.

* The fourth web site is now complete, and rocks. It still needs a tiny bit of work on its story-generating engine, but it a very cool feature.

* I've done some work on the lay-out, should be finished shortly. Basically i've moved some boxes around, changed some of the colour scheme, and widened some drop-down menus (so that names don't get cut off) to make it easier to use.

* The bad news is that due to deadlines at work, i'm not going to get everything i hoped to do ready for EWR2.0. In particular, it looks like some of the extra matches are going to be put back to EWR2.1. That's not to say EWR2.0 isn't a huge step forward - the changes to the tag and TV sections alone make it a far better game - but it won't have everything that was scheduled to be in.

Adam

Hello,

crappy weather meant i got stuck indoors all weekend, but it meant i did get a lot done on EWR. I started a new game as CZW, and decided to just flat out play the game for as long as possible, and fix anything that i saw that wasn't going right, or i felt would be useful. Some of the new stuff:

*** CPU-controlled feds are now more succesful. I was finding that nearly all of them were losing public image at a fast rate, or going bankrupt. This has now been changed, so a lot of them actually do become succesful and rise in the ratings. In the game i was playing (with 30 CPU-feds), after 12 months of play: 5 have gone bankrupt, 5 have actually risen to a new level, 3 have dropped a level, and the others have had minor rises or decreases in PI. So, pretty even overall.

*** There is now a "performance" counter for each promotion (including your own). This is basically a row of 5 symbols, which show the performance of the fed over the past 5 months. "O" = an increase in PI, "X" means a decrease, "-" means no change. So, if a federation had "OOX-X" as their performance counter, that would mean they did badly, then had no change, then lost more PI, but have gained in image for the past two months. Meanwhile, "OOOOO" would mean they are on a huge run of success.

*** I've altered it so that CPU-wrestlers develop more as the game goes along. There are two triggers for this - when a federation rises or falls to a different level, their wrestlers' overness is affected (by quite a lot if they are a major star for that fed). Also, each wrestler will be evaluated twice a year, in which their overness is compared to their stats, and altered accordingly. So, for example, if AJ Styles gets evaluated, the game will realise that he is far more talented than his position in NWATNA suggests, and so his overness will increase to make up for that.

*** 8 new angles have been added, with a further 10 or so to be added before December. There are currently 79 in total.

*** New feature is that when you fire\release a guy, other federations can immediately take him from you. This is to stop people firing a guy just to rehire him immediately.

Adam