Hey guys, long time no talk...
just had a couple questions about WE 8's Master League:
Does the game start like it does in WE 6, with the normal squad of bad players (Castello, Ximenes, Iorga,etc.) in Div. 3 and you have to advance by winning your division and challenging teams in order to move up to Div 2 and then Div 1? All the while purchasing players. I liked the old format, I noticed they have added a lot more teams and I saw some posts of how people were running with Man U and stuff, can you still put together the bad team and go through the Tiny Cup and all the other little tourneys?
Basically can somebody give a quick run-through of the changes of the ML between WE 6 and WE 8, it would be much appreciated.
WE8 Master League
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FloridaGators
- Utility Infielder
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- Joined: Mon Aug 19, 2002 3:00 am
- Location: New Jersey
In WE8 there are three modes from which to start a master league. The first is with the default jokers like in WE6. The second mode is with the default team except you are allowed to swap out 3 players for anyone you want as long as your salaries stay the same. The third mode is to simply start with a normal club team such as man u or whatever.
After you get started, the second difference is the layout of the leagues. Now there is one, 8-team second division, and 4 16-team first divisions. When you start your ML, you choose which first team division you will be going for promotion to, then you are stuck in that single first division for the duration once you get promoted. Outside of the league schedule, you can play D2 and D1 cups (with only the teams from your division competing), and two WEFA competitions among all 4 first divisions clubs which mimic the real life UEFA cup and champions league.
There are also some changes to player acquisitions, as there are no longer any free transers. You must pay a transfer fee for all players, or make a player trade with cash involved (highly recomend the latter method). Also, players now age, with older players declining until they ultimately retire, and young players improving game by game. Also, in the offseason, aside from just making acquisitions or having preseason matches, you can also run drills with your players (practice shooting or dribbling through cones, etc.) which will improve their ratings the most efficiently but can be very time consuming if you are trying to develop multiple players on your team thoroughly.
Lastly, you no longer pay your salaries on a game-by-game basis, but rather but one lump sum to cover all team salaries at beginning of the season (or is it the end?---either way you pay it in the offseason). Thus you can run as big a deficit as you want during the season so long as you have enough funds at the end of the season to pay your salary expense.
After you get started, the second difference is the layout of the leagues. Now there is one, 8-team second division, and 4 16-team first divisions. When you start your ML, you choose which first team division you will be going for promotion to, then you are stuck in that single first division for the duration once you get promoted. Outside of the league schedule, you can play D2 and D1 cups (with only the teams from your division competing), and two WEFA competitions among all 4 first divisions clubs which mimic the real life UEFA cup and champions league.
There are also some changes to player acquisitions, as there are no longer any free transers. You must pay a transfer fee for all players, or make a player trade with cash involved (highly recomend the latter method). Also, players now age, with older players declining until they ultimately retire, and young players improving game by game. Also, in the offseason, aside from just making acquisitions or having preseason matches, you can also run drills with your players (practice shooting or dribbling through cones, etc.) which will improve their ratings the most efficiently but can be very time consuming if you are trying to develop multiple players on your team thoroughly.
Lastly, you no longer pay your salaries on a game-by-game basis, but rather but one lump sum to cover all team salaries at beginning of the season (or is it the end?---either way you pay it in the offseason). Thus you can run as big a deficit as you want during the season so long as you have enough funds at the end of the season to pay your salary expense.
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FloridaGators
- Utility Infielder
- Posts: 472
- Joined: Mon Aug 19, 2002 3:00 am
- Location: New Jersey
It's hard for me to compare directly because I played a lot of WE7 too and the old games begin to blur together.
The changes won't totally blow you away by any means, but they are for the better. Advanced searching features make it easier to find the kind of players you are looking for, and the new payment schedule make the beginning of the game less frustrating. Also the aging of players adds a nice new dimension, although it is a new system and could be cleaned up a bit from what it has in WE8.
I can't say I'm crazy about the divisions layout, but it's not make or break. Also, when you start getting deep multiple competitions, the schedule gets pretty crowded and stresses depth on your squad, which is good.
Overall feel is generally the same, just tweaked and expanded upon to keep the game moving forward.
The changes won't totally blow you away by any means, but they are for the better. Advanced searching features make it easier to find the kind of players you are looking for, and the new payment schedule make the beginning of the game less frustrating. Also the aging of players adds a nice new dimension, although it is a new system and could be cleaned up a bit from what it has in WE8.
I can't say I'm crazy about the divisions layout, but it's not make or break. Also, when you start getting deep multiple competitions, the schedule gets pretty crowded and stresses depth on your squad, which is good.
Overall feel is generally the same, just tweaked and expanded upon to keep the game moving forward.
I think the new ML is head and shoulders above the old ones, solely due to the player progression features that have finally been integrated into it. My preference is to take the default stiffs and build a team from scratch, and in this new ML it's been very cool to take young players and watch them become stars, or fizzle out and never really work out.
There are free transfers in the WE8 ML, but they are hard to find at first. What you have to do is search 'by team' and find a team called 'unbelonging.' In there are the players available for free transfers. Often in the mid-season transfer period, this 'team' is empty, but in the offseason it can have a ton of guys. The bulk of them will be 17yr olds, but there are always a number of veterans you can snatch up out of contract.
I can appreciate the value brought by the newly included options to use either an existing team as is, or take the default team and add three players of your choice. For myself, however, I prefer to build a team from scratch, but those are pretty big changes for the ML. I do wish the league set up were better, but I have a lot of fun in the ML.
The change in the payment system makes it much, much easier to survive. Since you pay all your salaries in one bulk after the offseason, you can use the preseason games you get to schedule yourself (you can schedule up to eight) to make the cash you need to pay the salaries. This way the 'GAME OVER' doesn't sneak up one you, and it's pretty easy to avoid. In WE6 and 7, especially 7 where I would regularly forget the rules, I would get a lot of GAME OVERs from trying to improve my team too fast and not winnin g enough to pay off the debt. But in this new one, I haven't had one GAME OVER since the first day I got the game; I'm still on my first ML team, which is wholly unprecedented for me. I used to do a lot of restarts, and really enjoyed how different the teams would end up. Not any more!
There are free transfers in the WE8 ML, but they are hard to find at first. What you have to do is search 'by team' and find a team called 'unbelonging.' In there are the players available for free transfers. Often in the mid-season transfer period, this 'team' is empty, but in the offseason it can have a ton of guys. The bulk of them will be 17yr olds, but there are always a number of veterans you can snatch up out of contract.
I can appreciate the value brought by the newly included options to use either an existing team as is, or take the default team and add three players of your choice. For myself, however, I prefer to build a team from scratch, but those are pretty big changes for the ML. I do wish the league set up were better, but I have a lot of fun in the ML.
The change in the payment system makes it much, much easier to survive. Since you pay all your salaries in one bulk after the offseason, you can use the preseason games you get to schedule yourself (you can schedule up to eight) to make the cash you need to pay the salaries. This way the 'GAME OVER' doesn't sneak up one you, and it's pretty easy to avoid. In WE6 and 7, especially 7 where I would regularly forget the rules, I would get a lot of GAME OVERs from trying to improve my team too fast and not winnin g enough to pay off the debt. But in this new one, I haven't had one GAME OVER since the first day I got the game; I'm still on my first ML team, which is wholly unprecedented for me. I used to do a lot of restarts, and really enjoyed how different the teams would end up. Not any more!