Best Guess On Release Date

[caravel]

Thanks pevergreen. I'm wondering when this revolution-evolution spiel first manifested itself? I remember that prior to M2TW's release, nothing was said about it not being a new engine. I seem to remember a lot of people at the .com thinking it was a new "from the ground up" release. These kind of myths are often propogated by clever marketing (the reader/viewer makes an assumption) and before you know it, everyone is parroting it.

I also doubt that ETW was entirely built from scratch on a whole new engine as they claim. I understand that compiled binaries and other data files are strored differently, but I have a little bit of trouble believing a developer would bin millions of lines of code and start again from the beginning to rebuild what is essentially the same game with a makeover and a few more bells and whistles twice (TW comprises of no less than two game engines - three if you include the naval battles).