1.2 - RELEASE DATE: 30th June 2009. THEME: NEW FRIENDS, NEW TACTICS
1.2 is the next major FML update. As always with a full update, there's plenty of exciting stuff to look forward to. The beauty of constant development is that each update is its own creature, and works in a different way. Whilst 1.1 focussed on finances and infrastructure, 1.2 is a completely different prospect and instead develops core areas of community and matchplay.
COMMUNITY
1.2 changes the way you interact with the game and other managers in a big way. Managers can now be added as 'friends' in the game, meaning you'll recieve updates on their activities, be able to send messages to their homepages (see below), and see information now hidden to other managers, such as what skills they possess. The friends feature will have you logging on daily to check what your mates are up to and who's the latest to offer you the hand of friendship!
As the above alludes to, all managers now have a home page. You'll get taken to this page when you sign into the game, and it basically draws together all the strands of your FML life. There's news items on your team, updates on and messages from your friends, invites to votes and competitions, and a great Facebook-style status box that allows you to tell everyone what you're up to.
TACTICS
Perhaps the most exciting 1.2 change is that to the tactical system. There's now a new tactics creator that allows you to build unique tactics, in six easy steps. All options draw from a 50-page piece of research called Tactical Theories and Frameworks. That may sound daunting, but the beauty of the Creator is that it condenses all the theory into a set of choices that will take you two minutes to go through! As if that wasn't enough, the entire tactics screen has been streamlined too, and is now much easier for managers both new and old to get to grips with.
GRAPHICS
There's some great new screens in game that allow you to analyse your team a bit more than in the past. From skillset breakdowns to the nature of your fanbase and sources and destinations of your income, understanding your team has never been so easy!
As you may have noticed when clicking on any of the screenshots added here, 1.2 boasts the option of a great new skin, titled 'Vibrante'. With an electric, angular look, and an iconic ocean-blue colour scheme, this skin will literally change the way you look at the game. Many managers have been very impressed, and alot have switched to it for good! Congratulations to Chris Rice, the newest member of the FML development team, who designed this skin.
As always, read on for extra details of the main changes listed above, or, alternately, sit tight and wait for an update that promises to be quite simply 1.2 good!!
