Try out the new tactics editor!

We updated the game yesterday, and added a new tactics editor, which we would like you to try out. The old editor will be available until we're confident that the new one is ready to take it's place.

You can find the new tactics editor at www.virtualmanager.com/tactics

Among our goals for the new editor are:
[list]
Make the tactics editor more user friendly and intuitive, especially for inexperienced managers
Freshen up the design a bit
Implement a new editor in Rails, as part of our continuing effort to convert the entire site from PHP to Ruby on Rails
Make a platform on which to build possible future additions
[/list]

The major new features in the new tactics editor are as follows:

[b]Substutions no longer separate from the lineup[/b]
By bringing the substitutions into the main tactics editor, we can much more easily avoid managers making invalid substitution rules. We regularly get complaints from managers who think the substitution system is buggy, when in fact the reason is that they have set up invalid substitution rules. In the new editor, substitution rules are removed if they become invalid due to you removing a player from the pitch, for instance, and you are immediately alerted to this fact.

[b]Priorities become Reserves[/b]
The old priority lists have proven difficult to understand, even though they have always been very important. Automatic substitutions don't work unless you've put players on the priority lists. By renaming them to Reserves and putting them on the front page of the tactics editor, we emphasize their importance and hope they'll be easier to understand.

[b]Player placement guide[/b]
We have added a simple red/green/yellow placement guide that appears on the pitch when you drag a player. This is meant as a simple tool to aid inexperienced managers, and should not be viewed as 100% accurate. You are, however, always completely assured that your player performs at 100% efficiency if you place him within any of the green highlighted fields.

[b]Player placement rules[/b]
Previously, you have been completely free to place your players anywhere you wanted, which has led to a lot of complaints about unrealistic lineups. We have taken this to heart, and implemented some simple placement rules to avoid the most blatantly unrealistic tactics. In short, the rules ensure that you cannot bunch up your players in a small area.

[b]More user-friendly and intuitive across the board[/b]

Be advised that there are lots of old tactics that will no longer be valid in the new editor. When you load your existing tactics into the new editor, any invalid substitution rules and priorities will be automatically removed, and you won't be able to save your tactic until your lineup adheres to the new placement rules. We will not do anything else to remove old tactics that become invalid in the new editor, since they will disappear over time when we switch over to the new editor completely.

So, we hope you'll try out the new tactics editor and tell us what you think.