it's become apparent via first the punt block and now the 46 heavy 2 man under defense with an 89 speed 237 pound linebacker amassing 70 sacks in 10 games that speed completely overpowers and destroys pass blocking at the point of attack.

I dont know how to fix it...Im not a programmer, but clearly the mechanics of blocking is broken when undersized players play the defensive front with speed. Im not saying it should never happen but it ALWAYS happens which means the issue needs to be addressed.

A 6' 3" 305 pound RG should pancake a 237 pound linebacker sometimes regardless of how quick or fast he is....right? The size of a player should be more of a factor when blocking....a fast player may beat a RT or LT but he doesn't take a direct route to the QB or punter....he uses his speed and quickness to go around him.....so a 6' 5" 330 tackle should gain the benefit of his size for making speedy players circumnavigate around them which should elevate some of these issues.

As it stands now, speed goes directly through the bigger player simply because he isnt as fast with size a non-factor

I took a team in MFN-1 The test league to demonstrate just this issue. The team I took over were 0-6 full of veteran technicians with no speed. I scoured the free agency players for players with high speed. I then converted all the Defense to DBs and all the skill positions on O to WR.

This gives those players not only the benefit of extra speed as their weight gradually receded but also extends their stamina as the engine addresses all plays based on the label on the player card eg. WR. Not a massive issue, if you have good backups on the D-Line.

So, what happened to this team. It has gone 7-2-1 over 10 games. It has been gashed on the run in the two losses but generally gets lots of tackles for losses of gives up 5-9 yards per rush. This puts teams into second and third and long and makes it tough to maintain a sustained drive. They do give up lots of passing yards and as they are getting lighter their are more missed tackles and on occasion players get pushed backwards 5-10 yards when the O line meet them head on.

I did this to highlight the issue and was actually delighted when a team pushed us around like Rag dolls. My initial summary would suggest that speed kills, but at a certain point strength becomes more of a factor.

I have a theory that I intend to test in Fred's no holes barred league to see if the MFN 1 team is an outlier or a true reflection.

Why have I done this? Not because I want to beat the system but because I want the system to be better. I have offered up potential ways to solve the problem and strength is becoming more of a factor as the tweaks to addressing the punt block issue continue.

MFN 1 needs players who want to push the limits of the engine, not players who are concerned with win-loss records. If you don't want to be part of the problem, you have to be part of the solution. There is more to be gained from demonstrating an issue and suggesting potential solutions than demanding something is fixed now 'Don't come to me with problems, come to me with solutions' is a mantra my old boss lived by. Chances are jdb is aware of where the issues are but fine-tuning the code for punt blocks also means that it affects every other play in the game.

What does that mean? There is no simple quick fix to this, better to spend the time to help improve it and help in the testing. By all means discuss the problem, bring it to people's attention and suggest how it could be improved. In my opinion the gap in speed between a 95 speed and a 70 speed needs to be closer to make a players technique carry more importance. That doesn't mean the small quick guy shouldn't win on occasions, just be should win (much) less often.


To clarify, this is not a dig at you Fred, I want to see more of the well-versed experienced players take a more active role in correcting the games many flaws. Take a team in MFN-1 test and try to break the code. If you don't have time for that, then get involved in the discussions on the MFN 1 forums. Suggest solutions there or debate potential solutions and whether or not they are viable and the effects you would expect to see.

Sorry for droning on but what do you (the general MFN player, not just the OP) think needs to be done to correct the issues you see. How long should be spent on fixing your issue and how long should be spent testing that potential solution?

It may be that the code can never be better than this game engine and fixing an obvious error may result in 100 other new more substantial errors pop up in curing that one fault. If it's taken this long to solve a problem, it's obviously not a simple job because it is not being ignored, it is being tested and to date, it is still flawed.

In German NFL I saw this as well. There is a WLB with high speed who has exorbitant high sack results.
The thing is that only speed counts as his pass rush abiltiies are at 9 / 100.
We have to fix this so that secondary abilities have more weight.

Makes sense, seeing as my DE Alton Tatum has been swimming in pressures, but not getting much sacks. He's pure early 80s acc and spd, run D, pretty much.

While I appreciate everything Admiral says....I dont have a clue as to the solution for this issue....Im not a programmer, more understand anything about how the game is coded or what actual mechanics are being used by the engine.

All I am is an end user and I guess a play tester to some extent. I can only make observations based on my experience and share them with the game designer.

Punt blocks was the tip of the iceberg with 90 speed DBs or even 90 speed WRs playing on the defensibe front using speed to block punts at an alarming rate.

From that I extrapolated that underweight players with high speed might be effective on the defensive front so I experimented in one of my leagues using my team who was eliminated from the playoffs playing 2 teams also eliminated.

My experiment was simple. I put my 4 fastest players at DT1, DT2, LDE1 and RDE1 for the entire game and used my base defense. It just so happened that my 4 fastest were 2 WRs and 2 RBs with virtually zero defensive attributes. They all got tackles and several had multiple sacks.

This was months ago and I basically stopped and let it lie. My fear was that someone would eventually take it to the next level and create a dominant defense.

Well it finally happened in the USFL league as Setherick found the perfect play with the perfect player....a 89/89 speed/acc 237 pound linebacker playing LDE. He basically started to put up incredible sack totals running the same defensive play 30-40 times a game. At last count its 70 sacks in around 10 games.

Just like with the punt block, I'm putting a weight/speed restriction on who can line up at defensive end in all my leagues as this strategy will soon become mainstream as the masses adapt.

I'm doing what I have to do, in order to keep my leagues viable and competitive but still enjoyable. I even created a new league....No Holds Barred .....so owners can have fun blocking 4 punts a game and getting 7-8 sacks a game.

I'm hoping that brighter minds then myself can find the correct tweaks necessary so I don't have to keep creating rules to limit exploits. I shared my thoughts in this forum so those smarter then myself can help address the issue and come up with a solution. Thats something I will never be able to do. I can't fix something I have no access to and wouldn't understand it if I did.

The problem identified in the OP still stands. I've seen a game with 25 sacks and -190 net passing yards. The more that starts happening, the less likely this game will hold interest.

Just had a playoff game where the opposing GM mimicked Setherick's USFL science to a T. Main rusher in the situation was a rather empty rated LB listed #3 with 87 type speed. Someone could take it to unfair levels without rules in place to have 95 speed DB types fly in. My findings are it's a dangerous game/move when done regular Setherick style. (LB weight) If you click/know your plays well enough you can hit off big chunks - fire it off quickly, however, you'll also be heavily pressured and the player in question had at least 2 sacks. In the end, the game reset to an end game scenario...he snuck one (a touchdown on offense) through and we were down less than 3 points. A fluke Kickoff Return Touchdown got us the game. (maybe the tactic tired out his gunners, who knows)

But, yeah, I'd imagine that hammering home 95 speed WR/CB types will lead to them either being repelled on a play or coming full force for sacks, caused fumbles and interceptions. Definite rules for that is necessary.

1 guarantee is that if the QB is assaulted upon like that, especially if you see the converging to a caused fumble, that drives injuries at the position. Like one of the only things now...

Theres is a patch coming for both excessive punt blocks and the 2 technique alignment bug that should put things less exploitable level.

Until the next exploit is found.

Either in the current code or with that patch.

Quick research of teams that are using the pass rush exploit seems to indicate that they often induce a significant amount of injuries for the team getting exploited.