So in the offseason there was a league owner who approached me about possibly instituting additional rules to our league regarding positions and weights and so on. As you know, there are some teams that have changed their players to WRs to gain speed advantage and deployed them all over the field. Personally, I don't have a problem with this, as in the real NFL, they have WRs lining up all over the place nowadays, but there are leagues that consider stuff like this unfair. As you know, I always favor having less rules (because I am too lazy to enforce anything). But if people feel like this is an issue, we can discuss it and folks can propose what they think is a solution to the problem. And I guess the issues are on offense and defense - using super light people at other positions to gain advantage as well. Again, I don't see these as game breaking moves - the teams that do this aren't just blowing people away, unlike team that do punt blocks that could kill every game. Any thoughts on this?

Along those lines, it was also asked whether we could ban the play FL Hitch. My initial thought is no, we aren't going to police that - it would take reviewing the play logs of every game. FL Hitch is a pretty broken play, but we've seen through the years that it can be stopped or limited enough. I don't see a need to outright ban it, but if you guys want that to happen, I'm always open to following what the league wants. So share your thoughts on this as well.

We might wind up at status quo. But at least we can discuss for the sake of those who are worried about these issues.

1) I'm almost positive I've read that speed is no longer affected by weight. Speed 90 at 180 lbs is the same as speed 90 at 300 lbs. I'm pretty sure I've read that. Maybe I'm wrong, I'm far from an expert in this game.
2) I'm with norm when it comes to over-policing the league. Banning plays seems like a lot of work.

Status quo is fine with me. Just my opinion.

I'm one for leaving rules as they are, except in cases of obvious exploits, such as the punt block , which allowed undersize players to blow by linemen unmolested.

I've left leagues because I felt they had too many rules to keep track of, or just didn't make sense in a football setting.

I agree. I like the looseness here except for egregious exploits.

Note that in my XFL league there is belief in speed difference between 191 and 300 lbs. I'm not personally sure if it is true or not. That league specifically uses weight to determine who can play what.

Instituting rules is more indicative of the failures of the game engine, and it's been a long time since we've had an update. People just seek out how to game the system as much as possible.

I would be in favor of banning the FL Hitch because it would force 95% of owners (including me) to do something else. I can guarantee you the WR yards and TD would come WAY down after a season.

Over my previous 16 games, I generated approximately 720 yards off the FL Hitch, roughly 20% of my passing yards. Subsequently, Leading Football Moguls Receiver Jeffrey Lacey of the Championship San Francisco Demons had 725 receiving yards and 7 TDs in four games of the 2035 post-season; 500 yards and 3 TDs were off the FL Hitch.

I don't think there's any reason to nerf anything else; ban the FL Hitch for a season and let's see how managers have to change their strategy.

Weight vs Speed has still an impact in v 0.45. You simply can see that with the Punt Blocks when a 191 lbs CB or a 198 lbs WR cuts through the defending line while a 237 lbs LB is most of the time short of blocking a punt. All of them with 80+ speed.
Banning a play is no way to regulate. Especially for the FL Hitch there are some tools to minimize the outcome.

So, if you want to set up rules, stick to minimum weights.

For those who refer to RL NFL: Version 0.45 is not reflecting the real world as there still is a huge speed vs skill discrepancy. Version 0.46 (BETA) is a little bit closer to real world but still has some glitches.

Setting up rules is good in principle, tough to enforce. I'm in XFL with waitwut, and minimum weights for positions are enforced, but the league administrator is on top of it. I'm in another public league with an owner who puts CBs in as DEs, and ends up with multiple 30+ sack players - can't be stopped. I know there are a few owners who play "exploit ball," and I just steer clear of a league that they're in because I know it won't be as much fun. It seems most Moguls owners are pretty honest longtime players, and I think it would be a headache for Norm to be sifting through everybody's rosters to make sure there's total compliance. I doubt there's a way to wipe out FL Hitch either - somebody wouldn't get the message or rarely check their playbook at the AI would keep calling it.

Norm, maybe you can PM Cjfred68 who runs XFL, GM Football League and Quick and the Dead (maybe others too) and see if he has any advice on tightening up league rules.

I'm down with the status quo. As far as hitch is concerned, it's hit and miss stopping it, but I use it too, so i think as long as everyone has access to it, it shouldn't be that big a deal. I think i recall several seasons ago, the Terror won, or came close to winning the championship without ever throwing the hitch. So it can be done.

X

I have tried for the most part to avoid the hitch and limit my own use because it is still a broken play. Many teams that have success in this game now use only a few select plays to defend "most" of the 2/1/2 formations. Myself included. All to reduce the amount of times you get beat by the Hitch.
that being said if you have good talent and load up on the weak side with your best defenders you can reduce and or limit the play. Still you get beat sometimes and it only takes one play to break and if it was a close game it does leave a bad taste. Not to mention if a team just spams it. So yes i would prefer to just not select that play from "my book" pretty easily done

if you have a player at 214# and 90 speed and you drop him to WR and now the same player is 200# and 92 speed methinks he is still faster. And if he breaks the hitch once or twice and keeps a step ahead of the defenders it is touchdown.

I enjoy this game and I couldn't program anything like it. So I'm not going to slag the programmer, however I do think personal integrity comes into it and it shouldn't be that difficult to monitor. I would prefer to remove it as a gentleman's agreement, at least try it and see how you enjoy the game without it. If you think you cant win without it then put it back in the following season.

I like things the way they are as far as the hitch goes for me I don't care either way not sure if it wins as many games as we want to say it does then again I don't dive that deep. I do like the looseness of the league I'm in a few restriction leagues and it's kinda a pain to remember who has to be at what weight and how many of said player you can have. None the less whatever is decided let me know