WHAT'S MISSING, AND WHY

While PlayMaker Football™ is one of the best computer football simulations available, there are a few features missing. As the game was being developed we were constantly faced with the dilemma of adding more features at the expense of game performance and memory. Just so you don't think we completely ignored some features commonly found in professional football, here are explanations as to why they're not in PlayMaker Football™.


MEN IN MOTION

When an offensive player goes "in motion" before the snap the defense is forced to adjust its coverage to respond to the change in the offensive setup. There are many variables and factors that the defense must consider in deciding which adjustment to make that are just too complex to express in a computer program of this scale.

In our discussions with football coaches it became obvious that to have the computer consistently make the correct defensive adjustment would require many complex calculations that would slow the game down and gobble up lots of memory with detailed data.

As it stands now, the defense automatically adjusts to whatever setup the offense presents at the line of scrimmage. The offensive player can still try to out maneuver the defense by setting up oddly. In effect, the offensive setup can be thought of as the setup just before the snap and after all man-in-motion movement is finished.


INJURIES

Depending on who gets injured and when the injury occurs, it can either be completely devastating or hardly make any difference to a team. The best that can happen in the case of an injury is little or no change to a team's performance, and the worst that can happen is the team loses all chances of winning a game.

In the interests of creating a balanced conflict that isn't subject to being undermined by random chance, we decided to eliminate injuries. Playing without injuries allows both teams to play to their full potential and therefore always provides the ultimate test to the coaches of both teams.


FULL SQUAD SUBSTITUTION

By allocating 15 players to the offensive and defensive squads of a team we have provided enough players to handle almost all special case situations that would require player substitutions, such as a 4-receiver set, 3-4 defense, 4-3 defense, nickel defense, etc. Since injuries are not part of the game, extra players on the bench are not necessary.