Latest Update Delivers Change to Hit Stick in Madden NFL 19
The Hit Stick has become engrained in Madden culture, growing from an innovative, game-changing feature when it was introduced, to a necessary stick skill for H2H wins.
The latest title update for Madden NFL 19 includes some tweaks to the Hit Stick feature that Madden gamers will notice. The player ratings used to determine Hit Stick results have been changed. The formula now uses only the defender’s Hit Power rating (POW) vs. the ball carrier’s Break Tackle rating (BTK) to determine the outcome of the Hit Stick, while Strength (STR) has been removed from the formula.
“We wanted to get this in for launch,” said Game Designer Clint Oldenburg, “but due to the size of the change that we made, we had to spend ample time to test it to verify its quality before we released it.”
The idea behind the change is balance. All players in Madden are on the same Strength scale, so typically, linemen are in the 90s in Strength while other positions are much lower. By default, it happened that all defensive lineman would be fairly successful at Hit Sticks, even though their real-life counterparts might not be known to be skilled in that regard. On that same note, a defensive back that is a big hitter would need their Strength bumped up, which could become unbalanced in other situations, like blocking.
Not only does this balance Strength, but this also makes it simpler for the gamer to see who can really deliver the boom on their roster. As a result, Madden gamers are going to see more broken Hit Stick tackles thanks to this new formula.
“The ratings of the players truly matter now more than before. You can't just Hit Stick with a cornerback and expect to knock the guy down every single time. You have to be more strategic in the players that you use, and you have to be aware of who you have on your team.”
“I think it's going to simplify it for our players to just know it's Hit Power vs. Break Tackle,” Clint said, “You can just look at the ratings of those two players and you'll be able to see why you're seeing the outcomes that you're getting.”
-Daniel Williams (Follow Dan on Twitter @thatDanW)
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