Difficulty Settings Changes in Madden NFL 19
Madden NFL 19 has been loaded with new features and gameplay tweaks to make it the best season the franchise has ever seen. Some of these adjustments are specific to game difficulty. Some of the tuning on the difficulty front specifically concerns the All-Madden setting, to ensure it’s the premiere place to test your stick skills.
All-Madden is more prevalent and upfront in Madden 19. Human Madden database and Associate Game Designer Ryan “RG” Glick broke down some of the alterations gamers will notice about the top tier difficulty. He first mentioned that the biggest change you’ll see in that difficulty is the removal of the Hat Count Tackle Box interface.
“That UI graphic that would appear at the line of scrimmage when you pull up Play Art. It would tell you if you have a favorable matchup in the run game. So, if you had more blockers on the right than they had defenders on the right side of the line, the Tackle Box would be green on that side, indicating that you have the matchup.”
“It's a very informative mechanic for newer users, but we figured that when we're playing at All-Madden, the highest difficulty, that's information we want the users to be able to figure out for themselves instead of having a graphic to do it.”
Another change gamers will notice is that the Defensive Assist mechanic has been nerfed in All-Madden and All-Pro. This feature allowed users to hold the LB/L1 button and let the AI take control of that user-controlled player. It would just kind of act as if it were an AI player. A timer was put on the mechanic that quickly disables it after .5 seconds on All-Pro and .25 seconds on All-Madden, so users can no longer just hold it.
“We like those type of mechanics for newer users to help people get better,” RG said, “but in the harder difficulties, we really want people to make the plays for themselves as user-controlled players.”
Another big change in Madden 19 is that Online Ranked Ladders relevant to the Madden Championship Series will be played on the All-Madden difficulty.
“For the longest time, all of our Online Ladders — whether it was regular H2H, Play Now, whether it was MUT Seasons, MUT Salary Cap, MUT Draft — they were all on the All-Pro skill level. And All-Pro kind of became the norm, even for a competitive player,” RG said.
“We're really excited that the competitive circuit, any competitive ladder that’s open, or any competitive tournament that we have this year, is going to be played on the All-Madden skill level again.”
Another change in Online Ladders attached to the MCS is the Previous Play setting, which will be defaulted to Off. For example, if you jumped into MUT Salary Cap currently, the Previous Play information at the Play Call Screen won’t be there. Right now, that’s only specific to Salary Cap, Online Ladders, and competitive play. Normal Online Ladders like H2H and MUT Seasons will still have that feature though.
There you have it. Now it’s time to test your skills. Tune your Settings to All-Madden and prove you have the stick skills to dominate the field.
-Daniel Williams (Follow Dan on Twitter @thatDanW)
Madden NFL 19 is available now. Purchase the Hall of Fame Edition for three-day Early Access and loads of MUT content. Stay in the conversation by following us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and EA Forums. Sign up for the Newsletter today to receive updates on Madden, and other EA news, products, and events, all season long.
