Guide: How to Scout Development Traits in Madden 19

[Old Man Nathy]

If you're wondering about the accuracy of the guide this year, it's 100% accurate (provided you align the correct tweet with the correct type!). How is it this accurate? I was kindly given access to some XML by Trey31 which was unpackaged from the PC version of the game. This XML had all of the information you see presented in the tables in this guide. I also did a lot of my own research before I was given the XML, which is where some of the other data/info and the examples come from.

Anyway, hope ya'll find this guide useful.

[XtremeDunkz]

So basically the "sets school record" story in the late weeks means that the guy has an equal chance of being quick, star, or superstar? He can't be normal? Am I reading that right?

[rallew]

So, if I understand this correctly a player born with the Quick trait has a chance of getting a Star trait if the right story appears?

I’m not sure I fully understand the two columns. Say if a player who get the story og being son of a Olympian in week 1, it indicates he’s either got Quick or Star development? However, the story can boost him to Superstar dev trait?

And great work by the way. Your scouting tool has been excellent for me the last couple of years.

[Old Man Nathy]

Basically the first set of columns are arbitrary boosts madden gives to players of certain dev traits. These boosts influence how likely a story is to fire against the player, thus they can be used to indicate what dev trait he has if the story doesn’t also alter the trait he was born with.

The other set of columns are the % chance of a player having a certain trait. For the dice roll stories you might as well ignore the first set of columns as the trait will change.

[rallew]

Quote: Originally Posted by Old Man Nathy

Basically the first set of columns are arbitrary boosts madden gives to players of certain dev traits. These boosts influence how likely a story is to fire against the player, thus they can be used to indicate what dev trait he has if the story doesn’t also alter the trait he was born with. The other set of columns are the % chance of a player having a certain trait. For the dice roll stories you might as well ignore the first set of columns as the trait will change.

So a story can alter dev. trait and possibly move a player up and down a round? How about skills? Will he get a boost in catch rating for example?

When I finish the draft I always go through the draft recap and see who the cpu teams drafted. I sometimes come across players who has a Superstar dev. trait without having any stories or indicators apart from the skills you scout during the season.

Also, some players will have low confidence after being drafted. Do you know any reasons behind that?

[rylin34]

Great work!! Just so I am understanding the first set of columns correctly. If we look at the "Enters Draft Late" story. The normal development trait is listed as "X" and others all have a "40." That just means if you are "born with one of those traits" you are boosted "40" to trigger that story, but you could still be a normal? You are just MORE LIKELY to trigger this story if you have one of the higher development traits.

Is this right?

[sccavs64]

Quote: Originally Posted by rallew

So a story can alter dev. trait and possibly move a player up and down a round? How about skills? Will he get a boost in catch rating for example? When I finish the draft I always go through the draft recap and see who the cpu teams drafted. I sometimes come across players who has a Superstar dev. trait without having any stories or indicators apart from the skills you scout during the season. Also, some players will have low confidence after being drafted. Do you know any reasons behind that?

#1 - Yes, a story can alter a player's development trait (this is the most common outcome to a draft story), personality traits, and attributes.

#2 - All players start with a development trait. It can either be normal, quick, star, or superstar. It's random, just as random as whether or not a news story triggers for a player in the first place. Generally you'll see 1-5 superstar dev traits throughout a draft class, and those are randomly assigned

#3 I have always wondered this myself, not sure as to why this happens. It may have something to do with their draft position/team that picked them. I have no data to support this, but I feel like I see it when players are drafted by poor teams or are overdrafted (i.e. #47 in true overall but taken at pick #20).

[sccavs64]

OMN, thank you for doing what you do, you continually year-after-year make this game more enjoyable for me to play.

Has anybody ever seen a player who leaves school early return for the next season? Generally when I see this news story, the player can still be drafted during that same season.