PSA: Blocker Resistance is not an optional gameplay mechanic

[CM Hooe]

I didn't quite know where to put this, and I honestly don't know how much there is to discuss about it? But it's something I only noticed or even thought about just now. This impacts anyone who plays Franchise in Madden with Superstar abilities turned OFF, which I believe is a significant number of people who are on this forum.

Basically, exactly what the name says on the tin: the accumulation of offensive line blocker resistance is not an optional mechanic in any version of Madden in which it is included since Madden 21. It's always on, and there is no option to turn it off.

The impact of this is that anyone playing Franchise with abilities disabled loses access to the ability to counter blocking resistance with relevant abilities. Edge Threat Elite, Edge Threat, Ripper, Speedster, Spinner, and Swim Club each reduce the effectiveness of blocker resistance in some way; for example, Edge Threat and Edge Threat Elite ensure that blocker resistance is ignored for the defender's first pass rush move attempted on a play.

The absence of these abilities means that by the 4th quarter, your premiere pass rusher who has been screaming off the blind side the entire game is going to be much less effective against high-AWR OLs capable of accumulating a lot of blocker resistance if you just left your rusher at the same position all game and haven't rotated in other pass rushers manually throughout the game with package subs and formation subs.

I also share this to get more eyes on what's probably one of the more impactful and least talked about gameplay mechanics in Madden. I don't know if or how these tuning values have changed since Madden 21, but in that game per MUTLeaks even a player with two bars of accumulated blocker resistance would increase his chances of winning a rep against a pass rusher by 20%. A blocker with five bars of resistance (only possible with the Tough Nut ability equipped, and probably only realistically ever seen in the 4th quarter or overtime) sees his win chances on a rep vs a rusher increase by around 60%. That's... incredibly powerful?

[ForUntoOblivionSoar∞]

It's not really realistic either. I get what they're trying to do, trying to simulate players getting familiar with each other. But the truth is, defenders always keep a move in the bag anyway, and even if the linemen KNOWS it, and has studied it (which they most certainly have), it's the TIMING of it that makes it work.


And besides, if an offensive linemen gets familiar with a pass rusher, a pass rusher gets familiar with an offensive linemen.

[ForUntoOblivionSoar∞]

Just made a thread about this in the Beta discussion forums.


https://answers.ea.com/t5/Gameplay-F...r/m-p/12696597

[CM Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by ForUntoOblivionSoar∞

It's not really realistic either. I get what they're trying to do, trying to simulate players getting familiar with each other. But the truth is, defenders always keep a move in the bag anyway, and even if the linemen KNOWS it, and has studied it (which they most certainly have), it's the TIMING of it that makes it work.

I would guess Tiburon's response to this is that this is what the Ripper, Speedster, Spinner, and Swim Club abilities are there to replicate. Those abilities allow an equipping player to either ignore or reduce the effect of blocker resistance when specifically performing those pass rush moves. (Unclear which between "ignore" or "reduce"? Different descriptions I've read in different places say different things.)

Regardless whether it's realistic or not, I think Madden users should at least understand this mechanic, because it's largely undocumented in-game and pass protection in general is not something the game teaches too much about.

[ForUntoOblivionSoar∞]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

I would guess Tiburon's response to this is that this is what the Ripper, Speedster, Spinner, and Swim Club abilities are there to replicate. Those abilities allow an equipping player to either ignore or reduce the effect of blocker resistance when specifically performing those pass rush moves. (Unclear which between "ignore" or "reduce"? Different descriptions I've read in different places say different things.) Regardless whether it's realistic or not, I think Madden users should at least understand this mechanic, because it's largely undocumented in-game and pass protection in general is not something the game teaches too much about.

Good point. But as you said, it hurts people like me who turn the abilities mechanic off. Maybe, maybe I'll turn it back on when we figure out how to mod the game, so I can once again make the icons transparent. And maybe tone some of them down.

[oneamongthefence]

I don't know how complex it would be to implement but it should be based on pass rush specific moves and not just pass rush attempts. If you continually attempt rips or spins then resistance should go up. But if you use clubs or swims the resistance goes down. But I think there needs to be more specific pass rush ratings. Or make the pass rush traits determine what moves can or cannot happen. The system is way binary but adding complexity to it might be more than what the majority of the user base wants from the game.

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

[Gotmadskillzson]

Or you know, they could make the offense use the play recognition rating and have that rating dictate how good or bad an offensive lineman or QB recognize the moves the defense player is using against them. That would be way better then what they have now. Because by default, players rarely substitute out. Fatigue is too low and the auto subs are whack if you don't change them.

[CM Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gotmadskillzson

Because by default, players rarely substitute out. Fatigue is too low and the auto subs are whack if you don't change them.

Separate or in addition to of buffing fatigue to encourage personnel rotation or making auto-sub sliders more effective, they could also:

- make defensive personnel deployment respond to offensive formation strength to make defenders rotate automatically (i.e. proper SAM / WILL, 1T / 3T designations, etc.),
- add a Coaching Adjustment setting allowing the user to force a rusher to sub out of a game for a customizable number of plays should a rusher exhaust all of his pass rush points on a play,
- add more right-stick package substitutions for rotating defensive linemen beyond "DL Sub" to make rotating defensive linemen easier,
- bring back customizable right-stick package substitutions,
- increase the number of defensive formations in the playbooks to match the expansions on offense to increase defensive front variety and encourage personnel versatility (there are literally no new defensive formations in the Madden 24 beta; in fact there are less compared to M23, it appears Nickel 33 Sam was removed), or
- just make the UI/UX for making manual substitutions in-game less cumbersome

I assume the abilities, blocker resistance, and rush points are going to stay in the game for the foreseeable future. Given that, it'd be nice if the rest of the game better supported paying attention to those mechanics.