MKX's future with gameplay balancing

FobinenHege

New member
I've been very interesting in watching tournament matches in fighting games past few years, mainly MK9 and SFIV.

When MKX is released, I'm very eager to see how tournament scene is going to evolve, especially since Boon and Netherrealm themselves have said that they are very interested in competetive scene. That's no wonder, since both MK9 and Injustice made there way to EVO, which is pretty much the most important tournament every year for fighting games. There will be most definitely a good playerbase, since MK9 sold very well, Injustice did well as far as I know and MKX has got people's interest.

The main point though, where I'm a bit worried, is gameplay balance when talked about tournament scene. MK9 didn't got that big because of game's not-so-perfect balance and especially because characters were changed and balanced way too fast. Many players complained that they didn't even got learn the character they were using nor participate to tournaments, before they got nerfed to the point where character was useless. (Kano for instance)

So my question is: Do you think MK9's balancing method was good enough, or do you think there's something that has to be done, in order to make competetive scene more viable?

Note: I'm of course reminding that stuff that are broken beyond like infinites or glitches, are something that should be fixed immediately.
 
NRS is notoriously known to listen to fans complains ,resulting in them"jumping the gun" and creating a game where there are 35 characters with only 8 being truly viable. I always feel developers should consider Buffs before nerfs, just to maintain a level of variety in competitive play.
 
NRS is notoriously known to listen to fans complains ,resulting in them"jumping the gun" and creating a game where there are 35 characters with only 8 being truly viable. I always feel developers should consider Buffs before nerfs, just to maintain a level of variety in competitive play.
I gotta agree with buffs, since it's not new that nerfs can totally just destroy certain characters and how viable they overall are. And I also would just love to see those legendary "hidden top-tier" characters, that first were thought to be terrible, until one good player unleashed its true potential.

Characters being viable in MK9 for tournament play bothered me. Seeing Kabal, Sonya, Cyrax, Kung Lao or Kenshi always in finals quickly drained the fun out. If we do the quick comparison to USFIV tournament play, I could name at least 20 characters that have been used to win tournament. And if we add those characters that have yet win the tournament but have had good results like top-8 etc, we can almost count the whole roster (44) in.

In MK9, I'd say it was impossible to win high-level tournament like Evolution with characters like Sheeva, Jade or Baraka.
 
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Why can't people wait for the game to be released and played before making this kind of threads?
 
I gotta agree with buffs, since it's not new that nerfs can totally just destroy certain characters and how viable they overall are.

Characters being viable in MK9 for tournament play bothered me and quickly drained the fun out. Seeing Kabal, Sonya, Cyrax, Kung Lao or Kenshi always in finals quickly drained the fun out. If we do the quick comparison to USFIV tournament play, I could name at least 20 characters that have been used to win tournament. And if we add those characters that have yet win the tournament but have had good results like top-8 etc, we can almost count the whole roster (44) in.

In MK9, I'd say it was impossible to win high-level tournament like Evolution with characters like Sheeva, Jade or Baraka.

I agree completely. I got so sick and tired of seeing Kabal , Kung Lao , and Cyrax players constantly in top 8. No other characters stood a chance besides Sonya and Kenshi. It was sickening. Especially because my main was Sheeva. Has anyone ever tried to fight Kabal or Kenshi with Sheeva??? 10-0 matchup for sure.
 
NRS is gonna shit all over this game with it's "balance" patches, just you watch. Instead of waiting and seeing how things play out, they listen to all the crybabbies that only play the game for a few weeks. It's unfortunate, but inevitable. I'm starting to get hesitant about even maining anyone for the first few months. Would suck to put dozens of hours of time into a character just for it to be nerfed to oblivion, like MK9 Kano.
 
Jax was extremely terrible day 1 in MK9, and patching really brought him up, so I will forever be grateful to NRS balance patches. But seriously who the hell knows how MKX balancing will go, especially with variations being apart of the equation.
 
NRS is gonna shit all over this game with it's "balance" patches, just you watch. Instead of waiting and seeing how things play out, they listen to all the crybabbies that only play the game for a few weeks. It's unfortunate, but inevitable. I'm starting to get hesitant about even maining anyone for the first few months. Would suck to put dozens of hours of time into a character just for it to be nerfed to oblivion, like MK9 Kano.

I think Kano was a victim of a horrendous training mode and no frame data. Ppl didn't understand how to interrupt it on block.
 
Why can't people wait for the game to be released and played before making this kind of threads?

I personally can't understand why are you having so hard time if people wants to speculate certain things, especially since tournament scene doesn't exist right after the release.

[MENTION=18755]GOTCHA![/MENTION]

As far as I remember (not sure), Injustice have some frame data variation in training mode? Could be neat to have that as well in MKX.
 
1st character that fans want nerf- REPTILE - watch for it.
do you guys think the goal for NRS is to make each variation semi-viable or that each character has 1 form that's totally viable?
 
1st character that fans want nerf- REPTILE - watch for it.
do you guys think the goal for NRS is to make each variation semi-viable or that each character has 1 form that's totally viable?
Personally I'm afraid of characters that rock with every variation, when some characters have 3 terrible ones.

And I wouldn't be surprised if they just leave some characters to Sheeva / Joker state.
 
1st character that fans want nerf- REPTILE - watch for it.
do you guys think the goal for NRS is to make each variation semi-viable or that each character has 1 form that's totally viable?

Yep, I fully expect to see Noxious Reptile killed, even though he isn't all that bad.

And even if he was, it's stupid for people to whine for easy fixes instead of developing their skills to overcome the problem.
 
I personally can't understand why are you having so hard time if people wants to speculate certain things, especially since tournament scene doesn't exist right after the release.

Because I can't understand why people are so eager to think the game is broken when it wasn't even realeased yet.

Why do you think the game should be fixed when you haven't played it thoroughly?

It's ridiculous.
 
Because I can't understand why people are so eager to think the game is broken when it wasn't even realeased yet.

Why do you think the game should be fixed when you haven't played it thoroughly?

It's ridiculous.
Well, there might have been slight misunderstandment since I thought you were talking about topic itself. Like I wrote, the main question is that should NRS follow MK9 route when patches are done faster, therefore making character learning and maining much more difficult or to follow slower style, where tournament and online players have some time to breathe and analyze their character and other possibilities, as well as countering other character's attacks, mix-ups etc.

But I can see your point, but I also see why people are a bit worried. Every single Mortal Kombat game has been far from balanced, at least in my opinion.
 
I say let the game rock until EVO, and then make changes as needed. Of course fix and block string infinites.


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how many chars in SF IV are tournament viable/top tier? just wondering.

So far the Fighting game with closest balanced characters appears to be KI, from the tournaments i've seen. Good variation in chars and i think every character, since launch, has won at least 1 tournament.
 
In MK9, I'd say it was impossible to win high-level tournament like Evolution with characters like Sheeva, Jade or Baraka.

MK9 baraka was fine.
people just didnt know how to play him. and thought he needed buffed coz his combo potential was limited.

im a huge combo guy but when i play Baraka trust me you dont need no combos just patience and timing.

hes also a great match up against mileena coz crazy blades vs roll, blades win. block that teleport kick and if they try to do an air sai to get out of the counter just do crazy blades and she will just drop right into it and then do a lunge stab after that and thats a pretty deadly counter combo.
once they realize their roll and teleport kick is pretty much useless they will result to standing at the far side of the screen and try spamming sais..then just simply do an enhanced blade lunge and blast right through them. at this point theyll usually panic with a wake up roll or teleport kick then its back to countering with crazy blades again.
by now the match is pretty much yours

just a few of many reasons why Baraka should be in MKX
 
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how many chars in SF IV are tournament viable/top tier? just wondering
After a quick calculation:

Amount of characters I know that have won a high level tournament in USFIV's lifespan: 26/44

Amount of characters placed in top-8: 36/44

Overall, there's great amount of viable characters and I'd say there's only a few characters that currently are unable to win a tournament all by themselves. Top and high tier vary a bit according to the player, but there's around 10 that I'd place highest.
 
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