Filling out MKX's Factions

p.W said:
Yeah but... Ed Boon... Scorpion. You don't imagine that he would have to be talked out of including the Shirai Ryu when the Lin Kuei is in the game? I'm trying to imagine what argument could sway him. The only one that comes to mind is "one character doesn't make a faction."

There is another argument that comes to mind. "It's not about how many playable members the faction has, it's about how big it is including NPCs and army mooks." But if this is how they were picking factions, then MK9 would have had the freaking NYPD as a faction because Stryker/Kabal/plenty of cops in the NYPD! And I don't think I'm ready to accept this as a possibility, regardless of the fact that it didn't happen. :(
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I agree.
I don't know why NRS didn't put in the Shirai Ryu, I'm just guessing that for some reason NRS just picked those 5.

Who knows?
Maybe NRS picked those 5 factions because those factions have a huge role in the MKX story mode.

For example:

Brotherhood of Shadow - could be in, due to the NertherRealm Wars.
Special Forces - seems to now have Johnny Cage in it too as well as possibly Takeda and Jaqui, and in the comics they set out to rescue Cassie Cage
White Lotus - has Kung Lao which is somehow back from the dead, along with possibly Raiden and Fujin, who probably try to gather as many warriors to fight for EarthRealm.
Black Dragon has Kano, Jarek and Tasia, who were chasing after Cassie Cage, right before she supposedly was captured by Erron Black (Kotal's ally).
Lin Kuei has Sub-Zero, but if both brothers truly are taking up the same mantle again, then there could be story significance behind that too.
 
The Shirai Ryu as a clan are not comparable to these others in the existing gaming franchise. A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship, a group of relatives, friends, or associates. The Shirai Ryu were dead by the time the first Mortal Kombat came out. All these decades, it was just one guy, Scorpion, avenging a dead clan, as he himself calls it.

They could bring them back now with Takeda and whoever else if they are playable, but let's not pretend that in the existing Mortal Kombat games the Shirai Ryu are supposed to be with these other factions.

There is the major difference: these other factions had multiple playable characters and were, as clans and organizations, influencing events in the present.
The White Lotus and Special Forces have represented the entire efforts of Earthrealm in every game... The Brotherhood of Shadow served one of the big bads, Shinnok... The Lin Kuei were active throughout the series fighting for multiple sides (they did everything, from retrieving Shinnok's amulet to serving Shao Kahn and even helping save Earthrealm under Kuai Liang). Black Dragon is a massive criminal organization active on more than one world all the way back to the first Mortal Kombat.

The Shirai Ryu in the present day, be it for old timeline or MK9, had no membership, no objective, nothing, they were Scorpion.
Like I said, it would be great if they bring them back with Takeda or something for MKX, but I can't agree that they are the same as the other clans in this franchise, and that because this or that clan is there they have to be too. They were dead for 99% of the franchise.
 
Damn people are really went deep on with this faction thing. I dont think it matters how many characters are in a faction.. They just want us to pick one for online play. The really need yo talk about this so we can understand this.
 
All right fellas, I give up on this thread. :vroam:

Commander's post is the kind of discussion I was hoping to engender, but I clearly screwed some pooch somewhere because that obviously didn't come across. I promise I meant well.
 
I don't think the factions are necessarily going to be filled with Playable characters from the Game. They might have Icons of member that might be mentioned from the comics and story mode.
 
p.W said:
What do we know about Factions, and how can we use that information to guess at the final roster?

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1. We know with 99.999% certainty that there will be more than one member per faction in the game. Both because it makes sense, and because if one member per faction was enough, Shirai Ryu would have been the first faction in the game.

2. We know with 99.999% certainty where some characters go: Sub-Zero is Lin Kuei, Kung Lao and Raiden are White Lotus, Kano is Black Dragon, Quan Chi is Brotherhood of Shadow, and Cassie is Special Forces.

3. The evidence is piling up for Johnny Cage and Sonya being playable, and according to the comic, they are both in Special Forces during MKX timeline. That would put SF at a minimum of three characters. Jax and/or Jacqui could still bolster that number.

4. We can guess that they'll try to keep the number of characters per faction roughly equal, otherwise they're just begging for wacky population numbers.
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So let's say 3 is the bare minimum for members per faction. It's far enough away from 1 for Shirai Ryu/Scorpion not being a faction to make total sense. If the minimum was 2, either every faction has precisely 2 characters (unlikely), or I think they would have let Scorpion slide. So... without further ado... who are they?

Special Forces
-Cassie
-Johnny Cage
-Sonya
-Jax/Jacqui (I don't see both being playable.)

White Lotus
-Kung Lao
-Raiden
-Liu Kang
(This is where Kung Jin would go if he became a dude, but I'm not sold on him becoming a dude.)

Brotherhood of Shadow
-Quan Chi
-Scorpion
-Ermac (if not Ermac, then Smoke; Quan Chi needs a reliable lackey.)
-New Character (someone from Netherrealm)

Lin Kuei
-Sub-Zero
-Sub-Zero
-Cyrax

Black Dragon
-Kano
-Tremor
-Erron Black/another new character

Why is this not a faction?
-Kotal Kahn
-Ferra/Torr
-D'vorah
-Erron Black

The only confirmed characters this doesn't account for are Reptile, who could go to Brotherhood of Shadows or Black Dragon, but I doubt either, Kitana, who could go to White Lotus, but that's a stretch, and Goro, who is probably allied with Mileena (how is that also not a faction?). Shinnok is obviously with Quan Chi, the only question is whether he's playable, a boss, or just an NPC.
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Scorpion was never in the Brotherhood of Shadows. If anything, you would've been better off listing actual members who have yet to be announced but are suspected of being playable, most notably Reiko.
 
p.W said:
All right fellas, I give up on this thread. :vroam:

Commander's post is the kind of discussion I was hoping to engender, but I clearly screwed some pooch somewhere because that obviously didn't come across. I promise I meant well.
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People have just tried to explain to you what these factions might mean. I don't see what's wrong with that.
You didn't do anything wrong either, don't worry.
 
theincubuslord said:
People have just tried to explain to you what these factions might mean. I don't see what's wrong with that.
You didn't do anything wrong either, don't worry.
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It definitely seems like most people's expectations for factions are a lot lower than mine. I haven't been able to find any official interviews that point one way or the other.
 
p.W said:
It definitely seems like most people's expectations for factions are a lot lower than mine. I haven't been able to find any official interviews that point one way or the other.
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And there are none. Not yet. However, I believe in the latest stream they spoke of it being revealed soon. Perhaps in the stream to come. Until then, it is all speculation.

You started this thread to show your speculations. People chimed in with their own. Neither side are wrong in doing so. And people didn't do so to shoot you down.
 
Scorpion may not be a member of the Brotherhood of Shadows. They were worshippers of Shinnok and were preparing for his coming. However, he was indeed Quan Chi's slave and enforcer. He was somewhat part of it through that.
 
theincubuslord said:
Scorpion may not be a member of the Brotherhood of Shadows. They were worshippers of Shinnok and were preparing for his coming. However, he was indeed Quan Chi's slave and enforcer. He was somewhat part of it through that.
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That was indeed my logic when placing him there! Since the playable roster represents characters picked out of chronological time and space, ie. Cyber Sub-Zero can fight Kung Lao, despite Kung Lao being dead by the time Cyber Sub-Zero is a thing. I figured "which character goes on which faction" might be the same, so Scorpion might leave the Brotherhood, but still be considered a member because he was one.
 
I don't necessarily think each faction is going to have more than 1 representative. I wouldn't be surprised if Kano is the only Black Dragon, or if Sub-Zero is the only Lin Kuei. It's weird then that we don't get Shirai Ryu (although they would have two if Takeda is in the game), but it could be because they don't have a story presence, unlike the rest. We'll see.
 
p.W said:
That just means I might be wrong about where I placed Scorpion. Obviously not every character fits in a faction, including Kotal, D'Vorah, Ferra/Torr, Kitana, Reptile... but there's no escaping that certain characters will be associated with certain factions. Whether the game comes right out and says it ("Join the Special Forces, an Earthrealm organization led by Sonya Blade!") or we simply find out in story mode.

My assumption is that how the factions fare in MP isn't meaningless. I feel that it is supported by the Shirai Ryu not being a faction you can join. No one has provided an alternate explanation for the creator's favorite character's faction not being joinable.



Is there an interview that confirms that factions are only for changing how your menu looks, and provide absolutely no benefits, ie. unlocking costumes?
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yeah I wish that was the case, certain fighters representing only the faction they belong to. it would be more interesting like that.

but they said they didn't wanted to be unbalanced so this is the reason why u can pick any fighter for any faction which I dont agree with how they went about it.

I guess they didnt want the white lotus to be on top all the time lol.

but the thing about the shirai ryu is that most likely Takeda will be in the game, hopefully Fox too. so at least thats two members for that faction which qualifies them or Ed Boon Is beign modest and due to the popularity of scorpion and wanting to keep things balanced he decided to not include the shirai ryu in the mix
 
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Lord Greyjoy said:
I don't necessarily think each faction is going to have more than 1 representative.
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Dunno.
I could easily see Special Forces having any combination of Cassie, Jaqui, Jax or Johnny Cage (if the MKX digital series call sheet for Takeda is anything to go by).
White Lotus also seems to have Raiden and Kung Lao, and if Liu Kang returns that would make it 3.
 
rocky said:
i dont understand this thread :/
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I put forward some theories about how factions have to work if they're going to be balanced for multiplayer (the fact that they need to be balanced at all is an assumption on my part that not everyone shares - that's what all the discussion on page 1 is about). These theories include "3 playable characters per faction." So I wanted to run with my theory and see if it helps us predict any character announcements, based on what characters could possibly fill out the factions.

ezpz

So you would come in and say "I think Lin Kuei will have the following 3 characters... Bi-Han, returning Smoke, and a brand new character!" Or whatever.
 
Have you seen this?

latest


Am I too late? Don't think so, right?
 
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ironRod said:
but the thing about the shirai ryu is that most likely Takeda will be in the game, hopefully Fox too. so at least thats two members for that faction which qualifies them or Ed Boon Is beign modest and due to the popularity of scorpion and wanting to keep things balanced he decided to not include the shirai ryu in the mix
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Wasn't Fox like... you know... cut in half by a katana?
 
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