Goat-City
Banned
Variations are a great addition to MKX as it is, but I wish they had their own functionality to them that made them more valuable to learn and use over entirely different characters. Variations should be used to balance counter picking, but since tournament matches are both character and variation locked if you win, (which I have no problem with) there's no real reason to switch to a different variation after you lose instead of just switching to an entirely different character.
With that said, here's my idea for how they should be done in the future -- if you lose a round, you should have the option to spend a bar of meter to switch to a different variation before the start of the next round. This way, even if you win a match and get counter picked, you can potentially switch to a better match up if you lose a round. It shouldn't be free though. It has to cost a bar of meter, or even a bit of health, so it doesn't just become a game of I counter pick you, you counter pick me over and over. There would be no question of whether or not to switch if there's no cost, but with this, even if you have the option to counter pick your opponent mid-match, the fact that it costs a bar of meter could easily persuade you not to.
One problem with this idea though is the unique variation accessories. They would most likely have to be gotten rid of since they would have to create individual animations for every variation in the game. For example, if you picked Royal Storm Kitana and decided to switch to Mournful before the start of the second round, then they'd have to create an animation of Kitana putting her mask on and pulling the staff thing out and more. It would be impossible to do, so I suggest that in future games they no longer have variation specific accessories, but they should just create a bunch of accessories that can be unlocked in the Krypt and equipped to your character just for the aesthetics of it.
So basically, this idea would just give variations an extra utility that makes them different from just being separate characters. It would give an additional reason to learn multiple variations for different match ups rather than just learning separate characters. Thoughts?
With that said, here's my idea for how they should be done in the future -- if you lose a round, you should have the option to spend a bar of meter to switch to a different variation before the start of the next round. This way, even if you win a match and get counter picked, you can potentially switch to a better match up if you lose a round. It shouldn't be free though. It has to cost a bar of meter, or even a bit of health, so it doesn't just become a game of I counter pick you, you counter pick me over and over. There would be no question of whether or not to switch if there's no cost, but with this, even if you have the option to counter pick your opponent mid-match, the fact that it costs a bar of meter could easily persuade you not to.
One problem with this idea though is the unique variation accessories. They would most likely have to be gotten rid of since they would have to create individual animations for every variation in the game. For example, if you picked Royal Storm Kitana and decided to switch to Mournful before the start of the second round, then they'd have to create an animation of Kitana putting her mask on and pulling the staff thing out and more. It would be impossible to do, so I suggest that in future games they no longer have variation specific accessories, but they should just create a bunch of accessories that can be unlocked in the Krypt and equipped to your character just for the aesthetics of it.
So basically, this idea would just give variations an extra utility that makes them different from just being separate characters. It would give an additional reason to learn multiple variations for different match ups rather than just learning separate characters. Thoughts?