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NRS/WB should bring back the Variation System for MK11 - Here's Why

Should MK11 get the Variations System from MKX?

  • Yes

    Votes: 78 44.8%
  • No

    Votes: 96 55.2%

  • Total voters
    174
I don't see the exact problem with the gear system. How does it effect anyone that plays the game on a competitive level? If ranked is changed to best of 3 then there's no way anyone here can complain.
 

Swindle

Philanthropist & Asshole
TYM: The variation system was the downfall of MKX. There was no clear core concept for the characters.
Also TYM: The Gear ability system is garbage. Why can't my character have all those moves in their base set?
The very same TYM: For MK11, they really should have open ability slots, and we can customize our characters with any combination of specials.

WHAT.
 

Israel

Noob
TYM: The variation system was the downfall of MKX. There was no clear core concept for the characters.
Also TYM: The Gear ability system is garbage. Why can't my character have all those moves in their base set?
The very same TYM: For MK11, they really should have open ability slots, and we can customize our characters with any combination of specials.

WHAT.
The V-system didnt allow a good combination of each character. They took the character and broke him/her up into 3 pieces with no common abilities except for the move list mainly (for the most part).
If i use raiden for example, i laughed when i saw that he could only teleport in 1 variation. That should be a core ability regardless. Its raiden. This caused raiden fans to either give up on the option; To teleport, and shoot electricity... or be able to teleport but not being able to do squat. That sucks.

If they went completely back to regular characters with no V-type system (which im ok with) then the public will complain of no variety, since their used to it. So being able to combine a set of abilities is better.
 

scarsunseen

RIP TYM 6/11/2021
I wouldn't say I "harshly" disagree, but I DO disagree. I think having multiple variations for one character makes it hard for other characters to even be in a game, such as Stunt Double Cage essentially making Noob Saibot obsolete. I'd rather have more characters than a variation system. With that said, I did like MKX quite a lot, but I don't think we need another MKX after we already had MKX.
 

Eddy Wang

Skarlet scientist
TYM: The variation system was the downfall of MKX. There was no clear core concept for the characters.
Also TYM: The Gear ability system is garbage. Why can't my character have all those moves in their base set?
The very same TYM: For MK11, they really should have open ability slots, and we can customize our characters with any combination of specials.

WHAT.
Exactly, why should we even customize our characters with abilities that affect gameplay anyway?

Just give us a character with the tools he was designed for and that's it.
 

JDM

Noob
Nah. It gave us an illusion of choice but in reality if you weren't playing the best variation you were just holding yourself back for the most part.

It was kinda cool for what it was but I don't really want it back. I just want a good roster this time, mkxs roster was ass imo and it wasnt even the guests. I loved alien and predator
 

Roy Arkon

I will leave my seal on you!
Nah. It gave us an illusion of choice but in reality if you weren't playing the best variation you were just holding yourself back for the most part.

It was kinda cool for what it was but I don't really want it back. I just want a good roster this time, mkxs roster was ass imo and it wasnt even the guests. I loved alien and predator
How the roster in MKX is bad? It's an excellent roster. You got almost all of the classic characters from MK1 and MK2, you got some more modern returning characters from MK4 and MKDA (and also Ermac and the Cyborgs as Tribrog), you got a high requested character in Tremor, and the newcomers were great overall, and right from the beginning you got 24 chars which a great starting number and with all of the DLC you got 33 chars overall. And yes, even the guest chars were awesome overall, and a lot of people requested Predator and Alien in particular.

How can this be bad? It's an excellent roster.

And there was no illusion of choice, you had the choice at least for the most part. Maybe they should in MK11 do only 2 Variations, but the Variation system can give you the choice. An illusion it is not.
 

LaidbackOne

Scrubby nice guy
How the roster in MKX is bad? It's an excellent roster. You got almost all of the classic characters from MK1 and MK2, you got some more modern returning characters from MK4 and MKDA (and also Ermac and the Cyborgs as Tribrog), you got a high requested character in Tremor, and the newcomers were great overall, and right from the beginning you got 24 chars which a great starting number and with all of the DLC you got 33 chars overall. And yes, even the guest chars were awesome overall, and a lot of people requested Predator and Alien in particular.

How can this be bad? It's an excellent roster.

And there was no illusion of choice, you had the choice at least for the most part. Maybe they should in MK11 do only 2 Variations, but the Variation system can give you the choice. An illusion it is not.
Seems like its hard for you to understand that people don't like bland and uninteresting characters like the whole SF team, right?
The rock lying next to my house is more memorable and has more character than Cassie/Jacqui/Takeda/Kung Jin.
 

Generalbit

The blade of osh-tekk is stale.
Seems like its hard for you to understand that people don't like bland and uninteresting characters like the whole SF team, right?
The rock lying next to my house is more memorable and has more character than Cassie/Jacqui/Takeda/Kung Jin.
That's an issue with special forces, not variations. I think what you thought ab variations was determined by the character you played, if u were an emac main u probably hated it because only one variation was ever considered great at any given time. But for me, all my character's variations had uses and ways to counter pick without switching characters. This is why 2 variations would be better tho, variety can't be introduced then taken away. That is a mistake in and of itself, so instead of saying no don't bring variations back, figure out a way they could introduce character gameplay variety without pissing everyone off. And be optimistic, maybe Paulo hired an assistant
 

Roy Arkon

I will leave my seal on you!
Seems like its hard for you to understand that people don't like bland and uninteresting characters like the whole SF team, right?
The rock lying next to my house is more memorable and has more character than Cassie/Jacqui/Takeda/Kung Jin.
I agree that in terms of star power alone, Kung Jin and Jacqui were not that good, but Cassie and Takeda were awesome. Cassie might take Johnny and Sonya's place in MK11 all together. Also you do realize that these are just 4 chars (or should I say 2, again just Kung Jin and Jacqui) out of a roster of 33 chars that is filled with popular classic legacy characters, right? And you do realize that the newcomers of MKX also include Kotal Kahn, D'Vorah, Erron Black and Ferra/Torr, all who are excellent characters, right?

And before you bring up the guest chars, all of the guest chars also had the required star power, except maybe Leatherface. And even without that star power, all of those 3 chars (Jin, Jacqui and LF) had at least great gameplan. I'm sorry but this is just way too nitpicky to say that an entire roster is awful, and like just like @Generalbit said it has nothing to do with the Variation system. Yes Stunt Double Johnny took the place of Noob Saibot and Mournful Kitana took the place of Jade, but these are just two characters and the roster was still stacked from both old and new chars, and I'm a fan of both Noob Saibot and Jade, mind you.

That's an issue with special forces, not variations. I think what you thought ab variations was determined by the character you played, if u were an emac main u probably hated it because only one variation was ever considered great at any given time. But for me, all my character's variations had uses and ways to counter pick without switching characters. This is why 2 variations would be better tho, variety can't be introduced then taken away. That is a mistake in and of itself, so instead of saying no don't bring variations back, figure out a way they could introduce character gameplay variety without pissing everyone off. And be optimistic, maybe Paulo hired an assistant
So true. The same can be said about Reptile in MKX, all of his 3 Variations are great, especially both Noxious and Nimble. Yes you could've just pick only one of them and that would be enough, in my case it is Noxious, but each of them had their pros and you could pick the right one for you. So instead of taking the Variations all together, try to find the variety without pissing everyone off. And yes if they do bring a 2 Variation format that will can be just perfect, not just for the gameplay variety but also different character variety.
 
I do not have a preference. All I want from MK11 is the death of the run and stamina feature. Limited back dashes was a damn joke.
Agreed. I never liked Running and Stamina when it was introduced in Mortal Kombat 3, and I didn't like its return in Mortal Kombat X. I personally loved the movement and Dashing in Mortal Kombat (2011) and would love to go back to that.

For Variations, they never bothered me, but I wouldn't miss them if they were gone either.

For the roster, I've never understood people's complaints that the roster was too small or had no good characters as that's simply not true, and I'm _not_ counting Variations as extra characters.

For the young Special Forces team, NetherRealm Studios has apparently been keen to try new characters and retire older characters since before Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, which one can understand since they've been working with the same characters for a long time now. I read that the reason they did "Armageddon" was to kill everyone off and then do a game with almost all new characters.

Instead, now, they rebooted, did the nostalgia game (Mortal Kombat) and with Mortal Kombat X put in most of the most popular klassic characters while trying several new characters, some who are similar to klassics, to see how'd they do. And overall I'd say they did pretty well.

Cassie, Takeda, Kotal, D'Vorah, and Erron Black are all fantastic. Some of those characters might replace klassic characters in the next game, since they were clearly designed to do so. We'll see.

Basically, NetherRealm Studios was trying something new, both with Variations, new characters, etc. While not everything worked out perfectly, I commend them for doing that, as I don't want to play the same cookie cutter game over and over and over again. Innovating is good.
 

MasterBelmont

Aspiring competitive MKXL/MVCI player from Oregon
I agree with what many others have said: bring back the system, but make it only two variations per character.
 

JDM

Noob
How the roster in MKX is bad? It's an excellent roster. You got almost all of the classic characters from MK1 and MK2, you got some more modern returning characters from MK4 and MKDA (and also Ermac and the Cyborgs as Tribrog), you got a high requested character in Tremor, and the newcomers were great overall, and right from the beginning you got 24 chars which a great starting number and with all of the DLC you got 33 chars overall. And yes, even the guest chars were awesome overall, and a lot of people requested Predator and Alien in particular.

How can this be bad? It's an excellent roster.

And there was no illusion of choice, you had the choice at least for the most part. Maybe they should in MK11 do only 2 Variations, but the Variation system can give you the choice. An illusion it is not.
The only newcomer I like (other than DLC) was Erron Black. Takeda is lame, Kung Jin is even worse although I like both of their playstyles, and I don't care for "daughter of veteran character". They were tolerable to me, that's all. I don't actively dislike any of them just don't really care for them. They could have been replaced by much better characters I'd say.

And yeah the variation system was an illusion. for most of the game's life there were characters with at least 1 very bad variation and 1 suboptimal variation. Or two suboptimal variations. There was almost always a standout variation. And if you wanted to play a different way you might as well play a character who specializes in that than change your variation. Also BoRaiCho was probably *the* single worst character they could have picked for a post MK4 DLC character imo. Idk obviously this is just my thoughts but I still can't believe no Smoke.. Rain.. Noob. :(
 

Roy Arkon

I will leave my seal on you!
The only newcomer I like (other than DLC) was Erron Black. Takeda is lame, Kung Jin is even worse although I like both of their playstyles, and I don't care for "daughter of veteran character". They were tolerable to me, that's all. I don't actively dislike any of them just don't really care for them. They could have been replaced by much better characters I'd say.

And yeah the variation system was an illusion. for most of the game's life there were characters with at least 1 very bad variation and 1 suboptimal variation. Or two suboptimal variations. There was almost always a standout variation. And if you wanted to play a different way you might as well play a character who specializes in that than change your variation. Also BoRaiCho was probably *the* single worst character they could have picked for a post MK4 DLC character imo. Idk obviously this is just my thoughts but I still can't believe no Smoke.. Rain.. Noob. :(
That's your personal preference and that's fine, but in a more objective way, the newcomers way great overall. For the record I myself love both Kotal, D'Vorah, F/T and Takeda both in terms of personality and gameplay. D'Vorah in particular has extremely well received by people.

As for the Variation system, the options are there. Yes there were some chars with a Variation that wasn't good but it wasn't the case for the most part. Also the whole option thing wasn't just to pick a different Variation for you character, but also to pick a different char with the Variation that you like the most, and then make a roster of chars but only with the specific Variations you liked personally. It wasn't just all about using all 3 Variations of the same char. This is way NRS/ WB should bring the Variation system but only with 2 rather then 3 per char.

Oh and Bo' Rai Cho was requested by people, yes he wasn't the most requested, but he had a good amount of people who requested him. And Smoke did come back as a part of Triborg, yes it is Cyber Smoke and not Ninja Smoke but still.
 

Hara-Killer

Reverse Salt
PLS NRS

Put this guys in Next MK

Stryker (Erron Black Arch enemy ?? Machine gun bombs vs Wild West ??)
Havik (with neck breaker to restore healt)
Reiko (Shuriken spam like deadshot B + F + 1)
Noob
Kabal (Nomad Dash Cancel FTW)
NightWolf With Werewolf fatality and morph powers
New White Ninja Fujin Heir ?? New Clan of Ninjas with Wind Powers PLSSS
Chameleon (the idea that the green ninja in MK1 is chameleon and not Reptile sounds cool )
Make Reptile Great Again
 

SixPathsOfHate

Make triple skulls input BDF or DF Hold F
Bring dat shit back! But lower it to 2 variations. Towards the end of mkx's life it was pretty balanced, with most variations being able to be used at a higher level and still effective. Now like I have seen in this thread already be said that not every character can be tournament ready which is fine but the more the better. It was always interesting seeing weird variations being used that no one expects and they end up doing well. Idk, it didnt feel like their were 29 characters, it felt like 60 with the way variations changed some characters so much.
 

SixPathsOfHate

Make triple skulls input BDF or DF Hold F
This almost never happened, though. In practice:
  • Only certain variations were good, so it became became necessary to just play the best variation(s)
  • It was incredibly hard to individually balance 3 variations for a character, as nefs/buffs would affect them all
  • In most cases, it was far more effective to switch characters to counter a bad MU than switching variations. If you were losing to Sub, did anybody care which version of Jax you were playing? Not really.
  • Some variations were simply too far apart to master all 3. For example, you would almost never see, say a top Shirai Ryu player switch to Ronin because they wanted the projectile. Or a Tarkatan Alien switch to some other variation for a MU. It just wasn't worth it.
I think that overall, the idea is good, but it leaves too many variations to balance effectively, and will never work in practice like it works on paper.
If they took more from each moveset like someone else said removing subzeros overhead and fast mids in favor for other things then I suppose it would be easier to balance cause there would be alot less moves that both variations have.
 

SixPathsOfHate

Make triple skulls input BDF or DF Hold F
Seems like its hard for you to understand that people don't like bland and uninteresting characters like the whole SF team, right?
The rock lying next to my house is more memorable and has more character than Cassie/Jacqui/Takeda/Kung Jin.
idk about you but cassie and takeda were one of my favorites when it came to personality. Both were snarky and sassy and provided a good laugh, especially cassie with her "newer age" jokes in her fatality and dialogue. Takeda reminded me of Blue Beetle which in turn reminds me of Batman the Brave and the Bold which I loved. Jacqui and KJ can both die in a ditch. Dont want to make this about race but tired of seeing every black character some sort of boxing character with a machine for added hurt. Where my dark skinned mages?!?!?
 

Roy Arkon

I will leave my seal on you!
PLS NRS

Put this guys in Next MK

Stryker (Erron Black Arch enemy ?? Machine gun bombs vs Wild West ??)
Havik (with neck breaker to restore healt)
Reiko (Shuriken spam like deadshot B + F + 1)
Noob
Kabal (Nomad Dash Cancel FTW)
NightWolf With Werewolf fatality and morph powers
New White Ninja Fujin Heir ?? New Clan of Ninjas with Wind Powers PLSSS
Chameleon (the idea that the green ninja in MK1 is chameleon and not Reptile sounds cool )
Make Reptile Great Again
Reptile was always great. And that was Reptile in MK1, no one else.
 
I loved the variation system but I would rather it be two instead of three. Many characters suffered from a third useless and if not useless then overshadowed by the other two variations. For example Mournful Kitana was very bad and was only there for thoes of us who missed Jade. Mileena had three good variations but the Ethereal variation was shadowed by Ravenous and Piercing. Then we had characters like Sub-Zero and Scorpion who were so fundamentally good that even in their "weak" variations they were still a force to be reckoned with. A two variation system would allow for more creative differences among them and they could with certain characters just mix in stuff from the dropped variation and put it in the base character like for example Tremor having his timed earthquakes or aerial earthquake in both Metallic and Crystalline variations. That is just my idea of it.