MK11 - Why a Good Rank Mode is More Important Than You Think

[Juggs]

It would be really nice to be character-specific. Because without it, you could get very high ranking with a single character, then try to learn a new character and start off terribly, but you’re still getting matched up with higher ranks, leaving you at quite a disadvantage.

I like this idea a lot.

Yeah exactly. This made learning a new character in SF4 or SC6 a lot of fun. Because you start off getting matched with other players who are just starting to use their character as well. Instead of it matching you with someone else based on overall skill and them just using their main and destroying your new character.

 

[Shoah_Kahn]

Without customisation in ranked play, the associated mode is gimped out-of-the-box... And if NRS do not permit match-making via Training mode, online itself will be just as bad as in past games (literally, a throw-away component after the first few weeks of activity dies off). To top it off / bottom it out, if player-2 again is denied access to full customisation [offline], then local versus play will be gimped, just like in Injustice 2, and that would pretty much make anything substantively 'new' MK11 was supposed to bring to the table, moot.

I need confirmation on this, but, if Krypt and towers are online-only, I might have to cancel my pre-order and wait until the dust settles. There are many worrying aspects of the game that NRS have simply ignored confirming / denying, and that my hype for Kahn play is being fast snuffed out by...

 

[Gamer68]

I don't even need to watch the video to agree.

Mortal Kombat 11 NEEDS a proper Ranked mode.

Pretty much every other competitive video game has one, including a lot of FGs. If NRS still doesn't have a proper Ranked mode in their newest game, then that's just sad.

 

[THTB]

Without customisation in ranked play, the associated mode is gimped out-of-the-box... And if NRS do not permit match-making via Training mode, online itself will be just as bad as in past games (literally, a throw-away component after the first few weeks of activity dies off). To top it off / bottom it out, if player-2 again is denied access to full customisation [offline], then local versus play will be gimped, just like in Injustice 2, and that would pretty much make anything substantively 'new' MK11 was supposed to bring to the table, moot.

I need confirmation on this, but, if Krypt and towers are online-only, I might have to cancel my pre-order and wait until the dust settles. There are many worrying aspects of the game that NRS have simply ignored confirming / denying, and that my hype for Kahn play is being fast snuffed out by...

Customization in ranked defeats the purpose of keeping competitive modes as accurate to the offline ruleset as possible and makes it even less likely that ranked would be worth it. Competitive players wouldn't care to use it at all because they wouldn't be gaining any potential experience that would translate to offline.

 

[Shoah_Kahn]

Customization in ranked defeats the purpose of keeping competitive modes as accurate to the offline ruleset as possible and makes it even less likely that ranked would be worth it.

So, why still force "slots" for non-ranked play?... Why make non-tournament players suffer for tournament players' "balance" pathology? Doesn't make any sense...

The "slots" mechanics was their way of balancing the Injustice 2 system that they expanded (albeit, in a very half-assed fashion), and in light of it failing in utero (confirmed via the reintroduction of "variations" for tournament / ranked play), why persist with a dead mechanic that [now] only exists to gimp the customisation that most are most excited about...?

Nope... Still doesn't make any sense.

 

[imMORTAL KOMBATant]

No Kustom variations in Ranked from Day 1 is a mystery to me. Injustice 2 had Player Matches and Competitive Player Matches so this should have been a no brainer for MK11 Ranked to have after the majority of the community wanted to use Kustoms. Basically they create another option with the same UI things and add Kustom variations allowed. What's the worst thing that can happen? If it feels unbalanced AF and it bothers you, there's the other Ranked option with Pre-sets.

Reo has good points, the only thing I don't like is blind select. You should be able to pick an anti-zoner if you're up against a zoner or whoever works for you against certain characters. To avoid endless countepicking you should be locked in after you pick a kombatant and are on the varition select. From then on you shouldn't be able to go back to pick someone else, only to choose among variations or something.

 

[spidey300]

Apparently no one's talking about ranked because now that custom variations are out and only 2 variations it's now, "who cares about ranked?" "I won't be playing ranked. Who needs it? I'll stick to player matches so I can use my custom loadout?" Although I am a little disappointed about no customs considering nrs has just been stringing us along and even gave 2 betas with customs I'll still be playing ranked. Custom obviously would've needed serious adjustment before release so people can stop making super characters. "Cough" kabal

 

[spidey300]

God damn this was such an amazing video. Most people are pricks about skill measurement with online, sure online isn't a good ground to check your skill level but some of us don't have a local scene. Thank you so much REO for touching on this subject. Ranked does help players test (Have an idea) on their skill level and give them confidence.

Rank is also a good way to promote newer players to play competitively and seriously. It's a great incentive for players to return and train more.

For some reason some people get mad upset when you bring up rank or your ranked stats. I agree rank is no definitive measurement for skill but it does mean experience. They say ranked doesn't matter until you hop on and fight someone that out classes you because ranked doesn't matter

 

[spidey300]

Agreed. But they need to add kustom variations to ranked.

Anyway, my ideal ranking system would basically be a mixture of SF4 and DBFZ.

In DBFZ you climb in ranks and each new rank you get a new title. For more in depth on how the DBFZ ranking system works, just google it.

I would also love a character ranking like in SF4. Where you can become a Master, Grandmaster, etc, for a specific character. I think that would be amazing and several games have character leaderboards. It would be a lot of fun grinding to be the top player for that character.

It's basically the tekken system. Tekken does ranked rankings the best. Probably seconded by sf5

 

[_CHINOCUDEIRO_]

When do they CONFIRM how the ranking system works??

 

[Shoah_Kahn]

Apparently no one's talking about ranked because now that custom variations are out and only 2 variations it's now, "who cares about ranked?" "I won't be playing ranked. Who needs it? I'll stick to player matches so I can use my custom loadout?"

That's about it. After all, 95%+ of Mortal Kombat players are not tournament or e-sports players, and nor do they likely want to play in a high-intensity, strictly "balance policed" online environment; probably as many are excited to try customising their characters. So, any mode/s that disallow (what for them is) the key components of the game, will be ignored.

I think NRS shot themselves in the foot with the eleventh hour "variations" back-pedal. Had they dovetailed freer customisation (6 or 50% of available abilities in slots) in player mode/s, people would have forgiven the former blunder and simply put the the developer-set presets down to "balance". But, when you introduce a mechanic ("slots") to govern balance, then declare it a failure and go back to a system that you just claimed you introduced the new mechanic in the stead of, it sends convoluted messages to people -- that they don't know what they're doing, and that they're willing to make any knee-jerk decision in order to satisfy whatever intangible notion only they themselves could understand.

There's no shame in an "imbalanced" game at launch; no one is expecting some Elysium of fighting games. However, the one thing they do expect, is to HAVE FUN. The changes NRS have made do not seem to have been done in the name of having fun.

 

[DragonofDadashov24]

NRS*

 

[THTB]

So, why still force "slots" for non-ranked play?... Why make non-tournament players suffer for tournament players' "balance" pathology? Doesn't make any sense...

The "slots" mechanics was their way of balancing the Injustice 2 system that they expanded (albeit, in a very half-assed fashion), and in light of it failing in utero (confirmed via the reintroduction of "variations" for tournament / ranked play), why persist with a dead mechanic that [now] only exists to gimp the customisation that most are most excited about...?

Nope... Still doesn't make any sense.

If Inj2 was any indicator, it's a good chance we're getting the competitive mode category for online modes. If not...then IDK what to say about that step backwards... ‍

 

[theotherguy]

online itself will be just as bad as in past games (literally, a throw-away component after the first few weeks of activity dies off).

Ummm what now? Online is literally the only thing i played in MK9/X after all the single player stuff was done. And that was after coming back to it after I:GAU and I2 bored the shit out of me.

Unless you're a casual just up for a new game or for a few extra trophies/gamerpoints, online/local VS play is about the only thing worth playing in a fighting game. Unless you like labbing... i guess.

They've got some of the best netcode ever, if they can fill out their ranked play with some more options it'll be by far the best MK game online, ever.

 

[spidey300]

That's about it. After all, 95%+ of Mortal Kombat players are not tournament or e-sports players, and nor do they likely want to play in a high-intensity, strictly "balance policed" online environment; probably as many are excited to try customising their characters. So, any mode/s that disallow (what for them is) the key components of the game, will be ignored.

I think NRS shot themselves in the foot with the eleventh hour "variations" back-pedal. Had they dovetailed freer customisation (6 or 50% of available abilities in slots) in player mode/s, people would have forgiven the former blunder and simply put the the developer-set presets down to "balance". But, when you introduce a mechanic ("slots") to govern balance, then declare it a failure and go back to a system that you just claimed you introduced the new mechanic in the stead of, it sends convoluted messages to people -- that they don't know what they're doing, and that they're willing to make any knee-jerk decision in order to satisfy whatever intangible notion only they themselves could understand.

There's no shame in an "imbalanced" game at launch; no one is expecting some Elysium of fighting games. However, the one thing they do expect, is to HAVE FUN. The changes NRS have made do not seem to have been done in the name of having fun.

I just thinks it's stupid how hard they touted customs when they were clearly not ready to release it in the competitive wild. I mean if people decided they're just gonna do player matches then good for them but I'm still gonna play ranked. There's nothing wrong with a little balance but they obviously didn't think customs through because people would've just been making super characters while i guarantee you other characters would not have that luxary

 

[TaserFace007]

I just thinks it's stupid how hard they touted customs when they were clearly not ready to release it in the competitive wild. I mean if people decided they're just gonna do player matches then good for them but I'm still gonna play ranked. There's nothing wrong with a little balance but they obviously didn't think customs through because people would've just been making super characters while i guarantee you other characters would not have that luxary

Right, but if builds which make those super characters are outside of the "official" builds which they put together for balancing purposes, then they'll never get touched. There were some seriously overpowered abilities in IJ2 which never got nerfed and some crappy abilities which never got improved because they were focusing all of their balancing efforts on the main builds and ignoring the customizable abilities. If they have a subset of abilities which make it into the presets and then just a bunch of other stuff, my fear is that they'll once again just leave the rest as "other stuff" which doesn't get tweaked to make more balanced or viable options.

That could end up making the casual matches just as bad and unbalanced as they were in IJ2 and leaving the people who bought the game because of the one main customization system which the NRS marketing team spent so long trumpeting about with nowhere to go.

 

[spidey300]

Right, but if builds which make those super characters are outside of the "official" builds which they put together for balancing purposes, then they'll never get touched. There were some seriously overpowered abilities in IJ2 which never got nerfed and some crappy abilities which never got improved because they were focusing all of their balancing efforts on the main builds and ignoring the customizable abilities. If they have a subset of abilities which make it into the presets and then just a bunch of other stuff, my fear is that they'll once again just leave the rest as "other stuff" which doesn't get tweaked to make more balanced or viable options.

That could end up making the casual matches just as bad and unbalanced as they were in IJ2 and leaving the people who bought the game because of the one main customization system which the NRS marketing team spent so long trumpeting about with nowhere to go.

The whole thing was a set up from the get go. On top of them being mad vague about it there was no telling how it was gonna go. Now they've back pedaled at just said alright guys it's not gonna work out and maybe we'll figure out something later

 

[cavemold]

I liked this I hope they come up with somthing like overwatch ranking system . Barriers and if you keep beating players it goes up .

 

[Liquid_Mocro]

Or maybe something like in hearthstone would be nice. With monthly rewards and reset.

 

[AZ MotherBrain]

the most important reason to me is, most players don’t go to locals or don’t even have a local scene. Though it might just be a title or color or some symbol, giving players something to work for

 

[SaltShaker]

Sooooooooooooooooo,

Can anyone confirm if the online ranking system has been brought up to, the current decade?? Because I am hearing the rumors are true and it will be staying exactly the same as before.

Would be the definitive missed opportunity if this is the case so I am hoping I'm hearing wrong here.

 

[portent]

We definitely need a proper ranked mode with levels the way Street Fighter V does it and you have to earn your way into into the next level by fighting players of your rank level or just above (if you're on the cusp of moving up) or just below (if you're on the cusp of being demoted).

Likewise, the ranks should be applied PER CHARACTER so you can have Scorpion is Gold rank while your Cassie might be in Bronze rank because you're still learning her.