MK1 Invasions Mode: (It Sucks)

[chrisisnice]

Again, I don't think the mode is the steaming pile of dung the lot of you do, but it does seem like they design aspects specifically to frustrate the player.

Whenever I think about gaming frustration, I think about the words of Hugo Martin on this topic (he's the game director for DOOM Eternal). He said that in gaming, there is always going to be frustration for the player, and that there's 2 types of frustration.

The first is good frustration. The game is challenging and pushing the player and they're dying as they learn to play and to use their full tool kit. It's this kind of frustration that pushes players to do better and overcome challenge and to learn to properly play the game as designed.

The second is bad frustration, where a game is hard no matter how well a person is playing or how well they're making use of their tool kit. It's an inflated difficulty. It can also be bad design decisions making things convoluted to do.

Invasions has a lot of bad frustration, and if they could iron this out, the Mode would be better for it.

Examples would be:

• Properly guide players through early encounters and provide them with nodes to teach them about their tools. There was a little of this, but not enough. If you're entering a Survival Node, show what the damage type is so you can pick a character accordingly. If a Boss is going to have a one hit kill move, explain this before hand.
• Controls should be responsive and not counter intuitive. i.e. LT to turn around that only works when it feels like it. If this can't be refined further, those encounters need to be removed.
• The Mode is very repetitive and for many feels like a grind. I'd experiment with making the Mesas shorter for a Season and see how that goes.
• Throw in Maps.
• Survival, Kombo Trial, and Character Trials should all be skip-able.
• Character trials should have proper explanations of the abilities being used, since not everyone plays those characters.
• Have a standard Season length. We've had ranges of 30-60 days. I say keep it at 60.

The above would all be a good start, anyway.

I 100% agree with the good / bad frustration thing. I think there is too many frustrating elements. Those character trials are painful and often too unforgiving - I totally agree with the LT element - it is not intuitive in this game and is at times irresponsive. That Johnny battle was absoloutely ridiculous - I was basically required to go a character I never play (Reiko), put all stats in to health and beat down on him for way too long.

They did a smart move by removing most armor after the first season.

I think they need to put in more variety in the mode even if it is skipable. Mini Games eg chess kombat or MK 2 fights.

One of my main problems is my mind goes numb after playing a while, so even something random that has nothing to do with the game for those that want a frivilous distraction from the grind would be good eg checkers / Solitare / pong (which was the old secret minigame) . Not many resources would need to go in setting those up.

 

[Juxtapose]

That Johnny battle was absoloutely ridiculous

Speaking of the Johnny boss battle, my fiance was stuck on this for days and finally asked me to do it for her. So I went with Kitana/Sub-Zero for the extra damage and Ice Armour against the "survival" part of the fight. First 2 rounds, super easy. The survival encounter, unforgiving and needless overly frustrating.

After trying and failing about 4 times, I switched to Sindel, who I know how to use less, but also does Magic damage and has more Health then Kitana on an Auto-Stat set up. Got it on my second try since she could tank more Survival Mode hits.

Still, needlessly frustrating and offsetting.

 

[Kiss the Missile]

Speaking of the Johnny boss battle, my fiance was stuck on this for days and finally asked me to do it for her. So I went with Kitana/Sub-Zero for the extra damage and Ice Armour against the "survival" part of the fight. First 2 rounds, super easy. The survival encounter, unforgiving and needless overly frustrating.

After trying and failing about 4 times, I switched to Sindel, who I know how to use less, but also does Magic damage and has more Health then Kitana on an Auto-Stat set up. Got it on my second try since she could tank more Survival Mode hits.

Still, needlessly frustrating and offsetting.

Auto stats are never worth it imo. Just pump everything into attack or Special.

 

[Felipe_Gewehr]

Auto stats are never worth it imo. Just pump everything into attack or Special.

It is also a good idea to pump SOME points in health if you use Nitara, because she ironically gets to 4000 health very easily AND her healing special move works on percentages, not flat numbers, so you essentially have a giant health bar that is easily replenished for 1 bar.

 

[Art Lean]

Speaking of the Johnny boss battle, my fiance was stuck on this for days and finally asked me to do it for her. So I went with Kitana/Sub-Zero for the extra damage and Ice Armour against the "survival" part of the fight. First 2 rounds, super easy. The survival encounter, unforgiving and needless overly frustrating.

After trying and failing about 4 times, I switched to Sindel, who I know how to use less, but also does Magic damage and has more Health then Kitana on an Auto-Stat set up. Got it on my second try since she could tank more Survival Mode hits.

Still, needlessly frustrating and offsetting.

After his survival bullshit pissed me off for the third time in a row, the next attempt I just knocked his health down to nothing, then jumped away from him until the time ran out. Was super boring but won on the first round

 

[LEGEND]

So, what is everyone's thoughts on how they can salvage this mode?

Can it be saved???

Salvaging it would make it almost unrecognizable.

- Linear path with some challenges that are specific to the character you pick. Goofy fights (SF6 has an analog for this in traditional 2D) and some that are difficult (actual fighting game AI that doesn't read inputs or just sit there doing nothing, wild concept right?). End boss fight that has a unique move set and character model. Isn't just a basic roster character with random ass armor all the time.

Relics/talismans and Pokémon style typing need to be removed completely. There is always some way to scam the system.

 

[Afumba]

Just in advance... sorry for the super long post... started typing and well this happened.

So, what is everyone's thoughts on how they can salvage this mode?

Can it be saved???

No it cant. And even if it is somehow possible by some miracle it would still be alot faster and easier to just scrap it and make a new mode.

Again, I don't think the mode is the steaming pile of dung the lot of you do, but it does seem like they design aspects specifically to frustrate the player.

Whenever I think about gaming frustration, I think about the words of Hugo Martin on this topic (he's the game director for DOOM Eternal). He said that in gaming, there is always going to be frustration for the player, and that there's 2 types of frustration.

The first is good frustration. The game is challenging and pushing the player and they're dying as they learn to play and to use their full tool kit. It's this kind of frustration that pushes players to do better and overcome challenge and to learn to properly play the game as designed.

The second is bad frustration, where a game is hard no matter how well a person is playing or how well they're making use of their tool kit. It's an inflated difficulty. It can also be bad design decisions making things convoluted to do.

Invasions has a lot of bad frustration, and if they could iron this out, the Mode would be better for it.

Examples would be:

• Properly guide players through early encounters and provide them with nodes to teach them about their tools. There was a little of this, but not enough. If you're entering a Survival Node, show what the damage type is so you can pick a character accordingly. If a Boss is going to have a one hit kill move, explain this before hand.
• Controls should be responsive and not counter intuitive. i.e. LT to turn around that only works when it feels like it. If this can't be refined further, those encounters need to be removed.
• The Mode is very repetitive and for many feels like a grind. I'd experiment with making the Mesas shorter for a Season and see how that goes.
• Throw in Maps.
• Survival, Kombo Trial, and Character Trials should all be skip-able.
• Character trials should have proper explanations of the abilities being used, since not everyone plays those characters.
• Have a standard Season length. We've had ranges of 30-60 days. I say keep it at 60.

The above would all be a good start, anyway.

First off this is not a post against you and if i sound aggressiv at times its about the bad game design and not about you or your oppinion. I respect your oppinion i just disagree that any of it is gonna truly help.

You are obviously right about the frustration thing in general but i dont think your whole point is applicable for invasions as it basically consists almost entirely of bad frustration and does not have any good frustrations. At least if we acknowledge that bad frustration includes tedium and wasting peoples time. They even added more of that season by season by nerfing things that made it "better" How do you fix that?

Your improvements are all good but they dont even scratch the surface.

1.
Modifiers, which are the whole mode, are basically already a death sentence to all of it (concept of saving the game mode by removing frustration). AI doesnt understand them, they are either totally useless and can be bypassed or are total broken and make actual playing near impossible. Not to mention that they in general hamper actual gameplay due to their chaotic nature and invasions is basically just that. The notion that a fun gimmick from back in the days, which you played for a bit just to goof around or when you were drunk, is a viable idea to base a whole PVE seasonal game mode around is just beyond ridiculous. This is a AAA Game not a mobile f2p game. And even for those standards this is still bad.

And if they remove the modifier and make them special nodes like trials or challenges then there is nothing left.

2.
All their mechanics dont work or are useless/pointless. If you remove them all there would be no difference. Also the game tries really hard to make you not interact with them.

• Resistances dont really matter. They only matter if you make the game hard for yourself and then only in like 1-3 fights a season
• Leveling and stats are pointless, you can easily win or cheese 99% of it by spamming one move or wait for the modifiers to kill the AI. Full special or even full attack character facerolls the content. Keep a pocket HP only char for the 2 encounters were you need it cuz of some arbitrary bs.

You dont even need the full stats. 1/3 of them are enough to easily clear invasion. The only difference in using them all is saving time, thats it.

• Forge is probably the worst implementation of a blacksmith in a game, especially due to lack of content, the nerfs that happened since season 1 and the tie in to other useless/nonsensical mechanics.
• Shop with a timer and limited stock doesnt make sense at all. There is no logical or gameplay reason why the shop has to be timed or have limited stock. Beside of making you waste time and frustrate you of course. Same goes for the shops having varying inventories. There is no reason to go back to a mesa besides for 1 time after you beat the endboss. There is no grinding for stuff in invasions. So as said the only reason is to annoy, frustrate and make people easte time.

2.1
Non combat nodes/special nodes. These are all bad across the board.

• Survival and Trials needs better controls and what i mean by that is non fighting game controls. This feels like putting old castlevania 1 controls in hollow knight.
• The Robots are useless cuz they get 1 shot. The resistance factor is also silly when you can just switch to another character to one shot it.
• TYM is just nostalgia at this point... I dont like it personally but its whatever. But even here its low effort on all account
• Endurance fights are like TYM in the low effort category, should be more diverse
• Klues... They were fun riddles at first but now they are just sad low effort time waster. After seeing "Klean sweep" its clear that they have already 1000 more of these on the backburner... Pretty sure the first thing peoples do is search for an all Klues guide the second they hit their first node with this.

To be fair they arent inherently bad by themselves, but because of the core gameplay and the surrounding mechanics they feel much worse as they actually are. These are supposed to give you a reprieve or change of pace or a break from the actual gameplay loop but when the actual gameplay loop and core mechanics are boring, frustrating and tedious these accomplish the opposite. So making all these alot better will still barely make a dent.

2.2
Items... were do i start...

• Talisman are a barebones mechanic and is not well thought out. Its also getting alot worse each season. Most of them are useless, the ones that arent were nerfed to the ground. Even before the nerfs the main reason people wanted to use them was to get invasions over with faster. Very bad sign for you core gameplay. Mechanics should complement gameplay. Talismans never managed to do that. The quality and variety is also not good and lot of them feel like they werent even tested. Variety is also lacking. Limiting the number you can carry to 9 is also ridiculous. Forging restriction are asinine and the exorbitant recharge costs was another clever idea made at an office party after like several rounds of beer. Oh and did i mention you dont need them? At the state they are now removing them would be exactly the same as leaving them in the game.
• Relics... those to me suffer the same problems as the non combat nodes. Lots of them are aimed to diversity your gameplay experience at your own leisure; to have fun with it, goof around, try some things out etc. But again due to the tedium, annoyance and frustration caused by invasion and the modifiers those become basically useless. I mean who wants to spend more time in a mode if they arent having a good time? Not to mention that the modifier itself hinder a lot of these. Ignoring all those basically useless relics and the actual useless ones you are left with like 2 broken tiee relics that trivialize the whole content by themselve, including the now nerfed talismans. Pretty sure these will be the next on the chopping board. Here too the limit of 9 is silly. And again its another mechanic that you can savely ignore without drawbacks.
• forge items... no way to reliably grind them; no way to buy them without a huge time investment due to how the shop works; forging costs to high for the effort; forging itself a waste of time due to forge restrictions and talisman options even in the name of fun. Also since the forge is basically useless these are too.
• consumables... pointless. I get that sone people use them and others have made up reasons for why they are useful to justify them having fun with them etcetc and thats totally fine. But in the framework of the game and how you are supposed to/can play it they are objectively pointless even the resistance once. Even assuming that resistance matter, which they dont... Why would i teleport all over the place and back to get a resist item fron a shop to handle a fight instead of just switching to another character and projectile him to death? And no, fun is not the answer... nobody can tell me that its more fun to tp around for an item instead of allocating some stats. Didnt even factor in that you might have to wait 45min till that item restocks... Item limit is also laughable. And why dont items stack? Even syringes and herbs are pointless. Keys are the only item that has a real use.

3
Invasions itself is a mess.

• the mesas are a beautiful waste in this mode. Its sad because Imagine we had a MK11 style krypt with these. Mesa camera is obnoxious and in my oppinion is only like this to disorient people and waste their time as well as trying to make it feel different than the season before. Its really cheap. Add a real zoom in/out and manual camera rotation and remove the stupid auto camera bs.
• actual game time vs idle time is horrible. Loading times + times you spend going through menus + time you wait for somethibg to happen so you can press X to move in is just ridiculously high compared to the actual time played. This is further enhanced due to the fights being done in seconds. The way they structured all of is awful. This is a problem even in towers. And i say this as someone who loves strategic and turn based games which some take forever for everything.
• every mesa has this portal that opens up and you have to go through several more to collect some chests. Why? Why isnt it all after the first portal? Nothing happens after any of the portals, its again just there to waste peoples time. When you already have so little actual play time its a problem.
• sometimes you step on a node and all of a sudden there is this cool scene were a tower pops out... The reaction someone should have is "WOaoawoaa, nice lets see whats up with that" but the actual reaction you have is "damn i gotta clear another tower".
• nothing happens in the mesas. Why arent there any secrets like i the Krypt to uncovwr or special events that happen or map themed events. Why arent there any NPCs At this point why have them if they are basically just animated boards? You could just have actual 2D boards to achieve the same thing and speed up the game pace, loading times and gameplay to idle time ratio. Also with a 60 day season cycle they should have a new mesa every season.
• seasonal towers, the way they are, is probably the worst thing NRS every did in term of gameplay. Its invasions tedium and frustration cranked up to new heights... more modifers and higher level enemies for no reason. How can you design something like this, test it and go like "this is good, this is fun". Also up to level 90 to get some bs palette... thats how you show you hate your playerbase.
• AI is terrible. Enemies are still not really acknowledging modifiers or even the player lots of times. For example Nitara still fights invisible enemies, Rain still splashes water everywhere for no reason, Raiden is "Mr. NoFucksGivenTeleportEveryOtherSecond" etc.
• Enemy mechanics for bosses and minibosses boil down to two things... give them super armor so they survive beyond 10sec or give them a scripted sequence that accomplishes the same and maybe even cheese kills the player. Armor is just a lazy mechanic in general and while the sequences look nice its still a cheap and lazy trick to add difficulty if you cant 100% avoid dmg and/or insta death. How about making unique boss encounters instead The enhanced special abilities that the enemies sometimes have is a good idea but whats the point if the AI cant use them? For example Reptile uses his super acid splash while on the other end of the sceeen, Mileena super speed balls at a random place for no reason amounting to nothing.
• where is the RPG aspect they talked about? The leveling system cant be it, Ashrah with 20 different names is still Ashrah. Crafting is not a thing. Nothing to discover, nothing to find etcetcetc
• whats the point of locking talismans and relics inside the locked areas? So you can use them in seasonal tower were they dont even recharge anymore? Terrible, even if they would still recharge... terrible. Also why do these area feel totally redundant? Why lock them in the first place. Absolutely nothing special about them. One of the biggest disappointments of season 1 was getting Scorps item and finding out that the areas beyond the gates were just more generic fights with nothing exciting in them or about them.
• Titan Battles being timed events is also silly and horrible given their seasonal structure. Its just there to make sure player retention is as high as possible at the start of the event till at least the Titan Battle spawns.
• no effort story, like absolut 0. Seriously if anyvody got paid for making these then NRS got scammed.
• SECRET FIGHTS concept singlehandedly removed every bit of hope that these people can "save" invasions somehow, at least for me. "Every node has a secret fight" is a contestant for the worst idea in video game history. They walked back on that but they still ruined the concept of secret fight. As they are now they are like those spawning tower sequences... "damn if have to do an extra fight " instead of "cool a secret".
• switching character on a whim basically removes the need for all their RPG mechanics.

4.
Reward structure is almost non existent.

• paletts are a scam. Its non-content content. Most of them look bad or worse and/or same-y. Its also effortless. It might take a tiny bit of effort to add scars or something but swapping colors definitely doesnt. There is nothing wrong in low effort content if its good or okay... but this aint.
• main reward for completing invasion is way to little and affects only a very small % of players. This further lowers the potential for peoples enganging with it additionally to the bad gameplay experience in it. Adding a stage variation like this season isnt gonna cut it.
• KL rewards are bad as well. Again affect only a small group of player and are mostly not worth it from a reward standpoint. Lots of ways to make this way better but they havent ever so why would they start now.
• shrine is just a bad concept on every level. They are lots of ways to make what the shrine should accomplish but better and less tedious.
• even rewardless rewards are horrible.... exploring a mesa is unrewarding, secret battle is non rewarding (finding then and doing them both), beating anything is not rewarding
• you dont see the rewards in invasion and towers. This is user unfriendly on so many levels.
• coin rewards tied to level is just bad
• pve seasons in games are supposed to offer you something new every season. Invasions completely fails here.
• super repetitive really fast

Sure some points are more and some are less frustrating/tedious/annoying/time waster etc but its still alot and barely any positives.

So.... no it cant be saved, especially not by these peoples. It would be easier and faster to make a new mode entirely. The mode offers at best 60min of content if they repackage all of it and remove most of the frustrating, tedious and time wasting elements. Therefore they aint doing it. They should just scrap it and focus on something else.

Sure MK is a pvp game at the end but if you make a seasonal pve mode than either do it right or dont. Put those ressources into pvp instead of wasting them on junk. Maybe it helps to improve some pvp side of things like pvp reward structure/seasonal structure, general pvp content, netcode, their servers, kl and matchmaking etc.

Winning the lottery back to back is more likely than invasion being "saved". Heck after writing all this i am positive it shouldnt be saved.

Anyway i talked way to much... sorry it got way longer than it was intended lol

 

[Juxtapose]

Auto stats are never worth it imo. Just pump everything into attack or Special.

Ha, I'm too lazy to do manual stats. Usually there's not issue. Usually.

After his survival bullshit pissed me off for the third time in a row, the next attempt I just knocked his health down to nothing, then jumped away from him until the time ran out. Was super boring but won on the first round

That I never considered. Interesting approach.

First off this is not a post against you and if i sound aggressiv at times its about the bad game design and not about you or your oppinion. I respect your oppinion i just disagree that any of it is gonna truly help.

No worries man, we're all just talking and expressing our opinions here.

For me, I tried to keep my suggestions in what I figure is "realistic" in terms of implementation and starting smaller. I do not see the mode getting a complete, massive rework that a lot of people would like, sadly.

i.e. I don't see modifiers being removed at all. They were in the Challenge Tower, Living Towers, Towers of Time, and now Invasions. So I didn't mention about removing them because they're a standard franchise casual-play element.

I agree stats aren't a huge thing either, though I have found resistances do play a role.

Items I generally agree with. The only ones I find truly useful are the Relic that gives free Breakers, and the fart Talisman. For Konsumables, I tend to have too-good-to-use syndrome and typically just use Delia's Ring, if at all. My fiance does find them useful though, as she truly is the casual player.

For rewards, for me it's usually just the Order of Darkness skin I'm interested in.

 

[Kiss the Missile]

I think the only way you could fix Invasions mode is to massively downsize it. For the mode to have 5 mesas, all completely filled with fights and "missions", and it refreshes every 2 months, you need to have a ton of filler.

MK9 Challenge Tower was filled with actual thought-out missions. Shoot these zombies with Stryker, launch bombs into buckets with Cyrax, have fun and play as NPCs like Goro etc. Test your Might, Sight and Strike missions that actually scaled in difficulty.

I think it's a huge missed opportunity to not have these character specific missions in Invasions be focused on the Kameos. Because me doing 3 dive kicks in a row with Kung Lao is not going to open my eyes to the character and make me want to switch mains. But seeing the utility of a kameo might.

A mission with Motaro where you fight a bunch of oni. Little ones crawl at you, kill them with low tail shot. They shoot a fireball, reflect it. A big one hulks towards you, tail turret, an invincible one rushes, teleport.

Or one where a Tarkatan is just endlessly blade spinning you in the corner, you have to block the entire time. But while you're blocking you're also controlling Janet and you have to use her to kill the Tarkatan before he chips you to death.

 

[Afumba]

Ha, I'm too lazy to do manual stats. Usually there's not issue. Usually.



That I never considered. Interesting approach.



No worries man, we're all just talking and expressing our opinions here.

For me, I tried to keep my suggestions in what I figure is "realistic" in terms of implementation and starting smaller. I do not see the mode getting a complete, massive rework that a lot of people would like, sadly.

i.e. I don't see modifiers being removed at all. They were in the Challenge Tower, Living Towers, Towers of Time, and now Invasions. So I didn't mention about removing them because they're a standard franchise casual-play element.

I agree stats aren't a huge thing either, though I have found resistances do play a role.

Items I generally agree with. The only ones I find truly useful are the Relic that gives free Breakers, and the fart Talisman. For Konsumables, I tend to have too-good-to-use syndrome and typically just use Delia's Ring, if at all. My fiance does find them useful though, as she truly is the casual player.

For rewards, for me it's usually just the Order of Darkness skin I'm interested in.

Ok sure, for an realistic approach your suggestions are spot on and probably the best we can hope for or might get. But it would make invasions only marginaly better as it doesnt touch the biggest problems. It definitely wouldnt save the mode.

Yeah you are right, modifiers arent going anywhere, sadly. Which by default means invasions will always be bad. You put it perfectly... its a standard casual play element and not something you base a whole seasonal game around. Earlier variants of invasions were at least not this obnoxious. They went from a one and done mode in 9, to a casual side mode in X, to a mediocre at best PvE mode in 11, to a bad/very bad PvE seasonal construct. Them marketing it as this big awesome PvE thing makes it even worse.

At this rate their next MK will have a seasonal PvE mode based around TYM.

 

[Kiss the Missile]

Yeah the modifiers are just the worst of both worlds. I can't just go in there and practice combos because I'm being shot at by missiles, or orbs, or fireballs. Okay so I can't play it with a mindset of improving, but even if I were to go in with a casual mindset it still isn't fun because I'm just . . . . being shot at by missiles, orbs or fireballs.

MK9 had frustrating modifiers too yeah, but to balance it out there were also fun ones like infinite meter, super turbo speed, hot potato, fast uppercuts etc. The modifiers here aren't fun. Its just play a match while being hit with random bullshit.

 

[BRAZILIAN SHEEP]

It is baffling to me that, somehow, there are some people who, even after all we have seen from WB.....they still give fucks about this game.

There is a life to be lived, people. Fuck this game and all the BS involved.

 

[Juxtapose]

Yeah the modifiers are just the worst of both worlds. I can't just go in there and practice combos because I'm being shot at by missiles, or orbs, or fireballs. Okay so I can't play it with a mindset of improving, but even if I were to go in with a casual mindset it still isn't fun because I'm just . . . . being shot at by missiles, orbs or fireballs.

MK9 had frustrating modifiers too yeah, but to balance it out there were also fun ones like infinite meter, super turbo speed, hot potato, fast uppercuts etc. The modifiers here aren't fun. Its just play a match while being hit with random bullshit.

I personally think Modifiers were good in both Mortal Kombat (2011) and Mortal Kombat XL. In the latter, during the Living Towers, they affected you and your opponent equally except for very specific situations. This modifier messing you up? Well it's messing them too so far playing field.

In Mortal Kombat 11, they changed this so most of the modifiers only screwed you up, and that became frustrating. They generally reversed that over time and it became much closer to Mortal Kombat XL's style, though not quite as "fair."

Invasions is a mixed bag here.

 

[BarakaTile]

Character Trials are a good step forward, I think it still needs more to break up the monotony of what are essentially MK11 tower fights but spread across a map rather than a tower.

-Add more Character Trials, But keep them simple and goofy like Target Practice/Obstacle Course and less like Raiden's 4th Trial where it's simply a character specific Survive. A very annoying clunky one.
-Might as well keep Survive Nodes mainly optional since this upsets casuals the most on every Invasions update.
-This was fairly recent but they've been having proper Test Your Might nodes where before the TYM nodes were more like Test Your Strike. Now they do both but give Test Your Strike its own proper voice line.
-Bring back the shell game that was Test Your Sight.
-Bring back Test Your Luck from MK9/MKX and all the wacky modifiers that came with it
-Mesas need Overhead Maps, You can find fans providing them on twitter but it's best to have them out the gate

Even with all of that, It'll get hated on still. This mode will never be like MKD Konquest and that's what most fans want it to be.
But I feel like that ship has sailed.

It would help this era/universe to add more lore via wandering Villagers telling you the history of realms and past events
But You would need to add voiceacting or text menus, clog up the mesas with wandering NPCs, Is the writer even going to add more lore?

It just seems like a lot of work/resources for a Single Player Mode that could go somewhere else.

 

[wsj515]

It would help this era/universe to add more lore via wandering Villagers telling you the history of realms and past events
But You would need to add voiceacting or text menus, clog up the mesas with wandering NPCs, Is the writer even going to add more lore?

Probably not the place for this, but - does lore really matter anymore? I just can't get invested in stories that have infinite timelines, why would I care about any specific timeline. No media has ever done it in a way that doesn't just destroy their IP - really hoping in the next MK God Liu somehow merges them all.

 

[Afumba]

Character Trials are a good step forward, I think it still needs more to break up the monotony of what are essentially MK11 tower fights but spread across a map rather than a tower.

-Add more Character Trials, But keep them simple and goofy like Target Practice/Obstacle Course and less like Raiden's 4th Trial where it's simply a character specific Survive. A very annoying clunky one.
-Might as well keep Survive Nodes mainly optional since this upsets casuals the most on every Invasions update.
-This was fairly recent but they've been having proper Test Your Might nodes where before the TYM nodes were more like Test Your Strike. Now they do both but give Test Your Strike its own proper voice line.
-Bring back the shell game that was Test Your Sight.
-Bring back Test Your Luck from MK9/MKX and all the wacky modifiers that came with it
-Mesas need Overhead Maps, You can find fans providing them on twitter but it's best to have them out the gate

Even with all of that, It'll get hated on still. This mode will never be like MKD Konquest and that's what most fans want it to be.
But I feel like that ship has sailed.

It would help this era/universe to add more lore via wandering Villagers telling you the history of realms and past events
But You would need to add voiceacting or text menus, clog up the mesas with wandering NPCs, Is the writer even going to add more lore?

It just seems like a lot of work/resources for a Single Player Mode that could go somewhere else.

People wanting a Konquest type mode or something similar is surely a factor but its also not that big of a factor. The mode is just an unfun and tedious slog. If it was good people wouldnt care that its not Konquest or at least get over it and play this.

They also only took the core principle of MK11 ToT and put it on a map. Its an extreme downgrade compared to ToT. ToT were already mediocre at best as an ongoing PvE mode but it was still much better than invasions. We wish they had just put MK11 towers on a map.

As you said even with all of this and what juxtapose has suggested combined the mode will still be hated... surely because its not Konquest but mostly because its a downgrade to previous versions as well as being more frustrating than fun, having to many not properly working mechanics and having little actual play time compared to the time you spend in the mode. Not to mention that they cut other content for this.

I am petty sure people would trade invasions for MK11 AI battles.

Also... Given that invasions doesnt look like they put much work into it, i doubt these suggestions can truly be called "too much work". I agree on the ressources though, especially seeing how they used them so far.

 

[Afumba]

Probably not the place for this, but - does lore really matter anymore? I just can't get invested in stories that have infinite timelines, why would I care about any specific timeline. No media has ever done it in a way that doesn't just destroy their IP - really hoping in the next MK God Liu somehow merges them all.

I do care about lore but i have to agree here. Last thing MK needed was infinite timelines.

Pretty sure NRS went this route just to set up invasions though.... which makes this even more sad really.

 

[BarakaTile]

People wanting a Konquest type mode or something similar is surely a factor but its also not that big of a factor. The mode is just an unfun and tedious slog. If it was good people wouldnt care that its not Konquest or at least get over it and play this.

They also only took the core principle of MK11 ToT and put it on a map. Its an extreme downgrade compared to ToT. ToT were already mediocre at best as an ongoing PvE mode but it was still much better than invasions. We wish they had just put MK11 towers on a map.

As you said even with all of this and what juxtapose has suggested combined the mode will still be hated... surely because its not Konquest but mostly because its a downgrade to previous versions as well as being more frustrating than fun, having to many not properly working mechanics and having little actual play time compared to the time you spend in the mode. Not to mention that they cut other content for this.

I am petty sure people would trade invasions for MK11 AI battles.

Also... Given that invasions doesnt look like they put much work into it, i doubt these suggestions can truly be called "too much work". I agree on the ressources though, especially seeing how they used them so far.

Unlike Towers Invasions requires you to play it, I'm not surprised the thought of MK11 AI Battles or MK11 towers is more appealing.

You didn't have to play the videogame mode, the AI did it for you and you never had to feel frustration at losing.

 

[Afumba]

Unlike Towers Invasions requires you to play it, I'm not surprised the thought of MK11 AI Battles or MK11 towers is more appealing.

You didn't have to play the videogame mode, the AI did it for you and you never had to feel frustration at losing.

I didnt even factor in that you can make the AI play MK11 towers for you. Even without AI the MK11 towers are leagues better. People used the Ai cuz even those got tedious fast. They are more appealing because they are the same concept but way better not cuz of the AI.

For Ai Battles its the simple fact that if one has to engage with boring content than you can at least have the AI do it for you.

The negativity towards invasions has also nothing to do with the frustration at losing. Its literally the only type of frustration thats missing or barely there. Its at best a niche issue.