Injustice - NowGamer interviews Hector on Lessons Learned, Balanacing and the Future

[Pig Of The Hut]

Having everyone on a S TIER level is a very smart statement

and honestly the BS in MK9 makes it very interesting and yes im talking about kabal, cyrax, kenshi, sonya, etc. Makes it more exciting to watch

 

[IrishMantis]

that only bad thing for Some Europe players and i really hope they fix it on Injustice, is not being to play wired, which is stupid how i have to change my setting, so please NRS dont let this happen, its an ass when ya have to change ya settings every time and i cant play my net to its full potential,,,,
especially when im 130 down and 10 up

Best interview here by far Hector hits nail on the head with words, no beating around the bush, very humble bloke too, i really enjoyed the read

 

[EGP Wonder_Chef]

Is that optical fiber or something else??

it's cable, that's all I really know

 

[JimothyKricket]

This is the best news/interview all day. Love me some Hec.

"We’re not nerfing anybody. We’re buffing everybody to go up. The top tier characters, we’re trying to give tools to all the other characters to get them up there, versus ‘let’s nerf this guy here and let’s buff this guy here.’

We want to bring everybody up. We don’t want to bring anyone down to meet them halfway."

 

[Juggs]

people define "okay" differently

okay = 20 down 4 up and many think dsl and wireless "should" work

DSL isn't always necessarily slower than Cable, it depends on a lot stuff. And stuff like FiOS or better Cable/DSL networks isn't always a choice, it's not always available. DSL speeds are generally slower but the network is dedicated. Which means that the speed you paid for is always available to you and you don't share it with your neighbors or people in your apartment complex, etc. However, the speed varies due to the distance from the phone companies central office, which sucks if you live in the middle of nowhere.

With cable, it's generally faster, but if you live in a crowded neighborhood or in an apartment complex, the speeds will vary significantly because the network is shared. Also, certain times of the day will be more "laggy" than others based on peak/nonpeak usage. The advantage is that the speed isn't dependent on distance from the central office.

Also, some apt complexes have a certain internet included with rent. So paying extra for essentially 2 internet connections is unreasonable for a lot of people.

Not being a "know it all", I've been studying this for the past 2 weeks and I have test on it tonight for ITEC, lol. If I don't get an A... maaan.

 

[Killzone]

Absurd.

Yes, Seth Killian is absurd.

 

[Sultani]

Having everyone on a S TIER level is a very smart statement

and honestly the BS in MK9 makes it very interesting and yes im talking about kabal, cyrax, kenshi, sonya, etc. Makes it more exciting to watch

If a broken and stupid tacti doesn't get fixed and instead everyone else is made to be broken and stupid, then your whole game is broken and stupid and you end up with Marvel.

Maybe I'm in the minority but I'm not interested in unblockable broken ToD trash version 2.0.

You can make everyone even without making everyone way to f'ing strong.

 

[trufenix]

I bet gamemk's fighting game is the shit.

 

[Compbros]

If a broken and stupid tacti doesn't get fixed and instead everyone else is made to be broken and stupid, then your whole game is broken and stupid and you end up with Marvel.

Maybe I'm in the minority but I'm not interested in unblockable broken ToD trash version 2.0.

You can make everyone even without making everyone way to f'ing strong.

Marvel, no matter what version, has 5-12 super high people and the rest are good-bad. Marvel is also a different monster than 1v1 games with no assists or anything.


KoFXIII is a game where everyone is S-A+ (beyond a couple people) without it being ridiculous crap all over the screen. Buffing everyone so they become A-S+ tier in that specific game does not necessarily mean it's gonna be ridiculous armor/unstoppable crap from everyone.

 

[Compbros]

No. Just No. Would it be fun to watch sports if every game were sudden death, first point wins or first point equals 40 points and whoever makes it to 45 wins? You would not be able to determine the more skilled team/player in a game with those kind of extreme rules. It could just be luck that team A beat team B. Or what if I added another rule to that which said team A always gets the ball thrown to them at the beginning of the game because that's the rule, and even though you know I'm always going to throw them the ball to begin the game you can't try to steal it. Arbitrary.

That's not the same thing, it's more like "would it be fun to watch sports if every team had fantastic players at all positions?". The equivalent to what you said in a fighter would be a ToD combo off of any single hit you get.....like Dive Kick.

 

[Euphoric]

No. Just No. Would it be fun to watch sports if every game were sudden death, first point wins or first point equals 40 points and whoever makes it to 45 wins? You would not be able to determine the more skilled team/player in a game with those kind of extreme rules. It could just be luck that team A beat team B. Or what if I added another rule to that which said team A always gets the ball thrown to them at the beginning of the game because that's the rule, and even though you know I'm always going to throw them the ball to begin the game you can't try to steal it. Arbitrary.




I think a lot of players are going to regret the "buff everyone" sentiment if it actually becomes NRS law. I think the "buff everyone. Nerf no one" ideology is a myth, like trickle down economics or tax cuts create jobs. I think people want to believe that buffing everyone sounds reasonable, and will still allow good imbalance and diversity among the cast, but I am skeptical. Buffing everyone is not a good idea imo. What if the NBA could buff every player to be able to be like Lebron James or Michael Jordan. That may seem awesome, but I think it would get boring very fast. Besides, we're not talking about a 4qtr game. In fighting games you get a finite amount of life, so a cast of 25 buffed characters would just be a random race to overpower each other. Very few mind games would be used, just pure power, like blitz chess. Players would just have stock openings and memorized patterns and it would devolve into tic tac toe.

Terrible example, you're acting like each tool set is going to be exactly the same for each character, for your example to fly, they mean in a sense that the characters have viable tools to deal with each other.

 

[Sultani]

I know it doesn't mean that. I just don't like how they hinted that it could be a possibility. I also disagree that the gimicks and broken shit in MK makes it more interesting. Cyrax is busted. Period. NDC used to the extent that it has evolved to currently doesn't make it more interesting to watch either. It makes kabal's movement look glitchy and broken. I'm also not a fan of back to block. Every game I've played that had back to block has always had some glitchy unblockable cross over.

They said that things were going to be left in the game that are intentionally cheap. What is the extent of that though?

Tier lists are and always have been a comparison of the characters to each other. So yeah. Characters can all be S tier in the game without having "intentionally cheap" gimicks. If a mechanic is intentionally cheap or found to be broken, it should be taken out. The suggestion that such things could be intentionally left in and then have other players brought up to that same sort of level is completely assinine to me.

 

[KombatNerd]

Nightwing shall not be ass tier. <3 U NRS!

 

[Killzone]

Nightwing shall not be ass tier. <3 U NRS!

Nightwing and ass in the same sentence does make sense though.

 

[GuamoKun]

SNK did the "buff everyone" approach for KoF XIII

....yep

 

[Reedoms]

Nightwing and ass in the same sentence does make sense though.

-snip

That's not an ass. THIS is an ass.

 

[MKF30]

Nice interview, a game this epic there shouldn't be any game breakers..

 

[MisterSpyker]

Absurd. Why did they need top players to figure out the corner harzards would be stupid if they didn't think about what they were doing? I predicted that exact outcome in September of 2012.

That's actually something that they addressed early on in the interview.

The best part of bringing NEW people to test the game, is that they play in a way that they're not used to play, they're going to be using different tactics, and looking at different parts of the game that they didn't focus so much on. New people would have a very different approach towards the game and look at flaws that they didn't even consider. Makes a lot of sense, stop being obtuse and blindly hating.

 

[Pound IC]

I just wanna make sure all you cry babies w wireless and DSL read that

anything less than 20-25 down 4-8 up is just unacceptable people

Sorry, the world doesnt cater to 12.99 internet

Sorry Pig, but you're completely wrong. Just checked my speed now and I get 13 down and 2 up. I have ZERO lag in SFxT. I'm playing under the fucking water in MK. It's the netcode. Stop pretending it isn't. If this game's netcode can't hang with SFxT I'm not playing it, period. No excuses

 

[MisterSpyker]

Why should every character have viable tools to deal with a theoretical Power character x? Some characters should be Lebron James. There is no formula to stop him, and the NBA doesn't make rules to triple a bad teams points when they play against him. I don't believe in the notion of tweaking knobs or attributes to prop up a system where Power character x is raping shit. I think you have to look at the overall system from day one and really think about what you want to reward in the system. Do you want to reward yomi? Execution? Defense? Rushdown? Turtling? Zoning? Basketball, like most sports, rewards execution, team cohesion, fitness, practice and studying your opponent, and clock management. Talent doesn't guarantee champions, and it's my opinion that strong characters shouldn't guarantee them either.. Imo, fighting games should reward similar skills: yomi, practice, defense, execution, and clock management. That way you could avoid a lot of headaches if you just designed around not having any one character be able to completely dominate, or be able to gain an unfair advantage over any of those attributes.

Let the players decide the outcome, not the refs. Basketball is a very good comparison, too, because it's one of the few sports where the refs have a big hand in determining who wins and who loses.

You're talking like NRS have no idea what they're doing, seriously, dude, they threw that statement out, if something is clearly broken they're not gonna make everyone broken. F***ing seriously, see things straight, is it really that hard to understand something simple like this?

 

[Reedoms]

Some characters should be Lebron James. There is no formula to stop him

I don't want another Kabal.

 

[Killzone]

That's not an ass. THIS is an ass.

Heavy squats, son ... heavy ass squats!
I took the other picture, because he mentioned fatalities :-(

 

[trufenix]

Let the players decide the outcome, not the refs. Basketball is a very good comparison, too, because it's one of the few sports where the refs have a big hand in determining who wins and who loses.

Basketball is a team sport. By your analogy the character is not a single player, but the entire team, and the goal of any basketball team is precisely as he says, to provide a solid all around toolset for all occasions. You cannot simply put a single good player on a basketball player and expect to win, any more than you can simple give a character one dynamite anti air or combo or throw and expect them to be S tier. To create a balanced team (or character) you have to look at their toolset as a whole, find out where their deficiencies are and buff them (edit) or the inverse, find out where they are too good and nerf it..

To use your Lebron James example, consider this very real NBA Tier List that we Cleveland fans have had to live with for the past 10 years;

Lebron James' Heat = Top Tier
Lebron James' Cavs = Balanced
Cavs - Lebron James = Low Tier

 

[Deyrax]

Balanacing.

 

[Pig Of The Hut]

No. Just No. Would it be fun to watch sports if every game were sudden death, first point wins or first point equals 40 points and whoever makes it to 45 wins? You would not be able to determine the more skilled team/player in a game with those kind of extreme rules. It could just be luck that team A beat team B. Or what if I added another rule to that which said team A always gets the ball thrown to them at the beginning of the game because that's the rule, and even though you know I'm always going to throw them the ball to begin the game you can't try to steal it. Arbitrary.




I think a lot of players are going to regret the "buff everyone" sentiment if it actually becomes NRS law. I think the "buff everyone. Nerf no one" ideology is a myth, like trickle down economics or tax cuts create jobs. I think people want to believe that buffing everyone sounds reasonable, and will still allow good imbalance and diversity among the cast, but I am skeptical. Buffing everyone is not a good idea imo. What if the NBA could buff every player to be able to be like Lebron James or Michael Jordan. That may seem awesome, but I think it would get boring very fast. Besides, we're not talking about a 4qtr game. In fighting games you get a finite amount of life, so a cast of 25 buffed characters would just be a random race to overpower each other. Very few mind games would be used, just pure power, like blitz chess. Players would just have stock openings and memorized patterns and it would devolve into tic tac toe.


I see what you're saying, but incidentally I have designed a few fighting games on paper, and I think they would work. They would reward pure skill and ingenuity. I like basketball, and I used to get a similar mental stimulation from playing 90's fighters that I used to get from playing organized basketball, and that's what I've always liked about fighters. But where most people fail, and where MK has succeeded is in the story and the characters, so I have that, too. So yea, I do have fighting games that I"ve designed that could stand alone as movies, comics and the actual games.

No but it is a lot if fun to watch the Super Bowl

Two S+ tier teams going at it for it all
Kapernick was broken as was flacco/Paul Kruger in the playoffs