4/24/19 Emergency Kombat Kast Recap

With concerns popping up with various issues surrounding the initial launch of Mortal Kombat 11, this emergency Kombat Kast was called to address concerns. Items on the docket were fixes related to difficulty of Towers of Time, reward progression, and more.



Derek is back this week, 16 Bit is gone. So first thing they discussed this week was the difficulty of the Towers of Time. Very openly saying that they were "tuned to be too hard", the first initial fix they rolled out (in a hotfix that has already gone out) was reducing opponent health to be more in line with the usual game, with bosses maxing out at 1500. On top of that, the modifiers (like the homing missiles) now happen less often. For the future, with a proper patch, they will adjust the drop rate for rewards on top of some other fixes, like making the unblockable modifiers blockable. The patch with those changes are planned to come end of this week, beginning of next at the latest. The goal with everything is to give a broader spectrum of challenges, as opposed to just making everything easy.

Next up, they went over some details on the Krypt. So the Krypts are randomized for each player, with everyone getting the same 600 chests but in different locations. Certain special chests are static for everyone. So what you will get isn't random, but when you get it is.

Going out to everyone in part of the updates, everyone will get 500,000 coins, 500 hearts, 1000 souls, and 1000 time crystals. No immediate timeline as to when, but that's something to look forward to.

That's it for today. No talk about character changes/fixes, but that'll be coming later down the road. So yeah, go back to playing the game! Or work! Or whatever you were doing with your time right now!

 

I can't believe it. Not only are they not reducing the grind, they're straight up lying about the chests being the same for everyone, AND trying to bribe people off with Koins

 

I can't believe it. Not only are they not reducing the grind, they're straight up lying about the chests being the same for everyone, AND trying to bribe people off with Koins

Did you even listen to the part about the chests?

 

I can't believe it. Not only are they not reducing the grind, they're straight up lying about the chests being the same for everyone, AND trying to bribe people off with Koins

The chests are the same, where you get the chests are not. Everyone will get the same 600 items

 

I’m glad they confirmed that the Shao Kahn chests are predetermined. But they didn’t fix the Krypt, the hearts are the hardest to get, and instead of making them cheaper they are just giving us only enough to unlock 2????

 

Well that was underwhelming.

I did notice the blocking thing last night though. So at least that’s slightly better.

But the frequency... I just did the 2-hour Jacqui tower, and the CPU was using the assist every 2-3 seconds. As soon as the cooldown ended, boom, here she comes again. Assist cooldowns need to be severely nerfed.

Meanwhile, I was trying the Floor is Lava tower, and the fire on the floor does absurdly massive damage over time. So I tried using a consumable (only had one for 50% fire damage), and it only lasted for a few seconds, then had a massive cooldown.

Wtf?

And what about the completely absurd character tower requirements? Perform 75 brutalities and 75 fatalities to progress. So you have to rack up 150 wins with a single character, just to earn one Brutality and skin. That’s just plain ridiculous.

I don’t mind a grind, but at least make it reasonable!

 

Takeaways:

-Derek looked visibly shaken. Wouldn't be surprised if he had just gotten yelled at 10 sec before this kast. Sounds like his dept is to blame for a lot of this.

-The fixes seem good, but likely not nearly enough. We will see. Not praising NRS on this until it's done.

-This is what happens with a rushed game and shitty business practices.

 

Takeaways:

-Derek looked visibly shaken. Wouldn't be surprised if he had just gotten yelled at 10 sec before this kast. Sounds like his dept is to blame for a lot of this.

I noticed that too, I felt bad

 

Derek looked visibly shaken. Wouldn't be surprised if he had just gotten yelled at 10 sec before this kast. Sounds like his dept is to blame for a lot of this.

I wouldn't be surprised, game's getting review bombed because of an objectively badly designed system of the Krypt progression

 

But why is it that the krypt can only be entered when you are online? And how can we be sure the chests are not random?

 

I wouldn't be surprised, game's getting review bombed because of an objectively badly designed system of the Krypt progression

The systems are fine. The values are off.

 

The systems are fine. The values are off.

Sounds like a design issue to me then

 

Takeaways:

-Derek looked visibly shaken. Wouldn't be surprised if he had just gotten yelled at 10 sec before this kast. Sounds like his dept is to blame for a lot of this.

-The fixes seem good, but likely not nearly enough. We will see. Not praising NRS on this until it's done.

-This is what happens with a rushed game and shitty business practices.

I was thinking the exact same think. Derek looks like he's been getting chewed out the last 12 hours straight.

While, in general I have not - and will not - support people who act like privileged children that will flame NRS to the ground; NRS' reaction does seem a bit lack luster. Free stuff + making it a bit easier.

I think people miss the last krypt where people could figure out where everything was, so if you want for a specific item you could get it. I see the distinction they are trying to make from loot boxes to randomized krypt - but I think the idea doesn't work practically and was just a bad idea. I think if they just made everyone's krypt the same (so we could share cosmetic locations) it would sooth a lot of people.
You could still offer microtransactions for people who don't want to wait to earn the money - yes this would reduce the potential overall $ that could be earn... but still, this is probably what the system should have been. It may be too late now.

 

Boon lied, not Derek. Don't be mad at him, guys.

 

Hope they roll out the PC day 1 patch soon because being a patch behind in another game is not gonna cut it.

 

I wished they would have addressed people are still having with the servers and progress is not being saved. Thats a MAJOR concern for me to even try any of the damn modes because I dont want to waste my time completing something, then either it get deleted or not even saved.

I want to believe the next patch will address this because they were too damn nervous to get sentences out.

 

Sounds like a design issue to me then

It is design, but it's not the "system". If the same systems had different values, the experience would be different.

Luckily, fixing values is much easier than changing the system.

 

Just let us target buy the particular gear/skins we want for a reasonable price please. I bought this game for the purpose of fighting other players, not spending endless hours in wacky towers just to get gear.

 

But why is it that the krypt can only be entered when you are online? And how can we be sure the chests are not random?

Data collecting. WB wants to see if people actually are playing this mode and for how long, it's the same reason why every giant company adds in online components to things that don't need them. They use that to decide on what to do with future games. And I haven't checked, but if you can buy things from the Krypt with Time Crystals early, they'd use that to check if you have that piece already. There is no reason to lie about something like that, there isn't a grand conspiracy here.

 

I think people miss the last krypt where people could figure out where everything was, so if you want for a specific item you could get it.

Of course people would prefer it that way, but that removes the entire point of having a Krypt as a separate game mode in the first place. "I want these three skins, that'll cost me 20k gold, there done, now I never have to touch the Krypt again." Not to say that the MK11 Krypt is an extremely fun experience, but in a game where unlocking skins and gear is supposed to be a core part of the experience, the MKX Krypt just doesn't work.

 

So the Krypts are randomized for each player, with everyone getting the same 600 chests but in different locations. Certain special chests are static for everyone

Does that mean they're saying the cost of the chests are fine? Are people okay with purchasing chests that are 25,000 because we got free coins?

 

Honestly, I feel better.

Curious to see what changes this patch brings but I can appreciate NRS being transparent and quick to address our concerns. The game's "loop" as they called it, feels rushed. I think it's important to acknowledge that this did not work in our favor nor THEIRS. Derek is about to put in some lonnnnnng hours to get this right. God speed sir.

 

Does that mean they're saying the cost of the chests are fine? Are people okay with purchasing chests that are 25,000 because we got free coins?

They said the awards will be adjusted in Towers Of Time so the grind in the Krypt wont feel ridiculous.

 

So they haven't addressed the overly expensive Krypt prices at all. Instead they're just compensating us with:
500,000 coins - This is cool
500 hearts - 2 chests worth of Hearts really?
1000 souls - How many people have spent 2000 souls on a very specific bit in the Krypt? This is not enough.
1000 time crystals - This is fine.

I'm glad they're balancing the Towers of Time, but it shouldn't have even been released in this state and they've not even said anything about the Krypt prices meaning I won't be touching it for a while longer...

Who is going to be spending their hard earned currency when everything costs crazy amounts?

 

Of course people would prefer it that way, but that removes the entire point of having a Krypt as a separate game mode in the first place. "I want these three skins, that'll cost me 20k gold, there done, now I never have to touch the Krypt again." Not to say that the MK11 Krypt is an extremely fun experience, but in a game where unlocking skins and gear is supposed to be a core part of the experience, the MKX Krypt just doesn't work.

I completely agree with you.

There is an idea there... but I don't think it's completely fleshed out.

Personally I'd advocate for making it a static experience and have NRS just take an L on the idea. Learn from it and move on.