Best out of 3/5 Ranked Online Play (with Character-Specific Records)

[Geoffmeister]

I'd like to discuss if anyone here would like the idea of having this implemented in the game someday.

I enjoy the game a lot, I planned on playing this game competitively pre-release and my mind hasn't changed after playing almost daily since it came out, however, it being a competitive game I think there's little competition to be found in any of the online game modes.

Ranked as we know it now is virtually unchanged from MK9 (2011), there's probably been some matchmaking tweaks but other than that, it's still suffering from the same issues:

• Bad connections (even with the idea to decline, the pingbars do not add up)
• Playing against people at a way higher level
• Playing against people at a way lower level
• Bad indication of someone's skill level
• Bad indication of progress
• Does not promote networking/making friends

These issues may be reduced with this new game mode while also providing a more competitive feel to attract players to become better and keep playing the game.

Ranked Best out of 3/5

• Pretty straightforward. Most of us here know the basic tournament rules: character-lock on a won game, win the set by getting 2 or 3 wins
• Reworked Ranking System. Think systems like: Tekken, Street Fighter even Hearthstone with monthly ladder resets could work, or something unique to MK. Point being: none is more lacking than the one MK currently uses. Along with this there must be matchmaking restrictions based on skill-level, there might be a bit of trial-and-error to find a balance in order to not split up the active playerbase too much but it will be worth it in the long run.
  The best keep playing versus the best and the ones still learning will now have a learning curve, win-win.
• Character-Specific progress, exclusive records of this game-mode will be shown in your kombat history (per character) and also sortable by character in the Ranking BestOf3/5 Leaderboards, showing you the top players of any character.
  Nice additions would be an exclusive reward for getting to the highest ranking level (for example: temporarily or permanently reward a skin/palette swap for said character) and having each individual character start at 0 and memorize your other characters' rank progress (I'm not sure how this would go in terms of database capacity, though)
• Bad connections, this one is pretty tough, there's some stuff we'll just have to deal with but I've thought some potential improvements:
  1: Make this game-mode exclusive to having a Wired Connection
  2: Make this game-mode exclusive to low-ping connections, latency thresholds and button-checks should be implemented in this case
  3: Make this game-mode's disconnections count for neither a win or a loss, but as a No Contest. People that disconnect will be easily exposed, while people who do not want to play laggy games won't have to without being punished for it. To avoid confusion: you would have an option to "Leave game" (declare No Contest) and "Forfeit game".

What this provides is a new way of playing the game, from your home, now you have time to learn your opponent and treat this set as it would be real competitive set, with clear drawbacks and clear progress, making the game feel more rewarding and educative while also providing a decent feel of how it would be in a competitive environment (potentially boosting other peoples confidence to go out and start joining tournaments). The fact this could provide a good indication of how good someone is and with which character could also improve the networking/making friends in this game as FGC's will be able to recruit players more easily.

How realistic is this?
How costly would this be from the developers' perspective?
Do you think it would benefit the replayability/longevity of the game/playerbase more than hurt it?

 

[CO-KANO]

words......so many words

 

[Kalaise]

So people like me who have a strong desire to play competitively and no way to travel, and am restricted to wireless connection(great connection) am not allowed to participate? sounds lame

 

[Geoffmeister]

So people like me who have a strong desire to play competitively and no way to travel, and am restricted to wireless connection(great connection) am not allowed to participate? sounds lame

I laid out another option.

 

[james1926]

Sounds hot, but will get old fast. I would still prefer longer sessions in player matches.

 

[Geoffmeister]

Sounds hot, but will get old fast. I would still prefer longer sessions in player matches.

Why would it get old fast? There's free games with better ranking systems that have grown and continue to grow solely on being able to compete at any given time with anyone with similar experience.

I understand looking for people in rooms or playing with friends is also a good way to play the game, but hasn't the process become tedious for anyone else? You need to put effort into finding a player at your level with good connection every time, and there might be Match-ups you don't want to play. For some experienced players the process can take really long, for some new players this process doesn't interest them at all and either parties might eventually drop the game because of it.

 

[ArmageddonUMK]

This would be awesome, I play KI and killer league matches are 2/3 which makes it so much more fun. Adapting and grinding out a win in a 2/3 or 3/5 is way more rewarding and fun than the quick one and done ranked matches.

 

[NBO_7]

I like the idea it will improve the overall online experience and help those who try pushing in rank

But for me i like to go into rooms and challenge the players who have most wins or red win odds learn some match ups and try to level up

also a really good way to make online friends