buyacushun
Normalize grab immunity.
Mortal Kombat X is fun but not without it's flaws. This is just some ideas on how I'd like MKx to work. I am fairly to knew to competitive NRS games. I started taking injustice seriously but had to stop since it didn't agree with my College's internet. If there are certain NRS meta things that would really mess with how MK games are traditionally seen just let me know. I'm making this a thread to get feedback on my ideas and open discussion for others to do write down their own and have a place to say how we'd like our dream MK to play.
First things first, I wish MK and any other game made by NRS didn't have the online functionality of games from a decade ago. Ok, so now that the obvious part is out of the way on to actual gameplay.
NO SAFE X-RAYS!!!! These thing are not a part of high level play and I think this is a major reason. I'm sure NRS just made an easy way to do something cool but when you do stuff like that it either makes it easier for high level players to dominate anyways or adds a dumb part to high level play. A lot of these moves come out pretty fast, can't be armor broken, and also crush armor. Some of these even have to be blocked low or high for added benefit. All this together, it's easy to see why it costs 3 bars and does basic bnb damage.
I'd rather see unsafe XRAYS but you'd have to use them logically and they'd do more damage than basic BNBs. Now that would be a lot of damage so maybe tone down the damage to 1 meter 20-25% BNBs and Xrays doing 35-45%. Green Arrow was the only time I can remember Xrays being an actual part of high level play. His didn't hit instantly so you could easily punish it. The one messed up part about his XRAY was the setups that equaled 50(?)% resets.
The overall theme of gameplay would not have so much emphasis on scoring a knockdown. There is a good amount of corner carry and high/low mixups. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but how easy and effective it is causes matches to end quickly by how often these two things come into play.
Any situation where you can make your opponent guess between high/low would not yield the same results. Have one option lead to a full combo and another lead to knockdown or maybe only combos with meter.
Stamina meter would allow for more movement. The amount of run and how much interactables cost seem to be a good amount. I'd like to see 3-5 backdashes for a full stamina bar. So you can get something like 2 backdashes and one interactable. Or if you backdash and the use an object you half to wait a bit to backdash again. But less then you would have to wait now.
Run cancel pressure probably has to be adjusted for the above changes. How exactly is a more balance type thing. But the guideline I'd like is that is only a short ranged non mixup string to be guaranteed. This guaranteed block pressure can only be repeated twice (maybe more maybe less). Like a 212 string which would also be -2 or something around there. So the attacker isn't at so much of a disadvantage to take whatever is coming to them but you aren't in some crazy mind game if they went straight chip. Mixups would have an armor or backdash gap. If they ended the 212 short at 21 then there might be a frame trap. This isn't exact just a frame for the idea.
Along with these stamina changes it'd be nice if breaker and/or block breaker left you with some stamina to use. Still have a cooldown period but not leave you a sitting duck when you just spent meter and stamina for the complete opposite. You already can't break again if you're opened up. Now it's just more likely to happen because of how offensive the game currently is and how crippled you just became.
All armored moves would be punishable on block. Seeing as how armor beats almost all attacks I don't see it unreasonable to always be able to punish if you make the right read to not attack. A different solution would be every character to get one to two armor breakers. These could have a variety of properties per character (launch, be a part of a string, hard knockdown, or also be an overhead or low).
I'd like if throws beat armored moves too. This could be implemented along with everyone having a move that was a designated to break armor. Or this could be the one change done to how to beat armored moves.
Strings wouldn't be able to be continued on whiff. I feel this would put a better emphasis on spacing. There are times where you can miss the first attack but the subsequent buttons in a string will move you forward enough to start hitting your opponent. I think this might indirectly buff backdashes, which could be countered by delaying the advancing normal a bit.
Have a counter hit system. If this was implemented, it could change the ideas I posted above. It would affect normals, strings, specials and maybe even throws. I personally like the aspect of counter hits leading to more damage or combos that aren't possible otherwise. This can be extremely helpful in giving the pressure/frame trap/spacing characters better offense.
Since throws require 2 different breaks, I'd like to see NRS incorporate actual different throws. These would give different damage, spacing and advantage. This one's probably the most extreme out of the bunch but I think it would be cool to see a 2D fighter apply multiple normal throws per character and I'm sure NRS would have no problem doing it lol. Note: NRS doesn't do different properties for forward and back throws like other fighters.
That's some of the things I'd like to see in MK or NRS adopt for a later game.
EDIT: Discussed run cancels, expanded on counter hits.
EDIT2: Added Xray and throw sections.
First things first, I wish MK and any other game made by NRS didn't have the online functionality of games from a decade ago. Ok, so now that the obvious part is out of the way on to actual gameplay.
NO SAFE X-RAYS!!!! These thing are not a part of high level play and I think this is a major reason. I'm sure NRS just made an easy way to do something cool but when you do stuff like that it either makes it easier for high level players to dominate anyways or adds a dumb part to high level play. A lot of these moves come out pretty fast, can't be armor broken, and also crush armor. Some of these even have to be blocked low or high for added benefit. All this together, it's easy to see why it costs 3 bars and does basic bnb damage.
I'd rather see unsafe XRAYS but you'd have to use them logically and they'd do more damage than basic BNBs. Now that would be a lot of damage so maybe tone down the damage to 1 meter 20-25% BNBs and Xrays doing 35-45%. Green Arrow was the only time I can remember Xrays being an actual part of high level play. His didn't hit instantly so you could easily punish it. The one messed up part about his XRAY was the setups that equaled 50(?)% resets.
The overall theme of gameplay would not have so much emphasis on scoring a knockdown. There is a good amount of corner carry and high/low mixups. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but how easy and effective it is causes matches to end quickly by how often these two things come into play.
Any situation where you can make your opponent guess between high/low would not yield the same results. Have one option lead to a full combo and another lead to knockdown or maybe only combos with meter.
Stamina meter would allow for more movement. The amount of run and how much interactables cost seem to be a good amount. I'd like to see 3-5 backdashes for a full stamina bar. So you can get something like 2 backdashes and one interactable. Or if you backdash and the use an object you half to wait a bit to backdash again. But less then you would have to wait now.
Run cancel pressure probably has to be adjusted for the above changes. How exactly is a more balance type thing. But the guideline I'd like is that is only a short ranged non mixup string to be guaranteed. This guaranteed block pressure can only be repeated twice (maybe more maybe less). Like a 212 string which would also be -2 or something around there. So the attacker isn't at so much of a disadvantage to take whatever is coming to them but you aren't in some crazy mind game if they went straight chip. Mixups would have an armor or backdash gap. If they ended the 212 short at 21 then there might be a frame trap. This isn't exact just a frame for the idea.
Along with these stamina changes it'd be nice if breaker and/or block breaker left you with some stamina to use. Still have a cooldown period but not leave you a sitting duck when you just spent meter and stamina for the complete opposite. You already can't break again if you're opened up. Now it's just more likely to happen because of how offensive the game currently is and how crippled you just became.
All armored moves would be punishable on block. Seeing as how armor beats almost all attacks I don't see it unreasonable to always be able to punish if you make the right read to not attack. A different solution would be every character to get one to two armor breakers. These could have a variety of properties per character (launch, be a part of a string, hard knockdown, or also be an overhead or low).
I'd like if throws beat armored moves too. This could be implemented along with everyone having a move that was a designated to break armor. Or this could be the one change done to how to beat armored moves.
Strings wouldn't be able to be continued on whiff. I feel this would put a better emphasis on spacing. There are times where you can miss the first attack but the subsequent buttons in a string will move you forward enough to start hitting your opponent. I think this might indirectly buff backdashes, which could be countered by delaying the advancing normal a bit.
Have a counter hit system. If this was implemented, it could change the ideas I posted above. It would affect normals, strings, specials and maybe even throws. I personally like the aspect of counter hits leading to more damage or combos that aren't possible otherwise. This can be extremely helpful in giving the pressure/frame trap/spacing characters better offense.
Since throws require 2 different breaks, I'd like to see NRS incorporate actual different throws. These would give different damage, spacing and advantage. This one's probably the most extreme out of the bunch but I think it would be cool to see a 2D fighter apply multiple normal throws per character and I'm sure NRS would have no problem doing it lol. Note: NRS doesn't do different properties for forward and back throws like other fighters.
That's some of the things I'd like to see in MK or NRS adopt for a later game.
EDIT: Discussed run cancels, expanded on counter hits.
EDIT2: Added Xray and throw sections.
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