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Is anyone even gonna bother with custom variations?

Seeing the average response here, it's clear: train with custom variations so when NRS allows them or adds a matching premade you're months ahead of every "not even gonna bother" player. Sounds like a plan.
I think these kinds of sentiments are overplaying the whole "if you don't see / know the abilities, you're at an unfair disadvantage" angle.

For one thing, anyone worth their salt in a fighting game, can adapt. There are only three, measly "slots", and many abilities are either teleports, projectiles of buffs -- it's not like we'd having to memorise every opening gambit in chess. Secondly, where's the fun in knowing everything that's going to take place?... The fundamental problem of the "variations", and even counter-picking, is the predictability aspect of it all -- something NRS themselves acknowledged in a roundabout way and, in no small part, why the customisation was... at least, was going to be evolved in MK11.

Lastly, in terms of e-sports / tournament play, if this ilk of player wants to be paid for their playtime, they have to hone their skills to an appropriate degree. To imply that a "pro" cannot adapt to an ability change, contradicts the whole premise of being a pro (*the likes of SonicFox actually wanting customisation in tournament play, notwithstanding).

I just feel that all the negativity and / or tentativeness (or allusions of) relating to the untested customisation, is killing the concept in utero; not unlike the proposed individualised Amplify input scheme was... And also why we can never have nice things v_v
 

IceNine

Tired, But Strong
This "waste of time" mindset is pretty interesting. I'm not quite sure I get it. Obviously, yes, it's best to be using the toolset you'll be using competitively. But playing a character with any variation is still experience with that character, the changes are not so radical that the experience you gain is completely worthless. You may as well say that every minute people spent in the beta and stress test was "wasted" because the characters have gone through various balancing changes since that iteration, and we certainly didn't have access to the "final" variations.

"You spent 60 hours playing Jade during the beta? Heh, too bad... you're now completely equal to my hour 1 Jade because you didn't have the Official Jade... nice job, dumbass. They call it beta because only betas would waste their time with that bullcrap." - ALPHAgamer420

ALPHAgamer420 proceeds to get run over by SoulGlow69. But this cannot be! For in the beta, SoulGlow69 had spent all that time using a longer sweep! Their Nitro Kick didn't side switch on amplify! They didn't have the sweet, sweet midscreen damage that she has now! The very foundation of their gameplay should be crumbling, how are they whiff punishing with B2 so well?! How do they have such good defense???! It is simply incomprehensible how they are good at the game.

Obviously, I'm not saying you need to spend any time with kustoms. There is no intrinsic core benefit to doing so.

But looking down on players who spend any time on them as simple casuals who will not be learning the video game is pretty questionable! Variations matter, but they're not so significant that general fundamentals and a baseline understanding of your character are not the most important things. Once you have a handle on the game and character, changing up the special moves is not going to completely hamstring your gameplay.

Of course, in general, the notion that your time spent playing a game is bound to bear proportional fruit is a common fighting game fallacy. Players learn at different rates, and some players simply never learn. This won't change regardless of what mode you play. Mans could play 900 ranked matches and never figure out why he's losing. Mans could also have played 900 casual matches and never figure out why he's losing, either. He spent 10 hours in training mode grinding combos, what's the deal! Some other mans? 2 hours in training mode and 100 matches in whatever online mode he wanted and he's leveled up a ton, because he's paying attention to what's really happening on the screen and used all his time in the lab learning simple stuff like common punishes and pressure using largely universal character tools.

Sorry for the tangent, but at the end of the day, whoever is better at the simple act of learning is gonna be the one making good use of their time. Variations are pretty minor in comparison IMO. Unfortunately, I'm pretty terrible at learning.

Thanks for reading this entirely overdramatic essay! Have a nice day.
 
@MadPropz101
That's if people playing only "competitive" mode/s is presupposed... Which is far from a certainty and far from reconcilable--in terms of which consumer demographic represents the [vast] majority of MK / NRS game player.

I can only speak for myself, but, my majority playtime will be spent in offline versus play, and in whatever mode/s allow for the most player freedom (in terms of what the game has to offer). In fact, now that the gestapo tactics (for "competitive" play) have been confirmed, there is that much more incentive to play thusly exclusively / move away from the homogenised, online "ranked" environment (player matches will still be a thing, though).
 

Edmund

Kitana & Skarlet
I might. It depends on the variations they have offered to me on launch, but with the odds of there not being a variation in my favor I'll probably dabble. It still sucks that they didn't find a solution for the UI make a variation on the spot.
 

Mind Flex

Mind Gamer. BOOSH
I play with some button masher buddies that I'll definitely turn on kustoms to mop up with but sadly it will be 92% presets.
 

Tanno

The Fantasy is the Reality of the Mind
For the time being, I'll mess around with the preset combination of abilities for the competitive mode. Unless they add it in the near future, there's no point messing around with them.

I'll make some combos regarding the kustom combination of abilities to see which are better and worst. Might upload them from time to time.
 

chrisisnice

I'm a lover, not a fighter
From the start I felt that custom variations were a bit more trouble than they were worth – it is just too much to provide balance for both competitive and casual players (who are the most important customer to NRS).

I thought that they would have been better marketing it along the line of that there are two set variations in the game, but that they had a fun non-competitive feature which would allow you to add / customise some moves. This would have negated the debate about whether custom variations should be used competitively.

They could have also announced that there would be another variation for each character released with Kombat Pack 1 and Kombat Pack 2. Overall, I think that would have been a little more hype and managed people's expectations.
 
I will for different reasons. I want to do YouTube videos outside of just matches like I did a little bit with injustice 2. I just want to try them out in general even if it wasn’t for that.

Besides I’m not dropping 90 on a game if I’m not trying everything out
 

dribirut

BLAK FELOW
To all the people saying theyre going to use it in order to prepare for when they allow it in competitive play; you are possibly setting yourself up for a major disappointment.

Tyler said they will possibly explore the option.. There is a veeeery good chance this will never happen..

Personally to me, at this point its as if it weren't in the game. Not touching it.
 

IamBatface

www.mixer.com/WilfyDee
I'm going to be wary of custom variations as I used a few ability moves with characters I had learned in Injustice 2 and going back to their default moveset after getting used to them really messed me up for a while.
 

DDustiNN

MK11 Pocket Guide: Koming Soon to the App Store
Based on my time with the beta, and how much fun it was to tweak characters toward my personal play style... I can say I will most definitely be using custom variations. Exclusively.

If they don’t allow them in ranked, I simply won’t bother with ranked.

I’m playing the game how they envisioned it, not some neutered version like
Injustice 2 forced me to do.
 
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Pterodactyl

Plus on block.
I'm only going to bother with custom variations. I'm not touching any competitive play until custom variations are available for it.
Depending on how things shake out I might be there with you.

The confirmation that playermatches will still be skilled based like ranked makes me feel safer in this choice.

It’s not like I have the time to really dedicate myself to achieving a super high online rank or beasting at any big tourney at this point in my life. I’ll still learn presets to use when I go to stuff for the local scene, but I feel like i’m going to get more FUN out of the game by playing player matches with kustoms.

It’s not liking learning a kustoms variations prevents you from leveling up with your character, the baseline is still the same, we are all already used to learning multiple variations per character anyway.
 

freerf245

11 11 11 11
Yes. I am disappointed that I am forced to use the preset variations for ranked, but will have to put up with it for now. Still going to play around with abilities when fighting friends or maybe occasionally on player match.
 
I don’t know what group I belong in. I love fighting games. I get good at fighting games. I grew up playing fighting games in the arcades. I even won my local GameStop Super SFIV, MK9, SFxTekken, Injustice and MKX tournaments, and yet, I hate competing. I hate online play, I hate local play.

I like putting the difficulty on normal and doing cool combos on brain dead cpu opponents. Mortal Kombat lore is my Lord of the Rings / Star Wars / Harry Potter. Story mode and ladder endings are my most anticipated thing about every new MK game. Above all else, I like learning every single character in the game, then taking them though arcade ladder.

So for me, absolutely I’m gonna use custom variations. If I can make 3 completely different versions of every character, i’ve tripled the roster. Is the flag variation of Baraka worthless and the worst variation of Baraka to play ? Yea ... but Dan is also the worst shoto to play in SF but he’s still fun to play as.

Besides, even if custom variations were allowed for ranked / tournament, within a few days the meta will get sorted and everyone will pick the most optimized version of each character.
 

ChatterBox

Searching for an alt.
Absolutely!
They said there will definitely be added presets, so why not?
They said maybe full customs in competitive, so why not?
Time spent playing people and adapting helps level up, so why not?
I spent good money on the advertising of customs, so why not?
 

Jobe

Noob
I won't be messing with them much since I won't be using them in ranked which I'll spend most all of my gameplay time on. I have been playing smash ultimate since launch and haven't tried items on even once. I can't wait to see my switch collect dust as I enter the lag free arena.
 

Shania Twain

That Don't Impress Me Much
definitely.

for one...so many of the variation titles are uncreative and silly. "Boon's Main" "Not Easy Being" "Kaballin". I get what they were going for but goodness. I'm all about a good pun but goodness. maybe some were placeholders, I dunno but i doubt it. in a matter of minutes I found way better titles for Skarlet. But that isn't the point of course. I liked having the control to pick moves, etc.