MK11 Tag Mode - why didn't NRS just make this a standard mode?

[John Grizzly]

As seen in the video here by Waz, tag mode actually seems fun, unlike standard MK11. Why not just make it a player match option or something? I don't understand why NRS wouldn't. It's already in the game but you're forced to play a mode I absolutely hate - Towers of Time.

A simple update adding this while we were in the midst of the longest break in between NRS games ever would have been welcomed. I don't give a shit if it's broken. MK11 has been dead for quite a while but if I could have messed around with a Shao Kahn/Sindel team, that would have made me reinstall the game. Am I alone in thinking this?

 

[Marlow]

I think it's cool for YT vids, but I don't see something like tag mode, in it's current MK11 form, being a game mode with much staying power. It was clearly meant to be more of a tower novelty, and so the balance would probably make it almost unplayable.

 

[Juxtapose]

I think it's cool for YT vids, but I don't see something like tag mode, in it's current MK11 form, being a game mode with much staying power. It was clearly meant to be more of a tower novelty, and so the balance would probably make it almost unplayable.

Agreed. If you could actually tag in and play as the other character i.e. Mortal Kombat (2011), I could see this being more appealing, but tag as it is really is just a Tower novelty.

Having said that, while it certainly had it's fans at the time, tag was not exectly a good kompetitive mode back in 2011 either...

 

[Jynks]

Because it sucks and despite what a small fraction of people, no one played it.

 

[Marinjuana]

They should have had coop tag towers for split screen, that was an awesome feature in MK9. That said, it was likely challenging to make it run well and they already had time constraints affect other areas of the game. Notice that there's no two vs two, probably is tough to have that many character models on screen

 

[Juxtapose]

They should have had coop tag towers for split screen, that was an awesome feature in MK9. That said, it was likely challenging to make it run well and they already had time constraints affect other areas of the game. Notice that there's no two vs two, probably is tough to have that many character models on screen

Let's also not forget that the launch version of the game did indeed feel rushed/unfinished in many regards (though oddly very polished in others).

 

[Revy]

As seen in the video here by Waz, tag mode actually seems fun, unlike standard MK11. Why not just make it a player match option or something? I don't understand why NRS wouldn't. It's already in the game but you're forced to play a mode I absolutely hate - Towers of Time.

A simple update adding this while we were in the midst of the longest break in between NRS games ever would have been welcomed. I don't give a shit if it's broken. MK11 has been dead for quite a while but if I could have messed around with a Shao Kahn/Sindel team, that would have made me reinstall the game. Am I alone in thinking this?

Well it's already been proven that MK11 was unfinished on release & was 3 or 6 months behind on launch if I remember correctly from the article. I wouldn't doubt that it was planned but they didn't have the time to do it. I couldn't see myself reinstalling MK11 to play it if they did add it, they'd have to get rid of Hop, breakaway, flawless block, fatal blow, krushing blow, rolls, getup attacks, automatic meter & make the game faster paced to make me play that crap again. Mind you, Jade & Kabal 2.0 tag-team does sound interesting to say the least though.

 

[Gooberking]

There is definitely room to be concerned over the performance/quality impact of having a 4th highly detailed character model to process.

There could also be some rollback implications with the extra characters and complex interactions. Right now they don't have to care about the overhead processing the 3rd character's contribution let alone a 4th online, but they would have to the second they turned it onto a game mode. Processing rollback frames is not cheap and running games online is more taxing than playing locally because of it.

The bring in my buddy stuff here is also tied thumbsticks which many of us do not have on our controllers. Most players have to use a controller to access what is going on here and the ToT consumable system in general.

And then you would instantly have 45,690,345+ people wondering why tag mode isn't full tag mode and just some lame striker mode and "MK9 was tag, what is this?" comments

As easy as it sounds to just turn a thing on more places, or to give us what we already have, that stuff can be way more complicated that it appears at a glance

 

[Marlow]

I think an MK based tag game could be fun (MK vs KI when?????). Not normally my cup of tea, but I'd be interested. But it'd have to be a core concept that the game is designed around, not just a throw away mode.

 

[Marlow]

As easy as it sounds to just turn a thing on more places, or to give us what we already have, that stuff can be way more complicated that it appears at a glance

That's why I generally try and give people the benefit of the doubt. When something seems so obvious and people ask "why don't they just do blank" it's probably safe to assume that it's a lot more difficult than it's being made out to be.

 

[John Grizzly]

That's why I generally try and give people the benefit of the doubt. When something seems so obvious and people ask "why don't they just do blank" it's probably safe to assume that it's a lot more difficult than it's being made out to be.

To be clear - I wasn't asking for fully fleshed out tag mode. I simply wanted the same exact thing available in the towers to be available as a player match option. Just a simple assist from your tag partner, not two different fully playable characters. Again, it already works in the game and opens up some cool combo routes, something SEVERELY lacking in MK11.

MK11 is boring as hell so I was just thinking of ways to spice it up without NRS having to do much work.

 

[Gooberking]

I think everyone follows that part and was responding to it as such

 

[Marlow]

without NRS having to do much work.

I think that's part of the question though, how much work would it actually be? My guess is it's more than just flipping a few switches. Especially as an online PvP option, which again I don't think that many people would play, since it'd likely be pretty broken. The game was never really balanced around allowing tag assists.

 

[Revy]

Especially as an online PvP option, which again I don't think that many people would play, since it'd likely be pretty broken. The game was never really balanced around allowing tag assists.

MK9 Tag was super fun but it was never balanced as there were infinites around focus characters (Ex: Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Johnny Cage) & certain characters like Sindel & Kabal, they never put that much thought into which combos caused the Fast Tag, Tag Assist, Tag Combos & what move is used for Tag Assist/Tag Combos.

If they brought in 3v3 Tag to MK11 with it's own ladders, characters to unlock, unique abilities, micro transactions, skins you can unlock & such people who love that shit as it's exactly what the Mortal Kombat mobile app is which is MASSIVELY popular & has been since MKX just a little more sophisticated.

 

[Wigy]

Honestly it wont be a massive addition to work they put into the game to implement something like MK9 tag system and it creates a lot of replayability and just fun for silly stuff. Take that over the effort they put into towers

 

[Revy]

Honestly it wont be a massive addition to work they put into the game to implement something like MK9 tag system and it creates a lot of replayability and just fun for silly stuff. Take that over the effort they put into towers

That's what was so great about other MKs replayability: Chess Kombat, Motor Kombat, Puzzle Kombat, Kreate A Fatality, Kreate A Fighter, Test Your Luck & Challenge Tower. Test Your Might & Test Your Sight were never really popular outside of the original trilogy.
Personally, I couldn't stand constantly playing towers in MKX & MK11, it got boring (& annoying) way too fast especially with MK11 when they added parameters to have access to the next latter you had to do.