Official Mortal Kombat 1 Online Stress Test (Friday-Monday) Discussion

[Metin]

After playing the stress test, here are my thoughts;

• Online play feels good, it was laggy few times but not a big deal. At least it didn't kick my ass consistently from the servers like SF6.
• MK1 definetely offers much more than MK11 in terms of fun and gameplay. Combo potential is ok and the mechanics are less frustraiting than MK11, which is a good thing.
• Visually game looks ok but honestly i see no big improvement type of deal there. Yes there are more depths to the arenas but character models looks less detailed and less impressive than MK11.
• Gameplay feels SLOOOOWWWWW AF because Kameo throws makes it slow, back throws makes it slow, useless dashes makes it slow, hit stuns makes it slow, robotic combo strings makes it slow even armored moves of Kitana and Liu Kang slows down the time for no reason. Only reason could be like " did you guys see our dragon effect on Liu Kang's feet " yeah we fucking did, are you happy now? Why time slowing down at the end of first round, why almost everything designed to slow down the fucking time. Definetely feels too clunky and sluggish in compare to Tekken or Street Fighter games and i am not happy with this. This gameplay is so close to be an interactive cinematic experience rather than a fighting game and i see no improvement on these things i mentioned in the future, this is NRS's current gameplay direction on their games, causal makes money and keep them happy.

 

[Vslayer]

After playing the stress test, here are my thoughts;

• Gameplay feels SLOOOOWWWWW AF because Kameo throws makes it slow, back throws makes it slow, useless dashes makes it slow, hit stuns makes it slow, robotic combo strings makes it slow even armored moves of Kitana and Liu Kang slows down the time for no reason. Only reason could be like " did you guys see our dragon effect on Liu Kang's feet " yeah we fucking did, are you happy now? Why time slowing down at the end of first round, why almost everything designed to slow down the fucking time. Definetely feels too clunky and sluggish in compare to Tekken or Street Fighter games and i am not happy with this. This gameplay is so close to be an interactive cinematic experience rather than a fighting game and i see no improvement on these things i mentioned in the future, this is NRS's current gameplay direction on their games, causal makes money and keep them happy.

100% agree with this. The blockstun is insane. The blockstun and pushback on FBs need to change if anything. It's horrible. Unless they do it right in your face, or in a combo, you can't punish it.

 

[CrimsonShadow]

Visually game looks ok but honestly i see no big improvement type of deal there. Yes there are more depths to the arenas but character models looks less detailed and less impressive than MK11.

This was also the case with early Injustice 2 footage, and then it turned into a really polished-looking game graphically by launch.. So I wonder if the same thing will happen here.

 

[SaltShaker]

100% agree with this. The blockstun is insane. The blockstun and pushback on FBs need to change if anything. It's horrible. Unless they do it right in your face, or in a combo, you can't punish it.

@Eddy Wang it looks like it has returned lol.

 

[chud_munson]

After playing the stress test, here are my thoughts;

• Online play feels good, it was laggy few times but not a big deal. At least it didn't kick my ass consistently from the servers like SF6.
• MK1 definetely offers much more than MK11 in terms of fun and gameplay. Combo potential is ok and the mechanics are less frustraiting than MK11, which is a good thing.
• Visually game looks ok but honestly i see no big improvement type of deal there. Yes there are more depths to the arenas but character models looks less detailed and less impressive than MK11.
• Gameplay feels SLOOOOWWWWW AF because Kameo throws makes it slow, back throws makes it slow, useless dashes makes it slow, hit stuns makes it slow, robotic combo strings makes it slow even armored moves of Kitana and Liu Kang slows down the time for no reason. Only reason could be like " did you guys see our dragon effect on Liu Kang's feet " yeah we fucking did, are you happy now? Why time slowing down at the end of first round, why almost everything designed to slow down the fucking time. Definetely feels too clunky and sluggish in compare to Tekken or Street Fighter games and i am not happy with this. This gameplay is so close to be an interactive cinematic experience rather than a fighting game and i see no improvement on these things i mentioned in the future, this is NRS's current gameplay direction on their games, causal makes money and keep them happy.

I don't know that the speed of the game really moves the needle like that for true casual gamers. The case could be made for MK11 because it was so basic and on-rails, that an average gamer could say "I love MK11, I don't have to remember long combos and it's not super fast so I can react". But MK1 has so much with the kameos, extensive aerial options, ridiculously long combos, there's no way it being slow was their interpretation of what's going to make the game casual friendly amongst all that other stuff. If anything, casual gamers are also going to feel weird that there's all this aggro stuff they thought they'd be able to do, but it's all buried in molasses.

I do agree that it feels too sluggish. It's a very strange contrast to how nuts all these combos are and how otherwise free it feels. But at the same time, let's give them a chance to iterate on the feedback. It's not just a few people on a forum saying it's slow, basically every pro player is saying that, every streamer is saying that, Twitter threads are littered with that message. I'd be really surprised if this is what the final game feels like.

All that said, the speed is annoying because the game is otherwise dope as fuck and I'm having a great time.

 

[spidey300]

100% agree with this. The blockstun is insane. The blockstun and pushback on FBs need to change if anything. It's horrible. Unless they do it right in your face, or in a combo, you can't punish it.

i honestly believe this has to be intentional because there is no reason for a super to push me back this far. that's just standard fighting games but nrs always gotta be weird. blockstun feels nasty across the board tbh. feels hard to just counter poke

 

[spidey300]

I don't know that the speed of the game really moves the needle like that for true casual gamers. The case could be made for MK11 because it was so basic and on-rails, that an average gamer could say "I love MK11, I don't have to remember long combos and it's not super fast so I can react". But MK1 has so much with the kameos, extensive aerial options, ridiculously long combos, there's no way it being slow was their interpretation of what's going to make the game casual friendly amongst all that other stuff. If anything, casual gamers are also going to feel weird that there's all this aggro stuff they thought they'd be able to do, but it's all buried in molasses.

I do agree that it feels too sluggish. It's a very strange contrast to how nuts all these combos are and how otherwise free it feels. But at the same time, let's give them a chance to iterate on the feedback. It's not just a few people on a forum saying it's slow, basically every pro player is saying that, every streamer is saying that, Twitter threads are littered with that message. I'd be really surprised if this is what the final game feels like.

All that said, the speed is annoying because the game is otherwise dope as fuck and I'm having a great time.

ran into my first casual today. mics are hot again online and it was a kid who was clearly not happy that i'm doing long combos on him which he expressed with a quitality. nrs has to realize its ok for a game to just be difficult. they need to speed it up

 

[ItsYaBoi]

I’ve warmed to kameos and see their potential - albeit my timing is horrible and I just use them to get me out of a potential jam lol

Overall I loved the stress test but I’m definitely done with it for now. Don’t wanna overdo it and feel any burn out on certain characters.

 

[chud_munson]

ran into my first casual today. mics are hot again online and it was a kid who was clearly not happy that i'm doing long combos on him which he expressed with a quitality. nrs has to realize its ok for a game to just be difficult. they need to speed it up

Right, if the reason it's slow is to appeal to casuals, that's a silly place to optimize for casuals. I can't imagine them speeding this game up and a casual gamer saying "I don't mind learning all these insane combos and tight timing for kameos and learning all this frame data, but I just wish the game was slower."

 

[Kiss the Missile]

Right, if the reason it's slow is to appeal to casuals, that's a silly place to optimize for casuals. I can't imagine them speeding this game up and a casual gamer saying "I don't mind learning all these insane combos and tight timing for kameos and learning all this frame data, but I just wish the game was slower."

Its so weird because it isn't just the movement. Some of the strings themselves are agononizingly slow. Especially some of Liu and Sub's. I was watchingsome of NinjaKilla's videos and legit wondering if the video was playing at a slower speed at some points.

 

[Rathalos]

My random guess on why it feels so slow.
And its probably wrong, but I like to make wild guesses so hear me out.

For MK1, they got a bunch of new people for motion capture, including the Gameology people that did those MK11 videos.
The animations for MK1 look crazy, they have done some amazing work.
However, the new exaggerated animations also seem to have shit load of frames, so everything takes forever.

So I think at least part of it has nothing to do with gameplay, and just they are really proud of their new animations for strings.

Which ironically they would look a lot better sped up, because right now, despite looking cool, them being so drawn out, it just makes them look stiff and stilted lol.

 

[CrimsonShadow]

Right, if the reason it's slow is to appeal to casuals, that's a silly place to optimize for casuals. I can't imagine them speeding this game up and a casual gamer saying "I don't mind learning all these insane combos and tight timing for kameos and learning all this frame data, but I just wish the game was slower."

My guess is that it's nothing to do with casual vs. competitive, and just has to do with the art direction wanting things to look dramatic and cinematic. Style over speed.

Because if you look at it, casuals are definitely not going to have an easy time with this game in ranked. There are a ton of setups, things that require fine timing, and a lot to watch out for with the Kameo usage. Half the time they aren't going to know what hit them or how to deal with a lot of situations.

 

[chud_munson]

Its so weird because it isn't just the movement. Some of the strings themselves are agononizingly slow. Especially some of Liu and Sub's. I was watchingsome of NinjaKilla's videos and legit wondering if the video was playing at a slower speed at some points.

Yeah true. Movement is the big part and the thing I would change if I had to choose just one thing, but literally everything could use a speed bump.

 

[chud_munson]

My guess is that it's nothing to do with casual vs. competitive, and just has to do with the art direction wanting things to look dramatic and cinematic. Style over speed.

Because if you look at it, casuals are definitely not going to have an easy time with this game in ranked. There are a ton of setups, things that require fine timing, and a lot to watch out for with the Kameo usage. Half the time they aren't going to know what hit them or how to deal with a lot of situations.

Well if this is the reason, I'm glad people are being outspoken about it. The animations look awesome and all, but when I've been playing the game for four months I'm going to feel more negatively about the game being too slow than in awe of how great the animation looks that I've seen for the thousandth time.

 

[Metin]

@chud_munson yes Man, i already said that the combo potential is ok, good. My point is all about the neutral and the movement of this game feels like i am controlling 90 years old elder ppl.

 

[Rude]

All I know is I really hope NRS completely ignores almost every one of you. This obsession with wanting the game (or any game in general) to perfectly align with your own preferences 100%, especially when it’s just a stress test, is so obnoxious and pretentious to me. Not saying you can’t express your criticisms and/or complaints or whatever, all I’m saying is I hope NRS doesn’t listen, lol. ¯\(ツ)/¯

This is the second time I'm agreeing with you. Stop it.

 

[Rude]

Chew your asparagus. Im done with this SFV/MK11 "damage by formula" nonsense. I want MK9/ST/MvC/KI/Samurai Showdown damage. When someone whiffs a wakeup i want to turn them inside out.

It's been a long time since you played MK9, hasn't it?

 

[Vslayer]

I've played long sets with two really good players, and I really like the game. Also played Kitana and I appreciate how she plays even if her buttons up close are poopy. I still feel like speed needs to be increased because staggering and backing up is like non existent and it's so weird. But other than that, I think this game will be great.

 

[Eddy Wang]

@Eddy Wang it looks like it has returned lol.

LMAO, to think we had made progress for this in MK11

 

[Juggs]

This is the second time I'm agreeing with you. Stop it.

I like when we disagree, and when we agree tbh. It just always seemed like you hated me more than what I was saying. Which is fair. I understand how I come off on the internet. But anyway, that’s a discussion for another day.

 

[Juggs]

As far as the speed of the game everyone is referring to, all I can go by is what I’ve seen, and all the feedback. It seems the speed is a very common complaint. And as someone who hasn’t gotten to play it, I WILL say that stuff like the Kameo throws, especially Kano’s, definitely seems like it takes forever and that’s just as a viewer. As far as the speed of the gameplay itself, I’m always down for making a game faster. I just hope NRS takes the feedback into consideration but just doesn’t make any drastic changes yet. I have spoken about balance change philosophy in games so many times, so not going to write yet another essay about it here. All I’m saying is I hope NRS takes advice or feedback with a grain of salt, DESPITE who that feedback is coming from. And also, just because a bunch of people are complaining about the same thing, that doesn’t mean their complaints are warranted.

That’s all

 

[Kiss the Missile]

As far as the speed of the game everyone is referring to, all I can go by is what I’ve seen, and all the feedback. It seems the speed is a very common complaint. And as someone who hasn’t gotten to play it, I WILL say that stuff like the Kameo throws, especially Kano’s, definitely seems like it takes forever and that’s just as a viewer. As far as the speed of the gameplay itself, I’m always down for making a game faster. I just hope NRS takes the feedback into consideration but just doesn’t make any drastic changes yet. I have spoken about balance change philosophy in games so many times, so not going to write yet another essay about it here. All I’m saying is I hope NRS takes advice or feedback with a grain of salt, DESPITE who that feedback is coming from. And also, just because a bunch of people are complaining about the same thing, that doesn’t mean their complaints are warranted.

That’s all

Whats an example of a time you think they took general game complaints and corrected the issue too far

 

[Juggs]

Whats an example of a time you think they took general game complaints and corrected the issue too far

Honestly, typically when there’s a lot of general gameplay complaints, it’s over something that can’t really be changed or addressed in a balance patch. For instance the combo system as a whole or disliking variations. So not all that much could be done about that. But they definitely could alter the speed of the game, not just with speeding up throws and other similar things, but the overall gameplay speed as well. And again, not necessarily saying they should or shouldn’t, as I have no idea. That’s my point though, neither does anyone else who actually got a chance to play the stress test. There’s simply not even close to enough information to make a drastic change of any kind (that’s gameplay related of course) at this point based on public feedback. As I said, I haven’t even played the game and I personally wouldn’t mind seeing it sped up. But at the same time, maybe the speed is just fine and it makes sense when you take the newer build and more characters into consideration. What I want, personally, is irrelevant. Which even includes me wanting them to take their time with balance changes. Me wanting that is ultimately irrelevant, but I can at least acknowledge that fact and not feel as though I’m entitled to it.

TLDR: I encourage everyone to give all the constructive feedback they think is necessary, and hopefully NRS takes it into consideration. But also I hope NRS will take into consideration that the feedback is based on players playing for only 3-4 days, with only 4 playable characters, a few Kameos, with no training mode, on likely an outdated build (have they mentioned if it was an older build or not?), and that most of the interactions were based on online play.

I feel like that’s a reasonable hope or request. If anyone thinks it isn’t, feel free to disagree and explain why.

 

[superbn0va]

Definetely feels too clunky and sluggish in compare to Tekken or Street Fighter games and i am not happy with this. This gameplay is so close to be an interactive cinematic experience rather than a fighting game and i see no improvement on these things i mentioned in the future, this is NRS's current gameplay direction on their games, causal makes money and keep them happy.

Agree and howcome almost nobody mentions this on a fighting game forum ? Lmoa The games can be so much better if it just improved on the movement and normals. NRS: combo's vs specials..

 

[kabelfritz]

After playing the stress test, here are my thoughts;

• MK1 definetely offers much more than MK11 in terms of fun and gameplay. Combo potential is ok and the mechanics are less frustraiting than MK11, which is a good thing.

can you elaborate on that? mk 11 had so many issues, like

• being neutral focused on paper while everybody and their moms had tools to just bypass neutral
• gigantic baby-toy sized hitboxes that made full-screen limb-swinging the most viable tactic.
• offense that took a child to execute and a god to defend against
• an amount of possibilities in any situation that made the game drift into randomness.
• overall janky, unpolished feeling that seemed like NRS randomly mashed "cool" mechanics together without ever really reflecting and iterating the outcome.

did changes happen regarding these points? thank you!

oh and for the record, i love high jail, hope that stayed.