POLL: Should Custom Variations be allowed in competitive play? (local tournaments, online ranked)

[Krankk]

Isn’t that the same end result of preset variations? People figure out the “best” one, and that’s what you see the most of. Except in MK11’s case, it would consist of a move or two you don’t actually want or use.

Of course. But NRS also said they would keep adding more preset variations to ranked. That would keep things fresh and encourage you to try something new.
With custom variations you would deem the new variation as unviable trash and would proceed to use the optimized loadout.

You really have to realize the mindset of players in a competitive environment. In ranked no one would want to try a zoning Baraka with his high fireball.
In casual play they might try new things. Especially to see if these could work in ranked.

I've seen people state that they don't use their favorite characters in ranked, because it's easier to get wins with other characters. Optional variation push that to the extreme.

But all of that is just my opinion. I see that the majority of other players is for custom variations, so who am I to talk bad about it.

 

[Lt. Boxy Angelman]

No.
Too much to balance and memorize. I’m gonna be repeating this all the time

Then they shouldn't compete.

Somewhere out there, there are Tekken and KOF players reading this thread and laughing their actual tits off.

If the major underlying reason for customization not being made competitive is that the community isn't competitive enough to warrant it, that's on us. Even though I think top players having so much influence over game balance has been a poisonous influence since MKX. There's a reason #BanTheTesters used to be a thing, but now our champions might as well BE our testers for the amount of influence they have, so...knock on wood it all turns out okay?

 

[Slips]

What's most puzzling to me was NRS took a stance as if they had something new planned and were working on it. The Kotal/Jacqui Kombat Kast they literally said they got a lot of questions about it but they're not ready to talk about because they aren't ready to, which implies they have something new and special to unveil.

I guess the only thing special was the $$$ they were going to make by letting GameInformer reveal the information for them?

Just baffling because this has been harped about for months and they've never given an indication that they would just rehash what they did in Injustice 2. It was always a vague answer that they're working on it. Even the Gameinformer article it's still kind of vague. Injustice 2 they specifically would tell the viewers what moves were meant for competitive mode and which weren't. The communication was there.

Feels like NRS pulled the wool over our eyes on this, intentional or not. And a lot of disappointment in that alone.

 

[Error404]

NRS has already chosen preset variations over custom variations for competitive play. The purpose of threads such as this one is to incite an indignant mob who is willing to spam Ed Boon's Twitter account incessantly. I am also waiting for any leaders in the community to publicly criticize Sonic Fox for "inducing fear and panic" about the variation system on Twitter.

There is a lot to criticize him for . But not this. The community wants custom variations . If his complaing is how we get it , so be it.

 

[fireborg]

I am thinking out loud...

Were varation specific moves in mkx as many as optional in mk11?

If yes, then go knock yourself out, mix them how you want

Because its not so much about knowing the specific custom variation, but the the nature of moves it contains. If you see what the opponent equipped and you familiar with the moves,it should not be such a problem i think

Time is the issue and learning all the moves ..and if there are not many more moves to learn than in mkx

That being said im surprised about the backlash, thought TYM is mostly a competetive community, that will put balance first

 

[SaSSolino]

Why they want to keep this new feature off screen is beyond me. Give us custom variation for competitive NRS!

 

[fireborg]

Test you might

 

[HeavyNorse]

It's kinda sucky that they went "Hey, look at this new cool feature we put in Mortal Kombat!" and then went "Oh, btw, you can't use it in competitive..."

I truly hope they will change their mind and unlock it in an early patch or something.

 

[Agilaz]

The only way to make preset-only acceptable is if they follow through and make sure that each and every existing move for a character is playable across the THREE variations. Not two, not four, three.

Because if you're gonna have characters with two variations and characters with four variations, how is that any better than custom variations?

I hope they change this. Otherwise it's gonna be a whole lot of "damn that moves looks cool, too bad I'll never get to use it"

Edit: also, some people need be honest with themselves. No, you're not against customs cause "it's a competitive shitshow". Most of you weren't winning shit before, and you're not gonna start now. Just admit you're not willing to put in the time

 

[DragonofDadashov24]

Then they shouldn't compete.

Somewhere out there, there are Tekken and KOF players reading this thread and laughing their actual tits off.

If the major underlying reason for customization not being made competitive is that the community isn't competitive enough to warrant it, that's on us. Even though I think top players having so much influence over game balance has been a poisonous influence since MKX. There's a reason #BanTheTesters used to be a thing, but now our champions might as well BE our testers for the amount of influence they have, so...knock on wood it all turns out okay?

I still have doubts about this. NRS isn’t famous for balacing their games. Comparing MK with Tekken isn’t sensible

 

[Tanno]

Voted yes.

The recipes of the variations and the gear systems from MKX and INJ2, respectively, failed.

Gear system locked out the additional abilities that would make the match more interesting and different to see. Doing the same abilities over and over, even in competitive mode, makes the matches quite boring, because you can predict and expect at what the opponent will do next.

Pre-set variations got half of the useful abilities in one, and the other half of the useful abilities in another. This made quite a handicap at those characters against their opponents, making it quite unfair, i.e. Sub Zero VS Ermac. In MKX we didn't use many of the abilities, because we deemed useless. And the same happened with INJ2, which had almost everything presetted.

I'm all in for the custom variations to make this match more intriguing and hype to see. I'd love to see new stuff, like combos with different ability combinations, OKI setups and ways to escape them, and which ability could counter another, etc, that we don't see everyday. You can't rule everything out, because it's MK, and in MK one rule stands up: Finish him!

I don't give a shit about the ranked, because of the ragequitters. I do give a shit about competitive only and am only interested in it.

If you want to make the custom variation for your own fighter, just select the fighter you desire, and then your desired abilities to fill the slots in, and then you're ready to go.

 

[Zhidoreptiloid]

I think those, who voted "yes" must called yourself as "casuals" and never say any word about competetive play

 

[SpiceWeasel]

Of course YES!

Why put so much Money and Time and Effort in this feature and then don´t use it?

That would be super disappointing and a big Fail from NRS imo

Just MKX with a facelift...

 

[kabelfritz]

sounds really intriguing, there is just one risk: it could break everything.

what i'd love: test more and more (player-generated) movesets as the game is played and add them as fixed variations to competitve play if theyre widely accepted as balanced. its virtually no effort to add a variation name and set into the game and adds a lot while minimizing risks. characters can have like 10 variations if theyve proven their balance.

 

[Eddy Wang]

this is why i hate variations

 

[chrisofrays]

I think now that balance wise, custom variations would only be crazy at the begining of the games competitive life. Once everyone figures out what works best each character will have an optimal build or style that most people will play.

I dont really know how to solve the problem of character selection at tournaments. Maybe we could have some sort of code input that selects moves and costumes ect. But that still would be clunky...

 

[REYTHEGREAT]

I don't understand why the community wants custom variations for competitive play. Custom variation allows the player to equip their character with, potentially, really powerful abilities. Therefore, making that character top tier or broken. Some character will benefit greatly from this and other not so much. This will also make it harder to lab because you don't know what you are expecting. If you want custom variation, leave it for casual play and not competitive play.

 

[Baygon]

I don't understand why the community wants custom variations for competitive play. Custom variation allows the player to equip their character with, potentially, really powerful abilities. Therefore, making that character top tier or broken. Some character will benefit greatly from this and other not so much. This will also make it harder to lab because you don't know what you are expecting. If you want custom variation, leave it for casual play and not competitive play.

So you are saying that some characters will be top tier and some wont. Just like every fighting game before. Don't get me wrong, im agreeing with you. If they allow custom variations everyone will pick whats current meta (misery blade + demon dash). But custom variations also allow players to pick a less optimal move if they think that their opponent didn't lab it. And I think thats fine.

 

[DDustiNN]

I don't understand why the community wants custom variations for competitive play. Custom variation allows the player to equip their character with, potentially, really powerful abilities. Therefore, making that character top tier or broken. Some character will benefit greatly from this and other not so much. This will also make it harder to lab because you don't know what you are expecting. If you want custom variation, leave it for casual play and not competitive play.

It’s not harder to lab. Regardless of the variation layouts, you still have 8-10 individual moves to learn how to defend.

 

[NothingPersonal]

It’s not harder to lab. Regardless of the variation layouts, you still have 8-10 individual moves to learn how to defend.

Exactly. The match-up excuse just doesn't hold up. You'd have to learn all the moves regardless since NRS wants to include them all in a variation.

 

[PLAYING TO WIN]

If NRS would have made it clear from the start we would not be having this crisis. Why did we not have this issue in mkx or i2? Bc expectations were managed appropriately with clarification timing and kombat kast breakdowns.

 

[Marlow]

I voted yes, but I kind of understand where NRS is coming from. I guess the benefit to not having custom variations is that adds a bit of consistency/stability to the competitive side. Players wouldn't need to worry about learning every possible combination of moves for whoever they're playing, they'd only need to know a handful of preset variations. Also NRS wouldn't need to worry as much about potential balance issues.

Still, I'd rather deal with those issues and get a chance to see competitive players show off their custom builds in tournament. Adds that extra personal touch, and really lets a player play their favorite character their way.

 

[Xelz]

I think those, who voted "yes" must called yourself as "casuals" and never say any word about competetive play

Then you’d call Sonic Fox, Hayate, Ketchup and Mustard casuals? Because they’ve been vocal on social media about wanting to keep custom variations in tournament play. And if they’re casual players, then everyone is a casual player

 

[TaserFace007]

I voted yes, but I kind of understand where NRS is coming from. I guess the benefit to not having custom variations is that adds a bit of consistency/stability to the competitive side. Players wouldn't need to worry about learning every possible combination of moves for whoever they're playing, they'd only need to know a handful of preset variations. Also NRS wouldn't need to worry as much about potential balance issues.

Still, I'd rather deal with those issues and get a chance to see competitive players show off their custom builds in tournament. Adds that extra personal touch, and really lets a player play their favorite character their way.

I don't know if the competitive players needing to learn stuff is really much of a thing. It's the same in a preset system like in MKX where you had close to 100 variations and not everybody could learn everything.

I remember one competitive match where Sonic Fox picked Jason and just destroyed his opponent because nobody really used Jason before that, so the guy had no idea how to counter him. After that, people were like "Hey, Jason is actually pretty good. I should learn him and practice defending against his combos". The same would hold true for lesser used abilities. If nobody really uses Scorpion's Death Spin and then someone starts dominating after discovering a cool new way to use Death Spin, then people would say "Hey, Death Spin is actually pretty good. I should learn it and practice defending against his combos".

Training on one of the lesser used variations is still considered a good strategy in MKX because the lack of experience opponents have against it lets you do some unexpected things to get past their defense, even if the variation itself is one of the weaker ones. Similarly, loading Kung Lao's underused Ability E and Ability G would be a good strategy even if they're weaker ones because it could let you do some unexpected things to get past their defenses. It's the exact same thing, just a different way of getting to it.

 

[DixieFlatline78]

Yes, but they already revealed that the game isnt balanced for custom variations. And while I think the idea would be really fun, it apparently isnt the vision they have. Hopefully the variations they do include are good, but a lot of them seemed sort of lacking from what I saw. Maybe if the fan response is big enough it might convince them to rethink their stance