Player Ranks and Numbers

I think today is the day where I talk about something I really don’t like about Mortal Kombat X. The ranking system. Or more specifically, the numbers they have chosen to share with us, in regards to the ranking system.

In online matches, where the *real* game is (at least according to this blogger), you will see a rectangle of information about yourself and your opponent before each match. I’ll throw a pic of this up on my instagram @maulakai, but I’m sure you know what I mean.

The default picture on the rectangle is of Scorpion. But as you play more, you earn more pictures and decals to decorate the rectangle with. It took me a fair bit of searching to discover the name was the Kombat Bar. At least I think that’s what it’s called, I have no real way to verify.

But the most prominent thing on the Kombat Bar are the numbers on the right and left side. Again, there’s nothing in the game to tell us what these numbers are and what they mean. It’s like a mystery that they wanted to unravel outside of the game, in search engines and twitch.tv chat. Or maybe their interface isn’t so user friendly. But the number on the right is below the icon of your faction. It displays your faction level. The funny thing about your faction level is that it has no bearing on how well you play the game *at all*. As a person who plays Mortal Kombat because I like skill based strategy games, I find this absurd. Why is one of the most prominently displayed numbers on the Kombat Bar displaying useless information?

The other side of the bar, the left side, displays your Player Level. Here, was the number I wanted to see. I mean, doesn’t everybody in an online ranked match want to see a number that tells them how good they are. They want to be able to talk to their friends and coworkers and say “I’m a level XX in Mortal-fucking-Kombat!”

But it turns out, that number doesn’t say how good your are, either. That number corresponds to experience, not a true rank or skill. Now it is true, to some degree, that experience correlates with skill. But not always. Case in point is my own. I started off on the PC version of the game, and gained a great deal of experience and skill. Then, I switched to the much more playable PS4 version of the game. Whala, you have a level 1 player who plays with the skill of a level 30.

Now this is where I start to get a little bit mad at the devs. Because this has echoes of StarCraft 2 all over again. Where the devs somehow trick themselves into thinking that black is white and up is down and short is long and the players of their game don’t want to know what their ranking is.

I’m sure they give us the number. Buried, somewhere, deep in the menu screen. I just don’t get why they can’t trust us to have that number, right there, front and center, where we can see it on the Kombat Kard, and wear our *true* ranking with pride.

What they do give you, is a tease. Because when the match is first displayed, and only for a few seconds that first time you see the Kombat Kards, they will show you your percentage chance to win. Obviously, the only way to calculate that is to have your number in the rankings.

And here is another aspect of the game design that I don’t like. They don’t give you the information, they *tease* you with it.

Let me put that into context. Sometimes, when I’m waiting for a match, it can take minutes or more. It’s a fair bit longer than I’m used to waiting to get matched online. More and more, and I’m sure I’m not alone, I find myself using that in-between game time. So maybe I’m putting dishes away in the nearby kitchen, and I hear the sound of the match finally starting. But by the time I walk to where I can see the screen, the information is gone. Now I have to choose my character without the benefit of the information they *teased* me with.

Come on Ed Boon, just leave the Kards up!

So I’m not sure, but I think my ranking number is somewhere in the 200,000’s. Is that any good? There’s also the issue of having one global rank versus having a separate ranking for each character. Because when I play as Jacqui Briggs, I really can fight with level fifties. But not so for my Kotal Kahn.

I want to end this post, but not without a word on what went on last night. As I’m sure you’re aware, the Play Station Network went down last night. Right on a Friday night when everyone had just sat down to play. And that killed me. That tortured my soul. Why did the gods not want me to play Mortal Kombat?

I agonized over what to do, and finally broke and fired up the Steam client on my computer. If I had to purchase two copies of Mortal Kombat, and if I wasn’t going to get my money back, and it sure seems like I’m not, then at least I could play the PC version while the PS4 was down.

But because I hadn’t used the Steam version for so long, it had to download a major patch. Which required me to wait hours. In other words, no Mortal Kombat for me on Friday night. And there I was tempted to make a new first world problems meme where I cry, “I have to play Battle.net … Because the Play Station Network is down!”

TL;DR Displayed rank match information is obscure and useless. PC and PS4 game versions were unplayable for me on Fri. night.

Sun God, War God

First of all, if you didn’t already know, I wrote a StarCraft 2 Blog. I might link it here. I’m not going to talk too much about StarCraft. I just wanted to mention the concept of Cheese.

Cheese is where you use a really gimmicky attack, which often takes advantage of the enemy not being prepared for it, to win a game before your opponent thought the battle had even begun. If you play on the ladder and win a game by cheese, there’s a good chance you’ll be mocked for having done so.

But if you watch professional StarCraft 2 games, the pros cheese, too. In other words, it’s a completely valid form of gameplay. The crux of the problem is that cheese is usually really easy to perform, even for a noob who has just learned to play. But to defend against cheese takes real skill that a player might have to practice for months to be able to do.

Well Mortal Kombat X also has cheese. Except they don’t call it cheese, they call it Spam, or even Zoning. The best example of this is Jacqui Briggs. Her full auto variation has a four bullet gun shot that you can spam till the cows come home. It’s almost impossible to jump over (althought that level 65 I played against managed to do so). You can duck under it, but Jacqui builds meter every time she shoots, and she can spend a bar to shoot a rocket that can’t be ducked under.

Which basically makes it your typical form of MK cheese. But what I only just learned was that Jacqui Briggs isn’t the only character who can do so. I’ve had a battle against Scorpion, the variation that can summon a minion to attack. Well just the same, Scorpion could spam that minion attack. And just like Jacqui, he can vary it up by having the minion attack from below if he feels you’re a little too comfortable with blocking high.

But not only him. Kung Jin has a similar variation. He can spam his arrows all day, and if you try to jump, he has a kind of glowing ball attack that he can use to stop you from jumping over the arrows to get into attacking range.

One of the reasons why I can understand people hating these attacks is because they rely so heavily on timing to counter. A split second can make the difference between win and loss, between a counter and an pwnage.

Since you know I like to play as Kotal Kahn, this is very dangerous. Sun god or War god, Kotal Kahn’s only projectile is so slow, it will never help in these situations. He has to close the distance. And while this is done easily enough by simply taking a step or two forward in between volleys, your ping better be low enough for you to pull it off.

Because War God Kotal Kahn’s main advantage is his sword, and because his sword attacks are so slow, I decided to give the Sun God variation a day. My main reasoning behind this was his ability to command grab. When an enemy has me trapped in the corner, I would be able to command grab myself out of the situation. Or so I thought.

Turns out the command grab isn’t everything I thought it would be. Either I’m doing something wrong, or the grab simply doesn’t work the way I want it to. But in the course of my playing the new variation, I learned a few new combos that I didn’t really need to learn as War God.

The first is incredibly useful, especially right at the start of the match. Forward front punch, back punch. Do it right, and Kahn will shoulder charge forward, and follow it up with a punch that will knock your opponent across the screen.

The second is Back front punch, back punch, back punch. That’s a three hit combo that Kahn will walk forward while performing. Against, it’s very useful at the start of the match, and it ends with an overhead that many opponents aren’t used to blocking.

I found that I can often spam the first combo to get my opponent into the corner. Then, once he’s there, I can use the second combo to keep him in the corner. Throw in his overhead punch, and a neutral jump punch or two, and in almost no time at all I learned how to win a game by keeping baby in the corner. I even took a match off a level 66 the other day, just by pushing Kahn’s weight around.

But still, his command grab isn’t quite what I thought it would be. I’m now tempted to take the knowledge that I learned back to War God. That variation would let me add an extra sword strike into my combos, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be a force to be reckoned with.

Kahn also has a running uppercut. In practice mode, I can hit with it the first time, get a second hit while my opponent is still in the air, light punch him twice, and then grab him out of the air for 27% damage. But for some reason, I can never pull it off in an actual match.

If I don’t feel like risking it, I can just uppercut him once and grab him out of the air, but then the damage is only about 20%. I know for a character like Kahn, you really have to take maximum damage every chance you get, so I’m going to keep working on it until I can give the beatdown consistently.

Dealing with Jacqui Briggs

So I still haven’t heard anything about my credit card dispute. My gut feeling is that I’ll wind up still having to pay for the PC version, which I’ll never use again.

I’m continuing to play as Jacqui Briggs as my main, especially when I’m matched up against stronger players. But I also feel like Kotal Kahn now, is my secondary character. I like to bust him out when I’m paired against a much weaker player, and looking for a bit of a change.

Just the other day, for the first time, someone I know in RL messaged me for a game on the PlayStation network. I actually left the game I was playing to play with him. It was the first time I’ve played MKX with someone I know, and not just a random ladder game.

For what it’s worth, this friend of mine doesn’t usually play ladder games. He told me he likes to play the Towers, which I guess is just against the AI of the computer. I guess it’s just a personal difference of opinion. But I am curious to know about all of you out there. Do you keep it vs the PC, or do you prefer to play against humans?

I made a promise to myself, long ago, that I would no longer take part in contests of skill against computers. It simply doesn’t interest me. I think it was being annoyed at a game of Mario Kart that made me feel that way. Because I knew I was racing as good as I could, and that the computer was cheating. That’s why I only play against humans, anyway.

For this reason, I wouldn’t mind beating the game, but I’d probably just watch the cutscenes on youtube instead.

I now routinely get matched against players in the high fifties and even in the sixties. These players are always way better than I am, and I’m pretty much guaranteed a loss. But they do give me clues to how to play against Jacqui, which happened to me only once so far.

The most common strategy for dealing with her uzi spam is to sneak up, centimeter by centimeter. In between the shots, even if she’s spamming, you have the opportunity to walk forward a few steps. After a few volleys, you should be close enough to hit her with a special. Closing the distance also makes an armor special move work, where the same wouldn’t work if Jacqui manages to fire enough.

Of course the best way to deal with Jacqui is to select a character that can teleport. Raiden, Mileena, Kung Lao, and his son are all top choices for fighting against Jacqui. I find Ermac and Scorpion to be the most difficult.

That’s why, at the top level of MKX play, you really need to make use of the hidden cursor at the select screen. MKX is a game where there is a clear advantage if you are able to select your character in response to your opponent’s choice.

The Devs knew this, and allow you to blind pick. Which I like. But I wonder, at a tournament, is it considered cheating to look at your opponent’s hands. Because believe you me, you can read what character he’s selecting if you really want to.

For all of my experience with MKX, I have to say I think Ermac is the most OP. Because of his teleport attacks, you really can’t safely jump at him. I’m thinking he must have the easiest combos, because most every Ermac player I fight is able to do some massive, 33% combos involving that force grab of his. The range on that special move, by the way, is massive. You have to be literally all the way on the other side of the screen to zone it.

Lastly, I’m wondering who my third character should be. I’ve been leaning towards D’Vora, but I might as easily go for Erron Black.

Hit me up @maulakai

#fixpc

So the other day I was talking to a man who also has a Steam account. He told me that I could have avoided my return of MKX for PC had I purchased the game as a gift for myself. Apparently, if you outright buy a game on Steam, they don’t issue refunds. But if you buy it as a gift for yourself, they do. What a shitty customer service policy. This whole drama hasn’t even played out, but already I’m sure that I won’t ever be doing business with Steam ever again.

I saw another interview with Ed Boon on twitch.tv. In this interview, *everyone* in the chat channel was spamming #fixpc. Finally, we got to the point in the show where he addressed some issues on Twitter. No mention of how broken the PC version is.

That really made me angry. So I went home and did what any reasonable person would do. I called up my credit card to dispute the charge. In the mean time, I’m playing on PS4. I’m still using Jacqui Briggs. Yesterday, I was matched up against a level 65! I didn’t even know the levels went that high. But it’s clear to me that I’m competing against absolute top level opponents.

Make no mistake about it, I don’t really think I belong there. I mean, I’m good and all, but not that good. I’m just milking the full auto variation for everything it’s worth. I also had a few guys get mad enough to tea bag me, and one guy even sent a ton of angry messages after he lost to me, calling me a girl. He was a level fifty something, and I won despite having only a 3% chance.

Then there’s also the issue that, at this point, I’ve paid for the DLC, but of course, on the PC version. So while everyone else is having fun with Jason, I don’t have access to anything. I preordered the game, but I can’t use Goro. I’ve never had such mixed feelings about a game before. On the one hand, I love the game and I love to play it. But on the other hand, these fuckers seduced us into pre ordering a game that wasn’t ready, and now that they have my money, they’re laughing all the way to the bank.

If you also have the PC version and you’re pissed, let them know. Stop payment on your credit card. File a complaint with the Better  Business Bureau, which will be my next step. And let’s keep tweeting and instagraming about this injustice. @maulakai #fixpc

I see the mortalkombat section of reddit blowing up now, from all the complaints about the new patch. People are saying they’ve lost all of their data, and then have to download a second giant patch. It’s crazy.

Jacqui Briggs

So I’ve been playing for a while now, and one of the least used characters I’ve come across is Jacqui Briggs.

The one time I did come up against her, she kicked my ass. She used the Full Auto variation, and I can remember the variation because she continuously fired an uzi at me. The style of play was pretty cheap, because she is (the only?) character to fire a stream of bullets. Making it impossible to jump over the projectile, like you would with most fireballs.

She also has the ability to shoot a rocket out with the uzi, and the rocket will hit a crouching player and knock him down. I’m not sure if I’m doing a good job of describing how cheap this variant is, but it feels to me like it’s the cheapest variant in the game.

I suppose it depends on the matchup. Against teleporting players like Mileena and Scorpion, the technique is much less effective. But she’s still a very skillless, spam attack style player. Because Jacqui Briggs Full Auto can do great chip damage, and because she’s so weak at close range, she really has to take full advantage of the ability to keep the opponent at range, and get maximum chip damage.

That also makes her strongest against characters like Devora and Kotal Kahn, against players who can’t teleport and who have no way of closing the gap.

So naturally, I started playing with Jacqui. Turns out, I did really well. I started winning against players who were twenty levels higher than me. I got double flawless victories. And when I was finally matched up against a player strong enough to beat me, he showed just how pissed he was at my scrub, spam attack style of play that he teabagged me unmercifully.

On Twitch.tv, there’s a guy who plays with Jacqui Briggs, and he plays much the same way. Like I said, you really have to play Jacqui that way, spamming her gun, and letting it push her opponents back to where they’re helpless. It’s so cheap, even against a Scorpion, the bullets can hit him before he zones, and keep him at range.

And while I find it incredibly easy to play and win with her, I really think she’s the kind of character that I would nerf, or remove from the game entirely. The one big question I have is why aren’t more people playing with her?

I also want to mention that while many of the classic Mortal Kombat characters are in this game, it seems pretty clear that the new, younger generation is the superior group. Cassy Cage, Kung Jin, and that annoying kid with the jump ropes are all very tough characters to beat. I like the fact that Mortal Kombat has finally turned its Dhalsim character into a viable choice, but man are his combos OP.

Kotal Kahn

The first Mortal Kombat X character I was interested in was Kotal Kahn. I was surprised that I chose him to learn first. My previous favorite had always been Reptile. Or, to be more technically accurate, I liked the old school Reptile, which was a palette swap of Scorpion and Subzero.

But the new Reptile has his own look. Sure, it’s more reptillian, and he has all kinds of bones hanging on him like armor. But that new Reptile just doens’t appeal to me like the old one did.

So why did Kotal Kahn appeal to me? Well, I’m a writer, in case you hadn’t noticed. Though I never published the book, I wrote a book where a South American god was resurrected. I called him Quetzalcoatl. But Kotal Kahn looks close enough to how I imagined him, that I simply had to play with him.

I like the War God variation. The one where he gets a giant sword with an obsidian blade. And I don’t like the other variations because they’re both totem based. I don’t think MKX is a good game for totems, because many other characters can hit you with a projectile in the time it takes you to drop one.

I actually chose the War God variation because I thought he was the only variation with a projectile. Turns out the Sun God has one, too. What’s more, my War God variation’s projectile is slow. I’m pretty sure it’s the slowest projectile in the game. If you do it at the same time as almost any other character, your cast is going to get interrupted. Pretty much the only time you can safely throw your sword as the War God, is after throwing your opponent, when you have a moment to cast while he’s still getting up. So it kinda sucks, but at least it’s something you can use to keep your opponent guessing.

What I like about Kotal Kahn is that he has an unblockable stomp. That’s very useful. I also like the way his Xray works. It’s easy to hit an opponent with, and it does a ton of damage. It’s clear to me that Kotal Kahn is the Zangief of MKX. He probably won’t get that many combos off, but when he does land, it’s going to hurt.

His biggest weakness is his speed. He’s so damn slow, that almost nothing works when you’re up against a fast character like Mileena. But his saving grace is his front punch and kicks, especially the low ones. You can block, jab in with that punch, and hopefully string it out into a big combo.

I’m also quite a fan of cutting out your opponent’s heart and drinking the blood out of it. I know, it’s more of a classic Kano fatality, but I think the game designers have re-purposed this combo perfectly.

That being said, the one thing that holds me back from being better with my Kotal Kahn play is the fact that I’m not particularly good at landing combos. Combos are new to me, as they didn’t really exist in their current form back in the original Mortal Kombat. With Kotal Kahn, you really have to do something in the order of 30% - 50% each time you land a hit, otherwise, you’ve lost. So I’m going to continue to practice on that.

One other note is Kotal Kahn’s uppercut. It’s a bit of an awkward punch. I’ve noticed that against some characters, like Scorpion and Subzero, it doesn’t counter they forward jump kick, which is kind of a bummer.

At first, I tried to counter it with the overhead sword strike. But that didn’t seem to work either, the sword animation looks like it should connect, but it doesn’t.

Then, just last night, I discovered that his Forward+2 (did I cite that correctly? Forward + Back Punch) makes him run forward and do an uppercut. That uppercut counters nearly anything in the air. Because he runs forward when he does it, the move is likely to catch many players off guard, thinking they’re safe to jump forward. And they would be against many characters. Just not Kotal Kahn.

@maulakai