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[Duuvian]

I searched thread titles for Mortal Kombat in Other Games but I didn't find one for 11, which surprised me. I picked it up on sale early in the Pandemic, and have only played against computer opponents until recently. I very much enjoyed the story modes (the Tsang Tsun DLC story was included). It is quite similar in format to the Injustice story mode, in that it essentially is watching a movie while playing the fight scenes. I would rate it the best Mortal Kombat movie I've watched when viewed from that perspective (also someone is producing a new Mortal Kombat movie I hear, hopefully that's good)

Spoiler: Many large story mode screenshots (click to show/hide)

I had others but they have story spoiler subtitles.

Spoiler: My background image (click to show/hide)

I played my first online match a few days ago and I had such a blast I played about 70 more matches hah. I was playing Kasual, the tournament 20 ends in a week or so so I figured I'd see how I do at Kasual until the next one starts.

The answer is there are people way better than me by leagues, which is cool. I like playing those. I once even was lucky enough to be matched up against somneone with thousands of matches on record while I had the too high estimate of 4% chance of beating them. They were really cool and pulled a lot of characters to beat me up with, so I could see what common character picks look like (he maybe was comparing my Kung Lao to common picks too; I've never seen another Kung Lao except the one he beat me with in our final match... pretty sure they even had to look at the moves list and still beat me 2x! after I took the first round due to their inexperience with the character I assume). I never won a full match against them, barely squeeked out a very few individual rounds when it was a good character matchup in my favor. The last match where they chose Kung Lao, the character I use, they won with a Brutality and punched my Kung Lao apart, at which point his Kung Lao turned his back and said "Clearly I'm better". I laughed my butt off but I think he felt bad a little and moved on to the next opponent.

Spoiler: Large images; video game gore; the above person's handiwork (click to show/hide)

I'm really glad I was matched against such a kind and superior opponent; I was able to learn from facing a much better player showcasing most of the common competitive picks (or so I assume).

I also fought someone awesome who just let the game pick a random character and preset and winged it. They ended up with Skarlett and were doing pretty well (I wish I knew how to send them a message in game to tell them what was going wrong after I figured it out; they switched to a jumping game sometimes and it was easy to counter with Kung Lao), we ended up pretty even until I figured out that person's Skarlett a little better.

However I can't find Kasual matches using the tournament character build restrictions (it's called Kompetitive mode or something; I think without confirming that it only restricts character builds to presets and isn't actually more 'kompetitive' than the other Kasual mode), which means once in a while I THINK I am running into a gimmick build that is just way too mechanically good for me to beat in my inexperience of how to beat certain moves. For example I played against a Noob Saibot that had the ground slide, the low teleport attack, and the unblockable (in my inexperience) but mid speed ranged attack. Now if it weren't for the ranged attack going through both standing and ducking blocks, you could just hold block low and wait to punish on a block since they are relying on low attacks. The problem is as it's unblockable, it staggers you at range and allows his teleport or slide; if you jump (or even if I used Kung Lao's teleports or Shaolin diagonal kick) he just does the upwards teleport. I quit out after a few matches because I'm seeing a trend in these kinds of builds already in the two day's I've tried online, in that their goal isn't interesting or educational matches if they stick around to beat up a noobie but rather a goal of forcing new players to leave through a combination of greater experience and builds that are designed to frustrate the inexperienced.

I guess my question would be, does anyone play this? Is it ever possible to find Kasual matches with the Kompetitive setting on (so that it's restricted to tournament allowed builds only)? I'm trying to learn my first character so while I could start over with a different one I'd rather get good at this one first; if I keep playing I'll learn a second one (or do it sooner if I'm still playing it when or if they add Reptile in a cheap DLC because that was what I used to play back on SNES and/or Playstation 1 in the old days). I like Kung Lao so far, it feels like maybe he isn't a popular pick so his moves aren't well known but I don't think he's top tier. I picked him because I thought he had the best line in the story:

Spoiler: Story mode spoilers (click to show/hide)

someone: "Raiden gave Liu Kang his power and now Liu is a firegod!" Kung Lao "Of course he is."

I also have some questions about unofficial etiquette. If I win first, I always do a Friendship. However this seems to enrage a small percentage of players. I was wondering if it's because Kung Lao's friendship involves a train, and if they are assuming that I am implying they need to train more to beat me. That would be rude; I just do the friendship unless they fatality me first; at which point I'll chop them up once if I'm able before doing friendships again. Am I somehow being rude without realizing it, and should go for a non-finishing move knockout (walk up and jab etc?) instead of spamming Friendships?

Spoiler: Friendships (click to show/hide)

I really like this game; I've only run into the above gimmick build issue maybe 4 times; but I also don't know enough to recognize which are gimmick builds to troll new players. I don't know the tournament allowed character builds, so for all I know that Noob Saibot could be a totally legit tournament build but I kind of doubt it (Kasual non-Kompetitive mode lets you use builds banned in the tournaments for being broken in some way for that kind of competitive play or something). For example of one that seems like it could be a tournament build played by a much better player, I've seen the same really nasty Joker build I can't touch a few times (the boxing glove extenders, the wheelchair guy, and the low batman puppet with the gun on the ground) but they were also both obviously way, way better than me. Same with a Scorpion with kombo mixups for days; I had to be perfect blocking to hit him. I foolishly rematched about 20 times; since then I've learned how to mix in low kombos so I might do better now as I was relying on grabs to get through blocks at the time. I came close to winning 2 a few times IIRC but no banana (he was a Scorpion in yellow you see). I stuck it out until I realized I couldn't win at my current experience level unless I was just perfect at guessing which high/low Kombo they would use, and then I stuck it out some more trying to achieve perfection, and then I kind of just hoped they would leave until I finally shamefully exited out.

I think what I did wrong was not doing that sooner, since I was basically allowing it to happen after a while, so now I guess until I figure out which are gamey builds and which are close enough to tournament equality to be a fun opponent I'll just bail when I'm not sure. At least I was learning Scorpion's kombos with that guy; the Noob Saibot I bailed on wasn't teaching me anything except what to watch out for on the accept match screen as far as what seems to a newbie like me to be a cheese build. Too bad the accept screen isn't past character select though; maybe it's a warning sign if they wait to see who you pick cause that guy beelined to Noob soon as I chose Kung Lao haha. I like when they do that and choose wrong though, there is one well regarded character Kung Lao is actually really good against but some people still counter-pick it.

EDIT: Characters I've seen in MP so far from memory
Liu Kang
Joker
Scorpion
Sub Zero (once, switched to their better character later)
Skarlett (random choice)
Noob Saibot
Sindel (showcased by that cool person, wrecked me)
Kano (once)
Kabal (once)
Jaqui (once)
Terminator a few times
Rambo more than terminator but not too common; one guy had the sweetest brutalities on me with him in an even matchup, Rambo is cool in this silly murder simulator
Erron Black (once, was one the people seemingly enraged by the Friendship as they won the next time, fatalitied me and disconnected)


The counterpicks against my Kung Lao seem mostly to be Scorpion, Liu Kang, and Noob Saibot in that order. I like when someone beelines to a character not caring what I'm picking because those are almost always fun matches, but my respect to the brave one who choose the character randomizer with the random preset.

[MrRoboto75]

The switch port was insultingly bad

[Duuvian]

I don't have a Switch, also I read the PC version at least is not cross platform which sucks since no one I've ever met in meatspace uses anything but consoles for video games so I'd have to use a controller to play them in non pandemic times. I just use a keyboard, though I had to buy a cheapo keyboard for now until I fix or have fixed the wire that came loose on my better one. Let me tell you, this keyboard SUCKS for this game because the keys are really damn stiff, I mess my hat throw all the damn time because of the right arrow being stiff unless I hit it at the right angle of keystroke.

That pointless rant over,

I also had been doing AI battles, where you send two to three fighters AI controlled to fight other peoples' defender team of 3 AI controlled fighters. My lineup is Kung Lao, Jaqui Briggs, and Johnny Cage. You can attack with anyone but I usually send those 3 unless it's Baraka (who my lineup are all bad against except maybe a Kung Lao AI who doesn't spam teleport which he usually does) or Noob Saibot (who I don't fight in AI battles as the Ai is excellent on Noob Saibot). Watching those helped me learn Kung Lao a little better, such as how to use the spin move. Plus you can fast forward through them if you want and you get the same rewards as if you had played a match yourself.

The Krypt exploration minigame has chests to unlock for skins and whatnot that are opened with the rewards for fighting matches. On singleplayer you can do Klassic Towers or Towers of Time for stuff like cosmetic skins for characters as well as the normal match rewards. Towers of Time usually have a modifier that can be awful or great, and you can use Konsumables that you get for winning towers or opening chests in the Krypt. I have a whole bunch of them, more than I need that I just got along the way. I did play single player exclusively before a few days ago so that could be why.

There are different gear pieces, three for each character but I'm not really sure what they do. I've only unlocked one set of "Legendary" tier I received for completing story mode, but you can put augments in them that do different things. For example in the gear slots I unlocked I put stuff in that make more Krypt resources after a match, so I get 9 Hearts instead of 1 or 3 or whatever a Fatality normally gets you. I'm not sure if different gear has different slots for different color augments, because the gear I've unlocked only takes 2 green augments (the rewards boosters generally) and a "special" augment, which for Kung Lao at least is called a Jinsei I think. I don't know if other characters' are called something else. My guess is the other gear can fit things like the orange augments, which seem to improve combat performance in various ways rather than grant improved match rewards.

I've read you can set a macro to hit one button occasionally and just set a character you want to grind out fatalities/hearts for you to with hardest AI control in Endless Tower on Easy opponent AI. I haven't done that yet but it's good that it's an option, it takes 250 hearts to open a danged character chest in Krypt (most are opened with Koins or Souls, the least and middle resources). Plus there is a room in Krypt where you have to Fatality every character 25 times or something to access. Lol I'll let the AI do that one, that sounds either boring or frustrating and I like spamming Friendship in online vs mode.

[MrRoboto75]

I don't have a Switch, also I read the PC version at least is not cross platform which sucks since no one I've ever met in meatspace uses anything but consoles for video games so I'd have to use a controller to play them in non pandemic times. I just use a keyboard, though I had to buy a cheapo keyboard for now until I fix or have fixed the wire that came loose on my better one. Let me tell you, this keyboard SUCKS for this game because the keys are really damn stiff, I mess my hat throw all the damn time because of the right arrow being stiff unless I hit it at the right angle of keystroke.

Most fighting game dudes I know of (on youtube) favor an arcade stick controller, like the stick and buttons on an arcade cabinet.  That said most of them grew up in the early days when arcade cabinets was basically all there was, so there you go.

That said, keyboard for fighting games can get pretty brutal.  I tried Skullgirls that way and it wasn't great.  MK is probably more doable as special moves are discreet directions as opposed to street fighter "motions," also combos being more bufferable.  I'd rather use a gamepad.

But yeah, the switch version is like the PC's lowest settings, yet also has a poor, choppy framerate.  Like I thought bad ports was a thing of the past but apparently not.  I might scrounge together the dosh for a PC or PS4 copy but I dunno, maybe wait for a sale.

[Duuvian]

Haha I just got beat in the Kombat League by a better Kung Lao! That was pretty sweet, I dipped my toes in as this one wraps up in about 5 days. I fought a Sonya who I beat and was by some chance then rematched by and lost to. Then a pretty cool Skarlett who I couldn't land a friendship on. Now a Kung Lao? This Kombat League if these three opponents are anything to go by is the place for fun matches. I had a feeling Kasual had some funny builds in it, it turns out my Kung Lao is one move away from a tournament character build, and the tournament character's move seems better actually. I swapped out the move I use for that one, same buttons which is cool.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I think I figured it out, Kasual is where you play your beast mode build semi-broken character if you want to.

I also went back to an OLD AS HECK keyboard I had gathering must in the basement for years for this game because the cheap gaming keyboard I bought as a stopgap is way too stiff. However, this keyboard, being unacceptably obsolete, allows less keys to be held at one time, almost always one too few for a good gaming keyboard. Shamefully I became mad at my new cheap keyboard and threatened it's arrow keys with death by hammering for being too f'n stiff. This sentence has been stayed until at least the time I fix my good keyboard or something so I don't have to use this other terrible keyboard I'm using when I play Planetside 2 and wonder why my C4 won't come out when I am majestically floating above a would be doomed purple floaty tank slaying my team something unmerciful.

Second poitnless rant aside, here is what that Krypt minigame looks like. I like smashing Tsang Tsun's/Shao Kahns/Goro's/Superman's pottery in it, even though the hammer swing takes too long. I just recall the ol' Dave Chappelle Rick James skit as I smash their stuff. It's pretty much an exploration minigame, a few puzzles too.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

EDIT: I got lost in the MK wiki reading silly game lore so this post probably changed a lot from what it was originally since I forgot I had this edit open in a tab oops