NetherRealm’s Mortal Kombat 11 requires an online connection for a lot of things. Now, it seems that one more item also unexpectedly requires online. Taking the game offline rolls back the recent Mortal Kombat 11 Towers hotfix update.
As with their previous games, NetherRealms uses a system of hotfixes to apply balance changes to the game outside of the normal patch cycle. However, it seems that the ones in Mortal Kombat 11 can get rolled back when the game is taken offline.
Competitive players ran into the issue during a the recent Next Level Battle Circuit weekly in New York. Tournament organizer Arturo Sanchez from Team Spooky tested the issue with help from Dynamic Focus player George Ramirez. Sanchez confirmed on Twitter that the issue exists.
I had @Grr_George test this with me, we disconnected from psn, went back into game hotfix didn’t apply. For now have to stay connected.
— TS|Sabin (@nycfurby) April 25, 2019
In addition to some tweaks on the game’s Towers mode, the recent Mortal Kombat 11 Towers update made a few changes to the game’s balance. It did this by adjusting the frame data of a number of characters. Frame data controls the start up and recovery of a characters moves. They dictate if a character is at an advantage after they attack, and even if they can do certain combos. As such, changing them, even by a few milliseconds, can make a character stronger or weaker in competitive play.
As it stands, the glitch can cause issues for Mortal Kombat 11‘s tournament scene. Competitive fighting games traditionally have their tournaments played offline. The game’s arcade roots, as well as their reliance of fast reflexes and inputs meant that online competition never became a standard. More importantly, grassroots organizers often hold events in venues with limited internet.
With this bug, players can suddenly find themselves playing the wrong version of the game. It undoes any fixes NetherRealm does to make the game better, just because the internet went out. Here’s hoping that a fix for this comes out soon, and that it doesn’t roll itself back somehow.
