NetherRealm’s upcoming reboot of Mortal Kombat forgoes the traditional method of modifying a game post-release — a downloadable patch, approved by the console manufacturer — in favor of a "free-variable" system.
Though major changes will still require a patch, smaller adjustments to individual moves — an infinite combo exploit, for example, or an overpowered attack — can be implemented via the free-variable system, which resides on NetherRealm’s servers.
"The majority of our moves and special moves work off of different kinds of variables, as far as speed, the frame it’s going to hit on, different kind of frames like recovery or start-up in the moves," explained NetherRealm Lead Designer Paulo Garcia during a recent conference call with PlayStation Universe. "On our online servers we actually have a database for those numbers and we’ll be able to change those on the fly. So if I see that a move is either too fast or whatever is causing an issue, for a lot of them we’ll be able to go in there and change the speed or otherwise rebalance the moves, to either get rid of them or rebalance the game based on any kind of future problems that would come up."
To adjust one of the system’s variables, all NetherRealm needs to do is change a number on its servers and hit the ‘send’ button. As long as you are logged into your PlayStation Network account, those changes will apply to both the single-player and multiplayer portions of the game.
"Definitely the main thing is like the free-variable system allows us to tweak all the variables of all of the moves after the fact — it’ll be a big help," added John Edwards, another Mortal Kombat lead designer. "Once the game is released out into the wild, and everyone has a chance to beat on it for a while, obviously imbalances will crop up, but we will be able to plug those holes really easily."
When possible, NetherRealm plans to release detailed notes to the Mortal Kombat community whenever a variable change goes live. Mortal Kombat is set to launch on April 19, 2011 in North America and April 21, 2011 in Europe.