Preview

Super Monday Night Combat Preview

In part one of our two part super-sized preview of Uber Entertainment's Super Monday Night Combat, executive producer Chandana Ekanayake and creative director John Comes discuss going free-to-play.

Xav de Matos

September 16, 2011 3:00 PM

"So, Monday Night Combat is coming to the Super Nintendo. Seems weird," I joke as I'm shuffled into a back room with two Uber Entertainment developers. It takes a moment, but they both start to laugh. "Yeah. You got it," executive producer Chandana Ekanayake replies. "We think it will work," shoots creative director John Comes. What Super Monday Night Combat actually is, however, is something reminiscent to the original game in the series, with a major twist: it's a PC-exclusive, free to play (F2P) affair. Had the PC version captured so much attention that going F2P was the next logical step? "The [Xbox] 360 version actually did better than the PC," Ekanayake admits. "It [the PC version] did about two-thirds of what the Xbox did." So, why has Uber decided to make the shift, I wonder? "We want it to be on the Xbox, obviously," Comes tells me. While Free-to-Play titles have exploded on the PC and Mac, consoles have yet to delve into the market with much success. "When we were doing the Steam version, we were doing a bunch of updates. We kind of liked that. It fits with how we like to develop," Ekanayake says. It's not the first time I've heard this. PC and Mac platforms are so open that developers are free to make updates as they see fit; whereas making updates on a console requires certification from platform holders. It's possible, but developers don't have nearly the same amount of control. There's instant feedback on PC, something Ekanayake admits Uber Entertainment "loves." Super Monday Night Combat takes from the original game, adds and removes elements, and attempts to balance it all before launching. The original classes define the roles of new characters in Super Monday Night Combat. Characters from the original game return, fitting into character roles. Commandos include debuffers, closers, utility characters like the Assassin; Strikers are jack-of-all-trades, high mobility characters like the Assault; Enforcers have high health, are slow moving, and hit for high short-range damage like the Tank, Veteran, and Gunner; Defenders are buffers, area holding, and healing characters like Support and Combat Girl; and Sharp Shooters have high aim skill, deal burst damage, traits of the Sniper and Gunslinger. Some of the original skills have been removed and some new ones have been put in the pair tell me, not willing to go into too much detail. "Some of the big gameplay changes are that you actually level up playing the game," Comes says. This persistent player level system is new, versus the skill leveling system from the first that continues in Super Monday Night Combat. There are now five skill levels. Damage has also decreased throughout the game, which Uber says they hope will allow for longer matches where players can take advantage of more of their preferred skills. In the first game, things ended too quickly and some players rarely had time to use top-tier skills. "You get a sense that from the beginning of the game until you get to the end of the game you're much stronger," Comes tells me. Another change is the elimination of overtime, which Comes admits was met with "mixed reviews." Its original intention was to "end the game at a certain point," but it didn't work. "We've changed the way that bot waves work and turret waves work so that the game naturally comes to an end somewhere around twenty-ish minutes," Comes explains. "Some will go longer, some will go shorter. You do get this more organic game now." Crossfire mode has been reduced to five-on-five, versus six on each side in MNC. Uber hopes the change will make strategy more of a consideration as there are now an uneven amount of players protecting a map's various lanes of attack.

New characters fit roles set up by classes in Monday Night Combat

The game's style itself looks essentially the same as the original; however, environments have expanded out of arenas and into more organic-looking battlefields. The core of the game, however, remains the same. It's all about the money ball. "One thing we talked about internally is that we don't want to gate the player," Ekanayake says. "We want the player to have a full game experience. We want a player to play as much as they want but not have to spend money on it." But where is the money coming from? "We'll have certain free characters on a weekly basis or bi-weekly basis that you can try out. If you like that character and want to keep that character, then you can buy them." The system sounds similar to the structure of League of Legends, which Uber agrees is a fair comparison. In order to maintain balance, Uber will offer several characters to for users to play as for free. "We've expanded Endorsements, you now get twenty-five instead of three," Comes explains. "We've introduced Products, which are kind of like items in the game. Endorsements just improve your states whereas Products change the gameplay." The example Comes outlines is one product that drops a bomb near your corpse when you're killed that explodes a few seconds after you're downed. Both Endorsements and Products can be earned by playing the game or purchased for real-world money. "The vast majority of things you can buy, you can also earn in the game." There are two currencies in the game: Combat Credits, which act as in-game cash and Uber Points, which players can purchase. Right now, Uber Entertainment says the game is coming "this winter," but won't solidify whether that means late 2011 or early 2012.

Xav de Matos

Xav de Matos was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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 reply
September 16, 2011 3:00 PM

Xav de Matos posted a new article, Super Monday Night Combat Preview: Part One.

In part one of our two part super-sized preview of Uber Entertainment's Super Monday Night Combat, executive producer Chandana Ekanayake and creative director John Comes discuss going free-to-play.
- Haxim
  
   reply
  September 16, 2011 3:00 PM
  
  Hiiyooooooooooooo: Part One
  - [deleted] 342332194
    
     reply
    September 16, 2011 3:03 PM
    
    [deleted]
    - XAVdeMATOS
      
       reply
      September 16, 2011 3:08 PM
      
      NEWS AT ELEVEN
- Haxim
  
   reply
  September 16, 2011 3:13 PM
  
  So happy that they're designing with the idea of matches being around 20 minutes.
  - XAVdeMATOS
    
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    September 16, 2011 3:33 PM
    
    I think the idea of rubber-banding it a little more--as in a more give and take approach for both sides--sounds like a good idea.
- Bensam123
  
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  September 16, 2011 3:36 PM
  
  I played the original for a bit and even bought it, but in the end it's just a poor rip off of TF2. The 'PC exclusive' seems to be a fad and they're only doing it because they think that's what gamers want (which is sorta true), but how well they execute it and if it's actually made for the PC rather then just a 'PC exclusive' determines how good it'll be. I'm sure we'll see a lot of 'me toos' in the next few years.
  
  Unfortunately this will more then likely be a 'me too' as they're going f2p because they somehow think it'll fix their game, like all the other f2p games...
  
  There is a huge difference between innovators and people who can only replicate and attempt to improve upon what other people do.
  
  "When we were doing the Steam version, we were doing a bunch of updates. We kind of liked that. It fits with how we like to develop,"
  
  lol, yeah and the games still buggy and there has been no actual update to the game in terms of content. MNC was actually paid for by people...
  - XAVdeMATOS
    
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    September 16, 2011 3:40 PM
    
    You think Monday Night Combat is like Team Fortress 2?
    
    LULZ
    - Bensam123
      
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      September 19, 2011 3:13 AM
      
      Thats sarcasm right? The normal game mode is payload, with the creeps functioning as the bomb.
      
      Assault is a demo, tank is a heavy, support is a engineer, assassin is a spy, gunner is a soldier (in form and function), and sniper is well... a sniper. It's even has the cartoony look of TF2.
  - [deleted] 318946386
    
     reply
    September 16, 2011 3:42 PM
    
    [deleted]
  - harold.johnson
    
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    September 16, 2011 4:17 PM
    
    it's not a thing like tf2, it's in the style of dota/lol/etc.
    
    if you actually read the whole article instead of cherry picking the angsty things, you'd see that the games 'pc exclusive' because the free to play market hasn't been proven to be viable on consoles while it's really taking off on pc, not because it's what "gamers want".
    - Bensam123
      
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      September 19, 2011 3:22 AM
      
      'cherry picking' huh...
      
      sorta like... pc exclusive, gating, regular updates, leveling system, 5v5 change (to 'fix' their balancing issue by making it more like DotA), free characters and character rotations, products (perks from MW, even copied the martyrdom perk)...
      
      All of these are essentially things, marketing solutions, and ideas directly copied from other games and this is supposed to be their revolutionary new content.
      - Bensam123
        
         reply
        September 19, 2011 3:25 AM
        
        oh... and f2p of course.
  - Lunatic Angelic
    
     reply
    September 16, 2011 5:20 PM
    
    I read a Bensam123 post for a bit and even a few paragraphs, but in the end he's just ripping off other idiots.
    - Bensam123
      
       reply
      September 19, 2011 3:14 AM
      
      Well that makes me feel a lot better... if there are other 'idiots' saying the same thing, that means it's pretty well known.
- darthfusion
  
   reply
  September 16, 2011 4:10 PM
  
  Bugger... I only just bought the original during the last Steam sale. :P
- Haxim
  
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  September 16, 2011 4:15 PM
  
  Are products one-off things? Or once you've bought them you have them forever?
  - XAVdeMATOS
    
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    September 16, 2011 4:17 PM
    
    That's a great question. Will ask for you and try to add in my second entry of this preview.
- Haxim
  
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  September 16, 2011 4:25 PM
  
  Have they decided on ring-outs being in or not? Last I heard it was still up in the air. I can see where it doesn't really fit the new design philosophy where they're removing all the one-shot kills and making pros tougher, but they were so much damn fun in MNC.
- alias
  
   reply
  September 16, 2011 4:35 PM
  
  Ask what the expected length of a game is going to be. 15 minutes in MNC was at times far too long given stalemate conditions that persisted.
  
  With the higher level cap I'd hope they don't go the route of making the game longer.
  - Haxim
    
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    September 16, 2011 4:36 PM
    
    Another change is the elimination of overtime, which Comes admits was met with "mixed reviews." Its original intention was to "end the game at a certain point," but it didn't work.
    
    "We've changed the way that bot waves work and turret waves work so that the game naturally comes to an end somewhere around twenty-ish minutes," Comes explains. "Some will go longer, some will go shorter. You do get this more organic game now." Crossfire mode has been reduced to five-on-five, versus six on each side in MNC. Uber hopes the change will make strategy more of a consideration as there are now an uneven amount of players protecting a map's various lanes of attack.
    - alias
      
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      September 16, 2011 5:28 PM
      
      Longer games.
      
      Blah.
      - Haxim
        
         reply
        September 16, 2011 6:34 PM
        
        I think that without knowing the full extent of gameplay changes it's a bit premature to immediately be put off by the game playing slightly longer.
        
        alias
        
         reply
        September 16, 2011 7:41 PM
        
        15 minutes plus OT was already too long in MNC.
        
        Making it longer isn't going to help.
        
        Haxim
        
         reply
        September 16, 2011 8:06 PM
        
        I didn't realize you were already an expert on the way Super played and could critique their design decisions. If that's the case perhaps you could answer some other questions in the thread, oh wise one.
        
        alias
        
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        September 16, 2011 11:40 PM
        
        It's not going to be changing to an absurd extent like you seem to believe.
- Haxim
  
   reply
  September 16, 2011 4:41 PM
  
  With regard to maps
  - How big are they in comparison to MNC maps?
  - Are there still player triggered hazards (ejectors, annihilator)
  - The maps MNC launched with were all had two bot lanes. The subsequent maps added (Spunky Cola and Uncle Tully's Funland) effectively had one lane. How many lanes can we expect to see in Super MNC maps?
  - How many maps at launch?
  - XAVdeMATOS
    
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    September 16, 2011 4:43 PM
    
    There aren't even showing the game in action at the moment so some of these specifics might not be answered for a while. We hit a few points in the second part of the story.
    - armybob
      
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      September 16, 2011 4:44 PM
      
      wtf dude get us answers!
    - Haxim
      
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      September 16, 2011 5:03 PM
      
      Fair enough. I take it there's no kind of indication when the beta will be other than "Winter" as well?
    - Haxim
      
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      September 16, 2011 5:14 PM
      
      Does it still have Moneyballs? Or have the rules changed?
- Bull
  
   reply
  September 16, 2011 5:54 PM
  
  Nice article! Can't wait for this game.
- icon_of_syn
  
   reply
  September 16, 2011 7:45 PM
  
  How's the 360 version of this nowadays. My roommate and I used to have a blast playing split-screen coop. It got old fast though and we haven't played it since it first came out. It's purchased so if there has been some cool dlc for it we may reinstall.
  - Haxim
    
     reply
    September 16, 2011 7:58 PM
    
    The most recent content for 360 is the free Spunky Cola DLC which added the Spunky Cola arena for Crossfire and the Survivitol Arena for Blitz (co-op).
- Haxim
  
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  September 17, 2011 1:22 PM
  
  Are there any changes to the multiplayer format? Is it going to maintain the current setup of persistent servers and people joining? Or is it going to move to more of a MOBA-style lobby system with people picking their characters pre-match and being locked in for the duration? If persistent servers, will the community be able to run their own as well? If lobbies, how are things like players dropping and matchmaking handled?