MK3D Online 0.1.7: updates from the launcher, watch lobby matches, practice with every fighter

MK3D Online 0.1.7

Everyone needs 0.1.7 to play online. The server asks older launchers to update.

New: updates from the launcher

This is the last version you install by hand. From now on, when a new version is out, the launcher says so in a window, with what is new: press UPDATE NOW and it downloads the release, checks that it is exactly the one published, puts it in place and starts again. It waits until your match is over and you close any game you are playing. Your settings, saves, disc images and built games stay. LATER leaves an UPDATE button in the launcher's footer.

New: watch lobby matches

Up to eight people can watch a lobby's matches in their own game. Select a lobby and press Watch selected (or press Watch once you are in one). Every match the host starts then plays in your game a moment behind the players: the select screen, the fight and its ending. Join while a match is already on and your game catches up from its start, fast. Press Play to take a free place to play between matches. Spectators can chat in the lobby; their controllers do nothing to the match.

New: death traps on or off

The arenas' death traps (the Dead Pool's acid, the Lower Mines' spikes and the others, in Deception and Armageddon) can be turned off:

• Kasual: the Death traps box under Matchmaking. You only meet players who made the same choice: untick it and every Kasual opponent has death traps off too.
• Ranked: never. Death traps are always off in ranked matches.
• Lobbies: the host chooses when creating the lobby.

Fixed: music stopping and starting over

In all three games the music went silent for up to two seconds a few seconds into every track, then started over from the beginning: in the menus, on character select, on the arcade tower, and in fights while the announcer spoke. Single player and online alike. Every track now plays straight through.

Changed: closing your game ends the match

Closing your game during a match (Alt+F4, or it crashes) now ends the match for both players straight away:

• Kasual: the series ends there, with no REMATCH / SELECT prompt.
• Ranked: closing your game loses you the set, whatever the score, so quitting never saves you from a loss.
• Your opponent: their game no longer freezes for 15 seconds waiting for you. It goes straight back to its menu.

If the connection between the two games breaks instead, the match doesn't count and the series ends.

Fixed: both players' games now use the same options

Online matches now always use the game's default round time and blood level, so both players play exactly the same fight. Before, each game used its own profile's options when the match was set up: two players with different saved options could have played two different fights.

Fixed: the other player's stick moving your fighter

In Deception and Armageddon, when your opponent played on the left side with an analog stick, the directions of their stick were also added to your input: your fighter walked and crouched along with theirs. This was in every version so far (Deadly Alliance never had it). Now each player's directions come from their own controller only, and a left-side stick player's directions also arrive a few frames sooner.

New: practice, every fighter unlocked

• PRACTICE, beside PLAY on the Single player page, takes the game straight to practice's character select: pick your fighter, then the dummy, with your controller, and train. One controller is enough: no more waiting for "player 2's controller".
• Practice while you wait: search for a match (Ranked or Kasual) and the game opens the same practice by itself. When a match is found its ACCEPT window comes up over practice; accept, and the match starts at once (the online game was already loaded and waiting). After the match, you are back in practice. Untick Practice while you wait under Matchmaking to wait at the game's menu instead.

Every fighter is unlocked in practice, in all three games. What your own profile has unlocked stays as it is.

New: the launcher works with a controller

The MATCH FOUND and rematch windows, and the launcher's pages, work with an Xbox or PlayStation controller or a fight stick:

• The d-pad or stick moves the gold highlight, and A (Cross) presses.
• LB / RB switch pages, and START finds a match.
• B never declines a match.
• Buttons you are still holding in the game when a window comes up are ignored until you let go, so mashing cannot accept or decline anything by accident.

Typing (sign in, lobby names, chat) still needs the keyboard.

Changed

• The Controls page names each button by what it does in the game: Attack 1 (X), Attack 2 (Y), Attack 3 (A), Attack 4 (B), Block (Right trigger), Stance change (Left trigger), Throw (Black button) (Throw / special in Deadly Alliance), Jump, Crouch and Pause, in that order, so setting up your keys and controller is easier.
• The Build page's Open game folder button is gone: browse for your disc image with Browse... instead.

Updating

1. Close the launcher and the game. Open the zip, open the MK3D-Online folder inside it, select everything, and drag it into the folder that holds your MK3DLauncher.exe. Choose Replace the files in the destination.
2. Open Single player and press PLAY once for each game you built. It prepares its code for the new version (a minute or two, only once), then press Start.

Both players need the same version: VERSION.txt lists the programs' fingerprints to compare.

SHA-256 of the zip: 8be3e44dbd1ffdd6ca723de6cb145a3e69adbaf3ae6a162e088a5823c718a0f6

Mortal Kombat is a trademark of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. This project is not affiliated with Warner Bros., NetherRealm Studios, Midway or Microsoft. Play with your own copies of the games.