I’m not an insider but like Adam said, stages are pretty much the most expensive thing to develop. Assuming every stage costs roughly the same (which is probably false because of stuff like stage ultras and many other factors) it becomes less profitable the more stages you already have.
Season 2 increased the variety by 100%.
For the same costs, 8 stages in season 3 would increase the variety by only 50%.
In all, I would rather try more than 3 characters at launch than have let’s say 5 stages and 3 characters at launch.
At the bright side though, none of this lead you to quitting the game and neither will the lack of stages. I’ve never understood this kind of mentality to be honest. Why not focus on the things you enjoy instead? There won’t be any game ever that you like every aspect of.
2 Likes
I’m sad because to me the appeal of KI characters is in a big part provided from the combination of their music in their stage. I don’t think, if it is the case, that mix music with stages will work for me, because they’ve always been so bonded together.. As I said before shadow temple music will never work on Agonos stage for example. So having characters without a dedicated stage to me feels like a limitation for the appeal that character could have to me.
Another topic I’m concerned is the “trade” thing of less stages for a lighting improvement. Lighting improvement will be beneficial for everyone, even if they don’t purchase S3. So the trade isn’t really fair, because I get a cut of what I’ll get for my money for something I’ll get anyway, even with the free version of the game.
I know there will be nee game modes.. But for me what it really cares, and what made KI a success, is the online experience, 1V1 with flawless netcode. Hope it doesn’t get ruined with the cross platform thing.
In conclusion I’m sad for just 3 new stages, I mean, really sad, but I’ve faith in IG to give us something good in exchange, that’s not only lighting or some sp mode such as story mode, which you play just one time and that’s it. I think they know best and like they always did, they go for the best for the KI community, and I will always support this game I falled in love with.
6 Likes
Huh. I thought I was in the Rational Discussion of Three Stages for Season 3 Thread.
7 Likes
You have to recall that a fair amount of those stages are brought back from previous games rather than being new stages entirely. And turning them into Final Destination doesn’t exactly make them new either.
And I fail to see how you reposting the same post after it was flagged over again, only longer, solves anything.
2 Likes
The reason why that post gets flagged is because it’s spam, and it doesn’t contribute to the topic. We are trying to have a civil discussion, and that post goes against that ideal.
You posting it over and over again also doesn’t contribute to the conversion or do anything but make you look like a child that can’t deal with what someone else has done. If it was constructive criticism, that would be fine. As is, it’s just a waste of your time.
1 Like
Please see post 500 in the lighting thread to see how I personally feel regarding the recent news of only having 3 new stages. 
I must be hearing things but I could have swore I heard Keits say at one point in the KI World Cup stream, “Wait until you you see Rash’s stage!”
Anyway, to compensate for this loss I REALLY do hope IG have big plans up their sleeves because even though I can agree that 20 stages is more than enough, it’s still really nice for every character to have a home.
1 Like
I am curious to think what kind of content people thinks is a “worthy trade” for losing character specific stages.
3 Likes
Let’s hope the ‘quality improvements’ in Season 3 also include improved animations, retro costumes and redesigns (e.g. Omen) for the characters that need them. I for one don’t like tacked-on or forced animations for the new moves received by the existing characters.
This is just as important as the new lighting, especially when considering that Season 1’s lighting was very close to it. I still to this day don’t why they decided to go for the brighter, more washed-out lighting of Season 2.
1 Like
I would like it if they had a Day/Night/Dusk setting for most stages though.
Playing Aganos’s stage at Night or at Dusk would be nice to see.
6 Likes
I’m very disappointed too, Stages is a very important killer instinct characteristic, and they can’t just take it from there, music will not make sense at all.
I rather have all the new stages than the good story mode thing, i honestly don’t really care about story in a fighting game.
So is it confirmed there are only 3 new stages in all of S3 or just three at S3’s launch?
Lastly, when this game comes out for PC I hope they let us choose who we play against like SFV does. Apparently PC people know how to intentionally create lag and stuff, so the option to only play against XB1 users is something I hope they let us have.
I always thought one of the biggest selling points for KI was that each character had there own unique stage to better tell the story of that said character…and I felt that each season expansion was like a whole game with as much content that gets released… I am saddened at the news of only three stages add on…I will support KI no matter what but I don’t believe the fact it would make 20 stages total is a good one…like someone said smash has like 55 stages…I for one is very curious on what is coming down the pipeline for season 3
6 Likes
Surely with less stages the other content must be bigger in order to compensate i.e 3 stages but 12 characters…or 10 characters and double the amount of outfits increasing the max character lvls to 100 instead of 50. Other than story mode and an dojo mode for every character, cant really think of other modes worthy of displacing several character stages. I mean we buy the seasons for a certain amount of content so unless they are reducing the price the content still needs to equate to the amount we got in the previous 2 seaaons.