I know I’m not alone when I say that one of the key things I was looking forward to this season was a Shadow Labs update. Specifically the ability to have more than one shadow (ideally - the freedom to have a shadow for every character). There were some other requests from the community as well, but my concern is that I havent heard IG talk about Shadow Labs at all since S3 started… Can we please have some type of update on whether or not Shadow Labs will be addressed this Season?
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I’m still not even sure what Shadow Labs is used for…
I have only played it once, created a shadow character, took the trials, then uploaded it.
What happened to it? Where did it go? What will it be used for?
I’d say no. It is kind of unfortunate that the KI devs ONLY keep pushing forward, rather than looking back and trying to expand on the past, but I think that is what we are getting the Shadow Lab.
- They haven’t gone back and updated the Dojo.
- They haven’t gone back and updated any of the S1 story mode.
- Retro’s haven’t been (and probably won’t be) touched.
- etc.
They are done with Season 2, just like they were done with Season 1, and that means they are only focused on Season 3. Sure they will continue to do bug fixes and the like, but big updates to past modes I think are a pipe dream right now.
Personally, if they decide to do a Season 4 I hope they focus on what is here a bit more just to make what he have more fleshed out.
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Used mainly for training yourself with your main character. I mean who better to fight against than an almost exact clone of yourself.
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It is an asynchronous multiplayer mode. You can play with randoms, or with friends and trade games. It is similar to online play, but you can play against the people you want to when they are not online.
I personally love the mode, as I use it to train characters and level up. it is really fun win you get into it.
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Is that it? Oh… that’s kinda… disappointing then 
I understand the logic but was expecting more, personally.
This got me a bit baffled. I thought you could play against friends by simply joining or inviting them (note that I don’t play online, so I don’t really know how it works). I also fought that you fought against CPU-controlled shadow characters created by other people and not against actual people using their shadow characters.
After you make your Shadow, you can challenge other shadows either in Survival, or by selecting them from a list. After each fight you earn shadow points, and it is by wagering shadow points that you can challenge higher level shadows. If you have friends in KI who have also created shadows, you can choose to challenge those shadows as well.
Every time your shadow is challenged you get a report card for whether your shadow won or lost, either friends or randoms, or if you were challenged outright, or if someone ran across your shadow in Survival. You can choose to watch those fights to see what “you” did wrong, or to see what you you did right, but only if your shadow looses is a bounty created where you can choose to get revenge for your shadow.
The bounties are where the most fun (IMO) is had, as you can trade games back and forth with someone in real time if they are online. During that instance it just gets harder and harder as your, and their, shadow is learning in real time after each battle. In that instance it is pretty much exactly like you are playing online.
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Yes you can invite friends to fight against in lobbies or exhibition for online play, you can also fight other people’s shadows or have your shadow fight other people’s shadows. It’s useful for someone that wants to fight online but doesn’t like the pressure of fighting another person online or for someone that doesn’t want to fight the regular cheap AI that the game has. If you want you can fight my shadow and see for yourself my gamertag is the same as my profile name.
I think it’s best used as a way to level up your play at lower/intermediate levels by fighting AI’s that actually behave like humans. A lot of players use it as a stepping stone for getting into Ranked play.
The AI’s are a lot more manageable (in general) than a real life opponent, but still work way, way, better than trying to level up your game against the standard AI.
Smh I’ve noticed that trend too… So disappointing. And I agree, if they do make a Season 4 - think it should really just be about improving and updating whats there and not add anything new. I honestly wouldnt even call it a new season, I’d just call it “The Supreme Update” or the “Ultimate Version” or something like that…
Agreed. naming a “Season 4” the “Ultimate Version” or whatever would be awesome…especially if they actually updated it with Ultimates.
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Guess there’s a lot more to it then. Still, somehow, it doesn’t quite appeal to me. Being an offline player, I’m all for Survival, traditional ladder, story modes and the likes… I wish they made more trials and dojo lessons for each character. And I’m also eagerly anticipating Shadow Lords.
Biggest feature I want in Shadow Lab: Choosing my Shadow’s Color. I got that beautiful Sabrewulf Color 10 for a reason, guys. I wanna show off!
Also maybe taking away the need to make only 1-2 Shadows, maybe just automatically upload Shadow Data for every character we play.
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As an offline player, Shadows should appeal to you because the AI used in the modes you listed is terrible and makes for a poor play experience. The default AI is not playing KI – it sees everything coming and doesn’t properly factor in the human considerations that moves are balanced around when deciding whether or not to let your moves hit. The AI doesn’t properly temper its approach to pre-empt an unreactable wind kick, it just approaches unhindered and makes a dice-roll to decide whether that wind kick landed. You can virtually never wakeup DP the default AI (it doesn’t meaty attack you), but you can always wake up, wait ~5 frames, then DP, knowing that it will have said “no DP? Okay, it’s safe to press a button” so it’ll get caught. The default AI makes mixups virtually meaningless, because it doesn’t care how dirty your offense is to another human player, where in the pressure string you’re going for the mixup, etc – it blocks based on some other criterion which replicates human abilities poorly if at all.
In summary, the default AI renders realistic strategic decision-making useless. The characters are designed to be interesting to be played by and against players who behave like human beings and have human capabilities and limitations. Take away that stuff and the game degenerates.
The hope was that Shadows-based AI would make its way into those modes so that you could actually get the experience of, y’know, actually playing KI whilst fighting the AI. That’s not to say it’d be like Forza where peoples’ drivatars get imported into your single-player races – rather, what we want is purpose-built AI based on the Shadows technology to be used in the other modes.
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Its just a novelty feature that most people use a few times and forget about, it really serves no purpose. Once I got the achievements I stopped using it, that’s for sure.
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I think the shadow points you earn from it can be used in shadow lords mode as well to buy packs.
Think I remember seeing that
Shadow labs A.I should replace the traditional A.I across all single player modes. That’s exactly what Forza has done with their drivatars. I honestly thought that was going to be the point of the mode.
The feature works great and genuinely feels like fighting real players. Seems like a shame keeping it hidden away only in the shadow lab tab.
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None of this is accurate
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I neglected Shadow Lab till right after the survey. I love it, prefer it over survival.
Shadow labs has lots of potential (it’s by UT so why wouldn’t it?). I love it. My only regret is not diving into it the moment it was released last year.