Adam Isgreen brings us the Killer Instinct weekly textual stream this week with lots of Riptor and other great bits of information. You can view it directly at ultra-combo or read below!
Hello everyone,
As the title suggests, there’s lots of Riptor love this week! First, some dates!
RIPTOR TRAILER: MONDAY 12/15
GAMEPLAY STREAM: MONDAY 12/15
ULTRA RELEASE: (AIMING FOR) WEDNESDAY 12/17
COMBO RELEASE: (AIMING FOR) TUESDAY 12/23WHY (AIMING FOR)?! Full transparency: we hit an issue in Cert that paused us long enough to put the date in slight risk. SLIGHT. We are all good to land it as long as there are no further hiccups.
As a thank you to the KI community and our Ultra purchasers, we’ve got some free stuff for ya!
ORCHID HOLIDAY COLOR!
Everyone that owns Orchid (or when she’s in free rotation) gets this new color for free!Candy Cane Batons!
Everyone that owns Season 1 Ultra edition, you get these for free!TJ COMBO SANTA HEAD!
If you own Season 2 Ultra Edition, you get this for free!SABREWULF REINDEER HEAD!
If you own Season 1 Ultra Edition, you get this for free!Don’t own one or both of the ultra editions? The accessories are all available for individual purchase.
NOTE that to get these, you must load the game before 06:00:00 UTC on 01/01/2015 once the 2.2 title update is applied. If you don’t you will not unlock these rewards!
ALSO NOTE that these accessories will not be available for sale after the date above.
A word on the 2.2 update: It’s large. ~10GB. Why? One of the things we’re starting to address (slow character loading) required a rebuild of all the content packages, and that means a big download. You should see a slight decrease in load times now, and this will continue to improve over the next several months’ updates.
What’s included in the 2.2 update:
- Riptor & Riptor’s stage “Hatchery 11”
- Story mode!
- Dossiers for all S1 characters (on character select screen)
- Balance changes and fixes (2.2 changelist found here!)
- Increased character & stage loading speed!
- New character select screen icons & silhouettes!
- TJ’s RETRO COSTUME!
RIPTOR!
Age: 1
Height: 6’2” normal stance
Nationality: N/A – she’s product.
Gender: Female
Type: Cybernetic Raptor
Personality Traits: RAWRRRR
Weapon: What isn’t?
Blood Type:Uh…Familiar with all of Riptor’s original moves and inputs? Well guess what – they are all back, intact… except for one, upperclaw – it’s been replaced with “clever girl”. We’ll show off her full repertoire on the stream on Monday.
What’s up with that tail?! Find out on Monday!
Where’s the story snippet?! Coming on Monday with the trailer!
Q&A:
@Combo_Raptor – So what do you mean by color #9 for characters is a retexture?
It means that it’s more than just a color change. It’s new texturing applied to the character. I’ll give you one example: Jago has a completely different tattoo! We wanted these 9th ones to really show off the accomplishment of earning them, so they’ll certainly stand out.
@killerinstinctfan – Can the character teaser trailers be released the beginning of the month (like the 1st) each month along with a better firm timeline for the users, as it stands right now, we are without anything concrete to go on. it would be nice to have a more steady flow and consistent flow on release schedules.
We can’t always guarantee this because of when the character is ready enough to be put into a trailer. Look at Kan-Ra in tease vs. final – lots of work happens in those last few weeks. That said, we’re going to try a different schedule of release starting in January that will show something interesting every week.
@2n2 – Will the XP system be adjusted to make the colors/parts more easily obtained without excessive grinding (even with the recent temporary boost)?
There’s two modes missing from the game still that will allow you other places to earn XP in greater quantities, so there are more ways to earn XP faster coming, plus we will continue to have boosted events throughout the season to earn more XP!
@Hazard – 3. Would love to see IG put out some High Res character shots, I still have my S1 background set on my pc with a few additions, but it would be KILLER if IG released official wallpaper for each character and ideally once S2 is done, a new template for the mad catz TE2 so we can rock both S1 and S2 characters on our sticks! Any possibility of this happening?
Certainly can look into this. We do want to release the “hero art” for y’all at some point!
@Red_Riptor – When can we expect ret costumes for Maya, T.J and Kan-Ra?
TJ’s is released this update! Maya’s is January, and Kan-Ra’s should be February. The delay is because we’re releasing the Classic plus accessory sets, so there’s more than one costume to build.
@Green_Cinder – Cinder has confirmed not being demonic some kind. Can you confirm he’s not human – alien hybrid?
No, I can’t, because he is. Ben Ferris has undergone some pretty radical DNA splicing at the hands of Ultratech.
@fowltief – Will you guys reveal more of the story of what happened before season 1 or will story mode do that for us? I’d love to hear more about which aspects of Ki 1 and 2 you guys picked and see/read the entire storyline to settle the discrepancies that popped up.
Once we’re completely through the season, this sounds like a great post-ship discussion to have with the community.
@CStyles45 – Has the Dev Team decided when we can expect the Rank system remodel? January character update? February? Past that?
February is the planned release. We’ll have a lot more info on this in January.
@GamerLCD – After Season 2 is all said and done, is there any chance for Kevin Baylis to go back and re-do some of the more controversial classic retro costumes like Orchid and Fulgore? Can’t wait to see his work on the S2 ones.
We have not talked to him about this, as he’s busy with the S2 cast. TBD.
@KIFANATIC198488 – What exactly is this “reservation button” for Riptor? An all-new moveset for her, yes?
Not quite. It means there’s a few buttons that always do specific things. For Riptor, HP is all flame, all the time. HK is all tail, all the time. Any combination of input plus one of those two buttons (outside of specials) gets you some kind of flame or tail attack, even in combos.
@evolve – Since KI is divided up into seasons, I’m kind of curious in terms of how this will affect the game’s overall story. Will S1 character stories be expanded upon from S1 endings (for instance, Spinal being possessed by a mysterious presence), or will they just be the same with a few touch-ups (ie rival cutscenes, etc)?
S1 characters stories will not be expanded right now. While S1 characters are in the S2 character’s stories, we just don’t have the time or resources to double the amount of story work and get all S1 characters up to the same level that S2 stories will be at.
As to why, here’s a quick preview of what the S2 story features: intro cut-scene with narration, post-fight story beats (loading screens) after every fight, rival cut-scene with narration, and a finale with narration. This new flow was based on direct community feedback that you’d rather have more story than multiple endings.
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Thank god am an ultra owner
Where do I watch the stream at?
They’ll probably have it up on Twitch. I’ll bet that either Microsoft or Iron Galaxy (or possibly both) will at least partially host something there.
On another note, I really hope x-mas color Orchid is permanent. I need my red orchid fix
Glad to finally see Riptor in all her glory! I gotta say, looking back at it, it makes sense that Riptor would have cybernetic enhancements. After all, TJ busted her up pretty bad at the end of KI 1. Same thing happened to Sabrewulf when he returned in KI2, so I think that the story may be pretty similar.
Indeed, that DOES make a lot of sense, yes. And Riptor will finally be UNLEASH next week starting with her official trailer this coming Monday
Oh yeah, just like u I too am VERY glad to see Riptor FINALLY shown/revealed and MUCH MORE SO when she finally goes into ACTION in her new official trailer
I forgot to say, but the Christmas accessories, I said that on last KI stream from IG, and they already did, (for sure it was previously planned) but it is really nice to see this kind of stuff. Anyone knows if these accessories it will be available (for use, not for purchase) during the whole KI lifetime?
Also, TJ Classic, Riptor, etc. etc. It is so much information!! My head is blowing!! Thanks Iron Galaxy, nice work!!!
What’s included in the 2.2 update:
Riptor & Riptor’s stage “Hatchery 11”
Story mode!
Story mode for Season 2 characters? Really? already? I thought that was planned to end of S2.
I now can’t wait till Riptor is finally release AND at the same time unleash including her official trailer and movesets as well as her new stage and theme
AWESOME VICTORY! SUPREME VICTORY! ULTRA VICTORY! ULTRA COMBO! ULTRA!
Hey, Mike, nice to see your question being responded on the textual stream!
Yeah, I know right? That was a VERY pleasant surprise to see my very OWN question being answered on this week’s textual stream too
So thanks for noticing that as well, Lorde 
So now how about u Lorde? Have u ask the developers any of your OWN questions yourself on KI Season 2 and overall on the new KI? Or not quite yet and you’re about to do that later/soon?
It was a very good question. I’m glad to see your contribution to the KI community.
I haven’t made any questions yet, but I definitely going to do in the near future. Right now I’m hyped to see Riptor’s trailer.
Again thanks very much, Lorde. Really appreciate that too. And likewise for your very OWN contribution to the KI community as well
No problem at all so just take your sweet time doing that especially when the developers ask for MORE NEW questions for the next new textual stream
Oh yeah, me too and I CAN’T wait till it comes out this coming Monday. Not only that Riptor’s new redesign looks SO badass and sick! 
Thanks, Mike. Every week I translate the textual stream to Brazilian Portuguese and I share in groups and forums so the Brazilians fans can know all the KI news.
And I’m sure I’ll see others questions made by you being answered on the textual streams.
Only two more days and we’ll FINALLY see Riptor back in action. She really looks badass!
What character do you think will be teased in the Riptor’s trailer?
You’re welcome and anytime, Lorde. That’s really cool to hear you’re doing just THAT for your fellow Brazilian KI fans too
Yes, I will post MORE NEW questions for the next new textual stream and by any chance the developers may answer one of my questions again soon 
Not Shadow Jago, of course. After all he will be the next new KI character to be tease/reveal at the end of Riptor’s official trailer and at the same time he is RIGHT AFTER Riptor too
Regarding color 9, will Shadow Jago have additional colors. This last patch screwed my leveling on Shadow Jago. During Thanksgiving weekend, my relatives played KI on Local Play offline. My Shadow Jago was level 21, and now it is stuck on level 2. Playing him in the game, the bar levels up correctly, but doesn’t advance higher. I bringing this up because if this is the case, i would like to get Shadow Jago alternated colors. KI 4 LIFE!
Noice let the hype commence.
GET HYPE! THE HYPE IS REAL! SUPER HYPED! ALL ABOARD THE HYPE TRAIN!