Splatoon

[Beacon of Chaos]

Fancied starting a thread for this game since I'm quite looking forward to it. I've got my special edition with all 3 amiibos pre-ordered. :smallsmile:

So, did anyone play the global testfire this weekend? I managed to get in a dozen matches or so. Was quite impressed with it. Well, after turning off the motion controls at any rate. :smalltongue:

I quite like the roller weapon. I've heard people say it's OP, which seems strange to me, considering the obvious limitations, but laying huge amounts of ink down and occasionally one-shotting someone is very satisfying. Having more than one per team is a recipe for disaster though. Would be nice to have a match-making option that seeks a balance between weapon types.

The secondary weapons all seem a bit rubbish, taking up huge amounts of ink for very little gain, with the possible exception of the ink balloons. Hopefully there will be better options in the full game.

What do you all think of it?

[Caxton]

Super excited. I want to pre-order Amiibos, but I can't find any. Amazon isn't selling them at all yet.

Is Gamestop the only one with a pre-order bonus to date?


I feel like the roller will end up being a weapon that you will need one of on your team but not more. It is useful for area control, but I think that as people develop their styles they will learn to snipe those rollers with prejudice.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Super excited. I want to pre-order Amiibos, but I can't find any. Amazon isn't selling them at all yet.

Is Gamestop the only one with a pre-order bonus to date?


I feel like the roller will end up being a weapon that you will need one of on your team but not more. It is useful for area control, but I think that as people develop their styles they will learn to snipe those rollers with prejudice.
I'm in the UK, so I got mine from GAME, which is UK exclusive as far as I'm aware. You might be able to get it from the official Nintendo store.

The roller is great for actually achieving the objective: put ink everywhere. It's kinda unique in that it's focused more on painting than combat. I think the lack of upward mobility may hurt it in the long run. It's tricky to paint walls with it, so you need to resort to the paint-wasting secondary. Still, one match on the oil rig I took my roller up one of the side shortcuts to the upper area and was able to paint a large section before the other team noticed. Got several sneak kills that way too. Jumping down behind your opponents and rolling them is great fun. :smallbiggrin:

Pic related:
https://41.media.tumblr.com/dc258a6d7ac6a2ccd70e33c9ec355f94/tumblr_no82ykwdoq1rip8ybo1_1280.png
Source (http://o-8.tumblr.com/post/118761383926/dont-mind-me-just-doing-some-street-cleaning)

[Rakaydos]

Looking foward to it, but missed the testfire- RL intervened.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Looking foward to it, but missed the testfire- RL intervened.
Well, it looks like you'll get another chance next Saturday. (http://splatoonus.tumblr.com/post/119025304264/this-just-in-the-splatoon-global-testfire-is)

[McNum]

The testfire was a lot of fun, and I don't usually play online shooters. Or much of online at all. So if we're getting another hour, well, me and my trusty Splattershot Jr. will be there. Ready to rock some rollers. The Bubbler superweapon is just plain mean. (And if you bump into an ally, they get a bubble, too!)

I am looking forward to the full game, though. The four testfire weapons are nice, but I want to see the full loadout. There's a bombchu subweapon that looks fun. And there's a paintbrush weapon coming.

[Beacon of Chaos]

The paintbrush looks pretty cool, though I suspect it may just be a variant paint roller.

Saw a couple of interesting videos recently. Here's decent video showing the sniper rifle being useful: [link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWididP-gQw)]

And some advanced movement tips which I will never use but are interesting anyway: [link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uTYJazMRk0)]

[Beacon of Chaos]

I don't know if anyone else heard about this, but a whole lorry full of special edition Splatoon games was stolen. (http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-05/27/amiibo-shipment-stolen)

Naturally, this was where I was preordering from. :smallfurious:

I'm now ordering the special edition from Amazon, but man am I ever mad. I won't be getting this on launch day now.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Well, the game's been out of few days, figured I'd try one more time to get a discussion going.

Really enjoying it so far. Still trying to work out which abilities I like best, though I'm thinking that abilities like Recon and Haunt are really useful. Speed upgrades are also a high priority, especially with rollers.

Weapon-wise, I'm still testing out everything. I'm still using the first roller rather than the Krak-on. I just prefer having a grenade to fall back on. The kraken super also has such a short timer that it hardly seems worth it without upgrades. That said, I've been killed by it several times. :smallannoyed:

Still working my way through the single player campaign, but it's fun so far. Feels like Mario Sunshine. :smallsmile:

Got my amiibos. They are fantastic quality. Love them.

Also loving the way that player's miiverse posts pop-up as graffiti and billboards in game. Nice touch! :smallbiggrin:

[Seerow]

The game is a lot of fun, and the core gameplay is great... but it does leave a lot to be desired feature-wise.

Most specifically, the inability to have a dedicated party in this day and age in a multiplayer based shooter is unforgivable. I can understand not wanting native voice chat both because the game can be played internationally and because of the sort of vitriol that inherently shows up in that environment... but not being able to form up a team with friends to go playing is really bad. Especially given the fact that rated matches are a thing.

Like all of the different weapons and supers really lend themselves well towards players adopting a niche and working together to support each other. It feels like it was made to be a team game. But then you queue into a match with 3 allies all using rollers and it's pointless. Even if you do happen to queue into a match where everyone's weapons have perfect synergy, the lack of communication makes that near impossible to take advantage of. It makes the entire thing based on luck of the draw... which is potentially fine, but feels way more frustrating here because all of the tools are right there for a skill based game, you just can't quite make it work because the system won't let you group up with who you want.

And yes, I am aware that the "join friends" function exists, and that can potentially help, but even then it randomly distributes you and your friends between teams, so if you have 4 friends on, you might all get to play together but far more likely you're going to have some on one team and some on the other. For the casual play that's fine (and probably preferable so you don't have a team of 4 pro players wrecking things for everybody. Getting them more evenly distributed makes it more fun for everyone), but why can't you have a premade team for ranked battles?


Other Major Issue: Lots of disconnects. I haven't been disconnected, but I swear every 2-3 matches someone on my team has been disconnected and has 0 points, resulting in an absolutely lopsided loss. I'm not sure if it's an issue with their servers or just players being inconsiderate, but in either case if someone is DCed, a replacement should be able to be brought in mid-game to help even the sides. I know matches are short and you get points even when you lose, but it's frustrating lose so badly even when you personally are doing really well. And it does happen a LOT. Maybe I'm just really unlucky.


Would like to see: The 1 player mode has a lot of really neat mechanics that don't get used at all in multiplayer. I want to see a lot of those show up on future maps. Imagine a future map release where one of those big unkillable paint rollers are running around, and whoever has covered those rollers with the most paint controls the roller (which then paints the ground in their color as it wanders around randomly). Or the little lines of paint that get used for long distance travel, and moving walls that you go into squid form to travel along. Those are awesome terrain features that are totally unique to Splatoon, but the multiplayer doesn't utilize them at all. I really want to see more of that sort of thing make its way into the game via DLC maps.

[Beacon of Chaos]

These are all fair points and I agreed with all of them. I wouldn't say it's been enough to mar my enjoyment of the game, but it could defnitely do with more work on the multiplayer side.

On disconnections, I've actually found these to be quite rare. It might be to do with the time I'm playing at, but I've only had a couple myself and I don't see them often. Of course, last night I got disconnected 5 seconds before the end of a match I was winning. so annoying. :smallannoyed:

There really needs to be a way to balance out the weapon types. Like, once everyone has joined a match, give a minute or so where people can check their equipment and see those of their teammates.

[Solse]

What I'd really want is a kill splat log, like how in traditional shooter games and even MOBAs, you can see who killed splatted who. It allows me to see how well my team is doing in a way that I feel is better than just seeing an X on the Gamepad or an "x"'d out squid icon on the screen.

Other than that, I love this game. I hope that its metagame advances rapidly, what with it being already so popular.

[Skeppio]

Has there been word on other game modes? It seems odd that it specifies the mode as "Turf War" when that appears to be the only available mode. :smallconfused:
As for the game itself, it's fantastic! :smallbiggrin: I love how easy it is to just hop on, enter a match, play a few rounds, then leave without impacting anyone's game, since the matches are so short and team-making is fast and simple. I would like the ability to queue with friends as a premade group to ensure you're on the same team though.
Also the Amiibos are excellent quality, very good on the little details (as an Amiibo collector, I can safely say as time goes on, the Amiibos are continuously improving in quality, and they weren't bad to start with so the newer ones are very well-made and detailed). :3

[Geno9999]

Other than that, I love this game. I hope that its metagame advances rapidly, what with it being already so popular.
So far of what I've seen of the meta for Turf War has been Standard Splattershot Jr., Krak-on Roller, Aerospray series, and the recent N-Zap 85. Though Charger-type weapons might be good on Port Mackerel, what with the narrow corridors. The Ink Wall sub-weapon is also fantastic, since it can close off choke points. Not a complete fan of the Echolocator Special, I'd much rather prefer the Sensor Point Sub-weapon as it is more deployable/available, but it both do come in handy in case someone is trying to sneak around towards my base.


Has there been word on other game modes? It seems odd that it specifies the mode as "Turf War" when that appears to be the only available mode. :smallconfused:
As for the game itself, it's fantastic! :smallbiggrin: I love how easy it is to just hop on, enter a match, play a few rounds, then leave without impacting anyone's game, since the matches are so short and team-making is fast and simple. I would like the ability to queue with friends as a premade group to ensure you're on the same team though.
Also the Amiibos are excellent quality, very good on the little details (as an Amiibo collector, I can safely say as time goes on, the Amiibos are continuously improving in quality, and they weren't bad to start with so the newer ones are very well-made and detailed). :3
Ranked battles have been released last night, though you have to be at least level 10 to play it. So far the Ranked Battle mode is more or less King of the Hill style match: you have to cover a specific spot on the map and hold it for at least 100 seconds.

Other modes that are to be released is Tower Control (Is actually a Tug-of-War Payload mode) and Rainmaker. No hints as to what Rainmaker mode is like.

[Beacon of Chaos]

What I'd really want is a kill splat log, like how in traditional shooter games and even MOBAs, you can see who killed splatted who. It allows me to see how well my team is doing in a way that I feel is better than just seeing an X on the Gamepad or an "x"'d out squid icon on the screen.
On that note, some way to check lifetime stats would be nice. Total matches played, won/lost, total points, etc.


So far of what I've seen of the meta for Turf War has been Standard Splattershot Jr., Krak-on Roller, Aerospray series, and the recent N-Zap 85.
I've been playing with the Krak-on recently. Being able to set-up jump points is incredibly useful. It's only going to get more useful once the other players figure out they can use them too. :smallsigh:


Edit: Nintendo ID: DiegoHavoc. Feel free to add me!

[Geno9999]

On that note, some way to check lifetime stats would be nice. Total matches played, won/lost, total points, etc.


I've been playing with the Krak-on recently. Being able to set-up jump points is incredibly useful. It's only going to get more useful once the other players figure out they can use them too. :smallsigh:

Yeah that would be nice; also see favorite Gear/Weapons too while we're at it.

As for the Beacon sub, I've found that you can have multiple people use the same beacon, but you have to do it so that the first one is still en-route to it, because the beacon isn't destroyed until someone lands on it. Though one thing that really puts me off about it is that it costs so much ink to place, even with Ink Saver Sub abilities it almost eats up your entire tank. Rollers in general seem to just chug ink like there's no tomorrow, so Ink Saver Main is really a must have.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Been taking my roller into the ranked matched lately. Splat zones is either really fun or really frustrating, depending on map. Still, I just ranked up, so I guess I'm doing okay. :smalltongue:

Neat tactic I saw: Using the seeker bombs to create a trail in front of you so you can swim quickly to the objective without wasting much time with your gun. Definitely helps.


I really hope someone calculates exactly how much effect each power-up has. Like, ink-saving percentage, and precise speed boosts. That sort of thing. Without being able to change equipment on the fly, it's hard to tell the difference sometimes.

[Geno9999]

I really hope someone calculates exactly how much effect each power-up has. Like, ink-saving percentage, and precise speed boosts. That sort of thing. Without being able to change equipment on the fly, it's hard to tell the difference sometimes.
I've found a series of (http://www.reddit.com/r/splatoon/comments/38hqdb/a_simple_study_of_the_strengthdefense_buffs_in/) studies (http://www.reddit.com/r/splatoon/comments/38kmgs/a_simple_study_of_the_ink_saver_main_and_special/) on some abilities on the Splatoon Reddit: spoilers to Damage Up and Defense Up abilites; they statistically do nothing, since they increase/decrease damage by very little to make a difference aside from certain weapons (such as the .52 Gallon or regular Splattershots,) though they may have a use in helping with Bomb-type subweapons by increasing/decreasing their KO radius.

However, Special Charge Up and Ink Saver Main abilities are SO AWESOME. I might need to do some testing, but without Special Charge Up you need around 200pts to get a Special Primed, though with the miscellaneous abilities I was using I knocked it down to 180-185pts. A small difference, but when you have progressively have less and less territory to cover when you're winning, or when enemy team is holding down center and you need a trump card ready, every point helps.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Hmmm! Really interesting stuff! I suspected that the str/def equips needed mulitples before you noticed a difference, but I never guessed they do almost nothing. Glad I mostly use ink saver/special charge then. :smallbiggrin: It's worth noting that someone in the comments said that it might be helpful for chargers to have str up for non-charged shots, as well as rollers using the paint fling. Might be worth investigating. Also, standing in enemy ink does damage (http://i.imgur.com/FtvNMjb.jpg), so that can ramp up the effect. (that strategy guide looks really useful, and that's something I almost never say about printed guides).

Also in the comments:

Yup! Directly from the strategy guide! "Each piece of gear has one main ability. The main ability is three times as potent as a sub ability. Main abilities are static and cannot be changed."

I'll look forward to the speed-up tests too. I want to know if a heavy run speed build will be good for rollers.

Heh, you know at this point I may as well just accept the fact that I'm gonna be a career roller. :smallwink:


Also of note: different brands give different chances for certain sub-abilities (http://www.reddit.com/r/splatoon/comments/38nuy2/each_clothing_brand_has_a_higher_chance_to_get_a/). So Inkline and Squidforce (def/str respectively) are gonna see their stocks drop once this news gets out. :smalltongue:

[Geno9999]

I'll look forward to the speed-up tests too. I want to know if a heavy run speed build will be good for rollers.


Prelims for Run Speed Tests: One Main and 2 Sub Run Speed Up makes the Paint Brushes' active about 10% faster than swimming with no speed ups.

[Beacon of Chaos]

That's pretty cool, though I'm fairly certain the paintbrush increases your walk speed to swim speed anyway. Which means a main Speed boost is about 6% and a sub boost is about 2%. Putting the maximum potential increase at 36%. If you get very lucky with abilities. And don't mind loses out on other effects.

Edit: I forgot that multiple boosts have diminished returns. So max speed increase is probably closer to 20-25%.

[Geno9999]

That's pretty cool, though I'm fairly certain the paintbrush increases your walk speed to swim speed anyway. Which means a main Speed boost is about 6% and a sub boost is about 2%. Putting the maximum potential increase at 36%. If you get very lucky with abilities. And don't mind loses out on other effects.

Edit: I forgot that multiple boosts have diminished returns. So max speed increase is probably closer to 20-25%.

I did a little more testing after I heard something on Reddit and wanted to see if it was confirmed or not: Apparently Run Speed boosts don't effect Roller actives at all. If it did, it's a very small increase for the Paintbrush because I keep getting similar times between Paintbrush w/o Run Speed and Paintbrush w/ 1 Main and 1 Sub speed boosts (granted I was trying to do this without a stopwatch either.)

However, Run Speed does have a marked increase in speed for not only walking around, but also moving while shooting with Shooters or Chargers. Weirdly enough, Swim Speed doesn't really help, maybe shaving half a second. (http://imgur.com/a/hPDAG)

Digging around some more, someone posted pictures of the guide detailing the abilites. (http://imgur.com/a/MohDh)

It's starting to make some sense that some of the skill boosts are being very situational: it gives new players less of a disparity to work against with their 1-star gear against a level 20 with 3-star gear.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Saw someone with a splatfest tee today. Considering that the splatfest hasn't happened yet, I wonder if I played a game with a Splatoon staff member. :O

Recently tried out the Dynamo roller. Hahaha, why did I do that? XD Soooooo sloooooow.

Interesting fact: Ink Recovery Up also allows you to recover ink in kid form, as long as you don't fire your weapon.

[GloatingSwine]

You always recover ink in kid form, it's just much much slower.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Huh, never noticed that before.

[GloatingSwine]

You also recover ink faster as a squid if you move rather than stay still.

[Geno9999]

You also recover ink faster as a squid if you move rather than stay still.

Really? I thought it was the same rate even if you were moving or not.

In any case, Inkbrush is definitely my favorite weapon now, and the only one that matches my success with the Aerospray RG. Though I wonder if Bomb Range up increases the throwing range for the Sprinkler. If not, I have a lot of gear I need Spyke to reroll when I hit lvl 20. Well, I already had gear I want to reroll, but now I have one less skill to focus on.

[Beacon of Chaos]

I've just tested it out. Sorry, but bomb range up does NOT increase the sprinkler range.

Not sure how I feel about Kelp Dome. It's quite frustrating in splat zones. I know it's early days, but it seems like whoever gets to the centre first generally wins. Maybe it's just me.