Concept: More Spyke Services with rising level caps!

[Paragon-Yoshi]

So yeah, with the vast majority of players being level 20 now, I can see Nintendo raising to level caps eventually.
Of course, with those being raised, you naturally expect more rewards for even higher levels.

While there is certainly an infinity of concepts for unlocks and rewards for higher levels, for now I want to focus on everyone's "FAVOURITE" Super Sea Snail addict.
SPYKE, the Sea Urchin.

Doubtless, he has the most interesting benefits for reaching level 20.
By enabling you to increase the number of slots for Sub-Abilities, to the maximum of 3, or rerolling the Sub-Abilities, if you already have a gear with 3 slots and all unlocked.
While this already allows you to boost your favourite gear, I still think there is a lot more you can do.


One of the things that Spyke could do in my eyes, is covering a problem, that I am sure more or less EVERYONE has with this game.
I think this Miiverse.post, sums it up flawlessly.

I guess everyone understands that pain.
When you find a piece of gear with abilities you would love to have, but don't really want to wear it, because it just doesnt look good in your opinion.
While on the other hand, the gear that looks awesome in your eyes, doesnt have abilities you want to have.

Asthetics will always play a role, when a game offers a vast majority of clothing for you to choose from.


And the first idea for an additional Spyke Service I came up with, is something that could resolve this "Abilities vs Asthetics" dilemma.
- Transferring Abilities
This idea is based on the Skill-Transferring in "Hyrule Warriors".
So those who played that game, might already see where this is going.

Basicly, you choose a gear you want skills transferred to and then pick the gear, whose ability you want to transfer.
You can transfer a Main Ability from one gear to replace the Main Ability of your desired gear.
Or you can pick a Sub-Ability to replace any of the Sub-Abilities of your desired gear.
In this case, you are free to pick any of the UNLOCKED slots to transfer the desired Sub.Ability to.

But watch out!
Once you have transferred an ability, the gear you transferred the ability from, will be DESTROYED!
So after the transfer has been done, it is GONE!

So this forces you to think carefully, which ability you want to transfer.
You can only do one. Nothing more.

However, that doesnt prevent you from re-buying the gear you lost, provided the shops have it in store.


"You can only transfer abilities from gear that you can buy in shops!"

So you cannot transfer skills from the gear you get by beating Hero Mode or from Amiibo Challenge Gear.
But you can transfer skills fron another gear to them.

The only piece of gear, that Spyke is not allowed to touch, aka neither "transferring skills from" nor "transferring skill to" are SPLATFEST TEE's.

Hopefully that way, people can get their desired abilities, alongside gear they actually like to wear.


And then there is a second additional Spyke Service that I came up with.
It is a rather basic, but might still find its uses.
- Restore to Base
This option has two effects:
First, it restores the Main Ability back to default (if it was changed).
And second, it locks all Sub-Abilities.
Aka you have to unlock them again to gain new Sub-Abilities.

So yeah, it basicly reverts the gear back to their Base Status, when you first got them.
The only thing it doesn't do, is take away slots that Spyke added for you.
(Come on, that'd be stupid. :p )


So yeah, those are my concepts for things that Spyke could do for you in my eyes, if you go beyond legendary Freshness.

You like or dislike? Or have ideas of your own?
Feel free to participate. :D

 

[Egregore]

Level 30 = reroll individual sub-abilities.

S rank = higher chance to order exact piece of gear.

Please and thanks!

 

[Lyn]

Very good ideas! I would love all of this. :)

 

[Megajack]

My only problem with the "transferring abilities" idea, is the sub-abilities. It would become way too easy to get three matching sub-abilities on a piece of gear. While some may say that's a good thing, I don't believe it is. There is something rewarding about rolling triple sub-abilities, and this would take that away. The harder something is to obtain, the more valuable it becomes.

Level 30 = reroll individual sub-abilities.

See above.

Maybe it's just me though. I don't like to have everything come easy... it makes things less interesting and fruitful.

 

[Phobos]

The only thing I'd like is something like the transfer, but with fewer options and fewer penalties - so, straightforward swapping all the abilities on one item of gear, with all the abilities on another item of gear of the same category. The current system for levelling up and rerolling subs would be retained then, but once you were satisfied with something you could then transfer all of those abilities on to an item in the same category (it would have to be the same category to preserve the restricted combination possibilities of the present system).

 

[Njok]

The option to swap or re-roll the main ability, yes.

But i would not like to see the option to swap sub abilities or re-roll one at a time. It's a big part of the fun for me to try and get those special pieces. It won't be very satisfying anymore if they make it too easy.

 

[SquiddiamFancyson]

I think if the level cap were to be increased then your proposals are pretty cool ideas. Especially the transferring thing, I hadn't considered a concept like that. With that being said, I'm actually in the 'keep Spyke as he is' camp, because A) getting rare gear that involves obnoxiously low success rates feels awesome and B) it'll devalue current rare items if this were to be implemented.

We're already figuring out cool ways as a community to maximize our chances of rare gear by ordering from each other, and even working on getting shiny gear easier by ordering when somebody has 2 shiny slots, so that we have a higher chance of at least one squid rolling the third. Yes it involves luck still and a painful reliance on Spyke to pull through but that anticipation is part of what makes it all worth it. The magic'd be gone if that got removed.

 

[MuteBard]

One thing the devs could do is allow you to change 1 sub ability to anything you want, but make it absurdly expensive, about 750k to 1M. In my case, Im worried about re rolling my hat as it has two non common subs that i really like but I have bomb range up as my third sub ability. This would give me a goal to work towards and I would gladly do it. Giving an option to some who dont wish to be subjected to the pain of bad rolls.

 

[retlaf]

This is a cool and well thought out idea that I like, but I see one problem: I'm starting to be able to recognize pieces of gear and what abilities they give. It doesn't make a huge difference in practice, but technically if I recognize those neon shoes, I might know to account for that when aiming at the guy while he's running away from me through my team's ink, for example.

 

[Paragon-Yoshi]

My only problem with the "transferring abilities" idea, is the sub-abilities. It would become way too easy to get three matching sub-abilities on a piece of gear. While some may say that's a good thing, I don't believe it is. There is something rewarding about rolling triple sub-abilities, and this would take that away. The harder something is to obtain, the more valuable it becomes.


See above.

Maybe it's just me though. I don't like to have everything come easy... it makes things less interesting and fruitful.

One thing the devs could do is allow you to change 1 sub ability to anything you want, but make it absurdly expensive, about 750k to 1M. In my case, Im worried about re rolling my hat as it has two non common subs that i really like but I have bomb range up as my third sub ability. This would give me a goal to work towards and I would gladly do it. Giving an option to some who dont wish to be subjected to the pain of bad rolls.

Of course, it goes without saying, that this service would be much more expensive.
So if you don't have the money or snails to spare, you could still try your luck with the normal reroll, as cheaper alternative.
Believe me, there'd still be a reason to use rerolls.


Also, transferring abilities, requires you to have a piece of gear with the desired ability first.
In other words, you have to pay for gear with good abilities anyways.
But if you are willing to go the extra mile 'and pay extra, you could get those abilities on a piece of gear that also looks awesome in your eyes.

Personally, I am a big fan of the Octoling Armor and Boots.
But they don't have abilities I would actually like to have. Still, I just can't take them off, they just look awesome on my Inkling.
This option would however give me a good reason to buy UGLY gear with great abilities.
Since I would have the option to transfer them over and give the Octoling gear the abilities of the ugly gear.
And then I would be left with great abilities, on my favourite looking gear.

Again, like I said, this service would cost a lot of cash. More than the Slot-Adding/Rerool for sure.
I dunno, probably around 1 Million Cash or 10 Super Sea Snails?
But personally, I am ready and willing to pay that much for that. ;)

 

[TheMH]

While I like the perk and rerolling feature in general, I'd really like to see an option to directly select individual sub perks on a piece of equipment. This should be super-expensive of course, maybe 300,000 G or 10 snails per single slot.

Rerolling single sub slots would be fine, too. Again, this should cost more than a full reroll, maybe 60,000 or 90,000.

I'm starting to be able to recognize pieces of gear and what abilities they give.

^this
I think that's actually what Nintendo intended with the fixed main perks. Someone using White Anchor Tee? Watch out for Ninja Squid etc. It's the same for the weapons, too. They all look a little different so everyone can see what he has to deal with right at the beginning of a match.

I'm still waiting for my clothes with 2 main perks :P

 

[Paragon-Yoshi]

^this
I think that's actually what Nintendo intended with the fixed main perks. Someone using White Anchor Tee? Watch out for Ninja Squid etc. It's the same for the weapons, too. They all look a little different so everyone can see what he has to deal with right at the beginning of a match.

I'm still waiting for my clothes with 2 main perks :p

While I can see the point, who does pay that much attention really?
I certainly don't.

Plus, if they kill you, you can see what abilities they have on their gear anyways.
So I don`t think changing main abilities would be that much of an issue.


So personally, I still vouch for an ability changing service of some sort, that gives you the choice, or at the very least the chance, to get abilities for good-looking gear.
True, there are people who only care about getting good abilities, so for them getting any gear with the desired abilities isn't an issue for them.
But there are also people like me, who wear gear because it looks awesome.
And while we certainly want good abilities, we have a hard time wearing gear with them, if they look ugly in our eyes.

So I figured why not bringing the two worlds together in some way.
Of course, like I said, it would have its (HIGH) price.
But again, personally I am willing to pay that much.

 

[RoyLee]

I'm all for raising the level cap. And for the transferring of abilities I think that wouldnt be a bad idea as well.

I had a thought about there maybe being a way to receive the exact same abilities as some gear that you ordered, but it would cost more.

 

[TheMH]

who does pay that much attention really?

I do - at least in ranked and when I'm playing concentrated. In competitive play it will be vital to see with what you're dealing with early. Of course most stats don't matter like Damage Up or Special Charge Up etc. But when for example someone is running a suicide build (3x Quick Respawn main) that information can be valuable. Then you know this guy will play very aggressively.

 

[CrazyDude]

The higher your rank the higher chance you should have on getting your desired gear order with 3 subs. I think the current chance of ordering a perfect gear is too low anyways...so this would motivate people to rank up .

 

[Paragon-Yoshi]

I do - at least in ranked and when I'm playing concentrated. In competitive play it will be vital to see with what you're dealing with early. Of course most stats don't matter like Damage Up or Special Charge Up etc. But when for example someone is running a suicide build (3x Quick Respawn main) that information can be valuable. Then you know this guy will play very aggressively.

If that really is that much of a problem, then I'd add some sort of icon or another kind of hint on a player name, that shows that he or she is using gear with changed main abilities.

EDIT: Or better yet, show small previews on each players ability-set, during the "Intro" of a fight, when both teams emerge from the spawn-point, just before the battle begins.
Tho for Custom Matchmaking I'd prefer this to be an option you can toggle ON and OFF.

EIther way, personally I'd find it better, if you CAN'T see what's coming at you, right away.
And you can only figure it out as you go.

I dunno, I just prefer to have some element of surprise, making the players not too transparent on their plans and playstyles.
Except of course, when their play is very predictable.


Then again, like I said, most people don't seem to pay really any attention to what the other players are wearing.
At least as far as I have seen.
So either way, I can't see changing main abilities as gamebreaking.

 

[Megajack]

The higher your rank the higher chance you should have on getting your desired gear order with 3 subs. I think the current chance of ordering a perfect gear is too low anyways...so this would motivate people to rank up .

I'd be for this.

 

[Paragon-Yoshi]

Yeah but even so, that would leave the issue with Main Abilities.

Look, personally I would be fine if the Transferring only works for Main Abilities.
So changing Sub-Abilities will be rerolling then.

Tho I'd like to have to a little more control over it, even if that involves paying extra.

Higher chance of triple rerolls for higher Ranks in Ranked sounds like a good idea.
But keep in mind there are people who don't play Ranked, because they don't care about being competitive-
They just want to have fun and stick to normal Turf Wars as a result.
I know, cause I am one.

So yeah, I figured adding that extra bit of being able to transfer Subs as well would be good for those kind of people.

I'd even encourage unlocking both parts of transferring at two different levels.
Example: Level 40 unlocks Transferring Main Abilities.
Level 50 adds Sub-Ability transferring to that service.

But again, it would be my preferred way of handling it.
If you have a different concept, I am fine with it.
As long as I am able to get any abilities, both main and sub, on any gear I want, I am good.

I'd just prefer it NOT to be a matter of gambling.
And so I would like to have alternatives, that allow more control over this.
Of course, at a higher price.

 

[JarBear]

I agree I would like the idea of transferring abilities, which depends on your level and has a cost/super sea snail.

I don't view this as merely an "easier" way of getting what you want, but allows the person, who wants to use their funds/shells/time to customize not just the skills, but also the look of certain gear but doesn't have the ability they need/desire.

People like customizing and this expands it even more. You are still investing your time but you get what you want out of it after some time/resources.

 

[missingno]

I really don't know why anyone actually wants it to remain such a tedious and RNG-laden grind to try and get the abilities you want. Honestly this whole system doesn't belong in a multiplayer game if you ask me, and I welcome any and all changes to try and tone it down.