tl;dr: Turn Gear and Kit Selection into something that looks a bit like Tableturf War or (I assume) Side Orders chips
We all know that kits are both a blessing and a curse in Splatoon games. They give a weapon a specific identity, but it also limits you in what you can play, release windows can be 1+ year long, and you're at the mercy of the dev team and their creative musing.
With Splatoon 4 being basically a foregone conclusion, I hope they move to custom kits, and here's how I hope they do it:
1) The design fundamentals
One of the most obvious and common criticisms of the custom kit idea is that things would become one-dimensional and overpowered. Why not just slap a burst bomb and trizooka on any gun and call it a day? Well, there are two answers to that:
There exists a little 3DS game by the creator of Super Smash Bros that few people played but many people love. It's called Kid Icarus: Uprising. In it, you create a build that consists of multiple tetromino-like blocks that you need to fit into a grid. Each block corresponds to one ability.
(Pictured here: the gear screen in Kid Icarus: Uprising)
I would love it if Splatoon changes its entire gear system to one like in Kid Icarus.
Here's how it could work:
3) Visuals and Customization
Splatoon is a colorful game of self-expression and style. This system would make this part of the game even better:
To summarize:
We all know that kits are both a blessing and a curse in Splatoon games. They give a weapon a specific identity, but it also limits you in what you can play, release windows can be 1+ year long, and you're at the mercy of the dev team and their creative musing.
With Splatoon 4 being basically a foregone conclusion, I hope they move to custom kits, and here's how I hope they do it:
1) The design fundamentals
One of the most obvious and common criticisms of the custom kit idea is that things would become one-dimensional and overpowered. Why not just slap a burst bomb and trizooka on any gun and call it a day? Well, there are two answers to that:
- Different weapons benefit from different synergies.
- We can see this most clearly with the new S-Blast: On paper, this weapon's kit is perfect, but in practice, the burst bomb is somewhat clunky to use, doesn't combo too well with the main and overall seemingly slows it down more than it helps it.
- On the other end of the spectrum, the Rapid Pro Deco has a pretty bad kit on paper, but the synergy between main, sub, and special is so good that it is far more than the sum of its parts.
- You can design ways to force the player to make tough, but intelligent choices.
- Look at Fizzy Bomb vs Curling Bomb for example. They both do very similar things, but the Fizzy Bomb is clearly better since it is not only mobility, but also paints well and has really good kill potential.
- A way to make both usable choices could be to make one much cheaper to use than the other. Or give it some extra perks that you can add yourself (basically more diverse and modular ways of doing sub power up).
- My favorite solution is a different one, however, and I want to show this in the next "chapter".
There exists a little 3DS game by the creator of Super Smash Bros that few people played but many people love. It's called Kid Icarus: Uprising. In it, you create a build that consists of multiple tetromino-like blocks that you need to fit into a grid. Each block corresponds to one ability.
(Pictured here: the gear screen in Kid Icarus: Uprising)
I would love it if Splatoon changes its entire gear system to one like in Kid Icarus.
Here's how it could work:
- Every gear ability in Splatoon becomes a tetromino of a different shape and size.
- Instead of Main and Sub abilities, you have different levels of blocks that offer increasingly higher benefits at the cost of taking up more space in your grid. (e.g. a Fizzy Bomb would have a bigger block, while a curling bomb a small one that is easier to fit in).
- Ability Chunks could be used to upgrade your existing blocks, or to buy new ones.
- Blocks could be sold for chunks, or combined for better pieces.
- This would also be a nice and easy way for the dev team to balance the abilities. If something is too strong/weak, change how much space it takes up in the grid.
- Points per Special have one high-ish default value across the board (e.g. 210p), and you need to invest into Special Charge Up as needed to get it to where you want.
- Every sub and main ability would become a tetromino, too.
- The stronger the sub or special is, the bigger the block is.
- Weak subs and specials have smaller blocks.
- Really weak subs and specials (e.g. Sprinkler and Slider) cost nothing and are the default -- if you do not invest sub or special blocks into your build, this is what you'll be using instead.
- Again, this could be an additional way to balance the subs and specials without changing how they work in-game.
- You could pick a brand as a sponsor
- Of course, we don't want to alieniate the corporate overlords and Nouveau or Deco. But instead of creating their own custom weapons, they sponsor us as players.
- The same way gear now has different chances of giving you different abilities based on the brand, these same gear chunks now cost more or less depending on your sponsor.
- Some brands give benefits based on weapon type (e.g. Sorella gives bigger grids if you use brellas). Others based on special type (e.g. Deco makes offensive subs/specials cheaper to use in your build, but every chunk that is utility or supportive is more expensive). And brands like Krak-On could give you a baseline of Swim Speed for free, but at the cost of lower-than-default Run Speed.
- And again, this is another tool for the devs to tweak and balance without affecting the performance of anything directly.
3) Visuals and Customization
Splatoon is a colorful game of self-expression and style. This system would make this part of the game even better:
- Through this new system, how your inkling/octoling looks and how the gear performs are two separate things. Y
- You could create your own fits, and tie them into the "freshest fits" loadout system.
- Changing your shoes because they look good would not mean having to grind chunks anymore, since visuals and gameplay performance are now separate things.
- Obviously, the stickers and visual flairs of alt kits make up a good bit of a weapon's identity, even if it is purely visual. But the solution here is fairly simple:
- You create your own weapon looks!
- We already have stickers in the game thanks to the lockers, why not extend that to a weapon bench? Make a weapon completely your own by decorating it any way you want.
To summarize:
- Instead of having abilities tied to clothing, you now create a loadout through a grid.
- This grid is filled with tetromino blocks that represent both Sub/Special abilities, and all gear abilities.
- Depending on the strength and value of your ability, the blocks become less easy to slot into your grid.
- Subs and Specials can now be balanced to be weak (or weaker than a similar sub/special) by design.
- You are forced to choose between strong sub + special, good gear, or a balanced compromise.
- Brand Sponsors would encourage certain playstyles, and discourage others.
- Customization in basically every facet of the game would be improved.
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