Equipment - Splatoon's Biggest Setback in Tournament

[AC3TheAnimator]

So we all know that Splatoon is a great game with a lot of competitive elements. I find out new stuff every day. And while there are many debates about certain aspects of the game for tournament setting, there is one glaring flaw that cannot be ignored-- and no, it's not LAN.

But first, some disclaimers:

First, when I say tournament, I mean a tournament with a venue, with your teammates next to you. Not on

I am by no means an expert on this game. I've had it since Christmas. It's fun, and I like playing it. But I do know some about the game. And if this issue has already been brought up before, please let me know. I myself haven't heard it mentioned.

I am also by no means well versed in the metagame of Splatoon, or the tournament setting. I've been to one tournament ever; it was a Smash tournament at my school with like 30 people there. I didn't enter.

Please keep these in mind.

Now, we all know how every weapon has its drawbacks-- whether it's how much ink you use, how long it takes to land a splat, run speed, etc. If we simply lived with these stipulations, the metagame would be pretty different. Fortunately for us, Nintendo has given us means of not having these drawbacks be as severe: the gear. There's a lot of it, and every piece does different things. What's more, every piece is almost entirely random each game, not only making them hard to obtain, but also making it excruciatingly difficult to get the abilities on the gear that you need. This gear makes a huge difference, and people have gone out of their way to get stuff like Squidforce gear with all damage ups, so obviously we as a community value its importance.

But the Achilles' Heel in this scenario is that your gear is tied to your system. That Legendary Cap with all the Damage ups you worked so hard to get is staying at home, which is perfectly fine at home online, but if you go to a tournament at PAX or something, you're out of luck. And at this point in time, there is no way to transfer this data without transferring everything else on your system.

I'm sure at this point you can all see the extent of this issue. The difference that gear makes can make or break a match. And while the folks at EVO unlocked nearly every custom for Smash 4 last year, it's literally impossible to do the same thing with Splatoon unless you've got like 10 million sea snails, and no major tournament is gonna want to do that. Ever.

So what are your thoughts/opinions? My idea for a solution is some sort of new Splatoon amiibo that works like the Smash 4 amiibo, where you save your stuff on it. I hope this issue becomes more apparent as time passes, because this can't really just be ignored.

Thanks for reading.

 

[sammich]

before we get to that flaw, let's look at the flaw where you can't any of the main modes in multiplayer without having multiple systems.

so while your idea solves the gear thing and the ability thing (and the user ID thing which you didn't mention), even with it there are still going to have to be 8 wii u's involved.

on top of that, have they even worked out a way to do LAN yet or is everything still online only?

 

[AC3TheAnimator]

No, LAN is still not here, and that's another big issue too. 8 Wii Us could technically be done with enough money, but you're right; there's a lot of problems. I was just bringing an issue to light that I haven't really seen anywhere.

 

[sammich]

if it weren't for the crazy limitations in general, i would think an idea like yours would be really natural. i feel like they'll do something similar when splatoon 2 happens. they may change how gear and abilities work (HOPEFULLY THEY'LL FIX THE ROLL SYSTEM, OH GOD), but in the past they've given us ways to travel with profiles.

amiibo could work easily, and is a likely option.
or they could tie it to the controller like they did with mii characters back on the wii,
but they'll likely go for more amiibo compatibility.

 

[SquiliamTentacles]

If tournaments didn't use a bring-your-own WiiU policy, I wonder how hard it would be to figure out how to hack in every piece of gear with it's natural triple. Yes, I know it is hacking, but these profiles are only for tournaments where everyone has the same advantage of gear anyways, and likely will not be used online.

 

[AC3TheAnimator]

The bring your own Wii U policy is something I considered as well, but it just seems impractical. Say there's a big tournament for Splatoon, similar to Apex for Smash. The top players probably can bring their own system, but aside from the fact that not everyone can do that, it also just takes a long time. Imagine having to wait for like 5-10 minutes after every set in a stream because a team needs to set up their Wii Us.

Hacking is something I didn't think of, and I suppose that could be possible, but I don't think Nintendo would be into that. But if there's no other option, and people really want a well-run Splatoon event, that's the way. Either that, the amiibo thing. Or something else somebody can come up with.

 

[buttfield]

just bind inventory to nnid
no need to dump out another nfc scam in our laps

 

[AC3TheAnimator]

just bind inventory to nnid
no need to dump out another nfc scam in our laps

Won't work. Your NNID is linked to your system. In order to log into it on another system, you have to call Nintendo and arrange a transfer.

 

[Phlox]

No, LAN is still not here, and that's another big issue too. 8 Wii Us could technically be done with enough money, but you're right; there's a lot of problems. I was just bringing an issue to light that I haven't really seen anywhere.

Go look up Squid Social. Also the easiest way is to just have your competitors bring their Wii U system, and that ensures that they have all their gear.

EDIT: I read your reply on the setting up problem, and it doesn't take that long to set up. They can have extra cords lying around, you just plug in your Wii U, boot up the system, go through news, and enter the private battle.

 

[Cake or Death]

Would copying your save file to a USB stick or external hardrive not work? Take it to the tournament, plug it into the back of the Wii U, Bob's your uncle? Similar to how save scumming works? If that were possible it'd beat the method of having to bring your Wii U to tourneys. Seems feasible as your character isn't tied to your NNID.

Is this in any way possible?

 

[Cyan]

Would copying your save file to a USB stick or external hardrive not work? Take it to the tournament, plug it into the back of the Wii U, Bob's your uncle? Similar to how save scumming works? If that were possible it'd beat the method of having to bring your Wii U to tourneys. Seems feasible as your character isn't tied to your NNID.

Is this in any way possible?

That is not possible, each USB stick gets tied to the Wii U in question and gets formatted to work for that specific console only. The save files are still tied to the individual NNIDs on a system. Essentially, other Wii Us will not recognise the USB stick (and will want to format it to work with that console) so you can't transfer your data in this way, you would really need a bunch of hacked Wii Us so you can force them to upload the save data for other hacked Wii Us to download (or hack in the different abilities as per request of each participant).

In response to the OP, I wouldn't worry about it, since LAN tournaments are not going to take off with this game, as it isn't practically feasible in my eyes. One, this game is a very new IP, and currently all tourneys are done online via streams and communication software set up by the community. Splatoon needs to become an established IP before it can be considered a true competitive game. Also, abilities aren't as much of a game changer as you think. Ink Saver and Recovery do nothing for you if you keep getting splatted. The same goes for a lot of the other abilities. I personally think that the lack of shiny, pure and common triples would be better since you would have to adopt a slightly different playstyle for a LAN tournament. As long as all the weapons are available the abilities don't matter, since the weapon is of greater importance.

 

[Templar]

Taking your own Wii U to be honest is the only practical rule, as bringing the Wii U isn't too hard, especially if TOs had all the cables ready, and all you have to do is unplug the Wii U. You'd have to bring your own Gamepad though so you don't have to resync everytime. Its a lil annoying, but its not like bringing a PS4/Xbone since its half the size.