Ideas for Splatoon 4???

[NumberOneAries]

This is more specifically about the world of Splatoon 4 as opposed to gameplay/level design/etc., mainly because my main forte is story telling as opposed to game design, but if y'all wanna do that too can!

Ok here goes: I think an amazing central idea is a war/feud between 2 cities. I lowkey want Deep Cut to come back as idols along with a brand new set of idols to go up against! I feel like this idea can be very interesting, and as an added bonus u can travel between the two so ur not stuck in one permanently. Maybe there's a gulag u have to do to actually change "sides" but actually visiting is a different story. Maybe there's some kind of back alley between the two cities u can take.

Along with this I propose a different type of splatfest. I think that the idea of 2 or 3 idols getting on the same page is unrealistic so I think there should be a "Civil War" type splatfest that is deadass just an argument between adults that the idols have the populace sort out. But once that is decided, the bigger splatfest takes place!! The first smaller one can only be one day maybe 2 days since it's really inconsequential, but it's turf war so it's the most "fair" assessment (that's probably what Nintendo would say, I'm just being realistic here). The bigger splatfest can be almost exclusively Anarchy Battles featuring a new game mode that is actually thought out much better than tricolor Battles were. I'm thinking a Capture the Flag type of game mode that would emphasize that "battling in enemy territory" feeling of the whole fest. And I think that the game mode can unlocked in anarchy rotation after the final fest bc that's only fair .

I think this is a decent idea but I'm curious what else y'all can come up with!!

 

[Madt123]

1: one singular jellyfish dj (the idol)

2: ability to chose ink color and "tinktures" (the gradient part thingy) (ink color will put you into pool, more sparkles in ink = higher level pool)

3: new tentacle-styles (LOTS OF THEM!!!)

4: 2 sided splatfests cause the jellyfish dj idol can't choose

5: beauty marks, freckles, more customizable features like eye size and stuff

6: new clothing and pants store

7: salmon run new stuff (RUINS OF ARK POLARIS COME BACK)

8: story mode w/ 3 parts, something kinda like Octo Expansion but no 8 ball levels that make you wanna throw your switch across the room

9: all vendors are jellyfish or something edible (i.e. Crusty Sean)

10: bring back all specials and subs from s1, s2, and s3 (can be nerfed/buffed to adjust to game)

 

[DzNutsKong]

10: bring back all specials and subs from s1, s2, and s3 (can be nerfed/buffed to adjust to game)

I don't really think this one's feasible for the specials. There are too many that serve too similar of a purpose from a gameplay perspective, like with Kraken and Baller, and some ideas just straight up cannot be good for the game without being super bad like Sting Ray or Ink Armor. There's also the whole issue of Splatoon 1's specials being bad for the environment in-universe if I recall correctly but I'm sure they could come up with some "upgraded version" of all those like they did for Triple Inkstrike or Killer Wail 5.1.

I like the rest of these though. In particular I was really hoping Side Order would unlock the option to choose the color your Inkling has for its "accent" as opposed to it just being stuck as blue.

 

[Cephalobro]

I would personally make the setting of Splatoon 4 take place above Octo Valley. My explanation for this would be that the remaining Octolings who are still underground didn't want to leave the rest of the Octarians behind (also yes, it's confirmed that not all Octolings left the underground domes), but they want to have a life on the surface. So now they create a new settlement aboveground called Octo City, a settlement in which Octarians are the majority of the demographic. Tentacle Octarians would be the shopkeepers and vendors as well as the NPCs walking about.

The backstory behind Octo City is that it's built on Octoling turf in Inkadia as a compromise for going to the surface but not leaving the tentacle Octarians behind, but a recent development happened that drew the attention of curious Inklings into the area, enough time passed that the current idols of Inkadia retired from their roles and that the New Squidbeak Splatoon has dissolved, so there are no hostilities between the Inklings and Octarians anymore. The lore states that Octo City have expanded to Octo Canyon as well and there are even speculations that Octo City and Inkopolis might also merge in the future.

 

[ikebro]

I would personally make the setting of Splatoon 4 take place above Octo Valley. My explanation for this would be that the remaining Octolings who are still underground didn't want to leave the rest of the Octarians behind (also yes, it's confirmed that not all Octolings left the underground domes), but they want to have a life on the surface. So now they create a new settlement aboveground called Octo City, a settlement in which Octarians are the majority of the demographic. Tentacle Octarians would be the shopkeepers and vendors as well as the NPCs walking about.

THIS WOULD BE SO COOL i think it'd be really refreshing to see an octo-centric main game!!!! also i'm DESPERATE for more octo valley/octarian lore, that's something i sorely missed in side order
maybe the story mode could delve a bit more into facets of inkling society we haven't seen yet?

 

[Cephalobro]

THIS WOULD BE SO COOL i think it'd be really refreshing to see an octo-centric main game!!!! also i'm DESPERATE for more octo valley/octarian lore, that's something i sorely missed in side order
maybe the story mode could delve a bit more into facets of inkling society we haven't seen yet?

Yup, and a new arc would totally allow for an Octarian-centric main setting to be the hub. And yeah, for whatever reason, Nintendo refuses to add deep Octarian lore into the game itself, making us look up the lore from sources outside of the game. It was through the outside sources that we really got so many answers to the lore that Nintendo didn't show us in the game.

 

[Cephalobro]

Adding on to my idea for Octo City, the Sunken Scrolls in the theoretical single-player mode reveal that Octolings don't change their hairstyles the same way as Inklings. Instead of cutting, there's a machine that changes Octoling hairstyles without cutting at all. Another Sunken Scroll reveals that if an Octoling's tentacle is cut away, the separated tentacle will become an Octarian of either the Octotrooper or the Octocopter variety, with more tentacles having a chance to grow when the Octarian becomes older. One final example of a Sunken Scroll will make it clear that tentacle Octarians simply cannot become Octolings, although there were extremely rare cases in which tentacle Octarians managed to become roughly humanoid, none of those became identical to Octolings, though Octarians who became roughly humanoid did gain the ability to respawn. Unfortunately, those few rare Octarians are now extinct due to the meddling of outside forces.

So yes, a game taking place in Octo City will have Octarian-centric lore in the Sunken Scrolls.

 

[chaotik0]

my biggest hope is that they actually spend time making this game instead of releasing it 1 year after they finish with final balance patches with the last game

for what i hope gets in the game, it’s gotta be an easier ability system. grinding for chunks sucks especially if you dont play salmon run, and if you want a specific outfit for a specific build it’s even harder. i also have a ton of money that never gets used besides the gacha machine, which does not help very much for getting more chunks. something like a chunks shop or making the odds for the ability drinks to give you those chunks to be increased by a lot could probably work. i do love that splatoon 3 lets you change the main ability of a gear though that’s awesome. i also hope they add more unique abilities that can only go on a main slot like LDE and comeback and stuff

the main reason i specifically want something this small is because the big stuff like specials and subs and weapon classes are obviously going to happen, and all i hope for those is that they make them really cool and fun

 

[neonscreenlight]

they have 4 idols for the splatoon 4 thing, but to bring back the 2-sided splatfests they make two of the idols be on one side and the other two on the other side! they could even switch up who's on which side every splatfest

...actually now i'm thinking of idols that fit that idea. hold on guys i'm boutta draw for the first time in 3 months

 

[missingno]

I want matchmaking to never ever ever put me on a triple backline comp ever again.

 

[Madt123]

yeah matchmaking like

basic skill tests? take a skill tester ever idk month??? and it places you in a group????

also:

they scan the weapons and say "yeah this ballpoint gonna go with this tetras and splash etc"

 

[Cephalobro]

Here's an idea for a single-player mode, a single-player mode in which you fight two antagonistic species at the same time. The more obvious one would be pirate sharks, but the second antagonistic species would be Cuttlings. This would fill two purposes at the same time, first would be that the divide between the two is clear cut, secondly, a new playable species (if there is one) can be introduced slowly at first (keep in mind that there were plans for playable Octolings as far back as Splatoon 1, even before the enemy models were discovered to be customizable to some extent).

The need for a clear cut divide this time is so that there wouldn't be any missing piece this time.

The story for the single-player mode would be about fighting off the pirates that want to plunder Octo City, this is yet another threat that the Octarians are dealing with, so they create their own Splatoon, with a senior Octarian who happens to be a survivor of the Great Turf War and a veteran of that very same war. He is not willing to let the same outcome happen, so he takes a page out of the New Squidbeak Splatoon playbook and designates his newest recruit as Private #1, who can either be an Inkling or Octoling, but official artwork would show them as an Octoling more often than as an Inkling, although Inkling versions of Private #1 would still exist in official artwork. Also unlike in the previous arc, Private #1 would also be shown as a male immediatelly in some official artworks and as a female in others, with a total of four versions of the same promotional artworks.

Private #1 will have to hop between islands and ships, battling their way through the pirate sharks, while at the same time, having to expel the Cuttlings who happen to invade the various multiplayer-based modes by defeating them and and reaching a safe at the end. Oh yeah, safes are the end of level objectives this time, each containing Octo City's cash that were stolen by the pirates. They would still collect Sunken Scrolls, most of them focusing on Octarian lore. Private #1 would eventually reach the leader of the pirates, a large female hammerhead shark, because not only will this provide a twist in main antagonists, it would also make it different enough from the last arc to have a recurring female antagonist. Her defeat results in the safe above her ship to fall on her head, giving her a cartoonish-like concussion, allowing Private #1 and their Octarian allies to bring the safe back to Octo City.

 

[youre_a_squib_now]

yeah matchmaking like

basic skill tests? take a skill tester ever idk month??? and it places you in a group????

uh... ranks?
like, they're nowhere near perfect, but we do have a system for that. And I'm pretty confident there's at least some sort of skill-based matchmaking in turf war, even if it's hidden.

they scan the weapons and say "yeah this ballpoint gonna go with this tetras and splash etc"

They do that to some extent in X battles, and to be honest I think it just makes games worse. You can still get comped pretty hard because it doesn't (and shouldn't) sort by weapon strength/viability, so it doesn't fix anything there, and it decreases variety in the games you play. When I play a charger in x, I pretty much never play against comps without a backline. If the game only gave you "ideal" comps, you would never get any practice adapting to other comps, and I don't like that.

 

[missingno]

The way X works is that each weapon is classified into a particular category, and then it matches you against a player on the opposing team who is also playing a weapon from that category. You'll quickly recognize which weapons you are always paired against. Which actually gets extra annoying real fast always playing the same matchups over and over and over. That really doesn't help me practice adapting either.

However, what X does not do is pay any attention at all to what your teammates are running, just that their three weapons are also mirrored on the opposing side. Triple backline can and does happen in X and I hate it so much.

 

[Bennet]

better maps and if someone disconnects right before it starts they just continue the match unless two or more players disconnects

 

[missingno]

Please do not waste my time making me sit through a 3v4. It's not fun on either side, let me get back into the queue so I can play a real match.

 

[Bennet]

Please do not waste my time making me sit through a 3v4. It's not fun on either side, let me get back into the queue so I can play a real match.

you will thank me when you do a 333x battle and someone disconnects

 

[NumberOneAries]

you will thank me when you do a 333x battle and someone disconnects

Nah, even then I'd much rather get a DC where no one benefits bc it's unfair. The only way I think anyone would be ok with the match continuing is if there's either a bit that's put in, or the match doesn't count for anyone, win or lose.

 

[Bennet]

Nah, even then I'd much rather get a DC where no one benefits bc it's unfair. The only way I think anyone would be ok with the match continuing is if there's either a bit that's put in, or the match doesn't count for anyone, win or lose.

but 333x's are very rare to get in a splatfest and trust me once you get to a grinding speed in a splatfest you will understand why I am saying this

 

[Babab]

But then how late do you want them to release the game?