Nintendo Direct Delivers Fresh News - Another Splatoon Update!

Today's Nintendo Direct made it all worthwhile with some unexpected Splatoon news. Despite announcing that Splatoon would no longer receive waves of free DLC (and potentially little else otherwise), Nintendo bounced back with new information outlining major updates hitting the eShop this Spring.

According to the Direct, the first update -- which will be available next week on March 8th -- will include:

-Improvements to certain gear abilities
-Adjustments to Ranked Battle matchmaking
-New Splatfest elements

The gameplay balance changes notes for this update are already available online. A version translated into English was posted on Reddit and can be found here.

The rest of the 2.6 update changes include the following:

Stage Adjustments:

• Object placement in Regular Battle for the following stages will be changed to match that in Splat Zones.
  • Arowana Mall
  • Moray Towers

Matchmaking and Team Assignment Adjustments:

• Until now, team assignments in Ranked Battle were completely random, but some consideration will now be given to equipped weapons when assigning teams.
• Ranked Battle Matchmaking will be changed so that players of the following ranks are not matched together.
  • S+ and S
  • S and A+
  • A- and B+
  • B- and C+
  • This change may be subject to further adjustment depending on changes to matchmaking times that occur as a result.

Changes to Rank Points:

• During Ranked Battles, when a team plays at a disadvantage due to unavoidable issues such as teammates being disconnected, and then loses, the winning team’s points will be decreased by an amount proportional to the time they benefited from the above conditions.

Splatfest Changes:

• During Splatfests what was previously the Vibe Meter will now display your Splatfest Power.
  • Initial Splatfest Power level depends upon your current Ranked Battle rank.
  • Splatfest Power level will change depending on wins or losses during Splatfest Battles.
  • The player with the highest Splatfest Power on the winning team will receive a slightly larger boost to their Splatfest Power than their teammates after the match.
• Until now, Splatfest matchmaking favored grouping players with similar play styles. Players will now be more likely to play with those of similar Splatfest Power level.
• The higher a team’s average Splatfest Power level, the more Splatfest Points they will earn after winning.

The second update will not only include balance changes to some weapons already available in the game, but also new weapon sets known as "Sheldon's Picks." These sets will include new weapon variations, like the "Wasabi Splattershot," as well as new weapon combinations. This update will be released in two parts, the first of which slated for April 2016.

Leave us a comment below on your thoughts on all the freshness heading to Splatoon real soon!

 

I'm still unsure of Haunt, since it doesn't have a clear explanation of how the Damage and Run speed stat kicks in.

You get Damage and Run speed up as long as you have haunt equiped, whenever a detection ability hits you.
Sensor Bombs, Echo Locator and splatting an enemy with Haunt.

And as long as you are "detected" the stat bonuses kicks in for it.

But this is backfired if someone on the other team has Haunt too, cause then it comes down on who splats who first, so this ability is now a high risk, high reward ability.

 

You get Damage and Run speed up as long as you have haunt equiped, whenever a detection ability hits you.
Sensor Bombs, Echo Locator and splatting an enemy with Haunt.

And as long as you are "detected" the stat bonuses kicks in for it.

But this is backfired if someone on the other team has Haunt too, cause then it comes down on who splats who first, so this ability is now a high risk, high reward ability.

Yeah, all those tracking weapons are going to be riskier to use knowing this. Anyone wearing Haunt when, say, an Echolocator gets popped will have the stat boosts to counterattack and possibly wipe out the team who had the special rather than the other way around.

Oh yeah, and Haunt's also going to grant Defense Up when you get tracked, so it won't be as easy to splat a tracked foe. If people start wearing Haunt more often we might end up seeing less Point Sensors and Echolocators to counteract this tactic.

Boy is the meta going to get a major facelift soon.

 

im so excited i can`t wait until the Update XD

 

I was so thrilled to hear Splatoon is getting one big (presumably final) update, I'm hoping it's the final push it needed to patch up the remaining little issues.

Adding factoring in weapon types to solo matchmaking...PRAISE THE SQUID HEAVENS, THANK YOU NINTENDO!! Omg. Seriously one of the most desperately needed and greatest things they could've done. No more triple-charger quintuple-blaster teams!! :D

The change to Bomb Sniffer...man oh man, that might be a game changer. That could actually be insanely useful, since sub splats can be one of the toughest problems to deal with in TC+RM. I could see it going either way though, hopefully it isn't especially stackable because players with massive resistances to subs I really don't want to deal with.

The point system change...I guess I see why they did it but they kind of miss the point of the larger issue. The winning team isn't exactly the one that needs addressing in those situations. I'm hoping the losing team's point deduction is also equivalent to the unfair/indeterminable disadvantage that was dealt to them. Whether I'm the person who was disconnected or the person who had to stick around at a disadvantage, it's lame for everyone involved to suffer the full brunt of those consequences. :(

All in all, some great changes, some I have to question. But I guess we'll see once it's actually in effect. Regardless I'm glad Splatoon is still getting some love! :D

 

Based on what I'm seeing on the Reddit post though, some of the additions are great, others are odd and iffier to me. Did Swim Speed Up seriously need a buff...? Those scummers are impossible enough to chase down as is. Less useful abilities getting cool boosts, great, I'm all for it. :)

swim speed isn't getting a buff. you most likely saw that of a fake patch note on reddit.

 

swim speed isn't getting a buff. you most likely saw that of a fake patch note on reddit.

Whoops lol, actually I misread it. Noted an increase in run/swim speed for Opening Gambit, not an actual buff to Swim Speed Up. My mistake. :p

 

Yeah, all those tracking weapons are going to be riskier to use knowing this. Anyone wearing Haunt when, say, an Echolocator gets popped will have the stat boosts to counterattack and possibly wipe out the team who had the special rather than the other way around.

Oh yeah, and Haunt's also going to grant Defense Up when you get tracked, so it won't be as easy to splat a tracked foe. If people start wearing Haunt more often we might end up seeing less Point Sensors and Echolocators to counteract this tactic.

Boy is the meta going to get a major facelift soon.

Ok, this is a wrong interpretation of the notes.
Haunt is an ability that applies when you die and respawn. As from the notes:
Haunt -Still marks -Gives you an Attack/Defense/Runspeed boost on respawn (DOES NOT SPECIFY HOW LONG)
Haunt gives you Attack/Defense/Runspeed after you've died and given the tracker to someone. You don't gain any stats when you get tracked yourself.

 

Ok, this is a wrong interpretation of the notes.
Haunt is an ability that applies when you die and respawn. As from the notes:
Haunt -Still marks -Gives you an Attack/Defense/Runspeed boost on respawn (DOES NOT SPECIFY HOW LONG)
Haunt gives you Attack/Defense/Runspeed after you've died and given the tracker to someone. You don't gain any stats when you get tracked yourself.

actually, after some discussion, it was concluded that haunt gives you run speed, damage and defense up when the person who has the haunt gear gets tracked by echolocator or point sensor, not when said person respawns.

 

Link to discussion?

 

Today's Nintendo Direct made it all worthwhile with some unexpected Splatoon news. Despite announcing that Splatoon would no longer receive waves of free DLC (and potentially little else otherwise), Nintendo bounced back with new information outlining major updates hitting the eShop this Spring.

According to the Direct, the first update -- which will be available next week on March 8th -- will include:



The gameplay balance changes notes for this update are already available online. A version translated into English was posted on Reddit and can be found here.

The rest of the 2.6 update changes include the following:

The second update will not only include balance changes to some weapons already available in the game, but also new weapon sets known as "Sheldon's Picks." These sets will include new weapon variations, like the "Wasabi Splattershot," as well as new weapon combinations. This update will be released in two parts, the first of which slated for April 2016.

Leave us a comment below on your thoughts on all the freshness heading to Splatoon real soon!

Woah woah woah. Nintendo never said they would QUIT the free DLC. They just said it would keep running until *at least* January 2016.

 

Link to discussion?

It's not a discussion that i can post here. It was between some reddit users. One of the translations said that you get haunt upon respawning, but looking at it again, they found out that the boosts are given when you are echolocated. Anyways, only way to really find out now is to wait for the update to hit.

 

The fact Bombsniffer will reduce damage from bombs has me cheering in my corner. Bomb usage has gotten really, really good, which is awesome! but I think adding in another sort of counter will be a really great addition to gameplay.

 

It's not a discussion that i can post here. It was between some reddit users. One of the translations said that you get haunt upon respawning, but looking at it again, they found out that the boosts are given when you are echolocated. Anyways, only way to really find out now is to wait for the update to hit.

All I can say is that I don't want to be the one who tests it :)

 

First player I see after update: Opening Gambit, Haunt, Bomb Sniffer. Didn't quite expect that.

 

Anyone notice that the current official gear translation for Opening Gambit says "Changed from boosting speed in Inkling and squid forms to increasing efficacy of the main gear ability for each of your three pieces of gear for the first 30 seconds of battle."

That implies that Gambit no longer boosts your speed at ALL, and instead amplifies the effects of whatever is in your 2 other main slots. (It says 3, but since Gambit has to be the hat main, that means it boosts only 2 abilities.)

Does this mean that Opening Gambit still massively sucks?

I still fear that the 20% duration boost to inkzooka and especially bomb rush will be flat out abused and broken and I fear last ditch effort is going to become "mandatory meta" which hinders variety in builds which is what this patch was supposed to encourage. Aside from that, I'm loving the rest of the updates.

 

Anyone notice that the current official gear translation for Opening Gambit says "Changed from boosting speed in Inkling and squid forms to increasing efficacy of the main gear ability for each of your three pieces of gear for the first 30 seconds of battle."

That implies that Gambit no longer boosts your speed at ALL, and instead amplifies the effects of whatever is in your 2 other main slots. (It says 3, but since Gambit has to be the hat main, that means it boosts only 2 abilities.)

Does this mean that Opening Gambit still massively sucks?

I still fear that the 20% duration boost to inkzooka and especially bomb rush will be flat out abused and broken and I fear last ditch effort is going to become "mandatory meta" which hinders variety in builds which is what this patch was supposed to encourage. Aside from that, I'm loving the rest of the updates.

The NoA translation is wrong. It boosts your speed and run by 3 mains.

 

The NoA translation is wrong. It boosts your speed and run by 3 mains.

That's pretty pathetic that NoA could mistranslate a very simple feature so badly. o_O

That sounds a lot better. I can't imagine spending a slot on that on most weapons and making that a wasted main for most of the match, but for my Sploosh build that might be a must have!

 

• During Ranked Battles, when a team plays at a disadvantage due to unavoidable issues such as teammates being disconnected, and then loses, the winning team’s points will be decreased by an amount proportional to the time they benefited from the above conditions.

So, instead of the team playing at a disadvantage receiving a reduced penalty for losing, an increased reward for winning, or for the other team receiving a greater penalty when losing while having an advantage, it just puts less points in circulation. Why not just make it so that any player who is disconnected from a match can reconnect?

 

So, instead of the team playing at a disadvantage receiving a reduced penalty for losing, an increased reward for winning, or for the other team receiving a greater penalty when losing while having an advantage, it just puts less points in circulation. Why not just make it so that any player who is disconnected from a match can reconnect?

I suspect like Opening Gambit there's a translation issue going on here. I've seen translations that say that the losing 3p team receives a smaller penalty and translations that say the winning 4p team receives less reward for winning. I'm guessing it's both.

While I don't know how feasible it would be I do love the idea of the losing player being able to reconnect! It makes sense they know what player it is. And it could mitigate their own point loss for the disconnect if they really got disconnected and didn't rage quit. Though the points changes are still needed in case someone got disconnected and can't reconnect (an actual internet/power outage, router failure, broken cable, WiiU that froze, gamepad that broke, etc.)

 

So, instead of the team playing at a disadvantage receiving a reduced penalty for losing, an increased reward for winning, or for the other team receiving a greater penalty when losing while having an advantage, it just puts less points in circulation. Why not just make it so that any player who is disconnected from a match can reconnect?

i had a 4 v 3 (aaround mid match but they had lead at the time) as an A/A+ team vs the same and got 8 points (over 80 points so that is pretty normal to see anyway) so I do not think the reduced points is much. Here is when it happened:

d/cs are funny, the person is like i am just gonna sit here and shoot till i vanish in ink dust