Octolings In The Wild (This Is Bad)

It's not anticipated for this to be an incredibly widespread issue, but one or two Squidboards users have already encountered this problem, and we wanted to make sure to alert everyone.

A kernel exploit for the Wii U has now been made public for Wii U's on an older firmware version. The simple and relevant explanation of what this means is that it is now much easier for unscrupulous folks to modify their Splatoon save files.

The very negative side effect of this, is it means a person could potentially modify their save file to change their character ID from 0 or 1 (Inkling Boy and Inkling Girl respectively) to 2, which represents Octolings.

Playing as Octolings would be super cool! ...but only when the game is made for it to happen...
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If you encounter a player that has done this, you need to make sure to stay in the lobby until they leave it, and then play one more match. This should ensure the game doesn't put their hacked Octoling character into your Inkopolis Plaza. The Plaza is not programmed to handle Octolings, and so if one is placed into it, your game will crash whenever it tries to load them. This includes the title screen, which means your save file is effectively 'soft-locked' and cannot be used until either Nintendo patches this issue, or your plaza is cleared by the beginning of a Splatfest.

It is possible to back up any of your Wii U save files to a flash drive, and we'd recommend doing so if you wish to be absolutely safe.

 

I'm... going to make sure I back up my file. Can't let my full inventory and 100% completion on single player things and level 42 go to waste. :/

 

Chances are, plenty of them know EXACTLY what they're doing, and the fact that it corrupts saves is the very reason they're doing it.

This is why I hate hackers so very, very much. An arrogant and annoying lot, many just do what they want because they have teh skillz, and that trumps all. And for some of them, there's little that's more fun than screwing with people over the Net in some way. In this case, by ruining things. ....well, okay, "ruining things" is USUALLY the case.

And of course others do it just to show off. Heck with what it might do so save files. They look so AWESOME, that's what counts! *facepalm*

Now I have to find a way to backup the save. A thanks to Warchamp for posting this and letting everyone know.

Well its not all hackers just the ones that go online with their corrupting data. I mean NWPlayer is a very good at datamining and stuff but won't (or at least I hope) go online intending to soft-lock save files.

 

NWPlayer had said in the thread that she sticks to private matches since she figured this glitch out with Octolings in normal and ranked modes way back AND that she kept the save file secret.

Basically, it's not her.

 

Well, time to migrate back onto the console again, i was using USB for all my games, but i guess now that'll change. Guess i'll just use my stick for Smash Bros.

Smash Stick.... i like the way that sounds.

 

Well its not all hackers just the ones that go online with their corrupting data. I mean NWPlayer is a very good at datamining and stuff but won't (or at least I hope) go online intending to soft-lock save files.

Maybe, but I'm going to take a wild guess here and say that what that person did simply made it easier for the nasty ones to then go ahead and do what they are doing, even if that's not what was intended.

Nothing good comes from hacking a multiplayer-focused game. Nothing. Singleplayer? Nobody really cares. You cant damage things for others. But multiplayer? Bloody horrid idea, since in every case, it can do damage to others, even when it's meant to be benevolent. Ruin their saves, corrupting their installs, destroying the experience, wasting massive amounts of their time. Getting info early (which has no conceivable practical use until the stuff actually RELEASES, and that's IF it releases, since it's just a bunch of guesswork) isnt worth the current chance of fried saves or other future problems. Particularly since MOST players wont know about it until it happens to them. And then it's too late, and there's nothing they can do. I'm going to take another wild guess and say this has happened already, more than a few times, and will continue for awhile.

I mean, really. Just because you CAN, doesnt mean you SHOULD. I wish people would just leave these damn games alone. Go hack something else. Or better yet, dont hack anything. That'd sure be nice.

I'm not likely to touch the game again anytime soon, until the issue is fixed. I dont use a seperate thing that I could possibly copy files to, and I absolutely refuse to go buy something just because of this issue (particularly as nobody around here sells anything like that; total middle of freaking nowhere, my area). It aint like I dont have other games. I'll just stick to Mario Maker and Isaac for awhile, as this console goes.

 

on an older firmware version

Would that mean if you have your Wii U updated you're safe? I update my Wii U whenever i need to, because i'm a good boy.

 

What if you turn off your console mid match during the first match against the hacker? Does the Octoling still appears in your plaza?

 

Thanks for the announcement. The best countermeasure against this is knowing how to deal with it to avoid screwing your save.

Good point about the splatfest clearing your plaza though! I forgot about that.

 

Ok this is very very very scary. I wanted Octolings to be playable but I didn't expect this. This can't be NWplayer123. I know that for a fact. Hidden Octolings are on the scene here. But thanks for the info. When I see an Octoling I'll be sure to to just that. Now I'll actually pay attention to what people look like and what they are wearing from now on until they are really released (Legit this time)

Spoiler: ...(Notices something) -GASP-

And worst yet, there are no male Octolings to be found! Oh no!

 

It's also possible that Nintendo simply didn't finish designing the male Octoling yet--hence why they haven't released playable female Octolings either.

Pretty sure one of the Sunken Scrolls says that there are no humanoid male Octolings, but I could be mistaken.

 

It is possible to back up any of your Wii U save files to a flash drive, and we'd recommend doing so if you wish to be absolutely safe.

Wait, this can affect ALL of your Wii U's save files or just Splatoon?

 

How exactly do I back up my save?

 

Pretty sure one of the Sunken Scrolls says that there are no humanoid male Octolings, but I could be mistaken.

I'm not seeing any such statement on any of the scrolls.

http://www.ign.com/wikis/splatoon/Sunken_Scroll_Information

 

Many people believe that is is Nikki, but it is not. Nikki does play as an octoling, but only uses a simple model swap that effects all female inklings. This is only a cosmetic effect, and can only be seen on her screen. As for the unreleased weapons, it seems unlikely that they could softlock your plaza, but I could be wrong. What these people are doing, (as OP mentioned) is changing their in-game gender to the third option, which is an octoling. Nikki has only done this once, and only with a friend that was okay with the effects that it could cause. Nikki did say it was extremely easy to modify your in-game gender to the 3rd option, so it is likely that someone figured it out and went power crazy or something.
TL;DR- Nikki (Nwplayer123) is not responsible for this, but instead overly-curious splatoon fans.

 

welp, looks like I'm not going to play Splatoon for awhile now.

 

This is insane. holy crap

 

Well, at least we know it's not Nikki. Nikki would never do something like this, she only plays in private battles (if I am correct).

 

i really hope that hacking & game modifying doesn't become the trend. mario kart wii was awful and annoying. especially since splatoon relies so much on online play, it will be nearly useless

 

It should be added that the hack that lets you become an Octoling via the third gender option uses an exploit that apparently doubly bypasses the checks in place on your current firmware.

So, having your own WiiU on the latest update won't make a lick of difference. Right now it looks like the best route is to update the data so that it either reads the Octoling/gear normally, or as Nikki suggested and have it bypass the player completely and not attempt to render the hacked player at all.

Both of which would need to be implemented by Nintendo...

 

Geez, this is terrible. Looks like I won't be touching online multiplayer for a good while now. :/