Cyan
Inkling Commander
I have some interesting information on the Sloshers that I found with the Testfire. This is a controversial subject, since hacks were required to load in the weapons, but I must stress that I was curious to see what they were like as they were unfinished at this point in the game's development. I had no intentions of attacking the new players (nor did I), and I didn't hack in weapons like the pre-nerf Tentatek, 96 Deco or Dynamos, as people reported others doing. I am not interested in hate comments about the Testfire, I did not play/hack to destroy the new players and I left them to their own devices (yes interfering like this is wrong, but I was curious to see the differences). This is purely a thread sharing the old kits of the Sloshers and the differences between these versions and the final ones.
I was originally only going to play the original Slosher, but upon discovering the differing kit, I decided to load in all of them to see what they had. I loaded in the Heavy Splatling, but didn't bother with the others. I found that every single Slosher had a different kit (ignoring Soda as it was added in a patch and was never in the game's original files) and some were extremely intriguing. Without further ado here are the kits:
Slosher: Splash Wall & Inkstrike (changed to Burst Bombs & Inkstrike)
As you can see not much has changed here, just a simple sub swap over, so this plays more or less the same, but arguably a worse version as Burst Bombs allow the burst cancelling for a faster splat.
Slosher Deco: Beakons & Bubbler (changed to Splash Wall & Kraken)
This was a really interesting kit, and it really threw me off when I saw it had Beakons. I'm saddened by the fact that the devs changed this kit to the 96 Deco's, as this would have provided great support as the main weapon is great, the Beakons help get teammates back quicker and the Bubbler would have been perfect for crucial pushes. I'm sure more people would have played this weapon (it is fairly popular anyway) with such an intriguing and unique kit, as more options are possible with this than the finalised kit.
Tri-Slosher: Seekers & Killer Wail (changed to Disruptors & Bubbler)
This got a buff by having its kit changed, as you may notice this kit is essentially a worse version of the Nouveau, and this weapon would have been shunned fairly quickly if it had this as a final kit. Seekers help it get close to the enemy like the Nouveau, but it's weighed down by a cumbersome special that doesn't fit the nature of the Tri-Slosher.
Tri-Slosher Nouveau: Disruptors & Inkzooka (changed to Seekers & Echolocator)
This kit is amazing and bad at the same time. This would have been a far superior Tri-Slosher, allowing aggressive plays and easy Inkzooka pickings. Throw a disruptor (or both), disable the enemy, then activate the Inkzooka to get a few splats. The best part is this kit is balanced on a weapon with short range who can't afford to make a bad play or poor movement, meaning that this kit would have been the crutch of the weapon (much like the Splattershot Jr.), but of course the main weapon is still decent at holding its own in the right hands.
Now before I move on to the Sloshing Machine, I have a nice revelation about it's alpha form. As you know the Machine sloshes a little vortex, which damages enemies and makes a different ink style. This form sloshes very similarly to the final version, except there is no vortex and the blob lands on the floor before popping. When it pops a small amount of ink is unleashed (probably slightly bigger than the final Machine), and it damages enemies in the vicinity. As such the Machine was a hybrid between a Slosher and a Suction Bomb, because these blobs also stuck to walls before exploding. It was the funny and confusing at the same time when I first saw it, this would have made the Sloshing Machine more interesting but also less viable as a weapon choice. However, when the ink blob hit an Inkling (regardless of team), it would instantly explode and cover the ground with ink. It basically became a cross between a Slosher, Suction Bomb and Blaster, since directing made it explode instantly, but normal sloshes would make it act like a Suction Bomb.
Sloshing Machine: Point Sensors & Kraken (changed to Splat Bombs & Bomb Rush)
Very interesting kit, and arguably one the Sloshing Machine could have greatly benefited from. As we all know the Sloshing Machine is the weakest Slosher type out there, it can be played well, but the kits are poor for it (the vanilla is better, and has a good kit, but the weapon is still iffy). It would have taken the Neo's sub, combined it with a good special for the weapon and made a nice little bundle and been a force to be reckoned with. However the vanilla kit can stand alongside this one since the vanilla has turf potential with the sub and special, which the weapon desperately needs, so whilst this has a better special, the sub prevents it from having easy turf control and Kraken would have been difficult to charge.
Sloshing Machine Neo: Sprinkler & Echolocator (changed to Point Sensor & Inkzooka)
This one mirrors the Dynamo's kit, and this could have worked in theory. The sprinkler makes up for the poor inkage the main weapon has, and the Echo gives more support to your team. However, the Dynamo would have dominated this for viability since the kit is shared and this weapon would have been ignored (it still is). What's more intriguing is that when NWPlayer (Nikki) datamined the game, the Neo was meant to have Sprinkler and Inkzooka, so the change to Point Sensor was last minute when it was finally added in (it wasn't finalised with the other Sloshers and Splatlings in the 2.0.0 update). I liked the idea of Sprinkler/Zooka, as it would have been a unique kit and allowed the weapon to provide map control, assist with splats and have a special that wasn't too difficult to acquire.
Heavy Splatling: Splat Bomb & Inkzooka (changed to Splash Wall & Inkstrike)
Just imagine this kit, the Heavy would have had a close range sub, a special to go with the range it has and wouldn't be pulled down by the special or sub (Splash Walls aren't great on the Heavy Splatling since the playstyle doesn't match up). This probably would have blown the Deco out of the water, but of course in this game players are always drawn to the Bubbler and Kraken weapons (they always caught the attention of people, because they are the most prominent specials in the game).
As mentioned above, the weapons weren't finished so the game used "Not Found" text as the weapon on the results, and they all used placeholder models (Sloshers used Squiffer, Tri-Sloshers used Splat Charger, Sloshing Machines used E-Litre and the Heavy used Bamboozler) and didn't play correctly. The Sloshers were on autofire, so holding down ZR just continuously sloshed whilst using the charger animation and strafe speed. The Heavy Splatling used Bamboozler and played like it, so the Splatlings literally didn't have any code for their unique traits yet, hence why I wasn't interested in them. The Tri Slosher threw out larger blobs of ink, but didn't make a proper trail of ink coverage. In general the Sloshers looked very untidy, the ink was just sphere shaped and looked like they were in the very early stages of development.
So the question here is, what do you make of these kits? How do you think they would have affected Ranked and the viability of these weapons? Any you would have picked up for the kits? The most important question of course is what you think of the old Sloshing Machine, because that is really interesting to me.
I was originally only going to play the original Slosher, but upon discovering the differing kit, I decided to load in all of them to see what they had. I loaded in the Heavy Splatling, but didn't bother with the others. I found that every single Slosher had a different kit (ignoring Soda as it was added in a patch and was never in the game's original files) and some were extremely intriguing. Without further ado here are the kits:
Slosher: Splash Wall & Inkstrike (changed to Burst Bombs & Inkstrike)
As you can see not much has changed here, just a simple sub swap over, so this plays more or less the same, but arguably a worse version as Burst Bombs allow the burst cancelling for a faster splat.
Slosher Deco: Beakons & Bubbler (changed to Splash Wall & Kraken)
This was a really interesting kit, and it really threw me off when I saw it had Beakons. I'm saddened by the fact that the devs changed this kit to the 96 Deco's, as this would have provided great support as the main weapon is great, the Beakons help get teammates back quicker and the Bubbler would have been perfect for crucial pushes. I'm sure more people would have played this weapon (it is fairly popular anyway) with such an intriguing and unique kit, as more options are possible with this than the finalised kit.
Tri-Slosher: Seekers & Killer Wail (changed to Disruptors & Bubbler)
This got a buff by having its kit changed, as you may notice this kit is essentially a worse version of the Nouveau, and this weapon would have been shunned fairly quickly if it had this as a final kit. Seekers help it get close to the enemy like the Nouveau, but it's weighed down by a cumbersome special that doesn't fit the nature of the Tri-Slosher.
Tri-Slosher Nouveau: Disruptors & Inkzooka (changed to Seekers & Echolocator)
This kit is amazing and bad at the same time. This would have been a far superior Tri-Slosher, allowing aggressive plays and easy Inkzooka pickings. Throw a disruptor (or both), disable the enemy, then activate the Inkzooka to get a few splats. The best part is this kit is balanced on a weapon with short range who can't afford to make a bad play or poor movement, meaning that this kit would have been the crutch of the weapon (much like the Splattershot Jr.), but of course the main weapon is still decent at holding its own in the right hands.
Now before I move on to the Sloshing Machine, I have a nice revelation about it's alpha form. As you know the Machine sloshes a little vortex, which damages enemies and makes a different ink style. This form sloshes very similarly to the final version, except there is no vortex and the blob lands on the floor before popping. When it pops a small amount of ink is unleashed (probably slightly bigger than the final Machine), and it damages enemies in the vicinity. As such the Machine was a hybrid between a Slosher and a Suction Bomb, because these blobs also stuck to walls before exploding. It was the funny and confusing at the same time when I first saw it, this would have made the Sloshing Machine more interesting but also less viable as a weapon choice. However, when the ink blob hit an Inkling (regardless of team), it would instantly explode and cover the ground with ink. It basically became a cross between a Slosher, Suction Bomb and Blaster, since directing made it explode instantly, but normal sloshes would make it act like a Suction Bomb.
Sloshing Machine: Point Sensors & Kraken (changed to Splat Bombs & Bomb Rush)
Very interesting kit, and arguably one the Sloshing Machine could have greatly benefited from. As we all know the Sloshing Machine is the weakest Slosher type out there, it can be played well, but the kits are poor for it (the vanilla is better, and has a good kit, but the weapon is still iffy). It would have taken the Neo's sub, combined it with a good special for the weapon and made a nice little bundle and been a force to be reckoned with. However the vanilla kit can stand alongside this one since the vanilla has turf potential with the sub and special, which the weapon desperately needs, so whilst this has a better special, the sub prevents it from having easy turf control and Kraken would have been difficult to charge.
Sloshing Machine Neo: Sprinkler & Echolocator (changed to Point Sensor & Inkzooka)
This one mirrors the Dynamo's kit, and this could have worked in theory. The sprinkler makes up for the poor inkage the main weapon has, and the Echo gives more support to your team. However, the Dynamo would have dominated this for viability since the kit is shared and this weapon would have been ignored (it still is). What's more intriguing is that when NWPlayer (Nikki) datamined the game, the Neo was meant to have Sprinkler and Inkzooka, so the change to Point Sensor was last minute when it was finally added in (it wasn't finalised with the other Sloshers and Splatlings in the 2.0.0 update). I liked the idea of Sprinkler/Zooka, as it would have been a unique kit and allowed the weapon to provide map control, assist with splats and have a special that wasn't too difficult to acquire.
Heavy Splatling: Splat Bomb & Inkzooka (changed to Splash Wall & Inkstrike)
Just imagine this kit, the Heavy would have had a close range sub, a special to go with the range it has and wouldn't be pulled down by the special or sub (Splash Walls aren't great on the Heavy Splatling since the playstyle doesn't match up). This probably would have blown the Deco out of the water, but of course in this game players are always drawn to the Bubbler and Kraken weapons (they always caught the attention of people, because they are the most prominent specials in the game).
As mentioned above, the weapons weren't finished so the game used "Not Found" text as the weapon on the results, and they all used placeholder models (Sloshers used Squiffer, Tri-Sloshers used Splat Charger, Sloshing Machines used E-Litre and the Heavy used Bamboozler) and didn't play correctly. The Sloshers were on autofire, so holding down ZR just continuously sloshed whilst using the charger animation and strafe speed. The Heavy Splatling used Bamboozler and played like it, so the Splatlings literally didn't have any code for their unique traits yet, hence why I wasn't interested in them. The Tri Slosher threw out larger blobs of ink, but didn't make a proper trail of ink coverage. In general the Sloshers looked very untidy, the ink was just sphere shaped and looked like they were in the very early stages of development.
So the question here is, what do you make of these kits? How do you think they would have affected Ranked and the viability of these weapons? Any you would have picked up for the kits? The most important question of course is what you think of the old Sloshing Machine, because that is really interesting to me.
