Port Mackerel: Analysis and Thoughts Thread

[Hinichii.ez.™]

I fully request this thread be stickied. I find this thread important. @Setu

Might as well wait, till all the threads are near the end. Then mega and get the stick

 

[Lancelot]

In Regular battle, I feel it's really important to get your team's entire side of the turf covered so that you have plenty of turf to retreat into if the opposing team starts to take control of the middle. Also, having the upper levels on the sides in your control is really good for trying to reclaim turf. Being above your opponent is generally very advantageous.

In Ranked, constantly maintaining control of the Splat Zone on your team's side is crucial. Having a weapon that includes the Inkstrike special weapon is really good for quickly taking control of a zone. My preference is a rapid-fire weapon(examples: .52 Gal Deco, Aerospray RG, etc.)

 

[NLALEX]

It's a sniper's paradise, all those long corridors get splattered so very quickly with one or maybe two blasts at a push. There is the disadvantage of loads of cover though, so it's swings and roundabouts really.

 

[Marraphy]

Ugh I don't get it. How does the other team ALWAYS take control of the middle in turf wars? EVERY SINGLE TIME. and then it's impossible to win

 

[Erico9001]

Something great in this level is the tracker grenades, as they travel quite far thanks to the long, narrow pathways. It is great for storming the key areas and getting to the enemy spawn point. Simply follow it in squid form in that thin trail of ink it makes. The stage is also good for both rollers and snipers, which many people have already pointed out. I can't actually point out any weapon that is bad here. It is a pretty well-balanced stage.

 

[ndayadn]

To anyone wondering, you can jump between crates without squid form. It is actually pretty neat to get around with/run away, I don't think many people realize at the moment that you can do this.

I feel like a lot of people thing this stage is badly designed but it's really not. Awareness is so key here. While long range weapons generally are what dominate, they can still be countered by clever use of the halls. One thing about this stage is that you can see the enemy down a huge lane, and weapon fire around corners. If you can't challenge that, don't rush them head-on. You kind of have to focus on creating a path, blocking them in, and watching behind you at the same time. Also grenades and mines are very nice as you can punish those camping on crates (remember that unless they're on the truck they can't go into squid form to retreat, they must run in inkling form) as well as surprise/trap people around corners.

To the camping: you can't get camped here if you actually have a team. There is the main ramp and two halls to either side which are very dangerous for the enemy to go into/chase you into. They also allow you to bypass anyone there completely with like, 2 (3 maybe) potential exits. If they have somehow taken your two exit halls then you have other problems imo.

What else...there are plenty safe spots for beakon too.

 

[Trieste Sp]

It's a sniper's paradise, all those long corridors get splattered so very quickly with one or maybe two blasts at a push. There is the disadvantage of loads of cover though, so it's swings and roundabouts really.

Yeah, I got that just by looking at the map.

 

[YesI'mTaco34]

....Dat Title


Anyway i really love Port Mackerel it's my favorite map so far

 

[missingno]

The best trick I've found for this map is to look down at the Gamepad often. Watch for moving enemy ink to figure out where they are, and use that information to ambush.

Kinda reminds me of how I played the Flooder levels in singleplayer. Pretend it's Pac-Man from an overhead view.

 

[obscurica]

Paint.

The Damn.

Laterals.

Going straight through the alleys is nice and all, but too many people are failing to also cover the connecting paths. That's either making it easy for me to pick off enemy players, when I'm ahead, or frustrates me because the teammate covering my rear forgot to check their sides while we were pushing, causing both of us to die. It's very easy to ambush on this map in Splat Zone, so long as you don't tunnelvision. Too bad that's exactly what players insist on doing.

 

[Kaliafornia]

A friend of mine posted this in the Splatoon (NA) Facebook group regarding his experience on Port Mackerel:

Port mackerel is extremely broken. I had an enemy camp our spawn the ENTIRE MATCH. No one could get out of the respawn area cause this prick would just either kraken or roller fling us constantly. I think the walls on the spawn area need to be larger so this can't happen. I started seeing it more and more tonight. On both sides of it. Its not sportsmen like and it definitely needs some fixing.
I'm also going to send this to Nintendo. Seriously spawn camping is the one thing I cannot tolerate.

Has anyone else encountered a player who did this? I haven't played on the map too much to see if this's really that bad.

No offense to your friend but everyone on his team, including him was just incredibility inexperienced. The game is set up so enemy ink does not touch you on your spawn point nor get on to the spawn point but you can fire at will to directly make this problem obsolete. Any enemy that attacks a spawn point directly is fool-hardy and will die 10/10 times if they stay in weapon range of it. Out of range you can easily spray a getaway path on either side of you or in front of you depending on where the enemy is. A Dynamo roller has excellent radius coverage but it will not be able to kill you unless you are blindly charging out of your spawn point at it. Port Mackerel has 3 different exits on spawn straight ahead or flanked so this is definitely not the map where this should be an issue. The only map where this has been a bit of an issue is the warehouse because there is only one narrow path down and there has been enemies who bomb rush it from a distance and even that I have gotten around. There is no reason 1 person should be able to take out an entire team from spawn points.

 

[RotomGuy]

I love this map on Turf Wars, but I may be a bit biased, as I main the Dual Squelcher. ;)

However... on Ranked Mode, this map is both really good and really awkward.

 

[LinkJr]

Paint.

The Damn.

Laterals.

This so much, as I'm usually rocking a charger I have the hardest of times painting the laterals, but if my splattermates won't do it I have to do it myself >.<

It is a lot of turf too, can change the end result.

 

[SquiddiamFancyson]

.52 deco is amazing on this stage. Quick kills, seekers for fast travel down the hallways... I love when this map is on rotation. Tbh anything with seekers is amazing here.

 

[DaisyFan]

Very strong roller map in my view of point. Long range weapon can give strong pressure in the middle for holding the objective.

 

[K7Sniper]

As an aside... Don't you just love spacing in topic titles?

As Mr. Takei would say, "Oh myyy"

 

[tokyodown]

This map is all about tight control, more so than the other maps. Grabbing that center space between the vehicles and locking it down is super-important and, for the first time, heavily in favor of the defending team. As someone looking to take territory, it's a lot easier to sneak around my opponents in every other map, but hard as hell to push through those three corridors. Breaking through the central defense can turn the tide of battle in a heartbeat though, making for some super-intense matches, and I like it a lot.

Central control decides the game on this map. I've played a decent amount on this map and the entire games often comes down to mid control just because once you lose that space the size of it makes it hard to come back. And as you said, the tight corridors make flanking and escaping much easier.

I also think the amount of space makes this map very strategical. You have to coordinate pushes to win, and really lock down large areas to have a chance. Weapon comps are crazy important on this map too. Rollers are a little underwhelming on this map because of the vast amount of space you have to deal with.

The moving vehicles add an interesting dynamic to the game. I tend to sit on one side of the tractor and wait for people to swim by before attacking. It also allows you to use highground in the middle area, which is a huge advantage, imo. I like that map and hope more large maps come out like this. It's also a great map for splat zone, which most laps aren't.

 

[Superjustinbros]

To each his own, but at the moment this is my least favorite map, since it's too linear and doesn't have many pathways you can take to invade the opposing team's base.

 

[Joseph Staleknight]

.52 deco is amazing on this stage. Quick kills, seekers for fast travel down the hallways... I love when this map is on rotation. Tbh anything with seekers is amazing here.

Totally agreeing with you there. I especially enjoy sending Seekers down one path to distract the enemy team while I ink up another.

 

[Nin10doUltra]

This Map is good for Rollers and Zapper. I do very good with Zapper on this map.