Save Scumming in the competitive environment

[TheMH]

I'd like to get a discussion about the infamous Save Scumming going.

A lot of you probably heard of it already - on the Wii U it's possible to copy your Splatoon file from and to a USB drive, load and save from this drive and - if you wish - revert your save to an old state. It's not like in early times of the Wii U anymore when you could only move files to external devices, you can actually copy them with ease.

This mechanic is perfectly fine for backup purposes, but it opens up some possibilities for exploits. The most well-known one is to get infinite rerolls on equipment, thus making is way easier to get your desired or "perfect" loadout. While I haven't tried it myself, I personally think there's not much wrong with doing so if you wish. Nintendo doesn't give us better ways to get specific slots (like rolling single slots for a higher price for example), so it's the only legit way without farming money for all eternity and hoping to get lucky.

And here we've come to the topic: Do you think equipment which was formed with the help of Save Scumming should be considered 100% legit for competitive gaming, i.e. tournaments etc.? Yet, there is no way to proof if someone used this method or just got lucky, but I'd like to hear the community's opinions nevertheless.


Some people also use this method to gain rank without the risk of losing. While there is some controversy about that, too, I think it doesn't impact competitive play as much as equipment farming.

 

[Kat]

Honestly Splatoon outside of the competitive environment is super casual. The rank doesn't actually matter at all if people are only trying to maintain a high rank. The only problem is when people are creating new accounts to ruin C- players' time. If people want to pretend to be S+ then let them, you can be an S+ player and suck at comp and be a A- player and be in the best team around which we've seen happen many times.

As far as the gear goes then if everyone has the ability to reroll gear infinitely then why not. People having an advantage due to RNG isn't my favorite thing in a competitive environment so I'd be happy if everyone could have their favorite top tier load-out without being wrecked by someone of inferior skill who got a sick reroll.

So honestly this method of cheating the game isn't an issue for the competitive scene or Splatoon in general. S+ players who aren't S+ continue to get wrecked in S+ for eternity because they want to rub their ego with their letter and competitive players don't have to worry about RNG. Sounds good to me.

Obviously anyone who does this to maintain a high rank after loosing deserves to be pointed and laughed at because that is pathetic and hilarious.

 

[Aweshucks]

As long as it's just circumventing rng and saving people time. If there ends up being something that gives players an unfair advantage, then yeah I guess that should be banned but I don't see that happening

 

[1o2]

Meh there is nothing wrong with it honestly. Getting perfect gear is straight rng; no amount of skill will change the outcome. Considering how influential abilities can be, I'd definitely say it should be allowed in the competitive Splatoon format. Until Nintendo makes a more efficient way to get perfect gear, all fair game.

 

[Drez]

It'd only make me salty because I'm constantly broke and they are not. :(
Means that we all will inevitably save scum unless we have morals. ('If they can, why not us')

 

[Agosta44]

It's RNG. It really doesn't matter. All it is is saving yourself from spending 500 hours hording money and failing rolls. Some people get .001% rolls on first try. It takes me 3-5 mil on a brand biased piece on average.

If Nintendo made it more common that ordered pieces through spyke would have the same subs, no one would be scumming anyways. I've had the game since release and not ONCE have I gotten a 3 roll on an ordered piece. I've only gotten 2 2-sub roll pieces total.

 

[TheMH]

I actually expected more con-voices, but I'm glad to hear it's so widely accepted. I'll probably give it a try with good conscience the next time Spyke offers me a 2/3-piece then.

I've had the game since release and not ONCE have I gotten a 3 roll on an ordered piece. I've only gotten 2 2-sub roll pieces total.

Same here, I think I'm at three 2/3 offers since release...

 

[Ryuji]

Not going to lie, I did consider save scumming to get to S+, mostly because I've had so many dc's due to my own internet(which has now been fixed for the most part). I wouldn't consider this an immoral thing to do given my situation. However, since my connection doesn't give me any trouble anymore, I don't see anymore need to think it over. I'm going to get to S+ with effort.

As for rerolls, I have no problem with that either. All gear has a chance percentage of getting certain subs, some too rare with clothing you might like. Considering that it's so hard to get gear with good subs, it's more than fair for people to save scum and reroll their gear until they get what they want. This does not hurt nor effect the competitiveness of the game at all any more than if you didn't save scum. Therefore, I say leave save scumming be. It's not necessarily illegitimate, but not wrong to do either. It's just for trying to refine your gear to better suit your playstyle(or looks if you care about that).

 

[Deleted Member]

Spyke is a scumbag, so no its fine.

 

[PHYTO-1]

its just like pokesav with pokemon games. people get instant pokemon with the moves, items, gender, EVs, and IVs, etc. of their choice.

they are there for the sake of competitive battle.

whether or not you or your opponent spent weeks training your pokemon or spent 10 minutes transferring it from your computer the outcome is the same. there is no competitive advantage.

 

[Deleted Member]

Pokesav/pokeGen/PkHex isn't anything like savescumming in Splatoon. One is a save file editor and injector, while the other is just using multiple save files. Pokesav/pokeGen/PkHex can instantly give you whatever you want without any effort involved, where there is still patience and luck with savescumming. Also, save scumming can't give you illegal gear abilities.

 

[LockeExile]

In general I don't like it. But because it exists and it's impossible to regulate there's no justification in regulating it.

But since all it's doing* is speeding up RNG I'm not too fussed.

*well this may not entirely be the case. It encourages people to try for "pure" equipment (main+3 subs all the same) when otherwise they would be statistically out of reach. That is, one could say that save scumming does give people an unfair advantage in that "pure" equipment is a possibility for them but not for non-save-scummers. But, again, I'm not too fussed. Hopefully they'll improve the equipment system; until then I'll settle with my inferior equipment.

 

[PHYTO-1]

Pokesav/pokeGen/PkHex isn't anything like savescumming in Splatoon. One is a save file editor and injector, while the other is just using multiple save files. Pokesav/pokeGen/PkHex can instantly give you whatever you want without any effort involved, where there is still patience and luck with savescumming. Also, save scumming can't give you illegal gear abilities.

Here is a better comparison: soft resetting to encounter shiny legendaries/starters.

my original comparison might not be 1:1 , but my point still stands; mitigating/removing any aspects of RNG through any method in a competitive game is fine as long as the outcome is possible through normal gameplay.

there is no advantage whatsoever. people who argue otherwise are just a bunch of girlscouts.

 

[Cloudy]

savescumming spyke is one thing but savescumming rank is pathetic. if you do it for rank stop playing tbh lmao

 

[MintChipper]

I'm fine with people doing it for gear but like @Cloudy said, doing it for rank is pathetic, like you get S+ 99 and then what now? Do you play squad and shower in riches? What are you even gonna do with the money if your'e gonna regenerate it anyway?

 

[River09]

https://www.reddit.com/r/splatoon/comments/3g6p8t/i_finally_did_it_now_onwards_to_level_50/

^how people will react if they think you are savescumming in splatoon.

 

[Agosta44]

I'm fine with people doing it for gear but like @Cloudy said, doing it for rank is pathetic, like you get S+ 99 and then what now? Do you play squad and shower in riches? What are you even gonna do with the money if your'e gonna regenerate it anyway?

Anything above S+0 means nothing. Once you hit S+ play squads forever and enjoy 6500 per win.

 

[Kaliafornia]

Spyke is bae so I usually only have to roll an item 7-10 times max to get its biased gear in all 3 slots (I swear my reroll RNG is broken), so save scumming for rerolls just seems like a waste of time to me although I am not against other people doing it. "Perfect" gear only helps you so much and only really shines in evenly matched situations, the better player will likely get the splat/succeed regardless of gear 90% of the time so this doesn't bother me.

Neither does rank save scumming. As others have said, you can be S+99 but if you don't play like S+99 it means nothing to the competitive scene and as most teams want you to try out before joining you will easily be exposed.

tl;dr : save scumming = ain't nobody got time for that

 

[jamesrcade]

I wouldn't blame people if they decide to save scum, except maybe for S+ 99 because that just devalues its specialness.

I'd probably save scum for gear if it didn't take so long (I have a digital copy so I think I'd have to backup the whole game)

 

[CrazyDude]

I rather would blame the reroll odds. For example: sometimes you can reroll a gear with 5x chance on damage up subs like 26 times and still don't get your 3 desired damage up subs (true story ,source: unfortunately me... )

Additionally,ordering gear isn't really a good option either to get good gear cause you only have a chance of 0,5% (what the actual...I don't even...) to get all 3 subs unlocked.

So...nothing wrong in perfecting gear with rerolls based on save scumming.