Cyan
Inkling Commander
First off, I have no idea where this thread would have fit best, and if it should be somewhere else, then I apologise and of course understand that it will be moved to a more appropriate area. With that out of the way, this thread is simply my idea of how Rainmaker on Blackbelly and Rainmaker as a whole could be improved. Don't get me wrong, I love Rainmaker, it's my favourite mode, but I think there are a few ways of improving it to iron out some issues within the mode.
As many people are aware, Rainmaker on Blackbelly is not the best, it's a very short path to the goal, and matches can end very quickly, with points dropping on the distance very rapidly. As a result it has been dropped from Ranked rotations (alongside Port TC as well as Saltspray TC & RM) and only appears now on Splat Zones and Tower Control. Below is my hastily edited version of the a top down view of Skatepark, but should be clear in its meaning:
The 2 coloured circles are for the rough position of the Rainmaker base and the Yellow Star is for the Rainmaker's start point. As you can see, that is a very short sprint to the goal, and knockouts occur quite a lot on this map. My proposal to this map is to block off that path (as highlighted by the two black rectangles). This would work in a similar fashion to the boxes on Piranha Pit, where 1 side is inkable, but the top and the opposite side are not. So the side facing each spawn point would be inkable, allowing fast access back to the centre of the map so you can clear the Rainmaker away from your goal when the enemy team gets very close and get to the Rainmaker quickly at the start of matches. This will make the Rainmaker have to take a much longer route to reach the base, making matches last longer and have a more competitive vibe, especially as more choke points occur. The 2 corner sniper perches can have climbable boxes to allow the team to take out anyone up there and have a higher vantage point for Inkzookas and other weapons that benefit from better views and height. The purple lines are approximately where the 50 point mark would come in, although it looks more like 55-60 from this picture. I feel this would improve Rainmaker on Skatepark by quite a bit, since you would have to work harder to get the win, rather than pull an ace and get a knockout in 10-20 seconds. However, parts of this version look very difficult to push (such as the half-pipe and the corner before it) and could make it frustrating, but overall it'll be less frustrating than being knocked out in seconds due to the short distance from the centre to the Rainmaker base.
As for my improvements to Rainmaker, I feel that the Rainmaker Prohibited Zone warning and the Warning! Don't Retreat! message mechanic needs to be changed. I think for the first 2 mins (5:00-3:01) it should work as it does currently, and speed up the countdown on the Rainmaker timer. For the next 2 mins (3:00-1:01) it should overwrite the the timer during the warning process and explode in 10 seconds (if you trigger it with an RM timer of 50, and end it with 1 second left, you still have 41 seconds left with the RM). Then for the final minute (1:00-Extra Time), entering the banned zone or retreating will cause the Rainmaker to instantly explode, resetting it back to the centre (the retreat distance will be less lenient and more RM banned zones will need to be added). I've been thinking about it, and it would be implemented in a way where it only affects the team who currently has the lead, so the losing team sticks to the original mechanic of the timer or doesn't get affected by the warnings because they aren't camping it out or are forced to retreat due to Krakens or Bubblers chasing them. This will completely remove teams getting cheap wins by picking up the Rainmaker and retreating to their side or going into a prohibited zone and not exploding because the match clock hits zero first. I do think it would be better for the team currently losing to not get any warning messages and timer penalties, so they can go to any part of the map to push and try for the lead.
Those are just my thoughts on how to improve Rainmaker on Skatepark, and how to fix the camping issue in the mode as a whole, so matches become more competitive and skilful, since there will no longer be a way to camp out and win by stalling. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and opinions on this matter, since I think it would be great to hear the different ideas you have for improving Rainmaker and Blackbelly Rainmaker (or other maps you think are flawed i.e. Piranha Pit RM) and whether you think my idea would work.
As many people are aware, Rainmaker on Blackbelly is not the best, it's a very short path to the goal, and matches can end very quickly, with points dropping on the distance very rapidly. As a result it has been dropped from Ranked rotations (alongside Port TC as well as Saltspray TC & RM) and only appears now on Splat Zones and Tower Control. Below is my hastily edited version of the a top down view of Skatepark, but should be clear in its meaning:
The 2 coloured circles are for the rough position of the Rainmaker base and the Yellow Star is for the Rainmaker's start point. As you can see, that is a very short sprint to the goal, and knockouts occur quite a lot on this map. My proposal to this map is to block off that path (as highlighted by the two black rectangles). This would work in a similar fashion to the boxes on Piranha Pit, where 1 side is inkable, but the top and the opposite side are not. So the side facing each spawn point would be inkable, allowing fast access back to the centre of the map so you can clear the Rainmaker away from your goal when the enemy team gets very close and get to the Rainmaker quickly at the start of matches. This will make the Rainmaker have to take a much longer route to reach the base, making matches last longer and have a more competitive vibe, especially as more choke points occur. The 2 corner sniper perches can have climbable boxes to allow the team to take out anyone up there and have a higher vantage point for Inkzookas and other weapons that benefit from better views and height. The purple lines are approximately where the 50 point mark would come in, although it looks more like 55-60 from this picture. I feel this would improve Rainmaker on Skatepark by quite a bit, since you would have to work harder to get the win, rather than pull an ace and get a knockout in 10-20 seconds. However, parts of this version look very difficult to push (such as the half-pipe and the corner before it) and could make it frustrating, but overall it'll be less frustrating than being knocked out in seconds due to the short distance from the centre to the Rainmaker base.
As for my improvements to Rainmaker, I feel that the Rainmaker Prohibited Zone warning and the Warning! Don't Retreat! message mechanic needs to be changed. I think for the first 2 mins (5:00-3:01) it should work as it does currently, and speed up the countdown on the Rainmaker timer. For the next 2 mins (3:00-1:01) it should overwrite the the timer during the warning process and explode in 10 seconds (if you trigger it with an RM timer of 50, and end it with 1 second left, you still have 41 seconds left with the RM). Then for the final minute (1:00-Extra Time), entering the banned zone or retreating will cause the Rainmaker to instantly explode, resetting it back to the centre (the retreat distance will be less lenient and more RM banned zones will need to be added). I've been thinking about it, and it would be implemented in a way where it only affects the team who currently has the lead, so the losing team sticks to the original mechanic of the timer or doesn't get affected by the warnings because they aren't camping it out or are forced to retreat due to Krakens or Bubblers chasing them. This will completely remove teams getting cheap wins by picking up the Rainmaker and retreating to their side or going into a prohibited zone and not exploding because the match clock hits zero first. I do think it would be better for the team currently losing to not get any warning messages and timer penalties, so they can go to any part of the map to push and try for the lead.
Those are just my thoughts on how to improve Rainmaker on Skatepark, and how to fix the camping issue in the mode as a whole, so matches become more competitive and skilful, since there will no longer be a way to camp out and win by stalling. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and opinions on this matter, since I think it would be great to hear the different ideas you have for improving Rainmaker and Blackbelly Rainmaker (or other maps you think are flawed i.e. Piranha Pit RM) and whether you think my idea would work.