Splatdashing correctly: the advanced movement option

[Kosaki]

He's not jumping.

 

[WiseSquid]

That isn't me in the video, it's Andre Segers from Gamexplain. I actually really prefer jumping at the end of the line because your next line of ink has a bit longer range, and people don't expect it so much, and it doesn't matter which color ink you have underneath your feet so you won't get bogged down when someone is shooting at you. When you squid jump you can turn back into an inkling and shoot in midair. You'll lose speed to be sure but the speedloss is actually just you slowing down to normal inkling speed. Might as well do that with a few fast frames of being a squid.

Also isn't discussions things like this part of the developing meta? I think it's fun. Hypotheticals and stuff. I'm always hoping someone gives me a new insight. Like today, I used to think the charger wasn't very good. Then I saw a japanese dude who really tore up the place with it and my opinion had to be revised. The charger doesn't suck my aiming does. Which is another reason why I like the splattershot junior so much. Less aiming, more moving about.

 

[Kosaki]

You make your statement look like the absolute truth, that's what I find funny dude. No offense in that.

Splatdashfing is keeping some of your velocity while moving out of ink, even when you go on the other team's ink, you see that in the OP's video. At this point splathoping is only a situational option.
Splatdashing makes a Splattershot user move the fastest on its own when done right, it seems. It's still slower than moving in ink all along, but at the beginning of a match it's going to be really useful to take position on key areas, like the huge square area in Saltspray Rig, the rest of the map can be painted or repainted easily over time.
Some maps might not require as much efforts though, because the key areas might not be that important to secure quick.

In GX Andre's footage, his speed in definitely not optimal, and it's not high level play judging from how the other team is getting destroyed by Andre alone.

 

[Perfect Stealth]

Andre is nothing special. People will match his skill level and surpass it within two days of the game being out. He uses the easiest set and weapon to use (Splattershot Jr. w/ Bubbler) and he is playing with people who are way less skilled than he is. No one should be viewing his gameplay as "high level".

Anyway, as for the topic, I am of the belief that getting to the mid section, or whatever section is crucial in a map (such as the crates in Saltspray Rig) as quickly as possible is of utmost importance. It doesn't make sense for everyone to uselessly spray the area around your spawn when one person alone coud do this job easily with any weapon. Everyone else should be concentrating on getting to point b, and taking it over.

This method is perfect for traversing much quicker than just swimming through your ink after you've sprayed it. It should be common sense that the more time you spend firing ink, the less time you spend moving forward. Splatdashing allows you to spend the minimal amount of time in kid form shooting, and instead focuses on quick advancing movements in squid form.

 

[Undr]

Out of curiosity; those who are discussing the technical aspects of these techniques, how long have you all spent playing the game? A whole lot of this sounds like speculation seeing as I've gotten much different results then what the prevailing arguments have.

 

[A Black Squid]

Ok, here's what I'm gonna do with this situation......

I'm going to record the 3 widely known forms of movement in this game. ( In terms of getting from point A to B as quickly as possible.)

1. The pre-set path - Your own team's ink is already covered in a path, so you just go right along in it.
2. SplatterDashing - ( Not sure if it's effective in your own teams ink, but....) Using un-inked and/or enemies ink to "quickly" get to a place.
3.Ink as a kid then swim as a squid then repeat method- self-explanatory

I'll be using a stop watch in the tutorial mode after the GTF as testing grounds to have accurate result and finish this debate once and for all. ;)

PS: make sure to tell me if I should if I should arrange something or change it completely. Thanks!

 

[WydrA]

okay so to people talking about how much time we've had in the game, and 3 hours is too early etc.
That's a pretty ridiculous stance to take on this. Yes we've only played 3 hours so far, but so has 99% of the population. Those three hours are the current meta. That's everything we know. Therefore we should be looking at what we know and picking out what is useful already. What purpose does ignoring those three hours serve? That just means we'll have to spend an extra three hours when the game comes out to get back to this same point. It's a wast of everyone's time. The earlier we can discuss useful techniques, the aster the meta will develop. t's as simple as that.

Anyway, hopefully I'll get some footage today, i too don't have a capture card, but hopefully my camera will do. Planning to record a comparison between ink n swimming and splatdashing, and also considering recording several instances of me being able to capture and hold north sinlehandedly/almost singlehandedly with splatdashing so people can see the usefulness for themselves.
i don't know if you want to join us @FunkyLobster , but tort and I will be messing around with this stuff during/after the testfire today. We'll be in shoutbox if you wanna jump in.

 

[Undr]

Well we've all had the opportunity to play the tutorial as much as we want. Heck, I've put in roughly ten hours of "lab time" testing techs and even livestreaming them without having gotten a special copy of the game. We don't know jack about the meta yet, but the techs we've had plenty of time to practice.

As things stand at the moment, I am of the view that these movement techs sacrifice too much awareness to be used effectively outside of early game and setups. It's something everyone should learn to use optimally, but I sincerely doubt these will define the meta by any means.

 

[WydrA]

Well we've all had the opportunity to play the tutorial as much as we want. Heck, I've put in roughly ten hours of "lab time" testing techs and even livestreaming them without having gotten a special copy of the game. We don't know jack about the meta yet, but the techs we've had plenty of time to practice.

As things stand at the moment, I am of the view that these movement techs sacrifice too much awareness to be used effectively outside of early game and setups. It's something everyone should learn to use optimally, but I sincerely doubt these will define the meta by any means.

Well like I said, those three hours are our meta.
Also how do these techs sacrifice awareness?

 

[Setu]

Well like I said, those three hours are our meta.
Also how do these techs sacrifice awareness?

Lmao. 3 Hours of play = meta. I lol'd
Epecially since less than half of the weapons/gear/maps are even playable.

 

[FunkyLobster]

Out of curiosity; those who are discussing the technical aspects of these techniques, how long have you all spent playing the game? A whole lot of this sounds like speculation seeing as I've gotten much different results then what the prevailing arguments have.

okay so to people talking about how much time we've had in the game, and 3 hours is too early etc.
That's a pretty ridiculous stance to take on this. Yes we've only played 3 hours so far, but so has 99% of the population. Those three hours are the current meta. That's everything we know. Therefore we should be looking at what we know and picking out what is useful already. What purpose does ignoring those three hours serve? That just means we'll have to spend an extra three hours when the game comes out to get back to this same point. It's a wast of everyone's time. The earlier we can discuss useful techniques, the aster the meta will develop. t's as simple as that.

Anyway, hopefully I'll get some footage today, i too don't have a capture card, but hopefully my camera will do. Planning to record a comparison between ink n swimming and splatdashing, and also considering recording several instances of me being able to capture and hold north sinlehandedly/almost singlehandedly with splatdashing so people can see the usefulness for themselves.
i don't know if you want to join us @FunkyLobster , but tort and I will be messing around with this stuff during/after the testfire today. We'll be in shoutbox if you wanna jump in.

yeah i don't like the attitude of "you've only played the game for so long" or "just let the game come out." there's nothing wrong with theorycrafting, especially not 6 days before release.

also i'll be playing the test fire but in the tutorial after the servers down messing around with splathops & dashes for sure. hit me up :)

 

[WydrA]

Lmao. 3 Hours of play = meta. I lol'd
Epecially since less than half of the weapons/gear/maps are even playable.

You don't seem to understand.
I mean the current meta. I'm obviously not implying this will be exactly how the game will play from now until the end of its lifetime.

 

[Youngster Skaymore]

I just don't feel like there are very many situations where I would want to use this technique. I'll save me final judgement until I can test it out and compare with other options myself.

it is good to get to an area fast when there is no ink to swim through, it is not good at spreadin gink. Ex: At salt spray rig i like to use it to get to the top area fast and defend others from getting there, so my rolers can come and claim it. In walleye warehouse i use this to get to the enemys side and take them out repeatedly while my teammates spread ink

 

[FunkyLobster]

alright, so i went in the tutorial mode and recorded the time it takes to get from one area to another using splatdashes, walking, swimming in a straight path for these following areas. i reset it each time for the first trials, but when i had to record swimming, the servers had already gone down, so the data for them might be misleading. the underlined bulletpoint is the fastest recorded time. please note that these are just approximations since i couldn't start the timer on the frame i moved, so take it with some grain of salt:

(sorry for phone quality, too)

trial 1 (red line):

• walking: 4'97"
• splatdashing: 4'18"
• spraying ink and swimming up it: 4'65"
• swimming through a straight line: 3'34"

trial 2 (blue line):

• walking: 8'63"
• splatdashing: 4'99"
• inking and swimming: 6'28"
• swimming through a straight line: 5'47"

trial 3 (green line):

• 
  
• walking: 8'58"
• splatdashing: 4'60"
  
• inking and swimming: 6'95"
• swimming through a straight line: 6'31"

so it does seem that splatdashing is the fastest option, which surprised me, since my data shows it's faster than just swimming when you have more distance you have to travel. however that's probably because i couldn't get isolated data for it since i had to use the same instance i used for inking and swimming; i'm sure swimming through already laid down ink is faster than splatdashing.

however, this does confirm that splatdashing is faster than just shooting ink and swimming up it, which validates it as a technique imo; you have reason to use it. splatdashes and splatterhops will definitely be viable movement techs, at least at this stage in the meta. definitely something to be hyped about!

just be aware that my data is approximates: i used the stopwatch on my phone for this, nothing fancy. the swimming data is likely inaccurate too, since i only thought to record it after the testfire had ended and i couldn't reset the map to get wholly complete data, in addition to being in a rush. this is not wholly reliable data, but it is enough to tell us that splatdashes and spatterhops are going to be useful movement techniques.

P.S. the difference between splatdashes and inking and swimming, in terms of ink coverage, is marginal. the gaps between splats is actually not that wide. here's a comparison:

Spoiler: splatdashes and ink trails

 

[flc]

wait, so it's straight up faster than swimming? that... doesn't at all match my eyeballing. I found swimming to be a decent amount faster just on my time to mid out of spawn but those were hardly lab conditions

I'll do some full tests at some point but that's definitely surprising.

 

[LobsterTheSQuidOfFate]

hey guys, im the original creator of the first post, sorry i could,t add it to the original post, as i said i have been very busy with moving and stuff, thank you for making a new post, i appreciate it

 

[GamingWarthog]

Splatdashing is a pretty important early game trick, since it and splathopping only work when moving through uninked territory, which is a majority of the map in the early game. Splatoon is all about control, whoever gets to the important areas first gains an advantage since they can get superior positioning. You really don't want the enemy splatcharger to set up on the sniper nest on the north platform on Saltspray Rig, so in the early game you use splatdashing/hopping in order to beat them to it and deny them that advantage.

so it does seem that splatdashing is the fastest option, which surprised me, since my data shows it's faster than just swimming when you have more distance you have to travel. however that's probably because i couldn't get isolated data for it since i had to use the same instance i used for inking and swimming; i'm sure swimming through already laid down ink is faster than splatdashing.

I'm not surprised by swimming through ink that's already there being faster, Splatdashing was always something to use for when you don't already have ink to swim through. Also for when there's enemy ink in your way but for whatever reason you don't have time to spread your ink everywhere in that spot, like the pipes leading to the south platform in Saltspray Rig during the final seconds of a match possibly, since the south platform is far more important than those pipes.

 

[FunkyLobster]

wait, so it's straight up faster than swimming? that... doesn't at all match my eyeballing. I found swimming to be a decent amount faster just on my time to mid out of spawn but those were hardly lab conditions

I'll do some full tests at some point but that's definitely surprising.

yeah i really doubt it's faster than swimming, i was in a rush so i couldn't take accurate measures for it. i mean, surely getting from point a to point b completely submerged in ink would be faster than weaving in and out of it, right? very sloppy work on my end :/ but the important thing to note is that it's actually faster than basic movement options like what @WiseSquid was saying. although i'm pretty sure most people were convinced of that, we have solid evidence of it now. very promising.

 

[FunkyLobster]

I'm not surprised by swimming through ink that's already there being faster, Splatdashing was always something to use for when you don't already have ink to swim through. Also for when there's enemy ink in your way but for whatever reason you don't have time to spread your ink everywhere in that spot, like the pipes leading to the south platform in Saltspray Rig during the final seconds of a match possibly, since the south platform is far more important than those pipes.

yeah splatdashes don't set out to replace swimming in ink at all, it's just the fastest option for when you're on flat dry land or in flat enemy territory. we have solid evidence of that now.

 

[Snacks]

We have solid evidence of that now.

No offence but the evidence you provided is anything but solid. You even said yourself the measurements weren't accurate, and you don't have video evidence to back up your claims or even prove that you were doing each type of movement optimally. Not only that but some of the numbers are really fishy and make me question how accurate the start and stops to these times are, since you have walking in the first example at 4'97, and inking at 4'65" which doesn't sound right at all if you were inking optimally. And out of all the things wrong with these numbers the worst by far is having swimming in the third example not be even close to half the time of walking when they confirmed in the direct that swimming is double the speed of walking (with video evidence), and the third path being completely flat puts a nail in the coffin for me that these timings are pretty bogus.

I tried both options in the tutorial as well and actually felt like I was going faster when inking optimally, that is, aiming at the horizon line and not at the ground only for a few milliseconds (3-5 shots) would give enough ink to swim to the end of your range radius without interruption. So I think I'm actually on the side of optimal inking being faster now. (And for the record yes, my sdash looked the same and was going just as fast as the one in the source video at the beginning of this thread).

We still need to wait for someone to make actual video proof where every party can agree that the techniques are being done 100% optimally, before we can say which one is really faster.