Splatoon 2: Find Out What's Fresh! (General Discussion)

[Green Waffles]

Unless they actually improve the online functionality in some way (options for regional or worldwide matchmaking, higher tickrate, public voice chat) then count me out.

Nearly my sentiments on the topic.
Public VC isn't going to happen, given nintendo probably wants to keep the game family marketable, I'm not sure if higher tickrate will solve latency/international match connection problems (aka: lag) and I don't believe giving international and regional options is an amazing solution I'm willing to pay extra for. . .

I get the strong feeling that splat 2 started as regional, and has slowly allowed for international matches.

For the first few months after release, I rarely, very rarely ever saw a name with kanji lettering (aka: written in japanese)
and lobby wait times ranged from 30 seconds too over 2 minutes (at which point the game would time you out <_> )

Nowadays, I almost never get timed out (I still get ridiculous wait times fairly often, but it seems to be a little less frequent)
and I get a fair amount of players with kanji usernames.

I'd bet good money it'll go over completely smooth.

This is what I fear =/
It won't be completely smooth, the playerbase will take a hit. As previously stated, I'm a huge splatoon fan, and if I'm not going to be paying without major improvements. There are definitely others who agree.

But as it stands, I don't think it will be nearly big enough a number to catch Nintendo Corporate's attention.
(which just saddens me further)

PS: At the very least, I can go to Smash 'n' Splash this summer before the ****wall drops in September! xD And according to basic math and the leaked weapon kit list, I should get to play light tetra doolys before then as well!

@Saber OH!
Now I feel a bit bad ^_^;
I definitely noticed the blooping splat charger, but I did not recognize your name at the time and just saw it as squidbagging xP

Always a treat to meet squidboard peeps in game!

 

[Drew Sebastino]

@Green Waffles Well, what I really want are centralized servers rather than the crappy peer to peer connection we have, but the chances of that actually happening are hovering around 0%. Too much lost and too little gained for Nintendo.

 

[Spaceswitchmars]

Gooey. Curling bombs and inkjet, I believe, but correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Dessgeega]

Gooey. Curling bombs and inkjet, I believe, but correct me if I'm wrong.

ermahgerd no splashdown means it's worthless

A highly mobile kit for a highly mobile weapon. I'll wait to see what the experts *coughGoolloomcough* have to say, but I can dig it.

 

[Lonely_Dolphin]

Social media people aren't the "internet dwellers", it's two different groups. We're the internet dwellers. And yes, we are all aware. But plenty of casual people have bought into Switch early. That's the thing with Switch. It doesn't appeal to just console fans, and it's the rare case where the console you play on matters as much as the games you play on it, because it's fairly exotic in not being just a black box (or "a box to play Mario on" as Yamauchi called the NES.) The form factor itself is part of the incentive to play. So this once, the horse SHOULD go before the cart. Normally I'd have agreed with you on any other console though.

I do stick with it though. It's not what, it's when. 1.5 years past launch after tons of online games.....and a large non-dedicated audience, it's not going to go over well. Will it destroy Switch? No of course not. But it will be controversy. And controversy is still best avoided (unless you're a celebrity in which case it boosts your image :p ) , and this one could easily have been avoided.

Well I'll just ask this, to what extent exactly will it not go over well you think? Lower sales of Switch hardware n online Switch games? Much longer matchmaking times due to fewer players across the board? Whatever your answer, I'm gonna hold you to it come September! :-P

ermahgerd no splashdown means it's worthless

A highly mobile kit for a highly mobile weapon. I'll wait to see what the experts *coughGoolloomcough* have to say, but I can dig it.

I'm no expert on Goo Tuber, I suck bad with it, but even without Splashdown I think the Custom's kit is more preferable simply due to it's Curling Bomb synergy. Goo Tuber needs turf to take advantage of it's ability, but it isn't very good at turfing. Curling Bombs should solve that problem I'd imagine.

Also, why we getting this on Thursday? Not that I'm complaining of course, just curious.

 

[Spaceswitchmars]

Also, why we getting this on Thursday? Not that I'm complaining of course, just curious.

Japanese Splatfest is this weekend, right? Whenever they announce or release a weapon early, it's usually Splatfest related.

 

[Cyan]

Japanese Splatfest is this weekend, right? Whenever they announce or release a weapon early, it's usually Splatfest related.

Their Splatfest was last weekend, Champions vs Challengers, Challengers won. It's why we know the next Shifty has Salmon Run cannons. Our (as in Europe) Splatfest is this weekend.

As for the Custom Goo Tuber that kit is better than it was due to the buffs. Curlings will help with the partial charge storing (combined with 75% kill damage) so it can work that way but Inkjet is underwhelming. I'm bad with this weapon so it'll be a pass for me.

 

[Saber]

So I am no Goollom or Award, but I do have plenty of experience with the goo tuber
Personally I think this is a decent kit.
Inkjet is awful but will likely get a buff soon due to it's lack of use in the meta (honestly it just need to be a balance between it's hit box and aerial mobility to make it viable).
But this give the goo tube the one thing it lacks against other charge which is a long range counter.

Curlings bombs on the other hand are where the problem will arise, yeah it is great to get around the field and will help this weapons already great mobility......BUT it means that likely after 1 curling bomb followed by full charged shot you'll be out of ink. Unless you run ink efficentcy

Imo it is good, but the original is just so good at the moment that it kinda outshines the custom. But I still can't wait to try it out

 

[Award]

Yeah, this was pretty obvious. I'm not exactly Splatoon 2's biggest fan, in case you couldn't already pick that up, but perhaps what is the most upsetting to me about it is what it potentially means to the franchise. I'm not looking forward to another Splatoon game with marginal improvements (improvements often being debatable) every two years, especially with the insane amount of grinding in this game.


I'd really like to know how many people even here think they would be interested in paying for the online service. Of course, we're probably more into Splatoon as a whole than the general public. Heck, I'll set up a poll for it. Unless they actually improve the online functionality in some way (options for regional or worldwide matchmaking, higher tickrate, public voice chat) then count me out.

I don't think S2 hints at S3 at all precisely because it is Splatoon Deluxe, not S2. They can call it 2 all they want but I don't think their idea is that a sequel gets marginal updates while recycling most of the last game. Much of S2 is a legit copy paste of S1, with some adjustment,s tweaks, and additions more like an expansion pack + season pass than a legit sequel. This isn't Splatoon 2. It's Splatoon SEASON 2. Look at Destiny 2 to see what that really means. They just needed to get the BIG dedicated Splatoon base (in Japan ) onto Switch ASAP, so so they had to get Splatoon on the console in a way that indicated your old game is over. This did it. But I don't think they really believe it's splatoon 2. And I don't think 1-2 is anything like what 2-3 will be. They can't get away with a 1 year drip release of 2 year old weapons and maps a second time :P Even EA doesn't do that. :P

Ultimately most of Squidboards will buy in. I'm not worried about the demographic here. A few people will skip due to the economics, but most will buy in. It's the larger community that's in question. There will be a thinning of population though, possibly especially in TW, and the C's. We often forget *MOST* people that buy splatoon outside Japan don't even play ranked or leagues. They play TW. Heck with S2 even I've played mostly TW.

And like GreeenWaffles article yesterday pointed out, even Japan plays almost exclusively SZ and TW. TC, CB, and RM are already thin crowds as a result.

Nearly my sentiments on the topic.
Public VC isn't going to happen, given nintendo probably wants to keep the game family marketable, I'm not sure if higher tickrate will solve latency/international match connection problems (aka: lag) and I don't believe giving international and regional options is an amazing solution I'm willing to pay extra for. . .

I get the strong feeling that splat 2 started as regional, and has slowly allowed for international matches.

For the first few months after release, I rarely, very rarely ever saw a name with kanji lettering (aka: written in japanese)
and lobby wait times ranged from 30 seconds too over 2 minutes (at which point the game would time you out <_> )

Nowadays, I almost never get timed out (I still get ridiculous wait times fairly often, but it seems to be a little less frequent)
and I get a fair amount of players with kanji usernames.


This is what I fear =/
It won't be completely smooth, the playerbase will take a hit. As previously stated, I'm a huge splatoon fan, and if I'm not going to be paying without major improvements. There are definitely others who agree.

But as it stands, I don't think it will be nearly big enough a number to catch Nintendo Corporate's attention.
(which just saddens me further)

PS: At the very least, I can go to Smash 'n' Splash this summer before the ****wall drops in September! xD And according to basic math and the leaked weapon kit list, I should get to play light tetra doolys before then as well!

@Saber OH!
Now I feel a bit bad ^_^;
I definitely noticed the blooping splat charger, but I did not recognize your name at the time and just saw it as squidbagging xP

Always a treat to meet squidboard peeps in game!

If Japan doesn't take a hit, corporate won't notice. IMO they're already badly matchmaking in the west to hide just how thin the player base really is. TW is fine. Solo ranked is sketchier and sketchier the higher up you go, and leagues are very very thin. People seem to be running into each other they know very frequently. Frequently enough that if the player base were large sheer chance wouldn't allow. The western leagues player pool is very very small to the point of being difficult to pretend to sustain. A drop in membership could reveal the man behind the curtain. They won't do anything about it, but the experience could suffer.

@Green Waffles Well, what I really want are centralized servers rather than the crappy peer to peer connection we have, but the chances of that actually happening are hovering around 0%. Too much lost and too little gained for Nintendo.

Well, it's Nintendo. And Japan is rabidly into this game. My bet? We get dedicated servers. And they'll be located in Kyoto. :P Then we'll BEG for the P2P glory days!

ermahgerd no splashdown means it's worthless

A highly mobile kit for a highly mobile weapon. I'll wait to see what the experts *coughGoolloomcough* have to say, but I can dig it.

I'm no expert on Goo Tuber, I suck bad with it, but even without Splashdown I think the Custom's kit is more preferable simply due to it's Curling Bomb synergy. Goo Tuber needs turf to take advantage of it's ability, but it isn't very good at turfing. Curling Bombs should solve that problem I'd imagine.

Also, why we getting this on Thursday? Not that I'm complaining of course, just curious.

Well I'll just ask this, to what extent exactly will it not go over well you think? Lower sales of Switch hardware n online Switch games? Much longer matchmaking times due to fewer players across the board? Whatever your answer, I'm gonna hold you to it come September! :p

Personally, I've always said that Goo Tuber *IS* the kit. That's what makes it what it is. The splashdown, the bombs, it's so synergistic with the main weapon. It's playstyle is defined by that kit. Personally my interest in the new model remains 0, where it's always been. We already have the good one and anything else is lesser. It's not that it will be bad, but that the original is just so balanced for tactician play. And it's not bad at inking. Excercise that mashing finger. Go play slosher for a while. :P It can lay down blankets nicely. And curling bombs seem so wasted to me on a weapon that already paints long thin lines to transit within. Tuber already creates escape routes and attack vectors without it. There are many like it, but this one's mine and all that. You'll pry it from my cold, tempura fried tentacles.

Though I suck with it now because I haven't played in WEEKS. :P

 

[Ansible]

This is the exact kit I wanted for the Bamboozler!!

Screw your meta concerns I can rock an inkjet... okay, but it does need a buff I'll admit to that.

No idea how well curling bombs will click with goo tuber as I'm use to following, sliding out ink, then snapping off shots.

 

[Spaceswitchmars]

IMO they're already badly matchmaking in the west to hide just how thin the player base really is. TW is fine. Solo ranked is sketchier and sketchier the higher up you go, and leagues are very very thin. People seem to be running into each other they know very frequently. Frequently enough that if the player base were large sheer chance wouldn't allow. The western leagues player pool is very very small to the point of being difficult to pretend to sustain. A drop in membership could reveal the man behind the curtain. They won't do anything about it, but the experience could suffer.

This is why I think league needs the bigger overhaul than ranked does. League is frustrating because one loss can undo any momentum, because you never know where your score stands until after its over (so what are you working toward?) and because you see the same teams over and over again.

What would I change? Well:

1. Live rankings after seven games. You see exactly where you currently stack up as of your last game played and where the current cutoff points for Gold, Silver and Bronze may be. This would feed into Splatoon's "one more game" mentality so well. You're thirty points from silver? You're going to keep playing. You're three points away from dropping OUT of silver? You're going to try to cement a more certain silver by playing more games and putting more distance between you and whatever team is right below you in the standings.

How many times have many of us stopped playing a little early only to find out we were literally one win away from getting a higher medal? If only we knew we were on the edge at the time, we would have kept going. Happens to me all the time.

2. Give tangible rewards for those medals. We get more stuff for putting less time into Salmon Run than we do for putting way more time (and stress) into league. Give us drink/meal tickets and snails for each medal type. Heck, give a snail for anyone who completes seven games, regardless of medaling. Create incentives for people to play league above and beyond bragging rights.

3. In addition to the current medaling system, I'd add benchmark power levels that get you a certain medal guaranteed. This goes along with the first point in getting people to keep playing. 1800 for bronze, 2000 for silver and 2200 for gold feels fair to me, but I'm willing to add anywhere from 50 to 100 points on any of those if those benchmarks seem too easy to achieve.

4. I would love if they added "seasons" to league.... Where teams accumulate a season-long power level for, and get this, TROPHIES at the end of the season with even BETTER rewards than the two hour rotation medals. Give us a long term goal to obsess over.

5. Give us a "free agent" option where someone can join other strangers in 2P and 4P league. Everyone knows the risks involved in doing this, but it could be a lot of fun. I have more thoughts about how this could work, but I won't spam y'all with it.

6. In 2P league, let us pick weapons once we see who our partners are. Let us decide what weapons we are picking after we are live-paired. I hate being screwed over in 2P because the game decided to match me with a weird weapon comp versus a good weapon comp.

7. It takes over a minute after the game ends to get back to the lobby. If you play the entire two hour league rotation, that means you are losing somewhere between 20 and 40 minutes of game time just because we can't force-skip any part of the results screen. At best, that means each team gets to play four fewer games than they would otherwise, and at worst it's much more than that. That adds up. Let us skip the results screen if we want so we can play your game more, Nintendo.

Sorry for the long post. I'm very passionate about how much league sucks compared to how good it could be.

 

[Green Waffles]

6. In 2P league, let us pick weapons once we see who our partners are. Let us decide what weapons we are picking after we are live-paired. I hate being screwed over in 2P because the game decided to match me with a weird weapon comp versus a good weapon comp.

7. It takes over a minute after the game ends to get back to the lobby. If you play the entire two hour league rotation, that means you are losing somewhere between 20 and 40 minutes of game time just because we can't force-skip any part of the results screen. At best, that means each team gets to play four fewer games than they would otherwise, and at worst it's much more than that. That adds up. Let us skip the results screen if we want so we can play your game more, Nintendo.

Sorry for the long post. I'm very passionate about how much league sucks compared to how good it could be.

The rest sounds a bit debatable/experimentable, but holy moly these last two.
Much like news skipping, result screen skipping would be AMAZING.

And in league duos, it seems impossible to play anything but a select few jack-of-all-trades weapon kits if you want to do consistently well.
If the duo me and my buddy get partnered with the gootuber garbanzo brothers, it'd be nice to at least switch to double dynamo, aerospray, or gootubers ourselves to be in on the joke.
(or a more serious example, they play a splat charger/range blaster, so we go short range turfing weapons)

 

[Award]

Well I'll just ask this, to what extent exactly will it not go over well you think? Lower sales of Switch hardware n online Switch games? Much longer matchmaking times due to fewer players across the board? Whatever your answer, I'm gonna hold you to it come September! :p

Sorry, I quoted and didn't reply before! I think it will show a tiny drop in Switch sales maybe but mostly it will cause an online PR commotion, a thinning of existing player bases in games that may cause the online demise of some. Big games like Splatoon will thin and feel worse for a time but surely won't die. Some indies using the online, etc, may see their player base vanish overnight, leading to some eshop targets crashing. Even games like Doom or Rabbids, or Odyssey's new online balloon mode coming soon that are peripheral to the online of Switch might see the online element tank hard rendering the game, or that mode of the game, dead. The longer term fallout from a sudden drop in such player-ships will affect development, especially from third parties and indies going forward, as that will skew numbers lower for a time. Any PR backlash will then give dismissive third parties or competitors a "hook" to latch onto to start fortifying against Switch. The larger thread is a longer term threat to general momentum than any overnight reaction, but the overnight reaction may kill off entirely the online of less prominent games than Splatoon.

This is why I think league needs the bigger overhaul than ranked does. League is frustrating because one loss can undo any momentum, because you never know where your score stands until after its over (so what are you working toward?) and because you see the same teams over and over again.

What would I change? Well:

1. Live rankings after seven games. You see exactly where you currently stack up as of your last game played and where the current cutoff points for Gold, Silver and Bronze may be. This would feed into Splatoon's "one more game" mentality so well. You're thirty points from silver? You're going to keep playing. You're three points away from dropping OUT of silver? You're going to try to cement a more certain silver by playing more games and putting more distance between you and whatever team is right below you in the standings.

How many times have many of us stopped playing a little early only to find out we were literally one win away from getting a higher medal? If only we knew we were on the edge at the time, we would have kept going. Happens to me all the time.

2. Give tangible rewards for those medals. We get more stuff for putting less time into Salmon Run than we do for putting way more time (and stress) into league. Give us drink/meal tickets and snails for each medal type. Heck, give a snail for anyone who completes seven games, regardless of medaling. Create incentives for people to play league above and beyond bragging rights.

3. In addition to the current medaling system, I'd add benchmark power levels that get you a certain medal guaranteed. This goes along with the first point in getting people to keep playing. 1800 for bronze, 2000 for silver and 2200 for gold feels fair to me, but I'm willing to add anywhere from 50 to 100 points on any of those if those benchmarks seem too easy to achieve.

4. I would love if they added "seasons" to league.... Where teams accumulate a season-long power level for, and get this, TROPHIES at the end of the season with even BETTER rewards than the two hour rotation medals. Give us a long term goal to obsess over.

5. Give us a "free agent" option where someone can join other strangers in 2P and 4P league. Everyone knows the risks involved in doing this, but it could be a lot of fun. I have more thoughts about how this could work, but I won't spam y'all with it.

6. In 2P league, let us pick weapons once we see who our partners are. Let us decide what weapons we are picking after we are live-paired. I hate being screwed over in 2P because the game decided to match me with a weird weapon comp versus a good weapon comp.

7. It takes over a minute after the game ends to get back to the lobby. If you play the entire two hour league rotation, that means you are losing somewhere between 20 and 40 minutes of game time just because we can't force-skip any part of the results screen. At best, that means each team gets to play four fewer games than they would otherwise, and at worst it's much more than that. That adds up. Let us skip the results screen if we want so we can play your game more, Nintendo.

Sorry for the long post. I'm very passionate about how much league sucks compared to how good it could be.

Wow, those changes would be AWESOME for Splatoon 2! I hope they learn their lessons from this first game.... :P

 

[Goolloom]

I'll just be cackling in the background here okay? Ok
Though the normal Goo Tuber has the better panic button special to play super aggro and do crazy things, and a sub that is there for area denial and sometimes spacing, I don't think this kit is a bad fit for the Custom.
Curling Bombs gives it a decent mobility option that's quicker than the weapon itself, and having Inkjet on a longer ranged weapon gives it another option to go aggressive, as your jump marker for the inkjet is going to be further away.

Long story short, the vanilla set has things to help you play around with the weapon itself, while the custom's kit gives you more options.
So you'll have to know your way around the weapon, since you don't have the spacing tool that is the Suction bomb and the panic button Splashdown to fend off people that get too close for comfort.

 

[Goont]

I've been sick all week and now I'm finally feeling better so I get cracking at a new...Goo Tuber?! Oh my god, first the buff now this, now we get a Deco, they really are taking this thing seriously now. Curling bombs are going to be sweet, I already love creating paths and traveling around the map with the .52 gal deco, so charging a charger while I scoot my way around the map's going to be fun. This is the nomad's charger.

 

[Lonely_Dolphin]

Sorry, I quoted and didn't reply before! I think it will show a tiny drop in Switch sales maybe but mostly it will cause an online PR commotion, a thinning of existing player bases in games that may cause the online demise of some. Big games like Splatoon will thin and feel worse for a time but surely won't die. Some indies using the online, etc, may see their player base vanish overnight, leading to some eshop targets crashing. Even games like Doom or Rabbids, or Odyssey's new online balloon mode coming soon that are peripheral to the online of Switch might see the online element tank hard rendering the game, or that mode of the game, dead. The longer term fallout from a sudden drop in such player-ships will affect development, especially from third parties and indies going forward, as that will skew numbers lower for a time. Any PR backlash will then give dismissive third parties or competitors a "hook" to latch onto to start fortifying against Switch. The larger thread is a longer term threat to general momentum than any overnight reaction, but the overnight reaction may kill off entirely the online of less prominent games than Splatoon.



Wow, those changes would be AWESOME for Splatoon 2! I hope they learn their lessons from this first game.... :p

Fair enough, now to wait for time to tell!

 

[MINKUKEL]

Well, at least we won't see a lot of people trying out new weapons during this Splatfest with how unpopular the Goo Tuber is.

 

[Dewnose]

Well, at least we won't see a lot of people trying out new weapons during this Splatfest with how unpopular the Goo Tuber is.

I’ll be impressed if I see more than one at all in the Splatfest; normally I see about one every... few months.

 

[Cyan]

So I've heard that at this point in time, there are only 20 known weapons left to release. With Nintendo's 1 weapon a week policy that equates to 20 more weeks of content updates, or in other words 5 months, which takes us to the 30th of June, precisely one year of content updates as promised. So I have a feeling that there may be some updates we don't know of or we'll get one final map release in July, giving us 5 final maps in the game (I'd like to think it'd be either 4 maps or 6, keep an even number). If so my money is on 4 maps, 2 final maps from Splatoon 1 and 2 new gimmick maps (much like how the final 4 in Splatoon all had some quirk to them). That'd bring us up to 20 maps, which is a round number, more than 1 (like they promised) and means we'll have 12 new maps and 8 returning maps, making a 60/40 split total.

If this is what happens I'd say it's safe to say we won't be seeing Urchin, Bluefin, Triggerfish and Saltspray return, as I'm of the belief that we'll see 2 of Splatoon's gimmick maps and 2 new ones. My money would go on Piranha Pit and Mahi Mahi being the final returning maps, with 2 new maps of other gimmicks, whether they have miniature cannons, moving platforms or a completely new and unseen gimmick introduced (helped by all the experimental Shiftys). Museum won't return because of Shellendorf, no way will we have 2 similar themed maps here, and Ancho-V was infamous in being laggy and full of disconnects so that's a no go either. I hope they will be extending the content updates if only because of the online switch over, and to give out all the content in the game and not continue to support it when demanding money will be a slap in the face all things considered. I'll keep my fingers crossed for Triggerfish but I'm concerned it won't be returning.

 

[Award]

Well, at least we won't see a lot of people trying out new weapons during this Splatfest with how unpopular the Goo Tuber is.

I’ll be impressed if I see more than one at all in the Splatfest; normally I see about one every... few months.

That's it, now I'm going to have to main my beloved unloved tuber next fest...... and I've been having so much fun festing with splat roller....... :P

(I'm still thrilled everyone hates tuber.... ;) )