Splatoon 3 Think Tank

[Saber]

Splatoon 2 is a great game, it has an amazing weapon selection, unique subs, specials, maps, and complete overhaul on many of the classic gamemodes (with the addition of salmon run, and clam blitz)

With the continued suport of the community, fanservice, and inclusion in smash bros ultimate it is likely that we will getanother Splatoon

So I thought I'd restart the old thinktank once again and point out some personal ideas I would love to see added to next iteration of splatoon

1.Weapon Swapping
As much as I love splatoon I will admit the game can get perdictable, and though a team of all chargers if funny it usually going to pan out well.
Having the ability to swap weapons can allow a person to completely change their weapon to best help their team , or completely change their playstlye mid battle.
(For example a close range carbon roller switching to a eliter to provide backline support, or a blaster switching to a nzap for turf control)
This will make matches more dynamic and honestly a whole lot more interesting and I would love to see this in game

2. Multiplayer story mode/ proper story mode
I loved octo expansion and it felt like this felt like a proper story for splatoon, and actually gave some amazing lore.
I would love to see alot more story modes carried out like this, the og story mode always served as a tutorial player wouldn't mind a mode that challenges the players outside of a weapon grind.
Plus playing with a friend can add more overall to level design, interactions, and replability which I would genuinely enjoy.

3. More ability support
I felt this was kinda half hazzardly thought of, it works well but I always felt it could have been implemented better and simly put more enjoyable if added from the start
But Splat Devs have always been werid about this, coldblooded in splatoon 2, reckon and haunt in splatoon 1, and many other abilities needed tweaking but never received it, and I want to see more support for these going foward.
They have a profound impact in the game and yet they rarely ever change...again this will prevent games and metas from becoming stale and therefore provide more support

Anyways these are just a few of the changes I would like to see let me know what you think or changes you would like to see down below

 

[Enperry]

Weapon Swapping is a great idea.

 

[Cephalobro]

Since I have made a topic for Splatoon 3 in another thread, I'm just going to copy and paste my points from there, as well as add in a few more things that I didn't mention after their respective points.

The story mode will be basic with a few key features taken from Octo Expansion, like acknowledging that the new player Agent can be either an Inkling or Octoling. And if a previous Agent return, you get to customize them first as it was the case for Agent 3 during Octo Expansion. Allowing for canon to be personal rather than universal (which personal canon is better for this game anyways).

I meant that the base game's story mode will be just the basic "fight the enemy army, clear the levels, defeat the bad guy" without much story to be developed aside from Sunken Scrolls.

No new playable species in the base game, but the base game will foreshadow their existence. This happened in Splatoon 1 where DJ Octavio appeared in his humanoid form along with Cap'n Cuttlefish, thus foreshadowing the existence of male Octolings. Splatoon 3's foreshadowing might possibly be from a new character who is important to the plot and whose head will be completely covered, either by a hoodie with a mask, or a helmet similar to both game's Power Armor. The new playable species would become playable through a DLC story mode. Also, Octolings are playable from the start.

My idea for the character to be the mysterious playable species is that as a spoilers for what I'm thinking of, he would remove his headgear, revealing his true species identity, in my mind, I decided to make him an Inktoling and the reason why he wanted to hide his appearance is because he was ashamed of his mother and father being from two species who had bad blood with each other in the past. In the DLC part, I came up with the idea of Inktolings living dangerously close to Salmonid territory and the reason for them to move to Inkopolis is because Salmonids keep attacking them and destroying their homes. The Inktoling that you would play as has been trapped on the island, after all the other Inktolings began their journey to Inkopolis by boat.

Inktolings as a whole are ashamed of their parent species fighting on serious grounds with each other when land can still be shared between them. That's my take on Inktolings and their mindset. The DLC story mode would be about an Inktoling's conflict with the Salmonids as he/she makes his/her way to Inkopolis. The idea would be that you meet a boat driver who needs you to collect enough fuel to power the boat, that fuel comes in the form of Golden Eggs.

New antagonist for the base-game's story mode, I think that the Octarians already run their course as villains, especially with the fight against Octavio in the first game just couldn't be topped by the second game's Octavio fight. Plus, by the time that Splatoon 3 happens, Octarians in general would be able to be found above-ground living peacefully with the Inklings, this was already started by Octolings, so it's only natural for other Octarians to live above-ground as well. Speaking of that...

The option to have a companion species follow you around Inkopolis, not necessarily a pet, but it can also be your non-battling buddy. A few that would come in mind in the pet department are the Nudiibranch (or however that animal's name is spelled), a Sea Snake and even a Turtle. In the buddy department could be a Jellyfish, an Octotrooper (without the vehicle) who would have the same tentacle color as your character does or even a Fish. I think this would make the world of Splatoon a lot more lively. As a bonus, other player's Inklings and Octolings would also be seen with their companions if the players of those characters chose to have one. Like for example, you play as an Octoling and your companion is an Octotrooper while another player that you see in the lobby chose to play as an Inkling who has a Sea Snake companion.

Now I don't want the Octarians to be the antagonist species again, maybe the new antagonist species could be the predator of both cephalopod species. A whale species could be that antagonist, instead of ink, they shoot their saliva at you, which still acts like ink. They stole Octarian tech to build robots called Mechalings, these robots act just like Inklings and Octolings. The whale species live somewhere far from Inkopolis, waiting to launch an attack at Inkopolis in order to eat the cephalopods of the city.

Now to the topic of companions, I want to see more Octarians become companion to the player character, the Octotrooper wasn't the only one, maybe it could be an Octocopter without the hat or an Octosniper/Octocommander without the mechanical stuff.

A lot of the confusing lore to be explained, Splatoon as a series already have a lot of confusing lore. An example being, what kind of meat-like foods that Inklings and Octolings eat aside from what Crusty Sean offers? Having the confusing part of the lore being explained would make me enjoy the game even more. Granted, they can still keep some of it a mystery, like the identity of Mr. Grizz.

I still stand by what I said about the confusing lore, even the Octo Expansion Artbook doesn't reveal everything about the Octarians, sure a lot of things were explained, but not everything.

 

[Noco]

I like the idea of weapon swapping, but you should be limited to only a few weapons. Switching should only be possible after you're splatted or anytime you're on your own respawn point. Not at anytime.

 

[Reila]

I will think about Splatoon 3 when they announce it.

 

[Gameboy224]

Personally speaking, I'm actually on the boat of people who don't exactly want to see a Splatoon 3 so soon. Given Splatoon 2's nature of being a multiplayer focused game with an actual competitive presence, it should be a game with somewhat infrequent released. If not once a generation, at least further down the Switch's lifecycle.

THOUGH, I would like for them to expand on the franchise outside of the core multiplayer focused fundamentals. I feel the IP has great potential to bend its formula. I'm talking entire single player focused or co-op centeric side games which veer away from the PvP format.

That being said, what I would want to see come out next.

Spoiler

Would be awesome if we were to get a side game which did focus completely on its single player elements.

Due to it having no PvP oriented online components, they'd have the freedom to add movement tech and abilities which would be broken or meta changing. Stuff like combat dodging being inherent, double jump, unique wall based movements, action time.

You'd have a based all around weapon for all weapon types which could have its stats and mechanics modified based on a give and take system (like +range -fire rate and +fire rate -accuracy). You'd be able to switch main and sub weapons at any time.

Levels would be ditch the Mario Galaxy style we currently have and go for more in world dungeon style progression, keeping the emphasis on platforming but raising the stakes of combat. Mobs in the whole will be a lot tougher and varied, sporting health bars. You yourself would start with multiple layers of armor, but each layer is more fragile than the main games, as well as us no longer having the panic armor state anymore. Effectively armor is your health bar.

I like the idea of weapon swapping, but you should be limited to only a few weapons. Switching should only be possible after you're splatted or anytime you're on your own respawn point. Not at anytime.

That actually seems like a really elegant way of adding a weapon switching mechanic. Reminds me of how character switching works in Overwatch. Given the fast pace of Splatoon and high frequency in which one might get splatted, it makes sense. Also you can just jump back to spawn if you think you'd need to switch weapons.

I can already see it, you have your primary that you start with and probably something like one or two secondaries that you can toggle while in spawn. Maybe give the left and right D-Pad a purpose.

That being said, what I'd like to see from another main multiplayer Splatoon.

Definitely expand upon Salmon Run. Besides the main mode we have now, potentially offer us additional modes, even if they're only on certain occurrences, like an all out 4v1 raid against one super boss or modes with other objectives like one long escort mission.

The above method of weapon switch would also be interesting as long as there is enough limitation.

On the less gameplay side.
I would want our host duo of 3 to actually be a male and female duo. I get our hosts up to now have been pop idols, but they could step away from that and give us a band duo.
Give us a fast forward or skip option for non-essential news updates.

 

[Saber]

I like the idea of weapon swapping, but you should be limited to only a few weapons. Switching should only be possible after you're splatted or anytime you're on your own re-spawn point. Not at anytime.

Yeah I was thinking there should be a meter or some kind of timer on it before you can switch in spawn to prevent enemy for quick swapping to a specific weapon then switching back, or abusing QR, or quick super jump to any great effect.

I also would likely keep the weapon swaps to 2, that way there is some strategy to weapon and gear synergy, and strategy to counter a enemy play...and as mentioned keeping up the unpredicablity

I will think about Splatoon 3 when they announce it.

This is more of a suggestion thread discussing complaints with the game, as well as conecpts or ideas you'd hope Nintendo will do sometime in future titles (not specifically a Splatoon 3) and sometimes you might not know if they are paying attention

**I do feel that with how splatoon 2 was made and how the Splatoon1 community is thriving still we can expect the next iteration to be far off from being released (possible in the early stages of Conceptualization)

I mean @Hitzel back on the Splatoon 2 think tank, and again brought this up in the find out iwhat fresh thread (when it originally opened) discussed the idea of stickers for swapping or adding abilities to gear instead of rng grind for gold and or snails, then soonafter splatoon 2 was announced, we discovered that ability chunks were added to the game......
Again could have been coincidence, but what it did do is it stirred discussion and if we have seen anything as of late Nintendo are taking some notes

 

[Cephalobro]

I just want a male duo for the next game, just allow more diversity in important characters. My idea for a male duo is that they are a rock music duo, one focuses on Metal while the other is a Punk musician. My idea is that they are Octoling brothers who hate DJ Octavio for brainwashing them before.

 

[ThatSquidYouKnow]

We aren’t even two years past this game’s release, Splatoon 3 won’t happen until Nintendo’s next console, a game like Splatoon doesn’t need Nintendo to be spoonfeeding the community new updates, people who complain about the game dying are just people too lazy to sustain it themselves. Shouldn’t be thinking about what Nintendo can do better for Splatoon 3, should be thinking about what the community can do better for Splatoon 2

 

[Cephalobro]

Weapon swapping is a good idea, but I agree that it should be limited, not only for the match to be balanced, but also to not confuse the player on what the sub and special they have at the moment.

 

[Noco]

That actually seems like a really elegant way of adding a weapon switching mechanic.

Why thank you my good fellow.

Given the fast pace of Splatoon and high frequency in which one might get splatted, it makes sense. Also you can just jump back to spawn if you think you'd need to switch weapons.

I can already see it, you have your primary that you start with and probably something like one or two secondaries that you can toggle while in spawn. Maybe give the left and right D-Pad a purpose.

I agree with having a very limited selection of weapons you can take into battle. I'd probably want at most two secondaries, anymore and it's chaos. The D-Pad idea is actually really smart. If they were to add extra chat options with the left and right D-Pad buttons, they could use the L button, which has remained vacant for the first two games, for weapon switching.

 

[Saber]

We aren’t even two years past this game’s release, Splatoon 3 won’t happen until Nintendo’s next console, a game like Splatoon doesn’t need Nintendo to be spoonfeeding the community new updates, people who complain about the game dying are just people too lazy to sustain it themselves. Shouldn’t be thinking about what Nintendo can do better for Splatoon 3, should be thinking about what the community can do better for Splatoon 2

*******Again, my squids, this isn't talking about the state of Splatoon 2 this is merely a suggestion thread for idea player would like to see implemented in future titles********

Weapon swapping is a good idea, but I agree that it should be limited, not only for the match to be balanced, but also to not confuse the player on what the sub and special they have at the moment.

I was thinking the sub and special would remain the same as the primary weapon you picked...or unable to be used by the secondary
But I do like Noco idea better

I would also like a few emotes this time around....I want to be able to dance in game, or at very least communicate with my teammates slightly more effectively, this way and ouch... did help out alot in some cases, but having a look out! callout would be nice (for example for flanks, or a team special push)

 

[Noco]

*******Again, my squids, this isn't talking about the state of Splatoon 2 this is merely a suggestion thread for idea player would like to see implemented in future titles********



I was thinking the sub and special would remain the same as the primary weapon you picked...or unable to be used by the secondary
But I do like Noco idea better

I would also like a few emotes this time around....I want to be able to dance in game, or at very least communicate with my teammates slightly more effectively, this way and ouch... did help out alot in some cases, but having a look out! callout would be nice (for example for flanks, or a team special push)

Extra chat options would be cool, but I don't want dances to turn Splatoon 3 into Fortnite 2.

 

[Cephalobro]

We need mode specific pings, the "Help!" ping in Salmon Run really helped me see where splatted teammates were and allowed me to revive them before being splatted myself. Something like "Carry the Rainmaker", "Pass Clams to me" and "Ride the tower" can go a long way in improving team performance.

 

[Noco]

We need mode specific pings, the "Help!" ping in Salmon Run really helped me see where splatted teammates were and allowed me to revive them before being splatted myself. Something like "Carry the Rainmaker", "Pass Clams to me" and "Ride the tower" can go a long way in improving team performance.

This for sure!

 

[Azure ST]

I'd like to see offline matches vs cpus (like what they did in smash bros) if possible, more singleplayer content in general. There's not much else on my wishlist, but weapon swapping might be neat.

My guess is the next duo's Diss-Pair. Unless that's been refuted already.

I can already see it, you have your primary that you start with and probably something like one or two secondaries that you can toggle while in spawn. Maybe give the left and right D-Pad a purpose.

If weapon swapping becomes a think, I'm thinking something like octo expansion that utilizes the A button, which right now isn't used for anything in-match aside from clams as far as I remember, and you wouldn't be needing clams in spawn/respawning. Assuming they don't change the controls.

 

[Enperry]

I think next game will have 3 pop star idols. They could totally use this as a selling point, Splatoon 3 with 3 pop idols. Also, it would allow for interesting dialogue, as well as 1v1v1 splatfests!

 

[Gameboy224]

Weapon swapping is a good idea, but I agree that it should be limited, not only for the match to be balanced, but also to not confuse the player on what the sub and special they have at the moment.

Probably just limit the weapons you take in to 3 kits or even just 2. Since they're all weapons you decided to bring in, I'd hope you know what subs and specials they have. Which also more the reason to keep weapon switching only at spawn, so when people head out, they should know what they have equipped with little complications in the field.

Though as I think about it, the one complaint I am started to get is if people start running sets with one weapon for painting and another just for its special. Though, if they were to try and balance this, perhaps if you special meter is above 100p, switching weapons will force if down to 100p, preventing people from jumping back to spawn to use a different weapon's special.

 

[Enperry]

Of course, when you get your special all the way up for one weapon, you'd have to start over with the other weapon when you switch if that makes sense.

 

[Noco]

I think next game will have 3 pop star idols. They could totally use this as a selling point, Splatoon 3 with 3 pop idols. Also, it would allow for interesting dialogue, as well as 1v1v1 splatfests!

True. I never thought of this!