Sub Weapon Rework Idea: Light Bomb and Boba Bomb (+Torpedo Rework)

[OnePotWonder]

For those of you who didn't see my previous post about the frustrating way Torpedo has been handled, the sub has two main issues. First and foremost, while bombs in general are stronger against slow weapons, Torpedo takes it to the extreme with its ability to be shot down and the pellets it creates with a targeted explosion. Secondly, the sub fills a ton of niches. This doesn't sound like a bad thing at first, except that Torpedo is only a single sub weapon. And it's on a grand total of six weapons.

My goal with this thread is to spread Torpedo's gimmicks out across multiple sub weapons, increasing the number of combo bombs in the game to give the developers more agency in designing good kits. And to add onto this, I will be making Torpedo more balanced in terms of its matchup spread; more akin to other bombs. Without further ado:

Torpedo
HP increased from 20 to 100
Direct explosion damage increased from 60 to 85
No longer creates explosive pellets after detonating
Can no longer be rolled across floors

A simple, effective rework for Torpedo itself, removing two of its gimmicks and compensating them with some useful buffs. The sub's direct damage is increased to 85 to make up for the removal of pellets; a direct plus two pellets deals 84 damage. The HP increase makes the sub more of an investment to shoot down for faster weapons with minimal impact on slower weapons.

It's a bit harsh, but the main aspects of the sub's identity (location and distraction) remain untouched, so I think it's fair. Especially since I'm adding a new sub to make up for the removal of rolled Torpedo:

Light Bomb
Ink Cost: 55%

This spherical bomb looks vaguely like a light bulb, with a glassy texture and a filament visible inside of it. It has similar physics to Splatoon 2's rolled Torpedoes, being light and bouncy. It explodes quickly upon touching a surface, only having a 40 frame fuse timer. It deals 60 damage in a 3.0 unit radius, and 30 damage in a 4.2 unit radius (Splat Bomb's lethal radius is 3.6 units). When the bomb explodes, it creates a flash of light followed by a cloud of colored smoke that fills its indirect radius and blocks vision. The cloud dissipates over half of a second.

What we have here is a direct replacement for rolled Torpedoes; a cheap, bouncy smoke bomb that can be used for combos. I don't need to go into too much depth about how this sub would be used, it plays almost identically to Splatoon 2 Torpedo minus the locked-on form. The one new trait it has, its smoke bomb ability, makes it a stronger get-off-me tool for anchor weapons.

There is still one aspect of Torpedo that needs to be revived; its explosive pellets. Fortunately, I have just the concept to fit them:

Boba Bomb
Ink Cost: 65%

This sub takes the form of a flip-top glass bottle filled to the brim with paintballs. It shatters on contact with a surface or enemy, dealing 30 damage in a 3.2 unit radius and releasing eight explosive pellets in a ring around where it lands. The pellets each deal 18 damage in the same radius as Torpedo's pellets and land roughly half a second after the thrown bottle. The pellets land in a radius of 4.4 units.

Another combo sub, this one is much more of a Burst Bomb side-grade, inking a lot of turf and potentially trapping enemies at the cost of consuming much more ink than Burst Bomb. I envision this sub being popular on aggressive weapons that struggle to ink a lot of turf, like blasters, or weapons that combo off of minuscule amounts of damage.

With all of that out of the way, it's time for example kits; double the kits for double the content:

Splattershot Pro
Light Bomb + Crab Tank

Explosher
Light Bomb + Wave Breaker

Rapid Blaster
Light Bomb + Inkjet(?)

Tri-Stringer
Light Bomb + Tactical Inkstrike

Bamboozler 14
Boba Bomb + Killer Wail Surround

Mini Splatling
Boba Bomb + Super Chump

Recycled Brella 24
Boba Bomb + Zipcaster

Blaster
Boba Bomb + Bubble Barrier

(Yes, I will be shamelessly plugging previous ideas into example kits from here on out. Keeping consistent with the Splatoon 4 theme.)

Thank you all in advance for your wonderfully useful constructive feedback.
Also thanks for reading through all of this, this post is definitely a bit dense compared to my others.
As per usual, have a wonderful day.

 

[solz]

Like the thought but they all seem a tad weak even for poking or combos

 

[isaac4]

While I can't say that I share the same hatred for Torpedo (Torp isn't even on any slosher kits) I do respect the attempt being made here to take different individual traits and create new subs out of them.
My personal favorite idea in this thread though has to be the smoke effect on Light Bomb.
It turns this idea of a simple combo sub and gives it a different utility that multiple weapons outside of the user can take advantage of outside of just the chip damage. I understand the flash and smoke isn't something that stays around for long but I think it's fine enough for a game as fast as Splatoon and that's not even mentioning the radius of the smoke itself which seems to be good from your description.
I would assume that it also paints your feet the same way Torp currently does.
Overall, it's a much more interesting idea than what we ended up with for a new sub in Splatoon 3.

 

[sevenleaf]

Light Bomb
Ink Cost: 55%

This spherical bomb looks vaguely like a light bulb, with a glassy texture and a filament visible inside of it. It has similar physics to Splatoon 2's rolled Torpedoes, being light and bouncy. It explodes quickly upon touching a surface, only having a 40 frame fuse timer. It deals 60 damage in a 3.0 unit radius, and 30 damage in a 4.2 unit radius (Splat Bomb's lethal radius is 3.6 units). When the bomb explodes, it creates a flash of light followed by a cloud of colored smoke that fills its indirect radius and blocks vision. The cloud dissipates over half of a second.

What we have here is a direct replacement for rolled Torpedoes; a cheap, bouncy smoke bomb that can be used for combos. I don't need to go into too much depth about how this sub would be used, it plays almost identically to Splatoon 2 Torpedo minus the locked-on form. The one new trait it has, its smoke bomb ability, makes it a stronger get-off-me tool for anchor weapons.

finally, the Splattercolor Screen Sub Weapon

…which is my only intelligent comment actually: depending on how vision is blocked i could see this being a bit of a Screen 2.0 situation. do you have an idea what the smoke bomb effect would look like on the target’s end?

 

[OnePotWonder]

finally, the Splattercolor Screen Sub Weapon

…which is my only intelligent comment actually: depending on how vision is blocked i could see this being a bit of a Screen 2.0 situation. do you have an idea what the smoke bomb effect would look like on the target’s end?

It’s not actually my first idea for a smokescreen effect, so I already have a fix for this. While inside the smoke cloud, it’s only translucent; from the outside it’s fully opaque.

 

[QuagSass]

It’s not actually my first idea for a smokescreen effect, so I already have a fix for this. While inside the smoke cloud, it’s only translucent; from the outside it’s fully opaque.

Me, I'm actually a bit concerned about the light part of the light bomb. The part where it makes a flash of light when it explodes could be an issue. Like me personally, I'm pretty sensitive to sudden flashes.

 

[OnePotWonder]

Me, I'm actually a bit concerned about the light part of the light bomb. The part where it makes a flash of light when it explodes could be an issue. Like me personally, I'm pretty sensitive to sudden flashes.

Yes, I'm still debating how that could work. I'm beginning to think it might be easier to instead make the bomb glow and illuminate its surroundings (maybe with some form of special location, like being able to see hidden enemies through ink) while it's exploding rather than having a potentially disorienting flash.