ThestralZ
Inkling Cadet
I think we can all agree that one of the things that makes Splatoon so unique compared to other shooters is Super Jumping. In most other games like TF2, Overwatch, or MW, dying and respawning is punished by forcing you to take more time to walk back to where you originally were, giving your enemy time to take space, secure their position, and win a team fight using a numbers advantage. This is balanced for teams defending, as often it takes less time for a defending team to get back to the fight than an attacking team. Most games then balance the offensive side by giving them more offensive respawn points if they complete a certain objective or by adding abilities and classes that enable fast movement like Engineer's teleporters in TF2 or Kiriko's dash in Overwatch. Splatoon does this offensive repawning by using Super Jumps. For Super Jumps, the only condition that needs to be met is having either a friendly player or a beakon on the map. By offering dynamic respawn points, Splatoon encourages more aggressive plays and stealth as viable options for the game.
The problem that occurs from offering dynamic respawn points is balancing safety of respawning with punishing bad jumps. Squid Beakons don't have this problem because they can't be hidden, as the map screen reveals exactly where they are. They are also balanced on the offense, as anyone trying to camp the beakon will be revealed on the map screen.* This makes the optimal strategy when playing with or against beakons to put them in safe alcoves where they can allow you and your teammates to rejoin the battle faster, while still making them vulnerable to any opposing push by the enemy. Jumping to a teammate is slightly different and more nuanced. Most Splatoon players learn quickly that jumping to a teammate who is surrounded by enemy ink often leads to immediate death on landing. This means, like beakons, the safest way of jumping to a teammate is when they are farther back from the fight and not in immediate danger. Usually, back line weapons like Chargers and Splatlings are naturally in these positions, making them the default weapons to rely on for jumps*. Most support weapons often rotate through the back line as well, meaning they're also often safe to jump to*.
What I have just described is the ideal universe for Super Jumping. The problem with what I have just described is that there are asterisks. Asterisk 1, Jump camping. Beakons have a range where players are shown on the map camping beakons, but that range isn't as big as it should be. Most mid to long range weapons can still camp a beakon without being shown on the map, especially Chargers. Asterisk 2, due to the range of certain weapons and specials in this game, often you can still get splatted immediately on landing, even in the back line.
The solution Nintendo opted to use to fix the problem was Stealth Jump. Stealth Jump hides the jump marker at long range, negating the ability for long range weapons to camp a jump while retaining the ability for short range weapons to find and deal with jumps that are too aggressive. The problem with Stealth Jump isn't necessarily its mechanics, but the trade-off cost of using it. By opting to use Stealth Jump, you sacrifice any way of using Drop Roller or Object Shredder. Drop Roller is fair, the two abilities don't really have a situation where they would want to be run in tandem, but it is annoying to give up Object Shredder given how potentially useful that ability is. Additionally, by running Stealth Jump, you sacrifice the potential of having a main of any kind on your shoes, making gear builds feel less impactful.
I suggest the solution to fixing this problem is two fold. One, buff the radius that Squid Beakon can detect enemies. This lets beakon weapons not run Stealth Jump, and make weapons using the beakons realize sooner when a beakon becomes useless. The other change is around Stealth Jump. I suggest that Stealth Jump be a default "thing" in the next game. To balance this, I think scoped chargers should be able to detect Jump Markers from any distance, and there should be a Headgear gear ability that lets any weapon detect the jump marker from full range. The only Headgear only abilities are Opening Gambit, a highly aggressive ability that won't usually overlap with needing to detect stealth jumps, LDE, which is over tuned and by offering this ability as a conflict of interest would decrease its dominance, and Tenacity, which sucks right now, but if it was ever buffed would mostly be used only by painting weapons to increase their spam, and not by aggressive weapons.
If I missed an important detail or you have comments on my solution, let me know in 'ze comments.
The problem that occurs from offering dynamic respawn points is balancing safety of respawning with punishing bad jumps. Squid Beakons don't have this problem because they can't be hidden, as the map screen reveals exactly where they are. They are also balanced on the offense, as anyone trying to camp the beakon will be revealed on the map screen.* This makes the optimal strategy when playing with or against beakons to put them in safe alcoves where they can allow you and your teammates to rejoin the battle faster, while still making them vulnerable to any opposing push by the enemy. Jumping to a teammate is slightly different and more nuanced. Most Splatoon players learn quickly that jumping to a teammate who is surrounded by enemy ink often leads to immediate death on landing. This means, like beakons, the safest way of jumping to a teammate is when they are farther back from the fight and not in immediate danger. Usually, back line weapons like Chargers and Splatlings are naturally in these positions, making them the default weapons to rely on for jumps*. Most support weapons often rotate through the back line as well, meaning they're also often safe to jump to*.
What I have just described is the ideal universe for Super Jumping. The problem with what I have just described is that there are asterisks. Asterisk 1, Jump camping. Beakons have a range where players are shown on the map camping beakons, but that range isn't as big as it should be. Most mid to long range weapons can still camp a beakon without being shown on the map, especially Chargers. Asterisk 2, due to the range of certain weapons and specials in this game, often you can still get splatted immediately on landing, even in the back line.
The solution Nintendo opted to use to fix the problem was Stealth Jump. Stealth Jump hides the jump marker at long range, negating the ability for long range weapons to camp a jump while retaining the ability for short range weapons to find and deal with jumps that are too aggressive. The problem with Stealth Jump isn't necessarily its mechanics, but the trade-off cost of using it. By opting to use Stealth Jump, you sacrifice any way of using Drop Roller or Object Shredder. Drop Roller is fair, the two abilities don't really have a situation where they would want to be run in tandem, but it is annoying to give up Object Shredder given how potentially useful that ability is. Additionally, by running Stealth Jump, you sacrifice the potential of having a main of any kind on your shoes, making gear builds feel less impactful.
I suggest the solution to fixing this problem is two fold. One, buff the radius that Squid Beakon can detect enemies. This lets beakon weapons not run Stealth Jump, and make weapons using the beakons realize sooner when a beakon becomes useless. The other change is around Stealth Jump. I suggest that Stealth Jump be a default "thing" in the next game. To balance this, I think scoped chargers should be able to detect Jump Markers from any distance, and there should be a Headgear gear ability that lets any weapon detect the jump marker from full range. The only Headgear only abilities are Opening Gambit, a highly aggressive ability that won't usually overlap with needing to detect stealth jumps, LDE, which is over tuned and by offering this ability as a conflict of interest would decrease its dominance, and Tenacity, which sucks right now, but if it was ever buffed would mostly be used only by painting weapons to increase their spam, and not by aggressive weapons.
If I missed an important detail or you have comments on my solution, let me know in 'ze comments.