This game has turned into Call of Duty...

[dapperlace]

Yep! This is why if I notice I'm not doing well or am in a particularly foul mood, I stop playing for a while. I don't want to be a hindrance, particularly after those level 20 levels. Ay.

 

[Cuttlefish]

i don't think the game has become focused on kills, it's just that kills are a very good means of accomplishing the goal; to cover turf.

splatting the enemy team can be the deciding factor in whether you win or lose. in a game where it's perfectly possible to come back from being the underdog to stomping the other team in the last 10-30 seconds, you can't just rely on inking to get the job done. players who play far too aggressively will find it comes back to bite them, but there is no reason why you shouldn't aim to splat other players when it's beneficial.

finding the right balance between inking and splatting is key in Turf Wars, i think. sometimes it's better to run away and ink like there's no tomorrow, and sometimes it's better to tail an enemy and splat them. it's very situational, but splatting enemies should NOT be written off.

 

[CoconutTank]

I think relative to death match mode, which is usually the most common game mode in most FPS/3PS games (such as Call of Duty), there's still more room for less experienced players to contribute in Turf Wars without needing kills.

Right at the start of the match, before you've even seen the enemy team, as long as you've fired some ink at any ground that doesn't have your team's ink already, then congrats, you are helping! And you are also getting points! And charging up your special gauge!

You don't necessarily have to know the map inside out, you don't have to know common choke points, hallways or other positions which can make you critically vulnerable, you don't even have to venture too far out of your own base or past mid. And given that the ink tends to be very visible, you know exactly where you need to cover ground or not.

Additionally, if you see enemy ink, then that's a fairly clear indicator of potential danger, and you can look at the mini map to check out where it might be safe or not to go and ink ground. That is, unless the enemy is doing some crazy perk combo with ink saver mains and run speed up so that they can move around without needing much ink on the ground, but eventually you will know where the enemy has been.

 

[dapperlace]

Someone mentioned something earlier which I hadn't taken into account, which emphasizes the whole Splatting thing indirectly.

Leveling beyond level 20 hurts a little. Especially if you hit a losing streak. No matter how many points one gets, if the team loses, you still get less than half towards leveling than the opposing team is. Losing in Turf Wars has more of a penalty than it used to, which probably continues towards more aggressive "I can't lose!" tendencies, instead of "It won't be so bad, even if I lose, I get a lot of P's anyway".

 

[LMG]

Someone mentioned something earlier which I hadn't taken into account, which emphasizes the whole Splatting thing indirectly.

Leveling beyond level 20 hurts a little. Especially if you hit a losing streak. No matter how many points one gets, if the team loses, you still get less than half towards leveling than the opposing team is. Losing in Turf Wars has more of a penalty than it used to, which probably continues towards more aggressive "I can't lose!" tendencies, instead of "It won't be so bad, even if I lose, I get a lot of P's anyway".

Still not as bad as reaching level 20 through Ranked Battles (or even leveling up gear). It's all or nothing there :(

 

[dapperlace]

This is why I don't use ranked to level gear or reach level 20, haha. I feel like I'm not pulling my weight if I go into it like that, when practically everyone else has amazing full-slot gear.

 

[Paragon-Yoshi]

finding the right balance between inking and splatting is key in Turf Wars, i think. sometimes it's better to run away and ink like there's no tomorrow, and sometimes it's better to tail an enemy and splat them. it's very situational, but splatting enemies should NOT be written off.

^This
Balance is the key to everything.


But yeah, I think what makes this game so frustrating for some people at times, are unbalances.
First the unbalances in matchmaking, when beginners end up being pitted against Goliath*s.
But every online shooter suffers from this in one way or another.
It's not really Nintendo's fault, it's just... unfortunate.

And sometimes, the maps themselves can screw you over, if you don't have the god-skills, the other players have.
Normally this wouldn't be a problem, if the maps had plenty of ways to get around, allowing you to avoid confrontations you can't win and slip past stronger enemies.
But then there are maps, that pretty much have one linear path and an unavoidable middle zone, that you have to get through in order to gain the advantage.

The worst cases being to me: Arowana Mall, Moray Towers and Camp Triggerfish.
Once you have "The End"/"Sniper Wolf" in place and there is no "Snake" to counter those godly Sniper-Skills, you win!

 

[LMG]

And sometimes, the maps themselves can screw you over, if you don't have the god-skills, the other players have.
Normally this wouldn't be a problem, if the maps had plenty of ways to get around, allowing you to avoid confrontations you can't win and slip past stronger enemies.
But then there are maps, that pretty much have one linear path and an unavoidable middle zone, that you have to get through in order to gain the advantage.

The worst cases being to me: Arowana Mall, Moray Towers and Camp Triggerfish.
Once you have "The End"/"Sniper Wolf" in place and there is no "Snake" to counter those godly Sniper-Skills, you win!

I'd honestly add Saltspray Rig there. Either you capture the top area or you might as well call it a loss, and it's pretty hard to assault that area once someone claims it since there's only one entrance with little to no cover for the attackers (unless you're using an extremely long-range weapon, and even then you still have to cross that no man's land eventually)

 

[Paragon-Yoshi]

Actually, you can win on Saltspray Rig, even without holding the top.
Tho you will need to go out of your way a little, by painting as much of the other ground as possible.

Especially that platform at the bottom will be essential, if you want to outweight the worth of the top one.
But if you hold that and all the pathways, maybe squeezing in that small upper areas, that are easily overlooked, you can win this.

I honestly think Saltspray Rig is one of the best maps, that allow plenty of freedom.
True, it gets limited, once you get to the top platform.
But again, you don't have to hold it, to win.

 

[LMG]

Actually, you can win on Saltspray Rig, even without holding the top.
Tho you will need to go out of your way a little, by painting as much of the other ground as possible.

Especially that platform at the bottom will be essential, if you want to outweight the worth of the top one.
But if you hold that and all the pathways, maybe squeezing in that small upper areas, that are easily overlooked, you can win this.

I honestly think Saltspray Rig is one of the best maps, that allow plenty of freedom.
True, it gets limited, once you get to the top platform.
But again, you don't have to hold it, to win.

Unfortunately it's very rare to see that strategy win against most teams, unless they completely neglect the map and constantly super jump to the top, which I've actually seen happen in the past. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad if the top was a bit easier to assault, or the rest of the map had a bit more turf to compensate

 

[staindgrey]

The change in the general playstyle is a direct result of a few things that aren't really in Nintendo's control:

1) People have played the game for awhile and have become more accustomed to it. Naturally, splatting enemies becomes easier the more you learn about the map layouts, weapon types and other players' usual tendencies.

2) Weapons and gear have gotten better, and people have had time to purchase them. What used to be a fairly standard and predictable buffet of skills and weapons has evolved to a much wider array of choices and customizations. It's easier to splat someone with a .52 Gal Deco and thrice rerolled gear than it was with a Splattershot junior and a basic tee.

3) People naturally prefer to win, and splatting the other team offers a better chance at winning than, you know, not doing that. It's the same reason why a friendly pickup basketball game can suddenly end with somebody getting way too into it and ruin it for everyone else. Aggressiveness is the natural byproduct of competition, and Turf Wars is still a competition.

4) Lastly, since a loss in any Ranked battle will hurt one's rank, people feel less inclined to try out new weapons or gear combinations in Ranked. So they try them out in Turf Wars, where you still get points, win or lose, and your rank remains unchanged. Those are the people you see who aren't even really paying attention to the map; they're just testing their new stuff.

The meta is evolving. It's natural. Nintendo could theoretically provide an update that curbs this change, but they'd risk potentially hurting the game if they curb it too harshly. Still, I understand and empathize with the point the OP is trying to make.

 

[Dish]

I feel like since there's no record of your play style at all (KD, overall turf inkd) people just play turf war to warm up for ranked. It is just a regular battle after all. I may just speak for myself as of right now I am a A+ 70 charger main and I always warm up my aim in turf war before even thinking about starting rank battles.

 

[dapperlace]

I feel like since there's no record of your play style at all (KD, overall turf inkd) people just play turf war to warm up for ranked. It is just a regular battle after all. I may just speak for myself as of right now I am a A+ 70 charger main and I always warm up my aim in turf war before even thinking about starting rank battles.

Hah, yeah. I've been ranking ability slots so I haven't gone into ranked in quite a while, but I don't dream of going into Ranked without doing a few Turf War matches first. Static dummies in the weapons testing area just aren't enough.

 

[Misery]

I can kinda agree with the idea here.

I understand the point of getting kills in this mode. It's necessary in many ways.

That being said, people are going WAY overboard with it.

I had a match just now, for instance... and it's not the only one that's gone this way today.... where I was using a Splatterscope (why am I doing this?), and about halfway through the match.... I noticed just HOW MUCH area in our half of the level WASNT covered. Guess who got to cover almost all of it? Yeah. WITH A CHARGER. But nobody else would do it! I was the only one who bothered! If I had not done this, we WOULD have lost. As it is, I looked at the map, and the enemy area was similar.... but nobody bothered to fix it.

Again: WITH A CHARGER. A scoped freaking charger. .....CHARGER. I'm sorry, I cant get over that part. I've gotten used to playing a "janitor" role in this mode, sure. But that's with other weapon types. Even the slow-as-hell Splatling gun can do a decent job of "fixing" areas that are messed up. But to me, that shouldnt be it's purpose; I mostly use it to defend and hold areas that strike me as being important for whatever reason. That's how I see it as most effective. The players that are running around with Aerosprays or those accursed rollers should be handling much of the actual "fill in the blanks" stuff.

I mean, really, it absolutely gets on my nerves. I'm having a good run here with this damn gun that I should, theoretically, be fantastically terrible at (there is no logic in this place). And have had some good wins today overall. But it STILL just gets me all angered. Granted, LOTS of things get me into an irritated state, but still. JUST getting kills is not the point of the damn mode!

Just..... ugh. Sorry, needed to vent about that a bit.

 

[LMG]

I had a match just now, for instance... and it's not the only one that's gone this way today.... where I was using a Splatterscope (why am I doing this?), and about halfway through the match.... I noticed just HOW MUCH area in our half of the level WASNT covered. Guess who got to cover almost all of it? Yeah. WITH A CHARGER. But nobody else would do it! I was the only one who bothered! If I had not done this, we WOULD have lost. As it is, I looked at the map, and the enemy area was similar.... but nobody bothered to fix it.

You can blame tunel-vision for that one. At the start of the match most players rush towards the middle to either make an early incursion into the enemy's base or prevent them from doing so (my case, unless my team has more rushers than theirs; a good early rusher can "spawntrap" the other team quite effectively). Once they get splatted, they're very likely to super jump to whoever's closer to the front lines to get back into action and keep the enemy from pushing forward (not necessarily looking for splats, but one things leads to the other), often forgetting about the rest of the map. This is more common on long, corridor-like maps like Arowana Mall

 

[Misery]

You can blame tunel-vision for that one. At the start of the match most players rush towards the middle to either make an early incursion into the enemy's base or prevent them from doing so (my case, unless my team has more rushers than theirs; a good early rusher can "spawntrap" the other team quite effectively). Once they get splatted, they're very likely to super jump to whoever's closer to the front lines to get back into action and keep the enemy from pushing forward (not necessarily looking for splats, but one things leads to the other), often forgetting about the rest of the map. This is more common on long, corridor-like maps like Arowana Mall

Yeah, Arowana was exactly where it happened. More than once.

Just goes to show, superjumping is NOT always the best option. But alot of players seem to do it every time anyway. I wish more players would analyze the map a bit before doing it, at least.

It was also happening in Port Mackerel, but not quite as severely.

 

[LMG]

Yeah, Arowana was exactly where it happened. More than once.

Just goes to show, superjumping is NOT always the best option. But alot of players seem to do it every time anyway. I wish more players would analyze the map a bit before doing it, at least.

It was also happening in Port Mackerel, but not quite as severely.

I'd say that Port Mackerel is the map where defending early rushes matters the most. The map suffers from the same problems as the old Urchin Underpass: interesting engagements in the middle area, but poor defensive capabilities once you're pushed out of there

 

[CrazyDude]

Best example: It's Tower Control , Bluefin Depot. My teammates are focusing opponents to kill them...sounds good cause it's the way to protect your teammate who stays on the tower. But: Meanwhile the opponent stays on the tower and is on the way to our base without any problem...

 

[Drez]

I do both. Also, enemies will look to kill you as well, so kill them before they can do the same to you, then ink turf. I used to just focus on inking turf, but eventually the map was overwhelmed by enemy ink, so being passive did not help.

If I use a gun and you use a roller, me shooting to kill helps you place more paint down. Remember this is a team game.

 

[N-Strike]

So you think with people levelling up and becoming pro they would focus more on getting turf right? Nope. They still want to hunt people down and kill them. It's gotten very hard to get points because of this. Everyone just wants to be a hero and get splatted. I mean c'mon. I know aggressive play helps to win, but try being more strategic.

imo kills are very key factors when playing in ranked. However for turf war you are 110% correct. turf>kills