Undertow Rework soon

[isaac4]

This is going to sound like a joke but I'm actually going to miss old Undertow Spillway.
I've talked about this before in an old thread but back when I was newer to the game and could barely do well enough in S+ I really loved playing Undertow Zones. I stayed on the right side spamming Fizzy Bombs and pushing in whenever we could but there was usually a bunch of fights and specials all happening around the same time in the middle of the map. It felt really fun and chaotic going back and forth between who had control over the zones while trying to survive moving around the cruel and evil chokepoint.
For a long time, Undertow Zones was the map/mode with my best winrate so clearly I was very biased plus I played Machine so I had enough range to deal with anyone trying to pass through.
My opinion on the map has definitely lowered since then though and it's not my favorite zones map anymore but it was fun for a certain time and that's what I'll remember it for even if I currently want it GONE.
Going to be hoping that it gets to be a good stage now.

 

[DzNutsKong]

Huh. Weird map for them to choose to rework. I at the very least like it and never thought it was overly hated outside of mid being a bit cramped...but that's 90% of Splatoon 3 maps, so...


To be honest I don't really know how to feel about this one. For Mahi they needed to make a bunch of changes and to me they succeeded in making some modes much better. For Mincemeat they needed to fix exactly one central problem of the map being impossible to move around in and they completely failed, so the map feels practically the same to me even if it's technically better. This is a much more similar case to Mincemeat where if they just give people more options to push through or get around mid the map becomes amazing, but I don't have faith in the developers to do this if I'm being honest. That little blueprint definitely doesn't seem to be implying anything like that either.

Honestly what makes me happier is that we now know exactly when the patch notes will happen for as minor as those will probably be. Although, on closer inspection...

UNDERTOW POLE CONFIRMED LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[missingno]

Undertow RM is lowkey really good, so I hope they don't mess with that too much. Every other mode definitely needs hella changes.

I think the biggest problem with Undertow is that a large portion of the map goes virtually unused outside of RM. But I'm not sure what the fix for that is. I guess the TC path could detour over there more, but I don't know about SZ or CB.

 

[isaac4]

Huh. Weird map for them to choose to rework. I at the very least like it and never thought it was overly hated outside of mid being a bit cramped...but that's 90% of Splatoon 3 maps, so...


To be honest I don't really know how to feel about this one. For Mahi they needed to make a bunch of changes and to me they succeeded in making some modes much better. For Mincemeat they needed to fix exactly one central problem of the map being impossible to move around in and they completely failed, so the map feels practically the same to me even if it's technically better. This is a much more similar case to Mincemeat where if they just give people more options to push through or get around mid the map becomes amazing, but I don't have faith in the developers to do this if I'm being honest. That little blueprint definitely doesn't seem to be implying anything like that either.

Honestly what makes me happier is that we now know exactly when the patch notes will happen for as minor as those will probably be. Although, on closer inspection...

View attachment 11072

UNDERTOW POLE CONFIRMED LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

They add poles like they completely save bad maps, it's actually crazy lol.
I do think it's not the worst stage and could get significantly better with just a few changes but we saw how they did with Mincemeat so I'm not sure how they'll do.
Maybe they consider the negative aspects of the maps as part of their identity so that could be why they didn't give TC Mahi it's regular layout or why Mincemeat still continues to be a pain when trying to push past mid.

 

[youre_a_squib_now]

Maybe they consider the negative aspects of the maps as part of their identity so that could be why they didn't give TC Mahi it's regular layout or why Mincemeat still continues to be a pain when trying to push past mid.

I didn't think about this. What if Nintendo decided that... flank routes are bad? unfortunately this is something I can actually see then doing

 

[Grushi]

I'm honestly kind of an undertow fan, I like it in every mode, even zones because of how chaotic it can be, but I think it could be very good with a few changes!

From what I'm gathering spawn will get a left side extension to make drops on snipe better, I think they're adding another ramp to access the enemy plat similar to the tc layout, and the right side seems like it's going to be accessible to the enemies like in rm? Not sure about that last one, but it'd be weird if they reworked the terrain on the right side of your spawn but kept it unaccessible, especially because it's already fine

View attachment 11072

UNDERTOW POLE CONFIRMED LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Hear me out people I think this might be a jump that lets you get on the enemy snipe, kind of like mahi turf war, like it's so close to the snipes it literally looks like you could jump there. I hope it happens, snipe is really hard to contest as is imo and this is such a funny answer

ALSO. I think this map might also get a wider mid, the biggest problem it has is that mid is just very narrow, and considering mahi and mincemeat both became wider they might do the same thing for undertow, and we just can't see it on the image

I'm excited for it overall!
Dang it, they're reworking ANOTHER dumb*ss tent niche map?? grrrrr I like narrow corridors, s3 map design is peak idc

 

[isaac4]

Hear me out people I think this might be a jump that lets you get on the enemy snipe, kind of like mahi turf war, like it's so close to the snipes it literally looks like you could jump there. I hope it happens, snipe is really hard to contest as is imo and this is such a funny answer

I saw someone mention that it could be a way to connect both sides of the bridge. I don't think the devs will end up doing something that cool though but I would really like that.

 

[briank913]

But the real question is: where will the pole be?

 

[Vidknight]

Funny thing undertow might be my least played map next to mincemeat and Eeltail so I don't even remember the layout for this stage and had to boot up Splatoon 3 and go on recon just to understand what's going on.

with that out of the way I feel that this rework is going to be in the same boat as mincemeat as it better but still something I avoid when in rotation

Left side of spawn being extended is a good thing but considering that I play weapons that loved to sit under those ledge in the enemy spawn and hit over the wall it's going to be not so good for me.

It looks like the rainmaker path on right is getting a slight change I'm not really sure why since I thought it was pretty good but I don't play any comp so it might've been more of a problem in coordinated play.

last thing I found interesting is this

This look like another thing for rainmaker but I'm not sure what this change is maybe it being turned into an uninkable spot or is a slight plat extension I don't know

Again the map might be a bit better but I don't think my main problem with the map is going to be fixed which is how cramped mid is it might get slightly bigger but that's it. Still going to be a map I mostly avoid except for challenges

Wait... there's going to be a pole in mid? NVM best map in game I expect every tournament to run just this and wahoo world.

 

[ThestralZ]

WHY THIS AND NOT EELTAIL

 

[Catloafman]

I simply CANNOT wait for the pole

 

[isaac4]

I was checking the 2d map again and I don't know how many other people already noticed this (saw that at least one person did on Twitter) but why are there two small dotted lines on each side of the pole?

When they announced the Mincemeat rework, the pole on the 2d map was represented as one big red circle.

There is a line there but that's only pointing to some text above.

I'm probably hard coping right now but they gotta be adding something to cross both sides, right? I'm thinking an inkrail would be what they end up going with but they could do something else. Maybe it doesn't even mean that they're adding an extra option to cross and is instead just showing that it's now possible to jump to either side like @Grushi said.

 

[Lisku]

All i want. ALL I WANT NINTENDO is one big zone and inkable walls. is that too much to ask for

 

[Grushi]

I was checking the 2d map again and I don't know how many other people already noticed this (saw that at least one person did on Twitter) but why are there two small dotted lines on each side of the pole?

View attachment 11078

When they announced the Mincemeat rework, the pole on the 2d map was represented as one big red circle.

View attachment 11079

There is a line there but that's only pointing to some text above.

I'm probably hard coping right now but they gotta be adding something to cross both sides, right? I'm thinking an inkrail would be what they end up going with but they could do something else. Maybe it doesn't even mean that they're adding an extra option to cross and is instead just showing that it's now possible to jump to either side like @Grushi said.

I was thinking this might be a bit of cover maybe? Since the jump would be very exposed having a wall or a sign to block shots would be nice
But now that I think about it that would mess up the snipe sightlines pretty hard, so basically I don't know

 

[isaac4]

I was thinking this might be a bit of cover maybe? Since the jump would be very exposed having a wall or a sign to block shots would be nice
But now that I think about it that would mess up the snipe sightlines pretty hard, so basically I don't know

I thought of that too but I don't see how they could make that work with what we currently can see on the map.
It'll be very funny (and tragic) if those dotted lines don't end up meaning anything though lol.

 

[Rat L. Boy]

I think the square in the middle is either a raised platform like in turf mahi, or a small inkable wall like in the mincemeat rework. Either way, I think it would be really cool to be able to cross over the top, almost like some kinda pseudo flank above mid.

 

[chaotik0]

dont tell me theyre adding another pole…
i have some hope for this rework, because mahi was really close to being a playable stage, and it got the proper changes it needed (still not as good as the original though). it makes sense to be skeptical though, because undertow is already a good stage. it could use just a few changes to be even better, like i was always hoping they would add a route on this side of the map

some of the changes that it looks like they plan on adding do not seem to be ones i was particularly hoping for, but some seem good.

if they make this wall unpaintable i will cry


this part looks like a ramp but with extended cover in front of it. maybe they intend to make objectives like tc cb involve more of the map, like if they put the clam blitz baskets up that ramp that would make the mode a lot better actually

this looks like they are extending that part that is raised from the ground over to the edge of the map, which makes sense especially on tower control. that area is a bit hard to defend when the tower gets over there, but it is also just generally a good change, that area just felt like a death corner with nothing but a huge drop from spawn

i have actually seen a lot of cool ideas here on what the pole is, so i wont say much about it besides i hope it is a way to connect the two sides, or be a jump from the lower area to the top (maybe squid surging up and then squid rolling back off to the grates/platform)

i have no idea what they plan on doing with the rainmaker path in the back there, so i guess this is all of my thoughts. i just hope that they don’t make the stage worse, because it’s already pretty good. i am really upset they didn’t choose to fix any other stages like eeltail or brinewater, which are sometimes terrible to play on, or stages like umami ruins or barnacle and dime (i had to look up all splatoon 3 stages to get its name because i genuinely forgot it) which are so close to being really good stages.

also im on my phone right now, hopefully all the images dont look terrible on other screens

 

[Tribow]

All i want. ALL I WANT NINTENDO is one big zone and inkable walls. is that too much to ask for

The inkable walls is what I'm hoping for the most. Undertow would be so sick with inkable walls and there's so little to climb as of right now.
I was hoping for an offensive flank too, but based on the blueprints I don't think that's coming. Oof.

 

[youre_a_squib_now]

All i want. ALL I WANT NINTENDO is one big zone and inkable walls. is that too much to ask for

weird idea that's probably never going to happen: what if the areas stay the same, but they behaved like they are one zone? So if 70% of the total zone area is painted, it caps, and you can contest it by painting 50% of the total area (this would probably need to be changed back to 40% or maybe even 35%).
Actually, this could just be a game-wide change to every map with two zones. idk if I would like it personally since it kind of amplifies the problems I have with zones as a mode, but at least it would reduce stalling potential

 

[vitellary]

i like undertow a decent bit already so i'm excited, because i'm fairly confident there's no way the map gets worse, so i'm looking forward to seeing the map be even better than i already think it is. will be all around a good thing i think, even if there are other maps that could have used a rework significantly more