Weapon concepts that haven't been done

DzNutsKong

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Hey!

Splatoon 3 has a lot of weapons. Like, A LOT. It's starting to get to the point where quite a few of Splatoon 3's new ideas have felt like they're treading on older ideas, with prime examples being Painbrush compared to Dynamo Roller and Snipewriter compared to the Bamboozler. Even still it feels like there are a lot of things that the developers have not tried for one reason or another. There's not a thread for this yet to my knowledge, so why not change that?

There will probably be more from me later, but I'll start this thread out with an idea I mentioned somewhere else on this forum a long time ago: a non-Shooter weapon with more strengths than usual balanced by a weakness of low accuracy. Starting this thread out with a spicier one that most people won't like, but hear me out on this. In games where RNG is a bigger factor than this one, a lot of what makes a good player is defined by risk management. You could absolutely throw yourself into a situation guns a-blazing and hope that whatever you're planning works out but you're going to have plenty of games where you crash and burn if you play like this. The best players prepare for everything to go wrong with RNG and play in such a way that either minimizes the chance RNG screws you over or minimizes the impact bad RNG will have on you. It takes a very unique skillset that you don't really see get utilized in this game.

Splatoon 3 has already tried this with some Shooters but I don't think most of them handle it super well. The .96 Gal is genuinely an awesome weapon, but everything else that has bad RNG only serves to push the weapon into a more paint-heavy playstyle that avoids fighting at all costs...except for the .52 Gal, which is an overtuned mess that doesn't even have that bad of RNG for how much of a point against the weapon it is. If you want something that meets this concept then you basically only have the .96 Gal. There are technically other weapons with shot accuracy issues, but it's limited to only Blasters and Dualies and only in the air, which gives an easy way to avoid this of "just stay grounded / run Intensify Action lmao." Those are more meant to discourage jumping shots with those weapons than to actually play into what I'm talking about here.

And what if you don't like Shooters, or something else about .96? Imagine if they could make one a bit stronger by virtue of not having a Splash Wall on any of its kits? What if they made it an AoE weapon like a Blaster or Slosher? Again, this specifically is grounded accuracy too so Range Blaster having bad accuracy only if it jumps doesn't count for this. I think those last two in particular are great for usually not having the best paint output which I'd hope this weapon would have as well to naturally deter it from being a paintbot.

Otherwise, this would need to have midline range at the absolute minimum. There would be no way for this weapon to outcompete a Carbon Roller or a .52 Gal unless it were somehow even stronger than those at their respective range values which is not ideal. Beyond that there's a lot of room to work with what weapon class or whatever else. It's not too farfetched to imagine giving exactly one weapon in a class shot RNG when there are so many other weapons within classes that have their own unique mechanics too.

Either way, what's a weapon you'd want to see that you don't think this game has covered already? Anything more specific or simpler and more broad?
 

Mx_Diva

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I could see a Stringer like weapon that works more like a crossbow. Like how the Decavitators got with the Splatana class.
Also I thought about a wand that could be charged up to launch a ball of ink... (Still don't know how practical this would be)
 

solz

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Rng Sniper: A sniper that has a chance to miss if you don’t aim properly (has a square hit box) with 5 places for the reticule to hit middle if standing still and the other 4 are corners that it will switch to while moving if you are moving a lot basically a sniper that’s annoying to use it does 170 damage and charges as fast as a normal charger

Snapped shotgun-Brella: a Brella that has a shield the size of the splat brella but has a hole in the top right and bottom left that can leak shots. It can has 15 projectiles and if 10 or more hit it will be a kill (each pellet does 10-12 damage) it is tap shot meaning it can’t continually fire but the shield will not launch. It takes 4 seconds to regen the brella. Fires at the rate of explosher.

(Disclaimer: don't get mad this is supposted to be funny trust)
 

OnePotWonder

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I don't really have any ideas for brand new, unique main weapon concepts, but I feel as though there's plenty of space between the options in existing classes to slot in new weapons, and some of the unique existing weapons can be built off of with variants in similar style to the Rapid / Rapid Pro dynamic.
The main ideas I have in this regard are as follows:

A "Flingza Roller Pro" with faster vertical flicks that output less paint, and slower horizontal flicks with more range and paint.
A "Snipewriter Pro" with only three shots on a full charge and less range, but faster charge time and slightly higher damage.
An "Explosher Pro" with less range and damage but faster slosh rate (perhaps pulling a Recycled by having Machine's old slosh rate).
A splatling similar to Ballpoint with no mid-fire charge, instead having its fire rate and accuracy dependent on its level of charge.
A dualie with Splat Dualies' fire rate, Tetra Dualies' range, and Dualie Squelchers' dodge roll slides and unenhanced turret mode.
A low-damage brella that can fire while its shield is open, but with a durable shield that launches forward after firing three shots.
A long-range brella with a large, slow, durable shield that cannot be launched. This one is more original but fills a similar role to Tent.
 

Anami00u

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For new weapon concepts I personally just want to see a stringer with a charge hold and popsicles, a fast fire rate brella focused on paint, and a brella that can serve as a backline.
 

technobyte

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I thought of an interesting charger concept. Charging and firing it still produces a line of ink and deals damage, but its shot leaves a lingering, damaging trail along the path it traveled. It works something like a killer wail 5.1 beam, just without the ability to travel through terrain or track enemies. The longer you charge, the longer the trail lasts. Essentially, enemies that stand in the line take chip damage, so this could introduce a somewhat unique form of area denial and support. The initial shot could also pierce enemies before leaving its lingering trail, allowing you to potentially trap multiple enemies. Enemies likely won't remain in the trail for too long, and the trail damage on its own won't be enough to splat an enemy. However, there are still benefits such as preventing the enemy from healing, revealing their location from the hit SFX and VFX, and being able to control their movements.

The more I thought about this, the more I began to slip into technical details, so I'll just dump my stream of thought in this spoiler.

For starters, let's give this charger a charge time of 80 frames and 50 damage for landing a fully charged shot. This would practically be a three-shot for a charger, but remember that the trail can pierce and damage enemies and some objects. Assuming a fully charged trail would last, say, 60 frames, it could deal 1.2 damage per frame for up to 72 damage from the trail alone if the enemy stays in it the full duration. This means that, if the enemy isn't able to move out of the trail in time, it can splat them in only one shot. Mobile opponents certainly have an easier time dealing with this as they can just move perpendicularly to the shots to avoid sustaining too much damage. Even so, the charger can still leave behind a trail of ink, potentially trapping foes, and it would likely have a strong influence over how its opponents move, making it difficult to avoid sustaining damage in an engagement with it, especially at long range. Speaking of range, this weapon could reach around the same distance as a splatterscope, maybe a bit less. I don't want to give it too much range for fear of oppressing backlines with poor mobility, but I want to give it just enough for it to work with its trail and keep more agile opponents at a distance. Maybe it would also get a two-ring charge mechanic like goo tuber, and charging to the first ring generates the shortest trail (maybe 30 frames) and gives the 50 damage shot at the cost of range, while the second ring has the longer trail and max range. There's probably a lot more I could go into, but I already feel like I've invested too much time in this lol. Also I'm no Splatoon dev, so this balancing may be overtuned or undertuned in some areas. If anyone who's interested in this idea has any other balance ideas or changes they'd make I'd love to hear them!

I'll dub this the Sonar Charger since I already made a comparison to killer wail 5.1 earlier, which potentially defeats the point of the post... but it's never been done in a main weapon so it still counts right? Also, I'm sure this could look pretty awesome visually (a microphone and mic stand, maybe?) Anyway, thanks for reading!
 

OnePotWonder

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There is actually one main weapon concept I really want to see now that splatanas have opened the door to bladed weapons, that being a blade-and-chain type weapon (which could very easily use the aesthetic of ship anchors). Being able to swing an object in a wide arc and have it deal damage the whole way would be ridiculously Interesting to play around, and landing hits with the recall potion of the arc would be indescribably satisfying. They could also give it an overhead swing attack when jumping, letting it kind of attack in a straight line (and be able to paint one, more importantly).
 

QuagSass

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Making new weapons is tricky, because on top of figuring out a cool new gimmicktm, you also gotta make sure the new weapon doesn't step on too many toes (preferably none at all, but it can't always be done).

I was worried the Heavy Edit Splatling was gonna step on the Heavy Splatling's toes when the Drizzle season trailer first came out. The gimmick of the Edit wasn't clear at all and the trailer made it look like it had equal or slightly more range than Dynamo vertical swing. Glad that didn't happen, but it did kinda highlight the problem with making a new Splatling specifically.
There's a Splatling for basically every single range value. All that's left for the class are charge-based gimmicks, but even that well seems to have dried. Case in point: Edit's gimmick is just Hydra's revisited.

Not that I haven't tried making a new Splatling concept. Some of you might remember the sewing machine Splatling I drew up a while ago. Different bullet types depending on charge level is something that could potentially be explored with Splatlings. In my original concept, the Splatling's first bullet would always be an exploding shot with an arc, similar to Explosher's. It would have a recharge mechanic like Naut and BP to let the player interrupt their regular fire with an AOE shot whenever.
But again we come back to the problem of stepping on some toes. If you can have Explo shots while being mobile like a Splatling and also have the Splatling's normal bullet stream, why would you pick Explo over the Splatling? My solution was to make this Splatling short-ranged. Somewhere between Mini and Edit. But that doesn't really fix the issue, because now you're stepping on Mini's and Edit's toes. Edit and Mini aren't that different in range, and having comparable range to them while also having access to AOE? This thing would basically kill it's spinner siblings unless it was severely weakened.

I'd be perfectly fine with the devs not touching the class ever again tbh. Splatlings are a perfectly rounded class that has a gun for basically every role. And unlike Shooters, each Splatling feels unique within the class. Honestly I would've even been fine with them never making Edit and just leaving the class as is for S3. Of course I'm glad they didn't, Edit is great. But I think it speaks to how good of a spot the class is in that I wasn't begging for a new gun.

But I'm not here to just talk about Splatlings!

A class that I really wanna see get some cool new gimmick is the Stringers. Easily my favorite backline class besides the Splatlings, maybe even my second favorite class overall?(RIP Brushes)
Though I guess it isn't exactly right to call it a backline class? It's just the Tri-Stringer that's a backline. I guess anchor class would be more accurate.
Still! I want more Stringers!
We've had a Stringer with 3 arrows, one with non-explosive arrows and one with 5 arrows. Clearly the next step is to make a Stringer with 1 explosive arrow and 2 non-explosive arrows! Or the other way around, you could fiddle with that I think.

Another option would be to change the properties of the explosive arrows instead. What if, instead of exploding once after a short amount of time like a Splat Bomb. It exploded multiple times like a Fizzy Bomb? Obviously it'd have to weaker than the actual Fizzy, and maybe only explode twice instead of three times with smaller explosions. But I think it could be a fun chip damage weapon. And unlike the Wellstring, it'd have less arrows and thus wont be able to spread the damage in as wide an area.

You could even mix this with my first idea and only give it one exploding Fizzy arrow. And by giving it only one arrow, you'd also avoid messing with Explo. Explo's AOE radius would be wider while this Stringer's is longer and more delayed. The Stringer needing to charge also helps balance that, giving Explo more immeadiate, fast AOE.
 

isaac4

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I've been wanting to make a separate thread for a new slosher main weapon concept once I had it fleshed out but I think my full thread idea is too ambitious so I'll just share it here for now.

My current concept is a short ranged bucket that has a slow but wide attack, similar to a horizontal from Dynamo but not as slow and would not directly one-shot either.
The wider slosh would make it so that it can paint around itself better but lack of range would hold it back from getting similar paint output to Dread.
Minimum damage from falloff would turn this weapon from a 2 slosh kill into 3 sloshes. Despite being slower than Tri, I'm giving it this weakness to help balance out the other new aspect of this weapon that I want to add.
I want to give the main weapon a separate hitbox when being lifted right before the slosh comes out that would let it potentially one-shot. It wouldn't be a direct like Stamper but rather a separate 20 dmg hitbox that could combo with the maximum dmg from one slosh, which would be 80.
The 80 dmg would only be around the center though while the sides would instead deal 55 or potentially less (this is a rough concept so I'm still not sure).
I'm not expecting this to be an issue considering that you have to be directly next to your opponent anyway and more mobile weapons could probably avoid the center hitbox after getting hit with the 20 dmg.
I also want to clarify that the fire rate would be on par with Machine making it less reliable as a slayer but the wider hitbox, better paint output, and higher max damage would help justify using it on certain maps over Tri-Slosher (not thinking about S3 kits).

Moving away from the technical aspects of the main weapon, the design would take inspiration from this (I don't think I can say the official name here).
20230422103457_45208.jpg


That's all I have for now.
This is a messy and rough idea of what I would actually want but I've had a hard time trying to figure out how this weapon should work.
Hopefully typing all of this will help give me a better idea on what should be cut and what should stay.
 

Smash Arena

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I could see a Roller where doing a horizontal flick sends you lunging forward for a crush Splat, similar to the Splatana class's lunge attack. As for the vertical flick, could also send you lunging forward but for a much longer distance.
 

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