What If Kits Were Changed Midway Instead Of Stagnating?

[🌌☾ᏉᎬᎶᎪ☽⭐]

Hello. I've been thinking of something lately.

Oh boy time to open up third kit discussion again. It's been 9 months and I hope you are aren't done with milking this already dead cow dry. (I'm still on copium though please give me my Permanent Inkbrush back ;w;)

So, we all want these, 'least I hope you do. Would be a net positive for the game and frankly I don't see why not. Splatoon 3 might have more weapons to choose from than Splatoon 2 but everything only having 2 kits makes it feel like you have zero options sometimes. Well, here's a hypothetical to ponder on. The man, the myth, the legend Nogami, finally figured out the password to the Splatoon 3 source code, and he's decided he wants to bring us new weapons. However, instead of a brand new kit entirely, he's decided to take an already pre-existing kit, and smite it, making space for a new kit. That old kit is gone forever. Could be better, could be worse. Point is, new content.

Should this have been a staple in Splatoon? If something doesn't work out, why not change a component or both and see how that works out instead? On paper this sounds really good but then you'd have to take into consideration the playerbase. Say you have the Heavy Splatling Deco. It's a callback to its own kit in Splatoon 1, and throughout all the time in Splatoon 3, you realize this was a bad decision, so you decide to exchange it for a new kit. Let's go perfect like Splash Wall, Booyah Bomb, or Trizooka for this. This is a 3rd kit in the sense that it was the third design choice added, however you still only have two weapons. In addition to this, there might've been players that actually enjoyed using Point Sensor or Kraken on it. Kraken is certainly lackluster but it does have its moments, even if sluggish. Would this have been the right call? Would that sacrifice for the 10 or so players that liked the kit be worth it? Only lord Nogami knows in that moment, for he alone is the honored .52 Gal main.

So many kits you know are terrible, be it Neo Sploosh, Vanilla Nova, Neo Splash (even though it's a good kit but it's basically a repeat so it goes here), Undercover Brella, Recycled Brella, REEF-LUX 450 Deco, Wiper Deco, Big Swig; all of those weapons could be changed and call it a day for 3rd kits, but to what extent do you stop changing kits? When does the kit changing get to the point where it becomes a new game entirely? What if you decided you wanted to take Snipewriter and give it Ink Vac instead of Tacticooler instead? What if something already bad got worse, like Hydra going from Autobomb Booyah Bomb to Curling Bomb Zipcaster? Who's to say?

So, I'll let you people become Nogami under this predicament. This is what I've been thinking about tonight and I'd like y'all over there to ponder this as well. If instead of 3rd kits, you decided to smite an existing kit and replace one or both aspects of it, which kit gets the axe, and will you be satisfied with that sacrifice in making a new kit come to life at the expense of an existing fanbase? Only you may know.

 

[QuagSass]

So I love Screen on Hydra. It's great, it's fun, it has unique synergy with the weapon.

But I would also really like to play it in tournament sometimes!

You've no idea how much it hurts to have waited 2 years for a second kit only for said kit to immeaditely get soft-banned.
More than anything I want to be able to pick between two Hydra kits.
More than anything I want to look at a map and think "Ink Mines would be really good here" and not feel a stab in my heart.

Just remove Screen from the game and give all Screen weapons Chumpies instead. No Screen weapon left behind. I stand with my fellow Splattercolour Screen victims

 

[Vidknight]

Cutting stuff from the game will always result in some people not being too happy it's unavoidable. When you have a large playerbase satisfying everyone is a impossible task that nobody can accomplish (Which is why I don't understand why people complain when everyone in a large community don't agree on one thing).

With that being said you still can cut stuff it just depends on how many people will miss that thing. For example ink armor I know that somewhere out there, there is a group of people who loves ink armor, but the people who dislike it more is exponentially higher so it was cut. That is a good example of cutting something, the vast majority of the playerbase hated ink armor compared to the ones who like it that cutting it was ultimately a good idea.

The same can be said for weapon kits. If this were to happen, first off Nogami? please give dapples any other special that's is not slider!

Second off I would perfer to do it to weapons with a kit that isn't all to like. One of weapons that I think absolutely should qualify, and you already mentioned Neo Splash. It's way to similar to Ttek, it's support playstyle compared to Vanilla splash support playstyle is way less interesting, and lastly it's isn't all to fun to fight against since it will be vomiting paint all over the map, and not fighting you. As for what I replace it with, Tenta Missiles Zipcaster. Zip, Splash is such a synergistic, and fun combo that I'm still wondering why it was cut in the final release.

 

[OnePotWonder]

In my opinion, this is a "yes, but..."

The main reason a lot of kits aren't good is due to their subs and specials being unbalanced and weak. Every weapon with Angle Shooter would prefer Burst Bomb, every weapon with Toxic Mist would prefer Suction Bomb, every weapon with Ink Vac would prefer Crab Tank, every weapon with Super Chump would prefer Triple Inkstrike, and so on and so forth.

I think that some kits could stand to be replaced, but only after kit balance is fixed. Otherwise potentially good kits could be scrapped when it would be entirely possible for them to be saved, like Custom Hydra with a functional Splattercolor Screen or Recycled Brella Mk I with Angle Shooter trail damage.

Assuming kit parts were correctly balanced, I think it would stand to reason to replace a few redundant kits and zero synergy kit parts. Sploosh Neo is outclassed by Octobrush Nouveau, Splash Neo is a more passive version of T'tek, Angle Shooter is worthless on Slosher Deco unless they give it 30+ trail damage (which they won't), and Kraken Royale is not and will never be good on Heavy Deco. It would not be difficult to replace these kits and parts with others that the few who play them would find even more enjoyable.