What Patch/Update do you want to see to improve competitive Splatoon?

[Shirma Akayaku]

I'd change a few things, hopefully it won't be too drastic:

Matchmaking and stuff:
-Make it impossible for players to meet other players when the level gap reaches a certain threshold, ex. lvl 30 players have no business playing against lvl 1 players.
-As you people said, enable LAN and spectator modes
-Replacement bots if someone DC's. I'd imagine this would be very hard to implement since the Octoling AI isn't brilliant by any means, but it at least needs to give some benefit to the disadvantaged team. Esp. now that Splatfest had players who DC at the start of the match to skew the win rate to their favor.
-Be able to change gear while waiting inbetween matches. Additionally, add a function that allows you to save gear/weapon combinations and while waiting for the next round you'll be able to quickly switch between sets without having to quit back to menu.

Gear, Abilities and stuff:
-Ink Resist should be given partially by default, to make other shoe abilities more viable
-Make the Bomb Sniffer icons less intrusive/transparent
-Stealth Jump shouldn't debuff your jump speed
-Give Special Charge Up diminishing returns
-Increase effectiveness of Ink Saver Sub slightly, recovery-up overshadows it a tad
-Make Last-Ditch last through overtime, and MAYBE have it pre-emptively activate when a Ranked match is close to becoming a knockout
-Special Duration up should affect Killer Wail
-Bomb Range Up should also affect Sprinklers

Subs:
-Nerf Splash Wall by making it less tank-heavy
-Buff Seekers by making them faster with less ink cost. Right now they're too easy to dodge and provide no area of denial against skilled players.
-Buff Ink Mines by making it act like sprinklers, the mine stays put untill someone walks over it/the owner gets splatted/owner lays a new one.

Special:
-I'd honestly revamp Echolocator entirely but that'd be hard because Cold-Blooded is here to stay. The Echo/CB interaction feels like a mess to me and makes it allmost mandatory to get CB in ranked because it stops one special from being too good.
-Make Kraken last slightly longer.

Misc:
-Left D-Pad makes your Inkling dance in place(Like the Inklings at the Splatfest trucks)
-Right D-Pad makes your Inkling cry and fall over in defeat

I really like most of the stuff you said (I want nearly everything you said to happen), but there are a few quirks I wanna say...

I don't think having disconnected players be bots is a good idea. Unless they develop an AI good enough to maneuver around the maps and properly work, I don't see bots being a thing. However, what would be better is if when there are less players on one team, make them respawn faster (less players = faster respawn). Squad Battles does this already with 3 vs 4. I'd also add that under unique situations the game does some things (keep in mind that this only applies to random 4v4's):

. In Turf War, give the players with less teammates increased ink recovery and ink rate efficiency (i.e less ink used per shot / flick)
. In Splat Zones, lessen the penalty when the team with less players loses the Splat Zone(s)
. In Tower Control, make the Tower move faster when it's reclaimed by the team with less players
. In Rainmaker, have the shield protecting the Rainmaker take additional damage from the team with less players, so it breaks easier. Also, maybe increasing the swim and run speed for the player holding the rainmaker might make it easier for them to approach the goal

As for gear abilities...
---I think the Ink Resist thing makes sense, but I'd word it differently. I'd say that enemy ink should not affect the player so dramatically. Instead, reduce the effect it has on the players. (What I said is basically the same thing as you, but I just wanted to say it differently :p)
---I definitely agree with the Bomb Sniffer thing. I think it's a great ability, but the icons are so damn huge. Instead of making it transparent, I'd make it smaller and add a beeping noise so you get a better idea of how far away it is when you don't see the bomb itself on screen. Kinda like how Mario Kart has a beeping noise that gets louder when an item is getting closer to you (it'd work really well with the Seeker).
---I love Special Charge Up now that it has been fixed (always consistent), but it does need diminishing returns because it has been fixed. It overshadows Special Duration Up (which desperately needs to be buffed).
---Special Duration does affect the Killer Wail setup time, but that's really pointless since the amount of time you have already is good enough. If you mean to say that the duration of the attack should be affected by Special Duration Up, then I agree. The same goes for the Inkstrike's attack duration.


Other than all those things I said, I pretty much want almost everything you stated to happen.

 

[LockeExile]

If not public stats then at least public NNID OAuth.

With this we could gain access to individual players' stats and implement our own APIs and leaderboards.

NNID already uses OAuth and allows certain partners (NicoNico, for example) to use it.

 

[Ryuji]

I would change the damn button to press in order to use specials to something else.

 

[WydrA]

I would change the damn button to press in order to use specials to something else.

I think what you want to say is that mappable controls would indeed be nice. In that case I agree (even though I personally wouldn't use them). :p

 

[SquiddiamFancyson]

I'd like to see the rapid blaster receive a buff. Right now it's the only weapon in the game entirely outclassed in all modes. Inkbrush at the very least has a turf wars niche.

I also think something needs to be done about the splash wall because as it stands currently they are absurd. I think they should either have a health or time reduction because they control areas so well it's stupid and it allows bad players to win stand offs when they otherwise wouldn't.

Everything else I'm fine with. I'd appreciate a spectator mode but that's a given. I also think that the inkzooka changes were perfect and that it should no longer be complained about.

 

[Poyo]

If not public stats then at least public NNID OAuth.

With this we could gain access to individual players' stats and implement our own APIs and leaderboards.

As a web developer, this would be super rad. I'd be able to make things like Squidboards signature generators, map-rotation notifications, etc. etc.... Maybe, someday.

 

[curry time]

Off the top of my head:

– Spectator Mode
– Replays
– Splash Walls toned down somehow (less health, less duration, longer startup?). You can't outplay or prevent them in most situations, and they play to the .96 Deco's ranges just a little too well. Either that, or give the .96 Deco a new sub. Currently this combo threatens to stagnate the game's evolution. It's not a matter of Walls being the trademark of the current meta either; they've always been incredibly strong with the Deco, and it's only now that people are discovering it after they've moved on from previous metas. And that's not even taking into account multiple walls on the field, or a double wall strategy that almost no weapon can get through.
– Less incentive to stall on Rainmaker? It's currently my favorite gamemode outside of stalling, since you can't chain suicide jumps like you can on TC (another issue that may or may not need to be addressed, since there really isn't a reliable counter to it and it's relatively easy to set up) and because you can usually make a comeback at any time and at any position on the map. This is also something of a map-specific problem as well. As other threads illustrate, Mall has a nigh-unreachable spot on each base's upper terrace where players can stall with the RM. Saltspray has the anchor zone, etc.
– More map reworks.
– LAN support and improved netcode (I know, you can't just wave a magic wand and fix bad connections, but this game's projectile-centric combat makes laggy combat feel very lopsided).
– Tweak the TC tower's ability to absorb or block shots.

As much as I like this game, it has a lot of small niggling issues that prevent me from taking it seriously. These are some of the major ones that I feel, if addressed, would help improve its playability in the long run from both a casual and a competitive standpoint.

As a web developer, this would be super rad. I'd be able to make things like Squidboards signature generators, map-rotation notifications, etc. etc.... Maybe, someday.

^This

Player interconnectivity between the game itself and media outside of it is becoming increasingly important. Being able to share replays, and other small features like that, would help make the game feel much more alive.

- change 'boo yah' and 'come on' to 'play offense' and 'play defense'

Why not add those to left and right on the control pad?

 

[Green inker]

Ok Here's what I want
-replays
-spectator mode
-shrink the middle of urchin underpass
and thats it.

 

[TheN64]

Nerf a bunch of weapons, subs and specials. That is all.

 

[Poyo]

Nerf a bunch of weapons, subs and specials. That is all.

Buffs to bad weapons would be much better than nerfs to better ones.

The Splatoon dev team is not Sakurai, they know how to balance a game well. It's probably what will happen.