Topic: Splatoon!! WELCOME - TO DYE!

[Soren]

The Depot stage from the single player has been added to the rotation as well. It's a pretty fun stage to play.

[ShyGuy]

I made the dumb mistake of turning into a squid and heading straight out on the depot then dropping through the grate into the water.

[broodwars]

Put some more time into the game and got my character up to Level 15, largely through Splat Zone. The more I play of Splat Zone, though, the more incredibly flawed that mode seems from a design perspective. In probably 3/4 of the matches I played, the team that took the zone first won, and they usually won in the first 30 seconds or so of the match. Occasionally I'd see the other team take the zone and manage to keep it, but usually the first team to the zone wins it all fairly quickly. There isn't any sort of comeback mechanic (except maybe the Inkstrike, but usually the other team just Inkstrikes the zone back) like you see in most multiplayer shooters to keep the match interesting. It wouldn't bother me so much if Splat Zones wasn't a winner-takes-all situation: you either win and get a massive amount of XP & money...or you lose and not only get nothing, but get a rank penalty as well regardless of how well you played. I've only ever seen a match that gave SOME XP to the losing team once, and that was on a close match where it came down to literally the last second.

Hell, Splat Zones' issues wouldn't even bother me so much if it didn't take an eternity to level-up from about Level 8 or so onward. Turf War is easily the more fun mode, but if you want to reach the higher unlocks anytime this year you have to play Splat Zones.

[Enner]

The Splat Zones maps that separate the capture points in to two do somewhat alleviate some of the seeming flaws of Splat Zones. I must have been lucky or unlucky to have seem my fair share of back-and-forth Splat Zones matches. As for a comeback mechanics, I'm hard-pressed to think of any shooter mode that has such things. The shooters I have experience with do nothing for a losing team if a winning one is dominant.

From my observances, Splat Zones demand a certain aggression, speed, and precision that you see in dominant players of a Turf War. It's not a pretty sight if one team in Splat Zones are clearly better shots as splatting opponents is far more important in Splat Zones (though, it is very important in Turf War). Splat Zones aren't helped by the lack of voice chat or pre-game strategy building that could help against an opposing team with accurate splatters.

As for the leveling, it is a long road in the last levels to 20. In honesty, I'm okay with this as hitting level caps are usually a bit of a grind. I don't find much issue with the points disparity between Turf War and Splat Zones (which, ballpark, is usually 3 times as much between the two) unless you are really frustrated that the Gold Dynamo Roller is so out of reach.

[Evan_B]

Not all of the best weapons are hiding at the end of the level cap, but I also maxed out my levels by the end of one week, so again, I don't understand where all the trouble with Splat Zones is. I used it to grind levels because I usually won matches, and I use Turf Wars to grind equipment, which is much more helpful because of its steady EXP returns.

Dare I say, some people need to "get good"...?

In other news, Splatoon has been data mined and there are two more maps and 33(!!!) more weapons.

[azeke]

[ShyGuy]

whoa, mind blown. This is the stacked function depth that I love.

[Evan_B]

Yeah, I've used it before myself, though not as extensively as they do in the vid.

[ShyGuy]

Congratulations to Splatoon for hitting the 1million mark. On the Nintendo64, it would be a Player's Choice Million Seller!

http://gonintendo.com/stories/236859-splatoon-sells-1-million-copies-worldwide

[BranDonk Kong]

I'm surprised by that. I plan on picking it up, just haven't yet.

[Fatty The Hutt]

Can I just say that I like this game? It is surprisingly deep for a game where you basically do the same thing over and over. But, you can do that same thing in different ways each time.
I like messing around with different weapons, even changing them up based on the style of play I want to go for. And I like swapping combos of clothes/accessories to see how they affect gameplay. I've barely scratched single player. Looking forward to it, eventually.
That said, it is not a game I play for hours at a time. Doses of anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour seem to hit the right spot for me.

The only disappointment is I have yet to be able to jump into a friends game. I check every time but no one else ever seems to be playing at the same time as me. What are all you people doing if not playing Splatoon?

[Soren]

June 30 Patch Notes. Kraken, Ninja Squid and Stealth Jump gettin' nerfed...

Splatfest:
- When there are more members on one team than the other and the match-making process takes too long, members from the same team will be able to battle each other
- Members will still receive Splatfest Points even when they battle against members of the same team
Note: Only the results from matches against the opposing team will be included in the overall Splatfest results
- Adjustments have been made to allow some players at random to participate as early as 5 minutes prior to the official start time of Splatfest in order to make for a more pleasant gaming experience
(Note: All players will be able to participate once the event begins)
- This adjustment was made to lighten the server load at the beginning of the Splatfest
- Adjustments have been made to the number of Super Sea Snails distributed to members of the losing team that have earned either of the top two Splatfest rank titles

Special Weapon Adjustments:
- Inkstrike: The amount of area covered will be more consistent regardless of where it lands
- Kraken: The amount of knockback is increased when taking damage from an opponent while using Kraken

Ability Adjustments:
- Ninja Squid: Swim speed will be lowered when using this ability
- Stealth Jump: The amount of time it takes to Super Jump will be longer when using this ability
- Ink Resistance Up: The effects with respect to the amount of damage and speed when moving through enemy ink will be adjusted

Other:
Other adjustments will be made to make for a more pleasant gaming experience

[Evan_B]

Interesting about Kraken Knockback. I thought the move was a one-hit kill so Knockback wouldn't really matter.

Glad to hear the Ink Resistence buff though. As for the game itself, I find it's something I play for hours, though I guess that's not technically true since I've been getting an ungodly amount of disconnects lately, which is starting to become frustrating. While grinding gear (which is very often) I have a go-to set for spreading ink and gettin points that's usually what I use for Splat Fests, though it's less functional on certain maps so I do find myself switching between gear and weapons. Custom Blaster, N-Zap, and the Gal are my most frequently used, and I'm certain I will use Luna when I he the chance to buy it. I am not a fan of the other weapon types- I see their tactical use but I hate their lack of mobility. That being said, I have used the Inkbrush a lot and it's the only roller I feel proficient with, though it's close- range game is awful. I prefer weapons with precise, powerful range but I refuse to deal with charger times. Also, point sensors are a waste of a secondary.

That's all I got for now.

[Enner]

Interesting about Kraken Knockback. I thought the move was a one-hit kill so Knockback wouldn't really matter.

The knock back is from getting hit in the Kraken form. You can shoot a Kraken and push it back a little. The next patch will increase this push back.

[Evan_B]

So Moray Towers. That map looks pretty sweet, and very different from others. That was kind of what I was hoping for with the multiplayer maps. The verticality has been present in a number of stages but never to this extent. It's pretty exciting.

Tower control looks like it's going to require some definite strategy.

[Enner]

The patch is out. Looks like an Ink Brush can ward off a Kraken by swatting it away. Ink Resistance Up has been nerfed as you will move slower than before and probably incur more damage.

[Soren]

Want to play Tower Control? Too bad, you get Splat Zones and like it. Rotating game modes are bogus, specially when it's a 4 hour wait between modes.

[ShyGuy]

Tower mode is really really good too. I understand they want to keep the player base concentrated, but rotate them out every 30 minutes or so if they want to do that.

[azeke]

Tower mode is super fun.

It's extremely fast and chaotic -- all the action (i.e. inkling deaths) is concentrated around tower and the turnout is very high. Dying three-four times within a minute is a norm.

Did good with Luna Blaster and finally made it into B-.

Having pop/rock Splatfest in euro zone helped me immensely. Now i am only matched with european players and the lag is pretty much gone, while previously i could almost feel like i am moving through a jelly when matched with japanese and american players.

[Enner]

Splatfest is here! All the maps have their night lights on and it's all Turf War festival.

My first several matches were met with a number of connection errors. That got smoothed out later in my hour-or-so session. Also, nice to have a three map rotation. I will enjoy it while it lasts.

[NWR_insanolord]

Why the hell did they pick today, of all days? The one day in a wide stretch of time where the most people in this country are going to be away from their game consoles.

[broodwars]

Why the hell did they pick today, of all days? The one day in a wide stretch of time where the most people in this country are going to be away from their game consoles.

Since when did Nintendo care about what their North American players wanted? The only reason Splatfest was even delayed was because their Japanese players hit a bug.

[Soren]

Where you team cat players?

[Evan_B]

Yeah, so I played a bit of Splafest last night and I'm only sorta keen on it. The fact that the rank up system takes literal hours that some people may not have for a day like July 4th, combined with the immediate handicap of the stupid Splatfest Tee idea made starting out slow and made the extended rank up mechanics even more tedious. Nj
The three stage rotation was nice, but the stages themselves weren't my favorites.

I also found my normal strategy of .59 Gal Sprinkler completely useless against the onslaught of Blasters and Aerosprays. Anything with an Inkstrike seemed to be on display. So I promptly switched to an Aerospray myself and schooled some pretty annoying players.

Better stages, more considerate timing or leveling, and maybe tees with special traits would be nice but are likely not going to happen. So I'll probably skip out on Splatfests in the future. Also, I'm in the boat that thinks tower control being a ranked variation is fucking stupid añd possibly the worst decision Nintendo made with this game so far. I'm okay with the holding back content to increase the longevity of a community but roping off an entire mode for the slightly absurd rotation periods is not wise and it doesn't make me want to play ranked at obtuse times at all.

[broodwars]

I reached the final rank for my faction in Splatfest ("Dog King"), and yeah...would have REALLY liked having more than 3 stages today. Also reached Level 18, and I'm really finding these End Game weapons to not be worth buying. My Aerospray RG served me more than well enough for 7+ hours today, and nothing's really topped it.