Topic: Splatoon 2

@Dev Isn't the whole 'fury' concept the very height of escapism? Imagining yourself in the form of some anthropomorphic animal alter-ego?

I mean, I've got no interest in the movement personally, but the hostility towards it appearing in Spla2oon's plaza took me aback. Given that anthropomorphic animals make up about one in three video game mascots (including the squid-kids in Splatoon itself), it seemed weird how allergic many gamers were to the concept of animals that look like humans (or vice-versa).

"But what about all the weird fetishy stuff that crops up in the furry communities!?". Well, yeah... what about it? Maybe I live in a particularly sheltered Inkopolis Square, but I never even saw the merest hint of innuendo across all the inexplicable dogs, cats and wolves that were cropping up in my plaza. I didn't particularly like that there were a bunch of random fluffy characters appearing in my game, but it didn't feel like anything really worth rallying against either. People were just being weird. As they often are.

Or maybe you weren't referring to furries in the statement about escapism anyway.

Still, I get the concern about the walls between things growing ever thinner, meaning the same battles end up appearing repeatedly and growing more divisive and polarised with every incarnation. It's nice to have places where the endless shouting match of the internet dies away and we can simply enjoy the activity in question, but arguably an online multiplayer game isn't the place for that to happen. Equally arguably however, is that online games are important precisely because they can give us a common spaces to come together and do something new - without all the baggage the rest of the Internet burdens us with - so I don't know.

I'm not sure what the best approach to addressing the problem of off-topicness is, but I'm fairly sure it's not star ting a 'war' against whatever theme has taken over. I'm losing count of the number of people in (semi) real life who I've only heard of because they gained notoriety after a bunch of people tried to 'no platform' them. There's a very obvious irony to retweeting another person's comment with the addition of, "these people shouldn't be given a voice" when every retweet only amplifies the voice in question.

It's said that all that's needed for evil (or furries) to flourish is for good people (or people who don't like furries) to stand by. There's probably some truth in that, but it's similarly true that all that's needed for a man shouting at a bucket to become a messiah is for the world to stop and point, and spread news of his antics to the far reaches of the Earth. Had he been left alone with his bucket, he would have lived and died as a shouty man with a bucket for an audience. (Also, I don't think furries are evil)

Anyway, that's convoluted and silly and massively off-tangent (which is ironic given what the post is about). I suppose all I'm trying to say is that of the three options available when confronted with irritating (but not objectionable) content; posting responses trying to shut people up is probably the most counter-productive; ignoring the posts and writing the sort of comments you'd like to see instead is probably the most effective at steering things on-topic (if only a drop in the ocean); and just turning off the whole posting system entirely is the most outright effective at stopping you from suffering from it.

I also wish things were a bit more on-topic around the plaza, and it does seem to have got worse since Splatoon 2 switched to using Twitter and FB as default social networks (and since losing a lot of the Japanese players from the lobby), but for me personally it's not at a level where I'd want to turn it off.

I'm sympathetic to any lamentations, but I'm not sure there's anything that can be done to make things any more on-topic than... writing posts that are on-topic and bringing up the ratio ever so slightly.

But yeah, it's complicated. Which is why this post is the length it is.

Yeah, this. Squidkids on Wii U have all of Miiverse for off-topic jabber. With Splatoon 2, everything is now done with in-game posts because it has nowhere else to go.

I have to admit, though, I find it amusing to see the next phase of a slow-burning argument when I start up the game each day.

So THAT'S what was happening with our matches earlier!

In fact, there are a lot of changes to this changelog that I wasn't consciously aware of at first, but now that I see them mentioned, I remember them happening before the update. Like how sometime you would hear too many of the "getting hit by enemy ink" sfx than the situation called for. I was definitely aware of the disconnected-player rank-change problem, though, and I'm glad to see that fixed. I didn't see anything on there about how my rank is reflected wrong on Splatnet 2, though.

(reading the luna blaster changelog) What's wobble?

I'm really glad to see a bump up for the Dynamo! I was doing fairly poorly with it before.

The Dynamo got really wrecked in Splat1. It's nice to see them throwing a bone to it.

As for the Faux-Miiverse thing, I have no issue with the topic, but I do kind of miss the spontaneity of seeing a random meme pop-up every once in while. Most of them now are usually just the same thing over and over or people advertising their channels and stuff.

Regarding the furry-thing I don't care about really care about it, but I will say that I did see like one or two sexual drawings regarding it.

Btw, did you guys know you can report people for poor conduct and stuff like that in Splat2?

I don't think I'll ever understand furries. I don't have anything against those kinds of characters, seeing as I'll play games such as Animal Crossing without a second thought, but to like that kind of character enough to draw them and cosplay as them and whatnot just strikes me as kind of weird. It's just such a random thing to be a fan of that I can't help but feel that a lot of them have just jumped on the bandwagon.

Again, nothing wrong with finding those characters cool or whatever, I just don't see the appeal, and it blows my mind that it's so widespread. It's about as random as having an admiration for fences or something.

@Dev Yeah, I pretty much agree, for what it's worth.

I just find the whole topic of 'what to do when faced with a community posting stuff you don't really like' interesting and widely relevant, so I went on a bit of a ramble. It wasn't particularly aimed at, or against you. Sorry if it felt like some sort of pretentious targeted preach.

And I get that you were referring to different things with the furries and the politics (now, anyway).

@KirbyTheVampire Its not something everyone gets. Its when it moves from the "You do you" attitude to abuse I hate.

Until I mentioned it would anyone here know Im a furry? Nope. Or LGBT? Nope.

But I sit watching the plaza and I dread turning the game on and seeing what aspect of my life is being rallied against or mocked next.

I mean, I dont like anime. I dont berate people for it. Its not hurting anyone. You do you, ya know? Thats the stance that needs to be adopted with a lot of things but I never mention these things about myself because the immediate response, as evidenced unfortunately too frequently in Splatoon 2, is pitchforks.

Thank Miyamoto for the Baller buff. People always just shoot at me and destroy the ball before I can get anywhere close to them.

@BLP_Software It is unfortunate that because people are safe behind their screens, they're free to say whatever hurtful things they want. I think the internet in general has contributed a lot to society's toxicity and this tribe mentality everyone has. After all, people aren't nearly as eager to speak their mind when they're face to face with you.

Ok, some good stuff.

First they opened up the inventory of weapons available in Shoal Salmon Runs from the original basic set. This is huge if you want to use local Salmon Run to try out new weapons, train your main, or find new techniques while casually playing with friends or family. Wow, I was so disappointed with the original restricted roster, I almost forgot how helpful this is. Completely elevates local play in my opinion.

On that note the new map is so good. It recalled a survival horror style horde level when I first saw it, in fact the farmhouse from RE4 came immediately to mind. Drives home the intense stress inherent to the mode. Haven't played it much yet, but it's comforting how much more variety one new map can provide.

As for the weapon changes, it certainly feels like this is the buffing calm before the storm of nerfs to come. To that end, I like it. For instance, Baller was terrible, often repulsed by the idea of even using it except in rare occassions. At least now we don't have to resign ourselves to the likelihood of getting popped and left helpless anymore. Hopefully the increased armor will highlight the utility of it uses.

Also, happy and a little worried about the Sploosh movement speed buff. Has always been an underappreciated deadly weapon, just lacked any noteworthy feature outside damage compared to the other shooters, so I think it should have have notably quick movement speed. About time, was crazy when they made the N-Zaps so fast.

Thrilled with the Luna jumping change. With the amount of ways that gun has taken numerous nerfs on the nose, the wack aim while jumping was just plain embarrassing. Having your shots randomly fire off at 60 degree angles was crazy and just felt terrible. Thing is, jumping is key to the Luna. Obviously it can be pivotal in overcoming the horrible range, such as shooting over a ledge, so trying to jump and having your shots hit walls by no fault of your own was stupid, especially considering how they dissipate with no effect. For a Blaster every shot matters, so this was undue punishment. Equally important for the Luna, jumpshots are necessary to maximize turf coverage and mobility. So the jump-aiming issue really just tore at the entire playstyle of the weapon and turned it into a low mobility weapon which is against the entire ethic of a good Luna user. It demanded a slow, methodical, sneaking style that ruined the joy of the weapon.

Similarly, the ink usage of the Carbon Roller felt like a lead cherry on top of the pile of nerfs with no purpose or reason. A good roller should be encouraged to balance their strategic options, but the Carbon ink usage hampered it's mobility and turf coverage after already ensuring you have to whack someone over the head point blank for success. I still liked using it, but it requires such precision on numerous levels that it was sort of handicapping yourself compared to the Splat Roller. The Splat is still easier to make viable, but now the Carbon can balance offense and support much better.

I suppose that was my problem with the state of the Carbon and Luna... They now basically require full on team support to be viable and the effect of all the nerfs was to reduce their strategic options and leave those users up a creek if their team are not offering cover.

Anyway, this unintentionally morphed into a rant, but I guess I've been secretly stewing about how unappealing it was to use these weapons since launch along with the proliferation of far less demanding weapons. (What comparable drawbacks does a tri-slosher have? It requires less ink, aim, mobility... Better range, builds special faster, uses subs more viably... Has absurdly forgiving slosh properties compared to a blast or flick... The only benefit offered by the other two was a OHKO that require ridiculously close range and high precision.)

The Sploosh-o-matic is my favourite turfwar weapon. I don't think the increased movement speed buff was even necessary. But I'm not complaining. I hope it stays under the radar though.

Can't wait to try out the new salmon run stage! Also... sorry for all the bragging I do in this thread but my team got a pretty high score yesterday... 74 Golden Eggs in one run.

@ACK I was generally in favour of the nerfs to the rollers and blasters, but this is a really good post about dialling some of them down. They've been wiped out from online play so heavily that even I've been sad, as a non-user.

I hope we get some slight alterations to the Tri to make it feel a little less one-dimensionally powerful. Most other weapons seem to have some damage fall off which promotes accurate play. The Tri just seems to have this very flat area of unchanging damage (64) where you just need to turn up and throw out two sloshes in quick succession. I've been having less of a problem since I've switched to longer ranges weapons, but I still feel it stands considerably taller than a lot of other close range weapons.

One of my problems against the old Dynamo was that you could tell you were dead pretty much as soon as someone had initiated their jumping fling; the OHKO area was almost inescapable and decent users could repeatedly pull it off with enough finesse not to get splatted beforehand. The Tri doesn't feel nearly as bad, but I still feel the flat 64 output and decent range/fire rate mean it stifles a lot of similar weapons from being used.

@Sir_Anthony Oh yeah?

I've actually seen a decent amount of Sploosh-o-matics in Turf War. I sympathise with "hope it stays under the radar", though. I hate doing what everyone else is doing. I wouldn't use the Everywhereospray if you put a .96 Gal to my head.

Although I think the weapon variety in ranked matches has been pretty good, so there's nothing I'm particularly averse to trying out there.

I like salmon run way more than I thought I would. Perhaps - now I hope - we're going to see even more stages in it in the future.

I would like to see the splashdowns hit window done more accurately. I swear I'm outside of it's attack range and still get killed.

@Spoony_Tech it does 70 Splash damage out of its kill zone. It seems to work similar to how bombs do.

I thought the new Salmon Run stage "Lost Outpost" was supposed to be available today?The next 2 rotations are both for the Spawning Grounds.I've been looking forward to playing that all day.

@OorWullie It's available offline today. With the way the rotations are laid out in advance, new content doesn't show up in online Salmon Run for a while.

@Zyrac Ah alright cheers. It should hopefully appear over the weekend then along with the other new map.

@OorWullie It is available at the shoal for local play, but we'll have to wait for it to get in rotation. This was pointed out to me yesterday. The wait continues