Communications error

The communications error^(NA), or communicaton error^(EU/OC), is a common problem for many players of Splatoon and Splatoon 2 online. It results in forfeiture of the current match, and unconditional loss of Vibe or Rank points for all players affected.

The UI display during a communications error

Background

Online real-time action games like Splatoon cannot feasibly be handled through a central server because the throughput for all concurrent games would be far too great to process. Instead, a central server is only used for the initial connection and matchmaking purposes, after which participants are connected to each other via peer-to-peer communications.

In the event the network connectivity of a player is interrupted for whatever reason, even partially or temporarily, their participation in a game of Splatoon will be adversely affected. A lot of different pieces of information get sent around between players at all times, including player locations and ink behavior. Should this information be processed out of order, anomalies can occur such as turf not being inked when shot or players teleporting around.

Sometimes, multiple players have communications problems simultaneously, and if communication across the whole match suffers enough, the game will forcibly end the match. When this occurs, the message "A communications error occurred" appears and the player will be returned to the Lobby with no option to take any further action.

Splatoon 2

Unlike the first game, receiving a Communication Error in Splatoon 2 can block you from online play for a period of time. After a communication error occurs, trying to get back to online play will fail, plus showing this message,

“	Your previous online play session didn't end naturally, which is PREEEEETTY suspicious. If this keeps happening, we're gonna have to block you from playing online for a while. Make sure your Internet isn't busted and try again.	”
— Message displayed after disconnecting.

Repeated disconnections can extend the time of being blocked from online play.

Effects of Disconnection

Should a player be disconnected in the middle of a match due to a communications error, they will be returned to the Battle Lobby and credit will be lost according to the game mode they were playing:

• Both in Regular Battle or Ranked Battle, the Vibe deducted will consider the battle as a loss.
• In Ranked Battle, points of Rank will be deducted based on your rank and team composition.

If a player drops, the match results will show them with 0 points if their team lost, or the bonus score amount if their team won. The player is never actually awarded any points won from a game they disconnected from. The amount of splats will show up, however. In-match, these players will explode in the same way as jumping out of bounds, except that they will not respawn. Then the team will end up with only three players and the player that got disconnected will have a cross on the map at the spawn point, as if they had been splatted.

Solving the Problem

Any form of networking issue can result in a communications error. Sometimes this may be on the user's end such as with wireless interference or lack of available bandwidth due to other devices on the network. Other times this may be out of the user's control, such as when the Internet service provider is experiencing difficulties. Good network maintenance will help to prevent the onset of communications errors in Splatoon.

When playing Splatoon online, it is advised to reserve the network for only the Wii U system or systems participating. Other devices such as video streamers or web browsers should be closed down while Splatoon is being played.

While communications errors can occur from a plethora of networking problems, by far the most common issue with Splatoon is when network data gets scrambled while playing over the Wii U's built-in Wi-Fi. Use of a wired LAN adapter will nearly nullify communications errors entirely. When a match is severely affected by other players' networking problems, however, a wired LAN adapter still cannot prevent a communications error.

Side Effects

When a communication error is about to happen in a match, there are a few things to be spotted when communication errors are close or about to occur:

• When waiting for players, you'll notice the timer increases time, but the Gamertag will show up late. Either players are joining or leaving the room.
• Ink from the players weapon or sub weapon will delay to be placed.
• Teleporting Inklings, but this is rare to happen.
  • Frozen Inklings (Meaning they aren't moving.)
• When you get splatted, but the opponent whom splatted you is in a far distance or you get splatted later on when an opponent is no where near you.
• The player splatting an opponent, but the "Splatted" message shows up late.
  • It also takes awhile to splat a person due to the communication server not doing well. (For example, if a fully charged Charger manages to hit an opponent, it is possible they survived the shot, but will get splatted in a few seconds, even when in a safe area.)
    • When players successfully splat other inklings, sometimes the weapon will still be in use, even though the inkling that uses the weapon was splatted. Be cautious because players can still get splatted by the ghost weapon.
• The connection is unstable Message.

  

  The "connection is unstable" message.

  • When this message appears, players disconnect, having a chance of continuing the match, or completely shutting down the match with a communication error.
  • When this message pops up during a match, Inklings will be left frozen.
    • Sometimes the Inkling will just stand there, other Inklings will continue to fire the weapon. The Ink does shoot out of the weapon, but Ink will not be placed, nor the ink will shoot out it's appropriate Range. Instead the Ink shot out of the weapon disappears out of thin air. The Inkling is likely to despawn when this happens to an ally inkling or an opposing inkling.

Caution!

• After a communication error occurs, everyone loses the match, even if your team is winning.
• Sometimes when The connection is unstable Message shows up at the end of a round during a Regular Battle and Ranked Battle, having the match disconnected even when the round was over.
• In Splatoon 2, players will receive a 4 minute ban after a communication error. Blocked time will extend if disconnections are repeating.

Notes

• After a communication error during a Regular Battle or a Ranked Battle match, sometimes the player will end up in the Battle Lobby or back in Inkopolis
  • If the player goes back to Inkopolis, they'll have to reconnect to the internet.
• When a match is about to begin, sometimes it'll take a while as the camera is still panning across the map. This can result into some players disconnecting. If some players are the lucky ones, Inklings have seem to disappear right before the match could start (Which is a chance they'll disconnect). As they disconnect, the camera finally goes to the Spawn Point. Players won't be able to play the match if their unlucky.
• After a Communication Error during a Regular Battle, the Ink Turfed score of the players main weapon won't increase.
• Communication Errors can also happen when maps have been changed, so the match is forced to shut down so players can get newer reports from Inkopolis News.

Trivia

• Communications errors also occur as an anti-afk measure. Players that do not perform any actions in 1 minute, are automatically disconnected.
• There's a glitch which only happened once in a game of Tower Control where the game was endless. It's unsure what caused it, but it could of triggered if one person briefly loses connection to the game right at the moment when players reach distance 0. It is unknown if the glitch still work.
• Communications error happen at the Battle lobby. (The Lobby where players select Regular Battle, Ranked Battle, Squad Battle, and Private Battle)