What causes the Pikmin to just randomly stop following Olimar?

[0RLY]

So Olimar's Pikmin occasionally just stop following him. I can't figure out why and it appears to happen at random. This is all without attacking and it's only while Olimar is in the air. It's especially annoying when it happens while I'm trying to recover. Just to clarify, they don't stop following Olimar when I get hit. It's like, way after hit stun has ended, after I air pluck, after I double jump, a quarter of a second before I try to up-b they abandon ship and then zero Pikmin shoot out from my arms and they just fall to their death - followed by me. Even while I'm on-stage just jumping and wavelanding between platforms, RIGHT before I attempt to fastfall through a platform and fair, the Pikmin just straight up leave. Like they just walk+jump away from me while my attack whiffs because I now have no Pikmin.

Why does this happen and what causes this?

 

[Ceph]

I think it's just an effect of hitstun; in Brawl this happened too, but to a lesser extent. They're more easily knocked out of sync with Olimar, pretty much forcing you to whistle to gather them all. There's no way to avoid this as far as I know so I just got into the habit of whistling as soon as I can, sometimes multiple times.

 

[0RLY]

Hitstun? Even when I never get hit? Even when I never attack? They still abandon me. Whistling doesn't fix the problem when I'm in they ditch right before I want to tether or right when I try to land my finishing blow.

 

[Ceph]

I fiddled around and found that this happens most frequently around edges and platforms. Naturally the Pikmin near the end of the line are more susceptible to it. My only guess is they get wedged around edges and platforms as you're dropping or rising around them.

As for the random occurrences in the air... well, I don't have a clue σ^_^;

 

[0RLY]

I tested that actually. The pikmin pass through them. Unless there's a pixel perfect edge that snipes the pikmin away, I doubt this is it. There's also the case of all 4 Pikmin leaving me at once. Most of the time it's just one or two, but all 4 has definitely happened more than once.

 

[Ceph]

Perhaps they just don't like you lol jk

Yea this isn't as bad for me as it seems to be for you, it must be something in your playstyle... sorry I'm not very helpful

 

[B.W.]

If you move too quickly, Pikmin will stop following orders. You have to whistle to get back, but sometimes they just fall and die regardless. The reason this usually is is because Pikmin take a few frames to react to the whistle (7 I think) so if they've fallen into the blast zone before that frame hits, they die.

I expect this to be fixed in the next version, but we'll see.

 

[0RLY]

If you move... too... fast...?

I need need NEED to move fast. Stop following orders is one thing, but to completely abandon Olimar and wander to their death?

 

[B.W.]

It's dumb. Especially because Pikmin's movement speed was increased from Brawl to keep up with Olimar better.

But you're still able to move too fast in some senses, and it makes them not follow you.

I like to move a lot as well, and I especially like to full hop as Olimar cause it's kind of good usually. But those are the facts.

Just pray it's not as much of a problem in the next version.