Tag: Development of Overwatch

Overwatch 2 Gets A Game Mode No One Asked For This Weekend
Image: Blizzard
This upcoming weekend, January 12-14, embattled hero shooter Overwatch 2 will replace its popular Quick Play mode with Quick Play: Hacked, a lightning-fast version of the main game inspired by hacker character Sombra. Arcade and Competitive mode will not be affected by this change.

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According to Blizzard’s blog post announcing the new mode, this is the first in a planned series of Quick Play: Hacked events going forward. “We want to explore new and fun ways to change core Quick Play gameplay. Changes will happen periodically and only for a limited time,” the blog post reads.

Read More: Overwatch 2 Left A Trail Of Broken Promises In 2023

Here’s what Quicked Play: Hacked will entail:

Respawning times are now 75 percent of their original time

Payloads in Escort and Hybrid maps will move 60 percent faster

Taking control of the Objective Point in Hybrid is 40 percent faster than normal

Taking control of the objective point in Control is 40 percent faster than normal, and scoring the capture progress percentage is 80 percent faster

Taking control of the objective point in Flashpoint is 20 percent faster than normal, and scoring the capture progress percentage is 40 percent faster

When you play an Escort, Hybrid, or Push map, the initial match time has been reduced to 70 percent of the original time, and any time extensions are also reduced to 70 percent of the total time added

These changes only apply to all players who play in Role Queue and Open Queue Quick Play modes during the duration of the event and will return to normal after January 14. Competitive Play and Arcade modes are not affected by these changes

Blizzard’s choice to replace Quick Play entirely has been met with some intense feedback from fans, as it’s a go-to mode for so many Overwatch 2 players. Quick Play is where they go to try out new strategies, practice new heroes, and hone their skills without the pressures of Competitive mode. Personally, I never play it, because I’m a masochist and like to try (and fail) to juice my rank every time I boot up the game. But removing Quick Play entirely means robbing a core chunk of your playerbase of the only way they play a game. Blizzard seems to have anticipated some blowback, as the blog post asks and answers a question about not including Quick Play: Hacked in the Arcade mode.

The Arcade is meant for game modes that typically only play one specific map type (like Assault) or completely different ways to play Overwatch. The Quick Play: Hacked changes affect the core gameplay of our main mode, while still aiming to bring a more balanced play experience that is unique from the traditional ruleset.

Is that a satisfying answer for the legions of Overwatch 2 players who have stuck around through the shift to 5v5, the sunsetting of Overwatch 1, the adoption of a free-to-pay model with predatory pricing, or the gutting of its promised PvE mode? You tell me.
Alyssa Mercante

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January 11, 2024
It Sounds Like Overwatch 2 Is Still Trying To Figure Lifeweaver Out

Lifeweaver has been in Overwatch 2 for just under a month, and already the plant-based support hero has had some pretty significant reworks in both his control scheme and abilities. Personally, I’ve had a much better experience with the character since his last update, but it sounds like Blizzard is planning more changes as it tries to figure out where the character should fit into its popular hero shooter.

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In a new post on the Overwatch website, director Aaron Keller talked about the team’s mindset regarding Lifeweaver moving forward. While they’ve made some improvements to his healing output (he now has one of the higher ones in the game), the team says changes like tightening the spread on his offensive alt-fire Thorn Volley haven’t had much effect on his kill rate. On the bright side he also has one of the lowest death rates of any support hero, so I’m glad to hear you all took my advice and are keeping your distance from the fight.

All that said, Keller says the team is still looking to better figure out Lifeweaver’s intended role in the game, which is exactly what I’ve been trying to do since he joined the roster. Before Lifeweaver, Baptiste and Brigitte were my go-to support characters depending on my team’s makeup and the map type, but Lifeweaver feels like this very situational character that I mostly run just because he’s new, I like him as a character, and his kit is fun, rather than because his utility feels objectively better than the other options.

His abilities—like Petal Platform, which raises a player to high ground, or the controversial Life Grip, which pulls an ally to Lifeweaver’s position—are best used within a coordinated team. The trouble is, most randos online don’t understand or don’t care about how they can create effective plays, and it feels like most just want support players to act as heal bots, rather than leaning into more varied support abilities. It feels like my teammates, and sometimes myself, don’t know how to coordinate around Lifeweaver, so I can see why Blizzard hopes to make his ideal role clearer in Season 5.

Keller continued:

When it comes to future changes for Lifeweaver, here’s what we are thinking. We want it to be clearer why players may select Lifeweaver over other heroes. If your current hero pick isn’t working for some reason (whether it be the map or enemy team comp), what’s a strong incentive for swapping to Lifeweaver? We may make other changes along the way, such as lightly buffing his Thorn Volley and reducing hit volumes, but ultimately, we’ll have changes targeted at further pronouncing Lifeweaver’s strengths and clearly defining his role on your team. This could be leaning harder into his healing effectiveness through a new passive or bringing additional benefits to some of his utility-focused abilities. With a defensive-based hero, we have to be careful how far we go in terms of buffing raw healing and defensive abilities – too far can negatively disrupt the overall flow of an engagement. These are some of the early things we’re iterating through, hope to have our next set of changes ready for Season 5.

Even when Lifeweaver first debuted, I figured he would be a character that would evolve a great deal over time, similar to Symmetra, whose moveset has changed more than once since she debuted at the original Overwatch’s launch. As someone who’s already put over a dozen hours into Lifeweaver, I’m hopeful whatever changes come will help him be the effective support character everyone wants him to be, as Overwatch 2’s beleaguered support players could really use some wins.

Kenneth Shepard

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May 5, 2023
We Did It, Joe: Overwatch 2 Will Make Ranked Suck Less

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Image: Blizzard

Overwatch 2 will make adjustments to both its matchmaking process and its ranked system in the coming weeks, according to the latest developer blog posted today. This is good news for anyone who has spent the months since launch confused or frustrated by the sequel’s ranking system, or those who feel like their matches are almost always lopsided (myself included, as evidenced by my most recent take on Overwatch 2‘s competitive mode).

The lengthy blog post ensures us that Blizzard “has seen [our] feedback on matches with wide skill variation,” and has plans to address our concerns. After explaining away a few of the reasons why I either roll an enemy squad or am rolled by them, the post details what steps Overwatch 2 will take to fix its matchmaking and ranked problems.

Season 3, which will start sometime next month (there’s no set date yet) will “try to place pairs of players with similar MMR [matchmaking ranking] on each role on either team,” which means you’re less likely to get tanks with a wide gap in skill between them on opposing squads. With only one tank in traditional matches, that gap can feel like a chasm, so the goal of the update is to “make the average MMR between each role more evenly matched to each other instead of looking more broadly across the entire team to balance things out.” Yes, Overwatch 2‘s current matchmaking system does not ensure that each role is matched with an evenly ranked opponent.

The next season will also change how often your rank is adjusted in Competitive mode, as the team has heard us loud and clear that playing up to 26 matches just for your role to stay the same is infuriating. “Starting with Season 3, you’ll now get a competitive update with every 5 wins and 15 losses. In the mid-season patch for Season 3, we’re also updating the UI, so information about your progress toward a competitive update will always be viewable.” Praise be.

Oh, and seasonal rank decay and rank resets are getting thrown out the window starting with Season 4—but don’t expect a full rank reset ever, you absolute animal. “A full rating reset wouldn’t create a great experience since it would mean throwing out all the knowledge we have about players. This would cause new players to be matched against OWL pros, which is fun for about 30 seconds (we’ve experienced this ourselves in internal playtests).”

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While I can understand why players may want a full rank reset to get the nasty taste of this current ranking system out of our mouths, it’s clear that it would cause even more chaos. Let’s just be happy that we’ll get more frequent rank adjustments, a clearer picture of where the fuck our rank is going, and better matches going forward. Maybe I’ll enjoy playing again.

Alyssa Mercante

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January 30, 2023
Overwatch 2’s Lack Of Support Players Is Racking Up Wait Times, Fans Say

Image: Blizzard / Kotaku / Gemenacom (Shutterstock)

Some people’s Overwatch 2 queue times are getting bad…really bad. And it’s mostly because no one wants to play support, according to a Blizzard forum post with over 450 replies (and approximately the rest of the internet).

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Overwatch 2 has two ways to stand in line as you wait to be let into a game: open queue, which lets you maintain a loose team composition, like one that has two DPS and three tanks; and defined role queue, which brand-new players need to unlock by completing five open-queue games. It seems open-queue players are finding themselves stuck in messy matches with no support, and disgruntled role-queue players, particularly those playing DPS or tank, are sitting through long queue times waiting for healers to float down on a ray of sunshine.

But support players have good reasons to avoid the role. They’re tired of being blamed for their teammates’ inattentiveness.

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“The players can start by not taking out their life problems on support characters,” a Blizzard forum user wrote. “Maybe then more people would be willing to try the role.”

“There are plenty of people who want to play support (I’m one of them),” said another commenter in the Blizzard forum. “But whether or not it’s currently viable to play support in pub matches with the game’s current climate is, I think, the real issue.”

We’re feeling it too. “In my experience with Overwatch 2—as someone who mostly plays support for the XP boost and fast matchmaking—I’ve experienced Winstons and Reapers zooming past me and the other support player, only to wind up dead moments later, putting the entire team in a bad spot,” Kotaku staffer Zack Zwiezen wrote recently.

Some players hope that adding new support heroes, including Kiriko—Overwatch 2’s new ninja healer, who currently lives beneath the game’s fresh battle pass for most people—will help even out support queue times. More likely, players will keep finding things to be annoyed about, and developer Activision Blizzard will keep union busting.

Ashley Bardhan

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October 21, 2022