2,3,2 role queue. Crazy, but could it work?

General Discussion
1

With the new experimental card I think at least trying it is worth a shot.

1,3,2 fixes a lot of issues that 2,2,2 has but creates even more (projected barrier not being skillful, hog just isnt a main tank, no tank synergy, quick play chaos, tank queue times, etc)
2,2,2 still has the overwatch deathball feel to it where you group up and play as a team instead of quick play chaos

I believe 2,3,2 could be the best of both worlds. Some benefits being, keeping tank synergy (aka rein zarya), dps queue times, not ruining tank balance, raising the skill cap of support heroes, shield break is easier, less reliant on independant dps doing their job, leavers have less significant impact on the game, etc

Some negatives being, devs needing to optimize servers for 7v7, worsens the “why is there so much stuff on my screen”, overtime chaos/stalling, respawns most likely need to be slightly longer, AoE abilities could need nerfs, each player has less impact on the game (good and bad imo), small global queue time increase, supports potentially need to be buffed to deal with the extra player, etc

I believe 2,3,2 could be the best thing thats happened to the game since ironclad was nerfed and the positives far outweigh the negatives. 7v7 has worked before (glitched lobbys) so its not impossible. “If” a dev sees this at least bring it up for discussion please and thanks.

On a less serious note, 3 damage medals, 3 dps on a team, kinda makes sense… and also I really dont want to lose that teamplay aspect that comes from tank synergy, to me at least its one of the things that makes overwatch, well, overwatch.

2 Likes
2

Probably not

3

Can guarantee it will work better than 1,3,2 and they still tried that

4

With the way the game is built in its current state… no.

What he means by this is that everything about what makes the game would have to be reworked, ranging from the actual 3D models and textures of each character and entity to all the way to how the NetCode works.

While the gameplay aspect of a 2-3-2 may work, its best not to pretend that we will get the chance to see something like that in the game anytime soon.

4 Likes
5

Probably this is the last option they would try for the reasons above. However, I’m curious babout 1-2-2 with a faster respawn time… I’m pretty sure it could work well

6

So the game would practically need to be remastered? Isnt that whats happening with overwatch 2 but on a smaller scale? So “if” the dev team can test 7v7 internally without drastic changes, and the gameplay improvements are significant enough, would it be possible to introduce it with the launch of overwatch 2?

7

theyve pretty much said it wont happen

8

There is too much speculation to really know. We do know in the very early development of the game (like when Tracer was shooting lasers out of her eyes for guns) they tried everything from a 4v4 to a 8v8. 6v6 was decided based on the scale of the maps to ensure the gameplay was balanced so that team fights would not be too chaotic or a single mistake would not cost a team a team fight.

Again, I don’t have all of the details, and really it comes down to the core framework decisions they made way back in 2012 and 2013. The Overwatch “Archives” panel from BlizzCon 2017 is a more accurate depiction to what the challenges were like for Blizzard back then and if you have the Virtual Ticket from last year, I encourage you to look it up.

It is my speculation they would have to really rebuild everything (matchmaker, NetCode, server framework, model renders, etc.) in order to deliver a stable and functional 7v7 experience. If this is truly the case, I don’t expect Overwatch 2 to introduce the ability to have more than 12 players as I don’t think they are rebuilding everything from ground up again.

2 Likes
9

Understood. As long as its considered by the dev team, I’m happy. Thank you for your time.

10

There is no doubt this is something they are discussing (otherwise Jeff would not have responded on the forums). Hell we could be in for a surprise when OW2 hits. Right now, when I was at BlizzCon, I can say that in terms of the PVP game mode, everything was built to work in the same way as we expect it know.

1 Like
11

Some teams need 232.
Maybe 7v5 still 12. :sweat_smile:

1 Like
12

Rotating role ratios would be better and 1-3-2 would be the best.

13

On a sidenote, I just spent a few hours watching the Overwatch League staff on Twitch playing a 5 versus 5 (1 tank, 2 damage, 2 support; experimental ruleset) and the results were interesting. Playing a 5 versus 5 seemed to play extremely sluggishly and chokes are more difficult to break.

Simply put changing the headcount is going to have dramatic impact on overall gameplay flow and map impact.

2 Likes