Yeah I’m not sure pings are what we need, but the voice line system could be improved a lot. Things like “Group up”, “heal me” and “go to point/ok” are not enough. We really need something like “Help me”, “Behind us”, “Focus on %target”, “Fall back” and then maybe “Left/Right side” voice lines.
Keybinding them is already great but with more lines it can too cumbersome to use them all and many would rather only have the most important ones keybound and use rest with similar ping wheel. Currently they are already on a “wheel” but that screen blocks vision mostly so it could be better.
Instead of that, how about working on team oriented voice lines. So that way women and minorities who want to communicate with their team can do so without being harassed the moment a ywm detects them in voice comms?
Please consider the text/voice macros people used to use in the quake 3ish days, and the voice system in TF2/L4D2. Wouldn’t be any more spammy than regular mic shotcalling.
Counterpoint: We have “hello!” and “thanks!” on our comm wheel, but not “someone is shooting me in the back help me”. Is spamming “hello” less clutter than “Tracer ping” or “Reaper ping”?
Even if you adopted a Battlefield style “press $button to ping target’s location to your team”, it would be a lot more useful than hearing Winston say “Hello!” the entire game.
How often do we see pros actually using those? Maybe “I Need Healing” because it shows the healers where you are (though healers can already see everyone anyway), but it seems to me they get by just fine using voice.
But alerting for that is only one thing, which would still be spammed with a proper ping system on top of additional things - so it is still less clutter the way it is now. We’re talking about adding a whole bunch of new things to be used in a bunch of new situations, which adds to the density of things being communicated through the system. It’s not like people are currently spamming voice lines to signal “Pushing right”, “Tracer seen here”, “X hero missing” etc.
People seem to be confused as to why a ping system would be used. The goal isn’t to ping the tracer who runs up behind you to indicate to your team. It’s for communicating locations to players when it’s otherwise difficult or verbose to try and communicate using words, or to do so when the player lacks a mic. For example let’s say sym wants to use her tele to help the team flank. Instead of sitting there trying to awkwardly describe the specific location she’s going to try and make the exit, you can simply say “Im gonna place it here” – ping – “and we can jump down to here” – ping.
Yes, I dont think a bunch of specific commands would be as useful as a generic ping tool, but I think being able to point out locations instead of trying to describe them has tremendous value.
Yeah, I could see that. Makes it sound a lot more appealing to me. I still kinda fear how annoying it could be in games where no one is talking but everyone is frustrated that no one is on the same page and six people are just pinging constantly to make their frustration known. But, you could silence ping spam just like the other callouts or make it an easy thing to disable so you can’t hear/see it anymore.
I completely agree there are problems that need to be solved. Voice line spamming can already be somewhat obnoxious, but if five other people were constantly pinging locations it can be quite distracting. When used responsibly, though, I think it can convey a lot of information that merely describing in words cannot due. If you describe something poorly you can end up with a good plan falling apart completely because someone did the wrong thing.
Would love to have something like this working with LFG.
LFG games usually have 1-2 players that are directing the team and it makes for a much better experience overall. If there was some way to enable a ping option for the group leader I think it would be great. Sometimes it can be very hard to tell exactly what they mean when you’re playing with someone for the first time, but if only the leader had? Could work.
Wouldn’t be too shabby if we were able to ping an enemy hero (or have a “leader” do it) so when there is little or no voice communication you are still able to see who they want you to focus down.