Are we about to get an item system?

I’m not about to say you are wrong for this really well thought out post.

I will however stop playing if something like this is added.

To me the appeal of OW is the fact that I can tell exactly what a hero does at a glance (I call this silhouette info) you can tell who they are even just by the shape of their character model.

Adding items that buff skills, change cooldowns or ults or anything of that nature removes that appeal. I dont want to face a Tracer that leaves toxic gas when she recalls or one with more blinks.

I appreciate the effort of this post but to me it just doesn’t fit.

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Can’t wrap my head around how it’d work in OW where your heroes aren’t locked in for the whole game. Like what cards/items could there be?

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I foresee a balancing nightmare coming out of this, partly due to the many choices and partly due to how hard it would be to both identify and learn to counter kits, but it is possible.

I highly doubt the progression system though.

I could see them doing something like TF2, where items are the character’s guns and equipment.

For example: Reinhardt might trade out his hammer for a sword, which transforms his long-range firestrike into a mid-range spin attack.

You’d be able to tell what someone’s loadout is right away, just by looking at the weapon in their hands and the gear on their body.

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The item system did massive amounts of damage to the quality of TF2 as a game. Also balance is already a meme without opening that door.

McCree with dual 18 mag berettas? Hanzo’s now a spear chucker?

That’d be too awesome to come out of no where, but we can hope.

Pray to Jeff with me :pray: :prayer_beads:

Not if they create the items for fun, throwing blance out the window for the sake of fun gameplay, and lock competitive play and OWL to only stock loadouts.

I think the TF2 league does something like this.

Yes yes yes to hero perks that you equip like loadouts, which change an aspect of the hero. I imagine that each perk would come with a small sacrifice, and you could swap perks in the spawn room. You could also see the perks equipped by each player in the menu.

I don’t think a progression system could ever work in Overwatch though. The matchmaker already struggles enough as is without players getting matched against enemies who have access to more sophisticated kits than them.

Literally just gonna be patching the game faster.

Balance changes every 1-3 weeks.

Patch 1.43 clarification - #7 by GreyFalcon-11737

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There are two types of competitive tf2: largely stock 6v6, or 9v9 with everything broken or anticompetitive banned. The latter is so much less dry imo.

While I don’t think they’re going to add an item system. Like others have said it’s probably going to be faster patches.

However, I do think items could work but I do think it could work but there needs to be some guidelines in place

No items can be a direct upgrade from stock. They must all be sidegrades from stock. So let’s say Widowmaker gets a new Sniper Rifle with these stats

+40% faster charger
+applies a 30% discord to its target for 5s
-can no longer headshot
-deals 10% less damage

Also there has to be ways to learn items outside of competitive mode. Having them be based off of your competitive rank is a terrible idea.

  1. it cuts content from the casual playerbase and forces them to play a mode they have no interest in order to unlock those items.

  2. Many player simply don’t have the skills to reach masters or Grandmasters so for many it could seem like they’re being content simply because they aren’t good enough.

  3. Ranking up means you have to learn about and deal with a whole bunch of different items you never had to before. For example, if I go from Bronze to Silver and there’s like 20 new items I need to learn about it’s gonna make staying in Silver a lot harder.

  4. Having items be distributed based off of rank could easily lead to higher rank items outshining lower rank ones. This means as you rank up, your bronze items will become more and more useless.

  5. Throwers have a much bigger impact. Imagine losing access to a bunch of content because of Throwers. I already mention how dividing game content based off of skill gaps is a based idea and throwers will just worsen this problem by essentially cutting off content from people.

  6. Increased toxicity. imagine trying to reach GM so you can finally try out items in a mode you really have no desire to be in. It sucks to lose in competitive, SR based items will make it even worse especially when you end up losing them.

Then imagine when you finally rank up and being called a thrower simply because you aren’t using the right items in Diamond or whatever.

There needs to be a way for everyone to unlock items. A character progession system could work but I think it would further incentivize one-tricking. I think just random item drops as you keep on playing will be better.

No RPG elements has always been a bit of a limiting factor to OW. I mean most hero’s only have 3-5 abilities or so. Simply having more abilities you could change and equip would of done wonders for the game If you could pick and swap some things it would add a lot of variety to the game.

Simple things like maybe giving Soldier a gas grenade instead of biotic field for AoE sleep gas or something?

But if anything is done I am kind of leaning towards items for one specific reasons, money. Ability load outs would likely be free or tied to DLC at worst. Items though could be put in rewards or loot boxes, sold to players.

Frankly so many pay to win mechanics get put into games if they are subtle enough there probably wouldn’t even be a back lash these days.

Sounds like it’s more than just frequent balance patches, but maybe they’re gonna take a systematic approach?

If I had to take a real guess I’d say hero tickets or something along those lines… you can only use a hero for a certain number of lives per round, and maybe they have a CD on them.

This would not only force players to think more strategically about their hero picks on different points/parts of maps but also to use a wider array of heroes.

Sydney Sleeper 2.0?

As others have said, interesting premise but they’ll lose me in the PvP if it’s items.

Considering they already have people in pitchforks about some of the synergies the heroes have the items would only magnify the problem of perceived game balance. I don’t see a world where they can bring in items and not have it be gimmicky or broken.

Jeff had mentioned in his 1-3-2 post that the dev team felt in 2020 that perhaps expanding opportunities for individual play instead of having the game laser-focused on teamwork is a better way forward to some extent. In light of his comment that he wants to expand ‘individual impact’ somewhat the nerfs and buffs make some sense; they have been really throttling heroes and mechanics with strong team synergies, while subtly buffing some heroes’ ‘individual impact’.

I don’t know what system they have in mind; I feel the faster balance changes are only a piece of it, however. Hopefully the dev update comes soon.

I actually want to give an item system a try.
Kinda wonder what Overwatch would be like if it had an item system, like every game mode allows items but comp disables them.

I’ve had these same thoughts. If you die very often with a hero you get to swap forcefully, you’re not being effective.

I don’t see customizable loadouts coming to OW. IIRC there is a quote from Jeff stating that he didn’t want to create a situation where “My Tracer is better than your Tracer” which is exactly what would happen if customized loadouts became a thing.

the loadout system sounds like a nightmare to me

Could be generic stuff that would apply to everyone/anyone like:

Barrier Cloak - 50 of your Health is converted into Shields.

Glass Cannon - +10% damage done, +10% damage taken.

Speed Boots - +10% speed, -10% health.

Ultimate Boost - you gain 1% ult charge from using a big health pack.

Time Beacon - when you take a hit that would kill you, you “recall” back in time 2-3 seconds.

Chryofitter - your primary deals 50% less damage, but slowly freezes enemies with every shot.