✅ Balance Hotfix directly to Quickplay

General Discussion
1

One of the biggest problems with Overwatch is how it takes a month or more to get even the simplest gameplay changes put into the game.

Of which, can be delayed quite a lot for console testing, and syncing up with technical patches, and events.

Here’s a way to drastically simplify these changes, using the new Hotfix feature, from the August 28th patch:

PATCH 1.39.2 HIGHLIGHTS

New Feature: Hotfixing

With this patch, the Overwatch client on all platforms can now automatically receive minor updates (hotfixes) without needing to be restarted.

Balance change Hotfixing

  1. Put the changes onto live Quickplay using a hotfix, for a week.
  2. Put the changes onto live Competitive using a hotfix.

Results:

While this would only be useful for simple balance changes, that do not require bugtesting.
For simple changes, this would cut the balance patch delivery speed from 3-8 weeks, down to 1 week.

7 Likes
2

i think it is a bad idea to put it in comp u can put it in aracade and quickplay, ptr is not that good, since u have to download a lot of things

1 Like
3

Good idea.

4

So it occurs to new, this would work for all platforms.

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

New Feature: Hotfixing

With this patch, the Overwatch client on all platforms can now automatically receive minor updates (hotfixes) without needing to be restarted.

1 Like
5

Would be nice if the devs did it.

Cause with Overwatch 2 coming, content is gonna be pretty lightweight.

But if they could make “simple” balance patches come out regularly. That would calm people down, a lot.

I.e. This stuff could be avoided:

1 Like
6

Yup. Its kinda funny tho, the devs hotfixed us up some Torb n Baps buffs, and the forums and streamers still complain.
Makes me feel sorry for the devs.

7

I think the complaints are just because they anticipate the next balance patch on PTR either won’t fix things enough, or will take like 5 weeks to get published.

By comparison, they could have fixed things with a hotfix balance patch, in an afternoon.

8

To me its just a regurgitation of the same complaints from the beginning of the patch cycle. When people saw that the patch wasn’t going to have balance changes they complained, and now its the exact same complaints because the devs only added resonable hitfixes instead of going for a meta shift.

But anything that qualifies for being added via hotfix would have to be low impact. Thats why we got Torb n Baps buffs, specifically because there’s low chance of a butterfly effect.

The devs are simply taking the changes that don’t need to wait and giving them to us sooner, like we’ve been asking for.

9

I disagree, the giant balance patch we had last patch, could have almost entirely been done, using the hotfix method.
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/overwatch-ptr-patch-notes-september-24-2019/407055

And “number changes” alone can have some pretty massive balance impacts.
I.e. Reinhardt barrier now has 5000hp

10

What I meant was that I think the devs only want to use hotfixes for minor impact changes. They could do lots of number changes all the time, but they don’t want to and we’ve known this for a while (as evidenced by people complaining about that too).

They like saving up high impact changes, like the kind that would shift the meta, until they’ve got themselves one big patch that then changes lots of stuff simultaneously.

11

They was the old hotfix though, which was a rapid change to the .EXE file.

The new hotfix though, more like a SERVERCONFIG.INI file.

Just edit a file that gets read whenever a server boots up, and a few number values get changes.

Competitive games have had this capability for decades.
(I know, because I used to design one for TRIBES 1, called Shifter_v1G).

12

Well yeah but just because they can doesn’t mean that the devs want to. I think we got Torb and Baps buffs specifically because it wouldn’t change anything unless you played Torb or Baptiste.

13

You’d think what with the new direct to Live without rebooting hotfix feature they made, they’d prefer to use that, rather than make their playerbase wait for 4-8 weeks just to get a basic balance patch :confused:

Especially, considering they gotta keep us entertained for the next 6-12 months with minimal content patches.

14

Wouldn’t it be nice…