Console Overwatch

General Discussion
1

What are your thoughts on the state of overwatch on console?
I think it is in a good state except brig and phar-mercy are too good

1 Like
2

What are your thoughts? Otherwise you would not ask the question.

2 Likes
3

I think it is in a good state except brig and phar-mercy are too good

4

Hmm… Console could definitely use some platform specific balancing, as projectile heroes (like Junkrat) are MUCH stronger on console than on PC, but the devs only want to balance for PC, except for very rare occasions. It seems like they have no one on their team who plays console.

1 Like
5

sadly they have no one

1 Like
6

Wow that was out of nowhere :confused:

1 Like
7

It’s pretty good, I don’t usually have problems with Pharahs because I main hitscans, so they go down pretty fast.

8

I just want people to try and put a little more effort into starting a post. Posting a question without context, just seems a little low effort.

9

i play lucio who is a projectile hero

10

Feelsbad in your case. You don’t even need to be hitscan to zone her out, even a D.Va that’s constantly charging at her is usually enough to make her switch, not because you’re killing her, but because you’ll cause her to feel useless.

11

I made a thread not long ago:

12

Warning: wall of text blocks incoming. But this is because I want to make sure that I cover every point to a reasonable extent.

I’m of the belief that OW-Console is in a very sub-optimal state. Sure, it’s not dead; but it certainly has been in a very declining state for a long time. I won’t try to beat around the bush here; but, to put simply, there are a plentiful amount of issues regarding OW-Console. Each following block quote is in here for the sake of organization, so each point separation is more clear.

  • There’s no Console PTR, which means our feedback regarding upcoming hero changes can only be looked at from the PC Perspective. That in of itself already creates flaws in a Console Player’s arguments on such changes. Like it or not, the game plays vastly differently on the Consoles than it does on PC.
  • There’s next to no Console-specific balancing, even despite Blizzard’s promise of such at launch. Now, I would agree that the game isn’t too out of balance on Console. However, there are definitely some changes that Blizzard can make specifically for the Console platforms to accommodate such. As was stated before, the game plays vastly differently on Consoles; platform-specific changes need to be made to accommodate such.
  • Report System doesn’t catch people fast enough. As a result, people such as throwers can pretty easily run rampant without getting punished at all. In fact, there’s a good chunk of people who play on Console that consistently report people like throwers, and said throwers pretty much never get punished at all. Like, really; are our reports even looked at at all? Because it feels like this is pretty much never the case. And don’t even get me started with Console Players having to deal with no Report System of ANY KIND for the first 15 months of this game. At least on Consoles, the Reporting System needs to be made much more strict so said offenders get punished faster.
  • On the flip side of that, there’s no means for Console Players to appeal in-game suspensions. If we contact Blizzard, they direct us to MS/Sony; who don’t handle in-game suspensions, only Console-wide bans. And I’m not referring to either ranked suspensions, or Console-wide bans here. I’m referring specifically to suspensions in-game for things such as Abusive Chat or Inactivity; NOT something like getting disconnected from a ranked game.
    • In fact, I’m not sure if I can even think of one instance off-hand where CS actually helped completely resolve an issue regarding OW on Console. They may be limited, sure; but with each IP that gets added to Blizzard’s repertoire, surely Blizzard CS can expand reasonably enough to accommodate for that new IP on every platform that it’s on. Especially since Blizzard had a revenue of $7 Billion in just 2017.
  • Smurfs galore. And I mean true smurfs; the ones who will throw endlessly just to stomp the lower tiers; not a player that tries on alternate accounts as well. Smurfs could throw near endlessly, and pretty much never get punished for it (especially since the Report System doesn’t catch them fast enough). Sure, some of this issue is because of the designs of the Consoles themselves. But even the enforcement of Suspension Evasion can deter people from doing such. Especially if the Reporting System is made much stricter.
  • M&K users. Sure, I’ll admit that it’s not nearly as rampant as people make it out to be. But a definitive answer needs to be made on Blizzard’s end regarding this; especially with API’s around that can detect and prevent M&K. Either make it ban-worthy, or support M&K natively. Blizzard’s last statement on this Console matter, which was made at the beginning of the year, is kind of hypocritical. Don’t use it, but don’t report it either? It can’t go both ways; it’s either one way, or the other in this case.
  • Lack of improvements to quality of life for Console Players. Sure, some of the bigger items are also true regarding PC. But even some of the smaller QOL items, which are already on PC might I add, are not present with OW-Console. To name some of these, among others:
    • FOV Slider
    • Showing what mode friends are playing in the friends list
      • Are they playing ranked, are they currently queuing, etc.
    • Group Privacy Settings
      • Why is this not on Console? And this has been implemented even in PS3/XB360 games that were released over 3 years before Overwatch was.
    • The ability to hide the chat
      • The commands from the communication wheel, i.e. ult charge/acknowledge, do appear in the chat; this is the chat I’m referring to (it’s the same chat window on PC). It is its own control on PC, but it doesn’t even need to be a Control; it can be a thing just by making it a toggle option in say, the Social sub-menu in Options.
    • Text Chat
      • They can make it so that it opens the Keyboard Interface of the Console. The same thing happens when you are trying to explain why you are reporting someone. And while the Console Keyboard Interface is open, USB Keyboards that are plugged in to a Console DO work; I’ve tested this very thing myself. Apply this same concept for text chat, and you’re good to go.
  • No official E-Sports Representation from Blizzard for the Competitive Console Community. It speaks for itself; but no chances for the Competitive Console Community to prove themselves to Blizzard on their own platform means, what is the point of the Competitive Mode on Console to begin with? Seriously, even OWL teams have done a better job than Blizzard when it comes to giving the Competitive Console Community chances to prove themselves on their own platform (case and point, NYXL in October). And no, “there are community hosted tournaments for Console Players” is not a valid answer to this.
  • And what do I think is the largest issue regarding OW-Console? Well, it’s actually not specific to in-game. This actually comes down to the development team themselves. NOT in their work habit, but in their own lack of transparency to the Console player-bases.
    • Take a look at all the developer responses that occurred over the course of 2018. How many of those responses occurred regarding something pertaining specifically to Console? The answer to that question is 3. The first was on January 18th; the second was on September 11th (that’s right, almost 8 months later); and the third was on November 1st.
    • I don’t think the Console megathread needs any introduction to you either. I’ve been trying to get this issue addressed for just over a year now. How much has changed overall with regards to OW-Console since that thread? Not much; and it certainly hasn’t improved the Development Team’s transparency with the Console Player-bases. Otherwise, we would know what plans the Development Team has for OW-Console, among other things.
    • If I can say that I could find a cricket faster than the Development Team responding to issues regarding OW-Console, then there’s something wrong there. And this is despite me living in the US state that has arguably the harshest winters of any state in the country (Minnesota, that is). As a result, we’re in a time of year in which no crickets are present at all. So they would even have a 5-month head start on such…
    • Even Console Players that express these issues in a very constructive way get ignored. We get screwed either way; express these criticisms, and thread either gets locked by Blizzard or ignored. Don’t express these criticisms, and you’ll never get heard. It’s almost as if they have a filter that’s specifically designed to ignore Console threads…

So yeah; sorry for going off on a tangent at the end there. I needed to get some of this off my shoulders, and you have more influence on this front than I do (even if that’s still not saying very much). But I know issues in a game when I see them; and I think that lack of transparency from the Development Team definitely amplified the burnout that I’ve had regarding OW.

2 Likes