The claim from the devs is that they have been working on it for a year prior to release. So why were so many changes specifically targeted at goats still approved? And even if they were needed at the time, why wasn’t an immediate roll back of those changes done once it launched. Its not like they didn’t know what those changes were, there’s an archive right here on the forums.
My honest opinion, the reason might be similar to the one that convinced the company as a whole to attempt to sell us on the bit about all recent decisions having nothing to do with a certain country across the pond to the west. Because if they really had a year why did things still turn out a jumbled mess. Its not like content was a setback.
I believe that Blizzard was working in role queue for a year.
Working on something for a certain time (especially when it comes to game design) do not ensure that everything will work as you envision.
For a simple example, Jeff said that once role queue get implemented, he expected a community shift and that more players would play tank and healer on purpose. That didn’t happened, and a lot of flex players (who usually would fill for tank before) quit for not being able to flex anymore.
If anyone here played Dungeons & Dragons during its 3rd edition, you might remember that the Cleric class was stupidly strong, and one of the developers actually went forward and said they made the class OP on purpose, so that more people would play Cleric.
IMO, Overwatch need a similar approach. Make tanks and healers stupidly OP so that more people play them now. Later you can tone them down bit by bit. But you need more tank players now to solve a ton of issues about role queue.
There is also the issue of “working on it” can have varying levels of work involved. It could just mean some one brought it up in a meeting once, some janitor drew a doodle on the wall once saying 2-2-2.
I some what doubt it was a major project until goats hit the scene as the base mechanics seem very simple in terms of game code. Also remember they were “working” on a big social update as well and well that didn’t happen.
Honestly only way I can see this being worked on for a year is if they just kept failing to come up with anything good and just gave up in the end and went with what we have.
Are you sure? I mean it may not be to the degree that was expected, but as someone who was almost exclusively a DPS player I’ve played a lot of tank since role queue came out. I have to imagine I’m not the only person who did.
Every game is 2-2-2 which means every role has to have a ~33.33% pick rate. This may fluctuate on sites like overbuff slightly based on inaccurate samples or leavers, but it literally cannot be anything else. And we don’t have exact numbers.
I was referring to the Pre-Role Q pickrates, sorry if I wasn’t clear on that.
As for your 33.33%, that’s is extremely off as there are substantially more people queuing as DPS than any other role, the long queue times are proof of this.
In the context of overbuff statistics we are talking about per-match statistics. I realize there is not a 1:1:1 ratio of players for all roles. That would be a very unreasonable expectation
Devs can’t put out too many balance changes because they’d be spending too much money on patch approvals from Microsoft, Sony and now Nintendo.
Part of the reason why 2-2-2 was such a mess and there wasn’t any changes for so long is because they’re waiting for the Switch release.
This may sound harsh but I honestly believe the game would’ve been balanced better if it was PC only.
Where is your data for this? Not saying you’re wrong but it certainly sounds like a blanket statement with no real legs to stand on aside from “I’ve heard” this is coming from a flex player as well that loves roleque
Because according the by far the most trustworthy source of information we have concerning this game, official developer statements, the majority of the player base really enjoys 2/2/2 role - lock and no random and anecdotal at best statement suggesting otherwise can change that…
It was rushed sure, and it was said so, but with a promise of quicker update and reaction on to making things work.
Sadly the promise didn’t come quick enough.
Of course it took well over a year. They were talking about logistics of it a year ago. Its not hard to understand why it would take a year to rewrite the games MMR system from the ground up as well as begin tracking what other people are playing at to make sure that the system is doing it correctly.
As for changes aimed at GOATS, you cannot just abandon the game for a year until a feature is out under the guise that “yes the game is a mess now but in a year we will fix it,” and they clearly do not mind most of those changes as most have stuck around and tanks are still the role defining the meta as they always are.
There are 2 conflicting issues that cause a problem:
Issue 1 - The game is sold as an FPS and naturally has attracted players who want to play an FPS and shoot things. They have created too much demand for the DPS role.
Issue 2 - The game is designed around the premise of classes and people doing their job correctly to win.
For example someone on Rein isn’t particularly playing and FPS, it’s more a MOBA and the requirements are knowing when to be aggressive and when to be defensive. Someone on Mercy isn’t playing an FPS, they’re playing a kind of juggling game with health/damage boost with elements of…kind of a bullet hell? (spend all game running from enemies).
Issue 1 and issue 2 clash because it can be argued that the classes that aren’t DPS don’t really offer players the FPS experience they thought they were signing up for.
The result is the jumbled mess of a game we have now. Pre 222 you’d have multiple dps teams and people switching off the ‘not fun roles’ at the slightest whiff of a lost team fight. Post 222 you have the same problem, but people have to pick the most DPS-centric hero on whatever class they have queued for (damage only Moira, Sniper Ana, Roadhog etc.)
So balancing now becomes less about actual game balance, and more about how to make heroes ‘fun’ for people to play…a.k.a how much like a dps character become before they are broken.
Honestly I think the biggest mistake with the concept of this game is that it relies too heavily on the classes. Mercy is a healer first and foremost, and her secondary function is a character in an FPS game for example.
Now look at a game like Apex Legends. Vastly different in concept, but look at the way the hero classes have been handled. Every character is a DPS first and foremost, because the developers realised that it would be the most popular role (this is a shooter after all) and their perks are minor and secondary.
As a result, if you don’t have a healer in Apex you don’t automatically lose the game, you just don’t have the healing perk. This means that the game doesn’t have to place restrictions like role queue. It also means that things like GOATS don’t happen because the hero abilities don’t stack up to a broken mess.
