Geoff appreciation thread

[DiegoDC-11718]

Oh great Geoff, what are your thoughts on Bastion? We have seen lots of changes for heroes that actually deserve them, but no news about the beeping robot.

[Orion-15156]

Geoff, I have a question for you. Is there a design reason for your own hacks (as Sombra, obviously) showing up as red on enemy players? It looks a lot like some random enemy buff effect instead of a debilitating status effect, which is bad for readability.

For example, it doesn’t stand out at all when looked at side-by-side with the likes of nano, bubbles, visor, etc.:
https://i.imgur.com/yCLYetK.png

I whipped up a photoshop of what I’d prefer it looked like on enemy players:
https://i.imgur.com/7vLIhFR.png

Of note is that it’s already purple on health packs and enemy buildables (although buildables also flash a red skull for some reason) and the OWL spectator client colors all hacks to match the Sombra that did the hacking, e.g. Danteh’s hacks are all green if the Outlaws are the home team.

[watyll-1178]

i think we need to slow down on the questions, too many questions might make it impossible to choose any single one to answer

[GreyFalcon-11737]

@Alexisǃ-1278

if junkrat got the 0.3 projectile size back he would be perfect

theres no need for all these absurd junkrat changes

is the dev team thinking about reverting his nade size at all?

Well as always, I think this would be a better fit:

@GreyFalcon-11737

• Before Grenade Bounce: 0.3m grenade trigger radius
• After Grenade Bounce: 0.2m grenade trigger radius

Would prevent directly fired Junkrat grenades from clipping through the enemy character model.

And it would reward “Aimed Shots” over “Spammed Shots”.

[GreyFalcon-11737]

@GeoffGoodman

I think that’s certainly possible. Overall her healing output is still higher than the other healers, which she pays for by not being able to split focus and do other things while healing. I’d also love to be able to increase the power of her damage boosting, but it causes a lot of issues with various breakpoints where suddenly X hero can one-shot 200 health heroes etc. There are other ways to make it feel better without just adding raw damage though, we’ll see.

Well there are a couple ways to fix that.

Such as:

@GreyFalcon-11737

Mercy

Caduceus Staff

Empower

• Cooldown ability for the Reload button on Caduceus Staff.
• Activates the following capabilities for 2 seconds:
  • Healing per second raised to 100, from 50.
  • Damage boosted bullets and non-explosives now pierce through multiple enemies.
• 10 second cooldown, starting after the ability finishes.

@GreyFalcon-11737

When Mercy switches to her weapon, she would hold the blaster in her left hand, and the staff in her right hand.

• Left click = Blaster
• Right click = Reduced HPS heal beam
• Both can be used simultaneously.

Would make it so that the weapon switch almost acts more like a “Stance Switch” from some fighting games.

Would give Mercy players more fun, decisions and playstyle variety.
Without significantly raising the power of Mercy.

[micachu-21379]

Also Muda would really appreciate it if the teleporter always appears in a consistent spot. Even if that means directly below you.

This is so important, yes. Having it build directly below you would be huge.

[Lotus-13637]

@VenusArmani-1354

Geoff, why have you guys abandoned separate console balancing? Why do you feel console is so drastically different right now from PC?I don’t think the difference has ever felt so extreme.

If it’s alright with you, mind if I just modify this question of yours a slight amount? My modification isn’t as much as you might think.

Perhaps this might just be my opinion, but I would modify it to, "Why have you guys abandoned Console in general?"

I know that Geoff manages balance, but the fact that they don’t even respond to Console issues is a bigger concern in my humble opinion. And while I can’t speak for others on this, I can say that it’s partially the reason why I haven’t really touched OW in a long time, even despite being able to play it on PC now. It’s the fact that I can relate to Console Players in this front that has amplified my bitterness in their lack of communication to the Console playerbase.

With that in mind:

@GeoffGoodman

Thanks!

Overwatch is certainly a challenging game to both tune and continually add new/interesting content. When I think back to how the game was in beta, or even launch, I feel like we’ve come a long way since then. Remember, there was a time when McCree’s fan the hammer did full damage per bullet, Zenyatta had 150 health, Pharah’s Conc Blast did 700 damage to shields/barriers (poor Zen…), Reinhardt’s charge had no “wind up”, it would just come out instantly and pin/kill anyone in front of him.

That said we’re committed to continue to update and tune the game. Although there will always be some changes that will not be popular with some players, know that the the goal is always to keep every hero unique and powerful for everyone.

While I’m here i might as well clear up a couple minor misconceptions I see occasionally about my history at Blizzard. Previous to the Overwatch team I worked on World of Warcraft as an encounter designer. I made a ton of different content from dungeons like Shadowfang Keep, Deadmines, and Gnomeregan, to raid encounters like Onyxia, Blackwing Lair, C’Thun and Lich King. From there I moved directly onto Titan which eventually became Overwatch. While I have great respect for the designers over on the the Heroes of the Storm team, I never worked on that project other than occasionally sending feedback or talking to various designers over lunch etc.

Geoff, can you answer the question that I’ve posted above please? Why have you guys abandoned Console in general? Not just in terms of separate balance, but in regards to other issues as well. I’m not arguing against the fact that patches take time to release because of Sony/MS certs. But with the lack of communication that I’ve seen from you guys with regards to issues on the Console versions of the game, I feel like you guys are not treating your Console playerbase the same as your PC playerbase.

Surely you guys on the Overwatch Team have seen this thread by now; haven’t you?

[failbender-1105]

Really? Is that why her damage boost has been completely altered?? Can we get some response to this?

Damage Boost Testing on PTR

Sorry if this has already been done before, but the other day I did some changed!damage boost testing with a few people (and a Bastion AI that proved very slippery) and found some things out. I did this with Mercy, so I am very curious to see if things are different for Orisa’s drum as well, because if that is the case, it’s a severe nerf to her. Sort of. Ashe’s TNT: You must boost as she is throwing it to receive the full benefits of the damage boost. You do not have to boost for the enti…

[Andough-1183]

I thought the change just affected how damage boost is applied, not to the % it boosts.

[Mädŀąď-1913]

Man I know Gnomer like the palm of my hand, hope it makes a comeback in a blizzard game in the future.

[Lephret-11935]

Any hero on the rework radar? Like, a hero that you still plan to apply some changes but have a rework in mind if they don’t work?

[GreyFalcon-11737]

@Lotus-13637

Why have you guys abandoned Console in general?

I think that console would be good if they had an expanded circular chat menu, similar to what PayDay 2 has.

Possibly even have some slots for custom pre-defined chat messages.

[PuffyPony-1639]

I think they previously said that Bastion is the most likely candidate

[BigKingWoof-1535]

Hey, what do you know? We’ve been wanting to hear more from Devs all year, and all it took was some brown-nosing.

Nice.

[Afrostache-1599]

Thanks so much for all of your feedback! Can you address the issue where Bastion is a God when babysat and worthless while alone? Will there ever be changes to Bastion again along reworks?

[SpiritAnimal-11912]

Isn’t he the guy who thought Sym was in a good spot

Isn’t he the guy who just buffed sym?

[lobster-12673]

please buff her healing, playing with even a standard 2-2-2 comp as mercy feels horrible.

[Baja-11423]

Lol…i get on and see that i have 103 replies to this thread…and im like WTH…i wasnt expecting that many people to chime in…

oh…

Geoff replied…lol

hi Geoff! im humbled (dropping some nuggets!)

[Lotus-13637]

Exactly! I couldn’t agree with you more on that front.

Heck, even just some transparency on things related to Console would be very nice to see. But alas, they haven’t even responded to anything Console related in over 4 months. And that response was Jeff explaining how it is logistically challenging for them to implement a Console PTR. Just asking them to give us some sort of update, y’know?

[Baja-11423]

I made a ton of different content from dungeons like Shadowfang Keep, Deadmines, and Gnomeregan,

it just hit me they redid each one of those…wonder how he feels about that…