I don't know how active the devs are in reading this, but have you guys ever tried doing more than 6 heroes in your experiments?

The game might be moving into 2021, but the engine was still made prior to 2016. There were technical limitations back then that don’t exist now. I don’t know how hard it is to edit or upgrade an existing game engine, but I doubt it’s simple enough to do while the game is still active and running.

For all we know, maybe it’s in the plans with the new engine for Overwatch 2. Though I doubt it would be the default, since Overwatch has been running on 6v6 for so long. I wouldn’t put it past them to add larger modes if the new engine can handle it.

1 Like

The year doesn’t matter - the game was designed for 6v6. Adding more will break things.

It’s generally not very easy. Changing one line of code can break 10 other lines of code, and fixing those could break another 100 lines of code.

3 Likes

then theres the issue that the tech strain as they’re not leaving behind original overwatch players…well, even if they could manage it in overwatch 2, the fact that overwatch 1 players would still be on the old, unoptimized game would cause more problems.

1 Like

There’s always the possibility of

a) they put the original Overwatch under maintence for a few days to upgrade the engine
or
b) larger game modes are exclusive to Overwatch 2

People, even in 7v7 or 8v8, “if strawberry doesn’t taste better”, if tanks are not improved or released from restrict synergies, even then there won’t be enough people playing tank!

As I read this, it’s technically not impossible, but would take serious resources that might not be worth the pay-off.

If they did ever do it, I think they’d need to feel they could fully commit to it as a sure thing and not just an experiment.

2 Likes

I mean, if the game was in it’s development phase, you might have a point, but OW was specifically designed for 6v6. Everything: game design, graphics, visibility on the battlefield ,ect is going to shape itself around that number.

The issue isn’t the game engine, it’s the server strain. The servers are outfitted with hardware that has a set amount of headroom specifically to handle 6 vs 6 without behaving erratically.

Going above that in 7 vs 7 or 8 vs 8 exceeds the headroom and forces the server to either drop inputs, cause desync errors, or crash the server.

Think of it like… the number of cupcakes you made for a 12 person party so that you have some leftovers, but everyone gets at least 1 cupcake. You’d need like 13 or 14 cupcakes… now imagine bringing that same number of cupcakes (13 or 14) to a party that has 16 or 18 attendees – some of them aren’t going to get a cupcake, and those that do might have to share and sacrifice their portion to make sure there everyone feels satisfied, and that usually doesn’t go well.

The only other alternative to make sure the party goes smoothly, is to make/buy more cupcakes, which might exceed your budget for the party. now imagine this repeated for hundreds of thousands of parties, it gets prohibitively expensive and costs potentially 1.25x - 10x more than you expected to spend on cupcakes… that breaks the bank

This isn’t necessarily about code, it’s just a server player limit… we’ve had this for decades in dedicated servers across multiple generations of games.

3 Likes

I have never understand why they cant upgrade the game engines? in hots… wow… OW… I mean isnt a bit silly to have an engine in which u cant update or replace her without a drowback? its 2021 jesus…

1 Like

It is a bit disappointing that they will stick to upgrading such a limited engine then. A new engine would make the sequel take much longer to make im sure, but it would make the game more capable into the deeper future.

Wasnt there a bug in custom game at one point that let people have dozens of AI opponents…and the game didnt crash?

2 Likes

do…do you make games? or program?

They could upgrade it, but doing so would require time, resources, money. Most of all, it would require the shutdown of servers and the game, likely for at least a year.

I could not understand the ironic part of the 1st line. As I said on my post, I cant understand why they cant upgrade the engine. It is not a troll phrase or something, it was the truth, I dont have that kind of experience. Anyway!
Since they need to shut down the game for a year at least. Can they upgrade the engine for example for the Overwatch 2? and release it like they do? so we jump to the upgraded engine without losing the current game?

especially because there are some games (not saying they are good, but still), that are able to achieve 100 people in a lobby all fighting each other to the death, while having a moving circle where they have to rotate to every minute or so while shooting and building stuff.

They can’t increase team player count yet because that requires a bunch of system modifications. OW2 has to be done first before they even consider it.

Considering the amount of money Overwatch brings in, money shouldn’t be an issue

Jesus christ. I couldn’t imagine the comms.

1 Like

No one beats Bethesda though.

1 Like

That’s actually an important point… voice comms in these large raid groups are crazy. Humans generally can work with a quick memory of seven things, so 6-7 is about the right team number. Beyond that things start to get… weird.

Alas, we both know the Activision suits will squeeze every penny cuz heaven forbid they don’t get that 10th yacht.

More than straight cash though, I’m thinking of “resources” more in the sense of limited devs and their time (and seemingly quite a bit of it) being pulled away from other work and they’re bound to already be stretched with OW2. And of course, any team composition is going to throw balance into the wind all over again.

I’m personally inclined to believe it would be worth it in the long run, but I can definitely see why they’d want to avoid it. I do wonder if the response to 1/3/2 might’ve made them any more inclined towards it though.