I’ll think up another thread on something like this for Overwatch.
Been trying to think how Overwatch could have a system of doing callouts, without too much clutter.
So far what I got is something like the current voicecoms wheel they have. But with 8 directions (updownleftright and diagonals), then one layer deeper for 8 more.
Alternatively
Updownleftright (4), then 3 directions off of each of those (12)
Kinda depends whether it’s a mouse input or controller input.
But yeah, guess it would be nice to brainstorm what sort of callouts they could do with that many options.
Or heck, they could kick it up to 64 options
If they had an 8 sided wheel, that goes into eight choices for 8 sided wheels.
That would be a ton of callouts.
https://i.imgur.com/8fZA2hi.png
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I already like 2 things about the idea.
1st more customization
2nd more voice lines (that also serve a ingame purpose and can give a advantage)
I’m actually liking my third idea.
8 sided wheel, of 8 sided wheels. For 64 options.
Or heck, 8 sided wheel of 4 sided wheels gets you 32 options
With that many options you could have a callout for a situation, and it could even dynamically update based on the enemy/friendly character name
I.e. HEALS --> Zarya
And the game should automatically point to the location of the Zarya.
Or AMBUSH --> Genji
And it could do a marker similar to a Zen Orb. Where if it’s behind you, the marker moves on the bottom of the screen, otherwise it’s where it is on screen.
While I think your intentions are good, I don’t think this is something the community should worry about. Yes the comms wheel is mostly irrelevant, but the current iteration is fine for how the game is played.
In competitive play, you only ever might have a chance at needing to use commands like “group up” to ping your location relative to your teammates.
Pinging your ult charge is useful for giving your team the knowledge that you intend to use your ultimate soon.
Commands like “Above you” or “Behind you” are irrelevant. Assuming this is to notify a teammate of a flanker, this requires the player to go through a series of time wasting actions.
- They notice the flanker
- They turn towards a teammate, aim at them, and input a command. (At which point they have stopped applying pressure on the enemy team, and are not actively applying pressure on the flanker)
- They then decide whether to shoot the flanker or shoot the enemy team.
In the time it would take to do all of this, you have probably allowed said flanker to take a position or even jump a teammate without actually taking an action that would prevent them from doing so. It is faster to act, than input a bunch of commands that a teammate would then have to notice and react to.
This game is too fast paced for this to be worth looking into, and gameplay changes like this are irrelevant for casual play.
So again, while your heart is in the right place, your idea has some drawbacks that make it not even worth development time. Apex has a ping system, and is a slower game with only 2 other players on your team as opposed to 5.
That’s why it would be good if this could all be accomplished with 3 button presses and maybe a camera angle.
I.e. Bring up wheel, click, click
Then the game can automatically fill in the gaps. On TARGET, ACTION, LOCATION
I think a simple “Enemy over there” location ping would be much superior than anything player-targeted. It requires less precision, is faster because it could be mapped to a button press rather than multiple. The wheel is already a poor design for what you are trying to create with your idea, because it takes too much precious time.
However, I think you’re still missing the point of what I said. No matter the speed at which you can do this, if it’s anything more than a fraction of a second, it’s time wasted that could be better spent actively responding to a flank than informing someone about it. Voice is powerful because you can do both without any time wasted. Three inputs is still too many for this to be efficient.
If I’m understanding correctly, your suggestion is to bury the commands a layer or two deeper in sub-menus, so they can’t be done instantaneously anymore? That doesn’t sound beneficial…
Half of the ones listed in the image above (behind you, help me, sniper, good job) are automatically triggered, anyway, some of which are certainly more effective as automatic contextual events than trying to manually convey that information.
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At most, just 1 layer deeper.
And possibly make it so the first layer still does something.
People who predate voice chat can churn out keyboard calls really fast if the binding allows for it.
Well that’s the other approach.
Instead of a wheel, maybe go for a VGS system.
I believe i heard them say they wanted to allow us to customize our commands like this.
Would be sick if it happened.
Now that I think about it, VGS could work.
For instance, how TRIBES did it.
people should just get a basic headset and be done with it…
But we could use is a in game tutorial standardizing call out terminology…
this would also help in the EU where languages are kind of diverse as hell…
having some common terminology meakes it easier for those who dont have english as their first language.
a UI is always going to take up to much time… also easier to trigger the wrong call out by mistake…
Also if people are trained on good call out protocol then they will use voice chat less for bad stuff like hurling abuse at each other which helps no one…
Take a look at this video.
This is a triple button click.
How much time does it seem like it takes?
What about a “GGEZ” voice line?
more efficient spamming is not more efficient communication
that would take to much time to use effectively…
So just limit how frequently you can use it.
EZ is just rude!
frankly people should never say that EVER!
GG is fine though.
it’s less rude just to t-bag someone then to EZ the other team.
They could always copy Paladins where you press 3 or 4 letter combinations for callouts/voicelines, it works once you start memorizing the combos…
it’s still takes to much time you cant navigate menus and effectivly call out stuff at the same time… its just not practical beyond something basic like e key bound ult charge call out or possibly a group up here…
if you have to navigate a menu then it takes too much time…
There is just no substitute for a headset and an agreed upon standard terminology for quick and efficient call outs
