Map Rotation / Map Creation

2+ years and this game STILL doesnt have a proper map rotation or map selection tool (one so i dont have to play numbani, hollywood or lunar colony 5 times a day) … kind of boring just playing the same 5 maps, day after day.

having a map creation tool would be nice as well so that i can make some maps that dont rely on a choke point …

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There is no means to choose which maps you play. Such a feature would negatively impact matchmaking times and map selections to not only those who enable such a feature but to those who don’t enable it. For competitive mode, it is also important to demonstrate the ability to perform on any map in the pool. Now, I do anticipate future Competitive seasons will eventually introduce a limited map pool that you queue into (like 3 maps from each type) which changes each season.

As far as a map editor goes, the development team does have on their “wish list”, but given the fact Overwatch uses its own game engine and a majority of assets are built from scratch, this will not happen any time soon.

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uh, no it wont. i fail to see how selecting certain maps would negatively affect map matching times ?? If anything, it should improve times since the MMR algorithm doesnt have to lookthru all 20 maps to find one. (not that it does anyway, it only looks thru 5 or 6 tops, which is why i constantly play on the same 5 maps daily).

As for comp … OWL and the pros have their choice of what maps they want to play on … but the peons cant ?? thats BS. they get to practice the maps they choose and get better on before that have their scrim … so having that abilty here would be beneficial. Especially since there are maps i NEVER play on (busan and rialto mostly) and if i get them in comp, ima gonna suck on them. Being able to select those maps to play and practice on in qp, again, would be beneficial.

AS for the whole map editor …yeah, i get that jeff said that but that was 2 years ago. It would be nice to get an update on that. Id rahter have them work on that over new broken heroes or crappy skins. Yes heroes and skins are ok, but releasing 3 maps a year is pretty crappy. Tapping into the community for maps is a good idea. Other FPS games have done it (thats why TF2 has over 100 stock maps now. if they only released 3 a year, they would only have 30) … as for that whole game engine malarchy … after 20+ maps, they already have a ton of assets that they use over and over again in their maps. Yes, the main basis is built from scratch but even then, if you look close, you will see similar items in every map. Look at other games’ map editors and you’ll see its not that hard to create a map. Some of the better ones are simple layouts with limited color. it would be a huge step in the right direction for OW to do this.

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i think it would be a fun thing to mess around with…having a map editor that is

and maybe add a “custom map” mode where a few select maps are put into rotation (custom made maps that was approved by blizzard)…at the end of each game for a particular map, people can cast a “vote” (once a day, or week limit)

and the winner would be selected and “optimized” to blizzards “standards” and released…

(pipe dreamm)

this is exactly what TF2 has done for years (mostly since they quit creating their own content and have used maps/skins/etc from the community) … it would increase the amount of content to the game and have people become a little more invested in it.

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I’m just going to reply to each paragraph so I don’t have to quote.

Paragraph 1. That’s just not how matchmaking works. The matchmaking right now will find players and then choose a map. The map is random an has no effect on queue times. If players could disallow certain maps, there would be many pools of players (as certain players disallow different maps) instead of one pool of players, resulting in longer queues.

Paragraph 2. Owl players do not choose maps. They are assigned. I get it can be difficult to learn new maps. When new maps are released they are released in the arcade, so you can only play that map for practice. If you missed the window of opportunity there’s always custom games.

Paragraph 3. Maps are designed in a certain way to be competitive and balanced for both teams. It is people’s jobs to do this. Custom maps would never be allowed in competitive. So, I believe that is no where near the list of development, as they have higher priorities as this is a competitive game.

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Maybe, but if i get longer queue lines so i dont play the same 5 maps over and over … where do i sign up ?? im all up for that and im quite sure i aint the only one. This is also a way to tell OW what certain maps are well liked and which ones arent and need to be reworked.

No one plays custom games. Its dumb to have to make a custom game just to play the maps i like. This is why a proper map rotation is needed. I dont mind playing dumbani or lunar colony if i know the next map is going to be one i like. Other FPS games have this already, if not from the start … there is reason, other than laziness, to not have this here.

Lastly, i dont care for comp. Tried it, made plat for 3 season, too much toxicity for me. So your arguments against map creation to be used in comp falls on deaf ears. I dont make maps for the comp scene, i make maps to be fun and interesting. Not to mention, you assume that custom map makers dont know how to make balanced maps or good maps that can be used in comp, which is false. for example, lets say that OW does start a map creation tool and allows the community to vote on ones they want to see in rotation. One of mine gets picked and then gets reworked (finessed if you want to say), there is no reason that wouldnt get used in comp since now its part of the stock map rotation and has been accepted by the dev team.

I appreciate your comments.

Well depending on how it would affect queue times I’m sure some would agree with you. But I’m sure many would not as well. Solution could be - at match start there would be three random maps selected. All players vote for one of the three maps. (system in place for Guild Wars 2)

In game design, everything comes down to priorties. I believe the dev team, and myself and other players, feel there are much higher priorities to allocate their time to.

And I will say, pros definitely use custom games. And I know average players do not have the tools to have teams and set up scrims, myself included. This is why I believe guilds and team queue should be priorities, but that’s just my opinion.

Now your ideas of map creation. If the devs would take player created maps, tweak them and throw them in the rotation, that would be great. But your asking for a lot… That would require so much time just to created the tool, and then inplement it to the game, etc. And as we were talking about priorities I just don’t see that as an option for the future.

Overwatch is a competitive game first. After reading your posts I believe maybe their might just be better games for you, more alligned with your ideas. Fortnite just released a custom map mode, for example.

no, its not. comp wasnt initially part of release. not to mention, there are more than just one game mode in this game. comp is a part, yes. but its not the main part. at least not for those of us that dont play comp.

also, thats pretty lame for your answer to be “go play fortnight” …

Im not saying go play fortnite, just offering a game that has what your looking for. It has been obvious with owl and updates over the last two years this game is not going in the direction you are looking, with competitive play being the main focus.