Dear dev team, is there any reason, technical or not, that makes you design maps with no verticality other than a platform above a point or a walkway?
How about maps where two objectives are right on top of eachother with lifts and a lot of opportunities to use heroes that can fly/jump/climb maybe a big rocket silo with spiral of ramps to get a payload into a rocket, or “Kings Row 2” that takes place in the omnic underground city below the last point? Or maybe a layered map where the whole game plays on multi-level interchange with overpasses and tunnels (Talon terrorist attack on abtransport hub would be a nice lore twist for the map).
That would require completely different comps from all the “flat” maps, completely different platstyles and, what I think is most important, this would make the cyrrent meta even more varied, as people would have to completely change some of their habits.
Maps like that would also allow heroes get value out of their abilities instead of flat stats. High skill mine jumping and rocket jumping would sufdenly be a much more valuable skill, teleporter placement could win games instead of being a mostly ignored gimmick right now.
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I’d rather not enforce the “every hero must have stupid mobility to be good” thing Blizz are going for.
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It’s not as bad as You may think. Horizontal mobility (blinks, speed boosts etc.) would not be that useful with a lot of verticality, while now less relevant abilities would be much more important. I would call it a focus shift, as it seems more fitting.
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Veritcal mobility is universally useful where as horizontal mobility is only useful on horizontal maps. If a map is too vertically oriented, then heroes that simply can’t reach high places quick enough would never have a purpose on those maps. Furthermore, you also run the risk of that map being more one-sided, as the team with the highground advantage would maintain that steep advantage over their enemy the entire map.
If we’re going to get a vertical oriented map, we’d most likely see it as a single control point map where that acts at the main gimmick. Even then I could see that being problematic, as victory would more or less go to whichever team gets to the point first and not much else. A highground advantage is huge in Overwatch, so any map that lets you hold onto that too freely is going to have balancing challenges.
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I think it could work far better as a deathmatch or some sort of pve/story mode map
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they tried the jump pad with the release of Oasis but they saw that it didn’t really work out so they left it to DM and such…
It would definitely mix things up a bit. There are so much mechanics that could compliment this type of terrain; moving platforms that allow access if timed correctly, hazardous pits or drops that will delay heroes… with the mix of transporters vs boopers, it will give some heroes with appropriate kits a chance to shine.
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And uou can add many jump platforms to the map
pretty much this, sucks for hog
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I’d actually rather see a map with zero verticality. No high ground at all. Would be interesting to see the strategies for that sort of map since we already have a good amount of verticality on existing maps.
The only reason I’d enjoy a heavily vertical map is if the higher platforms or higher ground was easily accessible to the less mobile heroes, which would have to include a LOT of jump pads/moving platforms/an entirely new feature. And the only reason I’d enjoy this sort of map in the competitive/quick play map pool is if you didn’t have to sit there 5-10 seconds and wait for the platform to come down. I’d rather not spend half the match standing around waiting for my only path to the rest of the map to open up if I decide to play something with zero vertical mobility.
Uh, Will there be cover on such maps? Otherwise a widow will be able to grapple on buildings and headshot.
Or else GOATs will flourish (resident sleeper) and if the other team picks Pharah, without vertical mobility or cover, McCree/Soldier (swapped with Brigitte) will delete her.
Do we really need more GOATs?
If you eliminate all high ground, you open up opportunities to have different map geometry. Such as winding hallways of different sizes, multiple paths and flank routes, and obstacles like pillars. When I say map with no verticality I don’t mean a straight map with nothing in the middle.
Yes, lets make a map that half the heroes cant use in any way, and which would just make dive extremely popular on that map, and where snipers would be extremely powerful again on.
Most of the heroes in overwatch cant climb, fly, or jump that high. heres a list of the biggest contenders:
Orisa
Reinhardt
Roadhog
Zarya
Bastion
Mccree
Mei
Soldier
Torbjörn
Ana
Brigitte
Moira
Zenyatta
One of the most vertical maps atm is Horizon, since it has a lot of highground, and people have shown immense hate towards it… Kings row is loved because although it has high ground, most of the core gameplay is happening on the ground, it was designed that the team would stay on the payload, and not high in the skies.
Because vertical movement is OP. And there are plenty of maps that have it already.
Vertical access heavily favors mobility comps, so it’s nice to have some maps in the rotation with limited vertical to help even things out.
Hell the best mobility anyone of those heroes have, is soldiers and bastions rocket jump, moiras 5 feet dash, brigittes bash jump, meis wall which is incredibly unreliable, mccrees roll, and zaryas bomb jump. Which aside from wall, roll, and dash, all hurt the player.
I like this.Yes we need some maps with a vertical style instead of point a and point b always horizontal stuff
I’m still waiting for them to replace elevators on Volskaya and Hollywood with Jump Pads.
Maps should be designed in such a way that hinders Dive, instead of encouraging it as the most efficient teamcomp.
I basolutely agree with You on this subject. Having some map mechanics to help heroes with less mobility to be able to also work on such map would be a must. They would have a slight disadvantage, but that’s the whole point of having various maps work with various comps.