May 24th Reddit AMA - All developer responses here!

Q: Have you considered adding a ping like system into the game? It would be really help with communication

Aaron Keller: We’ve definitely considered this. In fact we have a protoype of it running internally right now. We don’t make a habit of promising things to players until they are actually announced and I’m not going to break that tradition right now (I’m sure I’ll blow it at some other point in this AMA), but it is something that we are excited about as a team and are working through issues currently.

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hmmm…thats a very different answer from what Jeff has said in past if im not mistaken…

pretty sure previous answers (since its been asked MANY times) has been that they dont really see it being that helpful in OW environment

Q: Will we ever be able to use custom assets in workshop mode? Custom maps would go far, but also custom models for making your own hero.

Will OW ever be moddable? Will we ever be able to host custom servers?

John LaFleur: Aaron would love it if we could get this in! Unfortunately, that’s a really complicated problem for us given how our asset system works. We’ve tried, and will continue to try, to expand workshop as much as we can to extend custom creation as far as possible. But custom assets is a massive challenge. It’s been something we’ve wanted to give to the community for years, but up to now we just haven’t found the right way to deliver it without an unrealistic investment of resources.

Q: What are the PvP map types for Gothenberg and India?

Aaron Keller: Not Scott but I’ll answer it all the same. I don’t think we’ve officially announced PvP maps for either of these locations… however if we were to make maps for them I think it would be a great idea if they were built for some super exciting, as yet unnannounced game mode.

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lol…wink wink answer…

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Q: Will 2/2/2 Role Q and Open Q stay in the game as an option? If yes: Will the modes be balanced separately from 5v5? If no: Do you have any bones to throw to the people who play regular Tank Duo or 6 stacks? Maybe a new mode where they can still play together?

Scott Mercer: 2/2/2 Role Queue will become 1/2/2 Role Queue due to the move to 5v5, and we’ll probably still have Open Queue but that’s not set in stone yet since hero balance will be quite different in OW2.

We might have an Arcade card that still has 6 player teams in the future, we’ll honestly have to evaluate all of them with an eye towards how they work with the new hero balance.

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4v4 mystery gauntlet dm confirmed lol jk

Does anyone have a reddit account that can ask about notifications for reports on console? I can’t make a reddit, I am at work. And Wyoming seems too busy atm to ask

Q: In the livestream we saw that Mei had lost her freeze and it was mentioned that mcree was probably losing his stun. As you want the Tank role to be more crowd control oriented rather than dps and in turn you were looking possibly nerfing mobility due to the less cc options available. My question is how is this going to effect someone like Doomfist and to lesser extent hammond were their kits relies so much on cc and mobility to function correctly that reducing both these things could utterly destroy the character in both balance and class fantasy.

Geoff Goodman: This is something we’re actually in the middle of testing right now. The idea is to reduce crowd control (especially stun) effects on non-tank heroes.

This doesn’t mean that tanks will gain more CC, or that they will lose damage and focus on CC more. Its more that by removing some CC effects on existing non-tank heroes, it means that the the current tank lineup would retain the majority of the CC effects as part of their role. This not only gives Tanks something unique and interesting about their role, but it significantly reduces the amount of CC effects in the game as a whole, especially in a world where there is only 1 tank per team.

This isn’t a hard rule either. Currently we’re pretty happy with Ana’s sleep dart, for example, so I don’t think we’d change it just to fit within this new paradigm.

As for Doomfist/Hammond, well Hammond is a tank so its ok that he has more CC effects. Doomfist is a hero we’d need to look at though, for other reasons as well (he can be frustrating to play against for other reasons).

I’d say the more pressing matter, for us, is how powerful Doomfist/Hammond and other high-mobility heroes such as Tracer can be in a world where there is a lot less CC to control/stop them.

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I asked if we will get this voice line again

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i can totally see it on a new hero…but i have a feeling shield gen wont be coming back…not when theyre trying to speed the game up

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Q: While I really like the idea of changing the look of the heroes, will they come out as THE default look of the characters in Overwatch 1 or they will be like an exclusive skin for the look of Overwatch 1 players? (Or maybe not be seen at all?)

Also, will these new looks affect the skins already released in the game?

Arnold Tsang: The new look of the heroes will be the default look in Overwatch 2. Your skins from Overwatch 1 will carry over and the new looks won’t affect them.

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Q: Would giving dps the role passive of dealing more damage to barriers work?

Scott Mercer: That’s an interesting idea, and how players interact with barriers is something we’re always looking at closely. This might not as be required with the new 5v5 teams that only have one tank, and therefore less barriers on the field. We’ll keep an eye on it as we continue to work on hero and gameplay balance.

Thanks!

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Interesting that Tank is the CC role now.

Q: What was the funniest bug behind-the-scenes?

Bill Warnecke: I know this wasn’t “behind the scenes” because it was a live bug, but when I asked our QA team for a bug that stood out to them they linked me this bug. The linked pictures are nightmare fuel, but also absolutely hillarious.

One that’s more behind the scenes, when we first implemented Ashe if there were any BOBs alive at the end of the match they would vote on the end of round cards… AI will definitely take over the world some day.

I’ll take this post as chance to thank all of our amazing QA folks, you’re all amazing.

Images in discussion for reference:

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Q: Favorite piece of concept art for a character or map that didn’t quite make the cut and what made it special to you?

David Kang: My favorite concept art that didn’t make the cut was the Legendary version of the Pachimari Roadhog skin. We decided to do an Epic version of the skin instead due to time constraints. As the creator of Pachimari, I’m always down to cram more Pachimari to the game!

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I more so want the voice line itself

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Q: Aaron said recently that they were looking to announce something big for OW1. What is a rough estimate on when we can hear news about this new feature?

Aaron Keller: We have several exciting things coming to Overwatch. As far as rough estimates go - one large feature will be announced somewhere in the timeframe between soon and really soon.

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Q: I’d love to hear from Geoff/Scott how the underlying philosophy of how OW has changed over the years and into OW2. How have (if at all) the objectives for what you want players to feel in game changed going into this next “era” of sorts for OW?

Geoff Goodman: For OW1, most of the philosophy changes have been small tactical changes throughout the game’s life, rather than large sweeping changes. The biggest sweeping changes to philosophy were when we went to single hero limit, and then later to role lock.

At its heart, the game has always been about super over-the-top heroes, that are simple to understand but have a lot of depth in gameplay, especially when combined with other heroes on your team. When making new heroes, or changing old ones, its a constant fight for us internally to try and make sure the heroes are simple and focused from a gameplay perspective. This has been gotten harder over time as we add new heroes and push to keep every hero feeling unique at the same time.

For OW2, this core philosophy is still the same, but we’re looking at some of these things in somewhat of a new light. We’re still pushing hard to keep heroes simple and deep, but there are some specifics we’ve changed such as more aggressive tank play which can change how we make Tank heroes.

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soon™