Overwatch Blizzard/Developer Post Directory - Last Updated: 9/12/2019

[VenusArmani-1354]

Michael Chu 瞿華明

Torbjorn Deadlock skin is non-canon

[Hypercype-1308]

Jeff Kaplan made a post on “I don’t like developer silence” and the information would be really useful!
Here’s his post:

I dont like developer silence

Hey… sorry! We don’t like being silent… that’s not our intention. we’ve been trying to show up more on various streams (we have our creator’s residency now here at Blizzard where streamers hang out with us) plus we did a bunch of streams at Blizzcon. maybe you missed those? We’re also in a bit of a “head’s down” mode trying to get a lot of work done. we also had a few people traveling over the thanksgiving holiday (we’re based in the US) and took advantage of the slow week to allow developers …

[Kaedi-11739]

Thanks for the heads up, I was eating a really tasty burrito when this apparently appeared. At least this post will be handy for a little while to keep people in the loop for now. I expect Mr. Kaplan will post a “New Years” Developer Update Video like he has done the past two years now, which gives an outlook on things to come. However, this post proves my expectations of the dev team right now that they are working hard to make Overwatch better but it is taking a lot of time.

The post has been added to the Development Challenges section.

[Hypercype-1308]

really tasty burrito

What was it like?
We must know

[Hypercype-1308]

Hey Callie, I’ve noticed a thing where people who have posted on a locked thread can edit their posts even after it has been locked, which can result in discussion still happening on a thread that was supposed to be silenced.

Are you or anyone else aware of this? Will there be a fix on the way?
Thanks in advance.

[Kaedi-11739]

New update to the archives today…

First Tom Powers did a bump on a constructive topic in the Bug Report forum which significantly breaks down a VERY detailed report of suspected bugs for Doomfist and how they affect his current kit, identifying which are bugs and which are not. While I don’t typically document Blizzard responses to bugs, if most of these bugs are being resolved, it could result in a dramatic shift of balance for Doomfist. So for now it is going to be in the hero balance section for the time being.

• Tom Powers acknowledges several suspected bugs regarding Doomfist’s kit and what the development team is doing to resolve them. - Tom Powers - 12/14/2018 - Official Forums

Now I also caught up on several non-critical developer responses on Reddit from Lead Engineer Bill Warnecke, first he confirms a video advertisting an “Overwatch Mobile” game is indeed fake and any information collecting from it is a SCAM. Because of this, I am starting a new emoji, the icon, to denote such posts. The idea is to help spread the message that such content is a scam, but players MUST be careful to NOT go to the source content in order to protect their accounts.

• Bill Warnecke confirms the “Overwatch Mobile” video floating around on YouTube is fake and is considered a scam - Bill Warnecke - 12/08/2018 - Reddit

On a lighter note, Bill Warnecke also had positive reactions to fan-created content in the last few weeks:

• Bill Warnecke compliments on a fan creation of a Overwatch paint scheme on a car in the racing video game Gran Turismo Sport - Bill Warnecke - 12/14/2018 - Reddit
• Bill Warnecke compliments on a stop-motion animation featuring Wrecking Ball - Bill Warnecke - 11/20/2018 - Reddit

[ThickCoconut-2512]

Guys you should really buff dommfist, he need buffs, #BuffDoomfist

[Darkside007-1499]

You, uh, know Dinoflask does NOT do that, right?

[Kaedi-11739]

Game Director Jeff Kaplan is popping in on the forums today, this first post is not likely to be placed into the directory as it has little context outside of announcing an upcoming patch hopefully next week.

@JeffreyKaplan

We worked on a balance patch this week. We’re hoping to put that patch on the PTR next week. The last time I said that, it was late and everyone flipped out. So please, don’t flip out if things slip… they often do.

Also, there’s another cool little surprise coming next week. Excited!

(sorry no details at this time as changes are still in flux… the PTR will get notes when it goes out… no dev update)

However he did gives a little trip back down memory lane of what he remembers it was like to first play Overwatch. This post will be sorted into the Development History section

@JeffreyKaplan

I’ve been playing OW so long, I can remember when…

10/22/13

…Tracer used to shoot laser beams out of her eyeballs because we did not have a VFX system (or artist!) to render bullets yet.

[Kaedi-11739]

The directory has been updated with the lore drops from the new Bastet story.

COMICS & SHORT STORIES

• SHORT STORY - Soldier: 76 & Ana | Bastet

SOLDIER: 76

• Michael Chu confirms that Soldier: 76 once had a relationship with a character named Vincent. Both identify as being gay. - Michael Chu - 1/7/2019 - Twitter

[SuperSciFi-11419]

RIP Briggette. Rippity Rip.

And also I really like reaper, but 50% is too much.

[Kaedi-11739]

There were two key interviews in the Overwatch Creator’s Residency today with Game Director Jeff Kaplan.

• Jeff Kaplan interview with Emongg (Discusses Meta, Competitive, Game Features) - Jeff Kaplan - 1/7/2018 - Twitch
• Jeff Kaplan interview with Fran (Discusses Lore/Media, Competitive, Game Features) - Jeff Kaplan - 1/7/2018 - Twitch

On that note, I have moved all Interviews into a separate section in the Development & History section on the third post since most of those interviews have a huge variety of subjects discussed. If you want to discuss these interviews specifically, please see this topic:

Jeff Kaplan on Emongg's & Fran's streams (Concluded) - Talk about Competitive Changes & More

The interviews with Jeff Kaplan have concluded. See the notes below for highlights. I will update links both streams with the starting time indexes once the streams are completed today (which won’t be for several hours still). These interviews will also be listed in my dev post directory later as well. Update: both streams have concluded with the VOD now available. I have time indexed these video players to start at the interviews. Topics discussed on Emongg’s stream: Click here for Emongg’s …

[Kaedi-11739]

Minor new update discovered on Reddit earlier this week, apparently the feature of being able to transfer ownership of a custom game lobby will be introduced in the 1.33 patch (note we are currently live on patch 1.32 and the PTR is testing features for 1.32.1).

• Jeff Kaplan confirms the ability to transfer a custom game lobby will be coming in patch 1.33 - Jeff Kaplan - 1/9/2019 - Reddit

[Hypercype-1308]

GASP! WYOMINGMYST GOT HIS GREEN TEXT!

[Qendel-1288]

I noticed this too. Wonder when that happened. Awesome that it did.

Keep up the good work, OP!

[Kaedi-11739]

Hello everyone, getting caught up on new developer responses this week.

First off, during the patch launch yesterday Bill Warnecke explains the difficulties in having a smooth patch launch for all parts of the world.

@BillWarnecke

Hey there, sorry for the login queue today. As of now we’re all clear, but we know the disruption when you’re ready to jump in and play is frustrating.

One challenge we encounter supporting a global game is finding a perfect patch time. At any given time some regions are busier than others. The reason we patch during Americas business hours is to make sure we have all the proper support staff here at Blizzard HQ to help if we encounter any issues. Unfortunately that means we land during a busier time for EU players.

Making the patch process smoother, and hopefully queue free for all regions, is a high priority for us. The problems we face on patch days can be complex, but I promise we’ll keep doing our best to fix the issues.

Cheers

Today Geoff Goodman appeared in the Overwatch Creator’s Residency and discussed a lot of hero balance topics with IDDQD (former pro player of the San Francisco Shock) on Twitch.

Click here for the Goodman/IDDQD Interview

In addition in a topic that discussed this stream, Goodman followed up with some key responses for channeled damage attacks and for how Reaper gets around with Shadow Step.

@GeoffGoodman

The armor change I am referring looks like it isn’t going to make this next patch, so it will probably the patch after.

Those particular changes won’t be massive, but right now all “channeled” effects (Zarya, Symmetra, Moira, Winston, etc) are reduced by a flat amount like any other source of damage, but the size of the damage packets is purely based on how fast they tick, even though the tuning of the weapons are done via a general DPS calculation. For example, Winston’s tesla cannon was initially tuned way back when to have a faster update rate because it felt a lot better to use that way. However, currently that also means he does a lot less damage to armor.

We’re getting some new tech which allows us to separate armor reduction amounts for these effects from their update rate. This doesn’t mean we’re going to just go through and buff all of these weapons necessarily but we are going to go through them all and make sure we’re happy with how much damage they are all doing to armored targets.

@GeoffGoodman

We still may do something with Shadow step in the future, but its not likely to suddenly become something you can do in combat like Tracer’s blink.

It’s meant to be a way to sneak behind enemy lines to drop on them or otherwise ambush them. In the past we’ve buffed it towards further reinforcing this direction like increasing its range and reducing its sound range.

@GeoffGoodman

No this only affects how much armor reduces these weapons.

[Kaedi-11739]

Hey everyone, sorry about the delays in updating the directory (as I have been dealing with some serious issues outside of Overwatch).

Jeff Kaplan revealed more details about why Fall Damage is not in the game (he has answered this previously on the old forums long ago).

@JeffreyKaplan

We actually tried falling damage in early development of Overwatch. We ran into problems with characters like Widowmaker, Reaper and Pharah. With Widowmaker, it felt strange and unintuitive to be able to grapple to high places but not be able to jump down without taking damage. We found ourselves grappling back down to lower points, which was awkward. Pharah was really odd. If you didn’t feather your jets right before touching the ground you would splat. And with Reaper, we kept teleporting to high locations with no ability to get safely down.

For awhile, we kept exempting characters from fall damage. But pretty soon, it felt arbitrary who would take fall damage and who was immune so we removed the mechanic completely.

Michael Chu dropped a small, but obvious lore tidbit regarding certain heroes favorite choice of music…

@mchu

Pharah loves classic rock. Reinhardt loves David Hasselhoff.

I don’t think I can take him seriously right now.

[Tharnne-1217]

Okay, so my friend and I were playing Comp, and we were losing like crazy. One, we were getting in with people who were nowhere near our skill level, and Lucio feels so bad to play. D.va also feels super squishy to the point where she’s being torn to shreds by people who shouldn’t even be able to kill her that quickly. Just pointing out those complaints, because this game has gotten so much worse, much like WoW.

[Mr1Jigawatt-1922]

i wanted a refund first day i purchased a license for overwatch.
Well, I didn’t get one so i’m stuck with it.
When i play quickmatch its me and a bunch of other newer players versus the most experienced. game lasts momentts we dont get stuff all exp.
And its the same humiliation every game with the same players.
Mr crossbow can fire 3 times whilst i receive 1 hit kill. video replay shows 3 shots fired. I want my money back because this is the only game thats ever done it.

[Pidima-1759]

im just seeing if ive been silenced