Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – September 23, 2020

PTR Feedback
#1

Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – September 23, 2020

A new Overwatch patch is in development and now available for testing! To share your feedback or report any issues, please post in the PTR Feedback or PTR Bug Report forums.

Please note that the below patch notes only include changes currently available for testing on the PTR. While many of these changes may also be available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in a future patch, the PTR is PC-only and only reflects changes coming specifically to that platform.


GENERAL UPDATES

Feature Update: Improved Profanity Filter

We are making changes to how the Profanity Filter works to give players more control over the types of words they see. Instead of a simple On/Off Profanity Filter, there are now three levels of profanity filtering provided.

  • FRIENDLY – We’ll do our best to filter all words currently identified by our constantly-updated list as obscene, vulgar, or offensive. This is the most family-friendly setting.
  • MATURE – You may see some obscene or vulgar words with this setting, but we will filter language identified as extremely offensive.
  • UNFILTERED – Nothing will be filtered. Please be aware that you may see extremely offensive language. This setting is not recommended.

Along with the new three levels of filtering, we now will allow players to have different profanity filter settings for each communication channel. These channels include:

  • GENERAL CHAT
  • MATCH CHAT
  • TEAM CHAT
  • PARTY CHAT
  • WHISPER

As an example, you could use the stronger FRIENDLY profanity filter option for more public channels such as GENERAL CHAT or MATCH CHAT, but use the MATURE option for the more private PARTY CHAT.

PLEASE NOTE: Using Any of the profanity filters doesn’t make it okay for players to use offensive language, and we encourage you to report these examples if you encounter them.

See Blizzard Entertainment’s In-Game-Code of Conduct for more information on acceptable behavior. Using language reported by the community and deemed offensive by Blizzard will result in severe account restrictions.


Feature Update: Elevator Adjustments

Elevators will now wait at the bottom of their track until a player boards the platform. After a short delay, the platform rises rapidly upward. Once the elevator reaches the top, it pauses briefly before returning to the bottom.

Developer Comments: We’ve received quite a bit of feedback about the unreliability of the looping elevators in Hollywood and Volskaya Industries. In an effort to improve that experience, we have re-designed the elevators in both maps so that they no longer endlessly loop. We hope that this change will make elevators a quicker and more reliable form of vertical transportation, while granting nearby players fair warning that the elevator is in use through updated sound effects.


HERO UPDATES

Reinhardt

General

  • Added a voice line stating, “For the Crusaders!”, that allies will hear when Reinhardt uses his ultimate ability

Sombra

Translocator

  • Improved smoothness of Sombra’s First Person camera when Translocating short distances to a Translocator that is in view

BUG FIXES

General

  • Fixed a bug that caused highlights saved from Experimental games to not load properly

Heroes

Baptiste

  • Fixed a bug that caused Baptiste’s eyes to not blink during his idle animation

D.Va

  • Fixed a bug that caused the spray menu to display “Empty” in the top slot while a spray is equipped

Pharah

  • Fixed a bug with the Lifeguard skin model not displaying properly on low texture quality settings
  • Fixed a bug that caused Pharah’s eyes to not animate properly when equipping the Lifeguard skin

Reinhardt

  • Fixed a bug that prevented “Storm, Earth and Fire” achievement from triggering

Wrecking Ball

  • Grappling Hook now has improved target detection to help connecting to walls be more consistent

Zarya

  • Fixed a bug that caused beam hit effects to display incorrectly on barriers

Workshop

  • Fixed a bug with Ashe’s Dynamite in hand to not scale to the size of the projectile
  • Fixed a bug with Brigitte’s Whip Shot not displaying properly when triggered rapidly without a cooldown
  • Fixed a bug that caused Reinhardt’s Earthshatter to not consistently hit targets when model scale is increased
29 Likes
Reinhardt won today
Ultimate voiceline for friendly Bastions too pls? =)
Wrecking Ball Grapple Bug Fix should be toggleable
Ver. 1.53 predictions - Halloween Terror 2020
Sombra's "improved" translocation animation and traveling further distances
#2
#3

We will be limiting this PTR patch’s Quick Play map pool to Hollywood and Volkskaya temporarily so everyone can try out the new elevator changes.

24 Likes
#4

20m seismic slam, please…

11 Likes
#5

Balance changes are usually on experimental.

On a side note: Great changes, I’m excited about the elevator changes and the filter changes!

7 Likes
#6

This is honestly really huge, and I’m excited to try it out

18 Likes
#7

I like the elevator change, if I had to give one feedback for it, maybe make them move a little bit slower. Cause I think the ones on Hollywood at least might be a bit too good for an escape tool for the height they provide, but I think the way they function is great.

2 Likes
#8

i’ll still use the unfiltered profanity filter but why does it seem so hard to just censor actual inappropriate language like racial or sexist slurs? I’ll still report but give us the ability to censor specifically what we dont want to see

3 Likes
#9

The change on Hollywood is great. Haven’t noticed too much of a difference on Volskaya though (they’re a bit faster I guess?) but the Hollywood elevators seem like the big one. They actually feel reliable now (albeit having a weird interaction with jumping to where it just doesn’t work).

1 Like
#10

pretty neat having it customizable per channel. most sophisticated maturity filter i have seen in a game at least.
heres hoping there will come a day when there is a similar type of filter for voice lines, so you can keep the important callouts but remove the distracting spamming.

5 Likes
#11

DUDE NO MORE RANDOM ELEVATORS THIS IS HUGE

I’ve been hoping for AGES that they’d either rework them or replace them with a green jump pad, I hope this gets to live

Also more consistent Hammy grapples? As in I can actually hook onto payloads without needing 40 attempts?

10 Likes
#12

Hollywood deathmatch widows: :fearful::fearful::fearful::fearful:

5 Likes
#13

Does Blizzard see what profanity filter setting a user has when reporting abusive chat and takes it into account?

#14

Please make that Wrecking Ball grapple Bug Fix toggleable

4 Likes
#15

I really do like the new profanity filter, but I’d prefer being able to customize it myself. A list of manually removed words would be nice.

1 Like
#16

Can we get some Symmetra viability updates like flat half splash damage on orbs, remove first charge level on primary, and reduce cooldown on the heavily nerfed turrets or revert their damage nerfs. The hero is barely playable you have nerfed literally her whole kit by 20% or more since last year when she needed fixes and buffs then even.

#17

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don’t put that Ball crap through. It feels absolutely awful and I’m amazed no one said anything before this got to the PTR. You end up grappling doorways, lamps, edges, and pretty much everything BUT what you’re aiming at.

For reference, this is what it looks like:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kLJKZ5CPLJ5Kp1vIqkpsKhEMiSzZ_Its/view?usp=sharing

5 Likes
#18

New profanity filter, I hope it prevents people from false reporting everything this time around.

Who am I kidding, the GMs will still not care :rofl:

#19

wreckingball change is bad and ruins a lot of rollouts, shooting the grapple thru windows, doors, around corners ,ect - no longer works, it will snap to the edge ruining the intended distance

bad bad bad ball change. dont do it blizz

4 Likes
#20

Currently the elevators are a little finicky; if you step back onto them after they lift, they don’t go back up and you have to step off and on again. There should be a basic check when they lower: if someone is still standing on it, wait a second, then left again.

1 Like