Sigma also has Shield Generator voice lines. Considering Shield Gen was removed over 2 years ago, it’s safe to assume that either:
Heroes have their voice lines recorded very early. If this is the case, all heroes being released in OW2 probably had their recording sessions start a couple of years ago, and are probably close to finished now.
OR puts tin foil hat on
The voice lines were recorded post-Sym redesign in anticipation of a possible return of Shield Generator. This could be in a PvE talent or a possible PvP rework (which was hinted as a possibility).
Rainbow Six Siege devs do something similar with their Operators. Despite the Operators being divided to Attack and Defense and being restricted to those teams, there’s voice lines for side-specific gadgets/throwables, like Defenders don’t have access to Frag Grenades, but there’s voice lines for Defenders using them, as is for Attackers with Defender-specific abilities like reinforcing walls.
It’s just a failsafe in case they decide to swap round character sides, which they haven’t done so far, so I imagine it’s a thing in case Blizzard decide to bring back Shield Gen.
All heroes have this, even the ones released after the shield generator was removed.
They probably just record this for newer characters because every other hero already has a voice line for this interaction, even if it’s not currently in the game. If they ever do need it for something it’s better to record it now while they’re in the studio rather than track the voice actors down later for a single voice line.
I mean, having it on another hero centered around it would be awesome
the thing is, why are they putting it IN the game, as in, in the files that we have access to, instead of just having a placeholder? not saying that this is a hint to anything in particular but I think it’s more than just an oversight
Real talk, I wouldn’t mind this at all. Sanjay and Symmetra come from the same corporation, so it would make sense that they would have access to the same technology.
It would be different if, hypothetically, they gave Shield Gen to Echo or Sigma.
I would love it if it wasn’t the exact same skill, meaning that perhaps it could be a full hero centered around this skill, like say he deploys a shield generator on top of his head and moves around with it, a tank based on giving shields to allies
nah, it’s just game programming, you need voicelines even for the cut stuff. In paladins heroes have lines for the gate being destroyed, even the latest ones, despite gates being removed during early beta
The reason for that is that it makes it possible to repurpose those lines. It isn’t required for the game to function and if it was critical it could be replaced with a blank audio file
