You mean:
https://www.overbuff.com/ ?
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Sort of but more in overlay form.
Like what Hearthstone has but you know for Overwatch.
I feel like applications like that only happen when the devs release APIs for third parties to use. Whenever someone tries to do it on their own then the app normally gets taken down or players get actioned against the same way they would if they used wall hacks.
Overwatch doesn’t seem like the type of game that will ignore a third party app spying on its data live (unless the hacks can bypass it). For comparison, Destiny 2 releases their API and now you can track nearly everything and even manipulate your items/loadout/settings.
This did happen at some point a few years ago. I don’t remember the name of it, but it was detected as a hack and people were warned to stop using it.
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Why not just add team stats to the game. I seriously doubt this game can get even more toxic so just do it.
Would be cool to see enemy team stats too.
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Probably it was mainly to the way app worked - it read memory and had overlay over the game window
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Was the one that Stylosa made a video about?
I think they banned it because that program even had a ultimate counter, to let you know what enemy had his ultimate ready to use and things like that.
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There was one but it got banned by the devs.
Overlay stat trackers have been ruled as cheating as they automate information derived from the game.
(Note, Tom Powers is a former Community Manager for Overwatch, so their posts are no longer blue in color)
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They did and it was considered cheating.
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It would be easy, but our devs are too heavy for that.
I think blizzard deemed all these things as cheating a long time ago. I think there was something briefly available that was endorsed by an OWL team or player or something but then blizzard stepped in an banned everything.
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For poor reasons largely. There was a program that gave live info that could be an advantage in game… but there was ALSO another program that only took screenshots of the match (so no memory hooks or game code alteration involved) and did AI/OCR on the screenshots to compile a scoreboard/stats page AFTER the match completed. They banned BOTH.
Clearly there was nothing wrong with the second program. It did not touch game code and did not give an active advantage since the stats were generated post-match. A proper scoreboard should have been part of the FPS game since day one. The arguments against it are poor. Blaming already happens, people misread what’s happening EVEN MORE FREQUENTLY when they have no reliable info to use and get toxic regardless.
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An attempt was made a bit back. AFAIK it was cease and desisted.
There was something like that, where live data of a match was shown on screen, but it was flagged as cheating, since that program gave data on every player’s actions in the match, along with your own, which was considered as an unfair advantage.
I don’t remember the program’s name, but Stylosa made on video on it a long time ago, about 3-4 years ago.
Pursuit.gg, Visor, and OASIS were the 3rd party stats trackers that got shut down.
The problem it’s mostly how would be used, They stated on OW2 we would have more data or detailed data. But we don’t know for sure on what kind of format.
The game register those things but often are loaded on memory, manipulating memory during the match can be problematic because could generate a breach to data injection, which some hacks already exploits.
One game can work fine with it, other not. Really depends on how the game engine was created, in this case OW1 has some perks around it.
Having undesireable data it’s also a concern from devs. Like some stated having info on the opposite team, keep in mind that kill feed also gives you a nearly realtime state of the killer’s ultimate status and his teammates location at some extent, that already could be a info that not always it’s disclosed from your teammates with that kind of precision. Ping system would be a tool to somewhat to make more effortless to get but also keep some degree of risk.
Fetching those data after a match also could be problematic from the server side of it because several matches would be on memory instead of disposed from it while you’re fetching it.
The game itself it’s really perky. Unless they do a built in feature or just catch outside the match from your profile data, mostly could generate unnecessary traffic and burden on their systems.
It’s sad, but those tools rely on some burden on their end and fetching data that could generate issues. Unless they change entirely the concept on OW2 about their engine and how it works, we shouldn’t expect any realtime tool fetching data during the match. If they didn’t done yet on OW2, mostly will never be done because the phase for that were already over.
At least we will get some detailed data about heroes perks without needing to calculate on practice modes or rely on custom maps or fandoms for it.
Technnically wouldn’t be that hard if the game already saves the state on memory, the problem would be that most of those “states” are dynamic and override themselves. They can know object states at certain degree, the problem it’s all of those are on memory. Injecting something on memory can be problematic, risky and compromise the integrity of the application itself. One particular hack that “counters” abilities rely on that kind of info by example. While could be used for “informational stuff” and “for good purpose” the reality is that if you enable one you sadly enable another too. Only being “differentiated” from the “intention” of it’s user/creator.
It’s like the leaver’s dilemma, they can’t confirm if you done on purpose or not, so they punish both parties equally.
I remember them existing, some even incorporated a system that guesses based on time and stats whether or not an enemy would have an ultimate.
Though yeah became bannable n stuff so it’s more as if it has been deleted from history.
It did more than just track stats… It would also track when enemy ult status and when they were ready if I also recall.
I remember the devs of it saying they were wanting to work with Blizzard and remove things that Blizzard was against but in the end Blizzard just didn’t want it in the game at all.
Thanks for the correction. I only half remembered the story - I couldn’t even remember the name of the program as I never used it. I remember some OWL players and coaches being upset at the time though, as they used it in scrims.