Overwatch - Blizzard's latest game

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Gonna repost a rant I made over on reddit:

I've been trying to figure out just why I have so much issue lately with Overwatch - it's certifiable video game crack, but it never feels 100% right.

It most certainly is and I agree but does it have to feel that good? I mean, my expectations of a good game are pretty much blown away with whats there despite all the bad stuff that comes with it

Thankfully, there has been more discussion about "Live Service games" / "Games as a Service" and I feel dumb that it took me this long to understand - Overwatch is part of this whole charade, and it really ties into why it can easily lead to gamer burnout.
This burnout, I feel, is from points 1&2 - the team constantly "unbalances" the game whenever a new meta has been found, instead of trying to figure out a good "middle ground", as they never want you to be comfortable and to keep playing.

There will always be a meta, at our level it's not overly important anyway, you can play dive, goats, bunker, 6 dps and still win.

So, players are burning out because they constantly have to learn the "new meta", but this is compounded by the addition of time-limited events - skins, emotes & whole gameplay scenarios you can only access for a few weeks before they're gone for a year, or even forever.

What burns me out is getting a long run with really bad teams or toxicity. I don't really expect a fix for either tbh.

And of course, both of these are tactics designed to keep you playing - and buying lootboxes, DLC without guaranteed payoff. Which can really bum you out when you can't play, or just get bad drops. And since it's still unregulated RNG, who knows how good the drop rate changes once you spend money.

lootboxes/non comp modes mean nothing to me so no real thoughts on this

Now (switching gears) let's get to the other elephant in the room: Overwatch has no future.

Not in the short-term (though you'll have experienced this already if servers were unavailabe) but we have no idea what Activision-Blizzard will allow in 1, 2, however many years. Will they slowly remove servers, 1-by-1, until only a handful of servers are active regionally? Will they just switch them all off & force us to buy Overwatch 2?
Or if we're lucky, will we get community server support? But on which patch?
What about the Overwatch Workshop - how long will people's mods be preserved? Will their scripting even work after certain patches, or are you doomed to constantly update it yourself?
We have no way & no power to get resolutions to anything, and honestly it scares & frustrates me - a vibrant community of players, viewers & artists who have NO IDEA how long this can even last, or what happens when Bobby Kotick decides that it's over!

Should we know how long it's going to last? It's already going 3 years and id be shocked if it didn't go another 3, sounds pretty good to me. There'll have been about 8 call of duty games by then, thats how good we have it

Minding my own business, being a prick in quickplay.
Suddenly, a six stack of Master players appear.

Well then. I didn't want to win this game anyway.

Slipped back from diamond a few seasons ago to barely making low to mid gold last 3 seasons, up to 2600 this season after placing 2100ish.

Its nice to not know you instantly ****ed anymore if you have multiple dps comps.

3-6min seems fine for 1am on a Wed. Its similar at around 6am, then come 8am onwards it more like 1-3min

Im sure the player base is smaller but seems to be pretty steady, at least on xbox. True achievement website if to be believed keeps it around the same spot each week

https://twitter.com/PlayOverwatch/status/1130171258778181632


...sigh.

(re-installs Overwatch)

Soon as I hit about 3400 it's mostly master - top 500 team mates and my god they are insufferable. The arrogance is painful. Give me a quiet micless diamond game any day.

Some really nice skins this time. I have 15k of coin but hate spending lots in one go so will wait and see if I can score RH or Brigitte. Got Orisa in the free lootbox which was nice as that's a fab one as well.

logged in to get the crate (dont play much anymore, just with the nephew when hes over) and i got the Roadhog Toxic skin, the best one of the new lot, delighted

Still waiting on the game to introduce that 2-2-2 formation mode in comp before i bother my arse returning proper, is there any news on that or an abandoned idea?

Waiting of the end of Overwatch League season I read somewhere, as they would have to give the teams time to adjust to it.

fixxxer wrote: »

Looking forward to seeing what the workshop comes up with. The two modes in Arcade were fun, mirrored deathmatch especially.

Played the new modes for a couple of hours last night - really fun but super frustrating! Games disconnecting extremely frequently, even well into a match. Happened around 15 times in a couple of hours. They'd want to sort something out...

Dunno if it was a workshop but that deathmatch where you change hero after a kill can f right off.... Stress....

Mirrored DM was great. Switching to Pharah or Doom and the ensuing chaos was funny.

BIg patch on ptr, no 2 2 2. Pointless

fixxxer wrote: »

Got a [patch notes link?

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/overwatch-ptr-patch-notes-may-23-2019/348228

Love the new mccree, and have been wanting replays for ages.

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS
New Feature: Replays

Experience your past Overwatch games from a whole new perspective with Replays. Replays allows you to watch your ten most recent matches from any vantage point. Whether you want a first-person, third-person, or bird’s-eye view, you can see it all with this tool. Hone your strategies by slowing down or speeding up the game to see exactly how a critical moment played out, get a better view of the action from above, or even turn off the UI completely.

Learn more about Replays: Blizz.ly/OverwatchReplays 1.7k


HERO UPDATES
Baptiste

Biotic Launcher
Increased heal ammo from 10 to 12.
Amplification Matrix
Ultimate duration increased from 8 seconds to 10 seconds.
Developer Comments: Given the dual nature of Baptiste’s weapon, he ends up having to reload often. We’re increasing the amount of ammo he has to work with so he can get more firing time while healing. Similarly, increasing the duration of Amplification Matrix will allow allies more time to get into position to make use of it.

D.Va

Defense Matrix
Reduced length of Defense Matrix from 15 meters to 10 meters.
Developer Comments: Defense Matrix is a very powerful defensive ability and can often feel oppressive from far away. Reducing the range on it will require D.Va to position herself more carefully to take advantage of its effects.

McCree

Peacekeeper
Primary fire recovery reduced from 0.5 seconds to 0.4 seconds.
Developer Comments: On average, McCree’s damage output wasn’t quite making up for the relatively low mobility or utility in his kit. Reducing his weapon’s recovery time improves the potential damage output without affecting the number of successful shots to kill an enemy.

Orisa

Protective Barrier
Barrier can be deployed without interrupting reload.
Developer Comments: Orisa has one of the longest weapon reloads and interrupting it to deploy a new barrier felt too disruptive to her gameplay. This change allows her to reload as needed while still being able to protect herself and her team.

Symmetra

Teleporter
Teleporter interact range increased from 1 meter to 1.5 meters.
Developer Comments: This is primarily a quality of life improvement as it was possible to create a teleporter that Symmetra was unable to interact with unless she moved toward it.

Torbjörn

Rivet Gun
Secondary Fire damage per pellet reduced from 12.5 to 10.5 (105 dmg total per shot).
Developer Comments: The combined damage output of Torbjörn’s secondary fire with his Overload ability was too high given his recently increased survivability.


GAME MODE UPDATES
Assault

Time awarded for capturing Point A on all Assault maps has been reduced from 4 minutes to 3 minutes.
Upon losing Point A, any defenders that are dead, or that die shortly thereafter, will have a maximum respawn of 3.5 seconds.
Developer Comments: Assault match lengths are averaging higher than we’re happy with, particularly in Competitive where there are multiple rounds. We’re also concerned with how often Offense fully captures Point A and Point B. Reducing the round time from 8 to 7 minutes should address both these concerns, as less overall time rewards better Defense.

Additionally, sometimes Defenders fight late with good intentions at Point A and end up staggered from their team when A falls, leaving their team with uneven footing to defend a rush to B. In these situations, temporarily lowering the respawn time to get those Defenders back with their team should be a better match experience and doesn’t punish players so harshly for wanting to defend Point A.


WORKSHOP UPDATES
General

Visual update applied
Check boxes added to support operations on multiple conditions/actions/rules.
You can now disable conditions/actions/rules without deleting them.
(PC) When copying conditions/actions/rules, the contents will also be copied to your clipboard in a text format.
(PC) When pasting conditions/actions/rules, the editor will use the text from your clipboard.
Increased maximum number of effects from 64 -> 128.
Added ‘Modify Global Variable At Index’.
Added ‘Modify Player Variable At Index’.

BUG FIXES
General

Communication Wheel: “Acknowledge” pings triggered through the Communication Wheel can now target objectives.
Fixed a bug where explosions could play in the wrong position if a mispredicted impact happened on the client.
Custom Game: Fixed a bug where AI Soldier: 76 wouldn’t fire his Helix Rocket at the same target twice.
Custom Game: Fixed an issue where ‘Nearest Walkable Position’ would use a location in a spawn room instead of the specified location when the spawn room doors were closed.
Tutorial: Weapon UI is now hidden until your weapon is available.
Heroes

Ana
Anti-Heal will be cleared when Sombra uses her translocator to teleport.

Sombra
Translocator will now escape slippery surfaces more easily and not be able to be stuck to them.
Fixed an issue where a material effect on Sombra’s hair would cause it to cast a shadow while invisible.

Torbjörn
Fixed a bug where Torbjörn’s turret was sometimes able to shoot through walls.