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| 4s | Hello, everyone. My name is Miranda. |
|---|---|
| 5s | I'm a Narrative Designer on the Overwatch team. |
| 8s | My name is Geoff. I'm the Lead Hero Designer on the Overwatch team. |
| 11s | And we're here to talk to you a bit about our new hero, Sojourn. |
| 15s | [Sojourn] Sojourn engaging. |
| 18s | She's our newest DPS hero, |
| 19s | and I figure I can kick us off by talking a little bit about her story. |
| 22s | Sojourn is a hero who is obviously no stranger to combat. |
| 25s | She got her start in the Canadian military, |
| 28s | and eventually was so successful there that she joined up with Overwatch. |
| 32s | Fans will probably remember Sojourn |
| 33s | from the Archives Storm Rising mission she led a bunch of our heroes through. |
| 37s | Target in sight, Captain. |
| 38s | [Sojourn] We've waited a long time for Maximilien to show his face. |
| 41s | [Miranda] She is a captain in Overwatch |
| 43s | who is very much respected by a lot of heroes in our cast. |
| 46s | Something people might not know about Sojourn |
| 48s | is that she actually had a pretty big role to play |
| 50s | during the United Nations hearings |
| 52s | that would eventually lead to Overwatch disbanding and being shut down. |
| 55s | And after that happened, |
| 56s | Sojourn eventually retired to her home in Toronto. |
| 59s | As we know, |
| 60s | Overwatch heroes and retirement don't necessarily agree with one another, |
| 63s | so I'm very excited for everybody to learn a little bit about what she's been up to |
| 67s | in the time after that. |
| 69s | We have a cinematic in development, that people are gonna love, |
| 72s | that goes into this more. |
| 73s | Sojourn is just a brilliant tactician, a great leader, |
| 76s | and I can't wait for everybody to get the chance to meet her. |
| 80s | Geoff, why don't you tell us a little about her hero kit? |
| 82s | [Geoff] Sure. |
| 83s | When we start working on a hero, we have to pick an element |
| 87s | to surround the hero with. |
| 89s | In the past, we've had some heroes rally around a weapon, |
| 92s | especially in the early days, such as Widowmaker, the sniper, |
| 95s | Pharah with her Rocket Launcher, et cetera. |
| 97s | So we really were looking at different weapon types |
| 99s | we haven't explored yet in Overwatch, |
| 101s | and I think the number-one idea that came up that we all loved |
| 104s | was this idea of a rail gun. |
| 105s | [Sojourn] Rail gun powered and ready to fire. |
| 109s | That was all that needed to be said. |
| 111s | We tried putting a typical rail gun from other games in, |
| 113s | just to see how it goes, and, it turns out, |
| 115s | the ability to fire really accurate, high-powered shots |
| 118s | just constantly, all the time, |
| 120s | was just a balance nightmare and not really doable. |
| 122s | But we really liked the gameplay, and we ended up with her gun as it is now. |
| 126s | I'll go through her whole kit right now. |
| 128s | Her primary fire is actually like a rapid-fire spread of projectiles. |
| 133s | It isn't a rail gun, |
| 134s | but it builds up an energy bar that you can expend at any time |
| 137s | to shoot a rail-gun shot off your alternate fire. |
| 139s | So you still get that really powerful shot, |
| 141s | but just not quite as frequently as a normal rail gun. |
| 144s | Once we got that in place, |
| 145s | we were playing around with a lot of other abilities that she could have |
| 148s | that could complement this and make her really fun, |
| 151s | and we were trying to capture |
| 152s | the really fun and fast playstyle of rail guns in the past, |
| 155s | in other first-person shooters. |
| 156s | So, one ability we tried pretty early, |
| 159s | and actually just stuck with all the way through, was her slide ability. |
| 162s | The way that works is she can slide anytime she wants, |
| 165s | in any direction she wants, |
| 166s | and it goes really far and really fast. |
| 168s | And she can fire during all this, so you get these really cool moments |
| 171s | where you can slide around a corner and get that rail-gun shot off |
| 174s | after you've built up the whole meter. |
| 176s | Also, attached to this, you can jump during the slide |
| 179s | and get a super-big jump off of it, too. |
| 181s | So, in a lot of ways, you can get a lot of vertical mobility out of this, |
| 184s | and jump on top of rooftops or over a wall. |
| 186s | Pretty quickly in playtests we got a lot of really cool high-flying shots, |
| 190s | jumping over a wall and surprising people with her full rail-gun charge. |
| 193s | So, that really helps her get this really fast gameplay style. |
| 198s | And then her secondary ability is called Disruptor Shot. |
| 200s | This is a projectile that fires out and expands into an energy field |
| 204s | that can slow enemies that are caught in it, |
| 206s | and damages them if they stay inside of it. |
| 208s | It's a really fun combination, especially because of that slow. |
| 211s | If you slide around a corner and drop a Disruptor Shot on people |
| 213s | trying to scatter while they're slowed, |
| 215s | it makes it a lot easier to line up those powerful rail-gun shots. |
| 218s | Or a lot of times you'll see people land a really good shot, |
| 221s | the person will get away with help, they'll be round the corner, |
| 224s | you fire the Disruptor Shot around the corner, |
| 226s | it explodes and takes them out. |
| 227s | There's a lot of really fun combinations with all of these abilities |
| 230s | to create really fun moments. |
| 233s | And then her ultimate is... |
| 235s | When setting her ultimate, we had different things we tried in the past. |
| 238s | One of the original ones we tried |
| 239s | was this big rail-gun shot that just went through the whole map. |
| 243s | It was almost like an instant Hanzo Dragon ultimate, |
| 246s | which didn't go over super well, so that one ended up getting cut. |
| 250s | But what we ended up going with, we call it Overclock. |
| 253s | We fell in love with this. |
| 255s | The way this works is it just turns on a mode where her energy, |
| 259s | it's constantly filling itself for her rail gun, |
| 261s | so she no longer has to primary-fire to fill it up. |
| 263s | So she can actually just fire a ton of rail-gun shots back-to-back |
| 267s | for at least this limited window, even though earlier I said |
| 270s | it was overpowered to shoot your rail gun all the time. |
| 273s | Well, for that limited amount of time, she gets to do it, so... |
| 276s | I think what we've seen in playtests |
| 278s | is she just takes a little bit of time to get used to, I think - |
| 280s | the ebb and flow of when you should use your rail-gun shot or not. |
| 284s | -But, man, she is a ton of fun. -[Miranda] Yeah, absolutely. |
| 287s | Something that I think is really interesting about Sojourn's abilities |
| 290s | is that all of them are sort of derived from her cybernetics. |
| 293s | She kind of reminds me a lot of Genji, |
| 295s | who is similarly a very cybernetics-based hero. |
| 298s | Sojourn has had a ton of her body replaced with these cybernetic parts, |
| 303s | both out of necessity at certain points in her life, |
| 306s | but also, in some cases, out of her own interest. |
| 308s | I imagine the rocket legs are probably something |
| 311s | she thought were pretty fun, so... |
| 314s | And I agree. |
| 315s | But I think that it's really cool, not only from a story perspective |
| 318s | but from her gameplay, because so many of her abilities |
| 320s | actually come from within her, like her Disruptor Shot. |
| 324s | Her power slide, obviously. |
| 327s | Even her Overclock is a function of her cybernetics, |
| 330s | and I think that's very exciting, so... |
| 332s | Yeah, that actually reminds me |
| 334s | of when we were first coming up with what her visual look would be. |
| 338s | At one of these meetings, we were talking about her Disruptor Shot |
| 341s | and how that would come out. |
| 342s | There were a lot of ideas about, should it be thrown, |
| 346s | or should it be something that comes out of her wrist, |
| 348s | like Pharah's concussive rocket? |
| 350s | We were in this meeting, looking at all these ideas |
| 353s | in the animation pit, and there was kind of a last one. |
| 357s | It was like, "Eh, we did all that. Here's some crazy stuff." |
| 359s | We had these crazy ideas, too. |
| 361s | The first one - we ended up going with it - |
| 364s | was the full arm cannon that comes out of her... |
| 366s | [Miranda] She just separates her wrist and she has a cannon in there. [laughs] |
| 370s | It's like... |
| 371s | So, that actually wowed everybody in the room. |
| 374s | We were like, "OK, we're doing that." |
| 376s | -"I don't want to see the other ones." -Yeah, exactly. So, that was fantastic. |
| 380s | And we've gotten some play on her already in the Alpha, |
| 383s | and the feedback has been fantastic. |
| 385s | Once we get the Beta rolling, which is coming up soon, |
| 388s | I think we're going to get more people in there, |
| 390s | a lot more eyes on it, and you are going to love her. |
| 392s | Yeah, it's really cool to see people actually getting their hands on her, |
| 395s | because it's one thing for all of us to play it, |
| 398s | but it's another thing entirely for a broader audience to play. |
| 401s | So, yeah, I'm really excited for people to get a chance to play her. |
| 405s | I'm really excited, as well, to see how she sort of relates and fits in |
| 409s | with the larger cast of heroes in Overwatch - |
| 412s | the amount of established relationships that we get a little bit of insight into. |
| 416s | She is somebody who kind of reminds me of Ana. |
| 418s | So, Ana, obviously, was our first new hero. |
| 421s | And even though she was a new hero, she had so many relationships existing |
| 424s | with our hero roster that she felt very natural, |
| 426s | and I think Sojourn's pretty similar. |
| 428s | Obviously, she was a member of Overwatch, so she has a lot of connections there |
| 432s | that she plays on all through her kit and her voice lines, |
| 436s | and I think people are going to have a ton of fun digging into her connections, |
| 439s | who she is familiar with, who she's against. |
| 442s | I think it will be really interesting |
| 444s | for people to get a taste of her personality there. |
| 446s | And I think something else that I know the rest of the team is very excited about |
| 450s | is always adding new voices to Overwatch. |
| 453s | I think it's really cool and really awesome to expand our horizons, |
| 457s | in terms of what our perspectives are |
| 459s | and the number of people we're representing in our game. |
| 462s | So, I really think that this is something the team has been hoping for |
| 466s | for a very long time, |
| 467s | and I'm really excited for everybody to get to meet her. |
| 470s | That wraps it up for Sojourn. We can't wait for you all to play her. |
| 473s | See you next time. |