Overwatch Dev Tracker

Honestly we're not sure yet. We'd like to have it exist in some form, but I'd say balancing the game for both 5v5 (1 tank) and 6v6 (2 tanks) is unlikely, so the 6v6 mode would most likely be an arcade mode or something like that if we can do it at all.

Possibly, that's still on the list to play around with.

For what its worth, she can still freeze with her ultimate.

Yea we feel like this is pretty core to Lucio so we're not likely to change this. Also Tanks have a role passive to have reduced knockback effects against them now, so that helps Tanks players quite a bit.

We've been doing a substantial amount of work in the areas of AI for Overwatch 2... which is probably obvious given that we'll have PvE. :) Much of those improvements should apply across the game, workshop included. But Workshop plans for OW2 are still quite fluid.

For OW1, most of the philosophy changes have been small tactical changes throughout the game's life, rather than large sweeping changes. The biggest sweeping changes to philosophy were when we went to single hero limit, and then later to role lock.

At its heart, the game has always been about super over-the-top heroes, that are simple to understand but have a lot of depth in gameplay, especially when combined with other heroes on your team. When making new heroes, or changing old ones, its a constant fight for us internally to try and make sure the heroes are simple and focused from a gameplay perspective. This has been gotten harder over time as we add new heroes and push to keep every hero feeling unique at the same time.

For OW2, this core philosophy is still the same, but we're looking at some of these things in somewhat of a new light. We're still pushing hard to keep heroes simple and deep, but there are some specifics we've changed such as more aggressive tan...

I know this wasn't "behind the scenes" because it was a live bug, but when I asked our QA team for a bug that stood out to them they linked me this bug. The linked pictures are nightmare fuel, but also absolutely hilarious.

One that's more behind the scenes, when we first implemented Ashe if there were any BOBs alive at the end of the match they would vote on the end of round cards.. AI will definitely take over the world some day.

I'll take this post as chance to thank all of our amazing QA folks, you...

That's an interesting idea, and how players interact with barriers is something we're always looking at closely. This might not as be required with the new 5v5 teams that only have one tank, and therefore less barriers on the field. We'll keep an eye on it as we continue to work on hero and gameplay balance.

Thanks!

This is something we're actually in the middle of testing right now. The idea is to reduce crowd control (especially stun) effects on non-tank heroes.

This doesn't mean that tanks will gain more CC, or that they will lose damage and focus on CC more. Its more that by removing some CC effects on existing non-tank heroes, it means that the the current tank lineup would retain the majority of the CC effects as part of their role. This not only gives Tanks something unique and interesting about their role, but it significantly reduces the amount of CC effects in the game as a whole, especially in a world where there is only 1 tank per team.

This isn't a hard rule either. Currently we're pretty happy with Ana's sleep dart, for example, so I don't think we'd change it just to fit within this new paradigm.

As for Doomfist/Hammond, well Hammond is a tank so its ok that he has more CC effects. Doomfist is a hero we'd need to look at though, for other reasons as well ...

2/2/2 Role Queue will become 1/2/2 Role Queue due to the move to 5v5, and we'll probably still have Open Queue but that's not set in stone yet since hero balance will be quite different in OW2.

We might have an Arcade card that still has 6 player teams in the future, we'll honestly have to evaluate all of them with an eye towards how they work with the new hero balance.

Aaron would love it if we could get this in! Unfortunately, that's a really complicated problem for us given how our asset system works. We've tried, and will continue to try, to expand workshop as much as we can to extend custom creation as far as possible. But custom assets is a massive challenge. It's been something we've wanted to give to the community for years, but up to now we just haven't found the right way to deliver it without an unrealistic investment of resources.

I answered this in a question a bit further up, but I'll repost, here, just in case you miss it:

We're pretty excited about the possibilities of cross-play and cross-progression, but we don't have anything to announce, today. However, given the additional complexities of cross-progression, it would probably make most sense to tackle cross-play, first and then explore progression as a potential add-on, if we go this route.

We're pretty excited about the possibilities of cross-play and cross-progression, but we don't have anything to announce, today. However, given the additional complexities of cross-progression, it would probably make most sense to tackle cross-play, first and then explore progression as a potential add-on, if we go this route.

It’s time! Get ready for the Overwatch developer AMA! From 1:30 – 3:30 PM PDT | 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM EDT | 20:30 – 22:30 UTC, we will have several developers from the Overwatch team present within this thread to answer your questions! We’ve written out a few things to know, so please read before posting a reply.

• We will be answering questions about the current state of Overwatch, its history over the past five years, and recent announcements like BlizzConline and the developer livestream, so please no questions about unreleased content – We don’t have any announcements to make about the future today. We’d love to be able to answer as many questions as possible, so let’s try to make them count.
• We welcome questions on a variety of topics, but we just ask that you remain respectful – We’re here to help!
• Reply to this thread with your questions – Other threads or platforms and any sort of direct messaging are not included in this event.
• Please adh...

It’s time! Get ready for the Overwatch developer AMA! From 1:30 – 3:30 PM PDT | 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM EDT | 20:30 – 22:30 UTC, we will have several developers from the Overwatch team present within this thread to answer your questions! We’ve written out a few things to know, so please read before posting a reply.

• We will be answering questions about the current state of Overwatch, its history over the past five years, and recent announcements like BlizzConline and the developer livestream, so please no questions about unreleased content – We don’t have any announcements to make about the future today. We’d love to be able to answer as many questions as possible, so let’s try to make them count.
• We welcome questions on a variety of topics, but we just ask that you remain respectful – We’re here to help!
• Reply to this thread with your questions – Other threads or platforms and any sort of direct messaging are not included in this event.
• Please adh...

Hello r/Overwatch!

We’re excited to celebrate our fifth anniversary with you and want to give you an opportunity to chat directly with the Overwatch development team. Join us on Monday, May 24th from 1:30 – 3:30 PM PDT | 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM EDT | 20:30 – 22:30 UTC for a Reddit AMA, where a number of Overwatch developers will be present to answer your questions.

For this AMA, we’ll be answering your questions that pertain to Overwatch today, its history, and recent announcements like BlizzConline and the PvP developer livestream. While we’re very excited for the future of Overwatch, we don’t have any new announcements we’re looking to make during this AMA. Come prepared with your questions, we’ll have a fresh thread on the day of the AMA – We’re looking forward to having fun with the community and ans...