The final Overwatch panel of BlizzCon 2016 was a major Q&A with the crowd. Read on for a summary of what was discussed!
Owners of the Virtual Ticket could (and still can for the next two weeks) tune in to the Q&A of the Overwatch team, featuring Jeff Kaplan, Michael Chu, Timothy Ford and more. We decided to summarize some of the more interesting questions and answers for those of you without said Virtual Ticket:
Q: When are we going to get a storymode, with more background of the characters?
A: Junkenstein's Revenge was a sort of test to see if you like PvE content. And you seemed to. We all love PvE, some of us come from the WoW development team, but no solid plans yet for Overwatch.
Q: Competition is a huge part of Overwatch. Will there be a competitive 1v1 and 3v3?
A: The Arcade will feature it, as a means to blow off steam. It was supposed to be lighthearted but has proven to be very competitive. We kind of want to see what happens when you get your hands on it. Mystery Duel and 3v3 will probably have to change a bit, but over time if there is a strong desire for a competitive version then we would love to do it.
Q: Your animated shorts are beautiful. Will we get one for every hero, and specifically Mercy?
A: We would love to get out one out for every hero, but are currently taking them on one by one. We don't have anything to announce right now, but you can expect to learn more soon (about Mercy).
Q: There was a feature available during Beta, that was dropped and then returned in a revised manner. When can we see the return of true 21:9 monitor support?
A: We are doing a lot of research into what the impact of supporting that format is, and the current version is the best version we can provide based on a lot of factors. Fully supporting 21:9 would mean a lot more work for teams such as Art and Tech, which it not currently is worth.
Q: Hanzo's arrows are sometimes a bit glitchy, like delayed hits and them getting stuck. Are you looking to solve that bug?
A: We have been working on that a lot. It's another trade-off between what's fair for the player and the target. Roadhog has similar weird behaviour, with his hook. For Roadhog we have Hook 2.0 ready soon, which involves an improvement hopefully. We will continue to work on all kinds of similar issues.
Q:Sombra and the Los Muertos gang have been working together since she was young. And Los Muertos have also been in touch with the Junkrat gang. My question is, has Sombra been in touch with the Junkers, and does she know about their treasure?
A: They must have had some interaction during that time, but nothing specific defined yet. We don't really see Junkrat and Roadhog as a big part of the Junkers gang anymore, even though they were of course.
Q:We still sometimes have to deal with players leaving competitive matches early on, especially after a quick point capture on maps such as Hanamura, Volskaya and Temple of Anubis. Will you change that?
A: It clearly is something we have to fix, but it is a fairly rare issue and so our bigger concern is to stop leaving as much as possible in general. The more heavy handed we are, the more it will also feel punishing when not exploiting the system however.
Q: What plans do you have to address toxicity? Like when players dont speak the same language, or parties that won't cooperate with their allies?
A: Awesome question, there's a lot of things we want to do. No ETA, but we want to work on the using team voice chat versus party voice chat issue. We agree with the request to get more people to use team chat, and have some plans there. We can do more with the interface, and also want to explore the matter of playing together with 'good players' without needing to actually add them as friends. Right now, we are looking at our Report Player system as you can see on the PTR. We are looking at the punishments and rewards of how you behave in the game in general.
Q: With the huge success of the Halloween nighttime map, are there plans to change more existing maps? Not just the time, but also more environmental such as fog. Also, what happened to Ireland during the Omnic Crisis?
A: We love the idea of taking existing maps, adding weather and other elements. A lot of us are world builders, from WoW and such. So keep an eye out for more!
As for Ireland, it is definitely still there ;) The UK was hit really hard, and was affected greatly however.
Q: Are there any plans to be able to pick the map in competitive?
A: Actually, there are. Not for Quick Match or Competitive Play per se, but the Arcade will hopefully allow you to play many more custom games soon. For instance, 1v1 and 3v3 will eventually be enabled in custom games as an option, and we really want to have a server browser in the game as well!
Q: What inspired you to create a game with such a heavy focus on diversity?
A: Diversity is very important to us. When we decided Overwatch would be playing out on Earth, it was a natural fit to represent multiple cultures. So we will continue to strive to support that.
Q: At the announcement of Overwatch you mentioned several heroes were LGBT, but never specified. Can you talk a bit more about this?
A: Representing all kinds of people is important for us. However, we want characteristics like these to show up naturally through our lore content, so I am not going to announce any sexualities. What I will say is that we will get a graphical release soon that will touch on this subject!
Q: Really excited for the Overwatch League, but are you also looking to introduce a similar environment to regular players?
A: The Overwatch league is the top of the pyramid, but the bottom is very important as well. We don't have anything to announce today, but we do want to focus on the grassroots amateur scene. We want to make it easy for good players to go from pub play to organized competitive play.
Q: Concering Competitive Play, are we ever going to get a solo-only queue?
A: Good question and we understand where it is coming from. Overwatch is a team game however. We understand the frustration of having to deal with parties as a solo player, but statistically it is not a very common occurence that parties have a major impact on games. Our biggest desire is that you group up more with friends.
Not saying there will never be a solo-only queue, but we are looking to focus on making it more social currently.
Q: Can we get more quick chat options? Such as when I am playing Mercy, but am dead, and players keep pinging for healing needed.
A: We are definitely looking to improve the communication wheel and even allow customization. We want you to be able to trigger more specific lines with it, and want to work on it soon.
Q: I was wondering about your implementation of jump pads in the game?
A: Oasis will feature a jump pads, coming soon, and its a small step into them. We want to see how players interact with the one we have added, and are open to adding more if they prove to be great.
Q: Can you make it possible to have Hanzo pin people to the wall when shot? On kill feed, could we have more icons such as weapons that dealt the killing blow? Also, damage numbers that show when and how much you hit people for?
A: We had numbers in the beta, but we didnt really like it. The killfeed will get improved, such as with resurrects. The Hanzo idea sounds fun, that's for sure!
As stated, these questions and several more can be checked out in their complete form through the Virtual Ticket on the BlizzCon site!
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