If you could change something in Overwatch, what would it be? Sometimes it’s the subtle changes that feels the greatest. In this series, we’ll go over some of the quality of life changes that could be made in Overwatch.
Current
Let’s start off the series by talking about the in-game commands. By default, the C key brings up a wheel of chat & voice lines that can be used to quickly communicate important information. Some of the options currently included are: “I need healing/shields!” or "My ultimate is charging! x%". The commands are decent substitutes for voice comms, if you lack a mic or don’t want to talk.
Let's say you are playing Mercy, you recently died, and are making your way from the spawn room back to your team. In the meantime, your team's Genji is constantly spamming that he needs healing, but he has no clue that you are miles away. You can send an 'Acknowledge', to let him know you are aware, but that will mean he expects you to be closer than you are.
Another issue that can come up is the following: you are wanting to combine your ultimate with someone elses, and you see that they also have theirs ready. In the heat of the moment you might not have time to go find where your ally is; maybe they're not even close? Many times has an ultimate combo gone to waste, because the initiator didn't realize the comboer was miles away.
Even though the current commands generally work fine, there’s clearly room for improvement, right? So let’s play with a specific idea.
Changes
One of the things that could be added is a sort of “distance indicator”; a tell on how far away you are from the rest of your team. If you are the Mercy that was mentioned before, you use the usual command to tell the injured Genji that you understand, but this time the message also adds a "(35 yards away)” to actually let him know that you aren't close by.
In the other scenario we mentioned, adding this distance to the Ultimate charge messages would let either of the combo pieces know to hold off for a bit longer, improving team synergy.
This addition will help any situation where you are looking for specific teammates to work together with. For instance, when a Reinhardt wants to know if Mercy is close enough with her Resurrection ready for him to go ham.
Up- and downsides
The biggest problem will most likely be that the chat can get too cluttered and the commands too complicated. Overwatch is overall a hectic game, so simplicity in everything else is needed. Secondly, let's not forget the fact that the angrily spamming Genji player will most likely keep spamming the command, no matter how far or close his supports are.
Another issue, which isn’t really an issue, is the fact that maybe not everyone will want this information and will prefer the developers to work on something else.
But the upsides should outweigh those few, negative aspects. This change would improve just what this series is about: quality of life while playing. This particular change won't affect tournament play much (considering voice comms) or perhaps even high level competitive play. But it will greatly help communications and team work in quick play and/or more casual situations.
Do you agree or disagree with this suggestion? Do you have your own ideas on small changes that can be made to the game, to make it just a little sweeter to play? Be sure to let us know!
For more competitive Overwatch news, follow us @GosuOverwatch.
