The Overwatch developer blog has just released an update for week one, which is surprisingly candid about its challenges alongside what changes players can expect from future patches of the PVP beta.
Find all of our Overwatch 2 coverage here
Goals – Overwatch Developer Blog
It looks like Overwatch 2 will be getting multiple re-balances for both the game itself and playable heroes, which is to be expected in open beta. The team’s main focus so far has been rolling out 5v5, a big shift in gameplay style to the usual 6v6 combat:
“The main goals for our first Beta were to test our shift to 5v5, the new maps and Push game mode, overall balance, and build and server stability. We believe 5v5 is a significant adjustment for players, and we have been happy to hear consistent and positive feedback about players having more fun, feeling a greater sense of impact in their matches, and enjoying a faster pace of combat and engagements.”
Ranked Mode and Que Times – Overwatch Developer Blog
The Overwatch developer blog also acknowledges player frustration with not having a ranked mode at the time of writing during the PvP beta. Quickplay has been implemented due to limit possible issues with other mechanics. Overall, it sounds like Blizzard is being quite methodical with its approach to testing the game so far:
“We understand that many players in our community want to play a ranked mode in the PvP Beta and that those systems are a great way to keep players engaged and enjoying the competition. We made the choice to only run quick play in this Beta test for two primary reasons: first, because in a test with a limited number of players, we generally want to prioritize making matches more quickly over splitting players into multiple queues; and second, because we’re planning some significant overhauls of our core ranked and competitive mode systems and those are not yet ready to test publicly at scale.“
Balancing
The Overwatch developer blog also touches on how Blizzard intends to use the PVP beta to its advantage when figuring outbalancing and making critical adjustments. Whilst most heroes are falling into a healthy play rate range, there are some adjustments coming in a later update to address some stray statistics they’re not too happy with:
“More broadly, during our Alpha test, we observed support heroes feeling too vulnerable to diving and flanking attacks with fewer shields and no second tank focusing on protecting them. We made a significant adjustment to their role passive heading into Beta, allowing support heroes to recover more health faster and improve their survivability.“
Scoreboard and Medal System
It’s really refreshing to read that Blizzard isn’t patting itself on the back just yet with a slew of improvements and fixes coming at a later date for the Scoreboard and Medal systems too:
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- “We’ll be adding a new “Damage Mitigated” statistic that will reside next to Damage Done and Healing Done on the scoreboard. This statistic will cover things like damage blocked and damage reduced by other abilities such as Ana’s Nano Boost, Baptiste’s Immortality Field, and many others!
- The team may also look at reworking the Fire system sometime in the future to complement the scoreboard system as we believe it can provide excitement for high-performing players.”
UI and Design
- “The team is seeing a lot of feedback highlighting certain elements of the scoreboard and how they can be more effectively communicated in-game, like evaluating ultimate abilities and hero pictures to decide where on the scoreboard those things can live.
- Please keep in mind that this reworked scoreboard screen is a work in progress and the team will continue to iterate and improve this feature as we progress through testing. We’re already exploring multiple concepts for different layouts”.
Readers can find the full Week One Overwatch Developer Blog here.
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Featured Image Credit: Blizzard Entertainment