overwatch Overwatch: Blue Posts & Jeff Kaplan Interview on Eurogamer

[Zadina 923]

The blues have been busy with posts about Widowmaker nerfs, the leaver system penalties explained, the high bandwith option and an exploit in Dorado. Moreover, Jeff Kaplan had an interview with Eurogamer, where he talked about all things Overwatch.

Community Manager Lylirra made an extensive post about how the leaver system works:

Lylirra

We've seen similar questions about how the leaver penalty currently works in Quick Play (both here and on social media), so here’s a bit more information:

• If you leave too many games and your “games played” vs “games completed” percentage falls below our required threshold, you will receive a warning message (this percentage is calculated based on your 20 most recent games).
• If you continue to leave games after receiving a warning (which will display in the lower left-hand corner of your screen), you will incur a 75% EXP penalty on all future games.
• The penalty isn’t time-based, but instead will be removed once you complete enough games to raise your “games played” vs “games completed” percentage above our required threshold (again, this percentage is calculated based on your 20 most recent games).
• If you disconnect or are removed due to inactivity from a game, it will count the same as if you leave the game intentionally.

If you leave a game before the “Assemble Your Team” phase is over (i.e. before you enter your starting spawn rooms):

•  It won’t count as a game played
•  You will not be considered a “leaver” in this scenario

If you leave a game after the match ends (i.e. after you see the VICTORY/DEFEAT screen):

•  It will count as a game played—and if your team won, it will count as a win
•  You will not be considered a “leaver” in this scenario

If you leave a game after the “Assemble Your Team” phase is over, but before the match ends:

• It will count as a game played
• You will be considered a “leaver” in this scenario

Hopefully that helps! If you see the game behaving in a way that's different from what's listed above, be sure to let us know by posting in the Bug Report forum. (source)

Meanwhile, a user posted on Reddit an exploit in Dorado (you can view the thread here). A Blizzard representative popped in to say that this exploit/bug will be fixed in the next patch.

Zoevia

Thanks for the video and the detail breakdown in the comments. We're working on getting this fixed in an upcoming patch.

Thanks all!

(source)

Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan is always active in the official forums. Yesterday, he said that Widowmaker is under scrutiny for balance changes.

Jeff Kaplan

Widowmaker is on our radar. We are discussing her. We have some internal experiments going to see if we can keep her viable while lowering the frustration threshold a little bit. Right now, this is just exploration. If something more comes of it, we'll let you know. (source)

He also had a few things to say about the high bandwith options. Currently, players can host Custom Games at 60hz and Blizzard needs the players' help and feedback on this.

Jeff Kaplan

Hi. We've actually tried to talk about this subject a few times now. There is a high volume of traffic around the game at the moment so our responses don't always make it to everyone.

First off, for anyone interested in why things work the way they do in OW, please watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTH2ZPgYujQ

In regards to next steps for us, we're seeking testing and feedback on our high bandwith Custom Game option. This option allows players to host a game at 60hz. Please note, if all players do not have a decent ping you might still feel some issues. Yesterday, we got some really good feedback on the feature and some issues with it (not starting matches etc...). So we have some fixes in the works to stabilize it and we're looking to push those out ASAP. If that goes well and we continue to get good testing/feedback, it opens us up to exploring proliferating the feature to other parts of the game.

(note: we recognize not everyone can get 11 other people together to start a custom game -- but we need some help/testing. someday, we'd like to have a server browser to make this easier... but that's a different thread)

So that's where we're at! We're as excited as anyone to improve OW and make it a better game. We're actively working on addressing player feedback. We've taken steps to get 60hz games into OW. We need testing and feedback -- it's clearly not ready to go wide yet (hence, incoming patch). Thanks for your patience in the meantime.

Also, I am going to close other threads on this topic and redirect here.

TL;DR: We're fixing the issues in Custom Game with 60hz and gathering feedback so we can determine feasibility of proliferating the feature.

(source)

The high bandwith option was one of the few things Jeff mentioned in his Eurogamer interview. He also talked about the upcoming balance changes for McCree and D.Va. Specifically, McCree's Fan the Hammer ability will have its damage reduced. As far as D.Va is concerned, they are testing buffing either her damage or her survivability, with the latter being more likely. Jeff also confirmed that competitive play is still on the track for the end of June and that seasons will last 3 months. The most interesting thing he said is that people should pay more attention to the mysterious Sombra, since there are more hints in the game and in other media about her. Is she the next Hero?

[Damien 1,514]

I wish they reduced the wait time before a game begins. It's so irritating to have to wait almost 2 minutes before being able to actually play.