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Overwatch: What's Next Panel Summary

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Here come a whole lot more details on OW2! We'll be updating the article live as the panel goes on.

  • Jeff from the Overwatch team and Aaron Keller (who made a lot of WoW cities) start the panel off

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  • In Push, the new game mode, the teams have to escort/push the robot to the enemy base
  • The further it goes, the higher the score is and you unlock spawn point as it progresses
  • Robot moves faster when not pushing barricade
  • Most maps do not finish with a team getting to the end
  • Symmetrical maps and game modes, mirrored maps and same objectives for both teams
  • Winding path for robot, very flanky, emphasizing those types of heroes (Tracer, Reaper, Genji)

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  • Toronto first map
  • Multiple new PvP maps for all current modes from OW1

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  • Story:
    • Overwatch (the in-game organization) is back - after it was banned before OW1 and Winston initiated the recall (as depicted in the animated shorts)
    • McCree is nowhere to be found
    • The attack on Paris by Nul-sector is actually world-wide
    • Every story mission has a cinematic intro and outro
    • Specific heroes in specific story missions

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  • Item system in story missions
    • Temporary item pickup for the mission only, similar to Battle Royales

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  • Hero missions
    • Very replayable, long term content
    • Similar to adventure mode in Diablo or World Quests in WoW
    • Linked with hero progression
    • Playable in all old maps
    • Objectives will keep changing
    • Full hero lineup to pick from
    • Certain heroes will be very good for certain objective types
    • Different enemy groups

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  • Progression system:
    • Only a part of the system now, could change a lot between now and release
    • Talent system - originally only for hero missions, but might be in story missions as well
    • Not in competitive, PvE only
    • Talent combos

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  • Same engine as Overwatch 1, but greatly upgraded
  • New look for the heroes

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  • New HUD, but still very changeable before release

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  • Sojourn, another new hero

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  • Redefining the sequel - a little vague and unsure but this is what it sounded like Jeff was saying
    • Seemingly every new PvP map, new Heroes will also be added to Overwatch 1?
    • Seemingly all the currently earned skins will come over to OW2?
  • Coming to PC, Switch, PS4 and Xbox One
  • No release date quite yet

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Still not sure what it is, when you buy OW2 will it replace OW1, like an expansion? Seems like a lot of hassle for them, if they are going to add heroes and maps for both clients, with crossplay in pvp allowed.

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      Climbing the ranks
      Our team would like to apologize for ranking many players too low during the first week of Overwatch 2. We discovered a bug that was impacting player skill ratings, which is what contributed to many players being placed in Bronze 5 when they should have been placed higher. Our most recent patch included a fix that will help you get back to your true rank quickly, and that will be reflected the next time you receive a competitive ranking update. You will receive a boost as you continue playing to help you get up to the correct ranks. Players who haven’t yet placed in competitive won’t experience this issue after the fix goes live.
      We’re also watching your feedback about how we present your skill tier and division and how you celebrate that in-game. While we don’t have any details we can share yet, expect us to make more improvements to Competitive, and we will continue to watch for your feedback.
      Thank you for week one, and here’s to many more
      Finally, we want to ensure games play out fairly for all players in all matches. In a future patch, we’ll fix an issue that could cause some rubber banding in-game. We also want to be certain that hit registration for shots fired is working pixel-perfectly. We have investigated reports from players about hit registration, and many reports are actually related to how our replay tool works, which does not perfectly capture the alignment of each player’s aim. 
      There are also misconceptions about how our controller settings on PC work, which does not affect mouse input. As an example, aim smoothing under gamepad does not impact mouse input latency or precision. However, in one report, we discovered a bug that affected the hitbox alignment of our rendered objects for Junker Queen in some specific situations, and we’re working diligently to fix this issue. 
      We also understand that some PC players have concerns with input responsiveness and recommend trying out these changes to improve how quickly the game responds to player input:
      Make sure the in-game resolution setting matches your actual monitor’s set resolution. Set the capped frame rate to a value that matches your monitor’s maximum frame rate. If you have an NVidia graphics card, turn on NVidia Reflex + Boost. Otherwise, turn on Reduced Buffering for other GPUs. Finally, in your gameplay options, turn on Enable High Precision Mouse Input to speed up how frequently your mouse captures position in the game. Thank you to all the players who were a part of the first week of Overwatch 2. While this time has been incredibly exciting for the community and our team, it’s also come with many challenges that we're looking to address quickly. We will continue to listen to player feedback as we strive to make Overwatch 2 the best game it can be, and we are looking forward to sharing more in the coming weeks leading up to Season Two. In the meantime, we hope everyone is having a blast in the game, and we will talk again soon! 
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