Hello.
I’m writing this to share some of my thoughts on some of the quality of life changes that I would like to see in OW1/OW2. I’ve split each section into each different modes in the game and in general so it can be easy to follow. The bullet points are talking points and the paragraph beneath it is me trying to explain why. Please write what changes you agree or disagree with and maybe share it to get other peoples thoughts on the matter. If you have any questions, I happy to explain in more detail.
Experimental
- Remove role lock
- Remove hero limit
I see two big issues with the current Experimental mode are the following. One being the long queue times; Two people leaving due to them not being able to play the new changes because someone else already locked in the hero. By removing role lock this would increase queues times for players however as a player you are now fighting with 5 other players for the hero you want. This is why I also suggest removing hero limit in the mode as well. In my eyes no one really cares what heroes they are up against in this mode but they just want to play the heroes with the new changes. This allows everyone at once to test the new hero abilities against other players without fighting for control for a hero.
Arcade
- Add visual queue to represents the game mode queue time.
- Change the weekly reward requirements from 9 wins to 18 points
(2 points for wins, 1 for lost. Loot boxes rewards at 6/12/18)
For the most I think Arcade is well design mode for overwatch for the causal player base. However in general but especially during events (Junkenstein’s revenge/Overwatch Archives), where there are like a bonus 12 extra modes, if you don’t have a stack or know what games modes are popularly at the time you are sitting in queue for a long time unable to get the weekly rewards. I believe have a some sort of system (similar to what rocker league does) to visual tell the player what games modes have good queue times and what is going to be expected queuing for a certain mode.
For Example:
- Green = queue time is <10miuntes
- Yellow = queue time <30minutes
- Red = queue time >=30minutes.
Also changing the rewards system to wins/loss points helps because some times it feels like its impossible to get 9 win within a week due to not finding enough game lobbies.
Quick Play
- Make Quick Play more like Competitive
Personally I don’t like how QP is design currently. You play half of a real game, with no punishment for leaving other than maybe losing endorsement level. To me QP should be a mirror image of Competitive without SR and group limits. This gives non competitive players a full game overwatch while also prepare new players what competitive is going to be like. A QP should still do loose match matchmaking. You should play both Attack and Defence; leaving mid game (just like comp) should result in punishment in forms of time outs and other means. In my eyes this would lessen the amount of players that play comp for fun/practice and wanting to play a full game not a half game.
Competitive
- Remove Open Queue
- Change Competitive Season length
(2 months to 3 or 6 months) - Season SR reset (some what)
- Remove group chat and can’t leave team chat
Open queue is a redundant game mode that splits the competitive player pool. Why have a competitive mode where your highest level of play and all competitive tournaments run by smaller communities don’t run it as it main format. When you look for a team to join no one askes you what’s your Open Queue rank.
I believe having the seasons only lasting 2 months was a mistake. End of season rewards happen to offered. Most times the first and last week of a season is the worst time to play competitive due to people only doing it for placements to gain end of season rewards or not trying because that know the season is about to reset. We are already at season 32 or something, changing it to 3 months allows you to rename the seasons 2021 winter, 2021 spring, 2022 summer so on. Extending the season reduces the amount of time people just play for placements and throw at the end of the season.
One of the biggest issues I have with the ranked system is SR campers. Players who play a few games a season on their main account to maintain a rank, to then play on a second account for the rest of the season. This is why I propose a small SR decay at the start of each season to stop SR campers. Just like how the Overwatch Devs have done it to GM players limiting them to 3900, I believe this should have to everyone else scale to proportion of course. This would be shifting the player rank distribution bell curve to the left. For example, someone in Silver would start lower by a small amount compare to someone in Diamond. By doing this it makes sure that Comp at all ranks stays in a competitive environment because everyone would need reclimb. Another benefit are players that achieve a rank due to playing an OP hero would need to still prove that they belong at their old rank after nerfs/buffs are made. For example during 1 patch Sigma is very strong and you’re able climb to Diamond, but a season or two later Sigma gets nerf and new season starts. You try to climb back up but your stuck at mid-plat. This ensures that players who climb using a very strong hero don’t camp the SR rank once the hero gets nerfed. Anther thing it makes boosting more a hassle to maintain.
Lastly for the competitive changes I think players should not alienate themselves from the team by hiding in group chat or leaving team chat. To me Commination in Overwatch is very important since its a team base game and unable to even listen to teammates callouts is like playing the game in hard mode. However players can still mute other player/s instead of leaving chat if that player/s are being toxic in voice/chat.
General
- Have a Battle Pass system
- Change what stats are display in game
- Remove cards at end of game
- Show all player stats at end of game
I think having a battle pass rewards system is a really good idea moving forward. This allows you as a developer to reward players who dedicated their time into playing your game over others for cool/good cosmetic items. If a player can’t reach the reward tier they can just pay of it. The reason why I say this is because currently none of the cosmetics mean/worth anything because they are so easy to get.
The six stats that are displayed at the bottom left side of the game doesn’t reflect well enough on the aspects of the game expect of healing and deaths. The changes I would make are the following:
- Eliminations to Kills/Final Blows
- Objective Kills to Assist
- Objective Time to Shield Damage
- Damage Done to Hero Damage
Remove the cards upvote cards at the end and replace them with a stat sheet on everyone in the game. So many times I hear “I have gold/sliver damage what are the DPS doing” however you find out the the DPS is only 300 damage behind; “We need more heals” or “Trash tanks, no space”. With a more clear and opened stat sheet at the end, people can visual see the stats first before getting mad if necessary. And instead of upvoting cards, people can just endorse other players.