Blizzard has announced a number of changes to Overwatch's player-to-player interaction model, included the ability to group play with preset roles you want in your group, as well as the ability to endorse players who did a particularly good job and promoted a healthy interaction. The new update also includes Symmetra's rework, which has been testing on the PTR server for a number of weeks, as well as a rework of the Lunar Horizon Colony map.
Find your dream teammates!
Two new social features to control your gameplay experience are now available: Endorsements and Looking for Group! pic.twitter.com/Yz03ZptE8q
The latest Overwatch Developer update hosted by Jeff Kaplan goes into a number of new features and changes for the game in an upcoming update.
Kaplan first talks about endorsements, which allows players to congratulate team members and even people on the other team for positive interactions. If someone is being particularly friendly or adding to the game, you can give them an endorsement. If someone on your team has done a great job and helping to organize the team, they can get a special endorsement for that.
Players who endorse others get small experience bonuses, but at a limited cap per day. The people who accumulate a lot of endorsements also get other, bigger rewards periodically for being a good player. Those who accrue those endorsements can't then turn around and go negative on the community, as that behavior takes away their rewards. It is Blizzard's way of trying to mend the community through positive reinforcement.
Overwatch also soon be getting a Looking For Group feature, which has been requested for the last two years. LFG allows you to designate the kind of roles you're looking for and you can even restrict players who join your team to the roles you designate. This isn't matchmaking, it's trying to find people who you work best with.
The next update also combines offensive and defensive heroes into a new category titled simply Damage. Kaplan says these types became similar over the last two years of updates, so the change just makes official what has already been the case.
Last but certain not least, the biggest changes are coming to Symmetra, who is being reworked as a Damage hero. She's already on the Test Server with a number of changes, including an Ultimate that creates a Photon Barrier that's "big enough to span and cut through and entire map." You can check out the full developer update below.
It looks like Symmetra is the next Overwatch character up for some big changes. In a forum reply, lead designer Geoff Goodman laid out some of the changes coming to the support character, most notably that she wouldn't be playing support anymore and would, instead, likely become a defense class character.
Here's what Goodman said:
We currently have moved her to Defense. We tried a healer version which had her turrets healing instead of dealing damage, but it felt super awkward, especially with how fast Overwatch moves.
That said, we are playing with a new way her turrets deploy. Instead of having to stick them directly onto a wall herself, she can now fire an un-deployed version like a projectile, which sticks to walls/ceilings/etc. Once it sticks, it will unfold like it does on the wall currently when she builds them.
This helps for a bunch of reasons but one of the big ones is that it makes it a lot easier to play her on offense or just be able to preposition her turrets much more easily/quickly.
Be sure to note the use of the word "currently" here, which carries the implication that none of this is set in stone. However, here are a scattershot for possible changes that Goodman has mentioned for you Symmetra lovers to mull over:
The shield generator is gone "at the moment."
Symmetra's Photon Barrier is now her ultimate.
The teleporter is becoming the E ability. It's also changed a bit, according to Goodman: "You place the exit like you normally do, except that you can place it up to 25 meters away, instead of only right in front of you. We’re experimenting with what works and what doesn’t but currently you can teleport things such as Torbjorn turrets, D.Va’s exploding mech, Junkrat tire, etc."
Blizzard has announced a number of changes to Overwatch's player-to-player interaction model, included the ability to group play with preset roles you want in your group, as well as the ability to endorse players who did a particularly good job and promoted a healthy interaction. The new update also includes Symmetra's rework, which has been testing on the PTR server for a number of weeks, as well as a rework of the Lunar Horizon Colony map.
