26 replies to this topic

[AndY]

It's been over a month since our last Ask the Devs, so here's Episode 2.

Ask us anything and everything you'd like answered, and we'll try our best to answer as many as we can.


Thread gets locked on Tuesday around noon UTC/GMT, and we'll start posting answers right after that.

[Jgoodroad]

ok, a few things I would like answered...

1. when are the new maps coming out
2. as of now how many official maps are you planing on releasing (by this I mean how many maps are you working on? is it just the 4 or are there others?)
and most importantly...
3.when are we going to be able to use the OW entities for mapping?

[warbrand2]

do you pan to add any new weapons like the hack tool?

[OJ191]

What stage do you see the mod at in 1 month's time?

Do you plan on adding other gamemodes?

Are there plans for a class based system and upgrades (for both sides)?

[Dancing]

How about some Non-Mod related questions? huh folks? OK...let's see here...

what degree's do you guys hold?
favorite type of ice cream?
What three words come to your mind when you see a Cairn Terrier fighting a Deer and wins?
OK THE ULTIMATE... if you had to choose between these two super powers. Flying or Invisibility... which one would you choose?
technicality's
flying doesn't include wings... you just fly. you can fly as fast as a bullet and no discomfort (it feels like your driving in your car at a high speed with the windows down at room temperature) and Invisibility means just that... you and your cloths go invisible... but nothing else...so you can't grab people, places or things and make them go invisible too.you don't make noise, although if you did choose to speak someone would hear you. Also would you bring a teenage (14) sidekick along with you? s/he doesn't have a power at all but tags along.


I look forward to seeing the answers.

[cwook]

nothing more to say than what Jgoodroad wrote

[Dancing]

cwook, on 28 August 2010 - 10:06 PM, said:

nothing more to say than what Jgoodroad wrote

I agree... that's why I came up with the silly gigagamook questions I did... which I really do hope they are answered because I am kinda curious.

[Reaper]

Will you add user created maps to the updates if they're good enough, glitch-free, and great with gameplay?

[Jgoodroad]

in response to reaper's post : I hope you guys do accept user maps (with consent of their creator(s)) and not just user maps that your "secretly" planing on adding via contests...(to explain, something along the lines of valve's "artpass" comp)

[Shryko]

inspired by the previous Ask the Devs thread's mentions of TF2:

Have the devs considered cross-promotion with other mods, or collaborating with other dev teams on related projects?

[Sev]

Curious to this..will coast be in the next major update ?

[AndY]

Time's up!

Thank you all for posting your questions. Feel free to reply to the answers I'm about to give, and let me know if you'd like us to have these Ask the Devs threads posted more often.

Jgoodroad, on 28 August 2010 - 05:45 PM, said:

ok, a few things I would like answered...

1. when are the new maps coming out
2. as of now how many official maps are you planing on releasing (by this I mean how many maps are you working on? is it just the 4 or are there others?)
and most importantly...
3. when are we going to be able to use the OW entities for mapping?

1. The first versions of both Coast and Crossroads are on our priority list for 1.3.0 (scheduled for the end of September). Next week's 1.2.0 release will feature major overhauls of Breach and Citadel that we're certain you'll enjoy playing in the meantime.

2. The four maps mentioned above are the ones that are currently in active development. We have a few others in planning stages and hope to begin fleshing them out soon.

3. We're planning to make the FGD available to our community mappers sometime between the 1.2.0 and 1.3.0 releases.

warbrand2, on 28 August 2010 - 06:51 PM, said:

Do you pan to add any new weapons like the hack tool?

We definitely plan to make more of the HL2 weapons available to the Resistance side. As for the EMP, I can see it being useful once we implement roles/abilities.

OJ191, on 28 August 2010 - 07:34 PM, said:

1. What stage do you see the mod at in 1 month's time?
2. Do you plan on adding other gamemodes?
3. Are there plans for a class based system and upgrades (for both sides)?

1. Both next major updates (1.2.0 and 1.3.0) are scheduled for September and we already have them planned out. So in a way, I know exactly where the mod will be in a month's time (in terms of development). We're working hard on features we've had planned for Overwatch for a while now as well as new ones we've added to our lists based on community feedback and suggestions.
What's a bit less obvious is how active our community will still be by then. With two big updates planned for September which include four really fun levels and tons of new features, we believe Overwatch's popularity will keep growing (more players, more feedback on the forums). Once 1.2.0 is out, I'll be posting a thread asking you all if you believe we're headed in the right direction.

2. That depends on your definition of game mode. Each level we've created has its own unique style, objectives, progression, pace, etc.. Citadel has capture points, Breach is more of an offensive level, Crossroads is survival/defence and so on.

3. Based on the discussions we've had both internally and on the community forums, we're aiming for roles and abilities rather than classes. As for upgrades, we have a tech tree-type system in the works.

[AndY]

Dancing, on 28 August 2010 - 09:46 PM, said:

How about some Non-Mod related questions? huh folks? OK...let's see here...

1. what degree's do you guys hold?
2. favorite type of ice cream?
3. What three words come to your mind when you see a Cairn Terrier fighting a Deer and wins?
4. OK THE ULTIMATE... if you had to choose between these two super powers. Flying or Invisibility... which one would you choose?
technicality's
flying doesn't include wings... you just fly. you can fly as fast as a bullet and no discomfort (it feels like your driving in your car at a high speed with the windows down at room temperature) and Invisibility means just that... you and your cloths go invisible... but nothing else...so you can't grab people, places or things and make them go invisible too.you don't make noise, although if you did choose to speak someone would hear you. Also would you bring a teenage (14) sidekick along with you? s/he doesn't have a power at all but tags along.


I look forward to seeing the answers.

Haha, alright.

1. It ranges. Some members of our team are working on their Master's while others are finishing high school. It might be a good idea to just post some of our bios somewhere on the site at some point. Then again, who cares who we are, as long as we make kick-ass games, right?

2. Me: Neapolitan with some whipped cream and maple syrup (and a cherry) (for breakfast) (seriously, it's epic).
James: Creamy kind (scary eh?).
Ryan: Phish food Ben & Jerry's (I have no idea what that is).
Tero: Liquorice ice cream.

3. Me: Bambi? Isn't that a girl's name?
James: Breakfast. (x_x)

4. Me: Invisibility: Going places you shouldn't be going.™
James: Invisibility works in space so Invisibility.
Ryan: Yeah I'd go with invisibility over flight.
Tero: Flying might be awesome but, with invisibility, you could get hired by the government (if breaking into the game industry fails).

Reaper, on 30 August 2010 - 10:36 PM, said:

Will you add user created maps to the updates if they're good enough, glitch-free, and great with gameplay?

Definitely, we want to do whatever we can to support custom mappers in our community.

Jgoodroad, on 30 August 2010 - 11:52 PM, said:

in response to reaper's post : I hope you guys do accept user maps (with consent of their creator(s)) and not just user maps that your "secretly" planing on adding via contests...(to explain, something along the lines of valve's "artpass" comp)

We'll have both. We're looking into ways to allow players to opt-in to such updates, since we understand that not everyone wants to download a boatload of custom levels. We might even make it a server-side option, and players would just download the map when joining a server running it. We'll hold a few polls before we decide on any of it.

[AndY]

Shryko, on 31 August 2010 - 08:37 AM, said:

inspired by the previous Ask the Devs thread's mentions of TF2:

Have the devs considered cross-promotion with other mods, or collaborating with other dev teams on related projects?

Cooperation and collaboration is what we do best. We're all strong believers in the modding community, so we'd definitely be interested in working with others. What and when.. we'll just have to see.

During an episode of Podcast17, I voiced my views on Mod Fidelity's challenge to all high-profile developers on ModDB and, if I remember correctly, I was all for it. It's a great idea and I hope to find the time very soon to answer the challenge (and I'll challenge anyone to top whatever it is we put together).

Sev, on 31 August 2010 - 07:19 PM, said:

Curious to this..will coast be in the next major update ?

Coast is targeted for 1.3.0 (see above).



This wraps up episode 2 of Ask the Devs. Until next!

[AndY]

Thread's open to replies. If you have more questions (that aren't directly related to the answers above), save them for the next episode!

[BMT]

http://www.benjerry..../#product_id=30

Phish Food dammit, you'll die from the ace flavour.

[AndY]

BMT, on 31 August 2010 - 09:05 PM, said:

http://www.benjerry..../#product_id=30

Phish Food dammit, you'll die from the ace flavour.

Oh, that actually looks really good. I wonder if we have that stuff here.

[Jgoodroad]

coast for 1.3.0?

really!?

wait... when will that be?...

and I have to say only 1/2 of one of my questions in my original post was answered... but I guess that's better then when valve gets asked about EP3...

[AndY]

Jgoodroad, on 31 August 2010 - 11:31 PM, said:

coast for 1.3.0?

really!?

wait... when will that be?...

AndY, on 31 August 2010 - 08:08 PM, said:

1. The first versions of both Coast and Crossroads are on our priority list for 1.3.0 (scheduled for the end of September).

Jgoodroad, on 31 August 2010 - 11:31 PM, said:

and I have to say only 1/2 of one of my questions in my original post was answered... but I guess that's better then when valve gets asked about EP3...

I must have missed it. Which one? I'd be more than happy to answer it.

[OJ191]

Jgoodroad, on 31 August 2010 - 11:31 PM, said:

coast for 1.3.0?

really!?

wait... when will that be?...

and I have to say only 1/2 of one of my questions in my original post was answered... but I guess that's better then when valve gets asked about EP3...

I see 3 questions asked and 3 full answers xD

if you mean the one about overwatch entities then the FGD is what allows you to use them? (iirc)
Otherwise I have no clue what is "missing" :S