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As we near the end of the month, it's time for yet another episode of Ask the Devs!
Ask us anything and everything you'd like answered, and we'll try our best to answer as many of your questions as we can.
The thread will get locked on Friday around noon UTC/GMT, and we'll start posting answers right after that.
Answers
Overwatch Development Team said:
- TechnoBanana asks:
- Do you prefer mild or mature cheese?
Well, different cheeses come as both mild or mature, so it'd really depend. I suppose my favourite kind of cheese would be cheese curds on top of a yummy poutine! :P
- How are you doing? :D
I am doing just fine my good sir (or ma'am), how are you?
- How is the mod development going?
Development's going great (take a look at our latest Progress Report). We're all really looking forward to seeing some community-made maps (remember: contest coming soon!).
- What made you want to start making an awesome mod (that sadly not many people play)?
Game development is one of the best jobs in the world (when working for the right people, of course), and we all want to be a part of the industry and turn our passion into a career. I've personally had the privilege of working on some awesome mods over the years, gaining a lot of experience along the way, experience I am able to put to good use working on this project. It was just a matter of getting up one day and telling people: "Let's make a kick-ass mod of our own".
As for people not playing it, I'll tell you what I told others on our Steam group: The mod's still in a very early stage of development, and we don't expect it to have big, constant numbers so soon. It'll improve progressively with every release. Also, it's September, everyone's busy going back to school. Give it time!
- Do you prefer mild or mature cheese?
- warbrand2 asks:
- What are the planned traps for Breach?
For the finale? I'd rather keep that a surprise for the time being!
- Will we ever see things like bots?
Everything's possible, but it's at the bottom of the priority list for now. We'd have to code the AI ourselves (from scratch) to get bots working properly as Rebels (capturing objectives, etc..).
- What are the planned traps for Breach?
- Jgoodroad asks:
- How much are you planning on changing the core gameplay of Overwatch? I know you're planning on some kind of role/class system, as well as a weapon control system (we can't all be Gordon Freeman), but what else are you going to do that directly effects the basic gameplay elements?
The core gameplay shouldn't really change much. Anything we add at this point is an "addition" or an "improvement" to it, not a radical change.
To remain as flexible as possible, we don't plan too far ahead. What you've listed is most of what's on our shortlist of features: Barracks (RTS-like unit "building"), Resources, Roles/Abilities, Tech Trees, .. We can't say for sure yet what will make it and what won't, only time will tell!
- How much are you planning on changing the core gameplay of Overwatch? I know you're planning on some kind of role/class system, as well as a weapon control system (we can't all be Gordon Freeman), but what else are you going to do that directly effects the basic gameplay elements?
- Dancing asks:
- Is the Half-Life 2 universe a placeholder for something bigger? When I read the job opportunities, you seemed to mention commercial potential? What does this mean?
I don't want to comment too much about this, but here's what I will say:
As we've mentioned in the past, we've intentionally restricted ourselves to only using Half-Life 2 assets, to be able to focus our entire effort on building Overwatch's fun gameplay. We've done pretty well on that front so far, but there's obviously only so much we can do with existing assets. There's quite a bit of potential to Overwatch's hybrid FPS/RTS-type gameplay, potential we definitely would like to explore. To do so, we'd have to go beyond the Half-Life 2 universe.
We have a talented team of developers and tons of motivation to build kick-ass video games. So basically, Overwatch is only the beginning!
- Is the Half-Life 2 universe a placeholder for something bigger? When I read the job opportunities, you seemed to mention commercial potential? What does this mean?
- Auxor asks:
- How quickly will new Combine units be available for the mod?
Every new map we release will feature a new set of units added to the game. You can expect to see Dropships, Helicopters, Snipers, Scanners, etc..
- How quickly will new Combine units be available for the mod?
- Gabe(HUN) asks:
- When will we get some new weapons...or get the original ones, like the AR2 or the SLAM?
We'll be introducing additional Half-Life 2 weapons in upcoming levels. We just need to be very careful to tweak them properly so that they don't impact balance in a negative way.
- When will we get some new weapons...or get the original ones, like the AR2 or the SLAM?
- Colaman asks:
- What are the current plans for a resource system for the overwatch or will you keep the 15-seconds-system?
We'll be writing about the Resources system soon. We're not sure if it'll completely replace the cooldown system we have currently, but it'll definitely give the GM more flexibility to spawn the number of units he wants (instead of pre-defined numbers). This will also apply to traps (so you can decide how many Manhacks the trap should spawn, and you would lose a certain amount of resources based on the number of Manhacks you have selected).
- Will there be medkits for rebels and any kind of armor like vests?
Yes, we're in the process of implementing a "healing" ability. As for armor, it's a possibility, but it's not yet in our plans.
- What are the current plans for a resource system for the overwatch or will you keep the 15-seconds-system?
- WAXT asks:
- Can we get atleast one official Overwatch server for Australia? Having 6 servers for the USA alone seems a little unreasonable.
Our current provider doesn't have a presence anywhere near Australia, but I'll see what I can do.
- Will you be implementing some kind of free-roaming/spectate mode for the Overwatch, so future maps may be more vertical, instead of the flat, horizontal scheme we see now?
We've discussed various options that would allow for vertical maps, but we're focused on getting the current (horizontal) maps done first before exploring any alternatives.
- Can we get atleast one official Overwatch server for Australia? Having 6 servers for the USA alone seems a little unreasonable.
- OJ191 asks:
- Do you plan to make a cap on the number of units the overwatch can make (maybe not for all maps, but at least some) to allow for longer objective based maps without the overwatch just spamming and hiding them back.
There is currently a global limit, but it's pretty high (50 units I believe). The Resources system we'll be implementing soon will offer something similar to what you're hoping to see.
- Any plans on making "large" maps? ie something long with multiple major objectives, think 2 or 3x the size/length of Breach.
I don't think that'll be possible. With Breach (in its current size), we're already at 150% of the entity data limit. The map's stable for now, but I wouldn't want to go any higher. The Source engine just wasn't built for large, complex maps.
- Also any plans on making linked missions ie campaigns; maybe even dynamically changing depending on wins/losses? (think territory control in tf2)
We don't have any current plans for it, but it's definitely possible. I'm hoping that community mappers might decide to build a map series, and if they do, we can work with them to set up a level change trigger that would pick a different map based on which team wins.
- Do you plan to make a cap on the number of units the overwatch can make (maybe not for all maps, but at least some) to allow for longer objective based maps without the overwatch just spamming and hiding them back.
That's it for this month's episode of Ask the Devs!
Until next!
