April 12 (Portaltic/EP) –
Blizzard has announced a series of new measures and features for Overwatch 2, which will feature a large group competitive experience for friends and penalties for players who leave the game in competitive mode in season 10 of the title.
The developer has announced a series of changes that seek to promote “a fun experience, safe and inclusive for all”, In addition, it has the objective of “uniting friends and, at the same time, protecting them from disruptive players,” as explained in a statement.
Overwatch 2 offers so-called competitive matches, which are designed for those who want to test their skills, and offer a more professional experience than the game modes. Quickplay either weekly brawl.
Before reaching this competitive mode, players must complete a series of placement matches – specifically ten – to obtain their starting skill rating, which moves between values one and one hundred.
This means that, for groups of friends to play in this mode, they must have the same level of fluency during the game. Blizzard is aware that this doesn't always happen, and because it believes Overwatch 2 “has always been a game best played with friends,” it has introduced functionality that allows you to play with other users. in competitive format “regardless of rank.”
This is 'Wide Groups', a feature that will be launched with Season 10 and that the developer defines as one that occurs when “the players with the highest and lowest ranking are too separated in skill levels and divisions.” This means that, for example, any group with Diamond or lower ranked players who are separated by more than five skill divisions will receive broad group status.
The company has explained that this new option comes with “some trade-offs,” such as longer wait times as it works to match players with other large groups, for which it will use Role Delta technologywhich guarantees the closest possible profile match.
Despite this, he has advanced that some games may not seem balanced, since players will encounter others with very different abilities than theirs. These meetings will not necessarily have “as much impact” in their progress through the competitive ranks, according to Blizzard.
On the other hand, the developer has said that it is likely that some groups, depending on the skill gap that exists, “will see little or no change in their progression”, a measure it will impose to ensure that “highly skilled” players do not boost your lower ranking friends.
On the other hand, solo players will only play with others individually or in so-called small groups, a change that Blizzar says “should encourage players not to play on alternate accounts when they want to play with their friends.”
MEASURES TO STOP DROPOUTS
The company has also made adjustments to prevent the abandonment of unranked Overwatch matches. Currently, players who leave four of the last games have a 20-minute cooldown before they can queue again, which increases to four hours if they leave at least six of his last 20 titles.
Blizzard has now said that it will add two additional penalty levels: a five-minute penalty for leaving two of your last 20 games played and a 48-hour queue suspension for any matchmaking mode for those who leave ten (or more) of his last 20 titles played.
In this sense, the company has clarified that, although There are very few players who deliberately abandon half or more of the gamesconsiders that “this step will help to further reduce the impact that abandonments can have in unranked games in Overwatch 2.
In the Competitive Play section, players may be suspended whenever they abandon any game in this modality. Penalties start at 15 minutes, but increase in time if they repeatedly leave games.
Likewise, he explained that players who abandon ten competitive matches in a season will be immediately suspended for the entire season. “This should help stop those players who deliberately choose to leave a match, thinking that they will not have to deal with a long suspension if they have not abandoned the last games played”.
HIDE THE NAME AND BAN OTHER PLAYERS
The video game company has also announced that the Streamer Protect feature will be renamed 'Hide My Name' ('Hide my name') and will be available to all players, not exclusively to streamers. Once the option is enabled, it generates a random Battle Tag (like Krusher99 or GarlicBeard).
Additionally, changes have been made to the 'Avoid as Teammate' feature, which allows players to signal that they do not want to be matched with specific players on the same team. once the game has been found.
In a future update, players will be able to add up to ten players to their avoid list, up from the current three. Likewise, to personalize the experience, you can alternate which players you do not want to play with and those you prefer to avoid if possible.
Once this list of ten people is completed and a new player is added, the one who has been present on the list for the longest time will be eliminated, although it is possible to set players so that they remain in their place and do not disappear from it.
On the other hand, the development has set itself the objective of reinforcing its veto on those players who do not play fairly or are part of a disruptive conversation, that is, those who are classified with Level 0 -that is, that violates the Blizzard Code of Conduct- in the chats.
While it has acknowledged taking “many steps to identify” these types of conversations, later this year it will prevent anyone classified with this level from using the text messaging or voice chat features during games.
In this sense, he recalled that a Level 0 user can return to Level 1 as long as he helps his team or communicates with the Overwatch 2 Ping system, which adds context to what is heard in the voice chat .
Likewise, it has announced that it is designing a simpler interface that should allow all players to report “as soon as they see disruptive behavior” and that, to reinforce the safe and inclusive experience of players, it will soon offer a system of surveys for players in Overwatch 2, which will be displayed once the game ends.
