Pending the start of the Overwatch 2 closed beta next month, Blizzard explained in detail the Ping system introduced in the sequel, revealing how it can make a difference to organize with teammates, whether you use voice chat. or less.
The Ping system is basically used to report various information to your team. In the first Overwatch, there was a rather limited selection of options and in particular, you could not indicate to your teammates the presence of a hero from the opposing team, which can absolutely make the difference in a game like Overwatch 2. At the base of the new system, Ping is therefore willing to improve vocal and non-vocal communication.
“We wanted to create a system that would improve voice communication and also provide an alternative system for sharing information with the team,” says system designer Gavin Winter. “One of our goals was to improve communication and give players a way to visually interpret voice communications. We also wanted to create a system that would allow those people who prefer to avoid voice chat to communicate.”
Overwatch 2’s new Ping system allows you, by pressing a button, to activate a contextual ping that changes depending on what you are aiming for with the viewfinder. For example, using it on an enemy, you will report its position to teammates. Definitely more practical than yelling at the top of your throat into the microphone.
Basically, the rule is that when a hero steps out of sight the ping will only show his last known position. However, given the peculiarities of Overwatch, with heroes that can teleport, disappear from sight and more, the development team had to carefully calibrate this aspect.
“A ping can be ‘pinned’ to a hero while it is visible, and the ping shows its last position when it is no longer visible,” explains Winter. “The ping changes according to the hero’s abilities. Sombra’s Relocator, Doomfist’s Shattering Impact, Moira’s Fade, and Tracer’s Flashback are all examples of abilities that can have that effect on pings.”
Reporting the location of enemies is just one of the many utilities of Overwatch’s Ping system. Holding the appropriate button will open a radial menu with various options with which to communicate, for example, if a player needs treatment, ask the team to rally and so on.
Blizzard explains that Ping’s system is still in the works, so it could undergo changes between now and the launch of Overwatch 2. One of the goals of its implementation is to reduce toxicity in the game.
“Hopefully the system will help with the toxicity in the game,” explains Winter. “If you do not like a person to abuse the ping system, there is the option to deactivate the system by blocking or mutating that specific person. We have currently implemented an anti-spam system which we are willing to modify, but first we want to see what works best for the community. ”
To see this new feature in action, we just have to wait for the closed beta of Overwatch 2, whose start date is set at the end of April.