A member of the Overwatch 2 improvement crew has defined why the sport contains seasonally-rotating map swimming pools.
In a Twitter Spaces dialog yesterday with esports caster Soe Gschwind, Overwatch 2 lead degree designer Ryan Smith mentioned developer Blizzard Entertainment’s philosophy on the sport’s map rotations. He defined that there are three the explanation why all maps aren’t accessible in fast play and aggressive each season: selection, seasonal id, and map updates.
Variety is pretty self-explanatory: Smith revealed that the event crew needs gamers to really feel as if they’ve the chance to play a large swath of maps and have a good shot at experiencing Overwatch 2’s new battlegrounds. The first season’s map pool gave gamers a few 33 % probability of enjoying on a brand new map moderately than one from the primary Overwatch, which the crew believed was a technique to introduce gamers to those new areas with out overwhelming them. Incorporating a map pool permits the crew to tweak the speed at which gamers play future new maps with out having them get misplaced in a sea of current maps.
Seasonal id can also be an necessary a part of the map pool determination. Each season of Overwatch 2 has a free theme: season one’s theme was cyberpunk, whereas season two’s is Greek mythology. Map swimming pools permit the event crew to decide on the maps they need to showcase and that they really feel finest symbolize the season theme—and any new heroes that could be launched. (It was beforehand revealed that going ahead, new heroes will likely be launched on even-numbered seasons whereas new maps will likely be launched throughout odd-numbered seasons, usually talking.)
Finally, rotating some maps out of the stay recreation permits the event crew to replace them with out the added stress of getting them be playable on the similar time. Some of the sport’s older maps will likely be receiving updates sooner or later to make them really feel extra balanced and enjoyable to play. Smith burdened that these updates gained’t be merely to alter outdated maps for the sake of change however to enhance them. He gave the instance of Blizzard World, which has had some cowl areas added and adjusted to raised match Overwatch 2’s new design philosophies, amongst different causes.
Gschwind and Smith’s full dialog, which lined a number of subjects regarding degree design and the brand new map Shambali Monastery, could be listened to right here.
