Overwatch‘s communication wheel has been mostly the same since it launched. But now you’re going to be behind the wheel for your wheel as an upcoming Overwatch update will allow you you tweak it around to your choosing. Blizzard is also adding new features to the wheel, too, like the much-requested and needed ability to say sorry to your poor, poor teammates. Mei would be proud.
Game Director Jeff Kaplan revealed this in the newest Developer Update, which was recorded at his house with his phone taped to a box. He went over how players had wanted an expanded communication wheel, which the update will provide. And not only will you be able to move around each slot, but it’ll come with even more voiced lines. He gave the examples of “fall back,” “goodbye,” “sorry,” and a countdown, but it’s likely more will be in there.
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Those seem like great ways to encourage teamwork, but that’s not the only quality-of-life addition. There will now be priority queuing that will affect those in competitive games where someone drops out. The players that didn’t drop will be placed in front of the queue so they don’t have to wait even longer. You won’t instantly get into another match, but it will speed up the process. Kaplan didn’t get a date for this feature — nor did he for any of these features — but he implied that is was coming somewhat soon. It was also not clear which of these features would be bundled together, if any.
Patch notes will also pop up into the game on the main menu, which will not longer be a external website. This will be particularly helpful for console players. The Workshop will even have nebulous updates including night versions of some maps.
Before wrapping up, Kaplan thanked the team because it was the 50th Developer Update, which they wanted to have a party for but couldn’t because of the quarantine. He also then wished fans to stay safe and even quoted a wise phrase from Dr. Harold Winston: “Never accept the world for what it appears to be, but dare to see it for it what it could be.”
