Overwatch is highly successful for Blizzard, and that doesn’t mean the team can rest on their laurels anytime soon. With a slew of content getting ready to be delivered (new hero Sombra, Arcade Mode as an overhaul to the Weekly Brawls, and new map Oasis), the team was pretty open on talking about features that are either still being worked on and those that are in discussion.
For one thing, we heard of LAN tournaments using a specific tournament build of Overwatch. At the Questions & Answers panel it was revealed that the Overwatch World Cup uses a 143hz tick rate. What this means is faster reaction times due to the client and server updating faster. The game initially launched at 20Hz tick rate, a pretty low number, until a recent update increases it to 60Hz (or more accurately, 60.5Hz). Higher tick rates are being explored currently and we will see if another tick rate increase will happen.
Another cool feature being mentioned in the panel is the team is exploring the idea of a server browser function. What this means is players can host their own servers and their own rulesets (map selection, modifiers like headshot only, etc.) and there will be function to explore all these different servers. Plus, the ideas from these custom servers could inspire an official mode for the Arcade. Again, no mention of when will get to see this to happen, but it’s being discussed.
Some of the smaller things to change include a more detailed kill feed that shows what weapon/ability was used for the kill (and Mercy resurrects should appear there as well), more accessibility options (one person in particular asked about it, mentioning motion sickness due to Bastion’s shaky cam during his movement), and an in-game feature to host amateur and semi-pro tournaments, for those in lower ranks like Gold and Platinum, as a grassroots movement to support the top tier Overwatch League, where the top players get to participate and go pro.
None of these features have an ETA stuck to them, so don’t expect any of these to drop soon. But rest assured Blizzard is busy at working on new features to keep adding on to the game.