Overwatch heroes are facing changes from Blizzard that tweak the way they move. Blizzard announced the changes in December, but the details are just coming out today. There are two major areas that needed work, according to Overwatch principal designer Geoff Goodman—inclines and acceleration.
Moving forward up inclines had two persistent problems, Goodman said. When moving diagonally up an incline, the player would be strafed left or right regardless of your intention to move straight up. The issue’s been fixed to allow players to just move straight ahead, something that’ll clear up subtle aiming issues for players. Movement up and down inclines caused inconsistent speed issues, too.
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“Running both up and down an incline would be faster than walking on flat ground,” Goodman said. “Faster movement (e.g. McCree’s Combat Roll) would be slower when going up and down inclines.”
Players should find movement more consistent now, which will help with aiming hitscan shots and leading projectile fire, Goodman added.
As for acceleration changes, players will find air acceleration to be more consistent with regard to directional movement. “The new acceleration can feel like momentum is no longer conserved like before, but the forward velocity is just more efficiently being converted into sideways velocity,” Goodman said. “The direction is changing faster but your overall speed isn’t being slowed down.”
Blizzard will continue to monitor the adjustments on the PTR to make sure everything is working as intended. Players will likely have to get used to the new tweaks but, overall, movement should feel more consistent across the board.
