Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – February 4, 2020

A new Overwatch patch is in development and now available for testing! To share your feedback or report any issues, please post in the PTR Feedback or PTR Bug Report forums.

Please note that the below patch notes only include changes currently available for testing on the PTR. While many of these changes may also be available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in a future patch, the PTR is PC-only and only reflects changes coming specifically to that platform.

GENERAL UPDATES

New Feature: Hero Pools

We will be introducing Hero Pools starting in Season 21 of Competitive Play. Much like Map Pools, rather than having all heroes available for play at all times, a weekly changing list of heroes will be available. The list will include the vast majority of the hero roster, with only a few being excluded during any given week. We think this feature will help keep Competitive Play interesting, as team compositions will change more frequently during a season.

It is important to note that Hero Pools is a new feature that may not last past this initial season. Throughout the season, we will be adjusting the types of Hero Pools available. In addition, it is possible we will also adjust the frequency with which they change.

General

The Game Mode selector in the Career Profile is now sorted more logically to make it easier to use.

A group leader may not use the Leave as Group option while a competitive game is currently in progress.

The initial Assemble Heroes timer for games using the Assault, Hybrid, Control, and Payload game modes has been reduced from 40 to 35 seconds.

Mei’s Ice Wall now has a visual damaged state when under half health

Updated the interactions between all stuns (Flashbang, Earthshatter, Freeze, Sleep, Accretion) to be more consistent.

Developer comment: New stuns will only replace existing stuns if their duration is longer than the time remaining on the current stun. For example, a Flashbang stun will not apply to someone who has just been Earthshattered. We use the minimum guaranteed stun time for Ana sleep, which right now is 1.5 seconds (time to fall down + time to stand back up).

WORKSHOP UPDATES

New Workshop Features

Custom Game Maps: Workshop Chamber Workshop Island Workshop Expanse

Script Diagnostics Panel

Subroutines

Developer Comment:

We’ve added the ability for rules to call subroutines (which are rules with a Subroutine event type) using the new Call Subroutine action. When a subroutine is called, execution is temporarily shifted to another rule while keeping contextual values such as Event Player, Attacker, and Victim the same. When the subroutine rule finishes or aborts, the original rule picks up where it left off. Subroutines may call other subroutines or even themselves, though we enforce a maximum depth of 1024 calls. Waits are allowed in subroutines, and if such a Wait is ever interrupted (and the interruption isn’t being ignored by the Wait), the entire call stack is aborted, and the original rule is restarted or aborted.

Subroutine rules may also be started in parallel using the Start Rule action. Unlike with the Call Subroutine action, the original rule continues execution immediately, and the subroutine rule executes on its own some time later (either on the same frame if below the original rule or on the next frame if above). As with Call Subroutine, contextual values such as Event Player, Attacker, and Victim are copied over to the subroutine rule.

Subroutine names can be added and modified using a new button at the top of the editor.

New Workshop Actions

Start Healing Modification

Stop Healing Modification

Stop All Healing Modifications

Enable Inspector Recording

Disable Inspector Recording

If

Else If

Else

While

End

For Global Variable

For Player Variable

Call Subroutine

Start Rule

Developer Comments:

To make writing logic easier, we’ve added several new flow control actions (If, Else If, Else, While, End, For Global Variable, and For Player Variable). These actions are optimized to cause minimal server load. When using them, the editor will indent to show where sections of logic start and stop. To conclude such an indented section, use the End action. When in doubt, each action has a detailed tool tip explaining how it is used. These tool tips can be displayed by hovering over the action name or by pressing the appropriate controller button.

The Enable and Disable Inspector Recording actions offer two benefits: First, they allow selective debugging of only those sections of a script that you need to study. Second, disabling recording can reduce server load, especially when setting or modifying arrays.

New Workshop Values

Event Was Health Pack

Last Healing Modification ID

Workshop Updates

Action and Condition Comments

Melee and Reload Button Options

Added Sort Order Reevaluation Options for Create HUD Text

The Skip and Skip If actions now accept 0 for the number of actions to skip (so they just go on to the next action)

A Wait action is no longer required before a Loop

Straightened Beam Effects

Set Status/Clear Status behavior merged with gameplay stuns (e.g. Clear Status can now clear a freeze that was caused by gameplay, not just a freeze set via Workshop itself)

Custom Game settings now support Copy-Paste

Workshop Optimizations

Set Global Variable

Set Player Variable

Modify Global Variable

Modify Player Variable

Set Global Variable At Index

Set Player Variable At Index

Modify Global Variable At Index

Modify Player Variable At Index

Loop

Loop If

Abort

Abort If

Skip

Skip If

Developer Comment: Variable manipulation and flow control actions previously caused high server load, so we spent some time making them more lightweight. When combined with the new Disable Inspector Recording action, these changes may result in significant reduction in server load for Workshop modes that rely on heavy variable logic, particularly those that manipulate arrays. In light of these changes, we’re removing the restriction that requires a Wait action before a Loop, though be advised that excessive looping in a single frame can still cause server load issues, especially when using actions other than those listed above. Note that setting or modifying multiple player variables with a single action (by providing an array of players) is not optimized, nor is setting or modifying a variable that is ever used by a Chase action. Finally, keep in mind that some values (such as the Ray Cast values) can cause quite a bit of server load on their own, even if using the optimized actions above.

BUG FIXES

General

Killing B.O.B no longer grants score for FFA and Team Deathmatch

Competitive Seasons are now listed in the correct order in career profile

Replay list should no longer have invisible entries

Fixed a bug where avoided teammates did not appear in the avoided teammate list if they were not also in the recent player list

Fixed a bug where the Player Outline Strength gameplay option did not adjust the opacity of player outlines

Fixed GPU temperature query on newer AMD hardware and drivers

Maps

Petra

Fixed a bug that caused Reinhardt’s Earthshatter not to work correctly on Petra’s collapsible floor

The breakable floor is now targetable by Reaper’s Shadow Step, Symmetra’s Teleporter, or Doomfist’s Seismic Slam

Heroes

Ashe

Fixed a bug that could cause B.O.B’s charge to end early on stairs

Junkrat

Fixed a bug where, occasionally, the explosion for Junkrat’s mine would appear near the top of his head instead of on the mine

Mercy

Fixed a bug that could cause Mercy to not get a skull/hit marker on assists

Wrecking Ball

Fixed a bug that prevented Wrecking Ball’s voice lines from playing when opened in lootboxes

Custom Game

Fixed an issue preventing player invites when the custom game was imported via a share code

Fixed an issue where preset slots could be overridden when saving settings from another player’s custom game

Fixed an issue that allowed skirmishing friends to get into your custom game when the “Allow Skirmishers” option was disabled

Workshop