▲ It took a full year but Blizzard thinks they have a fun representation of Hanamura.



When the Hanamura map launched in Heroes of the Storm back in April of 2017 alongside fellow beloved Overwatch hero, Genji, the community was excited about the possibilities. Soon after both went live in-game, the hype turned into frustration then anger as the map never seemed to play as intended.



In theory, being able to push payloads across the map as a team was a smart way to integrate one of Overwatch's most popular game modes with Heroes that encouraged teamfighting as the objectives were contested constantly. Turns out, the payloads were generally ignored as teams would simply push the lanes, defeat mercenary camps to acquire their items and avoid skirmishing. Those who tried to use the payloads to get shots on core would, generally, be doing such alone.



No one really knew how to play the map.



Do we stay and defend our payload? Do we attack theirs? Do we get these mercenary camps?Blizzard intended on having all ideas considered viable but once players found out that ignoring the objective all together was best, you were left with player who knew how to play the map effectively while more casual players were stuck asking their teammates why they wouldn't help them push the objective across the map, causing a frustrating playing experience.



There were simply too many moving pieces.



Even through tweaks over time, the map remained, essentially, the same. Once Reddit posts of the map's poor design became a reoccurring theme, a developer post from Lead Game Designer, Travis McGeathy, was made that removed the map from the pool four months after inception.



"I’d like to thank everyone for the tremendous amount of feedback we’ve received on Hanamura since its release. We’re continually trying to push the boundaries with Heroes of the Storm and Hanamura is no exception. It introduces new concepts to the game and some of them have been more successful than others. We’ve made a couple rounds of changes since the battleground's release to address tuning feedback, but have identified a number of more fundamental changes we want to make as well.

While we work on these changes, we’re going to remove Hanamura from the battleground rotation for all normal gameplay modes starting with this week’s patch. We don’t have a timeline for when Hanamura will return, but the battleground will remain available in custom games in the meantime."

-McGeathy



Turns out that timetable was one year.

The map was massively re-worked. A few highlights include the core going from only being able to be damaged through payload shots to now being open to damage from heroes, minions and the objective. Prior, there were numerous payloads on a map that would move across the map in a grid like a New York City taxi. Now, a singular payload exists and, once captured, it will allow turrets to fire upon enemy structures. Similar to how the objective in Sky Temple works, capturing the payloads is not required but beneficial to sieging down opposing structures and gaining experience.



Additionally, the mercenary camps on the map were tweaked as well. The central boss was removed and the Sentinal camp will now push lanes instead of dropping a healing item.

▲ Previously dropping a healing item, the Sentinal now pushes lanes once captured.



will tell whether this new version of Hanamura will play as Blizzard intends it but the development team should be commended for listening to community feedback, returning to the drawing board and giving an attempt at making this floral paradise a viable battleground one more go.