• If you want to share your feedback, please post it in the General forum.
• A list of known bugs can be found in the Forum Bug Report.
• If you have technical problems, you can visit the forum from our technical support.

ASHES MARDI GRAS CHALLENGE

Get ready for Ashes Mardi Gras Challenge and special in-game unlockable content! By winning Quick Search, Ranked Matches, or Arcade, you can earn new player icons, new sprays, and the new epic skin Mardi Gras for Ashe!

Watch participating Twitch streamers play Overwatch until March 9 to earn a total of six sprays and player icons to Ashe’s Mardi Gras challenge!

For more information on Ashes Mardi Gras Challenge, click here.

GENERAL UPDATES

New feature: Hero selection

We will be introducing hero selection in the 21st ranked – Season . Similar to card pools, not all heroes will be playable at all times. Instead, a different combination of Heroes will be available each week. You will still be able to access the majority of the hero list, each week only a few of them will be removed from the selection. We believe this feature will make ladder matches more interesting, as it will change common team compositions more often over the course of a – Season .

Please keep in mind that hero selection is a new feature and may only be used this – Season . As the – Season progresses, we will adjust the different variations of hero selection. Also, we may adjust how often the hero selection changes.

New feature: experimental changes and new 1-3-2 rulebook “Damage times three”.

We have added a new mode called “Test Lab” to the “Play” menu. In this mode, Overwatch players can try out new balance changes, rule sets, and game modes. If the test of a feature is successful, it might make it to the live version of the game. Unlike the PTR, the test lab isn’t for debugging and stability testing. Players of all platforms will be able to test major gameplay changes. We hope you’ll give us feedback on your experience afterwards. Some of the changes we’re testing will be quite different from what you’re used to. However, we want to reiterate that these changes will not necessarily carry over to the live version of the game. The Test Lab is not always playable: it is unlocked when we have things we’d like you to try, and may occasionally only be available for a very short time.

Since the Test Lab is available in the live version of Overwatch, your participation will allow you to earn experience as well as victories for unlocking challenge extras.

The first set of changes to be tested is a mode titled “Damage Times Three”, which modifies the existing role selection system with 2-2-2. In this mode, teams will consist of one tank, three damage heroes and two supporters. One of our hopes for this test is that this change will reduce the wait times for the damage role.

Updates for custom games

• Copying and pasting settings for custom games is now supported.

General

• Game mode selection in career is now more logically sorted and easier to use.
• Group leaders can no longer use the “Leave as group” option during ongoing ranked matches.
• At the start of matches in Attack, Hybrid, Control, and Cargo game modes, you now only have 35 sec to make hero selections (previously 40 sec).
• Interactions between all stun effects (Stun Grenade, Earth Blast, Freeze, Put to Sleep, Accretion) have been updated to be more consistent.
  New stun effects will only replace existing ones if they last longer than the remaining duration of the active stun effect. For example, the stun from a Stun Grenade will not be applied to any Heroes who have just been hit by Earth Strike. Note: For Ana’s Stun Arrow, we are using the minimum guaranteed stun duration, which is currently 1.5 sec (the time it takes for hit Heroes to fall over and get back up).
• Mei’s Ice Wall will now show as visibly damaged if it has less than half of its hit points.

UPDATES FOR THE WORKSHOP

New features for the workshop

• Maps for custom games:
  • Workshop room
  • Workshop Island -Workshop Area
• Script diagnostics window
• Subroutinen
  • Developer’s comment: Rules can now call subroutines using the new [Call Subroutine] action. Subroutines are rules with the [Subroutine] event type. When a subroutine is called, execution is temporarily shifted to another rule, leaving context values such as [Event Player], [Attacker], and [Victim] unchanged. When the subroutine rule completes or is canceled, the original rule continues where it left off. Subroutines can call other subroutines or even themselves, but a limit of 1,024 calls maximum applies. [Wait] actions are allowed in subroutines. If such a [Wait] action is interrupted (and the interruption is not ignored by the [Wait] action), the whole series of calls is aborted and the original rule is restarted or aborted.
  • Subroutine rules can also be started in parallel with the [Start Rule] action. Unlike the [Call Subroutine] action, the execution of the original rule starts immediately and the subroutine rule starts its own execution a little later (either in the same frame if it is below the original rule or in the next one if it is above it). As with [Call Subroutine], context values such as [Event Player], [Attacker], and [Victim] are copied to the subroutine rule.
  • Subroutine names can be added and edited with a new button at the top of the editor.

New actions for the workshop

• 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

• To make writing logics easier, we have added some new actions for control structures ([If], [Else If], [Else], [While], [End], [For Global Variable] and [For Player Variable]). These actions have been optimized to keep the server load as low as possible. When used, they are indented in the editor to indicate where the sections of logic begin and end. The [End] action can be used to terminate such indented sections. To avoid confusion, each action has a detailed description as a guide. These descriptions are displayed when you move the mouse over the action name or press the corresponding button on the controller.
• The actions [Enable Inspector Recording] and [Disable Inspector Recording] offer two advantages: First, they allow you to specifically debug only the sections of a script that you want to inspect. Second, disabling recording can reduce server load, especially when setting or editing arrays.

New values for the workshop

• Event What Health Pack
• Last Healing Modification ID

Updates for the workshop

• Comments for actions and conditions
• Options for melee attacks and reloading.
• Added [Sort Order] and [Reevaluation] options for [Create HUD Text].
• The [Skip] and [Skip If] actions now accept 0 as the value for the actions to skip (so they simply move on to the next action).
• The [Wait] action is no longer required before loops.
• Beam effects have been straightened.
• The behavior of [Set Status] and [Clear Status] has been aligned with that of in-game stun effects (e.g., [Clear Status] can now cancel a freeze effect caused by gameplay, not just freeze effects set via the Workshop).

Optimizations for the workshop

• 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

Actions for manipulating variables and the control structure have previously resulted in high server utilization, so we’ve worked to make them slightly less performance intensive. Combined with the new [Disable Inspector Recording] action, these changes result in greatly reduced server utilization for workshop modes that use a lot of variable logic, especially those that manipulate arrays. With these changes, we remove the restriction that requires a [Wait] action before a loop. However, please keep in mind that using many loops in a single frame can still cause server load issues, especially when using actions other than those listed above. Please note that modifying multiple player variables with a single action (by using an array of players) is not optimized, nor is setting or modifying a variable used by the [Chase] action. And last but not least, keep in mind that some values (like those of raycasts) can cause quite high server load on their own, even with the optimized actions mentioned above.

CORRECTED ERRORS

General

• Killing B.O.B. no longer grants points in FFA and Team Deathmatch game modes.
• Ranked – Season s are now displayed in the intended order in Career.
• There are now no invisible entries in the list for replays.
• Fixed a bug where avoided team members were not displayed in the appropriate list if they were not also in the list of recent teammates.
• Fixed a bug where the gameplay option “Player border strength” did not adjust the transparency of the player borders.
• Fixed a bug related to the temperature query for graphics cards with newer AMD hardware and drivers.

• Rules can now call subroutines using the new [Call Subroutine] action. Subroutines are rules with the [Subroutine] event type. When a subroutine is called, execution is temporarily shifted to another rule, leaving context values such as [Event Player], [Attacker], and [Victim] unchanged. When the subroutine rule completes or is canceled, the original rule continues where it left off. Subroutines can call other subroutines or even themselves, but a limit of 1,024 calls maximum applies. [Wait] actions are allowed in subroutines. If such a [Wait] action is interrupted (and the interruption is not ignored by the [Wait] action), the whole series of calls is aborted and the original rule is restarted or aborted.
• Subroutine rules can also be started in parallel with the [Start Rule] action. Unlike the [Call Subroutine] action, the execution of the original rule starts immediately and the subroutine rule starts its own execution a little later (either in the same frame if it is below the original rule or in the next one if it is above it). As with [Call Subroutine], context values such as [Event Player], [Attacker], and [Victim] are copied to the subroutine rule.
• Subroutine names can be added and edited with a new button at the top of the editor.

Cards

• Petra
  • Fixed a bug where Reinhardt’s Earth Strike was not working as intended on the destructible floor of Petra.
  • The destructible floor can now be targeted by Reaper’s Shadow Step, Symmetra’s Teleporter, and Doomfist’s Seismic Strike.
• To make writing logics easier, we have added some new actions for control structures ([If], [Else If], [Else], [While], [End], [For Global Variable] and [For Player Variable]). These actions have been optimized to keep the server load as low as possible. When used, they are indented in the editor to indicate where the sections of logic begin and end. The [End] action can be used to terminate such indented sections. To avoid confusion, each action has a detailed description as a guide. These descriptions are displayed when you move the mouse over the action name or press the corresponding button on the controller.
• The actions [Enable Inspector Recording] and [Disable Inspector Recording] offer two advantages: First, they allow you to specifically debug only the sections of a script that you want to inspect. Second, disabling recording can reduce server load, especially when setting or editing arrays.

Heroes

• Ashe
  • Fixed a bug that could cause B.O.B.’s rush to stairs to end prematurely.

• Junkrat

  • Fixed a bug where occasionally Junkrat’s mine explosion would be displayed near his head and not on the mine.

• Mercy

  • Fixed a bug where Mercy would not receive a skull icon on assists.

• Wrecking Ball

  • Fixed a bug where Wrecking Ball’s spells would not play when found in Lootboxes.

Custom game

• Fixed a bug where players could not be invited when the custom game was imported via shared code.
• Fixed a bug where template slots could be overwritten when saving another player’s custom game settings.
• Fixed a bug that allowed friends to join your custom game in practice battles even though the “Allow players in game search” option was disabled.

Workshop

• Fixed a bug where Sigma’s primary fire mode was sometimes disabled when Experimental Barrier was disabled in the Custom Game settings.
• Fixed a bug where [Has Status] did not work as intended when the Invincible status was requested.
• Fixed a bug where the score in Deathmatch was not displayed as intended when points were set to a high number with actions in the Workshop.
• Fixed a bug that prevented points from being set or winners from being declared with actions in Team Deathmatch Workshop.
• Fixed a bug where training bots sometimes did not reappear in the training area.
• Fixed a bug that prevented actions in the Workshop from interrupting the “Put to sleep” status.
• Fixed a bug related to the [Death Spectate] action that occurred when repeatedly switching between [Enable Death Spectate] and [Disable Death Spectate].
• Fixed a bug that caused the sound effect for received buffs to play twice.
• Fixed a bug that reset the vertical angle after using the [Teleport] action.
• Fixed a bug where [Disable Built-In Game Mode Completion] did not work in certain game modes.
• Fixed a bug where effects were sometimes the wrong size and color.
• Fixed a bug where the [Loop If] and [Abort If] actions took into account the value of the conditions from the beginning of the frame instead of the current value.
• Fixed a bug where multiple execution of the [Set Facing] action within the same frame with different inputs did not work as intended.
• Fixed a bug that caused the [Nearest Walkable Position] value to stop working near the statue on Château Guillard.
• Fixed a bug where the [Nearest Walkable Position] value was incorrect when used in a [HUD] action or in certain [Reevaluation] actions.
• Fixed a bug where the [Total Elapsed Time] value was incorrect when used in a [HUD] action or in certain [Reevaluation] actions.
• Fixed an issue where effects and beam effects that are not reevaluated did not evaluate their positions and radii immediately, but waited until the end of the frame.
• Fixed an issue where [Chase Global Variable] actions did not have access to context values (e.g. [Event Player], [Attacker], [Victim], etc.).

Actions for manipulating variables and the control structure have previously resulted in high server utilization, so we’ve worked to make them slightly less performance intensive. Combined with the new [Disable Inspector Recording] action, these changes result in greatly reduced server utilization for workshop modes that use a lot of variable logic, especially those that manipulate arrays. With these changes, we remove the restriction that requires a [Wait] action before a loop. However, please keep in mind that using many loops in a single frame can still cause server load issues, especially when using actions other than those listed above. Please note that modifying multiple player variables with a single action (by using an array of players) is not optimized, nor is setting or modifying a variable used by the [Chase] action. And last but not least, keep in mind that some values (like those of raycasts) can cause quite high server load on their own, even with the optimized actions mentioned above.

OVERWATCH

Overwatch is a team-based 6vs6 shooter that was released on May 24, 2016. Overwatch stays true to the true style of Blizzard’s previous titles. It was developed by Jeff Kaplan and is considered a “new concept” shooter in the FPS genre. The game was officially unveiled at BlizzCon along with 12 heroes on November 7, 2014.

The story of Overwatch is set on a highly fictionalized future version of Earth. In a time where humans and robots, which are called Omnics, live together (Chris Metzen hinted that the story deals with this very robot race). 30 years before the time when Overwatch takes place, the so-called “Omnic Crisis ” occurred. The robots, once helpers of humans, rebelled against their creators for reasons as yet unknown and triggered a worldwide chaos. Faced with the imminent destruction of human civilization, the best soldiers of all nations came together to form a program called “Overwatch”.

Their job was to protect the world from the Omnics, which they succeeded in doing. For the next 25 years, they were the protectors of the planet, united in an international coalition. Some agents stayed, some were replaced, but at some point something changed: the Overwatch disintegrated. However, 5 years later after this event, incidents with Omnics are again accumulating, a worldwide terrorist organization also seems interested in destabilizing the world order. A new crisis is looming. At this point, your career as an Overwatch agent begins.