Hello, everybody!
Disciple here with Overwatch Curios!
Modern gamers are no stranger to customizations of mechanics and cosmetics to their characters
making them uniquely suited for certain situations either solo, or with other players in a group.
Blizzard fans in particular are all too familiar with customization systems like this, specifically
in the form of talent trees or talent builds for their heroes.
World of Warcraft, Heroes of the storm, Diablo, and even StarCraft in a way share a similar
structure for taking the standard character, class, or race and making it different.
So it may be no surprise to you that at one point early in its development, Overwatch
had a very similar system for each and every hero, ready for you to min/max and adjust
to whatever enemy team comp came your way.
Let's take a look at how the system started, how it eventually ended, and what impact it's
had, or would have had, on the game we know today!
The Overwatch dev team knew they had to have some kind of customization system in the game
to make it feel varied and more alive, yet they didn't really know what kind of system
to use in a FPs since it was their first in the genre and there were so many options to
chose from considering the huge amount of shooters on the market who all did things
a little bit differently.
Some allowed the customization of weapons only, some allowed changes to the visual appearance
and gear of the players characters.
Others used a card-like system for abilities and upgrades to be chosen mid-game and others
use pre-game loadouts.
The Overwatch team had to figure out not only what best suited the game and how it was meant
to be played, but what would allow the player to be comfortable with their progression and
the rewards that it offered, which was no easy task.
On one hand if you have too little customization either cosmetic or in the form of gameplay
mechanics, players will get bored and move on.
If you have too much, it can be overwhelming and confusing for new and casual players.
So early in development, the team began with a tried and true method of injecting customization
and flavor into the hero roster: The talent tree.
The team felt that a talent tree would be a relatively easy idea to implement because
it had been done so many times before across the company, and they felt very comfortable
toying around with the various upgrades and experience needed to build the tree the way
the player wants.
The idea was pretty simple: The player plays a hero who levels up as each match ends with
variables such as win / loss, kill performance, objective performance, etc.
Once that particular hero gains enough experience, he or she levels up.
At certain levels, the player can choose from a variety of talents to enhance and customize
that particular hero until its maxed out.
Each individual hero has his or her own experience, levels, and talents that have to be earned
and unlocked individually from the others.
This system adds a TON of depth to the hero roster.
Imagine taking the time to master a hero's playstyle, level that hero up considerably,
using that experience and levels to tweak and adjust the hero to your liking or to min/max,
then mastering THAT unique talent build.
Now, multiply that by 23 (the number of heroes we currently have in the game).
That's a lot of work and effort and would keep people playing for a long time just to
try and unlock everything.
Which was one of the goals of the dev team to begin with; every developer wants their
game to be played for as long as possible!
This would allow the dev team the ability to add in a huge assortment of abilities,
team comp specific upgrades, as well as some very interesting cosmetic customization options
that took advantage of the unique abilities in each hero's talent tree.
It wasn't very long before this idea hit the testers on the Overwatch team to see how
it would handle in game; which is where the first major hurdles started to hit.
One of the biggest was the fact that with this talent system based on experience, players
oftentimes would simply never hero change because they wanted to progress the hero they
were on.
This posed a serious challenge to the team because one of the main driving points to
the game itself was the dynamic hero swapping mechanic that was key to playing and winning
matches.
The focus was meant to have players swap in and out of various heroes and team compositions
to counter the enemy's picks and plays, and this talent system simply didn't really
promote that playstyle at all.
It caused a behavior in players that would result in teams having comps that weren't
up to par or didn't make sense, just so the player could get to that next experience
or level milestone, and grab that next talent.
The talent tiers themselves ended up being a negative aspect as well.
Adding more depth to a game and its characters is great, but Overwatch's talent tier system
was becoming overwhelmingly complicated with some heroes, like reaper for example, having
up to seven different talent builds.
That's seven on ONE hero, so multiply that by the 23 hero roster like we mentioned before
and you can see how insane that could get very very quickly.
However, even a simplified version of this system would have some problems to overcome.
For example, another serious flaw in the system circled around the player not knowing exactly
what the enemy team players had in their arsenals.
The player would end up wondering which talents the enemy had chosen and not be able to proactively
anticipate the outcomes or react with a proper response fast enough.
Overcomplicated talent builds and mechanics became a problem in World of Warcraft several
years ago to the point where the WoW team actually gutted the entire system and reworked
it from the ground up, creating more meaningful and streamlined choices.
Even if Overwatch ended up taking the same path and adjusting the talents to just a few
per hero, it's still too difficult for a fast-paced game like overwatch to make it
clear to the players who's got what abilities and talents.
The players would end up spending more time guessing and wondering what happened versus
making the right picks and plays.
Competitive play would also take a hit with a system like this.
The key to competitive play in any sense is team and player balance.
Equal number of players, even number of teams, symmetrical goals for winning; everything
has to be equal for each team to have a fair chance.
Overwatch pretty much does that with its 2-round match system, even number of players on each
team, and objectives.
However if you were to throw talents into the mix, things would get very imbalanced
very quickly.
SAy you both had a reaper player on your team.
The reaper with the most experience and talents would have a distinct advantage over the other
simply because of time played, not necessarily just skill level.
There really wouldn't be a clear way to balance a competitive game of overwatch within
that sistem, simply put.
It would most certainly skew the MMR systems that were in place with some players having
the easy mode advantage while others who may be great plays but lack the talents, would
be left behind in the rankings.
Furthermore, there is just no way to have the no-swap behavior in competitive play.
Even now it's beyond frustrating when a player who is on a hero that doesn't particularly
help the team then refuses to switch to anything else forcing a disconnect, and a sub-optimal
composition.
So perhaps an in-game talent system would be better like some MOBAs have, for example.
Well, you kind of run into the same issues of not knowing what the enemy player has,
albeit you would know at what level or tier.
That kind of talent system is more suited for slower-moving games, but it's been done
before in other First Person Shooters with things like a card system or talent unlocks
through in-game performance.
This system would also limit the amount of skills and talent changes to a handful instead
of a dozen or so simply because you would need to keep them within the timeframe of
the match, which is usually much shorter than that of a MOBA or PvP in an MMORPG.
Ultimately, this sort of system was tried and tested within the internal Overwatch team
and they simply decided that it didn't fit with what the game was all about: A fast,
competitive pvp shooter that promoted fun, fairness, and simplicity.
The second attempt at a talented progression system focused 100% on cosmetic upgrades as
the rewards for leveling up particular heroes this time without any kind of talent or ability
upgrades.
As players leveled up heroes, they'd unlock new cosmetic items for their character to
wear.
During internal alpha testing, the team realized that the system promoted way too much single-hero
mindset as testers wouldn't switch off their favorite hero at all because they were itching
to get to that next level and cosmetic reward.
Just like the behavior when upgrading those talents, this behavior is completely counter
intuitive to what the game is meant to stand for.
At this point the team had tested two very common methods for player progression but
realize that there just wasn't a way to have a game like this with this set of goals
in mind AND have a hero-based progression system built in.
Overall, while the talent build system in overwatch seemed like a good idea at first,
it ultimately failed when attached to a single hero at a time.
The progression system we have today rewards players for playing whoever they want, and
however they want.
Whether it's through quick play, competitive, the arcade, or custom games in the browser,
you can earn experience points toward new levels and new loot boxes to get all the cosmetic
items you can.
This is a fair and equal system for all players regardless of how much they play or what mode
they play, and doesn't distract from hero swapping or team comps.
Alright guys, that's all I've got for you today.
If you liked the video, hit that like button and subscribe to the channel!
Let me know what you think of the old progression systems and if you think it could have actually
worked in the game!
As always, thanks for watching and see you next time!
For more infomation >> Video vzpomínka na koncerty Podzvičinky Bílá Třemešná-klip z fotografií - Duration: 15:22. 
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