Overwatch 2 news floodgates have fully opened in the aftermath of the beta date announcement and an apologetic video from game director Aaron Keller promising the team would provide more consistent updates on progress. We get a look at Overwatch 2’s revamped ping mechanism in this latest update.
“We wanted to create a system that would enhance voice communication as well as provide alternative ways to share information with your team,” systems designer Gavin Winter says in the blog post.
Character-specific callouts are a new feature that allows teammates to hear a notification in their hero’s voice when a player produces a ping. “If you’re playing Tracer and ping an enemy Reaper, your teammates will hear Tracer yell out that Reaper’s location,” according to the blog. The blog goes into further depth about how pings will display the last-known location of moving foes, providing players with more information on how to navigate maps without being ambushed. A new feature allows players to ping a teammate’s location on the mini-map and respond to pings based on their choices in a new communication wheel. When a team’s Genji starts spamming “I need healing,” the game will now display Genji’s location on the mini-map so that supportive healers can heal him and thus silence him.
Overwatch players have been requesting a better ping mechanism for a long time. Not only does it help a team communicate better, but it’s also a useful accessibility tool for people who can’t (or won’t) use voice chat. The new ping system is still a work in progress, according to the developers, and could alter as the game’s closed beta approaches.