Friendly fire in online games is not a new concept, but it would be new for Blizzard's shooter Overwatch. Many fans of the hit game have been taking to social media to talk about different ways the studio can implement more strategy into the game and some think a Friendly Fire mode is just the way to do that.

Reddit user 'IWishIWasaTurnip' not only put a plan in place, but fleshed it out in incredible detail. The OP stated that the gist of initiative was to implement more strategy in games, which would help players pick their heroes more smartly for overall comp.

"Friendly Fire Mode would be a gamemode in which players are not only able to kill members of the enemy team but also members of their own team," the Redditor began. "I believe this mode would add a new and important layer of strategy and thinking to the "team based" element of Overwatch. It would produce better teamwork through better communication, as well as enforce players to make wiser decisions. Though low-level players would be more severely punished by this mode, it would teach everybody to think differently about their positioning, ult-timing, mechanics, and grouping. In short, it would take Overwatch as a "team-based shooter" and bring equal emphasis to 'team-based.'"

They even outlined how it would work down to the basic mechanics:

Players would be able to use their weapons to harm (and kill) friendly heroes.
To prevent farming, damage dealt to friendly heroes would grant no ult-charge.
Support heroes (and Soldier 76's biotic field) do not heal enemy players. This is to prevent capture.
Shields still allow friendly fire to pass through the back, but not the front.
Damage dealt from ultimate abilities would also damage players (excepting Moira's ultimate).
Auto-targeting attacks, such as B.O.B, Torbjorn's turret, and Symmetra's turrets, do not attack friendly players (they know better).
You still clip through friendly heroes like before; this is not Deathmatch FFA.

The Overwatch player broke it down even further by each individual hero, including how the Ultimate attacks would impact teammates as well. It's a pretty solid idea, but it wouldn't work for the full game. Like the OP mentioned, this would be a perfect feature for a custom game mode, or something seen in Arcade.

Posted: Dec 21, 2018 11:28 am
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/12/19/overwatch-fans-want-a-friendly-fire-mode/