Blizzard revealed the most recent hero to affix the ever-growing roster of its shooter Overwatch 2 at Blizzcon 2023. Throughout an interview on the conference, Polygon received extra particulars about Mauga, what gamers can count on from him, and the method of making a brand new tank.
“Mauga is a damaged-based tank, and the way he sustains himself and his crew is thru injury,” mentioned lead hero designer Alec Dawson. He was designed primarily based on his weapons, together with his talents centered round doing as a lot injury as doable. The designers hope this give attention to injury will make him extra interesting to new gamers.
The crew needed to make sure his talents felt good when utilizing each chain weapons, however additionally they needed to verify gamers couldn’t “wipe individuals out instantly.” To fight that, Mauga has a giant unfold on each of his weapons. On the similar time, this makes him a menace in shut quarters. “You don’t need to play with Mauga up shut except you’re going to take him out,” mentioned Dawson.
Mauga’s Overrun charging capability makes him just about unstoppable, even towards sleep darts. “He makes use of it to get the place he desires to go,” mentioned Dawson. For a pleasant cherry on high, each time Mauga straight hits an opponent whereas utilizing Overrun, he’ll slam them to the bottom, gorgeous them whereas different close by opponents will probably be despatched flying.
Mauga’s final, Cage Combat, creates a zone that traps opponents and blocks therapeutic from the surface of it. What makes his final much more harmful is that Cage Combat stays lively even when Mauga dies. Help hero Lifeweaver can pull Mauga out of the final word, however the enemy gamers will nonetheless be trapped inside till the flexibility runs out.
Regardless that he’s a tank, Mauga can do extra injury than some DPS heroes, mentioned Dawson. To counter that, opposing groups can assault Mauga whereas he’s reloading or has burned via his talents. “He’s such a giant physique that he actually wants help. He wants a excessive therapeutic output to maintain him up at instances.”
When it got here to creating Mauga, the dev crew labored intently with a tradition advisor crew to make sure the studio displayed him in a manner that may be respectful to the Samoan neighborhood. “We labored with a conventional tattoo artist from the Samoan tradition to information us. We tried to get as genuine as doable and as near actual as our engines might deal with. And it turned out nice,” mentioned hero design producer Kenny Hudson.
When Mauga was first being examined, the crew initially had one iteration the place his proper gun solely dealt important injury to enemies within the air to assist tanks battle flying-based heroes. As time went on, the crew scrapped that, and now the suitable gun offers important injury each time an enemy is about on fireplace first together with his left gun. However the thought to have him use two large weapons was one thing the dev crew at all times supposed to do. “We at all times kinda knew that he was going to be a tank with two large principal weapons, and we needed to make them simply as necessary and simply as helpful to gamers as the opposite one. We didn’t need one to outshine the opposite,” mentioned Hudson.
One of many challenges the dev crew confronted was making the visible cues noticeable to gamers when Mauga makes use of his Cardiac Overdrive capability, which permits Mauga and his crew members to heal each time they injury an opponent. So the dev crew revisited an previous thought the place Roadhog’s capability would heal everybody round him. This helped them discover the “candy spot” of not overwhelming the participant with an excessive amount of occurring display. “We don’t like throwing issues away. Even when it doesn’t work out for a sure hero, it could come again afterward for an additional one,” mentioned senior check analyst Foster Elmendorf. To assist additional show their level, Elmendorf defined how Mauga’s final was initially D.va’s, which concerned her making “a dome of lasers.”
The crew has been engaged on Mauga for a while. Initially, he was presupposed to be launched in season 2 as a substitute of Ramattra, “however the crew actually needed to take some extra time to get the equipment good,” mentioned Dawson. Pushing Mauga again allowed the dev crew to shine him up and guarantee his talents performed easily with each other.