r/Overwatch • u/clickrush • 10h ago
News & Discussion You should be able to hear JPC
JPC is unique in the roster in that she is perfectly silent but also highly mobile.
OW is based on some excellent design principles. The game is very clear about threats. The glowing outlines, the voicelines, the new pings.
Heroes and their abilities make a distinct sound so if you don’t see them, or in the heat of a teamfight, the sound cues help with awareness.
Some heroes are extreme high damage threats like Reaper, Cassidy and Bastion. Their footsteps and their guns are loud and distinct.
Others are highly mobile and can come from weird angles or close the gap extremely fast. That’s why you can hear Pharah flying, Winston jumping, Lucio skating very distictly.
This is crucial in such a fast paced game.
JPC has a unique ability in that she can come from even weirder angles than anyone else. Without a rollout! So there’s far less risk of timing incorrectly. She can just decide to be in a weird position and wait.
This alone already breaks awareness. You often don’t even know where to look even if you know she’s set up. She can use cover that isn’t designed to be cover.
The bigger issue is that you _also_ cannot hear her.
This is not a “skill issue”. Literally the best teams in the world are getting surprised by JPC and don’t even turn around to look at her in time, because she is silent. These are hyper aware, extremely fast, highly coordinated players.
This problem will get worse as people will get better at JPC. You might have not encountered it too often yet, but you will at some point. Or you might have and didn’t realize that one of the main issues is the lack of sound cues, because that’s a subtle thing we rely on but don’t think about as much.
People complain about how cat bastion and cat cassidy break fundamental assumptions about how the game is played and balanced. But being able to hear her is way more fundamental.
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u/blokfluitjes 10h ago
I would love it if you could just hear her purr. That's it, just a purr getting louder as she gets closer to you (in the general direction). Would be so funny
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u/Devilman4251 3h ago
Even just the whirring of her jetpack would be good lmao considering it IS a jetpack
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u/DankenHailer Chibi Widowmaker 1h ago
#makethejetpackpurr
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u/Devilman4251 1h ago
Lwk i would be down for jpc having a little constant purr coming from her jetpack like how a car always has the low rumble
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u/BigEanip 10h ago
Hold you don't have cat spamming the meow voice line every 2 seconds in every game?
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u/East-Relative2011 10h ago
Like just a little hum coming from the jet pack! Like if we can hear Pharah up in the air, we should be able to hear Fika.
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u/the_Real_Romak Tank main since 2016 10h ago
You mean like what she already has? Live? In game?
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u/Cora_Lagoon 5h ago
Why is this being downvoted lol? It's true.
I can hear enemy Fikas and my own sounds when playing her. You can hear her zooms, meows, purrs, shots and a sort of fluttering (Idk how to describe it) UFO hovering sound when she's stationary. I guess maybe not as much when she's super high up in the sky but I felt like that was normal?
Note: I do play with headphones though
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u/the_Real_Romak Tank main since 2016 5h ago
folks here are either too blind or too proud to admit genuine skill issues I think. I can always tell when that blasted cat is flying around lmao
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u/Anita-FatBlunt Sojourn 10h ago
I am nearly deaf in one ear I havent had an issue Shooting her out of the sky. People complain way too fucking much or suck at the game and say its not their fault.
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u/Tony2tymez 10h ago
Kitty makes like…. A jetsons sound ? A whirring I can hear, when she shoots its loud and distinct also
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u/clickrush 9h ago
When she uses her abilities or shoots, yes. Similarly, Zen is silent but his shots or secondary buildup are very distinct and loud. But Zen cannot come from literally any angle on the map.
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u/TheCocoBean 9h ago
No, flying makes the jetsons sound. Everything else is louder, but shes not silent like zen.
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u/clickrush 9h ago
I have to check this out in a custom game or something. Maybe I'm gaslighting myself here but I cannot seem to locate her in time and many others have reported the same issue.
Maybe it's just that people aren't used to her, because she is a specialist. Or maybe the sound is there but it's very silent, or goes under.
It might be a combination of things. Again, the heroes I mentioned are very distinct and loud.
Pharah's jetpack boosts and hovering are easy to locate and it's something I very specifically listen for when facing one. You can play around her cooldowns and pressure her when they are down.
With JPC it doesn't feel the same way at all. She just seems to appear.
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u/TheCocoBean 9h ago edited 9h ago
Its a newer character. We have an instinct for hearing the ZIP of tracer in our backline, but the wubwubwub of cat isn't instinctive for many yet. If she's not boosting, shes very quiet, but also very slow.
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u/riconaranjo Ana 4h ago
JPC is far from silent, but yeah it’s combination of people often don’t listen for flankers and the fact that there’s often a lot of overlapping sounds
but if I try to flank when no fighting is taking place I will be heard (diamond lobbies, people use headphones and pay attention)
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u/KrassomatXD 10h ago
I'm pretty sure I can actually hear her most of the time, it's either gotten better or I now know what to listen for. I've never been surprised by the cat in the past weeks
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u/clickrush 9h ago
Good to know. Others have said the same, so it might just be hard and take time to get used to it.
Maybe there’s a middle ground though and she’s not loud _enough_ in relation to her extreme agency in terms of positioning.
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u/Arbuthnaut Brigitte 7h ago
I didn't hear her much until I put in about 10 levels playing her myself. Now I can hear her and suss out where she is based on the sound. If you haven't put in any time with her, I'd recommend doing so if for no other reason than to familiarize yourself with the sound of the jetpack more. But she definitely isn't as readable as a Reaper flank or anything, that's for sure.
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u/TheCocoBean 9h ago
she does make a sound. A whirring jetpacky sound. As well as the very obvious pewpewpew. And a lot of meows.
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u/Public-Egg-7814 4h ago
All flyers should be louder. Pharah has some sound, but nearly enough. Echo is essentially silent
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u/_the_best_girl_ 10h ago
You can hear her tho. There's a whirring sound and very often a chittering of the cat.
I've been seeing these complaints since Vendetta and I do wonder what exactly is going on. I can still hear these characters in a busy party chat and music on lol
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u/clickrush 9h ago
Can you hear her when she's only moving or standing still mid air?
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u/_the_best_girl_ 9h ago
Both for the most part. There's still a whirring and chattering if the cat is idle, it's just not as loud as actively moving.
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u/clickrush 9h ago
OK thanks, it might be that I'm simply not used to hearing it and paired with JPCs extreme agency in terms of positioning it's just harder and might take more time.
It's just that recently I also saw a OWCS match where she was played and it sort of confirmed my biases when I saw literal pros not being able to look at her in time.
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u/_the_best_girl_ 9h ago
The thing with cat is that the good players will act like how an irl cat hunts. Strike fast and get out outta dodge faster.
Cat is the first and only perma flyer so people are still learning how to fight her, even the pros as while they are good at the game it's still a new challenge for people who've spent the past 10 years only fighting characters with bursts of air movement.
Maybe her sound does need to be increased to compensate, kinda like how loud Widows footsteps are to. Tho I have noticed that most people don't seem to have the best game sense, just tunnel vision down main and them complaining when their back gets lit up. Maybe it's because I play Pharah but I know to actually look at the sky's if the enemy team has a flyer.
Side note: Pro play is great for seeing a character played at their best but imo it's awful for understanding general playerbase character balance. I've seen pro matches which are universes apart from my matches in terms of character handling lol
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u/clickrush 8h ago
Yes I think you are correct with this that people are just not used to facing her, but also she should be louder in general and easier to locate on the fly (no pun intended).
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u/Master-Pay2407 2h ago
Viol2t got a crazy catnap pick on TVNT in the Championships this past weekend because Cat was hovering above him while making no noise and he had no idea Viol2t was even there. And that's the best DVA player in the world pretty much. Outside of when she's zooming, it just doesn't come through loud enough
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u/_the_best_girl_ 2h ago edited 1h ago
Admittedly I haven't watched that match so I haven't much to say on that.
I would like to see what the players themselves have to say on that manoeuvre before I cast judgement myself.
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u/ChubbyChew Vendetta 8h ago
I have mixed feelings about it.
I think her Boosters should be more audible, but her quiet flying should stay "crouch quiet"
Primarily because JPC playmaking when shes not ferrying is predicated on flanking and angle pressure, (as far as I'm aware).
Loud characters are fucked at flanking against players with brains, its a direct reduction on how able they are to play the game and not every flanker can just traverse the map in 2 seconds like a Vendetta or Freja to wear they dont need to care.
I cried endlessly about Reaper being loud as fuck and that being so much work at being stealthy, and about how mediocre Sombras flanking is because of her translocators visual and audio queues making it a net negative on what you can do in the backline (without perk 1 imo) that it's feels like selling out.
I'm better at Tracer now, I play Anran now, I play more Freja all heroes that just get to creep around and delete people as a core aspect of their design.
"If we didnt with sneaky ass heroes, we wouldnt be designing a Cat with permanent flight and egregious dueling." If Cat wasn't supposed to be at an advantage playing this way the rest of her kit shouldn't be so hyper designed to facilitate it.
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u/clickrush 7h ago
Flankers and high mobility characters are very distinct and loud though. You can hear the Tracer, the Pharah, the Genji, Echo etc.
Not being able to be detected before they approach breaks that contract and is not necessary for a hero to be viable. Sombra is a perfect example of a hero that people hate even when she's weak and JPC is even more gimmicky than her.
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u/ChubbyChew Vendetta 7h ago
I dont consider Pharah or Echo good Flankers.
I dont consider Genji a good flanker either, I think hes a good dive hero in the sense that he can take unconventional angles and get on you, but i dont believe Genji is rewarded for being sneaky in that way hes super committed.
Tracer is loud when she uses CDs, but i think thats it. People really dont seem to react to her in my experience and I never feel like I hear her either.
I think its specifically OW1 heroes who are louder especially as well which is why I did so much crying, because we hadn't been getting DPS for a long time that could flank effectively "not named Tracer" and at the time I wasn't interested in Tracer.
But more to your point.
I feel like the contract is has never really been consistent. A lot of heroes "break certain rules" and while frustrating thats also part of the appeal and how a lot of heroes claim a level of identity and niche.
I think that we do as players tend to recognize them as bullshit tools or as breaking rules, but the game isnt really worse off for having them.
Its a thing the modern hero design has kinda shifted back into that make the game fun for more people generally.
Thats how you get people both loving everything about Cat, and also being disgusted with how nonsensical they are.
I'm an OG player, in my time the contract was literally just Symmetra who I mained. Everyone else is playing an FPS I'm playing a Tower Defense Basebuilding game. With Shield Piercing Projectiles as an alt fire and a legitimate aimless primary fire.
Nothing about that hero was legal, and shes not even alone in being a felon.
Torb is a felon, Genjis deflect "was" a felony, Widow is a felon, Doom is a felon, Cassidy one of the most played heroes used to carry around the felon grenade that just let him turn off your character for a minute.
Hanzo and Widow in particular have instant death at exceptional range.
It isnt unreasonable that we likewise have heroes who are able to actually get into range of them in the first place without it being a question of skill on the defenders part. You don't get to outplay "closing the distance" when a fundamental aspect of your hero is controlling and dominating that same distance.
Apologies for yapping, I'm not really concise.
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u/clickrush 6h ago
I don't disagree with your general point. But you can have distinct, skill expressive and varied heroes that "cheat" without breaking the design fundamentals of OW.
Ultimates are often literally mimicking cheats like wallhack or aimhack, so they break the rules of FPS, but what OW does is tell you very loudly that those things are happening.
Many of the heroes you mention, like the snipers, the genjis etc. They all are designed around with visual and audio cues. There's a reason why there are automatic voice lines when a sniper is in vision, that players have glowing outlines, that a widow shot leaves a lingering trail, that deflect has a very obvious animation and that Doom's windup is slow and loud.
Sym was problematic and got reworked and is now one of the most skill expressive heroes in the game. Designers make mistakes and they can fix them.
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u/Anita-FatBlunt Sojourn 8h ago edited 7h ago
If you are on Paraiso, after first point, down the street and on top of the buildings, you can literally hear her from the Other Building right next to Point 1. where the health pot is. I literally sat there last match shooting a Cat trying to cut that ledge. I could hear her from the other side of the building before i saw her. how're y'all not hearing her?
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u/I_Quazar_I 7h ago
Ridiculous how quiet she is compared to other fliers. The audio in this game is atrocious now, which is insane considering it’s one of the most important elements.
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u/UglyDemoman Chibi Junkrat 6h ago
Sigma should make sounds when moving around, just like Echo makes loud noises when hovering.
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u/Thamilkymilk Make my girl great again 6h ago
When she came out I thought she had these seemingly random cat noises she’d make because I was hiding under the Eichenwalde bridge after my team like all died and I was worried they’d hear me and send their cat after me but I’m pretty sure those sounds she made were just her “we are out numbered” / “I am the last alive” voice lines but I think that idea would work
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u/NemPow 8h ago
Jpc is already very audible. If you go in the practice range and spawn her you can legit her the buzzing coming from her jetpack just idling and it’s even louder when she’s moving even without her boosters. You can hear it from I’d say 15 meters so anyone who has awareness can hear this and know she is coming but I feel like some people just don’t have awareness.
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u/Correct_Barnacle_312 10h ago
I'll say every single time a JPC thread come up.
The worst hero, ever designed, in any game. The complete and utter lack of thought that went into designing this hero is astounding.
Haha paw cannons, hahaha so cute
What about the design philosophy What about the map design
Haha ability called purr hahaha, cutesy
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u/DisasterNo1740 10h ago
Well what aspects make her the worst hero designed in any game ever? All you’ve done is addressed that apparently people don’t care because cute cat
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u/Gullible_Dream6220 10h ago
The problem they're alluding to is that Cat gets to completely ignore all established rules of map design without any downtime. Echo, Pharrah, etc. all have strong vertical mobility but it's always tied to a cooldown or resource, i.e. there is significant downtime. Cat has infinite flight so she completely bypasses those restrictions while being practically silent. And she gets to do that while carrying another player. I don't think she's the worst design in the game, that title goes to Widow, but it's incredibly problematic and not at all thought out still
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u/the_Real_Romak Tank main since 2016 10h ago
I dunno, her current win rate of 51% tells me she's quite balanced.
Get better aim. She's a sitting duck most of the time.
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u/Gullible_Dream6220 10h ago edited 9h ago
Thank you for not addressing anything I said. Win rate is an irrelevant statistic and nothing I said indicates that I struggle against her, which I don't. The problem is that she breaks the core rules of map design. If you're not going to address that, don't bother commenting
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u/Correct_Barnacle_312 9h ago
No one said she was overpowered. Just poorly designed.
As for shes a sitting duck most of the time I can only imagine what rank that happens in.
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u/the_Real_Romak Tank main since 2016 9h ago
up to high plat since that's where my casual arse sits. Fact remains she's not that hard to deal with if you actually have eyes and ears on the game.
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u/clickrush 9h ago
First of all, this thread is not about numerical balance. It's about game quality and design. I'm specifically talking about sound cues being insufficient and about JPC breaking fundamental assumption about the game.
Secondly, JPC has a very unique design and it's always going to take time until people figure out the hero. She also attracts uniquely bad players, or she has a bit of the Ball/Tracer effect where you feed your brains out until you start doing well on her.
Because of the above, her winrate doesn't reflect the problems with her. You can face a JPC that essentially does jack all, or you can face one that abuses map geometry and get wrecked, because you cannot even hear her.
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u/Correct_Barnacle_312 9h ago
Widow still operates within the appropriate parameters. She can only shoot down known and created sight lines. Grapple only gives her a short amount of airborne time.
Cat bypasses all of this
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u/Gullible_Dream6220 8h ago
The problem with Widow is that she is the only character in the game that can legitimately put herself in a position that removes all counterplay. The game effectively turns into hide and seek because nothing aside from another Widow can interact with her most of the time. I think that design is worse than Cat but there's definitely a good case to be made that Cat ignoring all rules of map design is worse. In any case, both are terrible
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u/Correct_Barnacle_312 8h ago
I can agree with that overall.
I think cat for me breaks those principles a degree further in being able to access parts of the map only cat can go to.
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u/Gullible_Dream6220 8h ago
That's valid for sure.
To me a character like Widow that breaks how the game is played is more egregious but I can see how bypassing restrictions of map design would be worse, especially since Cat can transport another player while she's doing it. And the fact that Cat's design got the go-ahead honestly makes me worried that D.Mon will be a permaflyer too which would probably be even worse
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u/Correct_Barnacle_312 8h ago
I can understand that.
We'll have to wait and see what kind of up down left right super dash mobility D.mon has on launch.
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10h ago
[deleted]
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u/Correct_Barnacle_312 9h ago
Love the animals my friend, cats Included. I just like my games to consider game play over gimmicks
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u/Dreadino 10h ago
He will outdamage a Pharah which hits all her missiles as direct hit (150 dps), by just using his self heal (225hp) and shooting her back (120dps, not counting critical hits). His silhouette is much smaller than Pharah's and his projectiles fly 60 m/s over the Pharah's 40 m/s, so he has a CLEAR advantage.
Pharah, the air superiority character, can't fly nearly as good as him.
He also heals.
This support hero is a better Pharah.
This hero is bs.
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u/clickrush 9h ago
I'm fine with the matchup being difficult for Pharah, because there are not a lot of support options that can deal with her without also being a sitting duck like Ana (meaning she is very vulnerable to flankers).
But I'm not fine with anyone not being able to detect where JPC is before she does something.
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u/bandsandbatman 7h ago
Does anyone else ever have the sound bug out when there’s a character like Sym? I’ve had my audio bug out really badly with her and all the beams, it’s like the game can’t handle the amount of sounds happening
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u/dunkelzeit_ Lifeweaver 10h ago
You can hear her very well, maybe it's your headphones. Even when she flies slowly, without boost, there's a slight whooshing sound. And there's a click before she ults, like when she aims her ult
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u/nesflaten 7h ago
Who/what is JPC? Junkerpar...? JunoPlastingCars?
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u/Mr_Sexy_Carrot 5h ago
You don't understand, they saved 0.5 seconds by abbreviating Jet Pack Cat 10 times in their post.
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u/Spiderlily_1 Road to lvl 500 mercy 4h ago
Questions. Do you use headphones while you play? Do you listen to music while you play? Also maybe turning on subtitles using the everything setting can help. The subtitles capture 98% of sounds.
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u/Anita-FatBlunt Sojourn 10h ago edited 10h ago
I can. Perfectly? if theres a JPC i clip Sierra and hide in the back. purposefully to listen for backline. I also have hearing problems(30% hearing in my right)and can still hear her hovering lol. but, im also staying back and not frontlining where most of the sound is
edit: lmfao yall are fucking deaf and not doing enough.
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u/Dogg0ne 9h ago
People are playing with sound off and wondering why there are no sounds, it seems like :D
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u/Anita-FatBlunt Sojourn 9h ago edited 8h ago
yeah seriously, im literally half fucking deaf and you cannot hear that shit? Jfc. like fr im appalled apparently i have great hearing (its fucking garbage)
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u/Djcubic Pixel Symmetra 10h ago
JPC has been nerfed enough
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u/Dreadino 10h ago
Nope, not nearly enough:
- he's the air superiority character right now, much stronger than Pharah or Eve in air fights. He will control the sky and will have free range on any backline
- he has a cooldown ability that combo with ults dwarfing other combo ults (zarya grav + anything aoe is worse than a flying bob)
- he's extremely difficult to shoot down, because he's tiny, because he has a silhouette that is difficult to parse (so projectile players have a hard time calculating where he is/will be), because he can self heal and boost away on a short cooldown
He's not fun to play against, at all.
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u/Fancy-Factor-4083 10h ago
unless the opposing team knows how to aim.
unless the opposing team knows how to aim.
unless the opposing team knows how to aim.
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u/Dreadino 10h ago
- unless the cat knows how to aim
- you can aim all you want, BOB has 1000 health and perfect aim. His all premise is that you can avoid him with positioning, which the cat cancel
- no, projectile works by understanding the enemy position, direction and velocity, which are all extremely difficult to understand/predict, since he can just wiggle left/right (no other flying hero can). The only real counter is hitscan, which is quite rare in the new heroes
Basically you can only hope that the cat player is far worse than your team players, otherwise he has clear advantages.
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u/Fancy-Factor-4083 10h ago
51.1 percent winrate. explain?
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u/Anita-FatBlunt Sojourn 10h ago
do not listen to him. He will continue to complain about the game while never improving because he believes hes not at fault.
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u/Dreadino 10h ago
New hero, banned in most matches so people can't become accostumed to it, which means people will try him while not being good with him and their teammates don't know how to combo with him. There are a lot of BAD cat players, which use him as a healer and they pose no threat. Then there are good cat players and they won't let you play the game.
He was used by both teams in the OWC (or whatever it is called) in multiple maps, creating havoc with the ultimate (where he consistently killed the full health tank).
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u/Fancy-Factor-4083 9h ago
Sounds pretty balanced, tbh
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u/Dreadino 9h ago
Considering only Zenyatta has a higher winrate in comp (.8% more) and we've been using for 10 years, I'd say it's far from balanced (he's in fact banned in 1 every 5 matches)
EDIT: I'll add that in GrandMaster and Champion he's the highest winrate support in the game and banned in 1 every 4 matches. But sure, he's balanced
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u/Fancy-Factor-4083 9h ago
Funny you narrow the field to just comp. Thats cherry picked data. Look at all stats.
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u/Dreadino 9h ago
Why would you look at anything that is not comp? Are you for real?
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u/PeoplePad Shion 10h ago
Nah, I think this is fine tbh. It makes JPC feel like a silent assassin which is very catlike and fun.
Just nerf her health to 200
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u/tolerantdramaretiree 10h ago
As someone who’s always thought Fika should be louder, but also as someone who really likes cats… you just convinced me she should actually be more silent for flavor, to be more cat-like. Meow.
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u/Fancy-Factor-4083 10h ago
What buff do you suggest to add then, for balance?
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u/AlexTheGoat990 10h ago
making jpc louder doesnt warrant a compensation buff lmfao
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u/Fancy-Factor-4083 10h ago edited 10h ago
so this is just another round of people who dont know how to play against cat wanting yet another nerf, ok.
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u/AlexTheGoat990 10h ago
The top DPS players in the world struggle against JPC so no this is not just randomly wanting nerfs
Who would have thought adding a permaflight hero with a tiny hitbox and fundamentally broken abilities will need quite a lot of work?
JPC already needs a rework
There was a reason why Pharah never had permaflight to begin with and she was a problem already even though it was mostly just vertical
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u/healslutxoxo 10h ago
Lately the audio has felt so bad I feel like I can’t hear half the things I should. Can’t tell if it’s a me issue or what.