Boards›Dev Corner

Leveling and Rewards - Improvements to Milestone Emotes, Capsules, & FWotD

RiotRiot Cactopus·11/22/2017, 6:54:43 PM·1 votes·198,991 views

Hey gang! Last week, we talked about how we're tuning the new leveling system to give out more overall rewards compared to the old IP-based system. Today we're announcing a few new adjustments we're making in reaction to player feedback.

##TL;DR for the post:

  • Milestone emotes are now free and we're refunding anyone who already used BE to unlock them.
  • Leveling capsules will now give out more raw blue essence and fewer low-value shards.
  • To make the "First Win of the Day" more generous, we're making it reset 20 hours after you earn it (instead of 22 hours).

Let's get into the good stuff.

##LEVELING MILESTONE REWARDS

First up, let's talk about milestone rewards. Throughout the new leveling system, there are a number of emotes you can earn access to by reaching certain "milestone" levels. Currently, it costs a certain amount of blue essence (from 2,500 BE to 20,000 BE) to actually unlock the emotes once you reach their required level.

Originally, these milestone rewards were designed with veteran players in mind—the idea was that high-leveled players will probably have too much BE on their hands anyways, so we might as well give them something cool to use it on. Thus the upgrade costs.

However, we've gotten feedback from some players that these upgrade costs can feel bad if you haven't yet unlocked all the champs you want. For that reason, we're going to make ALL leveling emotes free, and we'll be refunding anyone who already paid blue essence to upgrade their emotes. If you’ve already reached a milestone and haven’t upgraded the emote yet, the upgrade price of the emote shards in your inventory will be reduced to 1 BE.

We're still gonna find more ways to serve veteran players who have an excess of BE, but we'll probably use tools like the recurring Blue Essence Emporium for that purpose.

While we're here, let's talk about the milestone rewards in more detail. Along with the champ shards you get at each level, there are also a variety of special milestone rewards (including gemstones) peppered all throughout the leveling system.

Check out this gorgeous chart which was definitely not copy-pasted from a Google doc:

https://i.imgur.com/biZ6koB.png[/img]

In addition to the special rewards listed above, each of the milestone levels also grant a "glorious champion capsule" with an average BE value of 2120. These show up every 10 levels, as well. The only things more glorious than our capsules are our charts.

This change is going live sometime today. Refunds for folks who already paid for upgrades will likely take between one and two weeks extra.

##BLUE ESSENCE IN LEVELING CAPSULES

Next up, let's talk about leveling capsules. We're currently seeing some players complaining about getting too many of the same type of shards.

This is actually a pretty easy problem to solve. We're going to retune the system so that it never drops more than a couple 260 RP champion shards at once when you level up. Instead, you'll now receive some combination of shards along with a batch of BE. This change won't affect the overall amount of BE you get from each drop, but we think it'll make each drop feel a little better. These adjustments are also going live sometime today.

##MAKING "FIRST WIN OF THE DAY" EASIER

Finally, we're making the FWotD's timer a little easier to get. Currently it resets 22 hours after you complete the FWotD mission, but—starting sometime during patch 7.23—it’ll reset after 20 hours. Now, even if it takes you a few games to get a win on any given day, you'll still be able to grab it quickly the next day.

We've heard a lot of requests to just make FWotD fully consistent by making it reset at a specific time early in the morning. We're not ready to make that change right now, but we're thinking about doing it in a future patch.

Alright, so that's it for this week's update! We'll return at some point in the coming weeks to talk about any other adjustments to the leveling and rewards. Hit us up in the comments below and we'll answer any questions you've got.

246 Comments

Scuttle11/22/2017, 7:21:57 PM53 votes

UHHH please don't make them 1 BE to unlock. 10 BE would make more sense since EVERYTHING in the store is in multiples of 10 now and it would fuck up people with an even number of BE [sg-janna]

NocturnalSheild11/22/2017, 7:01:08 PM29 votes

Sounds good to me.

The Yetii Rider11/22/2017, 7:31:35 PM29 votes

I appreciate that you're willing to listen to feedback, but I hope you guys haven't let these people beat you up too badly on the forums. I know you're doing your best to balance player feedback with your bottom line and I would hate to see cutbacks in other aspects of the company (God forbid anyone loses their job) because of how this system changes your revenue.

Thank you for all the hard work you do for this game. Really.

Forerdow11/22/2017, 7:16:13 PM23 votes

But what about the mastery level? You need 3200~ BE to upgrade it, it's ridiculously expensive

Glory ln Death11/22/2017, 7:58:20 PM18 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Cactopus,realm=NA,application-id=A7LBtoKc,discussion-id=BQed8FWz,comment-id=,timestamp=2017-11-22T18:54:43.810+0000)

The only things more glorious than our capsules are our charts.

False. Are you calling Mecha Zero Sion a liar when he says, "THERE ARE NONE MORE RIGHTEOUS OR MORE GLORIOUS THAN ME!" when he purchases Righteous Glory?

Your charts can have second place.

Nefas11/22/2017, 6:57:51 PM11 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Cactopus,realm=NA,application-id=A7LBtoKc,discussion-id=BQed8FWz,comment-id=,timestamp=2017-11-22T18:54:43.810+0000)

##BLUE ESSENCE IN LEVELING CAPSULES

Next up, let's talk about leveling capsules. We're currently seeing some players complaining about getting too many of the same type of shards.

This is actually a pretty easy problem to solve. We're going to retune the system so that it never drops more than a couple 260 RP champion shards at once when you level up. Instead, you'll now receive some combination of shards along with a batch of BE. This change won't affect the overall amount of BE you get from each drop, but we think it'll make each drop feel a little better. These adjustments are also going live sometime today.

Thank goodness it felt like you were throwing fist fulls of pennies at us - yeah they are worth something but it was really annoying

SoulGuider11/22/2017, 10:09:54 PM10 votes

This is nice and all that you're dedicating so much to BE but what about orange essence? Ever since the update getting any kind of skin threw hextech crafting feels like not even worth looking at. I do realize you need to make profit hence the reason why the downgrade, but don't you think it was a bit too far? Even 1850 rp skin shards won't give much anymore.

SKP23en11/22/2017, 7:54:30 PM8 votes

Okay, first: a congratulation is in order. I know finding a balance between the use and the granting of the in-game income is not easy, but this system is finally reaching acceptable parameters.

I like that the milestone emotes are free. Having an unlocking cost was nasty and not in harmony with the concept of "reward" for reaching a level. I haven't hit my level 40 yet but I would like to do a suggestion: can the Glorious capsules of 2120 BE have a guaranteed 6300 champion shard? That's 1260BE, and it gives a higher chance of having a discount in the newer champions. It would add to the feeling of reaching a new stage on the game.

Personally I like having more champion shards than raw BE, if they have the same value. There is more of a chance to upgrade the masteries of those low-cost champions like that. But I do find obnoxious opening a capsule and finding 2 Singed shards and one Ryze shard, so is not that bad of a change.

And about the First win I like that now it starts more early. I still would rather to have it reset at the early morning (4 am or so) so it doesn't limit me to always play at the last hour of the day if I couldn't play at the morning for one day. (That or either lose the bonus).

Anyways. Good changes, Riot. Showing EA how lootboxes are done, I see. Though they aren't in a perfect state yet, so don't get to sleep yet.

Mysticman8911/22/2017, 8:38:39 PM8 votes

So regarding mastery levels...

It seems to me that with the surplus of champ shards leveling produces now, that the sensible thing for most players looking to bump their mastery is to use a champ shard now instead of paying BE, and just wait until such a shard falls into their lap. No real benefit to mastery levels after all, so they can wait.

The problem is, not all champs shards are equal in that regard, which feels pretty bad. If someone happens to main a cheap champ, say annie, using a champ shard to get their mastery 6/7 essentially costs them a mere 90 BE. On the other hand, someone who happens to main an expensive champ such as xayah is giving up 1260 BE in order to upgrade their mastery, 14 times as much, despite it being basically the same achievement. Still cheaper than paying BE directly, but the price disparity feels wrong (not to mention someone is much more likely to get an annie shard than a xayah one, since they can get multiple cheap shards in one level up, but only one expensive).

What I propose is having generic mastery 6/7 level up tokens sprinkled into the loot system that would work for any champion. They could drop in place of 450 champs and disenchant for 90 BE, so the BE value of such a drop is still the same to someone not interested in leveling their mastery, but now people would have an option to leveling their mastery without feeling like they're being punished for their champ choice.

Winterkill11/22/2017, 8:53:31 PM7 votes

I'm wondering why you even touched orange essence disenchant numbers if we:

  1. Hardly get any skin shards anymore.
  2. Skins we want cost too much orange essence and there is really no way to farm for it unless you buy it.
  3. Players who spend hard-earned money on chests will probably get something they don't want, but don't have the option to reroll skins anymore and the values of disenchant are very low.

Are you guys that greedy and desperate for money that you had to go and change how orange essence is obtained and the values disenchanted? Any person with common sense can see that yeah . . . . you are a business but what you are doing is almost a scam. Why would I buy a hextech chest to get mediocre orange essence? You have not talked about orange essence at all and it seems to be all about BP. I can care less about BP at this point because as someone who likes the thrill and to sometimes buy hextech chests, I feel like I am being scammed and there is absolutely no sense in doing anything with hextech crafting anymore. I mass well just buy the skins I want directly and just be done with it.

I understand you are a business but what you are doing is scamming players out of content and making their money feel worthless when orange essence is completely worthless now. What's the point in having hextech crafting anymore? I get mediocre values on skins I don't want and cannot use that orange essence towards skins I do want.

Please elaborate, Cactopus.

Jesus is Savior11/22/2017, 11:42:25 PM6 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Cactopus,realm=NA,application-id=A7LBtoKc,discussion-id=BQed8FWz,comment-id=,timestamp=2017-11-22T18:54:43.810+0000)

##MAKING "FIRST WIN OF THE DAY" EASIER

Have you considered doing a "charges" system similar to mastery chests and ARAM rerolls? eg: letting us store up 2 or 3 (or 4) "first wins of the day" if we haven't been playing and/or winning for a couple days.

Pros:

  • This would even out the BE gain between the "plays a game or 2 every day" people and the "plays a whole ton of games only on weekends" group.

Cons:

  • The "plays a couple games on weekdays and a ton of games on weekends" group might switch to only playing on weekends.

Feedback on this? Would it end up hurting your bottom line (meaning you can't do it cuz you make less $$$)?

Risk of Fate11/22/2017, 7:05:30 PM6 votes

[deleted]

Ellundor11/22/2017, 9:48:23 PM5 votes

What about making the Essence Emporium permanent? This could be a way for vet to spend their BE all the time instead of having to keep it and spend it all in one go which kinda feels bad when you have lots of BE and can't use it.

spekftp11/22/2017, 9:28:00 PM4 votes

Thank you Riot for taking our feedback into consideration. I've always admired your commitment to the community.

Charlie Loves U11/22/2017, 8:16:54 PM4 votes

im confused. so in the new level up capsules are the numbers going slightly up? or are we just getting the same number and now part of it is raw BE and part of it is shards.

if so I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I really just wanted there to be a semi higher frequency of expensive champ shards. right now I think I've gotten two 3150 champs out of like 20 levels between all my accounts and only two champs worth 4800 or above.

I think that's my main issue with the system as it is right now.

so if the new changes mean chances for better champ shards going UP then I'm cool with that. I don't even need the raw BE there. Just want there to be a variety of champ shards.

Verineon11/22/2017, 10:59:21 PM4 votes

Hell yeah Riot! That's what I like to see :D

I was actually smiling and having some happiness reading this post.

You actually took a lot of our complaints and suggestions into account.

Thank you so much! :D

Salson11/22/2017, 8:12:10 PM3 votes

Waaaait, just how many of those Emotes are already done?

All in all nice changes. Thanks Rito.