Damage Text Changes

RiotRiot Greenily·Jun 18, 2019·1 votes·134,396 views

https://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/9.12.1/img/champion/Karma.png Hi everyone! I’m Riot Greenily, a UX designer working on League of Legends. I’ve worked on things such as Nexus Blitz, the new stat panel, the stat runes, and more. I wanted to share a small, but highly visible, update to the game experience that will be on PBE today and ship during the 9.13 patch.

We're changing the appearance of the damage text you see when dealing physical, magic, and true damage, as well as their crit styles. You can see how they will look below:

https://i.imgur.com/h0E22xl.gif Physical Damage and Crits

https://i.imgur.com/VotgZBF.gif Magic Damage and Crits

Here are our goals with the changes:

CONSISTENCY We’ve changed the damage text color in order to shift towards consistency throughout the League experience. Damage and crit text has been standardized from four colors into three unique colors. This means you should be able to tell at a glance what type of damage is being done, even if it’s a crit. The crit icon has also been updated to match the style you see in the stats panel. As we work on future in-game updates, we want to make sure our system of stats and colors makes sense. The colors of physical and magic damage text should now feel more related to AD and AP stat colors respectively.
READABILITY We also want to hit clarity and readability of the damage text. This iteration of colors should make damage type differentiation more clear. If you commonly pay attention to damage text, we hope this helps you. If you don’t, this shouldn’t affect your experience negatively.
SATISFACTION We’re testing some changes to the animation style of crit texts to make the initial hit really pop and seem impactful. With the change of both color and animations, we hope crits will feel more satisfying.

In terms of feedback: We'd love if you could share your feedback with us—especially after you've played with this change for a few days. Even if you don't normally pay attention to combat text, the changes could feel a little jarring, but we hope it's positive overall.

With that in mind, please give us your thoughts on the readability of the text specifically. Eg: Does the color of the text get lost to you in game? If you’re colorblind, do you feel that this is an improvement from the old text colors?

Thanks for your patience as we go forth with this change. Your feedback is appreciated in making the game better!

85 Comments

Nico di AngeloJun 18, 201926 votes

I honestly think using the same colours for mana expenditure and magic damage goes against the second goal.

RiotRiot GreenilyJun 18, 20196 votes

The colors are in the same blue family, but are not the same. Once the color reaches the game space, the differentiation between hues becomes minimal (on that I agree!), especially when the damage is a DoT (as it gets lighter over time). However, we do also use more than one channel of communication for damage texts seen above.

They can be any combination of:

Color
Scaling (text size)
Positioning (on me, on them, etc.)
Additional visuals (icons, health/resource bars, etc.)
Animation
Text

We're working under the assumption that mana expenditure using different positioning, scaling, animation and visuals (HUD + resource bar on health bar, prepended " - " sign) from magic damage text will allow you to distinguish between each one in-game still. After playing a few games with these changes, let me know if you still feel like you can't tell the difference between the two texts. Happy to take another look!

thetracer3Jun 19, 20194 votes

And never in the history of league has an AP bruiser junped on a mage before.

Icy PenginJun 19, 201911 votes

what's wrong with purple though? I think of all the things you listed the most clear way to contrast things is by color.

RiotRiot GreenilyJun 19, 20196 votes

Hi there! When we examine future UI and visuals updates in the game for the future, faster related system updates that we want to keep consistent with future work (such as colors) will often preempt major system updates. As a result, the preceding changes won't seem to make as much sense yet since there isn't a holistic context to back it up with.

SO, to give you all the full context, there is nothing wrong with purple--we are preparing purple to consistently represent magic resist / **penetration ** and the blue family to represent AP / magic damage, with mana being a darker blue. You can see this color logic represented in the stats panel currently on live, and with some items (Adaptive Helm, Abyssal Mask, etc) although not all things yet (we know!). In contrast, warm tones such as red and orange are saved for the physical damage / AD stats and greens for health and heal/shield. Setting this color system up ahead of time allows us to better plan for consistency with UI and tooltip work in the future.

https://imgur.com/R6iYeCW

The reality is that we have many important stats and text types that we want to be sure have appropriate colors tied to each one. We also want to make sure that color readability and appropriate contrasts can survive on multiple surfaces (against in-game colors, on tooltips, as icons, as text). Nothing is exactly set in stone, but we'd like players to give it time and test it out. Thanks for your patience and feedback!

The Arctic OtterJun 19, 20191 votes

I'm glad to hear your looking at setting up this uniformity long term. I hope to see these color and symbol changes extend to the item shop/filters, death recap, and especially items.

It would be nice to see correlation in the weapon used in teir 1 items as well. AD = red sword (not pickaxe) AP = blue wand (not amp tome) Armor = silver armor MR = purple cloak AS = yellow bow (not dagger) Crit = orange gloves? (not negatron cloak) Health = green crystal Mana = dark blue crystal

PurpleKingCrazyJun 20, 20192 votes

A few things I like to change for that

Health = Green heart Mana = Dark blue tear drop

The rest are simply fine.

SeiferothJun 18, 201922 votes

I'm stupid, do you have a live comparison picture too?

RiotRiot GreenilyJun 18, 201910 votes

Here is a gif of what's on live currently:

https://i.imgur.com/eMigQuK.gif (Live damage text + crits for both physical and magic damage)

I will be posting more details of the changes and reasoning in a couple of hours. Thanks for the feedback already everyone! Edit: Gifs hate me. Here's the link directly: livegif

CaptBinkieJun 27, 20192 votes

Will this be a toggle in the settings? So you can choose between old colors and new colors? Because I personally really don't like the new colors.

HotarµJun 18, 201915 votes

Looks great, I feel like those numbers and the presentation is really smooth overall. Very satisfied.

Good work!

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

RiotRiot GreenilyJun 18, 20194 votes

[zombie-nunu-hearts]

Water StealerJun 18, 201911 votes

ehhhhhhhhhh... make it like the cursor and let us toggle it and there won't be a problem.

Icy PenginJun 19, 20197 votes

Yea I think this would be a great idea because I'm actually not really a fan of the changes and I actually really love our current system. The two reasons I worry about the new changes are because:

colors: the old colors are very vibrant and the sharp gradient really adds to the intensity of the crit and the new ones just seem to be lacking in that department. it actually makes it harder to distinct between a crit and a normal attack when i look at the video because the colors between a normal attack and a crit are so similar.

animation: The current crit animation feels really good because it is like a normal damage text but it has a little accent so it feels like a critical strike. the main concern for me with the new one is that the text stays for a bit and then bounces off which doesnt feel like a strong attack in comparison to it just bouncing off instantly but more intensely. for example if you throw a rock at something really hard vs throwing it mildly hard, throwing it really hard would have it bounce off super fast and intensely while throwing it mildly will still have it bounce off just not as hard.

overall I'm just kinda questioning why these changes are happening in the first place because I actually really like what we have right now and I don't see any complaints and I think everyone currently loves the feel of a crit. but that's just what I think and I kinda think these changes are a bit under the radar right now so I would recommend having some people, particularly adc players, test them out some more.

also about the toggle thing: I think it would be really cool actually if there were a lot more customizability options in league specifically pertaining to things like this because it really is quite subjective. for example someone mentioned the red hp bar damage maybe that could be something with an option.

ModThe DjinnJun 18, 20199 votes

Out of curiosity, does this mean we'll see the in-game colors associated with AP ratios changed from green to a shade of blue? It's always been weird to me that AP values in itemization do NOT match the common damage type of AP (green in tooltips, purple in game), while AD values in itemization DO match the common damage type of AD (orange in tooltips, orange in game).

RiotRiot GreenilyJun 18, 20199 votes

That is the hope for the future (you might remember this update from Reinboom a while back). We're not certain when we will have time to prioritize the Tooltip updates, but alignment with that future is what we're going for!

YasamashiJun 19, 20192 votes

[{quoted}](name=The Djinn,realm=NA,application-id=A7LBtoKc,discussion-id=BvmyiV9G,comment-id=000e,timestamp=2019-06-18T19:29:49.411+0000)

Out of curiosity, does this mean we'll see the in-game colors associated with AP ratios changed from green to a shade of blue? It's always been weird to me that AP values in itemization do NOT match the common damage type of AP (green in tooltips, purple in game), while AD values in itemization DO match the common damage type of AD (orange in tooltips, orange in game).

Absolutely second this, you already added a movement speed scaling color (Janna's passive) and I guess mana ratios are going to be changed to regular blue. I'm now wondering that Pyke's lethality ratios are set as red as health ratios...

ZimnexJun 18, 20196 votes

Dude this looks dope you guys did well TwistedFate

Wizard PoroJun 18, 20196 votes

I hate it. I hate it so much. First off, the stated reason of 'clarity' is bullshit, since the current colors are already distinct. Secondly, the purple color for magic damage is MUCH better. You already removed the purple team from SR, did you really have to remove the last bastion of purple in the game? I literally play mass-AoE magic-damage champions to make the world more purple with tons of purple numbers everywhere, and now I will have lost a huge source of joy just because something that didn't need any kind of updating got 'updated' and I can't do anything about it other than vainly hope that this insignificant plea will change anything. Please, PLEASE keep the purple. I need more purple in my life.

DARCKD00MJun 18, 20196 votes

yeah more purple, not just because we are used to it...but i really feel it associates more with magic dmg and blue mana expenditure..or at least purple crits?

also dont get why the update, it's the feature that needs the less attention RIGHT NOW!

BloodMoonKindredJun 18, 20195 votes

Would it be possible to have an option for Colorblind Mode to change the blue text to yellow?

CountermagikJun 18, 20194 votes

I'm not sure if the blue shouldn't be darker, since i think it might be easy to missread it as true damage.

ΛΞΓΣJun 18, 20194 votes

but blue is for mana ....

PyrosanJun 18, 20193 votes

I like it, easy on the eyes. [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

The ChillinJun 18, 20193 votes

10/10 any improvement is welcomed

Off ßrandJun 18, 20193 votes

One request, please change health bar colors to flash solid red like they used to instead of orange/yellow it used to be so much more satisfying

FalanahJun 18, 20193 votes

The black lining around the text makes it a lot easier for me to read, being colourblind! The only issue I have is that blue text on green and grey make it hard to read for me. Colour combinations of Grey and Green, Blue and Green and Blue and Grey are hard to read for those with colourblindness. If designing for those with colourblindness bold contrast of colour can make it a lot easier. I would recommend for as an alternative to the blue text maybe a bold yellow instead? A brighter colour on top of the dark colours of the background would contrast better and be easier to see. Even with tritanopia (the colourblindess affecting purple and yellow) having a warm tone on top of the cool toned background would help it stand out, instead of a cool tone on top of the cool tones.

RiotRiot GreenilyJun 18, 20195 votes

Hey there! Thanks for your comment on colorblindness--this is very helpful stuff for me. I will look into what will make for a compelling colorblind alternative so that you're able to get the clarity that you need. We definitely want you to be able to read the dang numbers!

Celio Hogane HDJun 18, 20193 votes

RIP purple, again.

still miss the purple minions.

CampYourLaneJun 18, 20193 votes

i saw these on pbe, and i absolutely love them, good job! [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

SupremeVoidJun 18, 20192 votes

I think the shadow on both ad/ap crit is too big or the shadow cast distance is too far. Looks a bit out of place.

The ap crit version looks very bland. Ad version has a subtle color shift inside

L RayquazaJun 18, 20192 votes

I'm gonna guess from lack of note about it True Damage is going to stay white?

RiotRiot GreenilyJun 18, 20199 votes

Yes, true damage will stay white. True white is actually the most stand-out color we can use in the game, purely because the game space itself is so colorful. We want true damage to be highly noticeable.

YayYayYayYayYayJun 18, 20192 votes

The blue for magic damage seems inconsistent for me. Blue is more associated with Mana, while Purple is more associated with Magic Damage. A good example is the effect on Lich Bane that was changed recently to Purple. If you guys decided to choose purple to indicate Magic Effect, why is magic damage blue then. If someone has Lich Bane triggered and sees a purple color, it'd be consistence and nice compared to purple Lich Bane and blue damage

YasamashiJun 19, 20192 votes

What about mixed damage? Is it going to be divided in two different instances? Think of Amumu's passive and his kit, are both left as they are on live (mixed colour between true damage and other damage type in a unique number) or are you dividing the numbers so that his W would display a gradual increase on magic damage AND true damage? Hope you understood what I meant, thanks in advance!

kYwJun 19, 20192 votes

I just fail to see why the color of Magic Damage has to change. What's the goal here? Or in other words, what would we lose if you did these changes in the exact same way but with shades of purple instead of shades of blue? You probably have a reason for it, but searching through the post and comments I don't see any explanation for that. So in sum, good job on the standardization and nicer feedback, but why is purple a bad thing?

DMT SarevokJun 19, 20192 votes

The reality is that this game needs a deep detail of customization just like Overwatch and other games, let us choose in the options colors for everything (mana, health, hp bars, combat dmg text and so on). I have a very rare form of colorblindness and i almost can't see differences between enemy and ally minions... I'm available to be a test case for this and future development in matters of colors.

RiotRiot GreenilyJun 19, 20194 votes

Hey there! Can you let me know what kind of colorblindness you experience? I'd love to know more about what works for you.

Mokuto BunshiJun 19, 20192 votes

Awesome, eventually we can get to the space dragon in the room. Death recap!

RiotRiot GreenilyJun 20, 20193 votes

Mokuto BunshiJun 24, 20191 votes

It..... IT WAS TRUE!

AzanozJun 27, 20192 votes

Can I get an option to change it?

CaenenJun 18, 20191 votes

Good evening!

Any thoughts on making the 'cosmetic crit' icon (things that aren't improved by crit damage, such as Anivia E, Vayne E, Morde Q or Gnar R enhanced damages) similar but distinct from the normal crit icon?

RiotRiot GreenilyJun 19, 20193 votes

I answered this in a separate comment somewhere

TL;DR -- Yes we want to do this for special damage numbers without abusing the crit icon.

Xt0Jun 18, 20191 votes

Physical crits are represented by red to orange gradient. Can magical crits be gradients as well, instead of just solid blue?

Perhaps, something like this?

RiotRiot GreenilyJun 18, 20195 votes

Hi there! We did actually test a form of the gradated blue crit (and FWIW it did look pretty cool). Here's the reasoning behind why we're staying away from that:

CRIT is a stat that increases your chances of dealing an extra big damage number with your auto-attacks. The reason why the crit icon is gradated is to show that the damage type is physical, but it is a subset of physical damage that is affected by the crit stat you see in the panel (this is where the reddish tint comes from).

Technically, there is no equivalent stat for magical damage. Magical "crits" in-game are used to make certain skills more satisfying (LeBlanc popping Q, Anivia doing double damage, Ryze Q, etc.) And so what we really want to be able to do is have a separate icon entirely (not crit icon!) for those skills that feel extra good when you proc a hit or meet the special conditions. We will explore making this feel visually satisfying at that point in time. For now, blue crit icon is the flat blue because it is not otherwise affected by any particular stat.

TL;DR In the future we will be exploring how to represent special magical damage without abusing the crit icon and styling!

Hope this helps explain!

Joshua125r 2Jun 28, 20191 votes

If there is a toggle im fine with this but if we are forced to use this that's gonna be stupid. I can't tell crits from normal attacks and I like how the purple pops better currently instead of blue.

VesperoAug 12, 20191 votes

I'm colorblind and can't tell the difference between Magic Damage and True Damage under the new system. Both just look white to me. I did some experimenting in the Training Tool and found that I could tell the difference when Colorblind Mode is disabled, but that (of course) causes other problems.

In taking screenshots, I found I CAN tell a difference, but it's so incredibly slight as to be meaningless in the course of actual gameplay.

Here's a screenshot with all three damage types visible: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ascYP2c5hb5QctHy8

26 is clearly physical damage (my AA) 12 is magic damage (from Lux's passive, I believe) The obscured number is true damage, because I was running Cheap Shot.

These last two colors are way too similar. Colorblindness greatly affects a person's ability to recognize and distinguish colors, even ones which don't directly include the problematic colors (Red and Green for me), so even though pale blue is not white, I can't see it well enough to tell it apart from white.

In fact, copying the 1 from the screenshot onto a white background, I can't read it at my normal distance from the screen (and I have no vision problems aside from colorblindness). Even with the number not moving, I'd say it looks like a serif "I" and not a "1." https://photos.app.goo.gl/nd713F6x8yK9xV2w7

Again, it's only in colorblind mode that this is an issue, the standard color-scheme has a darker blue that doesn't cause problems.

LorrainewhJKDec 8, 20191 votes

How do you turn this on so i can see the blue text with damage

VesperoJan 28, 20201 votes

It's been 6 months and Magic and True Damage are still almost indistinguishable on Colorblind Mode. Please, just make Magic Damage the same color as it is on non-Colorblind Mode!