Is there a program to play with champions/items/maps/etc. created by the community?
Regardless, does Riot have an opinion on such a program?
Description of what I'm talking about: Say a person makes a concept for a champion; is there a program that models League of Legends so that the champion can be tested in the environment, just for the fun of it? It would likely be PvE, not PvP so that balance would not be an issue.
Sir ArmaMalum3 votesSimply modeling a champion is a complicated multi-person project, then the ability design and visuals are also ridiculous by itself.
I do know it's possible to tweak skin files similar to custom skins to resemble another champion (the animations may get really weird though) and I think that would be the quickest way to get a champion "model". As far as maps, abilities and the like it wouldn't be too hard to jerryrig things like a range-finder app or a VO line recorder but th biggest thing would be gameplay testing, which requires people and proper interactions like damage, hitboxes and visual cues. That's a loooooot of work for every new champion and due to the individuality of most concepts you wouldn't be able to re-use a lot of assets.
So end of the day I'm going to say 'possible, not practical'
Hoi Im Temmo2 votesDang. That's why I was hoping there was an existing program - much of the base work would be done, and players wanting t use would be able to network most of the other work (except in game testing)
I post it, mostly because of the champion contest going on - I would love to actually play some of these champions, see the interactions, abilities, etc. - and its a bit sad that I won't be able too.
Hyrum Graff2 votesOn the other hand, say you created a set of generic animations, that we could then play with (ie, make every single skillshot look like morg's q, every targeted ability look like veigar's q, every untargeted ability look like soraka's q, but give us the ability to change speed, hitbox, animation size, effect, etc).
Obviously you wouldn't have the ability to create new mechanics with this, but I do feel that the work done on development probably either:
a) Has already been done. b) Would have benefit somewhere else within Riot
Sir ArmaMalum3 votesYou know I could imagine a client allowing for quick creation of abilities and visual effects would either already be implemented within Riot's champ team or something they would drool over. In other words, someone managing this and doing it well may get some major resume padding.
Hoi Im Temmo2 votesI would love it if someone from Riot would give some info on things like this.
Something a friend mentioned: what if Riot made this a community driven project, and allowed it to be run by interns seeking to possibly work with the company? It would be something than the community could handle most of the needs of, and they could get valuable experience both coding and working with the League Community.
Sir ArmaMalum3 votesLove your optimism, keep that going :)
I would actually suggest against having a direct Riot connection during the process, organization and implementation would be better done on the fan side because it lacks the possibility of corporate influence as well as opens up an easier time with overall communication, organization and contributions. Riot has to worry about making a tool that works too well public, as even with their generous API if it's too good people will try to profit.
The biggest issue that I can see is the variability of the needs of conceptors. As Hyrum said, most baseline examples could be generated off of existing champion abilities, with recolors and the like.
Now another thing I want to point out. A lot of the things you want in a concept design, abilities, animations, modeling, textures and game interactions can actually be done with a single freeware program I know of. Blender. I've actually been messing around with it in my undergraduate research for 2 months now and it's a great program. However, it has a huge learning curve. So much so that I would consider anyone well versed in it as a specialist.
Hyrum Graff2 votesI know someone who was doing animation as a contractor for video game companies. tl;dr, he wrote a program that would create base models based on parameters he entered, and then he could do just the final touches on them by hand. He ended up saving a ton of time and making much money by selling the models, which he did very little work to create.