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Champion Q&A: Taliyah, the Stoneweaver

RiotA Small Man·May 12, 2016·57 votes·209,976 views

Hey everyone!

We've gathered a bunch of Rioters from the Taliyah team for some Q&A about the Stoneweaver! Whether you're interested in Taliyah's gameplay, story, or art, ask away and we'll be happy to answer.

On hand for questions today we have:

Daniel "ZenonTheStoic" Klein - Designer

Ariel "Thermal Kitten" Lawrence - Writer

Curtis "C3Sound" Churn - Sound Designer

Jeremy "Riot Shadowstorm" Dempster - Dev Manager

Hing "Hdot" Chui - Concept Artist

Nick "nickstravaganza" Matthews - Animator

Jason"Riot Keyserito" Keyser - VFX Artist

Kacee "Iniquitee" Granke - Producer

Janelle "Riot Stellari" Jimenez - Promotion

Check out these links if you need to get up to speed:

The Bird and the Branch - A young stone mage from Shurima finds an unlikely mentor.

Taliyah: Homecoming - A rising threat in the desert sends Taliyah racing home.

Champion Reveal: Taliyah, the Stoneweaver - Check out Taliyah's reveal.

PBE Gameplay Livestream - Designer ZenonTheStoic demos Taliayh's PBE gameplay.

Champion Dev Podcast: Taliyah - Inside Taliyah's dev with her designers.

Champion Insights: Taliyah - The story behind Taliyah's creation.

873 Comments

RiotC3SoundMay 12, 201666 votes

No one asked for this, however it makes for a neat story. So ill tell it anyway ;P

A sound designer's job is to create a wide enough sonic thematic palette that conveys each of the champion skills in a unique way. This helps with game-play clarity, adds to the uniqueness of the champion, keeps it from becoming repetitive or boring, etc etc.

That said, rocks are rocks. Rocks sound like other rocks - for the most part. However, such elements like size, density, shape, and other characteristics of rocks can create a different feel when hit or thrown or destroyed or used to suppress giant panicked wildebeests... a story for another time...

But that wasnt enough for Taliyah - Taliyah had a more refined version of rock. "Woven" rock was her deal, and the task at hand was to try and figure out what that really sounded like.

Here is the cool part (commence nerd out):

A few of us took a trip up to UCLA's Anecoic Chamber. If you dont know what an anechoic chamber is, read up on it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anechoic_chamber

Its basically a "dead" room - one with "no" reflections or reverberations. It's crazy stuff. Stay in there too long and you can hear your blood rushing through your arteries.

What better place to record really detailed stuff.

Recording really small sounds and capturing them in a way that sounds big is a challenge. One basic technique is to crank your microphone pre-amp so you can record a really small sound at a really high volume - recording all of the detail at a hotter level - making the sound "bigger" initially to work with. However, a lot of crap happens when you do this - when you raise the initial recording level you also raise the noise floor of the room which usually ends up with a nasty hum/hiss/buzz in your recording.

This is why a dead room _rocks _ for this kind of recording...

So I packed up a bunch of tile for bathroom walls that I bought at home depot, showed up with these other Riot sound design cats at UCLA, and recorded all of Taliyah's more detailed building blocks inside of an almost completely dead room.

The recordings turned out awesome - and you can hear some of these sounds sprinkled in and throughout her kit (Q - on her casts of the shards, W - on the directional input sound, E - as the 4 waves fall out into place, R - its somewhere in there buried beneath the madness)

Here are a couple pics from the recording:

http://c3sound.com/wp-content/uploads/DevPics/AnechoicChamber_2016/rec2.jpg

http://c3sound.com/wp-content/uploads/DevPics/AnechoicChamber_2016/rec1.jpg

YerAWizardCarryMay 12, 201621 votes

Why did you release another mage right after Aurelion Sol was released? Also why did you make the patches to her Q, why not just keep the five rocks at all times?

RiotZenonTheStoicMay 12, 201627 votes

Good question!

We generally do a thing called fantasy slotting where we plan out which types of champions we'll release in the next year or so. In fantasy slotting, we try to avoid making a champion for the same role twice in close succession whenever possible, but Aurelion was a bit of a special case. In his case we had a long-standing promise to you guys to get you this dragon champion and we did not want to delay him any longer. We decided that while both Taliyah and Aurelion go mid lane and build AP, there was enough of a difference that they don't feel like the same type of champion at all. Aurelion is all about his positioning with very infrequent spell casts (and only the Q and the R feel like traditional spells; the E is a movement ability with an ult level CD and the W is a modifier to his positioning game) while Taliyah should feel much more like a traditional mage in terms of slinging spells.

Let me know once she's live if that bears out!

RiotIniquiteeMay 12, 201631 votes

When we were working on Aurelion Sol, we were looking at an opportunity to fulfill an archetype - that is, making an awesome dragon in League of Legends and the world of Runeterra instead of filling a specific gameplay need. At the time, we weren't sure what role he would fill (though we assumed mage or tank were highly likely). Additionally, Aurelion Sol was originally slated to come out before Jhin, in late 2015. Due to complications during production, he was delayed in order to make sure he was up to snuff and ended up landing next to Taliyah, who we had specifically intended to be a mage from the get-go (when we planned that, there hadn't been a pure mid mage in a long time). In the end I think their playstyles are wildly different and their fantasies appeal to different people and don't mind them being neighbors so much. But you're right - typically we like to give a high level of variety in the roles that we release!

AznbeatMay 12, 201615 votes

Favorite bugs in her development? (not counting the healthbar saga i watched daniel klein have last night lol)

RiotRiot KeyseritoMay 12, 201681 votes

For a brief time, when we added the stone she surfs on, it didn't have a unique texture yet, so Taliyah's face was stretched out over the surface of the stone.

Bangagong85May 12, 201617 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Keyserito,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=Q5Rti3k0,comment-id=00090000,timestamp=2016-05-12T19:17:46.892+0000)

For a brief time, when we added the stone she surfs on, it didn't have a unique texture yet, so Taliyah's face was stretched out over the surface of the stone.

Pics plz!

RiotRiot KeyseritoMay 12, 2016106 votes

I had trouble digging one up, so I just swapped out the rock texture with her character texture. It looked kinda like this: http://tinyurl.com/hbm29w6

RiotnickstravaganzaMay 12, 201638 votes

It's silly.

Knight SkyMay 12, 20168 votes

OH GOSH! the Champion icon in this pic is cracking me up Im dying of laughter lol! Do you guys always do this when your developing new champs before you get their splash are? Because if so that would be hilarious to see the ones you guys have done.

RiotnickstravaganzaMay 12, 201616 votes

Oh yes. It doesn't quite feel like champ development until we get the derpy temp art. I think Aurelion Sol accidentally went to PBE with his still in the files somewhere, but I can't find it posted anywhere...

RiotZenonTheStoicMay 12, 201658 votes

I did an oopsie with multiplication on the W at one point where it threw you across the entire map. That was cool.

Jeremy GCMay 12, 201614 votes

Thanks for doing the Q&A Guys!

Were there any super cool or maybe just interesting abilities that you had tried to put on her kit, but then ended up scrapping for whatever reason? I always love hearing about scrapped abilities :)

Cheers!

RiotRiot KeyseritoMay 12, 201636 votes

For a long time, her auto attack was visually designed more like a trail of rocks ripped up from the ground, similar to what happens when you yank a rope or a garden hose and send a wave through it. We all liked how it looked, but it had two problems: 1. It looked way more powerful and significant than a regular mage auto attack (like it was a skill shot, or something similar to Malphite's Q). And 2: It didn't have a clearly defined leading edge to the projectile, to give clarity for when the missile was about to hit, or where it came from. It was on her for a few weeks, but toward the end, we realized it wasn't working for gamelpay, so we went with a more "needle-and-thread" feeling on the small stone she throws.

SaixosMay 12, 201644 votes

What are the chances of that animation being used to replace malphite's current cheese wheel?

krlpdd35May 12, 201613 votes

What is Taliyah's favorite food?

lightdragoon88May 12, 201637 votes

I would say Rock Candy. [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

krlpdd35May 12, 201611 votes

LMAO

RiotThermal KittenMay 12, 201654 votes

Being from the desert, I think she would be fascinated by Rocky Road ice cream.

AbusiveEmuMay 12, 201612 votes

I and quite a few others feel like the release videos showing the abilities would be far better if they also showed them mid-battle (even if still mocked). Is this something that we could see in the future?

I don't mind the stationary targets, but it really doesn't always show the usage of the spells. For example Taliyah's Q video doesn't show her able to move around while casting.

Riot StellariMay 12, 201625 votes

That's something we're considering! We released an ability video on Facebook that was all the abilities in context (mid-combat), so we may do something similar again in the future! Thanks for the feedback.

javiermetal66May 12, 201611 votes

what does she think about Annie Annie being able to control her fire magic despite her age? she wants to learn and Illaoi likes to teach..., would Illaoi be a good teacher for her?

RiotIniquiteeMay 12, 201631 votes

Taliyah would be disappointed in Annie for her reckless attitude towards using and controlling her magic, but perhaps also impressed at the power she wields for her age. I don't think they would get along very well.

Illaoi might be a bit of a harsh teacher for Taliyah - she's not quite as rough & tumble as the Kraken Priestess. Though the Stoneweaver definitely enjoys staying in motion as both a nomad and a rock-surfer, so maybe Illaoi would think that she's already on the right path!

NellyyMay 12, 201611 votes

I absolutely adore this character and her design and I just can't wait to play her, but being an artist myself makes me wonder

What the inspiration for her design was?
And what came first, her lore, her design or her gameplay?
Did you have any other ideas for her design? If so, what were they?

RiotZenonTheStoicMay 12, 201628 votes

Ideally, all three of these grow up around each other. We had the idea for an elemental mage first, and then very quickly had a bunch of REALLY cool pieces of art that gave us great direction. Here is the very first piece of concept art we had.

http://i.imgur.com/j0IY6Rt.jpg

If you look at Stoneflower in this lineup, you can see a LOT of Taliyah in there already. If you look at Thunderbird, you can see her run pose and her sleeves as well. Tectonic Marvel served as a great example for what we did NOT want to do (big chunky rocks, large cracks in the ground etc) I would say that except for Storm General and Spite Mage, all of these ended up going into Taliyah.

I had a very early paper kit centered around "Exhausted Ground". Paper kits look like this:

Exhaust Ground Kit

P: Standing on unexhausted ground while casting a spell empowers that spell, but exhausts the ground for (40s-3m) (scales by game time)

Q: Throws a rock in target direction, stopping on first unit hit. If cast on unexhausted terrain, sends another flurry of skillshots in the same direction after a short delay. Each additional hit applies 20% of the damage.

W: Rupture-like timing circular AOE. Damages enemies hit. If cast on unexhausted terrain, the ground grabs onto the enemy, rooting them additionally.

E: Throws out ribbons of rock in a fan shape in front of Stone Weaver. Enemies hit are damaged and slowed, or if she is standing on unexhausted terrain, become leashed to her. If there are leashed enemies, Stone Weaver can reactivate this ability to either push or pull them (click nearer to yourself / beyond the enemy). Enemies can break the leash by moving away from Stone Weaver.

R: Earthquake: Causes tremors in a larger area, temporarily rejuvenating all the ground so that the empowered versions of spells can be cast. For the duration of the earthquake, ground in its area cannot be exhausted. Slows and damages all enemies in the area + cripples them. Crippled enemies cannot use blinks or dashes.

When the earthquake ends, all ground in its area becomes exhausted.

At the same time, our writer wrote a story sketch called "The Sunrise Stone" where Taliyah is wading through a river near her tribes camp, picking out interesting rocks from the riverbed, when a bunch of local boys show up and bully her and she is forced to use her rock magic to defend herself. This gave us a pretty good idea of her personality and how her magic would express herself.

With the three disciplines having a good idea of what they were making we then moved forward into pre-production, where we answered all remaining questions about her.

MegaverseMay 12, 20168 votes

Will you be updating her ultimate so it does damage and my friend and I thought up a cool ability where she pulls up a piece of the ground and depending where she is it will have different effects (River will slow, jg will do more damage to monsters, bot lane gives more life steal) this would be a cool ability for Taliyah. Also will the new champions such as Jhin and Aurelion sol be getting new skins?

RiotZenonTheStoicMay 12, 201641 votes

Her ultimate will never deal damage. This is very much working as designed. Imagine it did do damage. Now on top of having to think about whether or not you want to ride it and where you want to place it to most effectively cut off the enemy, you'd also have to consider if you wanted to try and hit enemies with it to damage them or maybe even hold it and not use it until you're fighting someone because it's part of your damage combo. Giving players more options to use a spell often makes the spell worse. It becomes less obvious if you used it well, you feel bad using it in interesting / out of the ordinary situations, and so on. In this case, constraints breed creativity.

Spells that interact with your location do sound cool and I wouldn't be surprised if we did one eventually, but you may have noticed that Taliyah's kit is complete and she is going to release soon. It's a little late to put a new spell in ;P

rtbf225618241May 12, 20168 votes

Why doesn't Yasuo give a damn about anything? I mean look at him. He was sleeping. Again!

RiotThermal KittenMay 12, 201631 votes

I think because of Taliyah, Yasuo remembers that he does give a damn about some things.

PortaljackerMay 12, 20168 votes

When surfing on her ult, you can click and she'll dismount on the side you clicked on, but I assume if she takes damage she'll fall off as well, like with Aurelion Sol's E? The question there, is since the ult is impassable terrain, which side will she fall on when hit? Is it always guaranteed to be the same side? This will be hugely important to counterplay, especially if her ult splits the enemy team in half, they could push her to the side more capable of handling her.

RiotZenonTheStoicMay 12, 201628 votes

When she is knocked off the wall by enemy champion damage, she is pulled TOWARD her attacker. This is to make riding the wall risky.

VersaceLemonadeMay 12, 20167 votes

if taliyah was a high school student what sports/clubs do you think she would be involved in?

Riot StellariMay 12, 201650 votes

Geology club, surfing club - have you seen this fanart by Jason Chan, one of the artists who worked on her promo? :D http://jasonchan-art.tumblr.com/post/144119206458/some-sketching-between-work-fan-art-of-taliyah-in#_=_

WumumuMay 12, 20169 votes

Academy Taliyah confirmed?

Riot StellariMay 13, 201633 votes

Public School Taliyah to counter the Academy snobs, imo! Keepin it real XD

TonyTonyMordecaiMay 12, 20166 votes

What were some abilities that you scrapped during development?

Also, any particular reason why her outfit slightly resembles Azir's?

RiotZenonTheStoicMay 12, 201623 votes

We had an ultimate that destroyed a part of summoner's rift for a good 15s. Imagine the enemy is doing Baron and you just take out the back of Baron pit, opening it up for an epic brawl.

It was a cool ability, but not great on a mage kit.

Jeremy GCMay 12, 20166 votes

Hey Guys! Thanks for doing the Q&A, Taliyah is an awesome champion!

Are there any interesting stories from her development that would be okay to share? Maybe how things did or didn't work out/click with her design, or inspirations, or just random interesting tidbits. Hope you guys have an awesome day, and take care :)

RiotZenonTheStoicMay 12, 201619 votes

I think I've told this story a bunch of times already between the podcast and the PBE stream, but the Q we ended up shipping started out as a placeholder ability. I wanted to try an ability where she used up nearby walls to empower her spells, but in the interest of getting her into playtesting more quickly, I designed it as "uses up ground" first--designing exactly how much of a wall she should rip up, how near she had to be, dealing with places on the map where there are no walls etc seemed like a lot of work. So I didn't expect anyone to like the "uses up ground" spell and was super surprised when everyone who played it loved it. There is a lot of surprising nuance to deciding where to use up ground, when to cast the spell from used up ground to safe ground, etc. Looking at the problems that the wall spell posed particularly with mid lane not having a lot of walls, I decided to polish the ground version of the spell and we ended up shipping a really fun game.

Another really cool spell we tried was "stitching walls together". It was a skill shot she could ONLY fire through a wall (like Bard's magical journey) that would create a wall, but the wall only persisted if the missile touched ANOTHER wall. Really cool spell that made you think tactically about your positioning with regards to walls, but not a midlane mage spell.

shadowlordkiroMay 12, 20166 votes

how does taliyah feel about demacia and yordles?

RiotThermal KittenMay 12, 201626 votes

Demacia is not too fond of magic and people from foreign lands after dealing with Noxus on their proverbial doorstep for such a long time. Taliyah would try to avoid Demacia on her way home. However if she ran into someone from Demacia, she would try get to know them as an individual.

She would think Yordles are adorable.

Riot StellariMay 12, 201648 votes

Even Teemo?

ArkraithMay 13, 20169 votes

He is very adorable. Just not on the inside. In fact he was one of the first champs i got because he was so cute. Lord of the underworld or not, you have to admit he's adorable. Teemo

ZackeryssMay 12, 20165 votes

I'd like to ask about her story. What inspired you guys to make Yasuo her teacher?

StarkiIIerMay 12, 20165 votes

Are you going to tell the story of what happens when Taliyah finally arrives to shurima, or are you going to leave it in the air?

RiotThermal KittenMay 12, 201620 votes

Keep an eye out for her bio when she launches. :)

OmegaSonic0May 12, 20164 votes

What is the name of her tribe? 2. Does she have any siblings? 3. What does her tribe do? Some of her quotes say her father is a shepherd, but is that the job of her entire tribe, or just her family? 4. What area of Shurima does her tribe reside in? 5. What are the nations Taliyah has visited in her journey for control, as well as on her way home to Shurima? We know of Ionia and the Freljord, and it's implied she's been to Noxus, but are there any other major places? 6. Is her appearance in her Freljord skin a reaction to the ambient magic of the north, or did she feel like blending in more while there? 7. Did she actually meet Ekko in her journeys, or is her taunt regarding him just a bit of silliness? 8. Since the Noxians tried to drown her and she escaped, does that mean she learned to swim at some point? Or did she just use her powers to get herself to shore? Does she need to be able to see stone to weave it? Is seeing it in the past enough? Or can she just feel the stone to manipulate it?

RiotThermal KittenMay 12, 201617 votes

No siblings.
Her tribe is a group of nomadic weavers. Her father is the Master Shepherd and Headman for the tribe. Her mother is a pattern mistress.
They're nomadic so up until the rise of Azir they followed the seasonal waters around Shurima.
Taliyah's passed through Noxus, Ionia, and the Freljord. So far.
A bit of both.
A bit of silliness on the rift. Although it's not out of the question that they might run into each other.
She's not the strongest swimmer having grown up in the desert. Taliyah doesn't need to see stone to weave it, but she needs to be fairly close to it. It can be covered up with snow or grass. She has better control over it if she can see it.

Loçus May 12, 20164 votes

Were you thinking about her abilities like a stone wall that would knock up enemies or a rock shell that would be her passive like if she goes under 10% she can activate her passive therefore making her invulnerable something like that ? :3

RiotZenonTheStoicMay 12, 201615 votes

Good question! I had a rock shell passive on a paper kit once, actually. This is what it looked like:

Passive: Stone-casket: After standing perfectly still for 3 seconds, Tectonic Marvel surrounds herself with a regenerative layer of stone. While in this stone casket, she regenerates health and mana rapidly, but gives up most of her vision radius and loses ally vision. Any enemy damage interrupts this ability and stuns Tectonic Marvel for 1 second.

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