Boards›Gameplay

URF: A joke that Riot no longer wants? *Long*

iDemacia·7/9/2017, 3:59:42 AM·4 votes·657 views

Really quickly to start off I would just like to say that I did not make this post to call anyone out or start any flame wars or anything like that. All I hope to get out of this is possibly some answers/ truth.

As of now it almost feels to me like someone at Riot really hates URF(I understand that this may not be the case but that's how it FEELS right now). Now before you cry out "URF lover die!" and spam me with down votes hear me out.

One of the arguments I frequently see against URF is that the same champions are seen over and over again. But what about the Blood Moon game mode Riot release back in February where you see the same few champs over and over, and the others aren't even a possibility to pick?

Blood moon has a champion pool of 21 out of the 134 champions in League. Now if you look at some champions that were popular in URF you can get a pretty similar number (There are 17 here and I'm sure there are more that could be argued for being popular in URF) Shaco Ezreal Zed Galio Fizz Fiora Evelynn Hecarim MonkeyKing Alistar Blitzcrank Riven Ekko Jax Lux Sona Maokai.

So why is it not ok for one mode to use a very limited section of the champion pool, while another is made to be exactly that? Seems a little strange even if you want to argue they did it for thematic reasons (some of the champions on the blood moon roster don't even really feel like assassins ---> lookin at you Kennen).

I would also like to point out these two posts.

https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/v71Tokcn-rgm-brain-dump-june http://nexus.leagueoflegends.com/2017/07/poro-king-again/

In each of these posts the lead dev on the RGMQ, L4T3NCY, makes nearly the exact same statement with no mention of URF whatsoever when asked about why the same two modes (poro king and Ascension) kept showing up. Here are the quotes if you don't care to look at the links:

https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/v71Tokcn-rgm-brain-dump-june Why do you release certain modes so often? We still aim to build new modes and release them as often as we can to you guys (we just released Blood Moon and Dark Star modes this year). Unfortunately, we can't build a whole Dark Star mode every month though. In between, rather than have nothing at all on the weekends, we bring back some reliable favourites (EG: Ascension & Poro King), so there's still something fun to play when you want a break from the regular game. We feel like this is better than the alternative of nothing at all to play in between each new big mode. For those of you who remember, we actually used to run game modes that way pre-RGM, and it felt pretty quiet for the long stretch between each mode (~3 months at a time). This way, there's still some fun stuff around on the weekends to play with, even if it is something that's been seen before.

Where are the older RGM modes?

We've been steadily building new client compatibility for the more successful older RGM modes (One For All, Hexakill), but #gamedev means it's slow going sometimes. We're also doing this in parallel with building our new modes (EG: Blood Moon & Dark Star). The good news is, we just got the Doom Bots of Doom stood up in new client for patch 7.11! Newer modes are also freebies being built in the new client from scratch, so they are much easier to bring back (Blood Moon is already on PBE right now for 7.12).

and

http://nexus.leagueoflegends.com/2017/07/poro-king-again/ _ We still aim to build new modes and release them as often as we can to you guys (we just released Blood Moon and Dark Star modes this year). Unfortunately, we can’t build a whole Dark Star mode every month though. In between, rather than have nothing at all on the weekends, we bring back some reliable favourites (EG: Ascension & Poro King), so there’s still something fun to play when you want a break from the regular game. We feel like this is better than the alternative of nothing at all to play in between each new big mode. For those of you who remember, we actually used to run game modes that way pre-RGM, and it felt pretty quiet for the long stretch between each mode (~3 months at a time). This way, there’s still some fun stuff around on the weekends to play with, even if it is something that’s been seen before._

We’ve also been steadily building new client compatibility for the more successful older RGM modes (One For All, Hexakill), but #gamedev means it’s slow going sometimes. We’re doing this in parallel with building our new modes (EG: Blood Moon & Dark Star). The good news is, we now have the Doom Bots of Doom stood up in new client! Newer modes are also dev-freebies with being built in the new client from scratch, so they are much easier to bring back (Blood Moon just went live and Dark Star is coming up again soon).

Keep in mind these two posts were a month apart the first being on 6/6/2017 and the second on 7/6/2017 and just about the only thing that changes is the patch notes are removed in the 2nd post (I'm assuming to make it look like new information to those that may not have read it yet?).

When I read through each of these hoping without hope that I would find some news of what is happening with URF I was extremely disappointed to find nothing at all and I wasn't the only one. At the time of this post the top comment on the Ask Riot link is this:

I like how they're trying so hard not to mention URF.

That's exactly how I feel random stranger. Like they're trying to dodge talking about URF.

So I must ask, where is URF/ARURF? It has already been built for the new client so where is its place in this Seldomly Rotating Game Mode Queue?

12 Comments

TimX24968B7/9/2017, 4:22:56 AM3 votes

as long as its not complete AR urf im fine. I could do with semi-AR urf, where we get to pick our champ once every few games or so, but other than that, just give us back regular urf.

AwesomeGuyDj7/9/2017, 4:31:56 AM3 votes

Because they simply cant bring URF. Because raisins.

Avarist7/9/2017, 4:12:44 AM2 votes

Honestly I think they just want to keep Urf as a rare treat. The entire concept of Urf in general has always been an obscure occasional yearly-at-most appearance (I could find out exactly how often Urf things come out but I am way too lazy for that)

I've been around since the original Urf warwick skin, and it has been a loooong-running joke that they have been pretty respectful with. The original Urf skin was for charity, and quickly became a beloved theme going forward, and I would hate for them to misuse it. They could mass produce Urf skins and have the Urf game mode rotating in all the time if they wanted to, but I think in a way it's too much of a good thing.

I know comparing a game mode to the skins is a bit odd, but hopefully you can see where i'm coming from when I say that it would sort of weaken the joke / special...ness? that comes with all things Urf.

Then again that could all have nothing to do with it, who knows! That's just how I personally feel about it.

Zielmann7/9/2017, 5:20:26 AM2 votes

To address the thing about Blood Moon, the objective and gameplay in that mode really only suit themselves to assassin and assassin-like champions. Like, try to play something like Cait or Ashe in that mode and you're just going to have a bad time. On top of that, since the limited pool is baked into how the mode is built, you go into it with an understanding of what's coming. I actually think game modes that are built for specific classifications of champions can be really cool. If done right, while you may limit the size of the pool interested in playing the mode, you hope to come up with something that stays fun for a while for those who do play it.

On the other hand, URF is conceptually a mode where you should be able to get excited to play some of your favorite champs on steroids. But for a lot of champions, that just remains a distant fantasy. The balance gets so out of whack that you're only going to be disappointed if your main champs aren't ones who can abuse the mode the most.

fuffychan7/9/2017, 5:12:03 AM1 votes

Its gone and its not coming back. Its better to give up and stop worrying about it, then to keep your hopes up and be disappointed EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND.