About those plants....
I think people are getting way to pissy judging it without thinking-off of first impressions alone. I think these will really help the game, why? thats what im gonna say here and now.
first off, ima put a few key points to remember(I'm gonna copy and paste what riot has said on it, from either the post or comment replies. source [email protected]): 1.Plants also telegraph themselves to ensure players have adequate windows to adapt, showing up as a seedling 30 seconds before they can be used
2.The spawn locations of the plants are not predisposed towards being in the center of areas that you need to control, the spawn locations are generally chosen to be on the edge of those control areas.
3.Plants have seeded fixed spawn locations. For each type of plant, there are probably 3 or 4 per side of the map.
4.Each type of plant have their own fixed spawn locations - that are independent of the other types of plants. Satchels and Visions never share locations, for example - so there's never a 'Man - I expected an orange but I got a satchel'
5.Plants spawn at random intervals because of a few things: They spawn after they are used - which means they'll desync from any kind of timer. Once used, they have a minimum time they wait before they'll respawn (pretty long). Afterwards, there's a small variable in when they'll spawn - but they'll telegraph when they're about to revive about ~30 to 45 seconds before they come back up and ready to be used.
6."Yeah! Each plant has a unique visual look to them - as well as different "buds" and "growing" models - so after a while, you'll be able to recognize - oh hey, a pollen plant will grow here soon.
7.In addition, plant spawn zones don't overlap each other, so you'll never be like 'is a satchel or a dandelion going to be here?' it's going to be 'oh, is the satchel here or not?
- A plant grows in three phases - seed, sapling, then full. The first two phases are meant purely for telegraphing and denial, while the third phase the plant is fully grown and can be used for any of the three intents (tactical positioning, vision, or health.)
9.Their spawning timing's similarly controlled (every 90-110s sort of thing, not full random). They also won't spawn at all in some circumstances (e.g. before/during first clears for example)
10.There are some strict fairness controls on them to ensure they don't meaningfully favor one side of the map over the other (should get generally equal plant spawns across the two sides of the map over a period of time)
Now, what do we get from all this? we get: they have very specific indicators before they spawn(just like elemental drags), and have indicators to how close they are to forming(with the seed sapling and full stuff, it's basically a timer, that's not a numerical timer. we also know those points can be seen by both sides of the map, just gotta have vision I'm guessing. We also know that each plant has fixed spawn points, different for each plant, and they don't overlap each other. We also know that their spawning is roughly even for both sides, so one side is not favored by RNG. Additionally, their spawn times are not before camps spawn to interfere with things like early invades, and are far spread apart.
What does all that mean in short, this means, that with proper VISION CONTROL, both teams will be able to SEE THEM COMING AHEAD OF TIME, AND PLAY AROUND THEM!!. y'now what else is like that? elemental drags, except with vision this time.
if they get a vision over you from over the drag or baron pit, or blast into it from it, you should have warded behind the pit to see if it was there, and if so, TAKE IT OUT SO THE ENEMY CANT USE IT!! if you see a honeyplant in the river, i would recommend getting it before the enemy does-so they cant use it. if you see a plant about to spawn by their red/blue buff in their jungle, take care of the plant before taking the buff, so they wont catch you with it. in contrast, if it's in your jungle, try to bait them out with vision of the buff, then surprise em with the plant.
every situation you can think of with these plants, there was some way to play around it. everyone has wards in this game-not just your support, so with proper vision control and MAP AWARENESS!! you can play around them, either avoiding surprises, baiting, or whatever. warding both jungles will be far more important now, and it will be your own fault for not seeing it coming-if you had the wards to spare, or space for a pink.
that said, there are some improvements i would like to suggest-to help out the-nowardingbronzieboys. if you have vision of a plant, a minimap icon would be nice, just like the jungle camps. but only if you have vision of them, and only to the team with the vision. Jungle camps are the same way, so as long as it's only if you have vision(which jg it's in doesn't matter, gotta have vision either way), you should have a clear indicator. And after a plant is destroyed, a little debris left behind would be nice-just like wards, to let people know "hey, don't need to worry about plants over here".
that's my stance on it, what are ya'lls thought on it, i personally don't see a difference from the elemental drags with the specifics in mind.
TDLR: There are ways to play around camps with proper vision control and map awareness in every possible situation, and people would know that if they looked more into it. That said, they could use a bit more clarity.