[Idea] Reflecting on Missions/Achievements. How We Can Improve Missions to Teach Players
Hello League of Legends players!
While working on my next guide, I figured I would drop this little suggestion for the good folks at Riot to think about.
I love this game so much and I want to impart as much of my knowledge to help players get better at this game as well.
When the Missions came out for the Order vs Chaos event, I thought this was a fantastic feature that would help implement an idea I have been mulling over for the past year or so.
###Tl;dr Notice: If you don't like reading, you can get away with scrolling down to the "Mission Ideas" section and just reading the bullet points
Also, I suck at naming things so if you have better ideas, feel free to suggest
Now I know what some of you are thinking, "Missions/Achievements are a dumb idea and promote nothing positive for the game except to give us free stuff." Something like that maybe. I normally, I would agree with that sentiment. Because achievements like:
-
Get 15,000 gold in a single game
-
Get 15 kills/assists
-
Play a game with a Riven/Yasuo on your team
promote nothing but force players into mindsets they wouldn't normally have.
Have any of you been in a game where someone has said, "Don't end the game yet! I still need 2 more assists for the achievement!!!" Something like that? I've even been in a game where someone said, "Can we all go 5 mid? I need to end this game in 17 minutes," because they wanted to finish the mission in time (protip: as long as you start the game before the mission ends, you'll still get to complete the mission).
With my idea, I plan on fixing this mindset as well as implement it in a way that can be used to teach players about the game and can be used to service players below level 30.
Don't understand what I mean? Here's just one example:
- Dragon Control - Successfully secure a Dragon with the help of your team without suffering any casualties
Now onto the bulk of the post!
In the future, I believe missions can be made in a way that can be used to teach players about the game as well as promote playstyles that would habitualize the idea of focusing on objectives, closing out games, and overall make the average player more knowledgeable about the game.
###Why do this?
-
The built in tutorial is outdated and overall... it kinda sucks... *cough*
*cough* -
Guides that teach the player must be obtained from outside sources and there is no indication if the guide is good or not
-
this is a very important point because new players are basically "spitballing" for good resources to learn the game. Go look up a guide for ANY champion. Go Ahead. Google: "[champion name] guide" see what websites that pop up ( someone please tell me I'm dreaming )
-
Macro play and good habits is not something that you can learn just from watching a Twitch stream/Youtube video
-
A pro player can tell you all they want about trading habits but if you don't practice it, you don't learn the skill
With all that said, the missions I am proposing must fulfill certain requirements
###Mission Requirements
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Must be formatted in a way that helps the player learn more about the game, champions, and overall strategy
-
Promotes good habits
-
Does not force the player into bad habits (e.g. trying to extend the game longer, splitpushing/not grouping mindlessly, or picking certain champions to solo objectives)
-
"Relatively" easy to program (can't be too difficult for Riot to implement)
#Mission Ideas
NOTE: All numbers are not concrete and can be changed!
###Position Specific
-
To Arms! - Successfully secure an assist for you or your team by using your Teleport
within the first 10 minutes of the game without suffering more casualties than your opponents (must be used to traverse at least 5000 units) -
Many Top Laners use their Teleport to get back into lane and may not even use their Teleport to join in teamfights until past 20 minutes into the game. Just by having this sort of Mission existing will promote Top Laners to look around the map for potential TP Gank opportunities. Wording it this way also forces people to join teamfights they know they can come out on top from
-
Dragon Control - Successfully secure a Dragon with the help of your team without suffering any casualties
-
For Junglers, securing objectives is important. This can apply to all three Epic Monsters: Dragon, Baron, and Rift Herald. Wording it this way prevents people from trying to solo it and not suiciding for it
-
The Roamer's Price - Dealt more than 30% of a Mid Tower's health over 20 seconds while you enemy Mid Laner is not in your lane without dying
-
One of the biggest complaints players have against their allied Mid Laner is, "WHY DIDN'T YOU FOLLOW YOUR LANER!?!?!?" Just by having this Mission existing, players will realize that it's also a valid strategy to stay in your lane and not follow your opponents if it means dealing meaningful damage to the enemy tower. Numbers aren't prefect but you get the idea.
-
Return Fire! - Inflict over 3000 damage to champions from only auto attacks within the first 7 minutes of the game (Marksman only)
-
Auto-attack trading is something some player know about in practice (or not even at all) but can't apply it well in game. Just by this mission existing would promote players to learn how to punish opponents when they CS. If you watch games in Bronze, Silver, and even low Gold you will see champions use their mana as much as possible to damage their opponents. Very rarely do I see them auto the opponent when they go for CS.
-
Two in the Spotlight - Kept at least 2 Sightstone
wards on the map for 10 minutes straight (wards placed in your base do not count) -
A lot of supports who aren't used to the role will many times forget to use their Sightstone charges. 10 Minutes will require players to refresh their wards at least 4 times to finish this Mission. And you can't just spam wards in your base for the achievement
###General Achievements
All these are pretty self-explanatory so we'll cut down on the explanations. Also we require ALL OF THEM to be achieved 3+ games in a row so that players become more consistent achieving these marks
-
Farm Novice/Apprentice/Expert - *Achieve 60/70/80 CS within the first 10 minutes of the game *
-
No Experience for You! - Deny you enemy laner 300 or more EXP in the first 7 minutes of the game (You must be within 1600 units of your enemy's minions and they must be more than 1600 away from your minions)
-
You Need It More Than Me - Give the 2nd Blue Buff to your Mid Laner while playing a champion that uses Mana as a resource
How about some character specific ones?
###Character Specific
- Activate it Mid-flight! - Throw out a spell when your passive is at 3 charges and Stun an opponent (this alone existing will teach players that it's possible and will ask how how to do it)
I Got Your Back! - Mitigated at least 750 damage by shielding an ally (I'm looking at you 
, 
, 
who shield your allies after the ability hits your partner!)
Can't Catch this! - Successfully block 3 "hook" abilities using Zyra's Vine Lashers in a single game (e.g. 
- Rocket Grab, 
- Death Sentence, 
- Dredge Line)
Don't even need complicated mechanics as missions to improve players skills. Even just a counter they have to track is enough for them get better at their champion
Charming <3 - Successfully land Ahri's E - Charm 4 times on enemy champions before the 7 minute mark
Critical Bounce - Landed 3 Crit Q - Double Up on enemy champions by Q'ing a low health minion and bouncing it at the enemy before 7 minutes
Hands Off! - Successfully cancelled any Hard CC by using Morgana's Black Shield on an ally or herself 3 times in the first 7 minutes of the game (because who hasn't had the pleasure of being grabbed by Blitzcrank , despite having a Morgana in your lane)
#Champion Mastery Improvements
The Mastery system is nice feature that shows off your dedication to your favorite champions but it by no means is a indication of skill.
-
Level 5 Mastery can be obtained by losing every single game you played on that champion
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Level 6 and 7 can be obtained by:
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Playing the champion in an off-meta role and doing decent at it
-
AFK farming for most of the game instead of grouping or ending the game quickly
So...
If you tie certain missions to champions, you can make the overall mastery pretty much be required to gain certain levels.
For example:
-
You can't get Mastery level 8 unless you get 80 CS in under 10 minutes for 3 games in a row. If you are playing with Smite, the mission would instead be "40 jungle monster kills in 10 minutes." (Of course, this number would be different depending on the champion so for example Shyvana
would be required to get at least 60) -
You could have Marksmen achieve both the "Return Fire!" and a CS mission in the same game for Mastery 9 or 10
-
More specific Missions like trying to get a KDA of over 4 across 3 different games, while also dealing at least 3rd out of 5 on your team.
And even better, we don't have to tie Mastery to Blue Essence.
#Improving the New Player Experience
So the 3 biggest problems that new players (pre-30) have are:
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No good tutorial
-
IP gains are slow/it takes forever to buy champions
-
Smurfs everywhere
And by using the mission system we can solve all the above by:
-
Mission that teach the player basic mechanics
-
Reward players who finish these basic missions with either bonus IP or a new thing called Champion Fragments, which can award a player with Champion Permanents by combining a bunch (these of course would have different levels so a player would be rewarded with a 450/1350/3150, etc...).
-
Players that achieve the harder Missions despite being low leveled will be easier to be classified as a Smurf and, at Riot's discretion, can even "award" them bonus experience so that they can be separated from low level players faster.
Some Missions geared towards new players (and even "super" Bronze players):
-
You Won't Be Needing It - Remembered to swap out your Warding Totem
for a Sweeping Lens
after purchasing a . -
It's Called Last Hitting - Obtained a minions gold by damaging an enemy minion with only one auto attack.
-
Use It for Scouting - Use your Farsight Trinket
to ward an area of the map more than 1000 units away from you (I legit had a Paper V friend who didn't know you could use it to ward far away from themselves because they play with locked camera) -
Don't Forget to Use It! - Used an Active item during a teamfight (e.g. Zhonya's Hourglass
, Blade of the Ruined King 
, and Locket of the Iron Solari
) -
Towers Over Kills - Inflict over 4000 damage to turrets
And that's it!
Sorry for writing so much but I wanted to flesh out this idea as much as possible.
If you have any suggestions for good missions or names for them, feel free to comment them below! (Because I honestly suck at naming things)
