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So, I owe Riot (Champion Designers) an apology

Auroramancer··10 votes·1,201 views

A few weeks ago I posted this discussion: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/miscellaneous/inlmLEaE-why-im-losing-interest-in-league-after-more-than-5-years-of-playing

One of my primary points was the "slow cadence of champion releases". I have to correct myself on this point. In hindsight, I feel like this point of mine was flawed, because it stemmed from the frustration of two things: 1.) When Riot says "we're playing on releasing about 8-9 new champions this year" 2.) Negative memory from the LONG gaps between Braum, Rek'sai, and Bard, and such, where I believe it was about 3 months in between each of them?

The Gangplank rework and MF's (smaller) rework were a good change of pace to me. We got Tahm Kench and a rework of 2 older champions. Fantastic! 3 "new" champions in one month!

But then on my Facebook newsfeed, the League of Legends page posted the Fiora Update, and I was FLOORED. FOUR "new" champions in ONE month. I really neglected the work and efforts of the Champion Relaunch/Rework team when I made my first discussion.

All this to say: Good job Riot, you have proved me wrong about your slow champion release cadence and I'm impressed to the point of wanting to play again to try them out.

A suggestion if I may...to prevent "player depression" as I had earlier, maybe a timeline for champion design/relaunch would be nice. I had no idea that Fiora's relaunch was even beyond the ideation stage, so I was very surprised. If you are looking to preserve the "surprise factor", then maybe a timeline of champion design/relaunch without calling out which champion it is?

Things I think would be important on a timeline would be as such:

  • Champion conceptualization
  • Art assets
  • Lore
  • In-game kit
  • Playtesting

Major points such as those. It would be awesome to see these sorts of things for like Poppy and Taric. "Whoa, Poppy already has her kit done, now the Champion Design team just has to finish her Art and Lore, then we can expect to see her really soon!" Or if you want to keep the surprise factor, then we can see "oh hey, the next champion they are reworking has their Art assets completed, I wonder what they look like now?!"

Just a suggestion of mine. Again, good job Champion Design + Relaunch/Rework Teams

4 Comments

CasterGilgamesh4 votes

yah but now fiora looks ugly

Mishli1 votes

one comment for you, riot has said they have an average of 5 champs being put together at any one time, and (i think) around 3 reworks of varying severity, depending on how in depth they are.

It's impossible to have a proper schedule for these things, because there's no telling how long some of them will take,. Riot has confirmed that the Poppy rework has been going on since around the time sion got reworked. And they only recently got into the visual update phase. It simply depends on how things work together, does this mechanic work, does this lore fit, what is this champion supposed to do. Just like you can't put a schedule on a painting or book (very well).

Also, while I do enjoy things getting updated, it's a BAD thing if Riot starts updating champs or putting out new ones just because it's been a while. Rushing things or forcing changes just for the sake of change is just unhealthy for everything. Sure I agree with you it's nice seeing stuff be updated, but I don't think that just having updates for the sake of having something new is a good thing.

Auroramancer1 votes

It's impossible to have a proper schedule for these things, because there's no telling how long some of them will take,. Riot has confirmed that the Poppy rework has been going on since around the time sion got reworked.

I'm not asking for a hard-set timeline, but rather a "progress bar" if you will. No dates/projected completion times, just a checklist of what's been done and what's not done. Perhaps I should rephrase in the original post

Mishli1 votes

a progress bar i could totally get behind, as a longstanding fan of Poppy i'm constantly fishing on the forums for ANYTHING reguarding her rework it's like a needle in the haystack just to find out what's going on. I definitly agree with you there. I'd actually really like to see more information about 'we're currently redoing this model' or "this skin is giving us problems" or "her E is still bugging out" though i understand to a point that it's not our job to babysit them (or they don't need to report everything to us that happens) I'm going to school for game design and it would be really cool to get an more detailed look as to the nuts and bolts of the process. I love reading through the "what we were thinking when we did this" posts as well. The other thing i'm afraid of, because i'm SURE it would happen, is if riot gave us detailed updates, the player base would try and influence the design as much as possible, which, i think as a whole, would be a bad thing, because everyone wants something their way. At most I think a progress bar would be a great idea, at least then we'd have some idea that progress has been made.

Just like with the lore team, I KNOW everyone at riot is doing their best to get things done, but any sort of updates or info are always appreciated. (this is meant as a compliment and not as a backhanded remark. I know the lore team is helping everywhere and the new story with graves/tf/gp prove it)

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