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Riot, can we talk about the Client?

Kitch26·6/1/2014, 12:04:41 AM·17 votes·1,648 views

It seems to me that summoners/users have been posting issues/suggestions for the client both here and on GD, but have received little to no recognition. These aren't even sweeping overhauls or major adjustments. They're mostly just QOL stuff. I'm hoping that by consolidating the suggested improvements into a list, it will draw more red attention and result in some implementation.

My apologies if this has already been talked about by Rioters.

  • We NEED to see ping before entering match queue. With the current issues happening with this server and the high number of AFK's, I think this would improve match experience a LOT. Some of our least-enjoyable matches are the ones where we are lagging or consistently having ping spikes. Sometimes this is a problem on our end, and sometimes it is a problem with the server. Either way, if we can see this before hand, we can at least have the opportunity to fix the problem or decide against going into a game without facing the decision of staying with high ping or leaving with penalty.Where would this go? Right where the green box is.

http://i.imgur.com/EH6ZbDu.jpg

  • If you are browsing while in queue, and the game gets denied or doesn't go to champ select for whatever reason, you should be returned to whatever it was that you were doing rather than to the client front page. This is incredibly frustrating, if I'm trying to look at a friend's profile or browsing the store, or editing runes/masteries, etc. Often times, by the time you get back to what you were doing, another match timer pops up and cycle continues.

  • There should be links to the LoL website's Home, Forums, Tribunal, and Support pages. I think this would promote traffic to the site and forums and promote participation in the Tribunal (if it ever comes back online). Where would this go? In the green box! This would be the perfect location because it doesn't really matter if they get covered up by the friends/chat box, and let's face it: Ashe and Katarina aren't important to the client.

http://i.imgur.com/nomh0e5.jpg

  • Match length should be indicated somewhere in Match History. We have all this information, but nothing with which to really put it into perspective. For example, a 20-minute 15/2/10 match is very different from a 15/2/10 45-minute match. It would also put the "Time Spent Dead" stat into perspective as well.

  • Keep team chat open until the game starts. When arranging a team or queueing up for a game as a team / duo, you have a team chat window. As soon as a match is found, the team chat window is closed and its contents lost, even if the game isn't accepted. That team chat window should stay open through champion select until the match starts.

  • Allow item sets to be based on the default recommended items for a champion. When creating a custom item set, you need to painstakingly add all of the items you want to have recommended, even if you just want to make a minor change to a champion's default recommendations. For example, if you wanted to simply change Master Yi's recommended trinket from a scrying orb to a warding trinket, you would need to recreate his entire item recommendation list first. It would be much nicer to be able to load a champion's default recommended items as a base for your custom item set.

  • Rearrange rune/mastery pages. This was mentioned before, but I'll repeat it. It would be nice to be able to change the order of your rune/mastery pages without having to clear/remake them in the new order.

  • "In queue" friends" stuck in the friends list. This one is a bug. Sometimes, players on your friends list appear "in queue" after they've quit the client. At the times when I've observed it, I've had a chat window open to the friend, and they've quit (chat icon went grey), then after a while (e.g. after playing another game), they have reappeared in the friends list and the icon has been yellow.

  • Wrong league in profile after viewing another's profile. Another bug. If you view another user's profile, and then click on the "Profile" button at the top of the interface to switch back to your own, you will see their information under the Leagues tab instead of your own. Clicking on the "See more stats" button will also give strange results

  • "Failed to select champion" message when a player dodges. Another bug. When a player dodges in champion select, the other players get a message that the game was disbanded because a player failed to pick a champion, rather than that the game was disbanded because a player left. This message is confusing and gives the impression of a bug that randomly disbands champion selects for no reason.

If anybody else has some, I'd happily add them to this list. I'd also love a red response!

EDIT: Added some of the responses to the list.

19 Comments

Thales6/1/2014, 7:56:13 PM5 votes

Improving the client is hard, unfortunately. When Riot was young and not yet a rousing success, they had to build themselves fast rather than well. The client is the most persistent legacy of that time, and one of the hardest to fix.

Champion reworks are simple. A champion is a relatively small bundle of models, sounds, voiceovers, and mechanics, and they're largely independent of game systems at large. Certainly, as Riot raises the bar for new champions, there's new systems-level technical challenges to resolve (projectile defining for Yasuo, tricky posing animations for Braum, new VO hooks for Twitch), but these are things Riot chose to take on, and they're usually not very fundamental. I think the new Karthus VU is incredible, but it surpasses Riot's previous champions mostly from a design and effort perspective rather than a technological one.

The client is much harder. A lot of components go into it, and those pieces are tightly integrated. Additionally, the client has to operate in a far wider range of circumstances. Champions, again, are easy. They will be operating in one environment, well insulated from system to system variations. The client must operate on Macs and PCs, on screens large and small, systems fast and slow, etc, etc. Tweaks like they've made to the invitation system and rune pages improve matters, but they don't help pay down the code debt Riot accrued trying to get any old workable client for their game. The foundation is still rotten.

To fix this will be a massive undertaking, and one hard to split into discrete components. In the end, they'll probably have to remake the whole client from scratch, if they want to do it right.

Zaccea6/1/2014, 10:36:58 PM3 votes

While we're at it give us Rune and Mastery Page sorting, and a more detailed death recap. (I know people have been asking for this stuff.) Please and thanks.

Nameless Voice6/2/2014, 2:35:07 PM2 votes
  • Keep team chat open until the game starts. When arranging a team or queueing up for a game as a team / duo, you have a team chat window. As soon as a match is found, the team chat window is closed and its contents lost, even if the game isn't accepted. That team chat window should stay open through champion select until the match starts.
  • Allow item sets to be based on the default recommended items for a champion. When creating a custom item set, you need to painstakingly add all of the items you want to have recommended, even if you just want to make a minor change to a champion's default recommendations. For example, if you wanted to simply change Master Yi's recommended trinket from a scrying orb to a warding trinket, you would need to recreate his entire item recommendation list first. It would be much nicer to be able to load a champion's default recommended items as a base for your custom item set.
  • Rearrange rune/mastery pages. This was mentioned before, but I'll repeat it. It would be nice to be able to change the order of your rune/mastery pages without having to clear/remake them in the new order.
  • "In queue" friends" stuck in the friends list. This one is a bug. Sometimes, players on your friends list appear "in queue" after they've quit the client. At the times when I've observed it, I've had a chat window open to the friend, and they've quit (chat icon went grey), then after a while (e.g. after playing another game), they have reappeared in the friends list and the icon has been yellow.
  • Wrong league in profile after viewing another's profile. Another bug. If you view another user's profile, and then click on the "Profile" button at the top of the interface to switch back to your own, you will see their information under the Leagues tab instead of your own. Clicking on the "See more stats" button will also give strange results
  • "Failed to select champion" message when a player dodges. Another bug. When a player dodges in champion select, the other players get a message that the game was disbanded because a player failed to pick a champion, rather than that the game was disbanded because a player left. This message is confusing and gives the impression of a bug that randomly disbands champion selects for no reason.
Eogden6/1/2014, 10:19:42 AM1 votes

Over all I agree the client needs some T.L.C. An out of game server ping display is the most needed addition in my honest opinion. ( With this I agree) As well as some much needed U.I functionality. I also agree that using the store should not feel like a chore every time I want to buy runes or even RP. My biggest complaint right now is that match timers are off. I keep seeing game timers of 70 or 80 min.

Silverthane6/1/2014, 5:11:26 PM1 votes

love this. rito please

Feyre6/1/2014, 2:58:44 AM1 votes

I think in general, Riot really needs to update their client. While we're all aware that the outdated champions are getting VU and there are many champions that require balancing, it'd be really nice to be able to login to the server and see a sleek new client that we can use with a lot more accessibility. As of now, I don't think there's anything I'd rather have the client do other than the things you suggested (Especially when you browse in store and the queue pops up...), but it'd be nice to have a visual update on the client as well. After all, everyone likes nice looking things, haha.

As for the match length shown, I heard somewhere that they'll be adding a more in-depth match history feature to the PBE soon, but I'm not entirely sure about that.

Kitch266/3/2014, 5:24:23 AM1 votes

Thanks for the responses guys! Would love to hear from a Rioter on this!

ArtoriusIV6/1/2014, 3:22:48 AM1 votes

other features to be included to the client,

  • match history details be the same as that as the end of game screen
  • a replay option(dead horse I know)
  • shop not say Failed to connect every time you open/reopen it.
  • shop re-open the last page you were looking at(really nice for rune shopping)

A note on the second wasted space image. that space is reserved for your friends list when it is open, and is a design choice I strongly agree with. Otherwise I agree entirely, the LoL Client could use a bit of love.

CarbonWyre6/1/2014, 3:41:13 AM1 votes

Also, I'd love to have the client show more as you scale it instead of just enlarging everything. IE, Making client bigger shows more champions in shop instead of making icons larger.