Clearly right now, Dragonmaster Swain has been held up for years, truly I think Rito is just trying to make us forget bout him, but honestly it would be best skin NA, it should be an ultimate skin, swain doesnt have enough skins and is way too underplayed therefore Dragonmaster Swain can increase Swain players. Personally I don't understand why they won't release Dragonmaster Swain.
Zarxis2 votesLaziness/other things they want to do with their tiny dev teams/lack of motivation+resources to fulfill promises to the community. Perhaps they would prefer to wait until after Swain's eventual VU? Consider Spirit Guard Udyr— if they gave Udyr a VU right now, he'd probably look extremely similar to his ultimate skin, which would make said skin seem like a ripoff.
Sir ArmaMalum1 votesThat exact thing actually happened with rumble. His rig was so literally 'clunky' that any attempt at a skin that wasn't a junkheap would require VU-level grade workloads, so they introduced Rumble's new rig in his legendary skin. I don't believe Swain has the same scale of issue, but anything that required him not limping or a different gait then he has currently would probably require an alteration to his rigging. I only know the very basics of that stuff though so I also could be talking out of my ass here :P
Zarxis1 votes[{quoted}](name=Sir ArmaMalum,realm=NA,application-id=A8FQeEA8,discussion-id=BpYuYnjO,comment-id=00010000,timestamp=2015-03-04T23:53:25.795+0000)
That exact thing actually happened with rumble. His rig was so literally 'clunky' that any attempt at a skin that wasn't a junkheap would require VU-level grade workloads, so they introduced Rumble's new rig in his legendary skin. I don't believe Swain has the same scale of issue, but anything that required him not limping or a different gait then he has currently would probably require an alteration to his rigging. I only know the very basics of that stuff though so I also could be talking out of my ass here :P
I've never noticed a Rioter saying that Swain is difficult to develop skins for. Sure, he has a second model, but both his human and bird forms are relatively old and simple models, as far as I can tell. Popularity is definitely a factor, I think. Swain's been a sleeper champion (not particularly strong due to how much counterplay there is to him, but not weak, either) for ages. I think that when the Rumble VU arrives, it'll probably be on an entirely new rig (perhaps partially based on Super Galaxy) because his mech has four legs, not two. Swain definitely needs a VU (I love playing as him and his actual quotes/lines are great, but his voice is a little cringey/bad and his model/animations are archaic). I wouldn't blame Riot if that was their logic behind delaying Dragonmaster Swain, but I've seen no indication that that's the case. Riot keeps saying that they know they need to talk more with their playerbase, especially on the forums... But so many threads that could use a Red response go ignored, while others (Memes/Games and such) are overloaded with Red posts. I think Riot needs to have a few playerbase-relations personnel on hand that are aware of everything that's going on in terms of development/Red opinions/attitudes, and those personnel should be on the forums almost constantly. It would greatly improve Red/player relations and improve faith/trust in Riot (which is likely at an all-time low, with the state of the lore and the recent, strange actions of the balance team, not to mention a fair number of undelivered promises). Reddit and KateyChaos are not enough; people expect to find League devs on their own forums.
Sir ArmaMalum2 votesTrust me I hear you and agree personally. However, to give a bit of backstory Riot came into the industry with the mentality of "killing the community moderator". What they meant by that was to eliminate as many communication 'middlemen' to encourage direct dev-to-player interaction. And for the most part it worked when they were smaller/small-ish. Entering the Global Scene however the dev-talk 'inbox' is literally flooded and seeing as devs have to actually work on the game there's very very little time to pick away at the mountain of needed communication. Any communication you see right now is specifically on a Rioter's free time, lunch break, after work, etc. and as such extended conversations often get cut short simply because they don't have the hours and hours needed for longer conversations that are (imho) sorely needed right now.
The Boards were a step to address that, allowing posts to 'float' up and self-filter community opinion so they can address the most pressing topics faster, but naturally most will say that that didn't help much if at all because of the simple lack of red presence here from the major players.
What you're asking for is effectively a CM, and 2bh I agree with you. It'd be one hell of a job, staying up to date on as many teams as you could (or one, if there was a dedicated forum fella per team) and making sure you don't put your foot in your mouth too often. However right now that goes against Riot's current philosophy towards CM's, because having a dedicated spokesperson stifles communication from the devs themselves (as the spokesperson would probably not be actually developing much him/herself).
Personally I can understand that realm of thought, but I also believe that League's gotten too big for that idealistic thinking to work effectively and practically. Hell, I'm on the forums admittedly too much and I could never get to all the threads I wanted to myself, especially during peak times like a patch release. Being that kind of CM (well-informed, active) on here would be a serious full-time job.
Got a little off-topic....... Sorry for the wall, but I love talking about this stuff :P
Sir ArmaMalum1 votesThat implies it's finished at all. Obviously I have no real evidence but if I had my guess it's just been on the backburner since the 'confirmation' and then ChampUp and various other projects sent artists and skin assets flying every which way and no one's gotten around to grouping it all back up again to get progress on DMS.
Again, speculation, but meh
Edit: To be clear though, this is a skin I've been waiting for myself and have an RP card hidden away just for its hopefully eventual release.
Horcruxes1 votesthnx for info
ModAcademy Kayn1 votesHave you seen his AA animation? Its dreadful. I don't want another SG or DragonSlayer Panth for Swain :(. I want to play him and look awesome and not to have to buy a skin to make him look awesome. Waiting for VU.
W4RPER1 votesRIOT PLEASE MAKE HIM FINALLY THE NEXT ULTIMATE SKIN !!!!!!!! The abbility to transform with his R into the last killed Dragon by him would be awesome. Pls wait with the release, BUT DO IT!