How hard is it to do a simple color swap on abilities?

iLuma·Apr 30, 2015·30 votes·13,395 views

I mean, this is a serious question. Not at all trying to be offensive because I honestly have no knowledge of creating skins or anything of the sort, but with these new skins coming out for Ezreal, Mordekaiser, Shaco and Syndra, you would think that there would be a little more drastic changes.

Simply put, I'm not asking for a giant change like a legendary skin or anything like that, but how difficult is to just at least change the colors of the abilities. Syndra's spheres could be like pink or something, or even Shaco's clone something other than green. I know that this is still in PBE, so changes may not be final, but on a similar note I started getting upset about this when the Valentine's Day Annie skin came out. Tibbers and Annie both had nice new skins, but their abilities were exactly the same. If they had been at least a pink or yellow or something, I would have instantly bought.

I just think that the skins and splash art for these skins look amazing, but I don't find it worth spending money when things will be exactly the same. You came out with Chromas, is there anyway to implement that into particle effects or something?

tl;dr -- I don't know how hard it is to make skins, but is it possible to do a little color change on the abilities of these new skins?

108 Comments

RiotRiot GalettaApr 30, 201527 votes

Yo!

So there are several factors that prevent us from simply changing particle colors on skins. The first and biggest issue is time. We have a limited number of particle artist on the team, they are ALWAYS busy. You have to keep in mind that they are working on multiple skins at a time that range from Legendary to 975 RP skins. When someone says "Hey, just change the particles", that would require an artist to stop working on their current skin and start work on this new project. That takes time and it would break our schedule and cause multiple skins to be delayed. There are only so many hours in the day and only so many artists.

We plan out skins months in advance so we can create as many skins as possible each year and if that schedule gets interrupted by a delay there are ripple effects. :<

The 2nd issue is testing. All of our skins go through rigorous testing and different test suites depending on the changes to the skin. 750 skins go through a smaller test suite that requires less time to complete due to the fact that fewer changes were made.

We see it time and time again that the more changes we make to a skin the more bugs we find on that skin and on the older skins that champion has. Again we only have so many testers and so many hours in the day.

Additionally if we were to overhaul Syndra and make her a 975 she would have to go through testing all over again which would delay her greatly.

MerxamersApr 30, 201511 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Galetta,realm=NA,application-id=A8FQeEA8,discussion-id=HkpKqWhT,comment-id=0007,timestamp=2015-04-30T18:39:25.257+0000)

When someone says "Hey, just change the particles", that would require an artist to stop working on their current skin and start work on this new project. That takes time and it would break our schedule and cause multiple skins to be delayed. There are only so many hours in the day and only so many artists.

This argument has never made sense to me, and it came up during the debate over the new annie skin too. Whenever someone asks about color changes, we hear about how difficult it is to "change particles'. No one's asking to change Syndra's balls into cards; they just want the color changed! I find it incredibly hard to believe changing a color takes any time investment whatsoever. This feels more like a weird adherence to a defined 'corporate standard' of what 750 RP skins are 'meant' to be, rather than actually making a 750 RP skin that feels worth the money investment.

It annoys me that when the debate is brought up, a rioter comes on and talks about how difficult particles are, when what we're talking about are COLORS. If changing a color from purple to red/pink/whatever involves the sacrifice of a newborn, please let me know.

ZarxisApr 30, 20152 votes

{quoted}

This argument has never made sense to me, and it came up during the debate over the new annie skin too. Whenever someone asks about color changes, we hear about how difficult it is to "change particles'. No one's asking to change Syndra's balls into cards; they just want the color changed! I find it incredibly hard to believe changing a color takes any time investment whatsoever. This feels more like a weird adherence to a defined 'corporate standard' of what 750 RP skins are 'meant' to be, rather than actually making a 750 RP skin that feels worth the money investment.

It annoys me that when the debate is brought up, a rioter comes on and talks about how difficult particles are, when what we're talking about are COLORS. If changing a color from purple to red/pink/whatever involves the sacrifice of a newborn, please let me know.

The problem with changing the color of Syndra's orbs would be clarity. Enemy Syndras have reddish orbs; allied Syndras have purple ones.

However, that doesn't justify not making her orbs into diamonds (kind of like Master Arcanist Ziggs' E mines), especially when you consider that Riot is giving Wild Card Shaco a new jack-in-the-box and an E particle.

MerxamersApr 30, 201513 votes

It wouldn't even have to be red, but there seems like an EXTREME resistance from Riot whenever a color change is brought up, without ever explaining just why, exactly, changing a color from blue to black or from red to pink would cause the meltdown of the west coast technological infrastructure. Their argument for not changing Syndra's color hasn't been 'clarity' (though now that they've been given the idea, i expect them to start saying so), it's been 'changing colors is, like, so hard you guys. I won't explain why, but trust us, those sliders- super hard.'

Sorry to seem salty, but i get kinda tired at corporate BS speak disguised as psuedo-sympathetic non-informative 'explanations' for why something so simple to do isn't being done

GroundRuleDoubleApr 30, 20155 votes

I look at it this way. They know what they are doing. They've done this before. I have not. Take their word for it unless you know programming.

Dies to WolvesApr 30, 20158 votes

{quoted}

I look at it this way. They know what they are doing. They've done this before. I have not. Take their word for it unless you know programming.

changing a particle's color doesn't really involve programming, you quite literally just need to open the .dds file of the particle in a program like photoshop and change the color (which is REALLY quick and easy). That's it.

In some specific cases it might take a little bit longer because of multi-textured particles (cho'gath's W, IIRC, has a file for the base white in it and a different one for the blue ripples, for example), in which case you'd have to recolor multiple files (unless you only want to change one of the multiple colors), but it's still something you can do in a couple of minutes as long as you know which files to change (and considering they work / make those skins, they know which files to change)

as an example, here's the file that determines the color of jayce's hammer form particles (taken from debonair jayce, but it's the same as his base skin): (attached at the end of the post because I don't know how to put an image in the middle of the post)

I open it on photoshop, now press Ctrl + U to open a Hue/Saturation window, and can literally just move the Hue (color) slider to get, for example, Red particles for hammer-form jayce. Done.

Vistha KaiApr 30, 20154 votes

That's how it works. Unless a skin has a changing model/textures, different number of particles or new voices and sounds that the base skin doesn't, there is little to zero programming involved - it basically ends the moment you add a new slot for a skin. Then everything is in hands of the guy(s) making resources(models and textures) to not screw some basic stuff (everybody who ever cared how The Elder Scrolls work will know), but that's not programming.

PS. To put an image in the post you just need to copy-paste a link. It will either show full image or thumbnail depending on the size. You can also post your attached image the same way.

Lulu Made Me BigApr 30, 201515 votes

I understand that there is only so much work that an artist can do at a time, but honestly I would much rather have an artist etc spend more time on a skin to really make it special than to just settle with a basic recolor.

Going back to the Annie skin, I love sweetheart Annie but honestly I never use her because I'd much rather use one of the Annie skins that has different particles or ability colors. Having those changes makes it feel like an entirely new champion and makes the champion feel new and fresh. Casting the same abilities over and over with the same particles eventually gets a little boring to see and I end up losing interest in the champion, especially ones like ezreal who only has one skin that changes particles. I think putting in more work and time to produce higher quality skins would be better than just trying to turn out x number of skins in a certain time frame of those skins are just boring recolors that don't change the feel of the champion.

Mr SpaceKookApr 30, 201550 votes

I don't care, delay it please. This skin could be so nice, it would be a shame to see a great concept and model not used to its full potential. Plus Shaco got a new box, why can't Syndra have the diamonds that were suggested in another thread?

Vistha KaiApr 30, 201542 votes

#With all due respect, but...

That takes time and it would break our schedule and cause multiple skins to be delayed. There are only so many hours in the day and only so many artists.

Nobody asks you to throw 10 half-baked quality skins at us every patch (like you were doing lately; not all of them, of course) if the quality will be so underwhelming maybe 5 people per region will buy them.

Hell, why did you shave QoD Syndra? I bet it was faster to delete the hair mesh than to recolour it, am I right?

The 2nd issue is testing. All of our skins go through rigorous testing and different test suites depending on the changes to the skin. 750 skins go through a smaller test suite that requires less time to complete due to the fact that fewer changes were made.

Testing? What testing? QoD Syndra skin has clipping issues. Just write /joke. Bam, it took me 2 seconds to find a thing to fix.

Additionally if we were to overhaul Syndra and make her a 975 she would have to go through testing all over again which would delay her greatly.

Do it. Quality over quantity.

SeductiveGrandpaApr 30, 20156 votes

Nobody asks you to throw 10 half-baked quality skins at us every patch (like you were doing lately) if the quality will be so underwhelming maybe 5 people per region will buy them.

Just putting it out there that Ziggs and Fiddle (maybe Jayce) weren't half-baked, I mean damn that in-game model and splash. Whoever did those need to do more skins (IMO)

Vistha KaiApr 30, 20155 votes

Some were fine, but there's a good number of improvments that could be done. Ranging from making skin coloration cohesive to splash arts. I swear it took me a good minute to find Xerath in Guardian of the Sands splash art.

Bah, you can't even hide layers so a half of a champion won't be obscured? Maruder Ashe anybody? That's not "time requirement" or "would have to delay". It's laziness.

DrCyanideApr 30, 201521 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Galetta,realm=NA,application-id=A8FQeEA8,discussion-id=HkpKqWhT,comment-id=0007,timestamp=2015-04-30T18:39:25.257+0000)

Additionally if we were to overhaul Syndra and make her a 975 she would have to go through testing all over again which would delay her greatly.

[{quoted}](name=Vistha Kai,realm=EUNE,application-id=A8FQeEA8,discussion-id=HkpKqWhT,comment-id=00070003,timestamp=2015-04-30T19:57:37.556+0000)

Do it. Quality over quantity.

Agreed. This Syndra skin isn't worth doing if it's not going to be done right.

Riot's art team should know this skin needed a particle change, and should have planned on it months ago. Untrained eyes can tell in an instant that the black/blue orbs don't go with the white/red color scheme and "Queen of Diamonds" name, and I think your artists are a bit better than "untrained". . #Delay the skin. Delay the lineup if you need to. Make it worth it.

lxlLilybellelxlMay 1, 20151 votes

If they vamped up all those skins they might as well take Jack of Hearts Twisted Fate too because he is just going to be the saddest skin in the line up if they make changes to the current ones on PBE.

JamnonMay 1, 20156 votes

Riot: we aint delaying no skin. Just keep giving us your money anyway.

hashtag sad.

HailFire DragonApr 30, 20153 votes

[{quoted}](name=Vistha Kai,realm=EUNE,application-id=A8FQeEA8,discussion-id=HkpKqWhT,comment-id=00070003,timestamp=2015-04-30T19:57:37.556+0000)

#With all due respect, but...

Nobody asks you to throw 10 half-baked quality skins at us every patch (like you were doing lately) if the quality will be so underwhelming maybe 5 people per region will buy them.

Hell, why did you shave QoD Syndra? I bet it was faster to delete the mesh than to recolour the hair, am I right?

Testing? What testing? QoD Syndra skin has clipping issues. Just write /joke. Bam, it took me 2 seconds to find a thing to fix.

Do it. Quality over quantity.

It's harder than you think to test skins. They have to make sure the skin doesn't bug for not just one game but ALL Games at the same time forever. Let's say they do fix the clipping issue, they still have to go back and re check EVERTHING to make sure that the addition/removal of the code doesn't negatively affect anything else. And if it does they have to find some sort of alternate way to fix the clipping issue cause the previous way f**cked up with the pre existing code. And then rinse and repeat. It's most likely harder than u think

Vistha KaiApr 30, 20153 votes

Everything? Because you made a slight tweak to the mesh? Not even close, sir. Unless that's how their spaghetti code works.

LittleBlastMay 1, 20151 votes

A change in one thing can often effect something different.

Vistha KaiMay 1, 20152 votes

For modifying a texture without changing it's size? That's a thing in only two cases:

You really screwed something up adding stuff and should re-evaluate your abilities.
Your code is so crappy, it's a miracle it works.

Plus if something is broken, you won't fix it, because it might show another problem? What kind of thinking is that suppose to be?

AbyssionKnightMay 1, 20152 votes

Yes, changes to one thing can effect another. However, that doesn't mean that's the case for all changes.

What we're also talking about here is particles. The OP even stated changing the colours of particles would be sufficient.

For a simple particle recolour, you mainly would only be testing for clarity, both for regular players, and for colour blind players (which to be honest, they should already have tested for what colours are easy to see on the rift when they did their colour blind mode).

For new particle designs you could have bugs, but mainly it should be just changing the texture of the particle, and then adjusting the positioning to avoid clipping. You shouldn't be changing the coding of the abilities themselves to incorporate the texture.

Clint OrrisMay 1, 20156 votes

Wait...hold up?! Why would it have to be delayed for that crazy amount of time. You guys did like 5 PARTICLE changes on arcanist ziggs's Q in a week. You changed the color of Blood Moon Elise like 7 times from all the crazy shades of Reds and Pinks within a week and many more. So why weren't THEY delayed for months?!

AbyssionKnightMay 1, 20152 votes

[{quoted}](name=Vistha Kai,realm=EUNE,application-id=A8FQeEA8,discussion-id=HkpKqWhT,comment-id=00070003,timestamp=2015-04-30T19:57:37.556+0000)

Do it. Quality over quantity.

I agree. I find it really weird Riot moved away from recolors, saying they were too far below the bar of their expectations. They likewise stopped making champions every 2 weeks because the quality was too low. Riot for a few years there was saying exactly what you're saying, quality over quantity. Yet now the skins team has not only brought back recolors, but in posts like this do seem to prioritize quantity over quality.

I mean, I know they're a business and ideally you want as much money earned for the minimum amount of money spent, but in this instance there seems to be a disconnect between Riots current values, and the customer expectations, which are the old values riot established.

Vistha KaiMay 1, 20152 votes

And then they'll tell you "But... but it would delay our moni makin'."

Skin team really dropped the ball here. I'll repeat it: I would rather wait and pay more for a better/more complex skin, than to have it done in a week and look at it with despise.

For example Syndra. I have a pretty good reason to not buy Justicar or Atlantean. I don't like sounds orbs make. But I don't consider those skins bad because of that. They are pretty solid skins. I actually spent like 2 days pondering about buying Justicar Syndra, because it was on a sale, regardless. But QoD? C'mon.

BlainezyApr 30, 20154 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Galetta,realm=NA,application-id=A8FQeEA8,discussion-id=HkpKqWhT,comment-id=0007,timestamp=2015-04-30T18:39:25.257+0000)

Yo!

So there are several factors that prevent us from simply changing particle colors on skins. The first and biggest issue is time. We have a limited number of particle artist on the team, they are ALWAYS busy. You have to keep in mind that they are working on multiple skins at a time that range from Legendary to 975 RP skins. When someone says "Hey, just change the particles", that would require an artist to stop working on their current skin and start work on this new project. That takes time and it would break our schedule and cause multiple skins to be delayed. There are only so many hours in the day and only so many artists.

We plan out skins months in advance so we can create as many skins as possible each year and if that schedule gets interrupted by a delay there are ripple effects. :<

The 2nd issue is testing. All of our skins go through rigorous testing and different test suites depending on the changes to the skin. 750 skins go through a smaller test suite that requires less time to complete due to the fact that fewer changes were made.

We see it time and time again that the more changes we make to a skin the more bugs we find on that skin and on the older skins that champion has. Again we only have so many testers and so many hours in the day.

Additionally if we were to overhaul Syndra and make her a 975 she would have to go through testing all over again which would delay her greatly.

And most people would be okay with that to be able to have a quality skin. Especially for a champion like Syndra.

AbyssphereApr 30, 20155 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Galetta,realm=NA,application-id=A8FQeEA8,discussion-id=HkpKqWhT,comment-id=0007,timestamp=2015-04-30T18:39:25.257+0000)

Yo!

So there are several factors that prevent us from simply changing particle colors on skins. The first and biggest issue is time. We have a limited number of particle artist on the team, they are ALWAYS busy. You have to keep in mind that they are working on multiple skins at a time that range from Legendary to 975 RP skins. When someone says "Hey, just change the particles", that would require an artist to stop working on their current skin and start work on this new project. That takes time and it would break our schedule and cause multiple skins to be delayed. There are only so many hours in the day and only so many artists.

We plan out skins months in advance so we can create as many skins as possible each year and if that schedule gets interrupted by a delay there are ripple effects. :<

The 2nd issue is testing. All of our skins go through rigorous testing and different test suites depending on the changes to the skin. 750 skins go through a smaller test suite that requires less time to complete due to the fact that fewer changes were made.

We see it time and time again that the more changes we make to a skin the more bugs we find on that skin and on the older skins that champion has. Again we only have so many testers and so many hours in the day.

Additionally if we were to overhaul Syndra and make her a 975 she would have to go through testing all over again which would delay her greatly.

Personally I'd rather wait two months longer to have a good Syndra skin than to see a terrible one released in a fortnight. I would be happy to see the skin delayed if it meant it was worth buying at the end of that delay, rather than see it released soon but try to pretend it doesn't exist :/ Syndra is one of my favourite champions and I adore Justicar and Atlantean, but obviously she has very few skins because she's new, so it's really disappointing to me to see what could be an important addition to her skin library be not worth using. I'd wait any amount of time for it to be better - there's not much point in something being released quickly if it's not something I/other people want.

SolaxoApr 30, 20153 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Galetta,realm=NA,application-id=A8FQeEA8,discussion-id=HkpKqWhT,comment-id=0007,timestamp=2015-04-30T18:39:25.257+0000)

The 2nd issue is testing. All of our skins go through rigorous testing and different test suites depending on the changes to the skin. 750 skins go through a smaller test suite that requires less time to complete due to the fact that fewer changes were made.

Testing??? It's just a 750 rp skin play a game, do some emotes. Done. This game isn't THAT complex to test one simple skin for such long time.

DynamiteGazelleApr 30, 20155 votes

Well you guys make like a bajillion dollars. Why is your particle team so small? Just hire a dude who's only job is particle recolors.

Problem solved.

Rinky DinkyMay 1, 20153 votes

It kinda only takes about 5 minutes to simply swap the colors on a particle.....

KoKobotoMay 1, 20152 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Galetta,realm=NA,application-id=A8FQeEA8,discussion-id=HkpKqWhT,comment-id=0007,timestamp=2015-04-30T18:39:25.257+0000)

Yo!

So there are several factors that prevent us from simply changing particle colors on skins. The first and biggest issue is time. We have a limited number of particle artist on the team, they are ALWAYS busy. You have to keep in mind that they are working on multiple skins at a time that range from Legendary to 975 RP skins. When someone says "Hey, just change the particles", that would require an artist to stop working on their current skin and start work on this new project. That takes time and it would break our schedule and cause multiple skins to be delayed. There are only so many hours in the day and only so many artists.

We plan out skins months in advance so we can create as many skins as possible each year and if that schedule gets interrupted by a delay there are ripple effects. :<

The 2nd issue is testing. All of our skins go through rigorous testing and different test suites depending on the changes to the skin. 750 skins go through a smaller test suite that requires less time to complete due to the fact that fewer changes were made.

We see it time and time again that the more changes we make to a skin the more bugs we find on that skin and on the older skins that champion has. Again we only have so many testers and so many hours in the day.

Additionally if we were to overhaul Syndra and make her a 975 she would have to go through testing all over again which would delay her greatly.

Why didn't you just start the skin with new particles than... I mean look how awkward it looks :/ You say that you plan things but this looks like you just skipped all planning...

ExaltedVanguardMay 1, 20153 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Galetta,realm=NA,application-id=A8FQeEA8,discussion-id=HkpKqWhT,comment-id=0007,timestamp=2015-04-30T18:39:25.257+0000)

Additionally if we were to overhaul Syndra and make her a 975 she would have to go through testing all over again which would delay her greatly.

Then. Delay. It.

How many people do you see going, "No. I want it now." How many people do you see going, "Delay it. Do it right."

It's pretty clear what the ~~money-bags~~ players want you to do.

AsulMay 1, 20152 votes

QOD Syndra is a beautiful well made concept! don't put this to waste! take the risk and overhaul her please I am begging you from the bottom off my heart!

Brigadier CouchMay 1, 20152 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Galetta,realm=NA,application-id=A8FQeEA8,discussion-id=HkpKqWhT,comment-id=0007,timestamp=2015-04-30T18:39:25.257+0000)

Yo!

So there are several factors that prevent us from simply changing particle colors on skins. The first and biggest issue is time. We have a limited number of particle artist on the team, they are ALWAYS busy. You have to keep in mind that they are working on multiple skins at a time that range from Legendary to 975 RP skins. When someone says "Hey, just change the particles", that would require an artist to stop working on their current skin and start work on this new project. That takes time and it would break our schedule and cause multiple skins to be delayed. There are only so many hours in the day and only so many artists.

We plan out skins months in advance so we can create as many skins as possible each year and if that schedule gets interrupted by a delay there are ripple effects. :<

The 2nd issue is testing. All of our skins go through rigorous testing and different test suites depending on the changes to the skin. 750 skins go through a smaller test suite that requires less time to complete due to the fact that fewer changes were made.

We see it time and time again that the more changes we make to a skin the more bugs we find on that skin and on the older skins that champion has. Again we only have so many testers and so many hours in the day.

Additionally if we were to overhaul Syndra and make her a 975 she would have to go through testing all over again which would delay her greatly.

Malzahar 's prince skin says hi

JunkοMay 1, 20155 votes

That takes time and it would break our schedule and cause multiple skins to be delayed. There are only so many hours in the day and only so many artists.

This is complete bullshit. Back when chromas were announced, somebody made a post showing how to recolor models and particles. I tried it myself and it takes a few minutes to recolor a particle to the way you want.

KaipopMay 1, 20152 votes

Ok. I just hope you know you're not making any profit off of this skin. What a shame, I would but it if it was delayed even a year as long as it was some better. Right now at least fix the awkward skirt movements and clipping

AbyssionKnightMay 1, 20152 votes

I think the question is more of why don't you plan the skins to include particle changes, rather than not include them and then make the excuse adding them would add delays. If you planned the skins with particle changes, there wouldn't be delays, since its planned. Likewise, testing would occur with those particle changes.

RiotRiot GalettaMay 1, 20153 votes

Yo AbyssionKnight!

We only plan for 750's to have no particle changes. 975 skins and higher are always planned to include new particle work and we schedule them accordingly.

AbyssionKnightMay 1, 20154 votes

Thanks for the response, Riot Galetta.

I think the misunderstanding here is on what the goal of a skin actually is.

Your goal is to expand the 750rp line. You saw a champion, TF, who has a skin you could build a theme off of. That skin happens to have no particle effects, which makes it the perfect theme to use to for a 750 skin line (well, besides the fact Jack of Hearts TF is 520).

A player however buys a skin with the goal of fulfilling a fantasy. That might be a personal fantasy, or one they have for the champion itself. We also don't really care about your goal of keeping skins in a theme the same price, or even expanding skins in the 750 price range (which admittedly is amusing, considering the complaints about too many 1350 level skins and not enough cheaper ones). What we care about is the skin living up to it's maximum potential.

So when we see a skin like Queen of Diamonds Syndra, that doesn't really have any diamonds involved (beyond jewellery and patterns on a dress), it's disappointing. Just making the balls red octahedra (3d diamonds) instead would have probably satisfied most people. Same if Ezrael had a more spade shape to his skills.

So from a player perspective we don't understand why you'd choose to make these 750 tier skins when they have clear potential to be better than that.

RetillinMay 1, 20152 votes

But here's the thing Galetta, we were told (just yesterday) that pricing doesn't come into thought until well down the line. So what is it? Early pricing a skin (and allocating the needed resources) or waiting until the skin teams sees how much work a skin is and then allocating the needed resources?

slippykittenMay 1, 20152 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Galetta,realm=NA,application-id=A8FQeEA8,discussion-id=HkpKqWhT,comment-id=0007,timestamp=2015-04-30T18:39:25.257+0000)

Yo!

So there are several factors that prevent us from simply changing particle colors on skins. The first and biggest issue is time. We have a limited number of particle artist on the team, they are ALWAYS busy. You have to keep in mind that they are working on multiple skins at a time that range from Legendary to 975 RP skins. When someone says "Hey, just change the particles", that would require an artist to stop working on their current skin and start work on this new project. That takes time and it would break our schedule and cause multiple skins to be delayed. There are only so many hours in the day and only so many artists.

We plan out skins months in advance so we can create as many skins as possible each year and if that schedule gets interrupted by a delay there are ripple effects. :<

The 2nd issue is testing. All of our skins go through rigorous testing and different test suites depending on the changes to the skin. 750 skins go through a smaller test suite that requires less time to complete due to the fact that fewer changes were made.

We see it time and time again that the more changes we make to a skin the more bugs we find on that skin and on the older skins that champion has. Again we only have so many testers and so many hours in the day.

Additionally if we were to overhaul Syndra and make her a 975 she would have to go through testing all over again which would delay her greatly.

But you guys aren't about the money right? Tryndamere said you weren't greedy, so it would only make sense that you would sell less skins so that they were of higher quality, right?

RandomoniumMay 1, 20152 votes

I think this is more of an issue of quality over quantity. If you can't make each skin unique in some way (particle effects, new emotes, etc) then maybe your team should consider cutting down the number of skins you put out a year. Sales on each skin would certainly be higher if more effort were put into them. One of the first thing I look at when considering buying a skin is whether it has different particle effects from the base skin (and I bet most people do the same.)

RaptameiApr 30, 20156 votes

Let me change the colour of a Skyrim spell. BRB.

RaptameiApr 30, 20157 votes

{quoted}

Let me change the colour of a Skyrim spell. BRB.

Done and working fine in game.

Baron Von BanginApr 30, 20156 votes

I feel pretty screwed when it comes to Ezreal. I mean seriously, SEVEN skins that don't change his particles? Only Pulsefire changes his particles in any significant way and you have to shell out thirty dollars. Talk about feast or famine.

Not to mention Ezreal probably wont get a new skin in a long time. Just look at how long it took for Lux to finally get her magical girl skin, yeesh.

KrigjerMay 1, 20154 votes

I don't buy skins without particle changes anymore. It's not worth the price to me.

Even if it's a simple enough particle change to only make it 975, something is better than nothing.

Best Darius KRApr 30, 20153 votes

Changing the effects color is the same thing as changing the model, but a little more complex since it has more layers.

The thing is, unlike with the models themselves, the color of the effect has to match with what the effect is: e.g. There is no pink fire

Do you get what I'm saying? It's just a little harder, that's all.

And besides, don't forget skins that have new VFX cost 975RP, not 750.

iLumaApr 30, 20155 votes

But Frostfire Annie has blue fire and Gothic Annie has purple fire. o-o

Nice note on the VFX though, I didn't take that into account.

Volt CruelerzApr 30, 201511 votes

You can do a quick Syndra Orb recolor in like five minutes. It's trivial.

Vistha KaiApr 30, 20156 votes

The thing is, unlike with the models themselves, the color of the effect has to match with what the effect is: e.g. There is no pink fire

Bullshit. Color of the fire depends on it's temperature and the nature of a source. It varies from deep red to steel blue and if you take chemistry into account it can be of ANY color.

You'd be surprised but our Sun is actually pretty cold.

PS. I'm sure nobody here will bat an eye if they bump the price by 200 RP, if the quality will go up.

ModKnightsKemplarApr 30, 20152 votes

I think it's harder than it looks at first. People in boards have, for awhile, been showing up with their apparent "5 minutes in photoshop" changes to coloring on champs. I saw a blue Zac that was particularly bad, but the guy who made it seemed to think it was fine.

That's my deal. People who don't value the visuals or the art seem to think that this is an easy task; I just want a blue Zac, how hard could it possibly be? Well, when you care about the quality, pretty hard. It takes a while to do that kind of thing.

I've recently been spending some time learning how to make high quality figures of molecules for my own work. I've been floored by just how difficult it can be to display a simple molecule in a clear way, and the colors are actually the hardest part to get right (it's mostly the only part that I care about anyway). Now, the program I use (Diamond, for any curious chemists out there), lacks some features that would make this easier... but for me, the point stands. It doesn't look good if you just slap a blue filter on Zac's model and abilities. It takes real work if you want it to share the same high quality as the original model.

From a business standpoint, Riot has no reason to hold back on this. If we show them, by spending money on those upcoming chromas, that we want this feature and are willing to make it worth their time, they will continue to provide it. But it's an investment.

AHeroNamedHawkeApr 30, 20156 votes

{quoted}

I think it's harder than it looks at first. People in boards have, for awhile, been showing up with their apparent "5 minutes in photoshop" changes to coloring on champs. I saw a blue Zac that was particularly bad, but the guy who made it seemed to think it was fine.

That's my deal. People who don't value the visuals or the art seem to think that this is an easy task; I just want a blue Zac, how hard could it possibly be? Well, when you care about the quality, pretty hard. It takes a while to do that kind of thing.

I've recently been spending some time learning how to make high quality figures of molecules for my own work. I've been floored by just how difficult it can be to display a simple molecule in a clear way, and the colors are actually the hardest part to get right (it's mostly the only part that I care about anyway). Now, the program I use (Diamond, for any curious chemists out there), lacks some features that would make this easier... but for me, the point stands. It doesn't look good if you just slap a blue filter on Zac's model and abilities. It takes real work if you want it to share the same high quality as the original model.

From a business standpoint, Riot has no reason to hold back on this. If we show them, by spending money on those upcoming chromas, that we want this feature and are willing to make it worth their time, they will continue to provide it. But it's an investment.

ya changing a particle to red is really hard

http://m.imgur.com/a/i8yd1

wait I lied it takes 15 minutes with the colourize tool in gimp