Add a "distance" counter to "on my way" pings

FantasticFoxtrot·Aug 29, 2017·163 votes·3,260 views

I feel like this would be a pretty simple but super useful feature, so that when one of my allies pings "i'm coming" i can quickly get a sense of how far away they are and how fast they're moving towards me without having to study the minimap for a few seconds. It's useful because if I'm trading with an opponent in lane and my jungler pings "im on the way" but is actually halfway across the map, that means something very different from the jungler being right next to me in river. Not sure if this would be difficult to implement.

65 Comments

LostFr0stAug 29, 201719 votes

I think it would be beneficial, even though people should pay attention to the minimap.

Maybe a colour-coding would be more fluid than a number though (Green=very close, yellow=farther out, red/purple=far)

FilDaFunkAug 30, 20178 votes

Colour coding isn't the best idea since this may look like other pings. Size, for example, would be better.

LostFr0stAug 30, 20171 votes

I like that. Good idea. Also the possibility of doing both.

My Waifu VanillaAug 31, 20172 votes

Just have it work like Orianna's Ball and only put an arrow on it with a color.

Imaginary HeroAug 30, 20171 votes

personally if they use a number, it should measure seconds away determined by the time the ping was made

DuskDaUmbreonAug 30, 20173 votes

Time would be too hard. It'd be easier to list units away.

LostFr0stAug 30, 20172 votes

Yup, I don't think seconds or time would work since it's champ-dependent. Some people don't know what a "unit" would equal (a teemo) and having writing is less intuitive than a visual change in the ping.

DrCyanideAug 30, 20171 votes

The ping can show seconds until the player gets there by using units away divided by movement speed of that champion. Yes, some champions could get there earlier, but it's still a good estimate.

LostFr0stAug 30, 20171 votes

I'm saying that sort of ping assumes that the Jg or whoever is actually going straight there.

It's misleading, whereas a pure relative distance association such as colour or size of the ping doesn't assume anything.

DrCyanideAug 30, 20171 votes

Ah, I see. I guess in my head I imagined the seconds away showing up on the ground next to the marker, updating the seconds remaining for ~1 second, which would give you a feel for if they're actually moving that way right then or not.

LostFr0stAug 30, 20171 votes

I gotchu. Building on that, they'll end up with a similar effect if they cross the colour/heat distance zones anyways (their first ping red, then orange... orange... eventually green spam).

DrCyanideAug 30, 20171 votes

How would time be too hard? The number of seconds away you are is units / movement speed!

DrugothAug 29, 201714 votes

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/021/917/119.gif ~~D-dog~~ Warwick is on the way.

RobronoAug 30, 20179 votes

You realize that there is one there already, you just gotta look at the minimap for a sec, it shows the path the pinger's taking to get there.

ÂFRÏCÂN GØDAug 30, 20173 votes

bruh i cant even believe this is being suggested. these "suggestions" are getting out of hand

RobronoAug 31, 20172 votes

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bruh i cant even believe this is being suggested. these "suggestions" are getting out of hand

I know right? If these keep going like they are people will eventually "suggest" giving Victorious skins to everyone instead of people Gold or higher, or just straight up remove Bronze and Silver.

TequilaZombieAug 31, 20171 votes

It's all fine and dandy, until I'm in the middle of a 1v1 with lots of micro-management that needs a crap load of atention.

RobronoSep 1, 20171 votes

{quoted}

It's all fine and dandy, until I'm in the middle of a 1v1 with lots of micro-management that needs a crap load of atention.

If you're micro-managing so hard you can't spare .2 seconds to glance at the minimap, I doubt you would have time to read the ping.

TequilaZombieSep 2, 20171 votes

It's overall easier to look at the big green thing with a number under it that appears right beside you than it is to stop looking at the fight and find the guy who pinged you on the mini map.

It's not a 100% necessary change, but it's helpful in quite a few cases. I see no gameplay related reason not to implement it.

RobronoSep 2, 20171 votes

{quoted}

It's overall easier to look at the big green thing with a number under it that appears right beside you than it is to stop looking at the fight and find the guy who pinged you on the mini map.

It's not a 100% necessary change, but it's helpful in quite a few cases. I see no gameplay related reason not to implement it.

Ok, then question, how would they put in a number or method of informing you the pinger's ETA? If they were to use something like "10 seconds", what if they get stopped by the enemy jungler? What if they use movement abilities? There are far too many variables for that method, so what about units? First problem with that is hardly anyone knows the exact measurement of a unit, they would then need to figure out how long it would take the pinger to travel that many units? And even then, would it give you how many units it would take for them to just walk there without any sort of movement abilities or blastcones?

Basically what I'm saying is that this would be far too difficult to implement in a way that players could easily understand when all they need to do themselves is look at the frickin minimap. Too much trouble for too little reward.

TequilaZombieSep 3, 20171 votes

Showing it with Distance instead of Time solves most of the problems you mentioned.

100 units = 1 Teemo. To have a better notion of distance, Ezreal's Q is just above 1000 untis. Obviously it would have to be measured in thousands (with the 1K notation), but it shouldn't get too complicated, as Summoner's Rift is only about 20K in length.

Obviously, units is not something that can be used to estimate with precision the ETA of the pinger and I'll agree with yu there. However precision is not necessary. Anyone can easily acertain that if the pinger is 3k Units away, he should be there rather quickly, 1K he's probably just outside your screen, 10K should take quite a while. You don't need to know at which second your ally will arrive, but this system would give you a pretty decent idea.

Of course nobody would get that notion in their first few pings, but it would be a valuable skill that is very easy to learn.

Implementing it is extremely easy, as when someone pings "On My Way" the shorter path is already calculated and shown on the mini map. To calculate it, the system has to know the distance of the path. Implementing it is simply a question of displaying the number at the bottom of the ping animation.

As a side note looking at the mini map still won't give you precise information, as the shown path does not take into account blast cones, possible detours, or encounters with the enemy jungler. Most of the problems you brought up are already here. This system is in no way a tool to solve all of them (I'd even argue that some of them should not be solved for gameplay's sake), but it would be rather a Quality of Life change.

The new ping system is already a QoL change over the old ping system, and most of the arguments you made about lack of precise information can be made over changing from the old pings to the new ones, or even about having pings at all, given that you could give much more precise information over the chat.

By the end of the day, pings are about fast communication with a decent-ish degree of information given. In this case, upgrading the OMW ping is astonishingly simple with no drawbacks, as no new problems will be created, and a couple will be solved.

I personally don't see a single con to it, only pros.

RobronoSep 3, 20171 votes

As a side note looking at the mini map still won't give you precise information, as the shown path does not take into account blast cones, possible detours, or encounters with the enemy jungler. Most of the problems you brought up are already here. This system is in no way a tool to solve all of them (I'd even argue that some of them should not be solved for gameplay's sake), but it would be rather a Quality of Life change.

Honestly, this is one of the reasons why I don't think this change should be implemented, since if you look at the minimap, you see where the jungler is and their proximity to blast cones and walls they can hop over, whereas with the ping idea the ping could say something like 9k away, but they would be closer to 4k away because they're able to hop over two walls. The system you suggest would be misleading and can easily deceive players as to when they're getting a gank, telling them their jungler is farther away then they think. Overall it just seems entirely unnecessary when the current system works just fine and encourages looking at the minimap.

LuminosNAug 29, 20177 votes

Honestly I think this would be pointless and all it'd do is dumb down the game. Unlike the warded ping,pinging summoner spells and so which simply ease out the process by not needing to type in chat but still needing you to keep track of the time for each of them,all this would do is make map awareness less needed No offense intended but you should try and develop your map awareness and get in to the habit of checking it regularly instead of relying on a feature to make up for your lack of awareness.

Oakleaf RangerAug 30, 20173 votes

This is a ignorant comment because if you knew better than you would know how much thought goes into setting up a good gank. How strong is my junglers CC? What path is he taking? How fast is he going? Am I in a appropriate position to start or follow up on a gank? Am I even in a state where I can assist in the gank and not die in the process?

Speeding up or outright removing one those steps can be the difference between a successful or poor gank. So I'm all down for being able to make decisions quicker thanks to better info.

ÂFRÏCÂN GØDAug 30, 20172 votes

what "better info" any type of counter on the on my way pings is subject to change. so mostly the info would be false and only apply for literally the second it is pinged.. it would not account for ANYTHING that happens after the ping is issued

plus theres this thing called... the map... use it.

Oakleaf RangerAug 30, 20172 votes

Depends on what if system they would use. But if the alert could tell me the difference between immediate vincity and somewhat far away then I can know if I need an immediate or delayed check or decision.

This has less to do with map awareness and more so with having better communication tools. Pretty useful for me. But since the information is "false" (because champions can normally travel 50 ft a second making the info useless) then you can ask for an option to turn the feature off while I enjoy more coordinated ganks.

KloqdqAug 29, 20175 votes

For sure a cool idea. Would help new players more.

just OK junglerAug 29, 20175 votes

Really? You cant take 0.5 seconds to look at the minimap and see where your jungler is? This is ridiculous request. And can easily be solved by using your 6 senses, including common sense.

notice me Sin piAug 29, 201713 votes

0.5 seconds can be the difference between winning or losing the game

ˉˉˉˉˉˉAug 30, 20175 votes

I don't know, it seems like the technology just isn't there yet

SpecterVonBarenAug 29, 20174 votes

Only if the distance measurement is in Teemo's.

TequilaZombieAug 31, 20171 votes

The distance in the game is already based on Teemo. 1 Teemo = 100 Units.

TheorexAug 30, 20174 votes

In Time, Distance in time of going that speed at that rate to that location.

Friendly RamAug 30, 20173 votes

As long as the distance is in teemos.

MattwikiAug 30, 20173 votes

http://imgur.com/a/UXlo6

cawAug 30, 20173 votes

I mean, I like and understand the idea. But I wouldn't want the extra info crowding my screen in an important situation and I can already get a decent enough estimate from my teams heads on the minimap.

japhibAug 30, 20171 votes

They could put it in the chatlog instead of displaying it on screen. Something like:

BubblyLyft (Azir) is on the way! (0:33)

This wouldn't crowd the main gameplay display with anything extra, and it would still allow people who really want the info to just look at the chat real quick. Although I guess that might be just as much work for OP as studying the minimap.

l FeederCastro lAug 30, 20173 votes

there is no need for such a thing

Praetor NotoriasAug 30, 20173 votes

I disagree. You should have map awareness and just generally know where people are. It says in the chat window who pinged. If you put something like this in you'll get people with tunnel vision and no map awareness and they'll see no reason to change.

ìTrashAug 30, 20172 votes

What if half way thru they were like "nah" fuck this laner and just leave you, they you will get a constant message 100(units), 200(units).. etc..

BrudifeeAug 30, 20171 votes

[deleted]

ÂFRÏCÂN GØDAug 30, 20172 votes

how about no? those seconds change in the blink of an eye. if you cant look at the map and tell where someone is, uninstall.

Ginger976Aug 30, 20171 votes

The only problem would be what is the "unit" shown for distance? I liked the simple color coding idea with green/yellow/red

TheYellow0neAug 30, 20171 votes

Definitely needs to be added, will drastically improve the effectiveness of counter-ganking.

japhibAug 30, 20171 votes

This is a great idea -- Ideally there'd be an amount of time for arrival (30 seconds, 1 min, etc).

That would be fairly easy to implement and, if it was just displayed in the chatlog instead of on-screen, wouldn't even require new art. Simply take the distance units from the pinger to the spot they pinged, divide by their current movement speed.

TWITCHTV ERONATEAug 30, 20171 votes

HOLY SHIT THIS IS AMAZING

13900 EssenceAug 31, 20171 votes

It'd certainly help newer players but figuring out how long teammates are to a fight/your lane is a skill you should pick up over time.

Altonius AmakiirAug 31, 20171 votes

So often lately I have people pinging on their way when they're on the complete opposite side of the map, so not knowing where they're at when they pinged(I'm bad at splitting my focus between a fight and the mini-map so I don't), I assume they aren't idiots trying to run to a fight they can't make it in time to, and try to draw out the fight to bait them for when they arrive(instead of trying my damndest to just escape). Only to find out once I die that they were coming from base after recalling with no boots while I was at enemy blue buff when they pinged. So this idea would help out with that a lot.

RobronoSep 3, 20171 votes

As a finishing statement, I believe that a change such as this would be a complete waste of time, and at best it saves you .2 seconds of looking at the minimap, and at worst it completely deceives you as to your jungler's position. Overall, a change I would hate to see implemented.