New "Chatty Champs" style

Azure Hamster·Oct 30, 2014·7 votes·5,530 views

Recently (starting with Trundle's rework, or at least that's when I noticed it), champs have starting chattering while playing.

"You're in MY Kingdom now!" "Now THERE'S a smell you can feel!"

etc.

Have you guys really considered what this will sound like in a team fight with 10 champs all chattering? I already find it annoying with 3 Chatty Champs in one place. One of the things I liked about the LoL voiceover was that your champ talked to you for flavor, but you didn't hear much from the others, except sounds meant to help clarify when they were triggering their abilities.

Voices take a relatively long time to play out and indicate what's happening, so I don't think they help "legibility". When several happen at once, it becomes just random vocal noise quite quickly. What it reminds me of is that annoying thing DotA 2 does when you get killed: the enemy pops up in a window and blabs some stupid stuff at you.

The new Sion pushed me far enough to want to come here and say something about it. That guy will not shut up.

Anyway, just my take on it. :)

17 Comments

NaelarstraszNov 1, 20144 votes

I love it, personally. Especially as Jarvan. Just a sudden "FOR THE KING" that everyone hears. Even when I'm an enemy player against a J4, it adds to the feel that "Oh shit, this guys is mad"

RiotBelligerentSwanNov 11, 20144 votes

Recently (starting with Trundle's rework, or at least that's when I noticed it), champs have starting chattering while playing.

"You're in MY Kingdom now!" "Now THERE'S a smell you can feel!"

etc.

Have you guys really considered what this will sound like in a team fight with 10 champs all chattering? I already find it annoying with 3 Chatty Champs in one place. One of the things I liked about the LoL voiceover was that your champ talked to you for flavor, but you didn't hear much from the others, except sounds meant to help clarify when they were triggering their abilities.

Voices take a relatively long time to play out and indicate what's happening, so I don't think they help "legibility". When several happen at once, it becomes just random vocal noise quite quickly. What it reminds me of is that annoying thing DotA 2 does when you get killed: the enemy pops up in a window and blabs some stupid stuff at you.

The new Sion pushed me far enough to want to come here and say something about it. That guy will not shut up.

Anyway, just my take on it. :)

Hey Azure Hamster,

Thanks for the feedback! This is something we are definitely trying to stay on top of as we add new types of VO for champions and skins. It's definitely a challenge to find the right balance between providing clear game play feedback while also giving depth and flavor to the characters in new and unique ways.

For Sion I think this may have gone a bit too far in one direction. We've taken steps in the coming patch (on PBE now) to address the rate at which you hear some of Sion's VO when using spells and many other scenarios. If you have some time, we'd love to hear what you think once you play him again!

patmax17Nov 11, 20142 votes

I'm glad to hear Riot is aware of the issue, it's not become unbearable so far, but I find Azir and Sion to be particularly annoying in this regard. Thanks @BelligerentSwan :)

SkiasNov 11, 20141 votes

Darius' laugh whenever he hits you with the Axe is probably my biggest offender. It's the same laugh each time because there is only one track. Ends up sounding kind of weird that he keeps doing the same creeper laugh repeatedly.

Arby099Nov 11, 20142 votes

Super Galaxy Rumble is incredibly annoying to fight against because of the VO spamming on almost everything he does.

patmax17Nov 11, 20143 votes

oh god thanks for pointing this out, this is something I was thinking about since the release of Azir (boy, is that guy chatty...). +1! :)

SkiasNov 11, 20144 votes

He's just REALLY into Shurima right now. That's how he's rolling.

RiotBelligerentSwanNov 11, 20146 votes

oh god thanks for pointing this out, this is something I was thinking about since the release of Azir (boy, is that guy chatty...). +1! :)

I adjusted the cooldown slightly for Azir's Move Command lines in the last patch which should have helped a bit. I also adjusted his Attack Commands for this upcoming patch to more closely match what I'm doing for Sion and Kalista.

After the patch goes out, I'd love to hear any additional feedback!

Vortex IVNov 11, 20143 votes

Funny how for years Riot has made all the excuses in the world about how they can't make gentleman chogath (legendary skin) say his lines out loud. Now almost every champion and rework we've had since Garen rework have been overbearingly annoying spamming lines in game.

Let Gentleman Cho be heard!

patmax17Nov 12, 20141 votes

I'm sooooo looking foreward for a Cho'Gath VU (and new voiceover too, I guess?) :D

CyberTootieNov 4, 20142 votes

The only thing that bothers me is the inconsistency that few champs do and most champs don't. I personally like the use of voice. I also personally liked Garen's RAAAAHAHAHAAAAAAHAH or whatever that was removed.

SkiasNov 11, 20141 votes

Caveman Garen R.I.P.

Valaran NaraNov 6, 20141 votes

Funny thing is, I don't always hear the cacophony of a bunch of voices sounding off in unison in the midst of the fight. In the middle of the battle, I'm more likely to hear sfx of everyone's attacks than what the other person is saying. Except for Katarina who likes to laugh as she starts flinging daggers at everyone.

Katarina "If you run, you won't see me STAB you!"

DreamspitterNov 9, 20141 votes

Never had a problem with this.

Some are on ability use while others are move/attack.

Games like strife let you adjust "unit reactions" so they speak less or MORE.

Jeddy017Nov 11, 20141 votes

Sound like we need more champs like Rammus .A simple "ok" & we're done.

Afterall,not every character needs to be all that talky.Just a way to make them diverse.

ShadowKnight1224Nov 11, 20141 votes

They're actually all coded to an ability. There is no gratuitous chattering, it's all tied to something specific that the champion is doing, so that the phrases they use actually cue you in to the ability being used, even if you can't see it. In the din of battle, it might be hard to notice the faint fog around Twitch as he begins to sneak, but hearing him say "Sneaky, sneaky..." tips you off.

Some of them may be wholly unnecessary, such as Braum's Q and E, because their visual effects are pretty noticeable (in the case of E) or unimportant (in the case of Q), but you can chalk that up to the sound team being flavourful, which is something that League could use more of.

ItemsGuyNov 11, 20141 votes

While there should certainly be options to disable it for people who don't like champ chatter, it adds a certain flavor to the game that I think would be lost if they were removed entirely. For example, axing the little interactions heroes have when meeting each other in lane or killing each other or using certain abilities on each other would kill a lot of character of the game.

If anything, I think League should have more interactions of this type (Lucian begrudging having to lane with Thresh if he has him as a support, the Freljord sisters saying something when killing each other, etc.), but again like with the outline switch on the PBE visual option menu, it should be something players can turn off.