Pulsefire Ward

RookPusher·May 26, 2017·2 votes·2,649 views

The look of this thing was so great, but it's movements leave a lot to be desired. It currently moves like the head of a pidgin in Central Park. I really wish it gave off the impression it was tracking things somehow. Would it be possible to give it some sort of "pulse" look, maybe like an EKG meter or something?

I'm very pro-spinning wards (as you can see in past posts) but I'm trying to offer alternatives. The glowing, invisible stick in the woods is overdone, and I'd love to make them appear more functional and less passive.

7 Comments

RiotmoonstonesMay 30, 20173 votes

Hi RookPusher -

In this case, the movements are intended. When it comes to wards, we have to be mindful that, while we want them to look cool and have some sort of motion, it has to be limited, as to not be wicked distracting during a game.

RookPusherJun 1, 20171 votes

Wicked? Are you pandering to my Boston affections? I'm kidding. Thanks for the follow-up. No one responds to my ward skin posts =*(

It's a fair point, I just have a gross affection for mid-20th century technology. E.g. This thing! Who thinks this is cool? Probably only me, but I'd love to see a ward that replicates this: http://www.structuretech1.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Crooked-Turbine-Vent-Small.gif

RiotmoonstonesJun 1, 20172 votes

I'm from Massachusetts, so the word has been ingrained in my vocabulary, and I don't think it's leaving any time soon, despite me living in California with all the people who say 'hella'. :)

That's totally fair, and I think you raise a fair point in terms of how we animate wards. I think there's some discussion to be had with gameplay in terms of how far we can push movement without it affecting gameplay - 'cause the last thing we want is for your ADC to be distracted by something shiny and get rekt by the enemy jungler!

TBH, it's pretty neat! We're always making new wards, and I can certainly suggest this idea/animation.

RookPusherJun 1, 20171 votes

Well then greetings from the Motherland!

My general position on the wards can be summed up as: I want to believe this thing is doing something to "track" enemies. I.e. Ok the ward saw someone, how does it let me know?

But anyway, I do appreciate the response. It's nice to know someone out there is listening. And if I live to see the day League has a Crooked-Turbine-Vent Ward Skin then I'm sending you a 6-pack of Sam Adams.

RiotmoonstonesJun 1, 20173 votes

*waves*

That makes sense! I'd drop a similar comment to DrCyanide's comment. We'd need new tech (sure thing, we've made new tech before), but we need to make sure any kind of tracking makes sense for the thematic and we aren't just doing it 'just because'. I'd like to see something like this happen in the future. Honestly, I could see it with something like Safecracker Eve, in the line, where it's tracking the movement of people like an alarm system would. :P

We are listening! There are a lot more of you than there are us, so we read much more than we're able to comment on. ;_;

I'd be down with Sam Adams. I'm also a huge fan of Citizen Cider, WHICH IS NOWHERE TO BE FOUND OUT HERE. >:(

DrCyanideJun 1, 20171 votes

Maybe I've missed an existing ward that does this, but I think it would be pretty sweet to have a ward that actually looks at the closest visible enemy. A simple blink when it needs to swap targets could be really effective. Since champions are generally moving pretty steadily, this shouldn't change too fast.

RiotmoonstonesJun 1, 20172 votes

Nope, you haven't missed any, we haven't built out tech for something like that. It's a neat idea, but we'd need to build out a bit of new tech to make it happen. It'd also be highly dependent on the thematic and if something like this would make sense for it! I'd like to see something like this in the future, we'd just need to jump through a few hoops to get there!