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I do believe we already have seen the "colorful mage"'s new mechanic.

Electro522·11/18/2018, 8:31:47 PM·37 votes·15,155 views

In the post about the new teaser, many people pointed out something along the lines of "imperfect mimicry". People are thinking that we'll get something along the lines of a Chameleon that can't completely copy it's opponents.

However, other people have stated that the amount of work needed to implement such a thing would be too much for Riot to handle.

The thing is......they've already done something like that.

I'd like to take you all the back to 3 and a half years ago, when the Black Market Brawlers gamemode came out. In that game, we had a very unique item called "Trickster's Glass".

Here is the item's description, thanks to the League Wiki:

UNIQUE – DISGUISE: Teleports to the target allied champion (550 range) and takes on their appearance for 30 seconds. The disguise includes the target's current health, mana and emotes. The disguise is broken upon casting a spell or attacking, or upon your or the disguise's health being dropped to 0. 90 second cooldown.

Here is a montage of the item:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5b0JeCO9jw

As you can see, we've already seen a copy mechanic introduced into the game, so, the technology for such a mechanic already exists. However, that item copied another player perfectly. There wasn't any imperfections to the copying, which the new champ seems to do.

However, doing such a thing shouldn't be too hard to implement. Maybe just put in kind of a shimmer when the champ has copied someonem similar to what happens to invis champs when they get damaged. Or, as we saw in the trailer, have this champ's tail stick out when it's copied someone (though, that would kind of ruin the illusion).

But yeah, don't think the tech for such a mechanic doesn't already exist......cause Riot made that over 3 years ago.

37 Comments

Who Fed Ru11/18/2018, 8:34:42 PM57 votes

Black Market Brawlers was 3 and a half years ago?!

Holy fuck

A Superb Villain11/18/2018, 9:17:25 PM14 votes

Finally.

I really hope this is the case. I've wanted a champion that utilizes subterfuge through a more strategic application (positioning, vision, timing) rather than tactical (mechanical skill). Reworked Leblanc was a nice attempt, and Trickter's Glass did a lot to introduce the concept of imitation to League's game from a technical (coding) and practical (how people actually use the mechanic) standpoint.

dome02511/18/2018, 9:13:31 PM4 votes

It´s not about the technology. I can imagine that it´s rather easy to implement (if there wouldn´t be spaghetti code everywhere). But rather about the visual work. If the champ really has a "imperfect mimicry" mechanic then they need to add a little detail to every champion (Ahri the tail, Darius the flower, etc.) which could be a lot of visual work depending if they can somehow make it automatized/copy and paste or not.

Simply copying the skins/visuals from another champion without any extra detail (like the item you mentioned) wouldn´t be hard to implement I guess.

Moody P11/18/2018, 9:16:45 PM3 votes

there's literally no value in imperfect mimicry

snore

GreenLore11/19/2018, 10:45:39 AM2 votes

Honestly I think the whole "imperfect mimicry"-thing would likely only apply for the lore,as it would otherwise ruin the ability.(whats the point in having a disguise if an attentive player can easily see through it?)

MEI 4 HONGKONG11/18/2018, 8:47:01 PM2 votes

...excitement...deflated. [sg-janna] But hoping this is true. Never used TG and can't wait to see it in game. [sg-zephyr]

-_ Nvr give up. Nvr surrender_

The Trent11/19/2018, 8:47:39 AM2 votes

It'll be funny as hell, and a bit scary, to watch people type in chat, "guys that isn't me... RUN!!!" But then they say JK.

Serika Zero11/19/2018, 4:20:07 AM1 votes

Question. Who says its difficult for riot to code this?

I don't know the programming language this game was coded in. But its either some object oriented programming language. Or it was something like C.

In the first case, its really easy, there are objects duplication function. So, you can duplicate anything that's an object and attribute that to something else, and when you are done (say, a timer expires) destroy the new object and you are left with the old one.

Or in the second case, they can just go the old route and just attribute characteristics of the target to the caster.

From a programming perspective, this entire thing sounds way to easy.

Like, you got variable A (your champion) and variable B (the enemy champion). All you need is to make variable C (place holder), make C = whatever A has in it (and this is assuming you don't have A somewhere else already). And then simply make A = B until timer runs out, then making A = C. This sounds like something which would take less than a week to code, maybe just a day or less. And then add some particle effects from the art team and wow, done.

Seriously, who in their right mind with any clue about how coding works can claim this is hard to do? 0.0 then again, I also have a boss that says its impossible to make 2 applications to communicate where they are both on the same internal network and running from the same server but on different pcs...... so, maybe it shouldn't be that surprising.

DrCyanide11/19/2018, 4:33:41 AM1 votes

Trickster's was "imperfect" as well - you could move like the target, had HP like the target, and had the player name of the target but you could never attack like the target. If you saw two ADCs and one was attacking minions you knew which was the copy.

In that regard, maybe we will get a Trickster's clone.

EDIT: Called it!

gerbe11/19/2018, 5:36:54 AM1 votes

Maybe just put in kind of a shimmer when the champ has copied someonem similar to what happens to invis champs when they get damaged. Or, as we saw in the trailer, have this champ's tail stick out when it's copied someone (though, that would kind of ruin the illusion).

not only that but there’s vines that surround the champions the new characters has mimicked. you can see the neon green vines before they disappear on the painted champions

JimTheSnail11/19/2018, 9:08:10 AM1 votes

I will be real fucking sad if this is a "mimic" champion. I wanted something with a paintbrush where he/she tries to make everything "beautiful". Just seems not so fun. I still like the idea of a ink mage where you draw your abilities in a way. Maybe do something with that just make it so his ult is like a 20-30 sec CD and when you activate the ult you paint in new terrain. Like how Nivia and J4 can. I dunno I completely dislike the idea of a mimic in league.

JimTheSnail11/19/2018, 9:12:00 AM1 votes

Sad days it is and YAY ANOTHER ASSASSIN (probably... haven't seen her kit)

suicide is fun11/19/2018, 4:13:46 PM1 votes

News flash, its probably gonna be cancerbroken like zoe

Bârd11/19/2018, 5:06:33 PM1 votes

The illusions only seem to be different from Neeko's team's POV.

As far as the enemy is concerned, it's a perfect copy.

Papuga11/19/2018, 6:55:47 PM1 votes

I'm just commenting to express my amazement at how accurate your prediction was, kudos!

Camille Ferrøs11/18/2018, 8:42:19 PM1 votes

I always wondered on when they will re use this mechanic. I do believe this is the perfect fit. A shape shifting vastayah.

Whyte Lyon11/18/2018, 9:19:20 PM1 votes

Is this a subject concerning SA&S or just Gameplay?

yamacchi11/18/2018, 9:43:00 PM1 votes

I remember that item lol

Hovering Hentai11/18/2018, 11:12:16 PM1 votes

I remember Sp4zie playing Diana with that item.

God he had so much fun xD

CIayman11/19/2018, 12:47:19 AM1 votes

BMB was the best mode to ever grace this game

People only came to dislike it because of the grind-fest missions that came along with it.

Tomoe Gozen11/19/2018, 1:16:09 AM1 votes

"Mimicry" of Trickster's Glass was only superficial in terms of assuming the champion's model and animations. Casting a spell would break the disguise, thus not having to copy their spells. I don't think this is mimicry, it looks to me like the flower champion can "fuse" with the champion in question and give them additional abilities on top of their own.