Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

The Future of Summoners Rift

TheHobbits·3/4/2018, 8:16:21 AM·81 votes·13,759 views

Today I'd like to share my thoughts on what I feel about the future of League of Legends, or more specifically Summoner Rift.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/7/73/Summoners_Rift_landscape_02.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/640?cb=20170303044632

Summoners Rift has been through its changes over time. A New Dawn brought the map up to a level of standard we (or most of us) can appreciate. The Rift has settled into a design that just works. We all know where objectives are, when they spawn, the thickness of walls, the list can go on. Despite playing the same game on the same map over and over it always feels different. That's the beauty of SR as a map.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--A1wNZhS868/U7L4xKhbQTI/AAAAAAAAS04/rfzak1JCZFY/s1600/srdb3-1.jpg

But where can Riot go from here? When do we say "Maybe we would like something other than champions or game modes." What if we could experience the World of Runeterra using the Summoners Rift formula and layout? What if Summoners Rift took on the theme of Bilgewater, Shurima, Noxus or even Zaun?

https://i.imgur.com/WqpQlJq.jpg

The Proposal

With the map layout identical to that of SR this would, essentially, be a re-texture. Butchers Bridge was my favorite memory of League so I'll use that as my main example. Imagine if you will the full Bilgewater Port. The "jungle" layout and flow are exactly the same. The Sentinel is now an Ironback https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/9/96/Ironback_Render.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/300?cb=20171207193134 The wolves are now Razorfins https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/8/83/Razorfin.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/300?cb=20150710030057

Top lane is a warf with loading docks and cranes, bot lane is stone-cobbled streets with lanterns. Barron is more fishy and dragon, well it could be the same really I guess. All the fish guts and off cuts can attract an opportunistic feeder right?

https://lolstatic-a.akamaihd.net/site/bilgewater/1d0e96db6bd69523cf508365e1042f93171e3deb/img/act-3/act-3-world-layer-foreground.jpg

Locations to Explore

Other locations the SR map could be taken are:

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/5/5b/Piltover_City_of_Progress.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/640?cb=20161120062435 http://www.lol-wallpapers.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Shurima-Vekaurastreets-600x277.jpg https://universe-meeps.leagueoflegends.com/v1/assets/images/factions/noxus_splash.jpg

Dicussion

Riot could give us a wonderful opportunity to experience the world of Runeterra in the form of map skins for the base Summoner Rift. As it is right now what or where even is the Rift meant to be? There is limitless potential with what Riot could achieve. Their world and lore is just waiting to be tapped into and I feel that Summoners Rift could be a perfect canvas for other locations.

But what do you think?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gSZHrkUFsvU/VF4mn3cyqlI/AAAAAAAAc78/d6ZjMBr08n0/s1600/vv.jpg

52 Comments

Ifneth3/4/2018, 1:31:21 PM27 votes

I have to disagree because I want the game and lore to unite again. Old players tell me about the days of lore events and even real matches played to decide things in-lore. I want it.

But if I can’t have it, then this would be nice.

YuGiHo3/4/2018, 5:05:42 PM8 votes

i miss black market brawlers sooo much. with how much riot has corrupted urf these days i really want bmb to come back.

HonestJohnTheCon3/4/2018, 12:12:09 PM6 votes

If Riot made these purchasable, they'd have my money.

Terozu3/4/2018, 7:42:09 PM5 votes

I love the idea and sentiments but, this would NOT just be a retexture. It would require whole new models and animation to look even close to good. It would take forever.

Elohaven3/4/2018, 6:34:04 PM4 votes

This is a great and insightful post. I have to agree with you and love the idea. The only issue is that it would possible take a whole season or more to release this concept. The maps themselves may be released annually as well.

However, the idea is brilliant and would definitely be attractive for in-game fun and diversity. It will also sponsor replay value in League. You have my upvote and I hope you stay on the top of the front page for a while. I would love to see a Rioter, 3D Environment Designer or a Senior Visual Designer, come in and comment.

This idea allows you to add in-game missions that could impact the lore such as the Bilgewater event in a much livelier fashion. It gives much more meaning to alternate skin lines and would be a great way to hint at the Lore.

There's also the issue of the map skins being disliked and player wishes to turn them off which wouldn't be practical as they wouldn't be able to turn it off in-game. The client would have to reset otherwise for them and load them back in. It also complicates the design process. I think the tradeoff is worth it as you'll be tested on your map manipulation as well across multiple maps rather than being restricted to the same generic scenarios. This would make League more of a game of strategic adaptation rather than strategic preservation.

Doozku3/4/2018, 7:24:52 PM4 votes

IMO, the reason why alternate maps/gamemodes failed in league were because they were too different from the core summoners rift gameplay that made league what it is today. I know you are suggesting for is just reskins of the base map, and that is a great idea! But I really want them to try their hand at making new maps again, but this time...

Make them 5v5 with all of the same mechanics as summoners rift.

Add some new unique mechanics to the maps and change some of the lane dynamics (add an alternative to plants in the new maps, perhaps play with the expectations of lanes to create interesting metas. Like what if midlane was a long lane? What if toplane was more difficult to gank? Etc.)

Make sure it still feels like summoners rift with the same item pool and doesn't conflict with any mechanics already in the game (Every map needs some kind of brush because of champs like Rengar)

Make sure the map is on the same rotation as summoners rift as opposed to being a different queue.

That being said I don't think it's ever gonna happen and your suggestion is really good. Right now, summoners rift feels really similar all throughout. I'm imaging a map of bilgewater where toplane is a dock and you can hear gulls and wave crashing on the harbor, while botlane is the inner city. Or a Noxus map where Blue side is outside trying to push into the city with red nexus being near the center of Noxus.

ModCaliCoastReplay3/4/2018, 8:21:32 AM3 votes

Yes please!

Whyte Lyon3/4/2018, 9:13:28 AM3 votes

I enjoy and prefer exploring this world through a comic, novella or cinematic.

Camille Ferrøs3/4/2018, 9:59:23 AM3 votes

This is a very nice and wonderful idea...maybe this is in the works lets hope it is

Wind2343/4/2018, 7:55:56 PM3 votes

A themed map like this would be really awesome, but I do worry about the realistic limitations that might prevent it from coming to fruition. I would love to see a Rift based on Bilgewater or Demacia or Noxus or Zaun, but like other posters mentioned, this would take a whole lot of time and resources just to make one re-skinned map, let alone several. In addition to everything else they do with champions, reworks, balance updates, the work they're putting in to the RGM right now, and whatever else they have going on behind closed doors, I'm not sure they'd have the extra resources to do this. But maybe if we show enough interest, they'll at least consider it? You have my upvote, at least!

Kyadai3/4/2018, 9:34:51 PM2 votes

I share your love for lore and this idea is amazing, although they mentioned that things like butchers bridge are not their primary concern and they focus on new modes etc. Idea of new map ( version of it ) is in their minds but it requires lot of work and resources. hopefully we will get our bilgewater sr in a year or so ^.^[sg-jinx]

DarkKatalyst3/5/2018, 1:29:35 AM2 votes

Seasonal (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter) Rift map skins are the only way it can work, for the sake of maintaining consistency, a competitive atmosphere, and avoiding queue fragmentation. I'm not interested in seeing a different map skin after every game I play, and I'm not the only person. That might push Riot to make another queue for OG map only, which just fragments matchmaking populations.

Recon12123/5/2018, 3:38:54 PM2 votes

I would love this, but then the problem becomes it most likely would only be a normal games thing like the snow map. Say that maybe it can go to Ranked, well then they would more likely have to make a setting to disable it, which makes it hard to have unique elements. I understand that they would be the exact same layout, but I find it difficult to believe that competitive people would enjoy 2 people playing on different maps.

Just my 2 Cents, personally I wouldn't mind, but i'm just thinking of what could happen

LightningShado3/5/2018, 11:52:56 PM2 votes

That would be pretty cool but even a single map would take so much time. Because of this, it would most likely be low on Riot's priority list with champion reworks, balance, and skins being high up on the list. Their logic would be that there are more pressing things to do like the things previously mentioned and also giving every champion a legendary skin (I think this is a goal of theirs. It's definitely a hope of mine). So this would be very far off but it could happen someday far, far into the future.

I would like this to happen and I actually suspect that they are working on something like this with it being in very early development. So nice idea!

Cool post!

Bent Pixels3/5/2018, 11:53:36 PM2 votes

I think this is a fucking awesome idea. I hope it's in the works or will be in the near future

KingWill074/7/2018, 12:32:56 AM1 votes

Bro thank you. Riot did not see this. Come on riot. Who is not seeing this. This is genius. If this is implemented now i will be on the game hooked on man. Whoever comes up with this deserve to work at Riot games man. Give the community what they want. This is GENIUS. I LOVE THE IDEA. LETS MAKE IT WORK PLEASE RIOT.