Why did the Riot team stop doing standalone Visual Updates?

The Pale Woman·10/5/2016, 4:09:05 AM·4 votes·789 views

There are champions who have great, fun kits with counter play Morgana , Rumble ,Orianna ,Veigar , Leblanc, Corki and KogMaw to name a few.

They don't need any game-play changes for the most part, they could just use a model/animation update in collaboration with the Splash Art team to bring forth a new splash art and model.

That would increase the moral of people who play those champions.

Does Riot even take into consideration that VGA updates take months and months, leaving those of us hoping for a new model on balanced champs knowing that it might be years before there visuals are updated.

It is frustrating as a member of the community, knowing that new visuals are not on the horizon for any old champions because Riot places to large of a priority on VGA updates, when they can just as easily form a new team dedicated to making and rigging new models to the old bone frames on the outdated champions.

It would be cool if along side VGA updates, we received just a visual update on champions every two months or so. That way champions with fun and balanced kits get some love as well and more people will be eager to play them!

11 Comments

Jeddy01710/5/2016, 5:25:38 AM4 votes

Because they got better reception for the full VGUs. Plus in the past when champs get VUs, Riot skips out on doing a few things. One - Animations. Outside of new animation to support any abilities changes & potentially a new walking animation, the champ get no new animations. This meant no new animations for any of the emotes, no homeguard animation, NO FUCKING RECALLS. Two - Voice Overs. Another issue is the lack of an updated to the champs VO. Some of these VUs left champs with the same old, limited voice overs they had for years. Or in some cases, the vo also was low on quality (Looking at you Kass & Morg)

Look at champs like Maokai Kassadin Alistar Singed & Renekton. These were the weak VUs released since I started playing this game that skipped out on giving these champs a complete new set of animation or an updated VO. Hell even Fiora & Shen , who received significant gameplay changes, didn't get either a new VO or animations. Compare to the full VGUs, these were very lacking updates. I'm glad they switched focus to full updates that actually come with a full new set of animation & new VO that offer a better insight of who the champ is than "You can't milk those." Also, a champ don't need massive gameplay changes to qualify for a VGU. Tristana Gangplank & Ryze (his 100th one) are considered VGUs & their kits weren't completely changed. Only one new ability & the rest recieved some changes. But they still resemble their old self's more than Poppy Sion & Yorick do (gameplay wise). Hell, Ryze shows they don't need a drastic redesign.

Anyway, I don't mind if Riot makes another team to tackle this group of champs. But when they do, I want the full package. I don't want Morgana to still have her low quality, "We'll bring them pain" when she gets visually updated.

Juggernaut62810/5/2016, 4:11:40 AM1 votes

LeBlanc be getting reworked in about a month FeelsGoodMan.

Sukishoo10/5/2016, 4:14:04 AM1 votes

it's because they've decided that it's more worth their time to give them a full update in gameplay along with the visual changes when they can.

Also it's VGU not VGA.

Forbidden Siren10/5/2016, 4:51:37 AM1 votes

It would be nice if they give Morgana the same level of VU as Miss Fortune, Kassadin, Maokai and Alistar. Her model hasn't aged well but her kit is (more or less) balanced. It just seems like they continue to give her new skins so I fear it'll be awhile til they focus on updating her model.

GreenLore10/6/2016, 9:41:24 AM1 votes

The reason why they do vgus nowadays is simply because its more time efficient this way. This way visual design and new gameplay abilities(or even storyrelated stuff) can be built hand in hand. For example it wouldnt have made any sense for old yorick to summon the maiden of the mist.

Also almost every champ who needs a Gu also needs a Vu(there are exceptions like aatrox but those are few)

Also Leblanc is actually receiving a gameplay rework in the preseason