Status on the Taric VU
Title says it all really, can we get a rough estimation of how much longer it may be?
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Status: Still in pre-production.
We've been meeting with our Narrative bros and they've got some neat ideas for him. Some deeper and more out-there thoughts that might really create some new fertile ground for him while still keeping him familiar. It's an interesting place to be.
I restarted his concept ideation to reflect some of those ideas and come up with some options that span the requirements of the game, what players' expectations of Taric are and also pad for the opportunity for more stories to be told about him in the future. We're experimenting with some new directions but so far they've yielded some very interesting results. So much so that I and another artist are spinning in a direction that's a little tangential from what has been thought of and discussed early on. The basic challenge is how to make Taric not just a dude in fancy armor, but a special sorta paladin for League. That's where we're at now.
His kit remains in production, my hope is that we'll figure out a solid visual direction for him early in the year that will compliment the new kit. THOUGH ANYTHING COULD CHANGE, YA KNOW.
Wild speculation time!
Riot has said they expect Taric to be a project of similar size of Sion's. (Boom!)
So some info we know: -Early concepting of Sion began sometime before or during July 2013
-Sion was released at the end of September of this year
-Early,Early,Eaaarly Concepting and explorations of Taric began in October 2014
-Riot is working on another Sion-level project with Poppy at the moment
If you take all this into account, predictions can vary depending on how optimistic you are.
Outrageous! prediction (Rework team has joined the cult of the gem knight and barely sleep until its done) June to August 2015 release date.
Realistic prediction (On par with the Sion rework and probably how long it'll take) October to December 2015 release date.
The darkest timeline prediction (Ironstylus takes a gem to the knee) February to April 2016 release date
Poppy is up next, and Taric is going to be a NEAR Sion level relaunch in scope, probably not quite so extreme though, so...
I'd guess 6 months at the very earliest.
I admit, I don't know what to think about the Taric VU anymore... I was told he was on the "high priority" list about two years ago, so I must admit, I stopped holding my breath a while ago... honestly, Taric is my favorite champion, but I don't play him as often as I used to, mainly because of how ugly his current model looks compared to all the other human characters in LoL.
Have you ever played with action figures who come from different shows/games, and have drastically different scale/art style? That's how I feel whenever I play Taric... he feels like he was deposited here from an entirely different game, a significantly older game... I remember a number of lists of the champs who needed VU's the most... the lists varied from person to person, but always seemed to contain Sivir, Sion, Twitch, and Taric... only one of those four is left... and I'm beginning to think he's going to remain on that list for a long time to come... T-T I love my fabulous, tough-as-nails support, but he really, really needs some love... Every time a new VU comes out and I'm reveling in how awesome it looks, a bitter little voice in the back of my head whispers "they really thought this champ needed a VU more than Taric?" And obviously that's not fair, and not how the VU's get selected in the first place, there is more to it than just who needs it most. But still, that voice is very hard to shut up.
i feel like they should give him a more bad ass feel, he has a sort of weak impression because he seems gay.