Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

Something Something Future VGUs

Skelenth·1/25/2018, 2:43:23 PM·40 votes·3,108 views

So, now that we got a good look of new Swain, I wanna propose a slight change in direction for future VGUs, at the very least regarding the human champions: Keep the person the same. Don't just break the champion down into its smallest themes to create a new character with a similar fantasy and the same name. Most of the champions have such a low player base because their model is over five years old and their kit isn't very engaging. Sure. you changed that with the recent reworks and I loved them, but you also change things that don't need any changing. https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/d/d1/Swain_OriginalSkin.jpg http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/vsbattles/images/7/7b/Swain_Splash_0-11.jpg Compare. They're not the same people. They hardly even resemble each other. New Swain could've totally worked out with old Swains body, face and hair, instead of some kind of chiseled Lucius Malfoy. Take Taric for example. He still resembles old Taric, but with less armor and a lot more investment in hair conditioner. Perhaps the issue lies in the fact that Swain got a new Splash Art that made his looks work totally fine in the current game. Most people probably wouldn't bat an eye of the transition were from this http://lolwp.com/wp-content/uploads/Swain_Base.jpg to new Swainfoy.

I'm not saying "Undo your rework. I don't like it.", but keep your original designs in mind when updating the next champions.

######Inb4, Gragas rework will have better abs than Varus

45 Comments

Sherogarth1/25/2018, 10:32:13 PM12 votes

More Warwick, less Galio. Simple.

Quepha1/25/2018, 7:16:17 PM11 votes

"At least do better next time" is an attitude that simply doesn't work. Players have asked for that several times, Riot has promised it several times, and then Riot proceeds to completely fail to follow through on their promise.

Linna Excel1/25/2018, 8:38:21 PM11 votes

The new version might be better technically, but it doesn't look like swain to me nor does it make me want to play him.

At this point, with a few exceptions like WW, it seems like reworks are riots way to murder champions and make new ones in such a way they wouldn't have to give out refunds. Riot just don't like their older champions. If riot straight up deleted Swain and announced Anime Palpatine more people would get upset and a lot of players would be more cautious about buying skins. But by secretly replacing Swain with Anime Palpatine, only about a third of swain fans would really take notice.

But let's be honest, who really cares about the fans of some other champ they never really played?

That's why it works. Deleting champs straight up and everyone notices. Bait and switch via a rework and only a tiny fraction of the whales take notice.

Fasmodey1/25/2018, 3:31:06 PM10 votes

I am just not a big fan of Riot's doing excessive number of long hair male champions.

Riot, let me remind you, long hair is not that common in our world. It is not fine either if if it is just more common in Runeterra because our last actual short hair male champion is Darius.

Like wtf... Did Swain really need long hair? Did we need second Vladimir in the SAME REGION?

Stop your long hair trend, it started to be annoying.

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO1/25/2018, 2:55:44 PM8 votes

Changing things to change them is kinda Riot’s modus operandi. I don’t know what more can be said, but I enjoy that Riot is willing to tackle champions from a new angle and grow them in different ways.

Hige1/25/2018, 6:12:56 PM7 votes

Funny enough I understand why they changed him, Tryndamere himself stated that Swain was a thematic mess and I agree, he was all over the place, he had a perch for his raven, a cane, a limp, he had a different demon form that was in itself a mess, he was wearing gold and green, his hair was 3 stripes for no reason and so on and so forth...

I also admire Riot's ability to make it look as good as he did on his splash art even though the guy would have been a pain to get a fitting pose for that showed both his personality and all of his little extra tidbits (cane, raven, demon, warlock, general, noxus... geez)

My biggest gripe against the new design is that they made Swain independant of his cunning, I've said it countless times, Swain looking fragile was the only reason why his cunning was a big part of his character... the best way I have to explain it is using game of thrones references:

Currently he's demeanor is like Tywin lannister's (with long hair) very straight forward and evil only when provoked, that's awesome, it really is but it's not how swain was portrayed in the lore before... Swain was more akin to Little Finger, someone who wasn't particularly a warrior but whose intellect enabled him to rise up in the chaos ladder, Swain happens to be a warlock too but his time using magic has to be limited probably because of his age

He4rtkiller1/26/2018, 12:54:01 AM6 votes

Agree. New Swain doesn't feel or look anything like the old Swain and I think this is not a good way to approach future reworks. It feels like they removed Swain and introduced a brand new champion with the same name.

Stars Shaper1/26/2018, 11:05:56 AM4 votes

I honestly feel like the new Swain is a more solid character in terms of look and lore.

ScubaVampire1/25/2018, 3:44:22 PM4 votes

In a world with dragons, demons, talking animal hybrids, talking animals, trees that are sentient, giant alien snake monsters, and an evil rat with a blow dart.... Are we really going to get upset over a guy with long hair set in a fantastical, fiction time period somewhere between medieval times and the early 20th century??? Riot asks for players advice and tries to please us more than any other video game company that I know of. Let's appreciate the effort to update an old character WHOM they are not making a huge profit on because majority of players probably already own him.

Blakiepug1/26/2018, 2:43:57 PM3 votes

This is exactly how I feel as well, and I'm glad more players are taking note of it the more it continues to happen. Maybe all the Swain players now know how I, as well as many other Galio players, felt when he was practically removed from the game last Spring. I know there are several players out there who love reworks and VGU's which is fine. But all I ask is that the teams working on the VGUs be more respectful of the champion they are reworking. This is why I have tremendous respect for the teams that worked on Warwick and Urgo. As you say OP, this new character looks nothing like Swain and even if you were to tell me it was a rework instead of a new champ, I probably would have guessed it was a Vladimir rework first. I would really like to see rework teams taking into consideration what makes the champion they are working on really pop as they are in their current form. This feels like they looked at Swain, saw nothing of value, and decided to just create an entirely new character.

PhoenixOfHeaven1/25/2018, 10:51:21 PM3 votes

In full honesty, their eyes look the same. The eyes, and eyebrows. So it's a start?

XPu55yD3s0lat0rX1/26/2018, 12:49:31 AM3 votes

I wish he kept the cane. The cane does feel rather aristocrat ish

Weiss Guertena1/26/2018, 1:09:25 AM3 votes

Maybe we could strike a compromise. Like, go with the vision you intend for the champion but give a little something to the old fans. Like, a 975 RP quality skin resembling the old character. Let's call it a "Traditional" skin as a nod to the champions origins.

Seriously, bring those back. The excuse you gave for discontinuing them has more holes than a chunk of Swiss cheese used as a target on a shooting range. "We have learned better, if the team we have now was working on old updates Karma would still have her fans and Trundle would envision the Leper Jesus fantasy" (more or less an actual quite from Riot). Well tell that to Galio and Swain who barely, if at all resemble what they used to be. So allow me to translate that quote: "We simply don't give enough fucks for players playing a champion for years to hand out a single free cosmetic item of mediocre quality to them".

Modl Ryden l1/26/2018, 3:36:03 AM3 votes

I really feel like of all the reworked champions, this one is the most dramatic changes made to the champion.

I recall a lot of the reworks starting off very small as incremental and modernized VGUs which included MasterYi Kassadin Cassiopeia Katarina Nasus Ashe Shen Sona Soraka Tristana Trundle Garen

They all retain more or less the same kit, about an 80% similarity overall, with an upgraded aesthetic.

Then they took a to a new level reworking and remodeling Sion Poppy Ryze

Which really made them a lot more pleasant to look at from the get go, gave them more weight to their abilties, introduced a few extras, all while retaining a lot of their old look and feel attached to their name.

Then they really went next level with Warwick Urgot Galio Gangplank I want to say with these they really excelled in breathing new life into problematic/linear champs. However they sort of straddle the line of being their original character and being a new one all together. A lot of their old aesthetics and background were trashed. While some of their abilities still pay homage to their past ones that made them iconic in the first place, they've been given a new identity with their new gameplay mechanics. ex: Gangplank No longer are you annoyed with GP critting you with point-click Q, you're now annoyed with GP barrelling your adc/supp's hp to 20%. ex: Galio No longer are you expecting a flash-taunt from Galio for a teamwipe -although that is still possible, but it doesn't nuke as hard as it used to- you're not expecting a savior ulti, much like Shen ex: Urgot No longer are you expecting to get suppressed and needing to buy QSS, you're hoping that people can peel you out before getting reeled in. ex: Warwick No longer do you shrug off the fact that WW has his W left toggled on, you now expect that he will be hunting you when you see the crest above your head.

But with the upcoming Swain rework a lot of the feel from his old model is missing. It feels as though the bird form/morph is no longer their. Sure he grows wings but it just seems so... weebish. To me its like Swain is SO good at playing at an MMORPG that his character got premium cosmetic wings for his ultimate.

His kit as well don't really retain much of the feel as his current kit as it is mostly DoT damage. The rework makes him resemble a bit of a fighter/battle mage much like vladmir.

Recuro1/26/2018, 10:57:17 AM2 votes

I'm starting to lose faith in these VGUs simply because of riots philosophy of "reimagining" characters. I've liked almost all reworks until Galio happened and completely destroyed the champ.

Although Swain is great in a lot of ways, (kit and VO are both great) things like the long hair and the lack of bird form show that riot is more interested in their new character than the one that's been around for years.

Riot's new "pain vs gain" idea is basically admitting that they don't care about trashing old stuff if it means they can make something new.

In my opinion a rework should improve what's already there, not reimagine the champ. Warwick was a perfect example of making something fresh but familiar. This way new players are drawn to the champ without upsetting the old fans.

Riot, if you want to make something new and innovative, go make new champions. Don't let reworks become an excuse to delete champions.

Vistha D Reptile1/25/2018, 8:17:00 PM1 votes

OP, please. This shit has been going on for years dating back to Skarma release in 2013 at least. They aren't going to stop now.