@Riot Make a queue for people with new accounts (I.e "Boot Camp")

Original Exile·May 18, 2015·4 votes·901 views

We need something that can be balanced for newer players, while you've made a lot of progress for making starting the game easier, the smurfs are reversing all the work you did. A true blue new player is not going to be able to square off against a silver, or a bronze. Irregardless of whether or not if they have runes or not.

In short we need a boot camp game mode, similar to the boot camp game modes of Call of Duty. We need to force levels 1-20 to play bots with increased IP gains. The only reason older players, when they make a new account, play normals is because the ip gains in the Co-op vs AI are totally laughable, sure you will get the bottom of the barrel people who will still trash talk just for the reason of trash talking, but this way people can really learn different things about the game, especially if they can buy the champions they want until they really hit the grinder at level 20. Let me put it this way, the only reason people START to play this game are one of two things, they got goaded into it because a friend said a champion would appeal to them, Or its just because of the world creation (Magic, steampunk, undead etc). You have a really good thing going here, its just we need to make people stick to the game. I can't count the number of friends I've tried to get in just to lose them because of smurfs or just the impossibility of getting that 6300 champion.

Also you could make explaining runes a lot easier at level 20. The game after they hit 20 just have an event pop up explaining they've unlocked the top tier runes, and because they have all the IP from the "Boot Camp" they can at least make one page of runes, while still having the actual game mechanic explained to them, and since they're playing in this co-op mode they can't get immediately stomped by the more coordinated players. Everyone wins except bottom feeders who need to stomp level 10 accounts to feel good about themselves.

10 Comments

MinardeMay 18, 20152 votes

There's already minimum level requirements for PvP modes (5-10, depending on mode, I think?). Increasing the requirement just raises the amount of grinding necessary to unlock the "actual" game and, more importanty, prevents new players from playing with their friends. A significant portion of new players probably start playing because they have friends who want to play together.

Original ExileMay 19, 20151 votes

I understand, while the solution I gave probably isn't the most optimal, there still needs to be a better alternative if they wish to play alone. With incentive to try new things, experiment with game mechanics, and be able to temporarily take off the gating on unlocking desirable things. As it stands right now, if someone was new to the game or even gaming in general. It might seem daunting.

TurquoiseYoshiMay 18, 20152 votes

As somebody who is still below level 20 after a month or two of playing, I don't like this idea (Except the higher IP, I'd love that). But bots all the way to level 20, I really couldn't handle. It also wouldn't be able to teach Jungle usage, since bots can't do jungle. I don't really see too many smurfs (I think), and I do pretty decent. And about the higher IP going to runes... it won't. People will discover the store and its many champions, and there's a very small chance somebody actually saves it all up. In any case, I'm Level 16 and understand a lot of the smaller things in this game, so I don't feel like playing against bots will help. Honestly, playing against bots may hurt new players, because bots play very different from players, and this can lead to learning incorrectly.

Original ExileMay 19, 20151 votes

Ah, when I wrote this I completely forgot about that. Yeah maybe the prohibiting of other play isn't healthy, maybe if it was just a queue that stopped being available at 20? That way if they wanted to they could play normals, but if they wanted to experiment in a less competitive environment they'd feel much more comfortable doing it, especially with the ip gains.

TurquoiseYoshiMay 19, 20151 votes

Yes, but the point of your post, the smurfs, wouldn't really be stopped if you do that.

Matthias9119May 19, 20152 votes

The only reason older players, when they make a new account, play normals is because the ip gains in the Co-op vs AI are totally laughable...

Only if you're playing many hours per day. You get full IP gains from intro/beginner bots to level 10 and intermediate bots to level 20. You get more for a PvP win than a co-op win, sure, but you won't win 100% of PvP matches after your first 20 or so and co-op matches are faster.

Original ExileMay 19, 20151 votes

Yes but the thing is, just because one hits a certain level doesn't mean they aren't going to go back to experiment. Especially if they're not doing well in their advents into the normal realm. They got stomped by a certain champion so they get discouraged try to find another champion they hope to the league gods is stronger. So they experiment, I just think it'll be a little healthier for newer players to have a better on-road. Even if the difficulty is increased on the bots.

Matthias9119May 19, 20151 votes

I don't see how that connects at all to what I said? You said that smurfs play PvP because it's slow to level in co-op -- it's not, unless you're going to buy a 24-hour XP boost and just grind out games all day. Until you hit the daily limit for co-op/custom you get almost as much XP and IP from those when you're at low levels.

I'm all for encouraging new players to stay in co-op until they get their feet. But not everyone who's new to League is inexperienced with MOBAs -- forcing someone who's a strong DOTA player to play only bots for a long time would be a lousy experience.

Original ExileMay 19, 20151 votes

I don't think I ever said anything about leveling any faster. I said, that a queue with a higher IP gain while giving a road to newer players to experiment, would probably benefit. I do see that forcing players to play co-op is not a good idea. I rescinded that argument earlier.

Matthias9119May 19, 20151 votes

For some reason I thought you mentioned both XP and IP - not that it matters that much, because they scale pretty equally.

I don't think that IP gains are significantly worse in co-op than PvP before level 20, at least until you hit the daily limit. You get less for a co-op win than a PvP win, but you won't win 100% of PvP matches and so it evens out.

You actually gain more IP and XP per hour playing short matches like TT/ARAM/dominion. A coordinated group can win TT co-op matches VERY quickly. So if that was really the driving factor, smurfs would play those and not SR.