There should be a sandbox mode for testing purposes

John Berserk·May 27, 2015·271 votes·6,591 views

By "sandbox mode" I mean a mode designed specifically to test certain things, such as builds, damage, mechanics, interactions, etc. In this sandbox mode, we would be able to:

Play as any Champion using any skin, regardless of whether you own them or not
Set level to any number (for all units)
Spawn minions at will (either into the lanes from the inhibs, or individual minions at your cursor)
Spawn jungle monsters at will (except maybe Baron and Dragon)
Spawn other Champions (and be able to set them to ally or enemy)
Revive yourself or other Champions anywhere at will (if a Champion dies, you can revive them and have them placed anywhere on the map)
Place yourself or other units anywhere on the map
Control the behavior of minions/monsters/other champions
Revive fallen towers/inhibitors
Restore health and mana/energy/fill up rage at will
Restore cooldowns completely at will
Set gold to any amount (for all Champions) and/or Equip any item for free without having to buy from the shop (from anywhere and for all Champions) and/or Set stats to any amount (for all units)

This mode would have no victory nor defeat, and would reward no IP. It would be purely for testing purposes for the player, and would be a much more convenient method than going into a custom or bot game and having to draw the game out for 20-30-40 minutes to get full build and max level and all that just to test a single thing, and this would also provide a way for players to be able to test Champions before buying them or without having to wait until their free week.

EDIT: Wow, this is getting a lot of support guys! It'd be pretty nice if a Rioter could jump in and give their opinion on the idea of a sandbox mode for its players to use as a testing environment.

Also, I should have mentioned this before, but I envisioned this mode as singleplayer only as it currently is in Heroes of the Storm (yes, I did in fact get my inspiration for this from there). This way players can avoid abusing it and Riot doesnt really lose any money because it'd be the only environment available to players in which they could test any champion or skin, regardless of whether they own them or not.

83 Comments

BA TetsuoMay 27, 201511 votes

They could have it be a 1 player game mode, and the player's machine hosts it so there's not a whole lot of server traffic for it

UPfreelyMay 27, 20152 votes

they cant have player hosted stuff... it opens up too many hacking possibilities

BA TetsuoMay 27, 20154 votes

{quoted}

they cant have player hosted stuff... it opens up too many hacking possibilities

A single player, player side game that has every viable option already available to change, I don't see much potential for abuse. Or they could just have it be a seperate program available for download.

R2D20May 27, 201510 votes

I could see this being implemented in PBE but not live, too much abuse of it.

John BerserkMay 27, 20153 votes

I should have mentioned that I envisioned this as a singleplayer-only mode to avoid abuse, similar to how Heroes of the Storm handles it. I edited the op to say as much. :)

Aria ValkyrieMay 28, 20153 votes

I actually agree with them. I think it would make much more sense on the pbe. Most of what the PBE is testing bugs, and all champs/skins are already available. While i agree that a single-player/no ip or whatever limitations would be good, the benefit of this mode on the pbe would go a long way to keeping a great deal of efficency in the testing phase of pretty much everything And not that i'm saying people abuse this mode on live, but. . . it just sounds like a mode meant for bug testing, rather than testing builds. i can't count the number of hours this would have saved me of playtesting to see what bugs some items up. Not to say that live couldn't use it too, but i think that the pbe would be a better place for it.

John BerserkMay 28, 20153 votes

https://i.imgur.com/c7NJRa2h.jpg

RandomoniumMay 27, 20158 votes

I would love a game mode like this. However, I'm pretty sure it would require a ton of work on Riot's part and I doubt they will do it.

John BerserkMay 27, 201529 votes

I wouldn't think it would take TOO much work. I mean, I'm sure they already have a working version of it that they themselves use for champion spotlights and gameplay trailers. They'd just have to tweak it a bit so it's more user-friendly and so we don't potentially break the game with it.

DecritMay 28, 20151 votes

consider, from a programming point just allowing different champions to be placed can be a real hassle.

I am just guessing, but as i know the game on map loading loads only the necessary champions and not all. If you allowed to dinamically place champions it would mean that the game must load all the champions, hitting hard on performance. Or maybe not.

Also there is to account server capacity and all - since you can' t make this stuff offline related.

this aside... yep, i would really like something like that. even just allow "cheat mode" on customs really.

John BerserkMay 28, 20153 votes

Why not make it offline? It wouldn't be the first thing offline-related they did (I believe items sets are saved on the players machine locally rather than on Riot's servers.. at least they were at launch).

As far as loading all of the champions goes, I would think what it would do is load SOME of each of the champions, but when you choose to place one on the map, it has to load the rest of that one champ into your current game.

I cant really speak as a game designer though as I have no game development experience, so it may or may not be easy to accomplish.

DecritMay 28, 20151 votes

Offline is... off limits, for security reason.

The client holds only part of the code - the other part is stored in Riot' s servers and runs only there, so it is very hard to understand and break the fallacies of the code; if offline then you must give to the users the full code, and so hackers and whatnot can have full grip on it.

John BerserkMay 28, 20152 votes

Is that so? That's actually pretty neat.

What if it were made as a separate application altogether then? Where all of the assets are on your machine, but the coding for the sandbox app is different than the one used for the main game? (This would probably take a TON of work though...)

If it were a separate app though, then when you load it up, everything is loaded in on startup so spawning champs and skins and all that doesn't make the mode continuously lag. They could make it connect to their network only to download updates (bug fixes, new champs, new skins, new items, new maps, etc), but otherwise have it played singleplayer only.

I'm sure there's some kind of workaround.

DecritMay 28, 20151 votes

that would mean re-engineer all the code needed, that is not the full code of the game but still a good slice of it.

Oh well, let' s hope there is still a way :P

Robert SmithMay 27, 20153 votes

Would take to much space on their end. like with custom Urf games with a few people they closed them cause they needed more room due to the amount of people playing playung during that time. So custom sandbox games might become popular to some and multiple lobbies will pop up taking away space from normals and ranks. I still want one though but based on what Riot said in the past it seems unlikely they will release it to the public

AnysonAcEMay 28, 20153 votes

While this is a valid point, they could just make a separate client that makes your computer run an auto-tunnel program to your friends who seek out your tunnel IP.

TouchMyZedMay 28, 20151 votes

{quoted}

I would love a game mode like this. However, I'm pretty sure it would require a ton of work on Riot's part and I doubt they will do it.

All those features that op mentioned are already available on riot’s dev client, so no it wouldnt require a damn thing they can just add it

whensmarvelMay 27, 20157 votes

If anything they would probably make this mode exclusive to Pbe users

CleverExpletiveMay 28, 20156 votes

I thought people played ranked to test out builds...

JofeyyMay 27, 20154 votes

I've been saying this since forever! Completely agree!

Sassmast3rMay 28, 20154 votes

I agree with everything but the skins and champions part. I think it's a little too much to basically give you anything you want JUST for playing on this mode. Doesn't it somewhat make you NOT want to buy skins anymore since you kinda, own everything in this mode you know? However, everything else I totally agree with and I completely support this game mode! :D

Major SparklesMay 27, 20153 votes

Hero's of the Storm has this mode already... (to he T) I'm sure that's where you got the idea from. Still it's something League has needed for ages.

MattAkhavanMay 28, 20153 votes

Sandbox mode has been requested since like season 2 at least. I have read and heard from pro players in the past that riot HAS a sand box, which would be ridiculous if they did not have one at this point.

The real question we should be asking is why aren't they releasing. If we can figure out why they don't want to give it to the public then maybe we could devise a solution to get a sandbox mode.

Singing LarkMay 27, 20152 votes

PLEASE! This would be amazing for people like me, who like to practice things in customs, but don't have to flexibility to truly make it effective. I think this would be amazing.

FrittatasMay 27, 20152 votes

I fully support this.. heroes has this and its gr8. I don't understand why riot is ridiculously slow to catch on to basic shit like this:

sandbox
A NON 3rd party replay program
ranked solo que in non summoners rift games I mean you wonder why hardly any of the league community plays 3s or dominion??? there is no freaking rank solo for their game type

Jungle Lux GodMay 27, 20152 votes

I would love it if this happened.

I personally like to play a lot of unconventional junglers, and a lot of the effort that I put into playing some of these junglers is going into custom games and testing how the champion's jungle clears fare with different runes/masteries, different jungle items (Ranger's Trailblazer offers a dramatic difference in both clear speed and sustain over the other three), and how the clears fare with different first items after the jungle item (sometimes the optimal jungle item to build is not to build the logical jungle enchantment after the jungle item).

Custom games are where I currently test them, but it has some limitations: -towers falling on the enemy team inflates the gold that I get as a jungler -towers falling on my team inflates the experience that I get as a jungler, and doesn't always offer an accurate portrayal of clearing Gromp because the minions get in the way of it -waiting until 1:55 gets to be a little bit cumbersome having to do it multiple times to test a champ multiple times -restarting because I screwed up takes too long; you have to leave the game, start a new custom game, and create the new game from scratch

Adding a testing realm would dramatically improve my ability to test the junglers that I would be interested in trying out in-game, and would be an overall improvement over testing in custom games.

CirrusstrafeMay 27, 20152 votes

I have wanted this for so long it's not even funny. Hell, even Heroes of the Storm's tech alpha had a mini sandbox mode (which has been iterated on and improved upon and still exists as far as I have been told), and it let you even test any hero free of charge, owned or not, to see if you wanted to buy it.

As it stands, to test anything I need to gather a few friends, wait a while until the circumstances are right, and then try to simulate the events for anything. If I'm trying to find a rather hard to reproduce bug or help out with bug hunts, then everything is against me. Help us help you, Riot, and help us help ourselves learn and test.

Siderequest: allowing us to reduce monster/minion spawn times in customs would be great, too. When I train laning/csing 1v1 with a friend it is really bloody frustrating to have to wait roughly two minutes before starting, every single damn time.

MaxPlaysSaxMay 27, 20152 votes

This is a good idea, but it belongs on PBE.

John BerserkMay 28, 20151 votes

Why only on PBE?

MaxPlaysSaxMay 28, 20151 votes

I don't see it being very useful anywhere else. Although, having it on normal servers would be more fun for everyone.

John BerserkMay 28, 20151 votes

I think it would be very useful to a lot of people, especially those who would like to test certain builds quickly without wasting too much time. Why keep that privilege exclusive to the minority of League players?

MaxPlaysSaxMay 28, 20152 votes

That's actually a use for this system I over looked, thanks for bringing it up :)

WeiseAzirMay 28, 20152 votes

Ezreal you belong in a museum

Deep Terror NamiMay 28, 20152 votes

I've got an old similar thread here. Might have some good ideas in it not on this one;

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/summoners-rift/iVtpIvhg-new-game-mode-introducing-practice-mode

John BerserkMay 28, 20151 votes

I like the name "Practice Mode" more than "Sandbox Mode". It gives off more of a "for test purposes"-vibe (which is what I was going for), as opposed to a "go crazy and have fun!"-vibe (not to imply that's bad though :P).

But yeah I was certain I was not the first to come up with an idea like this, and seeing how many upvotes both your thread AND my own here have, im surprised I haven't heard anything from Riot regarding a game mode like this (I read red posts as often as I can).

JimmyNtheKudosMay 27, 20151 votes

This would make sense minus being able to use any champ or any skin (Riot being a business and all) i.e. just makes more sense for them as a company to make this viable if you have to purchase to use the champ you're testing (the bots can be any champ).

John BerserkMay 27, 20152 votes

Heroes of the Storm allows you to try any hero and any skin for free in a mini singleplayer-only sandbox mode that lets you level up at will, reset levels, spawn minions, reset cooldowns, and reset fortifications. This is how I would see League's sandbox mode being.

brunoaisMay 27, 20151 votes

Why would you need to test stuff like that?

John BerserkMay 27, 20156 votes

To see what works and what doesn't and when so you don't have to waste so much time in a custom or a bot game.

FastAsHeckMay 28, 20151 votes

this is definately needed, hots is in beta and already has that feature and i love it. in hots, these sandbox games are on a small map with one lane only (i guess we could use aram in league), with only one bot as an enemy and one as an ally (so you can test support abilities too). and on the side it has 5 options, one to toggle AI (minions and bots), one to reset forts (all buildings), one to level you up, one to reset cooldowns and one to completely reset the level. i guess it wouldnt be so hard to add here as well.

xSyndicateMay 28, 20151 votes

they should put the sandbox mode in PBE then, not normal. that would defeat the purpose of having PBE anyways.

John BerserkMay 28, 20151 votes

But why lock such a convenient feature away from the majority of the playerbase? Not everyone has access to the PBE. This should be something anyone should be allowed to take advantage of to help test builds and other gameplay-related things.

xSyndicateMay 29, 20151 votes

that is the point not everyone deserves to be in the PBE, people get chosen and they help the game by providing good feedback.

holy knightmareMay 28, 20151 votes

I think this would be extremely helpful, Rito plz.

SuppsNeedFarmTooMay 28, 20151 votes

Yeah, it'd be cool for Riot to do this.

EternalDarknezMay 28, 20151 votes

not to burst your bubbles but.... best section there is this forum

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/summoners-rift/ARHV133L-can-we-please-have-a-sandbox-mode

(almost 500 upvotes)

check out rest of the "best" section on forums and youll find a bunch of good ideas and such that riot just doesnt care enough to "look into" or better put, do anything more than leave one comment on

sorry mates, if its a good idea, its not up riots alley =/

RhinovexMay 28, 20151 votes

Well... I don't know about allowing unowned champions, because then there would be no point in having the free champion rotations. I have to say though I've always wanted to be able to test out skins myself, you get a much better feel for them in0game as opposed to simply looking at pictures or even a video.

coeurloyalMay 28, 20151 votes

I don't agree with having it tied to single player only. If this mode existed, I would want to be able to use it to practice bot lane pairs and ganks with new junglers (which would really require at least two players). I'd also want to be able to test specific matchups and builds against a friend of equal skill to really get a thorough look at them.

It would be fine if they didn't allow a full team, but I'd really like to be able to do 1-4 players or two at the very least. Also, you should allow people to reset their skill points to test maxing things first in different situations.

SirZerosJun 1, 20151 votes

I think the part with the skin and the champion is not that good. I mean as a player it would be pretty nice, but I don't think, that Riot would let you have any champ and any skin you want, even if you just want to test them out ;)