Red Post Collection: June 4th Patch Update, HUD Update Q&A, Ekko Community Roundup, and more!

This morning's red post collection includes a look at the login issues fix that went out in the June 4th patch update, a Q&A with the team behind the HUD Rework, an Ekko community creations roundup, and more!
Continue reading for more information

• 6/3 PBE Update: HUD Update, Prehistoric Skins Splash

• Champion and Skin Sale 6/5 - 6/8
• EU LCS Summer Split Week 2
• Red Post Collection: Ekko Price Reduction, HUD Update Discussion, Hexakill up until June 8th, and more!
• Order of the Lotus Irelia Now Available

• 6/4 PBE Update: Prehistoric Renekton flipped Splash, Prehistoric Anivia slice update, HUD Rework removed, & more

Table of Contents

• June 4th Patch Update
• Meddler on Spell Vamp
• Twisted Treeline Update Discussion
• Ekko Community Roundup
• HUD Update Q&A

June 4th  Patch Update

The official 5.10 patch notes have been updated to reflect a hotfix that went out the morning of June 4th to fix the recent login connection issues.

6/4/2015

Login Issues

• We've rolled out an update to mitigate the frustration of the login connection issues some of you have been experiencing. Up-front, there are still some edge cases where your first login attempt might fail, but this should happen much less frequently.

Meddler on Spell Vamp 

When asked about the stat Spell Vamp and if there are any plans to change it around or make it more appealing to your typical caster, Meddler replied:

"We've been talking a bit about investigating changes to how spell vamp works. Things like making it heal based off pre mitigation damage for example. That would address one of its current issues where it's extremely effective against minion waves (little mitigation, lots of targets to hit with AOE) but offers little at all against tankier champs. Nothing concrete planned yet, it is an effect we'd like to take a look at some time soonish though (to be clear though, conclusion of that work might be that we don't make any changes, this isn't a promise there'll be something in a patch)."

Twisted Treeline Update Discussion

With the PBE Twisted Treeline updates fixing to go to live soon, ManWolfAxeBoss swung back by the dedicated Twisted Treeline subreddit to comment on the recent changes to increasing the new out TT turret's range and reducing the cooldown on the newly introduced TT Hextech Sweeper trinket:

We changed the first tier turret attack range and vision range to only 650. You can sneak into lane from Vilemaw and jungle without being spotted. During our internal playtesting, and on PBE, jungle ganks were still totally doable. More-so top, but bot still works. 

Furthermore, due to the more objective focused nature of the update I don't think "picking a late game champ and farming forever" will be terribly strong. One of our goals with the changes was to empower ADCs and make early game, through the new towers, more meaningful. Wave clear will always be valuable on any map, but I think you'll be surprised when you play it. 

That being said, meta is something that will inevitably evolve over time. Excited to see where it goes!

He continued:

"I am a Riot employee :) Work on the Live Gameplay team. Riot Nekomaru and myself did the TT update (Design side anyway. Lots of help from other disciplines). 

Changing the map layout was out the scope for this update. That requires art resources and whatnot that we just didn't have. There are many things I would like to change about the layout of TT, but those would have to be much larger, full-scale map reworks. 

The trinket does have a very short cooldown. On launch, we want people to use it and understand its strengths. We know it's probably overpowered and will likely be going to 120 CD next patch. We'll see. 

The trinket range is actually very large considering the "splash" radius. You do not need the center of the indicator to be in the brush to gain vision of the brush. It also used to be much longer and there was almost zero risk associated with using it. We have kept it intentionally short. We will keep an eye on it though. 

Thanks for the feedback!"

Ekko Community Roundup

 Jynx is back with another community round up, this time looking at what players have created for our latest champion Ekko!

"With Ekko’s release, it’s time to take a moment and admire some of the awesome community creations he’s inspired! Click on the Artists' names to see more of their work.

2P Studios 

Crazy Boris

Want more? Check out the community creations on the /All Chat episode about Ekko!"

HUD Update Q&A

To start us off, here's Chager with an introduction to the HUD Update Q&A:

"Quote: 

HUD Update

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/page/game-features/hud-update 

We're creating a more streamlined UI that doesn't obscure the play space and reorganizes the information based on how players actually use it. These changes are all driven by tons of observation and playtesting, but like everything else, we're looking for your feedback to improve them further.

Howdy all, 

With the info and PBE release of the HUD update for League of Legends, we wanted to gather the team that's been working on it to answer questions anyone may have. 

We'll start around 2pm PDT and will go until 4pm PDT. Folks from the team Include User Experience, Engineering, Visual Design, and QA experts, so ask away and we'll do our best to answer as many as we can. 

Thanks, 

-Chager 

========================== 

Ok all, we're going to call it there for now. Some awesome questions and hopefully equally good answers from us all. We still want to keep the conversation going so we'll be visiting this and other threads while the HUD is on PBE. In the mean time keep the feedback coming and we look forward to some good conversations and making the HUD Update awesome for y'all. 

Thanks, 

-Clarity Team"

As usual, I've sorted the Q&A responses into several categories

• General & Features Discussion
• Potential Additions
• Other Projects
• Group Questions

General & Features Discussion

When asked how hard he believes it will be for players to adjust to the new HUD, Chager  replied

"Quote:

What do you think, how hard will it be for players to adapt to this new HUD, seems kinda confusing to me. 

Also the little tear when you have no mana for the spell is kinda ugly and doesn't fit there, maybe something else? 

Although it's a really nice HUD and I can't wait for it to come to live!

We're expecting some disruption as players get used to the new layout and functionality (similar to what players went through with SRU). That being said we've been testing this within Riot for a while now and several teams that are regularly using it are really enjoying the new features."

He continued, commenting on streamers who currently use custom overlays:

"Quote:

I feel like this will be a pain for streamers who have custom overlays, since it's super different than usual. Also, I don't know if I should be happy or hate the new HUD... I'll get back to you on that once I try it myself...

We know it'll be a change for streamers who will have to redo their overlay, but the new HUD takes up less screen real estate than the old one. That and with more independent scaling of parts we think it'll give streamers MORE layout possibilities than before."

When asked if it is intentional that the HUD update has all the buffs/debuffs once again on the center bar instead of split up between left and center, Chager confirmed:

"Quote:

Can we have all buffs and debuffs be moved back into the center of the screen again? 

Having the buffs/debuffs split between the lower-left and lower-center of the HUD is extremely annoying.

Yes! As part of the HUD update we will be moving buffs/debuffs back to center HUD."

Razgriez also commented on the new scoreboard reordering functionality, saying:

"Quote:

Is the moving around players feature exclusive only to the scoreboard? Is it possible to move around the natural ordering of champion icons above the minimap?

Changing the order in the scoreboard also changes the slots over the minimap."

As for the purpose of this,  Rayven explained:

"Quote:

How does having the option to rearrange team members have purpose?

Matching up lane opponents makes comparison easier in the scoreboard."

Rayven also commented that this will rearrange the F keys order:

"Quote:

I use F1-F4 keys to quickly center my camera on other lanes/players to check up on them. Currently, the keybinds change from game to game, sometimes F3 is top lane, sometimes it's F1. 

With moving players around in the scoreboard, would there be any QoL feature to have keybinds remain consistent? Like if I move a player to position #1 on my side, I'd like to have F1 ALWAYS select the player I put in position #1. Instead of the keys being assigned by the current immovable pick order

The new F keys will be "slot" based not champion based. So say you want Ahri to be F3 b/c she's mid, drag her in the scoreboard to the middle slot and it should work (depending on your binds of course)."

When asked about the absence of ping buttons around the mini map, Rayven commented:

"Quote:

When I was checking it out yesterday, I noticed there was no ping buttons. Are they still there or am I just blind and there in an obvious spot?

No we've removed those buttons to streamline and focus the minimap. The functionality is still accessible through hotkeys of course."

As for resizing the mini map, Riot Gharris  noted:

"Quote:

Will it be possible to control the size of the minimap by any chance ?

Yepperino! There's a minimap sizing slider in the options interface."

When asked if each of the HUD elements will have scaling bars, Rayven noted:

"Quote:

Are we going to be able to scale the HUD elements individually?

Yes."

Rayven also commented on the location of the connection ping:

"Quote:

Will the four squares on the top right corner indicating my ping beeing implemented again? I find those pretty useful.

Ping is near the minimap in the new HUD."

As for the lack of champion and hero names on the scoreboard, Rayven noted:

"Quote:

Can you not see the names of champions/players on the tab screen anymore? That'd be really annoying...

It's on hover. In what situations do you use that info?"

As for feedback on the "ability on cooldown" animations on the ability bar,  Chager Permalink

"Quote:

I dislike the new cooldown animations. The flatline(Like submarine radar) that went around the entire inside icon, in a circle, was easier on my eyes, than trying to focus on the new tiny blue circle in the middle of the icon. 

Increasing the scale makes the point of making it harder to click on redundant, so I wish I was able to have the old HUD and new minimap(with scoreboard on it).

We've gotten similar feedback around the cooldown animations and are looking at ways to change it to make it easier to read than it is now. Stay tuned as we continue to change and iterate while we're on PBE."

As for the out of mana and other spell state options,  Rayven noted

"Quote:

the indicator on skills for not having enough mana to cast them and the character stats are both rather small, and the OOM indicator is especially hard to notice while fighting. Are there any plans to improve readability on these aspects of the new HUD?

For sure. We will be improving the readability of spell states generally and OoM is specifically on our to-do list."

Chager also replied to a question regarding where DJ Sona's music share button will be placed on the HUD update:

"Quote:

Dont forget to update the D.J Sona music button. i wouldnt like to see it somewhere random in the middle of the screen :)

We are working on the placement for her button in the near future :) We'll make sure it goes right in the middle of the screen (hah)."

When asked if there will be an option to use the old HUD once the HUD update launches, Chagercommented:

"Quote:

I wonder if there will be an option to select the old hud?

Right now we don't have any plans to leave the old layout as an option. There's a lot behind the scenes with coding and a design philosophy behind how we're presenting info in the new HUD that is hard to retrofit back into the old HUD. 

What about the new HUD makes you want to keep the old one around? If there are areas of concern that would make it harder to adapt to let us know!"

Matchu also commented on the HUD update being a work in progress as we currently see it:

"Heya! We really appreciate the feedback. Our design is definitely still a work in progress. We are going with a more modern look as you've alluded to. As we move forward we will be adding additional polish and bringing back in some of that life you're missing with additional texture fidelity, animation refinement - both functional (ability states like cooldowns and toggles) and decorative (health bars, leveling up) in addition to bringing more of a magical flavor to the HUD and it's personality. This is all dependent of course on how it affects or distracts from gameplay and the feedback we get in the process."

Potential Additions

As for adding ally R countdown timers to the HUD,  Riot Gharris commented:

"Hey, just wanted to chime in here and say that we're strongly considering the feature. This isn't information that has been made available before, so we're going to talk it out before dumping that in. 

I think it'd be pretty cool though!"

Chager  also chimed in:

"We've been thinking about adding ally ult timers in the teammates section, but wanted to see what responses were like before we moved forward. I have a strong hunch they'll make it in soon."

When asked if the mini map will be updated, Rayven commented:

"Quote:

Is it going to be possible to have an option to remove the blue/green border graphics around the icons / information? 

Can we also get a HUD Map update as well? Something more clear and direct?

Which borders? 

We are planning on updating the minimap bg as well - it's just not in yet."

When asked if the resource bars will still be animated (as they are not in the original PBE debut),  Rayven replied:

"Quote:

Quick question, will the health bar and secondary resource bar still be animated as they are right now? From looking at the screen shots they appear to be just flat and static, I hope we will still get to keep the animated bars. They are one of my favorite things of the HUD as of right now. Thank you!

Yes, we are looking to add some animated magic into those meters."

Rayven continued:

"We will be adding little magical touches in order to make the HUD feel more alive without getting in the way of gameplay. The new art style is meant to feel more cohesive with the Summoner's Rift update. I wonder if it will look more like LoL to you as you get used to it."

Chager  also added:

"Quote:

i really loved the sparkly animated HUD health and mana bars :( 

Will the old hud animations be removed?

We are looking to add some life to the new HUD via small meaningful animation touches, so don't fear. We needed to get the nuts and bolts done and out to PBE before we put the final polish touches on."

When asked if there is a possibility of having the Surrender Vote window minimize after vouting,
Rayven  commented:

"Quote:

Can we have the Surrender Vote window minimize to the minimap, so we can still see the vote count but it's out of the way after we vote?

Yes, this is on our backlog."

Other Projects

When asked if the spectator mode HUD is also going to be updated,  Chager noted:

"Quote:

Is the spectator HUD going to receive an update similar to the in-game HUD update?

Hey Jeddy, 

Spectator will be receiving a visual update, but it will come out after this is released to live. We wanted to focus on the core player experience first, and then shift attention to the spectator HUD."

As for an in-game cursor update, Chager  commented:

"Quote:

will u update the cursor?

It's on our backlog of work but no ETA on when it'll happen."

Rayven also added:

"Quote:

imo the mouse cursor should stick out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the UI and all 4 maps. 

Not vague enough, I know.

Yeah, we agree. Not part of this update, but it's something we'd like to update in the future."

When asked about death recap and when it will be updated, Rayven replied:

"Quote:

Hey UI team. Awesome work, I love the new layout. 

Is death recap going to be reworked? Currently its super buggy, and often contains a lot of false and missing information. It would be really nice to see more than 3 abilities per champ, and more than 3 champs per kill.

Yes Death Recap is being worked on, but not as part of this update."

Rayven reiterated this in a different response, saying:

"Quote:

Why do you upgrade the HUD when the Death Recap is still buggy as hell. I know that you already shared some ideas regarding that matter. But in the current state even a small bugfix patch would be enough to make it empirically better in any way. I also know that you're currently working at it for at least a year because some small things went (accidently) to live, which resulted in more bugs.

Death recap is currently being worked on. In the future, you won't be killed by Revive."