Red Post Collection: IronStylus with lots of Skins / VU talk, Origins of Arcade Hecarim, and No post Update Master Yi in LCS/Playoffs

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IronStylus chatting about skins and visual updates
In response to the three new skins put up on the PBE earlier today, a heated skin and visual update discussion has broken out on the forums.

Here's IronStylus diving into the fire, sharing champions who have skins coming up, and explaining why not every champion is as easy to make a skin for as the others.

"Every champion listed above currently has a skin in development, somewhere along the pipeline. Delays and time between skins hinge on a number of factors, I'll list some particular to this list: 

Urgot - Something under development, however he's shambly and we need to screw with the rig a lot. 

Zed - Fairly straight forward aside from that his shadows might be something else entirely in any given skin, mandating possibly another model and particle work for that model. 

Zyra - Tons of models which require animation if they're anything different than the plant rigs, lots of particle work. 

Thresh - Chains.

Nami - If we change the model into a different type of fish/sea creature, that will requite custom rigging for whatever additions we make. Example, new fins/membranes need a lot of animation support. She's also very particle heavy. 

Skarner - Soon(tm) 

Kha'Zix - Extremely VFX heavy, evolving model, etc. 

Rengar - Not sure where he's at. He's straight forward, but not terribly old.

Syndra - Heavy particle work, possibly fabric animation support depending on the theme. Doing something cosmic would most likely require model translucency and/or scrolling textures which are just now being used on some newer skins. 

Viktor - Tons of particle work and a couple of models for his traps. 

Vi - Fairly recent release, should be something along relatively Soon(tm) 

Aside from those specifics, certain things can constrain production, mainly VFX and animation. Both of which are heavily valued when it comes what players enjoy about new skins. Both tend to be the most pinched of resources internally. Additionally, a skin for any given champion might be in production, but then an event (Lunar Revel, Harrowing, etc) might pop up on our radar and we may realize a champion would better fit there. We might put the in-progress skin on hold while we make something appropriate for an upcoming event. Happened to a concept of mine recently. 

As for Rumble, which people keep bringing up, I’ll restate: He’s the equivalent to the work of a new champion. He requires a completely new rig and animation sets if he’s to be anything different than the rickety mech he’s in now. That rig doesn’t support anything to the magnitude of fan-requested ideas, or concepts players have submitted. We’re going to change his rig for his upcoming skins. One of which is currently in production, but as I said, needs heavy animation support.

Hope that helps clarify!"

He continued, addressing a few things specifically:

When asked about Evelynn getting a new skin, he replied:

"Eve will get a relaunch before any more skins most likely. She's in shambles."

He also replied to someone asking if the art team had every settled on a new direction for Eve's VU:

"Not really. I did a version which was a straight up revamp of her in a similar costume, we have a high-rez model of it, but we're thinking of some more ambitious design directions to take her possibly. She's a little further down the priority list at this point."

As for a new Viktor skin, he commented:

"I made a ****ty skin for Viktor. We got him through modeling and texture and we realize, ugh, this looks terrible. We decided to reconcept with a stronger theme.

There, you can personally blame me for a Viktor skin delay. That cutting through the BS for you?"

For Zyra, he noted:

"Zyra currently has a couple nearly complete models in the backlog. (This does NOT mean they have had animation or VFX support.) However, recently we felt she would slot into an upcoming event quite well. We decided to concept that and move forward on that skin. Zyra is massively intensive. You've just compared her to two melee fighters. Some of the "easiest" champions to produce due to limited VFX needs."

When poked about what sort of "events" he is talking about, he replied:

"Events like the Harrowing, Snowdown Showdown, and Lunar Revel are all that are on my radar at the moment."

As for his beloved Diana,

"Did a concept, completed it, scrapped it due to an event that could use a Diana skin. I'm currently reconcepting it as I type this."

When asked about Nunu getting a VU, he dropped a nice surprise:

"Grumpy Monkey currently has a high-rez model of Nunu complete. This is nowhere near to being an indicator of when he will be coming out however. He is on the list though!"

He also commented on Singed and Cho'Gath getting a VU, saying:

"We want to do both of those. Not on the priority list however."

As for Alistar:

"Not a high priority. Not sure how extensive of an overhaul he'd get."

He also simplified things a bit by saying:

"Hmm let me try a really crazy thing.. 

Every champion, unless slated for a relaunch, has a skin in development. Those champions which need relaunches are pretty self evident when you compare their quality to current standards. By that math, I think you can assume who is on the relaunch list, as long as it may be, and who has a skin currently in the works.

Does that answer most questions?"

Arcade Hecarim: Origins
IronStylus also stopped in for a quick history lesson on the newly announced Arcade Hecarim skin:

"I'll tell you wht we were thinking.., 

Rainbows. ****ing guitar powered, supersonic, chrome plated rainbows. 

Fun fact!
This skin is actually the product of one of our Thunderdomes. A span of about 2 days where we all get into groups and burn on a project we want to see happen. Some great stuff has come from TD, including the first iteration of Arcade Hecarim. Everyone went giggly over the particles and silliness. We're all fans of this sort of 80's craziness, and for some reason, as absurd as it was, it seemed to fit considering other popular media we've been exposed to. 

After TD, we reevaluated what we had then put him in the pipeline proper for proper modeling tweaks, animation cleanup and particle work.

Either way, I love being at a place where something we are able to bang out in 2 days can get so much buy-in that we can get it into the pipeline and make it really awesome!"

Master Yi will not be availble for this LCS or the playoffs.
RiotTiza mentioned earlier today that post update Master Yi will NOT be available for use in the upcoming LCS superweek or in the playoffs.

"Yi is considered a rework, so he will be treated like a new champion for the purposes of LCS use. He'll be disabled for Super Week as well as playoffs.

EDIT: Check out section 8.4 and 8.4.2 in the Official LCS Ruleset."

Which reads:

"Champions who have not been available on the live service for more than 4 weeks will be automatically restricted. 

Example: Thresh was released January 23, 2013, so Thresh becomes eligible to be used in all LCS matches on February 20, 2013."

On Riven's Sale Price
Here's WizardCrab with info on why Riven's current sale price is reduced despite her normal price not being reduced yet as Lucian is not yet out and Riven is the next champion up for a price reduction.

"Hey guys, 

As some of you may have noticed, Riven is part of tomorrow's sale, however the post says she'll be on sale for 440 RP (http://beta.na.leagueoflegends.com/e...n-sale-813-816). You might note that Riven is 975 RP, and that 440 RP is more than a 50% discount. This is a mistake I made because we had hoped Lucian would be out already, and I put Riven into the sales system long before Lucian was delayed. With Lucian's release, Riven's price will be reduced to 880, and so 440 would have been the correct sale price had Lucian been released. 

I just wanted to let you know that Riven will still be on sale for 440 RP even though her price has not been reduced yet, and will not be reduced before this sale. But the happy accident is that you don't need to be concerned with picking up Riven right before her price drops.

Please feel free to ask me any questions if this is confusing."