Red Post Collection: Kindred Discussion, Instant Feedback & Chat Restriction updates, Plush Week Sale, & more

Posted on at 5:43 AM by Moobeat
This morning's red post collection includes discussion on Kindred now they are revealed and on the PBE, a look at the updates to instant feedback and chat restrictions in 5.18,  a new patch rundown, details on the Plush week merchandise sale, and more!
Continue reading for more information!


Table of Contents


Kindred Discussion

With our next champion revealed and currently on the PBE for testing, several Rioters hoped on the boards and pbe boards to discussion Kindred, the Eternal Hunters!

When asked about Kindred's passive and if it is possible to switch hunted targets in the middle of a brawl, Meddler commented:
"Mark of the Kindred is actually deliberately locked out while Kindred's in combat. That's because we want Mark of the Kindred to be something you engage with strategically, picking targets to hunt ahead of time, rather than something you put on a target you think will die during the current fight. For that reason there's also a delay between selecting a target and being able to collect on the mark (so that marking something right before you engage on them a second later isn't the optimal play)."

As for confusion around the damage dealt by Kindred's passive, Meddler elaborated:
"Ah, I can see how that's confusingly worded, will pass that feedback on to the Kindred team. What actually happens is that, if they kill a marked enemy, the Kindred get +1.25% current health damage on future auto attacks (so calculated off the target of those attacks at the time, Blade of the Ruined King style)." 
He continued:
"Yes, once you've killed a marked target all your future auto attacks will deal % current health damage to their targets. Monsters get marked occasionally by Wolf, until you've completed 6 hunts. Damage from Mark of the Kindred is uncapped, so in an infinitely long game you could get infinite damage. In reality though given the CD on the Mark and the way you need to kill a specific pre selected target you won't normally be able to get as crazy late game as Veigar or Nasus frequently do." 
As for Kindred's passive hunts on jungle camps, Wrekz commented that you'll stop spawning monsters to hunt once you reach 6 stacks:
"Hey! 
Currently Wolf stops hunting monsters once you reach 6 stacks. The passive is meant to reward you for doing risky things and invading the enemy jungle to poach specific camps. Past a certain point in the game the jungle really opens up and becomes a lot less dangerous to invade, especially as you being tearing through camps super quickly. 
I will update the tooltip to reflect this, it will be at the bottom. 
Thank you and please keep the feedback coming!"
As for Kindred's Q and how it prioritizes targets, Meddler explained:
"It's intended that Kindred's Q does not automatically prioritize champions, we don't want to make the spell auto optimize itself each cast to that degree. It will however prioritize the target of Kindred's last auto attack, so if there's a particular enemy you really want to hit you have the option of doing so."
He continued:
"The first of the three arrows will fire at your auto attack target. The second and third arrows will fire at other targets based off their proximity to Kindred. If the target you recently auto attacked isn't in Q range the first arrow will also fire at a nearby enemy instead."
When asked about the purpose of Kindred's R, Meddler explained:
"It's intended that Kindred will be reliant on Mark of the Kindred for a significant amount of their damage, later on in the game in particular.

The ult's there in part to give a baseline contribution that's independent of how farmed Kindred is or isn't. It's also a way of allowing a squishy, short ranged sustained damage dealer to take risks without that being a completely terrible idea. On top of that it's a way to distinguish Kindred from other moderately similar characters (farm junglers and other short ranged mobile ADCs). It also doubles down on the power within a specific area concept that the W also presents."

When asked about a certain line in Kindred's VO, Utora confirmed:
"yup! if you take Kindred's marked jungle creep from her, she will say a line that only the thief can hear."
You can hear these lines starting at around 7:30  into the Kindred VO!

Over on Twitter, Wrekz also answered a few questions on Kindred:
As for where Kindred's non jungle potential, Wrekz noted:

  • [1]"The character is designed to be function in the jungle. They are weaker in lanes."
  • [2]"Kindred will be best in the jungle but I imagine people will experiment elsewhere."

When asked where Kindred hails from, Wrekz commented:
"Kindred is not really from any faction, they are from a time before those really existed."

When asked if the current PBE icon will be the final champion portrait despite not being a clip from the splash, Wrekz noted:
"This is the final direction for the icon. The splash is AMAZING but we wanted something a bit more clear (when tiny) for the icon"

When asked about the passive on enemy champions, Wrekz noted:
"No, it does not grant vision. Yes, it has a 90 second cooldown after you mark someone."

Wrekz also commented on Kindred's R, clarifying:
"Yes. The ult stops allies/enemies/monsters anything living from dying."
When asked what the point of it is, Wrekz replied:
"The point is that YOU can make the ability powerful by knowing when and where to use it."
As for R and structures, he noted:
"Nope, it does not stop structures from dying."
For more on Kindred, check out these links:

Sated Devourer PBE Nerfs & Kayle

When asked about Kayle and the recent PBE Sated Devourer change that has ranged champions triggering the Phantom Hit passive every 4th hit instead of every other, Riot Wrekz commented:
"We will be looking at how this change will affect Kayle and evaluate what to do. Our intent with this change is not to nerf Kayle."

Nasus Q bugfix in 5.18

vLemon also commented on the boards that the Nasus Q bug that causes his attack to "lag out" and do nothing has been fixed in 5.18 even though it was not documented in the 5.18 patch notes
"Hey guys, even though it's missing from the patch notes, the fix for this bug is going out with 5.18."

Instant feedback powers up

Next we have  Lyte with a look at the instant feedback system changes coming in 5.18, including in-client reform cards, dealing with intentional feeders, and news that players who haven't been chat/ranked restricted or banned in last 3 months will get an exclusive summoner icon by next patch!
"A few months back we launched instant feedback bans, an automated system delivering two week and permanent bans for verbal toxicity within 15 minutes of a game’s end. Instant feedback hits two player behavior design values, both punishing negative players and helping them reform their behavior. 
Now, we’re bolting a few new cylinders onto the instant feedback engine. Fueled by your reports on what is and isn’t acceptable behavior (and some elbow grease on our end), chat/ranked restrictions and intentional feeding bans are now delivered and enforced within 15 minutes of a game’s end. Beyond those upgrades, we’re moving reform cards into the client and rounding out the design value trinity byrewarding positive players with an exclusive summoner icon. 
In-client reform cards 
Until now, reform cards were sent via email to offending players. Now they’ll appear in-client, delivering context on the punishment and displaying the chat log that triggered the punishment. Pushing reform cards into the client ensures players receive the information they need to understand the punishment and change their behavior for the better. Since the vast majority of you won’t ever receive a reform card, here’s what one looks like: 
Chat and ranked restrictions 
Instant feedback began with two-week and permanent bans because the negative behaviors spurring them (homophobia, racism, sexism, death threats, and excessive verbal abuse) are both overwhelmingly rejected by the community and hard to mistake. After crunching several million games worth of data over the last few months, the instant feedback system’s now ready to help reform more mild, but persistent negative behaviors with chat and ranked restrictions. Beyond the extra horsepower, we’re re-tuning restrictions to better encourage reform. Learn more about that effort over on boards. 
Intentional feeding bans 
Intentional feeders ruin games, so the behavior nets offending players two-week bans, and can escalate to permanent bans if the behavior continues. Through a ton of in-game metrics, chat logs, and even historical play patterns, we ensured the system understands the difference between intentional feeding and being crushed by a Riven main in solo queue. You shouldn’t need to worry about just having a bad game. 
Like with all new feature launches, the whole player behavior team will hand-review the first few thousand cases to make sure everything’s working right. 
Positive players unlock exclusive icon 
To celebrate positive play, every player who hasn’t been chat/ranked restricted or banned over the last three months will unlock an exclusive summoner icon. You can expect that to land in your account by 5.19. 
We’ll hang around the comments to answer any questions!"

Upcoming Upgrades to Chat Restrictions

To go along with the post above on the instant feedback update, Riot NeuroCat also dropped in to share updates to the chat restriction system that are also headed out in 5.18 including the ranked/chat restriction reset!
"Hi everyone! I work on Player Behavior and want to take you through some updates to chat restrictions launching alongside the big instant feedback upgrade. But first, a little context: 
Punishments for negative behavior in League should accomplish three things: 
  • Encourage moderately or occasionally negative players to reform
  • Shield players from negative experiences
  • Remove players who won’t reform from League 
Since we launched chat restrictions last year, we’ve observed a few problems. Some negative players accumulate ridiculously high numbers of chat restrictions, yet use their limited chat to spread negativity without any sign of reform. Others reform their behavior, but still need to work off hundreds of chat restricted games before learning if they’d reformed or continued earning punishments. Still others would receive chat restrictions, but not know what specific behaviors their fellow players found objectionable and subsequently have difficulty reforming. 
Here’s how we’re fixing these issues: 
  • Punishments will rapidly escalate for those who don’t reform. Here’s how it works: 
    • First offense: 10 game chat restriction
    • Second offense: 25 game chat restriction
    • Third offense: 2 week ban
    • Fourth offense: Permanent ban  
  • We’re reducing the delay between action and consequence (which we’ve observed significantly increases rates of reform) by handing out chat restrictions within 15 minutes of a game’s end. Along those same lines, restricted players now receive escalated punishments as they ‘earn’ them, rather than waiting until their restriction expires to learn what’s next. 
  • The offending player now receives direct feedback about their behavior. Players now receive in-client reform cards containing the chat logs their peers found troubling. 
One last note: because of the scope of these changes, all chat and ranked restrictions will be reset and past restrictions won’t count against you in the new system. Everyone’s slate is wiped clean (for these restrictions), so this is a great time to turn over a new leaf. 
All these upgrades go live over the course of this patch (5.18). I’ll hang around the thread to answer any questions you’ve got. Let us know what you think!"

Introducing Blitzcrank Bot

Next up we have BlueFire with an introduction to a new support experiment - Blitzcrank bot!
"Greetings fellow human beings (for real), 
I’m BlueFire, just one of many behind the creation of Blitzcrank Bot, the newest agent of our support team. Who is Blitzcrank Bot? He’s a sophisticated, precise, and friendly robot we built to answer your tickets as fast as possible. We surveyed many of you who submitted tickets at the beginning of this year and the number one thing you guys wanted was faster tickets! We heard you and have not only increased our staff to serve you, but also invested heavily in this new piece of technology to answer you as quickly as possible. I wanted to get an FAQ in front of you as you start seeing him. 
FAQ: 
Q: How will I know if I am talking to Blitzcrank Bot? 
A: We plan to make it very clear that you’re speaking to our Blitzcrank. You’ll see his picture and name in the response and the reply itself will reinforce this through text. 
Q:What if I want to talk to a person? 
A: Simply reply to the ticket and we’ll forward you to an agent. Its that simple! 
Q: How fast is Blitzcrank Bot? 
A: If Blitzcrank Bot can both understand your ticket and help you solve it he will normally do it within 5 to 10 minutes. He shouldn’t respond to any conversations you’re already having with agents if they happen to be faster. 
Q: How accurate is Blitzcrank Bot? 
A: Right now we have him tuned for about maximum accuracy; which is actually above what we can reasonably expect from humans. Sometimes people write in unusual ways which both confuse Blitzcrank and our agents. Seriously, one time I received a ticket that merely said “help” with NO OTHER INFORMATION. We think that the occasional miss will make-up for the fact that we’ll generally be able to help you much sooner. 
Q: What issues will Blitzcrank Bot be handling? 
A: We will start with English Account Recovery tickets. This is because these are one of our largest ticket problems and someone else having access to your account when you don’t feels really bad. We hope to expand to other languages and issues if you guys like him. 
Q: I hate Blitzcrank bot!!! 
A: Sorry you had a bad experience. We’re going to be surveying players who received an answer from him and seeing how everyone feels about him. If you guys don’t like him we’ll reconfigure him or potentially even scrap him. So your feedback matters! 
Feel free to ask further questions or report problems here and I’ll try to get back to as many as I can."
When asked about certain Riot support responses already feeling like they are handled by bots, BlueFire noted:
"Actually not! All responses you received in the past came from real live human beings reading your tickets. There are a few isolated legal issues where we had to have an automated response (read a couple hundred out of millions and millions of tickets). Note that you'll also know when its Blitzcrank because he will mention it himself."
He continued:
"Actually we do read every ticket. Sometimes mistakes happen (something we're actively working on improving as well), but I can tell you that pretty much every ticket prior to this system was read by a human."

Patch Rundown 5.18 - The Worlds Patch

With 5.18 out on live, Scarizard and crew are back with a patch rundown for 5.18!

"This is the big one. Join Scarizard, Phreak, Feral Pony and Dash for the first of a two part look at the coming worlds patch. 
Patch 5.18 Notes - http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-518-notes"
Scarizard also noted a second Patch Rundown for 5.18 will be coming soon! As for why, he explained:
"This is something we're trying - basically splitting our discussions into two smaller parts, each focused on a specific subject or narrative. Often we've had to cut things down in the past, but with feedback more and more pointing towards people wanting more / in-depth content, we figured a nice compromise was to get out 2 pieces that would, in the end, be longer than a regular episode. 
tl;dr more overall content, more focused pieces. Will look into shipping them at the same time in the future, though that escaped us for this opportunity."

Plush Week - September 15th through 21st

Last up we have a heads up on PLUSH WEEK! Between September 15th and September 21st, all the plush collectibles in the Riot Games Merch store at 30% off!

This includes:

No comments

Post a Comment