Today's red post collection includes
Meddler's quick LoL thoughts for June 19, on Little Legends in ARAM and skin like themes, updates on Eternals, news on other Riot games, and more!
Continue reading for more information!
Table of Contents
Quick LoL Thoughts: June 19
Here's
Meddler's quick LoL thoughts for June 19th - "Little Legends on ARAM, how we assess skin themes."
"Hi folks,
Usual Disclaimers
These posts will often contain talk about future work we're doing, or planning to do, that isn't yet guaranteed to ship. The nature of the work could change or, depending on what we discover, projects mentioned may get delayed or even stopped. If you'd like to see a Tweet whenever a new one of these posts goes up: https://twitter.com/RiotMeddler
A Recap
This year RiotScruffy and I are alternating posts. He’ll cover in depth balance and other gameplay topics every second week (Quick Gameplay Thoughts). I’ll cover a wider range of issues in the other weeks (Quick LoL Thoughts). My posts will sometimes contain gameplay content too, though usually won’t.
Removing Little Legends from ARAM
In patch 10.15 we’ll be removing Little Legends (LLs) from ARAM. Key factors behind that:
- LLs on ARAM meaningfully undermine visual clarity, with the motion and brightness they add making it harder to track champions and their spells. We’d hoped to avoid that being an issue by having LLs usually avoid central areas where combat happens. That hasn’t been sufficient however.
- Very few players have been interested in acquiring LLs specifically for ARAM use. While some players who’ve acquired them for TFT do use them on ARAM almost no one has purchased them for ARAM specifically. Overall player sentiment about their presence on ARAM is also quite low.
- We’ve been constraining our LL designs because they also need to exist on ARAM. That means limitations to things like silhouettes (need to ensure they never read as champion), size, emotes (animations shouldn’t look like spellcasts) etc. Making them purely a TFT feature gives us more freedom when creating future LLs to do cool things.
Having said that, there are some players who have very much enjoyed the presence of LLs on ARAM. For those of you in that situation our apologies. We think this is the right call for ARAM players overall, we realize for some of you it will be a downgrade in your experience though. For those of you who bought LLs specifically for ARAM who haven’t played TFT we’ll be refunding the RP spent on them. Details about how that will work:
- Refunds will be applied to accounts that own LLs but have never played TFT. It doesn't look at specific LL usage, it's an account-level "TFT yes/no" flag.
- The refund process will start when 10.15 goes out and should be finished before patch 10.16.
- It will remove all Little Legends from your account and refund the RP spent on them, both the LLs you used on ARAM and the ones you didn't.
- Non RP LL unlocks (e.g. Twitch Prime rewards) will not be refunded.
How we assess skin line themes
When we assess a group of skins that share a theme we look at four things:
- How did the skin perform relative to expectations? We don’t expect a skin for a niche champion to be acquired by as many players as one for a really popular champion, so this is about acquisition relative to the base champion’s popularity. Skin acquisition equates to both player happiness (who liked the skin enough to get it) and revenue for Riot.
- Player surveys about the theme. Are players more interested in seeing this theme return than most other themes? This is about the theme’s potential, rather than the specific skins we just released using the theme. It’s not a survey of players who acquired the skins, but players in general.
- Did this skin release get more or less support from us than usual? This means things like trailers, prominent space in the client, overall amount of time taken building the skins relative to others at the same tier etc.
- How many more champions exist that players are telling us they think would fit well into this theme? A skin line might be well loved and perform well, but if we’ve used up all the good fits it makes more sense to focus on other themes instead.
Based off those factors we’ll decide whether to continue with the skin line as a high profile theme, continue with the theme as a regular set of skins, rework the theme to try and better deliver on the promise we and players think it has, or vault the theme (no plans for further skins).
Some concrete examples:
- High Noon - The original High Noon skins didn’t perform particularly well. We believed though that there was a lot of potential in them so rebooted the skin line with the 2018 release. That release didn’t have a large amount of support (limited publishing assets like trailers etc). It performed very well though and players gave us really positive feedback about it. As a result we’ve made High Noon a higher visibility/priority skin line since.
- Sugar Rush - We’ve tried Sugar Rush a couple of times and unfortunately it’s done poorly in both cases. Sugar Rush 2019 for example was in the bottom 10% of skin lines versus expectations for the year. Reluctantly we’ve decided to vault Sugar Rush as a result. It’s possible that there are approaches that would work for a meaningful number of players, we think spending time on other options looks a lot more promising at this point though.
- Star Guardian - Started off strong and continued strong. People were excited for these skins immediately, a lot of players acquired them and those that did use them a lot, suggesting that they’re favorites relative to other skins for the champs that have them. Very few skin lines perform so consistently well. We still want to make sure we don’t return to themes like SG too quickly, bring a somewhat different spin on things each time, force the theme onto a champ that doesn’t make sense etc. It’s a great example of a theme that seems to have lasting appeal though provided we make the right choices with it.
- Debonair - Debonair has had very mixed performance. Some skins have done, others have very much missed the mark. We think there’s potential there though, so we’re exploring a possible reboot for a 2021+ Debonair line, along with possible reboots to a lot of other older skin thematics. One thing we’ve identified is that Debonair’s too thin at present. Well dressed champions is a good starting point, but we need more to deliver a strong skin (e.g. High Noon benefited from getting the Hellfire/Demons/Angels elements added to its Old West base). No guarantees Debonair specifically comes back, we expect to return so some older thematics with new takes next year though."
Eternals Capsules, Discounts, and More
Here's
Riot KenAdamsNSA with updates on Eternals - "Eternals Capsules, discounts, and updates are coming soon."
"TL;DR:
- Eternals Series will be released once per season
- Players will soon be able to earn Eternals Capsules for free through event missions and climbing the Ranked ladder
- New Eternals features are coming in a future Series release, including Eternals Emotes, Seasonal Bests, and more
Let's dive deeper into what's coming up for Eternals.
New Eternals and Discounts
First off, for those curious about when and how future Eternals will be released, we'll be releasing Eternals in entire Series. This means that Series 2 will release for all champions available at the time in January 2021.
Like our other personalization offerings, Eternals will have discounts similar to those for Champions and Skins, with a bigger discount for when we launch new Eternals.
- 3 months after a Series' initial launch = 30% off that Series Pass for 2 weeks
- When a new Series releases = 60% off all old Series Passes for 2 weeks
Eternals Capsules
Eternals Capsules are Loot items that players can earn for free by simply playing the game. By completing missions during events, earning a new fourth tier Ranked Split Reward, or qualifying for and receiving a Victorious skin during a season, players will receive an Eternal Capsule that contains Set Shards for RP-only Eternals sets!
The first event that will distribute Eternal Capsules as a free reward is the upcoming Summer event. By completing a free mission that will activate around the end of the event's mission chain, players can earn an Eternals Capsule. Beginning with Split 3 in Season 2020, every Split will award an Eternals Capsule for those who earn 750 Split Points. And finally, players who qualify for the season's Victorious skin (ranking Gold or higher by the end of the season), will earn a specific Set for the champion receiving the skin along with the Victorious skin itself.
New Eternals Features
We're also planning new features based on feedback from players who want more ways to show off their Eternals. We’re aiming to debut these features with the launch of Series 2 in January 2021, but timelines are subject to change:
- Seasonal Best for each Eternal - Set a personal Eternals record every season!
- Exclusive Eternals Emote - Really proud of a particular Eternal on your favorite champ? Flex your stats at will!
Thanks for playing, and keep the feedback coming!"
Miscellaneous
- Teamfight Tactics Patch 10.13 Preview infographic via official twitter! For non official & tentative PBE notes, check here.
Other Games
"New ranked season, game modes, an in-game event, and a variety of features that will change the way you play. Welcome to the Season of Fortune."
"This is Ask VALORANT. We collect your questions and select a few to get answered every other week."
- League of Legends: Wild Rift
- Wild Rift's regional alpha is happening now for players in Brazil and the Phillipines! Check out their first set of Patch Notes from the Wild Rift twitter:
"ALPHA PATCH NOTES - JUNE 17
Hey, look at us. Who’d have thought? Not me! It’s @wildrift’s very first patch notes!
We don’t have a fancy website like @leagueoflegends just yet, so we’ll be posting the changes below, which are available now in the Regional Alpha."
Reminders
- High Noon Irelia, Senna, new chromas, icons and more are now available!
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