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Aaaaaaand, basically nothing about Naafiri
Aaaaaaand, basically nothing about Naafiri
Gotta save some surprises and other details for her reveal at this point, getting pretty close and don't want to have everything be too familiar in advance!
Jax got a mid scope update and then a couple months later an ASU, which essentially means he got a VGU but with a delayed V
At one point last year we were actually considering shipping both the gameplay changes and the visual update component at the same time. It looked like it'd be quite a while until we could line both up though, so figured in this case we should just get the gameplay shipped since it wasn't dependent on the full visual overhaul (unlike most VGUs, where kit changes won't work with old model, anims, VFX etc)
So like Heimerdinger
Oh true, it's been long enough I'd forgotten he followed that same path
Any chances this could become a thing with other old champions? Like Nocturne and Shivana
Depends on the champion! Since every one of our champs is special in their own ways, the solutions are also special :)
I don't know if you can answer this yet, but is the new cute creature marksman a botlaner or like Akshan for another lane? And could you tell us what region they're from?
Botlane! Currently hatching in one regions, but who knows what their journey might entail!
/u/Reav3 are you able to share the creature marksman team
Yeah, currently DNA is TwinEnso on design, Scathlocke on narrative, and Whiteleyth on art
3rd skirmish jungler in a row? It’s a pretty diverse role you know, they don’t have to be one class
We are aware of this and have adjusted future roadmaps to balance! Sometimes if I handout too many restrictions for a champ it will become extremely limiting ont he creative space. There are times when it works well: Milio needed to be from Ixtal and need to be young boy and need to be core enchanter. Sometimes you get more of a mashup that is not great for cohesion. In those cases, somethings need to give. Also, all of the champions that end up making it to players hands are not necessarily all of the champs in development/ explored. When champs don’t work out, we don’t adjust other in dev champs to accommodate because usually it’s too late. We can only adjust further out roadmaps (champs that haven’t fully formed yet).
I notice a few champions getting VUs that are more in line with their Legends of Runeterra counterparts. Is the LoL team looking at that and thinking "That's sick, we should put that in LoL" or is it more of a directed effort throughout all Riot Games?
Gradual move towards more joint planning and development. We're starting to get more cases of one game/team identifying a cool direction for a character and other games then figuring out how to also adopt that approach around the same time. Won't always be possible, but should see more cases like this going forwards
I'm wondering if some of the champions that were in line for total reworks could get gameplay changes + delayed visual update instead. Because champions like Kog'Maw and Cho'Gath are imo fine gameplay wise (at least if compared to Skarner, Tryndamere, Nocturne) and don't really need drastic changes to their kit, just some tweaks here and there and ofc new graphics.
To ensure cohesion of a champion, we generally have to evaluate as a whole package. Even if the gameplay is working, sometimes we need to figure out how this champ fits into the greater runeterra world. Once we make those changes, design usually reconsiders the current kit works well or if there are lightweight tweaks that would make the champ feel alot better as a cohesive package. We also usually use these moments to clean up the scripts to more modern standards. Thus, its not always as simple as just updating art. What goes on underneath the covers on a champ is still bulky work that someone have to set space aside to take on.
Skarner delay sadge
Good news since the article is that we made considerable progress since the article was written :D Not sure if it would help Skarner catchup on the time he already was delayed for... but the team is feeling way more optimistic and energy is picking up! Can wait to have Skarner rushing through into the rift for y'all :D
Please keep the "Imagine if I had a real weapon" line for Jax.
Technically he still doesn't have a real weapon
Skarner delayed again sigh, they really just don’t give a flying f**k about this champ at all.
Its not that we don't care. Its more that we care alot! Delaying a champ means we are keeping people on the project longer. That usually means a more expensive project (time = money when everyone is salaried). We are willing to do that because we really want to get it right rather than ship something we don't have tons of confidence in. This usually means bigger iterations to test, playtest and run labs. It may not result in bigger changes but it means we are doing as much due diligence as we can.
Hello reav, good to see you back on the videos! Hope you're well! Just to confirm, our midlane mage will be male and sounds pretty emo? Or did you not want to reveal gender yet? Did somehting happen that he did not get a teaser image or was that planned?
He is indeed a very sad boi
what happened to shyvana priority ? i remember reav3 saying that she was now tier 1 priority for a vgu she went really well on the pools and a lot people wanted but then Mundo that was worst then her in the pool got a vgu and she didn't
and now she just seems forgotten
Need to finish Skarner first!
I notice a few champions getting VUs that are more in line with their Legends of Runeterra counterparts. Is the LoL team looking at that and thinking "That's sick, we should put that in LoL" or is it more of a directed effort throughout all Riot Games?
Actually for Jax we reworked he visuals first on champions team, and we were going to ship it earlier. Then LoR built their look off our concept art, but then we had to delay the VgU for Jax due to losing some key animators on the team. LoR couldn't delay their release so theirs ended up releasing first. Then we just released the gameplay part of the update separately as Meddler mentioned and then given the pushback of Skarner we had that resources to also ship the visual side.
The Jax VgU was the "Secret" VgU I mentioned like 2 years ago in a champ roadmap
Hey Reav3, quick question. Real excited about the upcoming champs, but could you possibly say if we're still on track for a good split between Humans, Humanoids, and some Monsters sprinkled in? Bel'Veth, Vex, and soon Naafari have been super refreshing in recent years and I'd hate to see that backslid.
We are still targeting a good split, yes
Since there's apparently a difference between this and ASUs, would the champions team possibly work on other "VUs" or small gameplay VGUs in the future?
Yes, the Champs team is interested in doing more VgUs, like Morgana, Ezreal, Jax in the future if the opportunity makes sense.
I hope for a wider range of complexity and play styles for champions. Sad to see the the jungler is yet another skirmisher.
I hope for more niche play styles and complex champions like Aphelios, which I consider truly genius design.
We're going for diver over skirmisher
I hope that you don't feel the need to abide by this rule every single times, tho. Design is hard and sometimes stuffs get delay. So it would be fine to not have any monster champ in 1 year if they are not ready
Yeah its not about per year or anything, we just want to make sure we arn't making the same types of champs over and over
Does the champ entail one tail or two tails? 😸
;D
One last question: It's been 2 years since Yone, is there any plans for a new lore champion like Yone or Senna? I think Silco was also planned but didn't work out but I love lore champs so I hope we will get one in the future again
Naafiri is a lore champion, but yeah we still plan on doing more things like that in the future
Oh I guess she counts since she is part of the Darkin lore? Then I hope we also get the "mandate" Darkin as a support champ so we can have a full 5 man team of Darkin in the future _^
Well think about which region her teasers have depicted, then think about which darkin short story took place in a temple in that region.
I love when we get updated looks across lor and league, would love to see LeBlanc look more like runeterra for example
Same. LoR has been great for reworking Champs looks in a much faster way then LoL can. Makes it easier for us for when we do get around to updating them in LoL
Any update on Shyvana priority in general?
It's been 5+ Years since Riot has said Shyvana is a high priority on the VGU list (and repeated that a couple different times), but seemingly gets passed over year after year.
Ngl seeing Jax essentially get his own VGU in the time "high priority" Shyvana has been waiting for is very sad to see and makes me concerned with Riot's (lack of) commitment to VGUs.
Jax was not a VGU. VUs are very different in terms of time investment. Shyvana is still a high contender. But we will not be stopping Skarner development to start on Shyvana. Changes like that are extremely costly and will not be fair for Skarner as well.