[2023] Midseason, Bots & Champs | Dev Update - League of Legends

Speak for yourself 👁️👄👁️

Being able to play with a group of 8 is on our list of things we want the mode to have. Let me check and see if it's looking like it might be there day 1 or a follow up feature

Edit: Looks like it's unlikely to be there on launch, definitely something we want to deliver though

forsen

Hopefully we can fix some issues and find a version that keeps the benefits of the system without all the current downsides. But yeah, if it's still not working well enough we'd want to make sure we weren't just sticking to it for the wrong reasons (sunk cost of developing it, stubbornness, challenge of moving to something different etc)

Problems putting ADC itemization and broader game impact in a position where the class isn't overly game defining, or weak feeling+unsatisfying, or both at once (worst of all worlds) is one of the reasons we're taking a swing at ADC itemization.

For significant new characters introduced to the IP in other games or mediums we'll be assessing on a case by case basis whether it makes sense to bring them to LoL or not. We did look seriously at bringing Silco over to LoL for example during the development of season 1 of Arcane. We thought he was a great character in some respects (personality, voice, backstory, connection to other characters etc). Didn't make sense for a MOBA however, just the wrong sort of expression of power for the gameplay we offer. Could have forced something to do it, but wouldn't have felt true enough to his character.

For other characters then, like Jack, Norra, others from Arcane, others from future games we'll do the same sort of assessment, plus a comparison to other options we're already considering (e.g. do we think we'll deliver best by adapting a character from LoR or by making something new with a different focus?)

forsen

That's one of the changes yeah, I think it's even mentioned in the blog

Link for convenience:

https://www.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/news/dev/dev-midseason-and-mythics/

It's wasn't based on TFT as a starting point, it's definitely adopted some learnings and some tech from it though, most notably the augment system and the health model.

We're also looking at potentially pulling over the rating system that HyperRoll in TFT uses for it. We think for some players there'll be interest in having a skill based system that provides goals to go after. Don't want to bring along all the existing assumptions that the baseline ranked system LoL uses has though

Just checked in with the team. Apparently how pettable a very spikey demon dog should be is a topic of ongoing debate. Hold that thought a little while and we'll take a firmer stance at some point once we're in agreement internally.

Don't have to convince me!

Agreed. Given the sort of game it is LoR needs a lot more characters than LoL does (or can feasibly have), so more overlap there makes a lot of sense but is a downside when considering potential translation over to LoL

Can confirm we're working on improved anti-cheat, for obvious reasons it's something we're vague about publicly though

We've flagged a few champs that have been balanced around the dash and expect to buff/adjust them on the same patch or on the following one.

Balancing around 1 unhealthy dash that polarizes your kit and balance state usually isn't the best place. Currently Talon (who at least has somewhat competitive secondary options), Renekton, and Rek'Sai are among the most warped by Prowler's right now.

Diver

Changes we make to development priorities take a while to get reflected in what ships in the game, given content and features are made well in advance of when they actually ship. Moving people off the new champion team as a result has reduced the expected number of champions for 2024 (since that's what that team works on in 2023), but doesn't have much affect on 2023 content (which was worked on a lot in 2022).

Similarly, moving people on to the modes team takes a while to have visible effect on what we're shipping. Adding people to the team in January speeds up work meaningfully, but doesn't mean we can immediately start shipping things that weren't already in progress. The summer game mode (2v2v2v2) is the first thing that has benefited significantly from that reprioritization.

And regarding your comment "make me feel something when I load up League" - love that way of describing it. I think we lost something meaningful when login screens went away for example. I'm curious as to what elements particularly create that immediate emotional response for you that might be worth talking about?

We'll get an update on timing for language selection in one of the upcoming videos (I suspect not the next one, but the one after, but that's a rough guess)

Coming back mid year, we haven't announced exact dates just yet though

Yes

We were faced with either going ahead with something that wasn't hitting the quality bar or with significantly delaying Skarner's VGU again. Would certainly prefer not to have to do either, but we concluded better to delay than ship something that wasn't right, especially after missing the mark on Skarner in previous updates back in the day.

We'll get an update on language select timing in one of the upcoming videos (either the next one or the one after)

AD Sion existed before Prowler's and we will support it as a secondary build, but not better than the tank build.

Short term - address the technical issues that have been really damaging recently, adjust internal processes so code changes that could impact Clash don't get added last minute

Longer term - get a lot of learnings from Premier in VAL, figure out which could make sense in Clash, then determine how to prioritize that potential work versus other League feature development. Realize that's fairly vague, and that yeah it's also reflective of no feature improvements coming in the near term at least. Figure better to share what we can though at least

We'll cover some skin stuff in the next video (potentially accompanying blog as well)

I could definitely see Silco as a compelling NPC if we had the right game or mode. I also think he could work well in something like LoR though too under player control, plenty of options in games that don't have to be all about direct head to head real time combat

At this point yeah they're pretty much the same thing with different names since we got there via different paths

During development of this video we sat down and talked about how Aludarg didn't like our voices. Our solution was a written summary, just for you, that I'll link here:

https://www.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/news/dev/tl-dw-midseason-bots-champs-dev-update/

SR is a separate team from Champions. We're not reducing SR priority to focus on game modes, we're shifting from new Champions specifically, based in significant part on feedback from players that they'd like fewer new champions and more other stuff.

At this point the 2v2v2v2 mode won't be just a prototype. It should be reasonably refined, hence mention for example of having a new map for it rather than just having to repurpose an existing map like we were doing during initial prototyping.

Jungle bots are a priority! The current system is honestly terrible for new players

INTer

Yep this is the intention for Reksai and Renekton. Theyve turned into assassins as their "best winrate" build with Prowler's which means that without massive kit adjustments, their bruiser builds became really bad.

This was one of the big reasons why we wanted to remove the dash from Prowler's, since it ended up warping the kits to be so different than originally intended (and what most players associate the champion with).

You were watching my recent Briar playtests, weren't you August?

I certainly am

It's me!

It's Azael.

Hi

We're trying a really wide range of stuff out at the moment :)

The intention is to build better bot foundational technology that can help new players understand how to play the game better as well as much more sophisticated cool things we have plans for.

This year