[2023] How difficult is it to give an ASU to a champion?

To be clear they cost WAAAAY more then a new champion to make, probably like 2-3 times the amount of time resources as a new champion. I can break what it takes down very clearly having worked on many Champs/VGUS/VUs over the years

- New concept art and in some cases a re-imagining of the champ to better fit the IP (in the case of a Champion who doesn't fit as well with current lore) Jax is a good example of this. Who he was, and why he was a purple thing with 3 fingers wasn't really defined in his previous version, so we had to do a good amount of narrative/concept work to get him better aligned with the modern IP before we could even start.

- All new Model, Rig, VFX and Animations
- New VO across every language, and every Legendary+ skin

- New concept art for all updated skins

- New or edited splash art for all skins
- New Models, VFX and Animations for ALL skins. For Animations, at the very least we have to make a new recall, but in the case of Legendaries or higher we have to do a lot more new animations

- In many cases we also completely rescript the champions kit (if its a old champion)

- Some amount of publishing campaign (varies depending on release)

The skin catalog is really the thing that makes them take 2-3x more then a new Champion, since a new champion only has a launch skin. I don't think people fully understand what goes into remaking a entire skin catalog, especially for a champion with 10+ skins, with legendary tier skins or higher. For old skins we have to sometimes completely re-imagine them, since they might be just a recolor, or not hit modern skin standards.

This is a lot of work, especially given pure ASUs/VUs historically have never increased engagement with a Champion, in the way VGUs do. So at the end of the day the main audience is mains of the Champion, since those are the players most effected by it. Given that, it makes more sense to target higher popularity champs since it will make the largest amount of players happy. At the same time higher popularity champs have larger skin catalogs, so they cost a lot more time/resources to make, so sometime a lower popularity champ can be the same value due to being cheaper to make.

All that said we think it's important and we are always looking at opportunities to do more of these since many of you love them (Myself included)

Depends on the Champion, and how well the Legendary holds up. Some champs were so bad that they made new rigs for them for the legendaries. In those cases we don't need to remake them, but that isn't always the case

Its not a random take away based on reading social media/reddit/etc. We just look at the data to see how many people start playing them after the VU/ASU. Historically it hasn't changed engagement in the slightest. We might see a small bump during the first patch but then they go back to the same engagement as prior. VGUs tend to have sustained engagement, meaning that we see a permanent increase in engagement with that champion post VGU. Caitlyn is tough to parse, because ALL the Arcane champs saw a bump in popularity for a little while once the show came out. Viktor is really the only champ that sustained that popularity post arcane. Looking at Caitlyn/Ahris playrates right now and she is sitting at the same spot they were pre-ASU. Meanwhile Udyr is sitting at a higher playrate then he ever was pre-VGU.

In fact Midscopes have had a better overall effect on champion engagement then VUs/ASUs and they cost like fraction of the resources.

Now engagement isn't the only reason we do things, I'm just stating that VUs/ASUs aren't huge engagement drivers. They are huge sentiment drivers, as basically all players love them and no one hates them. VGUs/Midscopes always come with some amount of change aversion/negative sentiment even when they are really good.

Sentiment would be one of the reasons we do VUs/ASUs but not the main reason. The main reason we do them is we think its important for the holistic art quality of the game. It's important that we are always looking at the lowest art quality stuff and bringing it up to modern standards, whatever that pace may be (which is dependent on a lot of different factors) Popularity once again matters when choosing because of this as well, because a more popular champ is in more games, and if that champ is low art quality that is more games that have a low art quality champ in them.

CGUs are cool and we would like to do more. The problem is that they are tricky and thier aren't a lot of Champions that would be a good fit for a CGU. A CGU basically just takes the Art and Theme of a Champion and then completely deletes the current kit. The design team then rebuilds a entirely new kit, from the ground up, based on the current art and theme. So for Asol we felt that the Space Dragon theme was cool and resonant but the kit wasn't doing it justice.

Completing deleting a kit and building a new one isn't something we want to take lightly so it would have to be a case where we think the upside is high enough to take a kit (however unpopular) that some players have played 100s of games on and delete it.

I think thier are still a couple champions that could fall into this category right now, but we would have to find something new that was a clear upgrade over what's on live. If it feels lateral to players it would be pretty bad, sentiment wise

Same, and we are looking into ways to make VUs/ASUs faster. It's already faster then the past since we have a more robust outsourcing system these days. I know it doesnt feel that way, since as we have increased outsourcing, skin catalogs have got larger. We want to do more of them.

Damn dude, you seem to have all the answers. You should apply to our Finances Team

He's still on the gameplay initiative.

I mean we did a minor VU to MF during the bilgewater event. She could use more but I think she's far from the worst champion in the game right now.

Totally, but its a pretty big difference in how many players it disrupts if the Champion has a much smaller player base. Illoai still has a MUCH larger playerbase then pre-CGU Asol, who was the least popular champ in the game in some patches (Him and Skarner swapped depending on the patch)

Morgana is one of the most popular supports in the game. She's simple but that necessarily bad. I don't see us doing a CGU on her anytime soon

I didnt say she didnt need one. I said thier are champions that need one more.

Totally. We are currently rethinking our strategy around ASU/VUs, and popularity might take a less prominent role in selection going forward (But will still be a factor, but maybe a less important factor)

Obviously it doesn’t, that’s why we still do them

You got it boss