Dan_Felder

Dan_Felder



06 Dec

Comment

Originally posted by Top-Mirror3516

Man dropped a phineas and ferb reference

Yes. Yes I did.

Comment

Originally posted by TheRybka

I genuinely appreciate the transparency and the detailed response to this. I honestly couldn't envision how it would take 4 weeks, but with all that being said, it's actually pretty impressive that it takes ONLY 4 weeks. Thanks for the reply.

That's great to hear. Glad I can share the details. It's always amazing how much stuff goes into game development. :)

Comment

Originally posted by TheRybka

Seraphine was released on October 12th, and her balance patch arrived on November 9th. Considering LoR's team has "refocused" on PvP, I feel that "glacial" is appropriate for a 4 week wait when an RNG-focused champion is dominating play.

It's always super frustrating when a game feels like it's not balanced for weeks - especially for the most dedicated players. Doing quality work can take time, especially because the changes aren't just under-the-hood.

If we change a card's stats or mana cost, it's much more obvious and impactful on player experience than a 10% buff to damage in a game like Overwatch - which doesn't obviously change the interactions for casual players the way shifting the mana curve, level up count, attack/health, and similar does.

Let's say it takes 2 weeks to be confident that we have enough data and playtime to be sure a problem exists. Some metas evolve after years of static play due to players finding new depth, so 2 weeks is pretty short already.

Now let's say we have established the data we need to determine exactly how overpowered or underpowered something is. We still need to design the balance patch and playtest it enough to feel good about the solution. The goal i...

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Comment

Originally posted by TheRybka

Dan, I appreciate what you and your team do, and I’m not trying to put words in Mogwai’s mouth, but I have to wonder to what degree glacial balance patches contribute to creator burnout.

On the topic of new LoR content creators discovering the game, I’m curious how Riot sees that happening as LoR is not advertised, even in other Riot games. As someone who follows some of the smaller creators, I also wonder what Riot is doing to recognize and empower them to create content.

I (maybe unfairly) read this comment as a shrug and an “oh well, everyone burns out but they’ll maybe come back! This is natural!” but the state of the game, from the competitive level to even the casual one, is a bit murky and frustrating right now. Content is absurdly fun and addicting but problems take long to be addressed. Events are fun, but event passes are getting thinner on content and the Arclight theme wasn’t complete (no board, no guardian). One of LoR’s top content creators was report...

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I (maybe unfairly) read this comment as a shrug and an “oh well, everyone burns out but they’ll maybe come back! This is natural!”

Not a shrug at all! It's absolutely natural that people change games, including great content creators, and we're still going to focus on making LoR the best digital cardgame there is. We're going to try new things, gather feedback, and iterate accordingly. We don't ignore player voices until a major creator leaves, we're here to make the best game for everyone.

We have retrospectives focusing on what we can learn after each major release from player feedback and in-game data to improve our design philosophy going forward. There's always a lag on feedback making obvious changes because cardgames like ours work far in advance. Roughly speaking its weeks for patches, months for features, years for new cards (art and voicework takes a lot of lead-time).

We also want to make sure we're getting perspectives ...

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05 Dec

Comment

Always a shame to lose a fun content creator, but people absolutely burn themselves out playing for hours and hours each day. Content creation isn't just playing for fun, it's exhausting and demanding - especially for a heavily strategic game like LoR. It's more like a job than anything else.

Many creators have migrated through creating content for different games because of this. Different players also like different things. Some rarely play one game more than two weeks, jumping to different games. It's like when some people want to keep trying different decks in a cardgame and others like to focus on just one or two.

Some streamers jump games constantly as variety streamers, some play one game for a few years then tend to move onto the next one, some play one forever and love it.

I'm sure we'll see many new content creators discovering LoR over the years and many eventually moving on to focus on other games when they eventually feel burned out.

If...

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04 Dec

Comment

Originally posted by The_Fatman_Eats

...you know, you've got a point. However, that's less amusing, so I will blindly disregard your reasonable take in favor of ha-ha funni bot dum. :P

Harsh but fair. :)

Comment

Originally posted by InspiringMilk

Yep, so the rioter statement I replied to holds zero value. Who is to say they won't leave for another company and abandon Riot in 10 years, assuming they're telling the truth right now?

You know you can ask me directly right? :)

Unless I’m obviously joking about stuff I don’t lie about work stuff. I believe companies need to earn loyalty from devs and players alike. Id rather be silent than speak for a game or studio I don’t believe in. Integrity matters.

But the nice thing is you don’t need to take my word for it, because we’ll just keep proving it through what we release. Might need some patience sometimes as when we’re working on tech debt or building long term improvements but fundamentally - if we aren’t making the game better regularly and releasing cool new stuff - then we don’t deserve this community anyway.

I like being on a team that gets that. That’s our culture. It’s not just me. I joined because I like that culture. I’m sure every dev working here now will one day move on and new brilliant people will take our place, building on what we’ve done. They’ll be people that grew up playing LoR, and they’ll have an even more player f...

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Comment

Originally posted by Slow-Manufacturer-55

Q: In Legends of Runeterra, what is the strongest combo you can pull off?

A: One of the strongest combos in Legends of Runeterra is using the combination of Hecarim, The Rekindler, and the Relentless Pursuit card.

First, play Hecarim onto the battlefield and attack with him. This will trigger Hecarim's Overwhelm ability, dealing excess damage to the opponent's nexus.

Next, use The Rekindler to revive Hecarim from the graveyard, bringing him back onto the battlefield with full health.

Finally, play Relentless Pursuit on Hecarim, giving him an additional attack and allowing him to attack again immediately. This allows Hecarim to deal massive amounts of damage to the opponent's nexus in just one turn.

Honestly, not freaking bad. Only took about 12 tries after it ranted about Water Dragons, "Death's Daughter", and using champs as spells.

I described a player that likes cunning strategies and has an edgy personality and some other stuff then asked it what deck they would like.

Results were shadow isles oriented: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjCBFdKaEAAkxM3?format=jpg&name=medium

Comment

Originally posted by The_Fatman_Eats

Looks like this bot doesn't properly understand concepts like Control, and by extension probably Aggro, Combo, and Midrange.

Can't wait for it to argue that a deck with 9+ aggressively-statted 1-drops is a Midrange deck.

Note that the ai is not saying it’s a classic control deck, so it’s possible that it thinks it’ll board stall while attacking past blockers to build up long term shroom damage.

Comment

Originally posted by zentetsuken7

We have seen what Blizzard did to their league-killer when it failed to do so.

We have not seen how Riot would react to LoR failure to dethrone Hearthstone. LoR already lost half of its PoC devs to other Riot projects back then.

Here's hoping that LoR is profitable enough that Riot execs turned a blind eye to it.

The nice thing about working at Riot is that we care about making great stuff for players. Do that and it always pays off in the end.


03 Dec

Comment

Originally posted by AthahaOug-Hur

MICE. M-I-C-E. YOUR COMMENT SHOULD HAVE AN M INSTEAD OF AN N, DAN. THERE WAS A MEMO, DAN. THERE WAS A MEMO

Twice

Comment

Originally posted by Impressive_Double_95

Rice

Spice

Comment

I've been asking ChatGPT to review LoR cards. It claims to not know what LoR is but knows all about level-up conditions and spell mana. Sus.

Comment

Originally posted by FakeMonika

Nice

Nice

Comment

Originally posted by GenuisInDisguise

I read this in Aurelion Sol’s voice.

As intended