RiotMeddler

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)

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!

New players are our initial focus with this bot upgrade work. While most players likely won't be interested in playing against bots long term a good onboarding experience is really important to help long lived games like LoL maintain a thriving community long term.

Yeah, we very much need a better, more tailored to player needs range of bots to create a better onboarding experience. It's a tough game to get into, and right now we see a lot of new players drop off when trying to make the jump from the tutorial to Co-Op versus AI and then again when trying to go from Co-Op versus AI to PVP. Being able to give players more gradual ramp ups in difficulty early in their experience would do a like to help with new player retention, which is really important for games like LoL to continue to thrive long term.

In terms of impact on levelling bots - no, wouldn't do anything to enable those. We did a ban wave recently that hit a lot of those accounts, we've also got some further work underway that should make leveling bots, scripting etc easier to detect/quicker to ban too. We generally avoid talking about the details, exact timings etc on that stuff though to avoid giving bot/script creators any information unnecessarily.

Unsure, but will pass the query on.

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.

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

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/

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?)

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.

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)

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

Yep, just did filming this week, editing's underway now

Ok, that's actually a little tempting, at least for a single shot somewhere or something. If it happens, you very much called it

Can totally understand the skepticism in this case. I do think the Q only being controllable for a short period, friendship bonuses limiting ability to be as effective on whoever's most fed, E being a shield (so can't heal up outside of combat) and the removal of the ult stun give us a lot more ability to adjust her through regular number changes. The untargetability's certainly still a challenge though and I couldn't say I'm certain we wont' still run into problems still, just that we've got a better toolkit than we had before at least

Spires are going away

I'm not!

(it's a cup of tea technically)

I did ask whether I should put it down, given we're going for a quick, more casual, lower production value approach to these though we figured we'd just see how it worked (or didn't)

You're welcome, and I'm also really positive on this direction, both for Skarner and as a way to help make Ixtal feel like a more integrated, fleshed out part of the world.

In terms of origin of Hextech this is part of the gradual process of aligning all the different experiences that contribute to the League/Runeterra canon going forwards that we talked about in our previous video. As you note it has effects on other champions too, we're talking about exactly how and exactly when to tweak them too to make things fit together better overall

Double checking, I'm 99% sure mirror matches can still happen in Quick Play though

Yeah, Quick Play might not be the right final name here, given it implies in game changes as well. This is about getting into game quickly with your champion of choice, which is theoretically Blind Pick's purpose but Blink Pick has a range of issues that undercut that