Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Red Post Collection: Quick Gameplay Thoughts: January 10th, Battlecast Illaoi: Modeling and Texturing, & More

Today's red post collection includes Meddler's quick gameplay thoughts for January 10th, the most recent update for the Battlecast Illaoi skin, an update on rotating game modes, and more!
Continue reading for more information!


Table of Contents


Quick Gameplay Thoughts: January 10 

Here's Meddler with his quick gameplay thoughts for January 10th, covering large patches vs small patches, targeted spells and minion aggro, Unsealed Spellbook bringing back old spells, and more:
"Hi folks, 
Usual Disclaimers 
These posts will often contain talk about future work we're doing, or planning to do, that isn't yet guaranteed to ship. The nature of the work could change or, depending on what we discover, projects mentioned may get put delayed or even stopped. If you'd like to see a Tweet whenever a new one of these posts goes up: https://twitter.com/RiotMeddler 
Large patch/small patch 
As previously mentioned we're going to be trying a test this year where we alternate between patches with a larger number of gameplay changes and those with a smaller number. We're interested in whether keeping the game a bit more consistent for 4 week blocks like that results in more development of strategy and interesting play since there’ll be a more stable state to explore/optimize in. We're also hoping it will allow us to get more done solving bigger picture issues (e.g. item overhauls, adding missing runes, kit updates etc), since less time will be spent on short term balance adjustments. 
This is very much an experiment we're trying though. It's possible that, while it sounds promising on paper, the result is that it feels like some urgent stuff takes longer to get solved and we don't make much more progress on longer term work. If that's the case, or some other issue crops up, we'll go back to our regular patch approach. 
8.2 will be the first of the larger patches, with 8.3 smaller, 8.4 large again etc. Important to note that this large/small cycle only applies to some types of gameplay changes, at least for now. If we're changing a bunch of items for example that'll happen in a large (even number) patch. So will most balance changes. Stuff like skins, bug fixing, rotating game modes, new client features etc won't be taking the large/small distinction into account though and will keep going out in whichever patch they’re ready for. At least for now new champs and VGUs will also continue to be in small patches as well as large. We reassess them in particular at some point if this approach shows promise, see how much benefit there is/isn’t in doing them only in large patches too. We want to start off by basically testing just wider ranging balance changes on that cycle though. 
Targeted Spells and Minion Agro 
Speaking of wider ranging changes here's one that will be in a large patch if we go through with it. We're currently testing a change where single target click to hit spells that deal damage (e.g. Brand E or Annie Q) will draw minion agro in the same way auto attacks already do. Not guaranteed that change ships yet, it's still in testing, but if it does it would definitely be in a large patch (potentially 8.2 or 8.4). 
We're testing this approach because we believe it could make it a lot easier to balance a range of champions. Historically we've had to balance a lot of champs with click to hit spells around the assumption they'll often just be spamming that spell on the enemy until either the target dies/is driven back to base or the caster runs OOM. Pantheon's a particularly clear example of that. The result is a fairly limited play pattern, with limited options for their opponents too (suffer through it or trade back harder). We've had to do things like heavy mana gating, range nerfs, pushing champs out of lanes entirely, conversion of abilities to skillshots as a result to keep some champs in line. 
Ranged auto attacks by contrast, while still having some issues, are quite a bit more nuanced because they draw minion agro. There are times for example where landing an AA on an opponent's a really poor idea because of the minion damage you'll take, or the way you’ll make the lane push. That gives windows other people can play around and opens up ways to play the lane. That’s particularly important in ranged versus melee match ups that would otherwise favor the ranged champ noticeably more if it wasn't for that minion agro call. 
As said this is still a possible, not a certain change. It's also one that would hit a bunch of champs moderately hard power wise, with Panth, Kassadin and Cass being particularly on our minds. They’d almost certainly need some help afterwards as a result (Panth possibly excepted, given his current strength). Getting some more counterplay onto their baseline abilities would let us give them power in other interesting ways however. A number of champs with low counterplay laning patterns end up really restricted in what other strengths they’re allowed to have. Such a change would also potentially allow us to balance some champs in contexts we’ve had to push them out of in the past (e.g. could we get laning Elise back into play in a balanced way if Q spam wasn't so lacking in enemy response?) 
Unsealed SpellBook 
We're working on Unsealed Spellbook at the moment. Changes won't be in 8.2 at least, hoping for not too long after though (could be 8.3 if smaller in scope, probably 8.4 if larger). One thing we are trying that I figured would be of interest given it's been a frequent suggestion, is allowing people with Unsealed Spellbook to select some older Summoner Spells that aren't generally in the game anymore. Still trying to figure out which ones we should offer. Some seem pretty safe (e.g. Clarity). Others are really interesting, but might be problematic (e.g. Revive). Will update with where we're at after some more testing and discussion. 
Game Pacing Update 
We're still looking into game pacing/snowball this week. As of Monday (time of writing) we're getting some changes in for testing to make towers a bit tougher early game. Average game times after the pre-season patch times didn't change that much. Almost all of the time lost however was from laning phase and we feel that’s pushed laning phase down to too short a duration. We’re testing changes to restore a bit of time to it as a result, along with potentially some changes to a couple of snowbally elements (e.g. a potential nerf to Triumph on the gold and/or HP regen). 
One thing that makes snowball/pacing trickier subjects to work on is that player viewpoints on them are very disparate. We see some online communities of players for example currently argue that games need to be much longer and snowball is very excessive. Other groups however have different takes. We also do some randomized surveying of LoL players, with a recent (start of January) survey to players in North America, Brazil and Korea (1500 players after they'd finished an SR game). That suggested that on average those people at least wanted a slightly shorter game than they’re getting at present. They also felt that snowball is in an ok state and similar in magnitude to when we surveyed at the start of 2017 and 2018. Strong contrasts in opinion like that make for a trickier space to navigate. 
We're going to keep digging into snowball and pacing over the coming weeks though of course, see which hypothesis we can build enough confidence in to act on them. We're confident enough in the loss of laning phase time, based off a combination of player feedback, direct observation of games and collected data for example to test changes to address that. For changes beyond that we'll need to do some more work though. First we'll be processing survey data from other regions (China’s up next). We’ll then looking into how perception of game pacing/snowball does or doesn't change at different MMR bands (e.g. how do opinions in Silver compare to opinions in Diamond?). We also need to break down a bunch of the data we’ve gathered by other segments too (e.g. what’s the exact distribution within those averages of people with strong feelings either way, versus comparatively neutral about things?)."

When asked for more info on how minions work now, Meddler replied:
"Quote:
Wait dont minions already aggro to you when you attack an enemy Champion by any means?
Minions agro onto you if you hit a champion with a basic attack at present. Spell damage on enemy champs, with a couple of exceptions, won't draw minions off their current target and onto you. That means champs who get their laning harass from spells instead of AAs pay a lower price for the same reliability on targeted spells, hence our interest in this possible change."

Meddler continued:
"Quote:
Are damaging zones (stuff like Morgana's W, Cass' W, Rumble's Q) also being looked at in terms of minion aggro? If so, yay or nay?
We're not considering having non targeted spells draw minion agro (only exceptions being things that apply on hit affects like Ez Q)."

He went on:
"Quote:
This change will hurt a lot of ranged supports, which sucks because I think it's generally a good change for top and mid.
Yeah, there'll be some impact there. Some of it will likely get countered by use of brush to drop/avoid agro. Might need to help out a couple of champs though if it hits them hard there."

As for whether Clairvoyance would possibly come back with Unsealed Spellbook, Meddler replied:
"We've talked a bit about Clairvoyance, in particular since we figured there are some folks such as yourself out there who enjoyed it and would like to see it back. It's one of the more doubtful ones though because if it's strong enough to be a good choice it results in reliable vision for no risk, leading to difficulties with things like securing vision control around objectives sufficiently, limited early jungler ability to gank etc. With other sources of vision like trinkets that's much less of an issue since we can tune them to the correct spot as needed. CV however needs to have enough strength in it to compete against other Summoner Spells like TP though."

When asked about Syndra, Meddler commented:
"Quote:
Hi Meddler! A question about Syndra: if the bugfixes won't end up being enough to help her, what do you guys plan to buff of her kit exactly?
Probably make her R global, make sure everyone gets a turn getting spheres to the face.
More seriously, not certain. We didn't talk about Syndra in detail in our patch planning session for 8.2 because belief was these bug fixes would have a decent impact, so it seemed better to use that discussion time on other champs. A likely direction would be trying to sharpen when you want to pick her a bit more. Make it so she's not so much a 'pick always if at least moderately strong' champ as much."

On Tryndamere, Meddler commented:
"Quote:
Will Tryndamere changes be on PBE this cycle ?
Unlikely. Still expecting to look at him in 8.3."


As for Rengar, Meddler replied:
"Quote:
Hello Meddler, 
Any new information about the upcoming Rengar changes? Will you do any other changes besides reverting his Q?
Nothing new to report yet. It's being worked on at present, both getting the art together and figuring out exactly which version of older Q is most appropriate (trending towards Attack Speed as empower bonus) and what corresponding changes might need to be made elsewhere."

Meddler noted a new keystone went into internal testing recently:
"Quote:
I was wondering if there's any more news on bruiser itemization and/or the new keystone, aimed at helping them out? The recent Resolve stat changes in 8.1 should definitely help to some degree, and it makes sense that you'd want to wait for this change to be out for a while and then reassess. Simply curious as to whether, over the break, if these things were scrapped or if they're still on the table.
New keystone went into internal testing yesterday. I haven't played it myself yet, like it on paper though. If that goes well should be able to at least share tooltips within a couple of weeks (would take longer than that to get into a patch given need to build art for it). It that doesn't go well timing's uncertain."

Meddler continued:
"Quote:
About that new keystone that went into testing as you said in one of the comments, could you tell us who it's directed towards? ( Bruisers , Tanks , Assasins , ADCs etc. )
Champs who deal sustained damage, want to be at least somewhat tanky and aren't served sufficiently by Grasp at present. Would expect Bruisers to be particularly drawn to it if it works out, definitely not a thing for bursty and squishy champs like assassins.
On the Sightstone/Support item changes, Meddler commented:
"Quote:
Btw, if those support item changes in pbe go through I think ap junglers with 100% still buy the ap support item for the free sightstone and extra damage, the quest was not the big part, in fact, I think this makes it even better
Not sure if it's on PBE yet, we'll likely be changing the Spellthief's proc so that killing jungle monsters extends the recharge timer significantly though."

On the AP Itemization pass mentioned a few months back, Meddler replied:
"Quote:
Does this mean the AP item pass will be in 8.4 then?
Possibly. We would want it to be in a large (even numbered, at least for now) patch, so that would be the next possible window."

When asked about Swain and whether we would see a teaser for him soon, Meddler replied:
"As usual, I'm going to leave exact release timings, reveals of teasers etc up to the folks who work on new champs/VGUs. They plan this stuff out and hav

from
http://www.surrenderat20.net/2018/01/red-post-collection-quick-gameplay_10.html
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