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Quick Gameplay Thoughts: July 5
"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 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
Why we turn practice tool off sometimes
As you might have noticed we've had practice tool turned off for some periods of time on some servers recently. We do that in periods of really high player count because it allows us to get more players into games. The amount of server time a game takes is composed of two things. The first is a cost for the game itself existing, which covers things like processing time for minion AI/movement, tracking the states of things like buildings, reporting information post game to match history etc. The second is an additional processing cost per player that's in the game. What that effectively means is that players in practice tool games take up more server capacity than players in other game modes. Turning practice tool off, while frustrating for those who want to use it, can therefore allow more people to play at once.
Example with numbers (made up, but they get the idea across):
- Flat cost of a game - 5 units
- Additional cost per player - 1 unit
- Total cost for a practice tool game = 6 units (for 1 player)
- Total cost for an SR game = 15 units (1.5 units per player)
- Trade off for 15 units is therefore allowing 2.5 people to play in practice tool or 10 people to play on SR
TFT and integration with other systems
Now that we've got TFT available for wider play one of our next focuses is looking at where and how it should or shouldn't interact with other game systems. Making it so event passes let you earn tokens in TFT now too is an example of the sort of integration we're talking about there. Other systems we're talking about include things like Honor (does it make sense in a FFA with minimal chat to turn Honor on?) and Leveling (current leveling system isn't well suited to TFT play given rewards and things it unlocks, but adaptations could be made). We're particularly interested in addressing situations where players want to spend their time playing a mixture of regular LoL and TFT but the way we've currently got things set up makes that feel a bit awkward or punishing.
Soft Champion Counters in 9.14
We're currently testing some balance changes to a range of champs that give them a bit more of an edge against specific types of enemy champ or make them a bit more vulnerable to specific enemies. Goal there is to add a bit of extra weakness to champions who could do with another way to deal with them without going so far as to make it so a game is overly decided in champ select. Expectation is that blind picking certain champs should become a bit riskier, especially in organized play where teams are more likely to counterpick.
Changes we're currently experimenting with under that philosophy:
- Ahri charm stops dashes in progress (anti mobility niche)
- Akali's W is a standard invisibility (gives her more vulnerability to enemies with reveals on their kits)
- Blitzcrank R and Renekton W destroy shields on the target before dealing damage (anti powerful shield or shield stacking niche)
- Cassiopeia and Poppy have their anti mobility effects buffed, with no minimum cast range on Cass W and Poppy W grounding+slowing enemies it stops mid dash
- Kat R and Kled Q have a stronger form of Grievous Wounds at 60% reduction (anti sustain niche)
- Leona W has flat damage reduction (makes her a stronger pick into DoT champs and others with effects that deal a small amount of damage many times like Kai'Sa Q)
No guarantees those exact changes go through yet of course, still investigating. Hope is careful use of tools like this help us balance some champs, both those with said tools and those they're stronger against, better for both regular play and pro at the same time."
When asked about how the Malphite changes were faring Meddler commented:
"We think they're in a pretty good spot overall so are putting them in 9.14. Can discuss how they land once that's out.
As an aside 9.13 to 9.14's a 3 week gap instead of the usual 2 weeks to make some other scheduling line up."
When asked about how Qiyana was doing since her release, Meddler noted:
"We think she's a lot stronger than her current statistics suggest. Last I checked bug fixes were all we had in progress. We'll reassess power again as 9.14 gets close, see if anything's needed there or not.
Are there particular quality of life changes you feel are needed?"
/Dev: Ranked Teamfight Tactics
"Hi everyone, Ed “SapMagic” Altorfer, Jon “IAmWalrus” Moormann, and Ran “Riot Stimhack” Cao here from the TFT team here to talk to you about Ranked and progression systems in Teamfight Tactics. TFT has a ton of depth, and we want to make sure you feel like the time you invest mastering its nuances is worthwhile. This is why our first and foremost goal of the Ranked and progression systems in TFT is to reward you for playing.
We’ve always known that we wanted TFT to have a Ranked mode, although we didn’t want it to be quite as demanding as Summoner’s Rift. TFT is a much more social game with more random variation, so it wouldn’t make sense to have its ranked system be exactly the same. Ranked in TFT should be something you feel like you can play with your friends of varying skill levels while still receiving the recognition you deserve if you’re extremely skilled.
Let’s break down how this will work.
Ranked
Our current plan is to kick off the first Ranked season for TFT during patch 9.14. We want to make sure everything is in a good, stable spot before we start up Ranked, but we’re also excited to get you all out there grinding LP as soon as possible.
Ranked TFT will look very similar to Ranked on Summoner’s Rift. You’ll still have the same tiers and divisions, and at the end of every game you’ll gain or lose LP based on how well you did. We want your rank in TFT to feel as satisfying as your rank on Summoner’s Rift, even if details like how much LP you earn might be a bit different. Being Diamond in TFT should be similar to being Diamond in LoL, and only the best players should be able to reach Challenger.
There are a handful of big differences though:
- You’ll gain a lot more LP when you finish a TFT game in first place, since you’re basically beating seven other players in that game. You’ll typically gain some LP if you finish 4th or higher, and lose some LP if you finish 5th or lower, but spots in the middle will have fairly small changes for most games.
- There are no promotion series in TFT. As soon as you hit 100 LP, you’ll promote and carry over any extra LP with you. Since there isn’t a single winner or loser in TFT, promotion series don’t translate very well.
- Since there are no promotion series, there’s less protection and it’s easier to demote. You’ll still only demote if you lose while at 0 LP.
- Your rank will feel like it moves a bit faster in TFT. Removing promo series and decreasing demotion protection means that your rank can jump more rapidly, and you’ll gain (and lose) more LP per game when things go really well (or poorly).
- Premade Ranked restrictions are a bit different for TFT. You can queue with up to five friends if you’re all Gold or lower. If anyone is Platinum or above, you’ll only be able to queue up as three. Check out the image below for the complete breakdown of who can queue with whom.
Ranked Rewards
We will be giving out some sweet ranked rewards for TFT, but…we haven’t finalized them yet. We’ll probably reward them based on your end-of-season rank, and they’ll most likely be different from the Summoner’s Rift ranked rewards. Nothing is final for now, so please stay tuned for more info!
TFT Beta Pass
We want you to feel like you’re making progress toward something meaningful with every game of TFT, which is why we’re testing out a new system we call the TFT Beta Pass. With the pass, you can earn rewards by completing various weekly challenges. This is a new system for us, and there’s a lot about the pass that may change in the future. We may even decide to do something completely different based on your experiences and feedback.
Teamfight Tactics is very different from traditional modes like Summoner’s Rift, and we aren’t currently planning on giving out XP or Blue Essence for TFT games. We want to be thoughtful about whether and how we integrate TFT with systems like leveling and Blue Essence, and we want our solution to serve both players who play traditional modes and TFT as well as those who main one mode or the other. We may consider XP and Blue Essence rewards in the future, once the mode has had some time to settle in.
Seasons
We believe TFT is at its most fun when you’re discovering, theory crafting, and adapting. To support that, we’re going to be a lot more open to making bigger changes between seasons than we are for Summoner’s Rift. We’ll be experimenting with new batches of champions, new items, and system changes to give each season its own unique flavor and make sure you always feel challenged.
Right now, we’re planning to start a new season of TFT every few months, maybe even alongside our traditional Ranked splits, which means there could be three to four seasons of TFT each year. As with everything else, this could change, particularly if we feel like that’s too much time—or too little—time between major content drops. Between seasons, you’ll be demoted by several divisions since we expect new seasons to meaningfully shake up the meta.
We’re excited to get all this out to you and hear what you think about progression, Ranked, and every other aspect of Teamfight Tactics. On behalf of the team, thanks for working with us to make this mode awesome. Hit us in the comments or on social media (SapMagic, IAmWalrus), and until next time, we’ll see you in the arena!"
/Dev: Life of a Patch
"Last month, the Summoner’s Rift team—aka the bigger group that contains the “balance team”—tweeted in live-time as we worked on the balance changes for patch 9.13. Today we’re recapping some of those Tweets and pulling everything together to show what all goes into a patch.
Before we talk about why we nerfed your favorite champion, we’re going to start with the really exciting stuff… planning.
Plan All the Things… Well, Mostly
We kick off each patch with a “Sprint Planning” meeting, where the gameplay designers decide which medium-sized things they want to tackle this patch cycle. This includes things like item changes (such as Guinsoo’s Rageblade), champion quality-of-life updates (such as Blitzcrank’s ult passive), and supporting upcoming or newly released champions. We also plan for larger future gameplay changes, such as the 2020 preseason. We don’t plan the simple, numerical buffs/nerfs here because we work on those things at the end of each patch cycle.
When choosing which medium-sized things to work on, we usually ask (in this order)…
- Is there anything the game really needs right now that can’t be fixed with a simple change and that will need a fair amount of playtesting to validate?
- Is there any carry-over work we want to continue?
- Is there anything the game needs that we can finish in 6-8 weeks?
These decisions are made using a pretty wide view of League’s gameplay, taking into account data from all skill levels and pro play globally and the team’s shared understanding of the current state of League.
After asking these questions for 9.13, we chose to focus on: Swain, Rod of Ages, solo lane Pyke, Udyr, Illaoi, Mordekaiser (potential hotfixes), and preseason changes.
Choosing the Direction
Now it’s time to figure out how we want to meet the goals for each of these things. This sounds simple, but it usually takes the most time. As we gather feedback from players, data analysts, quality analysts, and other designers, the change lists are constantly updated.
One way we can quickly get input from the rest of the team is by going to “Lightning Talks,” which we hold every other day. In this meeting, designers share their proposed changes with the room, and the rest of the team shares their thoughts, ideas, and concerns with the approach. Since it’s easy for a room of designers to talk in-depth about every change, we set a four-minute timer for each topic. After four minutes, we quickly vote on whether we should keep discussing it or move on.&
from
http://www.surrenderat20.net/2019/07/red-post-collection-qgt-july-5-dev.html
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