SNSDave

Right, they also mentioned that they kinda regret that since much like how it was with traditional skins, people fallback to "wElL yOu dId iT fOr tHeM"

Yep. Sorry, as much as I think it'd be cool to see Kindred's face in-game, scope creep is real. We're pushing the quality of our skins more and more each year, trying to give every champion skins & give them cooler effects. So when we listen to every single request like masks or hood toggles, it stretches our bandwidth for overall skins production and we leave less room to focus on creating more awesome stuff.

As easy as it might seem to just put in a toggle, character models, rigs and animations get hugely impacted by stuff like this. QA has to get involved and make sure it doesn't break anything either. Multiple people are pulled out of their regular schedule of working on the next thematic & sets of skins to work on these features.

I was a player for 7 years first and wondered the same thing. Once I stepped in to the production I realized just how challenging it is to actually coordinate people to do extra features, and also sustain it for the future.

Tormentula

As easy as it might seem to just put in a toggle, character models, rigs and animations get hugely impacted by stuff like this.

Could you elaborate on where this affects kindred's mask? Or White-ahri who's animated to work exactly like ahri during the timeframe of her ult?

It makes sense that you can't add a toggle as easy as a true/false statement, but the main concern is that the resources are there so I don't really get the rig/animation claim when they are rigged/animated already with those features in mind. Kindred I maybe can understand since you can't quickly animate the face to look right especially in the death animation, but ahri's has me very confused when theoretically its no different from thresh beyond not implementing the script.

Even if a toggle can't be done, there wouldn't be harm in implementing ways for more visibility for that feature (maybe when kindred ults it temporary removes the mask, and white-ahri' stays after the 3rd charge til death or if she gets a takedown during it.)

Disclaimer, I personally can't speak to either of the skins since I didn't work on either of them, nor am I an animator/modeler/rigger. I worked on the SFX for Yasuo & Riven.
It could be due to a lot of different reasons, including personal artistic decision, design decision, lore related reason, gameplay concerns, work not equating to the value it brings to our players, or technical challenges.
Here's my personal view on it - sometimes, more visibility to a certain feature doesn't always make it more meaningful. There's something unique / novel about something that can't be spammed, or happens under hard to meet conditions. When it does happen, you're that much more excited about it - if that makes sense.

While certainly I don't think that's the approach they were going for by any means, but that's how I like to design my abilities SFX. If it's something that can be spammed often like Yasuo's Q, I like to keep it simple and less 'attention-pulling', and focus on shifting the feeling of awesomeness to something that only happen once every minute - his ultimate.

Heaven-Earth-Hell

Listen up Rioter, may my words pass thoroughly to all the people responsible or relevant to the SB Kindred skin and ART and ICONS. Next time, you guys shouldn't hype the community with the delusion that won't be real okay? First in first, you ruined the supposed to be COSMIC LiSS with the fucking icon and again, you teased the whole community with the unmasked Kindred icons much fucking time before you decide to add the masked icon and replace it on the EVENT novel game? WTF is wrong with your marketing move? Any help with the promoting skin strategy because I am pretty sure you guys really need help with that.

While I understand your frustration, and I don't mean to spoil the story, but you're going to have to play through Kindred's Spirit Bond story to find out why she takes off her mask.

A lot of thought has gone through and I trust my leaders & marketing team for this event and they put a lot of work and effort into it. Sorry you didn't get your wish, but I hope you can enjoy the event with us.

BandOfSkullz

Honestly people, the easiest way to respond to this is simply to not buy the skin.

If companies don't listen to you or want to put in the effort into something, then this is the easiest way to show your displeasure with something.

As someone who absolutely LOVES Kindred, this hurts a lot especially seeing as we'll presumably get the next skin in another 1500 days. But if we want change, we need to force it.

Despite what it may look like - our team work really hard to please the mains of the skins that we work on.

I believe in voting with your money, but also understand that the reason why popular champions receive skins because they perform well. It certainly won't be 1500 days for a new Kindred skin, and I hope that SB Kindred's performance will encourage us to make more Kindred skins in the future.

RenegadeExiled

that honestly sounds super fucked, man. "buy this skin, to encourage us to make more"

We don't have any guarantee that it won't be another 1500 for a Kindred skin. Hell, Ornn is STILL waiting for his first new skin. Azir, a very popular champion in the pro scene, is at almost 1300 days.

That's not what I said. I hope you understand that we skins team are trying to give skins to every champion, and on top of that, the ones that perform exceptionally well (Yasuo, Lux, Ahri, etc) are more likely to be considered for more frequent skins because of high demand. Doesn't mean that we're leaving everyone else behind. If Kindred's skin performs well from Spirit Blossom, it tells us two things: First, the lore-based event was a success and that we should do more of these, and second, Kindred does have a high demand for skins and that we should come back for more skins for her.

Many champions that people are talking about that haven't received their skins in a while - they're all in development as we speak. Please be patient.

RenegadeExiled

I have been patient, and pretty much every single champion I enjoy playing either goes literal years without sign of a skin, or the ones we do get have, frankly, been incredibly lackluster. And because skins like Mecha Aurelion Sol were just such a throwaway, your statement makes me think he's just going to be pushed further and further back for getting skins, til the token 3 year mark so we don't "complain".

I'm sorry, but things like the Sugar Rush skins were horrible, and I feel bad for the Zilean players. That was his chance for a new skin, and it came out when we're also having a time-based event, and it's going to be the only thing he gets for another long while. Dunkmaster Ivern was horrible. It needs to be said, the skin team has this amazing capability to knock concepts out of the park. Spirit Blossom Kindred looks beautiful. This entire event is chalk full of beautiful skins. But then the champions that I, unfortunately, enjoy get a throwaway generic Mecha skin, or that fucking Dunkmaster skin.

It feels really bad, to the point that I honestly wish I didn't love playing Aurelion Sol, Ornn, Ivern, and the others so much. If I was just another Ahri/Yasuo player, I'd be showered with attention and never have to want for a skin, because the next one will be coming in just 3 months. I also wouldn't have to fear that the next ASol skin is going to be another throwaway skin, since it'd be the only thing I see for him for the next few years. And, like you said for the second point: if I don't buy that eventual throwaway skin, then it just tells you guys in the art department that there "isn't a demand for skins" for him.

I'm sorry for venting, but it's been so goddamn long, with nothing but disappointments this entire time. I have nothing against the team, just in the decisions around the less than desirables when it's finally time for their skin.

That sucks, I'm really sorry to hear that.

Some explanation for skins. While we do have a lot of different skin thematics, some are new (Battle Academy, True Damage, Spirit Blossom) as we expand, and those usually contain champions that are liked by a lot of players. It is the safest way to introduce a new thematic to players without risking that there will be no engagement because majority of players simply don't have previous experience with the champions (Ivern, Reksai, A Sol, Azir, etc).

That's why we give our less played champions more established universes and populate them with new skins for them. They may not be as exciting as the new thematics because there are less marketing and hype around them, but I assure you, they're receiving just as much attention and care from modelers, artists, sound designers. We play these champs and are passionate about their existence in League too.

A Sol is in good hands.

I hope you'll trust us in that we'll bring good skins for your champs.

BADxW0LF1

So, I'm going to be slightly mean/critical here, but just know that I love the work y'all do.

"

That's why we give our less played champions more established universes and populate them with new skins for them. They may not be as exciting as the new thematics because there are less marketing and hype around them, but I assure you, they're receiving just as much attention and care from modelers, artists, sound designers. We play these champs and are passionate about their existence in League too.

Doesn't that mean you kind of dropped the ball? If you can't make something exciting and new for a champ without relying on existing skin lines, then you kind of failed those champs and at your job. You SHOULD be able to create something new and inspiring for uncommon champs. Maybe you should be outsourcing more for ideas if none are coming to you. Again, I love a lot of the skins. I just feel like always taking from other skin lines and not giving them something new is a bit of a failure.

What I meant to say is: "They may not FEEL as exciting as the new thematics to our players". We are still striving our best to make them as exciting as possible and add new features & expand the boundaries of the established thematics even more with the old champs.

Edit: Also, we have upcoming thematics with old champs coming in too. I can't spoil anything but these thematics are getting really creative.