League of Legends Dev Tracker
This thread was added on March 17, 2023, with posts from RiotMeddler, Cashmiir, Riot_Riru.
OP channeled his inner Skarner and impaled corporate backpedalling
Hey folks
So uh, this was meant to go out at 12.30pm PDT, not 12.30am PDT, hence the lack of the mentioned blogs, lack of any of us replying on social media, video being set to private etc. We're going to stuff posted properly as soon as we can, apologies this process has been extra messy today...
Weird to say that the Scorpion aspect isn't compelling for players. That's one of the coolest things about Skarner. There are too many bipedal human-like characters in League.
It's really unfortunate the video went out early without the dev blog to accompany it, given the comments in the video don't stand on their own as well without all the extra context. We're working on getting everything posted properly now, some bits from the blog while we wait though:
"With Skarner's update, we wanted to take the chance to revisit the Brackern and reinvent what they are as a species, while maintaining their immense power and presence in Runeterra.
Where we landed was making the Brackern Runeterra's first earth elementalists, dating back to pre-civilization. Ancient and powerful, they're revered for their primal knowledge of earth, which they taught to the people of Runeterra long ago."
"Skarner currently resides in Shurima. However, with a new direction for the Brackern, we thought that Ixtal, with its deep connection to elemental magic, would be the perfect region for them.
With the Brackern as the first earth elementalists, we're exploring the possibility of them having taught the first Ixtali people how to harness the earth element, as well as the possibility of them building the first Arcologies. This would position the Brackern as a revered species in Ixtal, deeply connected to the region's origin and history.
Either way, in modern Ixtal, the Brackern keep to themselves, not interested in human affairs. Which gives us the perfect opportunity to create an interesting space for Skarner, who we'll be centering within the greater story of Ixtal."
"For Skarner’s art direction, we first broke him down into his basics and characterized him by the following visual cues: Scorpion Crystals Good-aligned heroic archetype
Based on this the team then identified what was working and what wasn't. Scorpions are an excellent creature fantasy, but does applying crystals to a scorpion elevate Skarner’s theme or detract from it? Skarner’s whole being has revolved around him being a sad, defeated, lonely scorpion who misses his kind... which isn’t as aspirational of a design as we’d like. When put all together, some of those elements make others less appealing. So we looked at the individual fantasies to figure out where they add to each other, rather than take away.
Scorpion: Scorpions are a good design for a monstrous champion. They’re insectoid as well as somewhat crustacean-like. And when you look at them up close, they are otherworldly and alien.
Crystals: The recipe of insect and crystal could theoretically work, but we wanted to use Skarner’s VGU as an opportunity to evolve the material, and we felt like it would be too problematic and strange to keep him focused in his crystal thematic. Runeterra is a vast world that has evolved in the years since Skarner’s release, so keeping him tied to a thematic that wasn’t memorable or all that exciting didn’t seem like the right approach for his rework.
Good Hero Archetype: Skarner’s a lawful neutral character archetype with full sentience who is deeply intelligent—which sets him apart from many of the monster champions in the roster. He’s not just a monster who kills everything in sight. We sort of had a “King Kong” vibe—someone who wants to be left alone, but will protect his territory with extreme prejudice if needed. He’s not necessarily someone who is openly aggressive to everyone, but he can (and should) hold his own in a fight if need be. And we loved the idea of the people in Ixtal respecting and worshiping him as part of the land and its protector."
Quick Play where you pick a champion and role and get at least one of them and jump straight into the game.
Can't wait for my Zed support
To clarify - champ and role are individual picks. You're doing things like choosing:
Not going to get assigned Zed as support as a result
Why was the video removed in youtube
Video was meant to go out at 12.30pm PDT, not 12:30am PDT. We're working to get it and the blogs up properly now, apologies for the mess
"now that yuumi is out of the way"
Yeah that worked like a charm
Yeah, not the ideal choice of phrasing in retrospect. What I meant to convey was that "now that Yuumi's not taking bandwidth away from other midscopes and can be addressed through the balance process again", rather than "now that Yuumi's totally fixed forever"
For what it's worth I do think this verison of Yuumi will be meaningfully more balanceable, agree that what shipped at a minimum wasn't tuned right though (to state the obvious)
Given their current game direction, if Skarner becomes a crystal dude with a six pack I am going to be so unbelievably salty. Captain Flowers please do some undercover work to subvert my expectations here.
Don't worry on that front at least, we're very much sticking with a creature scorpion, not going human with scorpion elements
BLUE ESSENCE EMPORIUM (Honestly though, what was wrong with it in the first place?)
Short version - a lot of stuff had to be manually implemented every time we ran it. Took a lot of time, was error prone (given a lot of data entry to get wrong) etc. Needed to be rebuilt in a better manner
Nip slip
You know what, I like this version better.
Sure, nip slip.
Hey Meddler really enjoying these more frequent videos, is this going to be a monthly thing from now on and does that mean no more LoL Pls vids?
They'll be a fairly regular thing, though not on an exact fixed schedule since we'd rather do one a little earlier or a little later depending on what we've got to say. At a guess, that probably means something like every 4-6 weeks or so, but that's a rough approximation, not a hard rule
And yeah, current thinking is these replace LoL Pls, given there's a lot of overlap otherwise and LoL Pls has some limitations to it we're looking to move away from (overly focused on good news only, slower production/release times)
Weird to say that the Scorpion aspect isn't compelling for players. That's one of the coolest things about Skarner. There are too many bipedal human-like characters in League.
Video doesn't work well without the accompanying blog (which has some concept art of VGU Skarner). He's still very much a scorpion, not humanoid. We're working to get that blog posted as soon as we can now. In retrospect what we should have said instead in the video was that it was the current execution on scorpion that isn't compelling, not that scorpion couldn't be a compelling core for a champion.
i love my iron mates using Zed supp tho
Hey, if it's deliberate and with other consenting adults, go nuts...
Because they want everyone to play the game.
Keeping our games accessible to a wide range of hardware (and operating systems) is a big goal for us, be that League or anything else we make. At this point though we just can't justify the limitations that imposes on development for 99.99%+ of the playerbase hence the update
Will mirror matchups still be a thing in quick play?
99% sure Quick Play is set up so they can still be a thing, double checking though
So there are no changes to the actual pace of the game? Not exactly quick play when games have the potential to go 30-40 minutes.
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
Are you also able to share if Quick Play will have any mirror matchups? Since they are one of the things I really disliked about blind
Double checking, I'm 99% sure mirror matches can still happen in Quick Play though
I imagine that writers are also thinking about the origin of hextech and co? Because this is quite a huge retcon for Piltover/Shuriman lore as well.
This will most likely bring in some major lore issues with Seraphine, Camille, and more champs which are tightly linked to the Brackern/Hextech Crystal lore
(EDIT: Also thank you for this post, there's a lot of exciting thematic in here and if done right could be great for Skarner overall I think)
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
Why is Meddler holding a coffee cup in the video?
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)
Bro it isn’t hard just get rid of the stupid tower minigame
Spires are going away
and can be addressed through the balance process again
(X) DOUBT
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
Hold two in the next video.
Ok, that's actually a little tempting, at least for a single shot somewhere or something. If it happens, you very much called it
Hey folks
So uh, this was meant to go out at 12.30pm PDT, not 12.30am PDT, hence the lack of the mentioned blogs, lack of any of us replying on social media, video being set to private etc. We're going to stuff posted properly as soon as we can, apologies this process has been extra messy today...
Hijacking Meddler comment for dev blog URLs!
Skarner dev blog: https://www.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/news/dev/dev-searching-for-skarner-s-sting/
Midscopes dev blog: https://www.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/news/dev/dev-the-midscope-process-rell/
TLDW in case anyone can't watch the video: https://www.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/news/dev/tl-dw-skarner-skins-quick-play-dev-update/
Sorry about the delay everyone!
Dropping the article links here for everyone's convenience:
TL;DW: SKARNER, SKINS & QUICK PLAY DEV UPDATE