RoarkeST

Hey Lexical - just as a general question, would you say Skarner is further along than this video implies? I know that this was recorded around October (according to Phlox), but it is admittedly a little sad to not have any confirmation that Skarner has solidified design/direction by now.

It was filmed a bit back. So Skarner did have a bit more progress since then. However, when it comes to R&D just because we have picked a direction, it doesn't always mean its closer to the finish line. As we discover more, some times it means scrapping everything and going back to the finishing line. . Not saying that's the case with Skarner, its just that champion work sometimes is not a direct path but bunch of winding turns till we hit the final place.
We explored a couple of design directions and opportunities in order to find one that feels right for Skarner. Generally speaking, VGUs have alot more risks to hash out compared to a new champ, its not an easy problem that can be gated by time.

JailsinhoHue

Hey u/NeoLexical

How many champs can we expect this year?

Similar to previous years, give or take...

josuk8

Darkin champ with multiple bodies: is probably a pack of wolves

ME: RATS, RATS, WE ARE THE RATS

You forgot the abs.

toquang95

They said it in such a memey way i can only imagine Naafiri doesn’t actually have a body and is just a stack of 6 abs floating around.

Damn. I thought noone was going to guess that.... spoiler alert!!!

Hey this is bug we are investigating and will have a fix for.
However the fix will not cover the stealth/unseen champion hearing a voiceline from opponent that cannot seem them. We are still looking for a fix for this, but because its client side and does not degrade competitive integrity its not high on priority atm.

KatyaBelli

Yeah at 6'7" he would probably be closer to 320 with next to no bodyfat

Maybe gravity works different in Runeterra ;D

memesarenotbad

If that's the case, it's something easy to fix. If players currently own the SG Udyr skin, just set up a flag so that they get a mission of "play one game" and then are awarded the rewards after playing it. The infrastructure exists, it's what they use for pass missions. Rather than the flag being owning the pass, it'd be owning the skin

Discussed that...but the missions system is kinda unstable atm.

DrCarter11

2) Release new icons but make them available to everyone through BE - But SG Udyr Icons might lose the prestige of being attached to an Ultimate skin

This is simply not true. The shop already has the functionality to link purchases to skins though as seen with chromas. You could make the icons purchasable with BE in the shop and only available to people who own the skin.

If the icons are chromas then maybe and even then to sell chromas with essence is not efficient.

GeneralSecura

It's not like it's uncharted territory though. It's the same thing that happened with the Volibear rework, when everyone that already owned him got the Thousand-Pierced Bear skin for free.

Let's say you have to cut some branches in your back yard because a tree fell over that will take 1 hour with your manual saw but it will take you 3 hours to go find some chainsaw. However, you anticipate you will only need to do this once so you decide to just tough it out and manual it.
Then the next year it happened again. You are like meh just tough it out.

Then it happened again.
Do you go buy the chainsaw? Or tough it out again and hope it never happens.

Now, imagine if these three scenarios are not the same people but hired workers coming to a client.
First guy didn't wana anger the customer so he toughs it out instead of delaying 3 hour...same with second... same with third... the the fourth etc etc.
At what point do you go like oh wait I should have bought a chainsaw that would solve this in seconds. But who wana volunteer to be the one that didn't show up to go buy the chainsaw?
This is essentially tech debt >w< ppl who clean up the debt is thankless job... but its because...

rushraptor

Cool why rp. I have over 2mill on my boy dyr and I gotta say I absolutely refuse to be dimed for his updated icons

See number 2.
It isn't possible to do mixed BE/RP bundles. So we would need to make them available to everyone. Ultimate skins comes with Icons. Udyr would be the only one without Icons.

sdanand

I’m not a SG udyr owner so just out of curiosity, is it not possible to grant the icons free to the already-owners and grant the icons to the new owners as well?

We need to pull vast amount of data and grant (aka manual time) from the team that is actually working on the system trying to fix the root problem, and delaying the future when we can do what we want. I think tbh the safest option is to not ship new icons at all, which is less risky when it comes to not angering anyone (can't miss what you don't have). However, I didn't feel great about it. Its safer but we are withholding something cool... Especially that portrait icon

We discussed this extensively about this and had only some path forward.
1) Release no new icons - However, old icons are now out of date and also color no longer made sense.
2) Release new icons but make them available to everyone through BE - But SG Udyr Icons might lose the prestige of being attached to an Ultimate skin
3) Replace old icon - but then we will need to pull the old icons- people generally don't like having things taken away from them
4) After chatting with some folks as well as some udyr mains...we went with option 4. Old SG owners can keep their old icons with option of getting the new ones if they choose to, where new owners will be auto granted the new icons.

Hey All! Wanted to follow up on the developing decision and where my head is at right now.

I've been both disappointed and delighted by the feedbacks! I really do appreciate people taking the time to discuss this as it shows how much the community cares. Many of you raise very valid points on both sides (on reddit, discord and other communication facets). However before going into decisions, I do see some sentiment here that I would like to clarify.

1. Both questioning whether there are positive sentiment and questioning that this is already a made decision. Both of these statements are not only countering to what I stated, but I do take it as an attack on my character. There will be times, when I may get things wrong...however I will not sit here and lie about the state of where things are. This doesn't really encourage more open conversation. Its easy to reject truth that you do not agree with, however that doesn't make it less true. So the honest fact is: Yes there are people that ...

Hey Everyone!I want to give some thoughts here.
- Generally it is easier to voice out negative sentiment online versus positive ones. I have so far heard Akali players both for and against the VO changes.
- Generally change takes time to get used to and it will take time for those who love the change to voice out their opinions. Its very common to reject change.
- Ashly is a great VA and have some really great work as Akali including her work as part of Tales of Runeterra video.

That being said,
- I very much understand that the Base VO and the multitude of small variations that makes Akali distinct in our minds (laugh etc), is very beloved and has its own apeal.
- We want Akali to stand in the middle of Zed and Shen as Chaotic Good. The new VO does make Akali more heroic, but potentially lost some of the chaotic/anti-hero elements.

As it stand, it would be hard to re-record lines (with these directions I think Ashly would nail!), but this is not impossible to keep in mind for futur...

The-War-Life

You’re welcome! Congrats on the promotion. I honestly believe with how things are heading, the rest of this year, and the next couple of years could be some of the best for league’s growth ever. Excited to see you in the LoL scene.

It's not super official yet! Reav3 is handing more and more responsibility to me as time progresses! He is def still around to help which is awesome :D

Solash1

I wonder what the actual reason for women gravitating more to female characters is

I have my version... at least anecdotally, I see the champ I pick as an extension of myself (an avatar) rather than a tool for the game.

I have another personal theory that lots of male champs are designed to heighten power fantasy which I find myself dissociating from. I think there is room to create male champion aesthetics that female can identify with. Would be an interesting experiment.

The-War-Life

Oh let’s go! Reav3 and Lexical are honestly my favorite Rioters and I’m super excited for these news. Congrats!

Awwww TT^TT....Thanksss <3

TreeKeeper15

Darn, I use Reddit way more than Twitter and try to keep track of Rioter comments for the lore community I moderate on discord.

Hiya! uwu

pbEliana

Thats not how it works, especially in tech. Newcomers would need quite a bit of training in the way Riot codes and does things, that it would be good for long run but would mean in short run their educated/qualified employees would have to work more. This would actually mean lower productivity from those people for a while.

Things like coding languages, workarounds, coding patterns, documentations etc are not things that someone can just see once and start writing their own code within few seconds. This is particularly important when you consider that League is a 10+ year old game with some real weird/spaghetti code without proper documentation at times.

It's true! With so many exciting opportunities in the gaming spheres and so many changes in our lives in the recent years, roster of folks working on champion is in flux. Mostly because we always have to trade off making the next exciting champ vs focus on training.This year, I think we want to put more bandwidth to train up newer Rioters all across the board! This means designers will have less bandwidth to work on their current projects. I'm hoping this is helping to build better stability in the long term. Once we have enough devs to backfill etc. It opens up current developers opportunities to grow in mentorship or even to work on a different project that they are passionate about. I don't want to ever keep someone on the team as an exciting opportunity passes them by or if they need a bit of a break etc! I'm grateful that the team think the same and will often stretch themselves to support their fellow teammate.I like to think that we are going a bit slower right now, in order to...

Ed..ward?... Onii chan?..