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Legends of Runeterra | Posted by | 6 years, 2 months ago
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Unintentional announcement of season/expansion schedule?

HUGE patch notes today; so I didn't even notice this little nugget until I was rereading for the 2nd time:

Additionally, we plan to approach balance with a seasonal mindset, adjusting our methods as the meta goes through different stages between sets of new cards. Once we’re out of beta and get into our regular cadence of releasing new sets, it should look something like this:

  1. New set of cards released.
  2. First balance patch: mostly “medium”-sized number changes based on our early sense of outliers.
  3. Second balance patch: Significant updates to underutilized cards, and the main patch where you can expect any major champion updates.
  4. Third balance patch: Limited number changes to stabilize any meta issues.
  5. Next set of cards released.

Since they've previously announced that they want to do balance patches exactly every 4th Tuesday, I believe we can make some reasonable inferences:

  • New cards will be released in batches called "seasons", comparable to expansions in HS and MtG
  • Each season will last 16 weeks (i.e., every ~4 months or ~3 per year)

Additionally, if we look a few patch notes prior to when they announced ranked mode, we can see they put that in context of "Seasons" too, so we can also hypothesize:

  • Each Ranked Season will be exactly aligned with new card set releases.  (Contrast with HS, where each season is a calendar month its completely asynchronous to when card sets are released.)
  • There will be some type of recognition / reward at the end of each 16 week period based on how high of tier you have on ladder.  So far they only thing they have officially announced is a cosmetic (a "beta-exclusive icon"), but I'd be really surprised if this didn't also include some form of in-game resources.
  • Once the new season starts (i.e., when the next batch of new cards is released), there will be some type of ladder reset / loss of rank--again: I haven't seen any official announcements, but it makes sense that just because you hit Master once you wouldn't be guaranteed for life.   You'll then have 16 weeks with the new base of cards to re-climb and earn your rank for that season.

And finally, if you REALLY want to go out on limb, you could look at how they've been describing this open beta as a "Beta Season" and wildly speculate:

  • The beta will have just 2 more rounds of balance patches, March 17th & April 14
  • Riot's unofficial / internal / soft-target for closing beta and formally launching Legends of Runeterra is Tuesday, May 12
  • The first expansion / new set of cards will release 16 weeks afterwards--i.e., Tuesday, September 1st

Obviously I've made a lot of assumptions in all of these points and even if I'm right that this is their unannounced plan of record its still subject to change (e.g., they find some critical bug they need to solve before releasing, or they get delayed releasing the mobile version to iTunes and decide its worth it to postpone just to have a consolidated launch, or they decide they want more overlap between their season schedule and HS's expansion schedule).  Regardless, its got me very excited so I thought I'd share.

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  • HUGE patch notes today; so I didn't even notice this little nugget until I was rereading for the 2nd time:

    Additionally, we plan to approach balance with a seasonal mindset, adjusting our methods as the meta goes through different stages between sets of new cards. Once we’re out of beta and get into our regular cadence of releasing new sets, it should look something like this:

    1. New set of cards released.
    2. First balance patch: mostly “medium”-sized number changes based on our early sense of outliers.
    3. Second balance patch: Significant updates to underutilized cards, and the main patch where you can expect any major champion updates.
    4. Third balance patch: Limited number changes to stabilize any meta issues.
    5. Next set of cards released.

    Since they've previously announced that they want to do balance patches exactly every 4th Tuesday, I believe we can make some reasonable inferences:

    • New cards will be released in batches called "seasons", comparable to expansions in HS and MtG
    • Each season will last 16 weeks (i.e., every ~4 months or ~3 per year)

    Additionally, if we look a few patch notes prior to when they announced ranked mode, we can see they put that in context of "Seasons" too, so we can also hypothesize:

    • Each Ranked Season will be exactly aligned with new card set releases.  (Contrast with HS, where each season is a calendar month its completely asynchronous to when card sets are released.)
    • There will be some type of recognition / reward at the end of each 16 week period based on how high of tier you have on ladder.  So far they only thing they have officially announced is a cosmetic (a "beta-exclusive icon"), but I'd be really surprised if this didn't also include some form of in-game resources.
    • Once the new season starts (i.e., when the next batch of new cards is released), there will be some type of ladder reset / loss of rank--again: I haven't seen any official announcements, but it makes sense that just because you hit Master once you wouldn't be guaranteed for life.   You'll then have 16 weeks with the new base of cards to re-climb and earn your rank for that season.

    And finally, if you REALLY want to go out on limb, you could look at how they've been describing this open beta as a "Beta Season" and wildly speculate:

    • The beta will have just 2 more rounds of balance patches, March 17th & April 14
    • Riot's unofficial / internal / soft-target for closing beta and formally launching Legends of Runeterra is Tuesday, May 12
    • The first expansion / new set of cards will release 16 weeks afterwards--i.e., Tuesday, September 1st

    Obviously I've made a lot of assumptions in all of these points and even if I'm right that this is their unannounced plan of record its still subject to change (e.g., they find some critical bug they need to solve before releasing, or they get delayed releasing the mobile version to iTunes and decide its worth it to postpone just to have a consolidated launch, or they decide they want more overlap between their season schedule and HS's expansion schedule).  Regardless, its got me very excited so I thought I'd share.

    •  dont you think the game will become stagnant if they take 3 months after launch to make a  new expac? maybe a month after  the launch but 3?

       the players will be bored if they take all that time.

      • It's definitely too long for the people willing to buy cards, but it's plenty of time for free players. I'd prefer a drip feed over big expansions.

  • How long did it take for HS between official launch and first set?

    • Hearthstone's first expansion was Curse of Naxxramas, released in July 2014. i guess you right maybe i overreacting a bit HS launched in march by the way.

    • Quote From Marega

      How long did it take for HS between official launch and first set?

      Four months.  Open beta started January 21, 2014; launched March 11, 2014; launched "Curse of Naxxramas" July 22, 2014.

       

      dont you think the game will become stagnant if they take 3 months after launch to make a new expac? maybe a month after the launch but 3?

      the players will be bored if they take all that time.

      I'm guessing OGs like us might be getting a little stir-crazy by then, but keep in mind that ostensibly right now is just a beta period and that the player base could potentially grow at launch, especially if they are successful at introducing mobile at launch.  This report claims that >70% of digital card game players play on smartphones.

  • I'd actually appreciate a slower rate of expansion releases, too. It keeps the card pool from becoming overwhelming, especially for new players, but even for some folks like me. When I build a deck, I don't netdeck, I don't just search for cards the meta considers 'strong' - I look over each and every card and take at least a moment to consider whether it fits my deck strategy. Doing that in Hearthstone these days is nigh impossible (although the Standard format helps with this, I guess).

    Also, there seem to be a ton of interesting deck archetypes which are at least semi-viable, so that coupled with playing Expeditions will surely keep me hooked enough to wait a couple of months for a new set.

  • One point of note - it's highly unlikely that each season will align with each new set precisely because both League and TFT have shown Riot like to have a grace period between seasons. It's possible they'll go a different route with this game, but that wouldn't match established formulae.

  • Are there games that do expansions faster than 3-4 months? That seems crazy to me.

    The schedule Riot seems to have set looks exactly right to me. It gives people time to complete all the regions.

    Plus, with such frequent balance patches, no, it's not going to get stagnant.