A few weeks ago, Riot announced that players could submit questions to the development team through their official Discord. Now, we've started to see some of their responses!
Quote From More Synergy Hey folks, we're here with some Rioter answers to popular #questions-for-devs questions asked in December! Thanks to everyone who submitted and voted on questions. Time was a little limited this month due to the release of Cosmic Creation and the holiday, but keep the questions coming and we'll get to more in January!
If you want to submit your own questions and vote for the questions you most want to see answered from the LoR Dev team, be sure to check out this post from @dArtagnan - https://discordapp.com/channels/631237936855384075/631238667058544640/785626584568692836
Questions about Future Content
Will there ever be a 2v2 mode?
Quote From RiotUmbrage (LoR Game Director) We think there are a TON of opportunities to make the game more social and enable players to play with and against friends. Not ready to share details just yet but we aim to the coming year!
What happens when we run out of regions in Runeterra? Will there be smaller updates with additional cards like the K/DA ones we saw this year? What happens when the amount of cards in the “standard” card pool becomes too much?
Quote From RiotUmbrage (LoR Game Director) We’re not ready to share specific details yet, but it’s definitely something we spend a lot of time thinking about.
What we can say today is, our goals include ensuring a couple things remain true: 1) New players have a reasonable way to jump into the game and have fun. 2) New cards are impactful and exciting to players. These goals become harder to achieve the more cards we have; it’s something every card game’s seen as they continue to develop beyond their base sets and early expansions.
What's the process behind introducing new lore through cards into Runeterra and how closely do you work together with the LoL writers in that regard?
Quote From Riot Strider212 (LoR Narrative Lead) We start with lots of research! There's been a ton of champion lore written throughout the years, so we start by getting a good working knowledge of who the character is and what players find appealing about them. This often involves talking with the League writers. Even better if we can chat with the original writer for the champion!
Next, we come together with the art team and brainstorm ideas around the champions and their followers. This is often where a lot of stories are generated. Sometimes, people come into the room with a specific story in mind, and other times, it's sparked from a sketch or mood board the artists bring.
Then, we take those ideas and consult with our central story group. Part of their job is wrangling all of this writing that's being done across projects and making sure we're all honoring the core truths of the existing canon.
Finally, once we feel confident in our ideas, we're off to scriptwriting!
Will there be any future PvE events like Leona's & Diana's Targon Ascension?
Quote From Riot Exis (LoR Gameplay Engineering Lead) The short answer is an emphatic yes. It was clear that players had a lot of fun with Journey to the Peak, and we did too. You can expect more Labs like it in 2021.
The longer answer is that we’re pretty excited about the potential for PvE experiences in LoR. I’ll try to contain myself and not talk your ear off, but here are some examples of the reasons why:
- It can be fun to play with a bit less intensity. On the LoR team we have plenty of folks who love the mental duel of PvP, but there are also lots of us who want that same strategic puzzle in a less stressful package. Taking on Aurelion Sol is still intimidating, but for different reasons than challenging “LadderStomper420”… and Sol doesn’t run out his clock every turn!
- When your opponent isn’t another player, we don’t have to worry about balance in the same ways. The design team puts a lot of time and effort into keeping the PvP meta healthy, and there are some exciting abilities or mechanics that would be a nightmare to balance for Ranked play. In PvE, players can have access to those abilities without us worrying about fairness for their opponents: the AI never complains about how OP your deck is!
- Last but certainly not least, PvE gives us a chance to explore more of Runeterra. I think our card sets do a pretty exceptional job using art and VO to expand our world; that’s not easy to do in a card game! But there are some stories that would just be impossible to tell through a PvP experience, where we can’t predict which cards everyone will bring to the table. With PvE we have a chance to put you in the middle of some really cool places and events in Runeterra.
I didn’t do as well staying brief as I wanted, so I hope your ears are still intact. We’re glad you’re excited for more PvE next year, and we’re eager to explore too.
With Rising Tides and Call of the Mountain setting the precedent for each set essentially having 2 more champions than the last due to the increasing number of regions and existing champs to match, is this something that will continue with the region additions this coming year? Do you expect each set to be larger than the last indefinitely, or are you planning a slowdown at some point to lighten the load on your design team?
Quote From RubinZoo (Live Design Lead) Yes, each Region will have one more champion than the last up until each region has been released. Once we're done releasing regions, any future sets will likely have a different structure.
Questions about Card Balance
Have you considered getting some opinions about which changes to the cards that you plan for the next patch should be thought through again or tweaked from, for instance, Riot partners in LoR? This is to avoid controversial changes like the War Chefs and other potential and past changes to cards that the community doesn't agree on.
Quote From RubinZoo (Live Design Lead) Yeah, it's been a while - but we do meet up with influencers to get feedback around patches when we can prior to their release. This is in addition to the more normal flow of feedback we get from players through post game surveys and on social outlets. That said, sometimes we have to make changes that we know may be controversial for the overall health of the game. Controversial changes are likely going to happen from time to time, and by no means will all patches be perfect - especially in the eyes of a wide range of different player types.
With the changes in the game and the new cards, are there any thoughts about reverting some of the early nerfs? For example, Ionia seems to be in a bad spot right now. Would you ever consider reverting the Shadow Assassin nerf?
Quote From RubinZoo (Live Design Lead) Ionia is probably in the worst spot right now than any Region in terms of competitive viability, and certainly could use some tuning to provide Ionia players more options. While they do one of the most played meta decks in Shen Fiora, Ionia is certainly supplemental to that deck.
That said, the auto-include level of Shadow Assassin, the negative feedback we've gotten around elusive, the free card advantage and "oops" wins from drawing multiples in various Ionia decks make this a dangerous proposition, so I would not expect this to happen.
Will we expect any more nerf reverts? Take Flash of Brilliance for example
Quote From RubinZoo (Live Design Lead) We've taken an approach where we scrutinize every card for potential buffs and nerfs. We've learned that reverts can be appropriate given both new meta's, and as a mechanism for us to undo potential mistakes - so they are certainly on the table (and we've seen them with Wyrding Stones & Flash of Brilliance)
Would you revert Stand Alone?
Quote From RubinZoo (Live Design Lead) No. Stand Alone was changed not due to power level, but for a fairer and better play experience. It's hard to imagine us undoing changes that are targeted at game health and fun, as opposed to power level.
I know the game is still young, but it's being felt by many players and popular streamers that the game becomes stale between expansions, after a meta has been established and players have become familiar with the new cards. Since Legends of Runeterra content seems to be based on and limited by League of Legends content (game and lore), what plans do you guys have for ensuring that Legends of Runeterra will retain its entertaining value, both before and after hitting the "limit" of League of Legends content?
Quote From RubinZoo (Live Design Lead) Over the course of this year, we've actually made many adjustments and major efforts here have been in increasing the amount of ways of playing LoR. The first is new games modes, which includes labs, gauntlets, our single player experience Climb the Mountain. Expect to see more similar types of content released in the future, and we have plans to expand this feature set next year. We've also invested in creating Events for players (like Spirit Blossom or KDA), that now include more card content on their own to give even more frequent card releases, as well as additional goals to chase and rewards to get. We've developed a Seasonal Tournament, which gives players incentives to play gauntlet and ladder throughout the different seasons - especially towards the end of season. This tournament will happen at the end of each Season, so plan to see 6 more next year! Through coverage we also give additional ways for players to experience LoR outside of just playing. We do Live Balances patches each month in between (and sometimes more) content drops. This usually includes champion reworks. balancing, and a buff heavy approach to older archetypes. In general, this light disruption can be an exciting point for players to reengage. As always, we're also adjusted our expansions to release cards every 2 months, which give a a more streamlined flow of new card content to players. In terms of future plans, one of the biggest pieces missing for LoR is more robust social features. We're looking to fulfill this more in 2021.
Did any of these responses surprise you? Tell us below! And if you'd like to submit any of your own questions to the LoR development team, make sure to enter Riot's official LoR Discord at https://www.discord.gg/legendsofruneterra .
Comments
I find it kind of funny how fun and interactive gameplay is their fundamental metric to balance around.
Meanwhile Swain Sejuani overwhelm/burn exists (which is essentially gruul from mtg) since rising tides which is against both principles of fun and interactivity and still didn't receive real nerfs just because it isn't highly received by the biassed proscene.
Like... isn't that funny?
I think they only nerf something if it has a high winrate and a high play rate. I’ve personally never played against that deck you think is OP, which likely indicates that it isn’t a huge part of the meta like Lee Sin was at its peak. It doesn’t matter how OP the deck is, if it has a low play rate Riot likely won’t nerf it.
Also, I’m not sure if the deck you’re talking about is really low on interactivity. Those regions don’t have access to much protection, so I assume something like vengeance or ruination could stop Swain and Sejuani from winning the game, and adding healing to your deck makes it better against burn. I have never played against the deck so I don’t know if those are true counters, but pretty much every deck offers some interactivity against it (except maybe the old Ionia Elusives deck with crazy amounts of protection tools).
the funny thing is that the old ionian elusives got countered by swain sejuani since a leveled sejuani would just frostbite their board every attack round and not let them do their thing. Sure it might seem unlikely to have a leveld up Sejuani reliably on the board but the deck if its built right will have a leveled sejuani on board on turn 6 almost always and elusives didnt win that early, given most of the burn tools in this deck are also removal spells such like Death's Hand, Ember Maiden noxian favourBADCARDNAME
That is pretty bad of a take imo, if a deck has not been used much then it doesnt need nerf. For example, Nightfall had the most winrate in Lee/Pirate meta (confirmed by RubinZoo) but it did not receive any nerf, cause it felt healthy to play against and there were not so many players that plays it.
Also, it was a hard deck.
Mostly enthusiastic non-answers, but happy to see the devs acknowledging the communities' questions.
Yeah, for the most part the answers were just “we’re working on it” or “we’re thinking about it.” It’s nice to hear what their priorities are though, I’m excited for what they decide to do with PvE modes!