Category: Development (Page 5 of 51)

Dominion potentially delayed until October

September 6, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

Things have been extremely quiet at Riot headquarters of late. The forums have been utterly devoid of red posts concerning Dominion, the end of Season One, and the beginning of Season Two in the last week or so. This wouldn’t be all that shocking – Riot has always struggled to provide good communication about timing – but we had been hearing about those things and in quantity for the three weeks or so prior.

From the time Dominion was announced until about three weeks ago, Riot was pumping the Dominion hype. We got the Dominion minisite, gameplay vids at the major gaming news outlets, plenty of screenshots, and chances to play the game at several industry events. We saw Rioters play pros, Rioters play Rioters. We got excited.

Next we were told about the end of Season One and the rewards that end entailed. For the first time since the launch of Season One players had something more than just winning/losing/farming IP to worry about. It was a great announcement, and hopefully a challenge a few people enjoyed as much as I did.

This past week, though, it was dead silent. I thought that meant Dominion was on the way. I thought that meant we’d see it before Q4 of this year, which is when every other game I’ve been excited about for the past several years is coming out. Sadly, that’s probably not the case. RiotRara finally posted in the forums today regarding the timing of Riven and the patch that follows her.

Here’s the quote:

Riven, and the changes within her patch, will be coming next week. As we previously announced, Season One will conclude with our next scheduled game update. Therefore we will also be calculating the Season One Ladder rankings and rewards during downtime for this patch.
Additionally, there will be an extra week (3 weeks total) between the Riven patch and the patch to follow. This extra time will ensure we bring you the best content possible in League of Legends.

I can’t imagine “best content possible” is code for anything other than Dominion. Three weeks from next Tuesday is October 4th. I’m not impressed, Riot. Not at all.

Development, Dominion, league of legends, News, Patches

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Riven Sneak Peek is Up

September 4, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

Riot posted the latest champion sneak peek this weekend, giving us a glimpse of Riven, the Exile. It comes again in the form of a mini-comic with some incredibly cheesy and over-the-top nonsense for a storyline. Ah well, this game isn’t about lore. It’s about trolling and rage-quitting.

I haven’t seen anything about her skillset that isn’t speculative, so I’ll just say we’re waiting to see whether or not she should build a Trinity Force. My guess: yes. From her looks I’d say she’s another melee assassin, which seems like a really odd release after Talon. It might be interesting if she had some mobility and so was capable of being a real force on Dominion.

It looks like we’ll be waiting until next week for server downtime to bring her live, which will also mean the end of Season 1 and, hopefully, the launch of Dominion.

Champions, Development, league of legends, News

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Talon, the Blade’s Shadow skillset preview

August 18, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

Riot put together a “mechanics preview” for Talon, the upcoming melee assassin. I’m not sure why it’s a mechanics preview rather than just a skill preview. It seems to be his full skillset, but maybe they just don’t want people to think that the thing is set in stone. Tough to say.

Regardless, let’s take a look at his skills:

Cutthroat: An ability that allows Talon to catch his enemies by surprise. Talon leaps behind his target and silences them for a short duration, amplifying the damage of any of his follow up attacks and abilities.

Noxian Diplomacy: Talon viciously stabs his enemy, dealing heavy physical damage and causing them to leave a blood trail that Talon can use to track them.

Rake: Talon fans out three blades in front of him that quickly return to him, dealing damage and slowing any target hit in either direction.

Shadow Assault (Ultimate): Talon enters stealth for a short duration, gaining a movement speed boost and sending blades that deal damage to all enemies in their path flying in every direction. Once the blades reach a certain distance, they pause and form a circle. When Talon reappears from stealth, the blades return to him, once again dealing damage to any opponent they pass through.

Mercy (Passive): Talon’s auto-attacks deal additional damage to a target that is under the influence of any crowd control effect.

He seems to be Vayne’s brother or depraved uncle or some such thing, at least as far as his skills/flavor go. It’s tough to get a good feel for his skills, mostly because their so basic. I like the idea of a targeted leap plus a silence, but I can’t really say much about his other skills. Slows are always nice. I’m not sure why he has a tracking skill unless his dash is on a very short cooldown. His ultimate is something I’ll definitely have to see to really pass any sort of judgement on.

Phreak claims the Talon spotlight has neither jungling or a Trinity Force. I suppose we’ll see on Monday night. Are you excited for Talon?

Champions, Development, league of legends

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DotA 2 International tournament in full swing

August 17, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

With Gamescom up and running, the DotA 2 International tournament is in full swing, with teams competing for the first place purse of $1,000,000. This is also the first time the world at large has seen DotA 2, a game that, in my opinion, looks fantastic. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed DotA on a very visceral level. It was somewhere in the back of my mind, but as soon as I saw Valve’s take on some of my favorite champions – Windrunner, Beastmaster, Dark Seer, Night Stalker – I felt the excitement of playing the game again.

I think Valve has done a really nice job with the graphics. Honestly, with as good as DotA 2 looks, I don’t think HoN really stands a chance. HoN’s big selling point up to this point was that it was DotA with “better” graphics. For some reason, though, they changed the names of the items and the champions and made the graphics look all sorts of crazy. DotA 2 actually is DotA with better graphics and, from the looks of things, everything is still the same. I can’t decide if that’s a good or bad thing on the whole, but I’m willing to say it’s a bad thing for HoN

I think the key to quick success is for Valve to release at the right time and the right price. No doubt there will be plenty of current DotA players making the switch. According to the livestreams today, some 1.5 million people were watching the International tournament. But I would like to see a vibrant DotA 2 community, including newplayers. I know a few friends who will be playing DotA for the first time in DotA 2, and it is a very different game. Without a fresh community, those newer players will have a frustrating time getting acclimated to the game.

With the beta just getting started, I could see a DotA 2 launch as late as the end of November. As for price, I’m hoping it’s free-ninety-free, but I also wouldn’t mind seeing a buy-in price. It would hopefully keep smurfs from being too much of an issue and encourage players to be a bit more careful with their accounts. I’m also not sure if Valve is planning any sort of skin system or microtransaction model. If interest is high enough around the game, it makes plenty of sense to do a box cost and then follow it up with microtransactions down the road. Valve could easily make back development costs and then look for more ways to turn the game into a mint.

Did you watch any of the footage? Are you excited for DotA 2 or content to chug along in LoL? Think you’ll be playing both? Let me know in the comments.

Development, DotA

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Skarner official skill list released

August 8, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

My schedule has been all out of sorts this weekend, thanks to a wedding, a trip to my beloved Cleveland, and my upcoming return trip south. Rest assured that I’m still keeping pace with the League and will try to get a little content together over the next couple days, despite my travel.

First on that list is the Skarner official skill list release. Without further ado, let’s take a look:

Abilities:

Energize (Passive): Basic attacks lower the cooldowns of Skarner’s abilities by 1 second against champions and 0.5 seconds against non-champions.

Crystal Slash: Skarner lashes out with his claws, dealing physical damage to all nearby enemies and charging himself with Crystal Energy for several seconds. If he casts Crystal Slash again while empowered by Crystal Energy, he deals bonus magic damage and slows all targets hit.

Crystalline Exoskeleton: Skarner gains a shield and while the shield persists his movement speed and attack speed are both increased.

Fracture: Skarner summons a blast of crystalline energy which deals damage to enemies struck and marks them. Any further damage dealt to marked targets by Skarner will allow him to consume the mark to heal himself.

Impale (Ultimate): Skarner suppresses an enemy champion and deals magic damage to it. During this time, skarner can move freely and will drag his helpless victim around with him. When the effect ends, Skarner’s target will be dealt additional damage.

It’s no secret that Skarner is going to be Tanky DPS, a fact that’s confirmed by his skillset. He has an activated shield with passive damage boost, hybridized damage, and a self-heal. Golly, do you think we’ll see anyone build Trinity Force on him?

Answer: Yes. Crystal Slash is pretty much designed around Sheen – cast it once to proc Sheen, get in an attack or two, hit it againfor the slow and another Sheen proc.

I want to be clear – I’m not knocking his design. As I was writing that last paragraph I was actually thinking that Skarner sounds like a lot of fun. He’ll have great sticking power and strong survivability. The one thing he’s really missing is some mobility.

I will say this: I’m a little worried about the strength of a moving suppression. The other two suppressors in the game – Malzahar and Warwick – also self-stun when they suppress, which gives the skill some sort of balance. Skarner is going to be able to move about, which will definitely cause quite a few problems when coupled with another stunner on the team. The only thing that remains unclear is whether Skarner can use different attacks while his target is impaled. I have no idea how long his ultimate lasts, but it seems easy enough to assume that his best use will be to take a carry out of the fight and continue dealing damage to the rest of the enemy team. I’m not in love with the mechanic. Imagine if he can use Flash while a target is impaled. Suddenly his ult becomes a tower hook at a huge distance.

We’re bound to find out about his power level tomorrow. I’ll be on the road all day, but I’d love to check your comments and impressions of Skarner at my rest stops along the way. Drop your thoughts in the comments.