03/18 PBE Update - Karma, Her Fans, and more.

Posted on at 6:39 PM by Unknown
Karma was scheduled to be out on the PBE tonight, but due to technical difficulties, Riot has postponed the deployment to the "likely" date of "tomorrow."
Click below to continue reading about what Ququroon has to say about the return of Karma's fans and check out a teaser video for Karma's animation and skins, read up on a new AFK behavior change for champion select, and more!


There might be a little hiccup in their patch deployment. Ququroon had a little something to say about how the games are unplayable.
"IS SHE COMING TONIGHT?!:  
...no! We ran into a few issues that caused games to be unplayable, so we figured you guys wouldn't exactly want that. Trust me, I'm with you guys in wanting to see her played as soon as possible. 
I did want to get this post up for you guys, because I see you all already taking a peek at her skins and stuff. I know the title is a lying jerkface. 
Anyways though! Let's hear it! What do you guys think?"
Although there's an update on the next tentative time we can expect to play Karma:
"As far as when she'll be playable... I don't want to say tomorrow in case something happens, but... Tomorrow is likely.  
Thank you for your (continued) patience. <3"
Ququroon continues on to explain why Karma's Fans were added back into the model. Granted, it's only visible during her dance:
"I felt this needed it's own post.  
Yes, we did add them in, on all her skins. Yes, as some of you have guessed, it is only on her Dance. We wanted to give you guys an homage to the fans, as they were a key element to her in the past. 
We did initially remove the fans, as Morello quipped in the Leak thread. We weren't fully prepared for how fond of them some of you were; which is a point we've heard loud and clear, and will be discussing further in-depth for future Relaunches and Visual Upgrades.  
Allow me to jump into the fray here for a second. On our champions, especially older ones, we have very iconic elements. Things that when you think of the champion, you can't help but think of. This can go one way or another, either good or bad, weak or strong.  
An example of a this that we've looked at in the past would be Annie's panties. Could you argue that it was a core element to her design? Sure. Okay. But was it strong, or a good thing? A little more arguable. Was it something we wanted to keep? How would it look with increased fidelity? How much are players attached? We reviewed this in her case, and removed them. We felt that something like Tibbers was much stronger, more core, and very recognizable in her case, and so we pumped that up to the awesome floppy bear you see today. 
The take away here for and from Karma is that we should scrutinize core elements more. This doesn't mean we'll necessarily keep them all, but perhaps if we do wind up in a similar situation, we'll keep some kind of reference in. For the fans, as I said, we added them back in as an homage, for those fond of them. We really wanted to push the Mantle of Decorum, and her Mantra style gameplay. And who knows? Maybe this will open the space for another fan champion to blow us all away?
Does this properly explain our choices, whether you like them or not?"

Karma Skin Models
Note that the Traditional Karma skin is available to be bought on the PBE server, but it's not able to be used in gameplay. This is not intentional, so Ququroon says!

The video still has her old voice over, plus her little floaty fans. It's still very incomplete, but at least you get a better idea of how she looks in-game!



Here's a little blurb about, perhaps, a new Karma skin. Jade Empress Karma? Names of default skins are not usually listed here, which leads us to believe this is a tentative upcoming skin.

Traditional Karma

Sun Goddess Karma

Sakura Karma

Classic Karma


New AFK Behavior in Champion Select
rjcombo was happy to announce a new feature to hit the PBE, one that will force a player to dodge if they fail to select a champion.
"Hello folks,

Today we've enabled a feature on the PBE that removes the "hard random" behavior in champ select and prevents match-made games from starting when a player fails to select a champion. 
Here's how the new system works:
  • When any player in a match-made game fails to select a champion before their timer expires, the game is terminated.
  • A player who fails to select a champion is given a queue dodge penalty. The dodge penalty functions exactly the same as if the player closed their PVP.net client.
  • Solo players who succeed in selecting a champion are returned to the front of the matchmaking queue.
  • Arranged teams whose members all succeed in selecting a champion are returned to the front of the matchmaking queue.
  • Arranged teams with one or more members who fail to select a champion are returned to the arranged team lobby.
  • Draft mode is handled on a pick-by-pick basis. If a player fails to pick a champion during their turn, the game is terminated immediately. Players later in the draft order, who did not have an opportunity to pick a champion, are given the benefit of the doubt and not assigned a dodge penalty.
We know a lot of players have been asking for these changes for a while, and we're hoping to get them to the live servers ASAP, so test them out and let us know if you find any bugs. Also note these changes only apply for match-made games. Custom games are not yet supported and will still apply a "hard random". 
Finally, I'd like to call out several Rioters who were determined to deliver this feature and volunteered their time and effort during a recent Riot Thunderdome (game jam) event to make it happen: 
RiotTantram
Riot Damiya
New Scott
RiotKTGoldwolf"

No comments

Post a Comment