[ Updated ] An introduction to game flow changes this preseason

Posted on at 11:04 AM by Moobeat
Updated: Added a bunch of red posts to the bottom of the post!
FeralPony has posted up an overview of the game flow changes coming in the preseason, including changes to Dragon rewards, Baron's buff, turret kill rewards, bounties, jungle timers, and more!
Continue reading for more info

Here's FeralPony with more info ( site link / reddit link ) :


"Hey everyone,

FeralPony here to run through some high level changes coming this preseason that fall under a topic we're calling “Game Flow.” Game Flow is effectively how the core game functions and plays independently of specific roles, champions, items, etc. It's how the minions move, gold enters and leaves the map, objectives are created, and how strategic battles are won and lost. It's the systems in place that aren’t under direct player control.

So what does it include? Here's a look at some of the changes we'll be implementing this preseason:

  • Kill/assist gold
  • Game and objective timings (when things spawn etc)
  • Objective values/rewards (Turrets, Baron, Dragon, etc)
  • Experience
  • Inhibitor mechanics
  • Death timers
  • Map layout & brush changes
  • Jungle (this is a large enough system it'll be included in another post)

Tons of Changes!

You might be saying, “By the factions of Runeterra, Pony, that's a lot of changes!” You'd be absolutely correct, but the bulk of these are small changes meant to enhance other aspects of the game. Each of these changes have unique goals that I’d like to provide additional insight into.



Objectives

We’re making some adjustments to global objectives in Summoner’s Rift.

Dragon: The gold and experience rewards for slaying Dragon will now increase over time.

  • In the preseason, securing dragon will remain a worthwhile objective even into late game. In addition, dragon will provide more experience rewards for teams down in levels, making it a valuable objective for those who are losing heavily. Winning teams will want to keep dragon secured to retain their lead.
Baron: Baron buff is being shifted away from a team fighting bonus and towards more of a sieging bonus (think bonus movement speed or bonus damage to turrets)

  • We wanted to shift Baron buff away from an overpowering team-wide buff that gives the buffed team an advantage in any situation. Instead, we want to clarify Baron buff as a window of opportunity to end the game.

Turrets: The team-wide gold for destroying turrets is going down, but the gold given to the players directly responsible for destroying turrets is going up. (Misaya mentioned he thought turret rewards were based off of damage contribution / assists, but it just grants local gold for anyone in the general area)

  • This change rewards players directly for taking positive action instead of diffusing the reward by splitting it up among their teammates.

Super Minions & Inhibitors: Downed inhibitors will no longer make all minions stronger. Instead, minions in lanes with downed inhibitors will now push harder than before, while minions in other lanes will be unaffected.

  • Clarity was the core goal here. Currently when a single inhibitor goes down it causes all minions on the winning side of the map to become stronger, thereby pushing down their lanes as well. This applies pressure to the defending team, but also allows players on that team to farm the pushed lanes in relative safety and possibly pick up a game-changing item or two. That said, it’s still very difficult to come back from a downed inhibitor because even after a great comeback play, the resurging team must still push out ALL of their lanes before the enemy team respawns. We’d like to give teams that make these epic plays a real shot at making a comeback.



Other underlying systems:

In addition to the changes we’re making to global objectives, we have some smaller changes to other underlying game systems:

Bounty Calculations:

We mentioned this earlier in our support post, but we’re adding “assist streaks,” where players who have far more assists than kills will get bonus gold per additional assist. Additionally, we’re changing the way death streaks are reset. Previously, they were based only on kills and assists, but we’re looking into ways to tie in other forms of contribution. Finally, we’re also looking at bounty rewards in general and how much of an impact they have in the early game versus the mid to late game.

Minion and Jungle Spawn Timers: All minions and jungle camps will spawn earlier in the game.

  • We’re experimenting with shaving a little time off of when minions and jungle camps spawn to get the game off to an earlier start. There was just too much idle time in between loading the match and the first moments of action. Our changes here allow almost every opening strategy to remain viable without being too generous for map-wide team shuffles.

Brush Changes: We’re cleaning up a lot of the L- and C-shaped brush formations so that players can gain vision of the entire brush with one ward.

  • In the jungle, this means more accessible sight lines for both ward vision and anyone attempting to move through the jungle.
  • We’ve also dialed back on some brush that we felt created odd combat situations. We saw situations before where one ward in one brush would leave fights stacked enormously in the favor of the team with the ward. We’ve trimmed back the brush in these regions to still allow for sight lines to be blocked and for melee champions to have a tactical zone to hide in, but brush no longer denies vision to entire battlefields when unwarded.

That’s about it for Game Flow! Some of these changes may be small, but we think that when taken together they’ll play a big role in making for a more dynamic and exciting preseason.

- FeralPony"

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As usual, I'll be updating this thread with more information and discussion as the day continues.


Tower Rewards

When asked about the bonus gold for actually killing a tower, Feralpony elaborated:
"It functions similarly to assists with a longer timer. Any player partaking in damaging the tower within X seconds (currently 30) will split the localized gold. Towers still do grant some global gold as well which will behave as expected."
He continued, noting what happens if no players are around when a tower falls:
"If a tower falls in the forest and nobody is around does it make a sound? 
But seriously, if nobody is around you'll lose the local gold which is about 20% of the total reward. The time window for counting as contributing is also pretty forgiving."
He also noted the reward for helping take down a tower is divided up between those present when it dies, not just everyone around it getting a chunk of bonus gold:
"Divided up. This change has nothing to do with split pushing. It's more about directly rewarding the players making the positive contribution to winning the game."

When asked how this will change push vs roam strats, he commented:
"Tower still give global reward. I don't forsee this having a large change on push strats vs roam strats."


Baron Changes

Feralpony also commented that, for the moment , they are rolling back the Baron changes:
"I wouldn't say "nothing", a metric crapton of gold and experience is nothing to sneeze at especially if you're behind as level differences can make teamfighting extremely difficult. 
We're rolling back the baron changes for the moment but we like the overall direction a lot. We'll be bringing some form of these changes back though for exactly the reasons you mentioned."

Brush Changes

When asked if the bush near red buff will be removed, he commented:
"Nope it'll still have a brush, but it'll be smaller though and less bendy"


Minion and Jungle Spawn timers

When asked if the new spawn times will change lane dynamics, he noted:
"It shouldn't change lane dynamics at all since we're moving both the jungle monsters and lane minion spawn timers up by the same amount. It'll reduce "dead time" though."
He also commented on how these will will affect jungler's who need to prepare for the initial buff camp ( like Shaco or Maokai ):
"You'll be able to reach the camps and still setup. Current timing is 1:35 for buff camps. Plenty of time to get there are start trapping."
As for the new jungle camp, Feralpony confirmed:
"Solcrushed should mention it in the jungle post but it'll be close to Blue Golem. On Blue side it'll be to the left on Blue Golem."

Inhib / Super Minions

He also elaborated in the inhib/minion changes, saying:
"It could still happen but it'll be more in control of both teams as they can directly control the flow on minions instead of it becoming auto-push. In addition the team that broke the first inhibitor can take still take advantage of the additional pressure on that lane to shove another lane. It's still an extremely powerful advantage. 
It is very possible that winning teams can actually use this to their advantage by having large groups of enemy minions (essentially miniature objectives) be more accessible, where as before since everything was automatically shoved all the minion gold was pushed towards the Defender's half of the map."

Assist Streaks

FeralPony commented that assist streaks will never be worth more than a kill
"Getting a kill will never net you less gold than an assist regardless of how high your Assist Bonus is."

General / Other

When asked if these anti snowballing changes are going to make advantages a lot less meaningful, FeralPony commented:
"We are very, very far away from advantages being meaningless. You still gain substantial gold for kills and objectives which confer a large advantage. Support players in addition have added gold benefits for success in games which overall increases team advantage. 
What we want to ensure though is that the level of "snowballing" doesn't reach the point of no-return too quickly for the losing team. Otherwise it ceases being an interesting and exciting game to play and watch."

On there being too many changes this preseason, he noted:
"It will still feel like the same game. Almost all the changes in Game Flow are pretty subtle. 
The most disruptive change is the increased spawn rate of minions but we'll be holding that change for a patch to allow players to adjust to the rest of the changes first."
He continued:
"Most of the changes here are subtle. The trinket changes are the most disruptive from feeling like a "new game". I don't think it'll be too overwhelming."


As for if any of these changes are rolling over into other game modes, he noted:
"These changes are for SR specifically."

When asked why there isn't a grace peroid - where you can't leave the spawn platform - for Summoner's rift, he noted:
"There will be a grace period, though it will be WAY shorter than Dominion. It's something else we've been working on, but it'll prob ship a patch or two behind the rest of the changes." 

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