Red Post Collection: No Interest in Using Patents Offensively, New Player Experience, On the EZ/J4 Splashes, and more!

Posted on at 1:01 AM by Moobeat
Tonight's red post collection features an important message from Ryze and Tryndamere on the topic of patents, Ymir commenting on recent improvements to the the new player experience, a comment on the Jarvan IV and Ezreal splash arts that have been floating around, a summary of leveling, IP&RP, and pricing updates on the PBE, and more!
Continue reading for more information!

Recent News


No Interest in Using Patents Offensively

Due to this aggressive reddit thread concerning Riot's recent patent on a Spectator Mode Feature,
Ryze and Tryndamere have posted a small message to the community on the Riot Games website:
"Guys, we’ve been getting some questions about patents we filed a couple years ago. We have no interest in using any patents offensively. The US patent system is broken and needs reform. Many gaming companies -- including us -- are getting attacked by patent trolls. Here’s some good background reading on the topic for those of you who are interested. Our default’s to collaborate. For instance, we’ve given everyone written permission to put our IP to a wide variety of uses. 
We won’t get in the way of anyone else building awesome spectator features, but we do want to make sure League of Legends players can always spectate freely. If you’re interested in having congress address patent reform, check out https://defendinnovation.org
Brandon Beck, Marc Merrill"

Building A Better New Player Experience

Ymir, a Player Behavior Expert often seen on over on the EUW forums, commented on Riot's recent attempts to improve the new player experience:
"We actually have a team completely dedicated to the experience you guys are talking about.

Their goals are to make sure that when a new player logs in they have the best experience possible and while not a crash course in League of Legends it is very much built around logical entry points to the game. A new player right now for example has access to Co-op Vs AI as we found that really allows them to grasp concepts. 
A few levels later and we open up Summoner's Rift normal. People play League of Legends for a lot of reasons, many because they want action and player v player, holding the main focus of the game in reserve for too long is dangerous in itself as it's less 'hey try this out first' and more 'you are not allowed to play what you wanted to play' 
They have been pulling off a lot of really cool minor changes and eyeing larger ones. The talk about certain Champions not being a good choice at the start is one they have had a lot. 
We know there's work we can do on this and we're definitely looking at your feedback on it."
He continued:
"You probably missed the post where I said we have a team totally dedicated to this. We're a pretty big place, there's probably long forgotten teams in the basements at LAX who will emerge into the blasted wastelands of the future with a feature. 
'Nobody wants that anymore, grab a gun and help me kill the mutants' 
I kid, but there's a ton of features in development and also research and evolution going on all the time on every aspect of the game. If I had to pin down one thing that frustrates me it's that we are a little slow to talk about or show things, but given the recent discussions around features we've put off I think you can see why it's wise not to discuss them too much.

We always have a lot going on and we're far from just sitting on beanbags drinking Lattes as we discuss the purity of LCS plays compared to the common folk."

Ez and J4 Splash Arts Not Final

If you've been wondering about the "new" Ezreal and Jarvan IV splash arts that have been floating around, Ymir commented that they are still a WIP:
"Hey guys, these are very much not final.

It's the big problem with people seeing anything early that it can give the impression we're unaware of issues. That's why we keep things under lock and key until they're done in the majority of cases."

For some additional context on these splashes, see IronStylus's post on Puppetworks Animation. 

Why Garen's Ult Doesn't Need CC

Over on the community beta, Scarizard replied to a summoner suggesting that Garen's Ult get a small crowd control component to it:
"The big issue with including something like CC on Garen's ult is that it confuses the use-case. Garen's ult, when successful, executes your target (which is quite powerful that he has a 'just kill you' button). If we were add CC to it, likely two scenarios would arise
  1. You'd rarely ever see it, because the majority of your Garen Ults are killing your opponent (making the CC ineffective/superfluous).
  2. The CC in question would be so effective that Garen's would use their Ult on targets that they want to die, but are not in execute range - (i.e. if Demacian Justice stunned the target for X seconds, you'd never get satisfying damage. You'd just use it on a person you wanted to CC.)
Even in case #2, often times the point of CCing a target is...well, to kill them. If Garen's ult -were- to get some love, we'd likely make the threshold at which it does maximum damage a little higher so that you can take out targets easier, or decrease the cooldown so that he were to have it more available. 
That said, Garen's ult is pretty satisfying at the moment (imo) - and i wouldn't be excited about increasing the power of an ability that comes at the end of the engagement rather than one that's used/felt throughout."

Team Builder will be coming back to PBE on Monday (2/10) and Tuesday (2/11) from 1:00 to 5:00 PM PST!

As it has for the past few weeks, the Team Builder will return for more PBE testing next Monday and Tuesday! See this thread for more info on the latest build and testing goals!

Summary of PBE Leveling, IP/RP, and pricing Updates

While we wait for an updated PBE FAQ, Riot Aether has posted up a note on some of the commonly asked about PBE functions:
"Hey guys, 
Over the past few weeks we've made several changes to the PBE-only systems that manage tester accounts. We're working on updating the PBE FAQ to reflect these and other changes, but for now, here's a brief summary: 
  • Tester accounts will be leveled up to 30 every night around midnight PST (3 AM EST, 8 AM GMT, 9 AM CET)
  • Tester accounts are credited with 40k RP and 100k IP once on their first login after account creation.
  • These numbers won't update until testers either relog or initiate a purchase in the store.
  • Testers will no longer receive weekly stipends. INSTEAD:
  • New content will generally be available on the PBE for 1 IP. Skin RP costs will be set to their intended live prices so testers know which tier new skins fall into and what new features they can expect.
  • Two PBE-only starter kits have been added to the store:
  • Champions contains the majority of our champions so testers have a solid roster to queue with
  • Runes contains nine copies of the most common runes in use on live. Due to technical limitations we aren't able to automatically unlock all runes through a single bundle.
  • DO NOT BUY THE RUNES BUNDLE MORE THAN ONCE
We'll let you know if these systems change again in the future. Thanks guys,"

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