League of Legends' Summoner's Rift is Getting a Massive Facelift

[Steven Bogos]

League of Legends' Summoner's Rift is Getting a Massive Facelift

League of Legends most popular map is getting quite a substantial visual overhaul.

Summoner's Rift pretty much is League of Legends - the map is so integral to the game that attempts to make a new one (anyone remember Twisted Treeline?) are not often well received by the community. So, League of Legends players have been slogging it out on the same-old Summoner's Rift since the beginning, and as LoL's player models have gradually moved away from the ugly jagged polygons of launch, Summoner's Rift has remained frozen in time. Until now. Riot has shown off some rather impressive footage of an upcoming visual overhaul of the map, which will bring much higher resolution textures, models, and effects.

As well as looking a hell of a lot prettier than its previous incarnation, the new Summoner's Rift features all-new models and animations for its minions and jungle creeps. Seeing the dragon slink around the rocks before jumping into its spawn location, or the updated Blue Golem and Red Lizard that actually incorporate their respective buffs into their models, is quite cool.

[gallery=2622]

While this is mostly a cosmetic change, Riot did say that the new Summoner's Rift will bring a few gameplay changes with it. Baron Nashor and the Dragon have had a few changes to make their fights feel more "epic". The Dragon has been given a couple of new unique AOE attacks, and Baron has a whole host of new abilities to make him feel more like a "boss battle." A few other inconsistencies in the map have also been fixed to make for a more symmetrical experience between both sides.

If you're wondering if your old computer, which could run the old Summoner's Rift with ease, can handle this new high-fidelity version, worry not! "Throughout our development, our goal has been to make this map perform at least as well as current SR and preferably even better," says Riot. "We haven't hit our target performance yet but we are committed to getting performance as good as current SR by the time we release it."

As someone who's been playing LoL for many years, this is a quite nice, refreshing update to the game. Riot says that the updated Summoner's Rift should hit the PBE very shortly, and come to live severs some time after that.

Source: Riot Games [http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/features/dev-blog-updating-summoners-rift]

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[Omegatronacles]

Given that Riot has been unable to optimise Howling Abyss so it doesn't drop frames and eat performance at random, I remain unconvinced that this overhaul will work as well as they think

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

At first I was worried it'd look too much like Dota, but this is amazing! Might be time to get back into the game with this new look.

 

[Scorpid]

I really, REALLY hope that dragon animation of him getting his ass down on the floor isn't done every time you walk up to him. That's going to make taking dragon such a massive pain in the ass and have universal scorn heaped on that animation. I also really hope that those new merchants aren't going to talk about their life story or say 'funny' lines that weren't ever funny. I want to choke that asshole merchant that says "THIS. IS. FREJLORD!!!" every time you spawn on him. Saving that jewel for years after 300 came out and AFTER Meet the Spartans and every other comedy group ran that HARD into the ground was truly amazingly stupid.

PS:

Seeing the dragon sleek around the rocks before jumping into it's spawn location,

Is sleek a verb? Slink is what you might of been thinking of.

 

[Steven Bogos]

I really, REALLY hope that dragon animation of him getting his ass down on the floor isn't done every time you walk up to him. That's going to make taking dragon such a massive pain in the ass and have universal scorn heaped on that animation. I also really hope that those new merchants aren't going to talk about their life story or say 'funny' lines that weren't ever funny. I want to choke that asshole merchant that says "THIS. IS. FREJLORD!!!" every time you spawn on him. Saving that jewel for years after 300 came out and AFTER Meet the Spartans and every other comedy group ran that HARD into the ground was truly amazingly stupid.

PS:

Seeing the dragon sleek around the rocks before jumping into it's spawn location,

Is sleek a verb? Slink is what you might of been thinking of.

That is exactly the word I was looking for, thank you. As for the animation... i'd assume it would be his "spawn" animation, rather than one that plays out each time someone sees him.

 

[Grape_Nuts]

Still looks a bit flat and archaic to me.

 

[Akisa]

You can't deny
that it's an improve look.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Huh. So soon? They HD'd the map at the start of season 3 I think but this looks awesome. Dragon ain't going to be a massive pushover anymore? I like this, it's annoying how some comps can stealth level 6 Dragon after killing even one of the enemy bot lane.

As pre beta footage goes this looks damn awesome (river actually flows!) though I can see the DOTA complaints since it is a bit dark but hey beta is beta (or not even beta.) I have no idea what people are saying when they say DOTA 2 looks better than League, I think DOTA 2 looks and feels the worst. Except for some reason Phoenix is the most spectacular eyecandy i've ever seen in a MOBA game and nothing else in either DOTA or League comes close.

*Screee* *Boom* *brakooom*

[sub][sub]^ Q,R sound effects[/sub][/sub]

The new buffs are fuckin' cool as well, jungle mains get hype.

 

[Paragon Fury]

Riot Games: Can redesign a map. Can't fix the hitboxes on character abilities.

 

[Avaholic03]

You can't deny
that it's an improve look.

I can deny that, because it's a matter of taste. That very first picture in the gallery is a great example. I liked the trees more than some random brown slab. Yeah, it might be more detailed, but since when did better graphics make a better game (especially in a MOBA where you don't exactly have a lot of time to admire the scenery)? I feel bad for people with old laptops who used to be able to run LoL at reasonable framerate, but now will probably have issues.

At any rate, they're changing an established part of a beloved game, so I can imagine this will be met with mostly anger.

 

[Akisa]

You can't deny
that it's an improve look.

I can deny that, because it's a matter of taste. That very first picture in the gallery is a great example. I liked the trees more than some random brown slab. Yeah, it might be more detailed, but since when did better graphics make a better game (especially in a MOBA where you don't exactly have a lot of time to admire the scenery)? I feel bad for people with old laptops who used to be able to run LoL at reasonable framerate, but now will probably have issues.

At any rate, they're changing an established part of a beloved game, so I can imagine this will be met with mostly anger.

It's joke that LoL can't deny.

 

[Raioken18]

Anyone else think that the Dragon overhaul makes it look like a Proto-Drake from WoW?

 

[BeerTent]

Summoner's Rift pretty much is League of Legends - the map is so integral to the game that attempts to make a new one (anyone remember Twisted Treeline?) are not often well received by the community.

I will never understand this. I'd much rather a constant change of pace. The constant need to adapt tactics in new environments, rather than sticking with the same status quo. Dealing with the exact same scenario, never changing it up over and over is just, Damn boring! This has killed an innumerable amount of multiplayer games for me. (CS, DoD, TF. Getting there with NSL_Summit.) and is also the primary reason why I don't touch a lot of popular Multiplayer games.

On topic though? It looks nice. I'd like to see the finished product. Likely in video form.

 

[Easton Dark]

This has killed an innumerable amount of multiplayer games for me. (CS, DoD, TF. Getting there with NSL_Summit.)

Not every map can be as perfect and forever replayable as NS_Docking.

The DOTA map is seen as perfection in balance, so any change to it is seen as giving one side or one champion the edge. They want it to stay the same so that everything stays fair.

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

You can't deny
that it's an improve look.

I can deny that, because it's a matter of taste. That very first picture in the gallery is a great example. I liked the trees more than some random brown slab. Yeah, it might be more detailed, but since when did better graphics make a better game (especially in a MOBA where you don't exactly have a lot of time to admire the scenery)? I feel bad for people with old laptops who used to be able to run LoL at reasonable framerate, but now will probably have issues.

At any rate, they're changing an established part of a beloved game, so I can imagine this will be met with mostly anger.

It's joke that LoL can't deny.

If you want to deny, go play Dota.

That said, I think the redesign is a bit of a mixed bag. On the bright side it doesn't look like a WC3 map any more. On the other hand, so little of it makes sense. Why is the rift now an island in the sky? Why is the "river" now two ponds being fed by water spewing gargoyles for no apparent reason?

And why have they decided to make the Dragon fight less random and more systematic in a game that already has as one of its core criticisms that the metagame has stagnated immensely? Especially at top tier games this'll make the Dragon fight boring to watch for spectators. And I can't imagine that going through the rotations would make things much more interesting for players either who have figured out the patterns and telegraphs.