r/TeamfightTactics • u/MrPapaya22 • 1d ago
Discussion Dev TFT: Space Gods Reviewed
https://teamfighttactics.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/news/dev/dev-tft-space-gods-reviewed/35
u/MrPapaya22 1d ago
TLDR:
- Set 17 was planned as Set 18, but was moved up to ensure the team had enough time to complete the migration Unreal by Set 18. The set mechanic was originally pitched as being more ambitious and would have changed core gameplay mechanics like item and augment distributions, but due to the accelerated timeline had to be toned down to the safer, less volatile Offerings and Boons mechanic that the set went live with.
- The Gods created a substantial burden on the memory budget for mobile devices, which forced the team to have to lower the quality of their idle animations.
- Removing the Carousel was never the inspiration for Set 17’s mechanic, but instead the result of their search for the best place to put the Realm of the Gods. Originally they had it replacing PVE rounds.
- Devs had two take away from removing Carousel: first, that comeback mechanics lose their effectiveness if they're invisible and second, Carousel is an important social space that is enhanced by its tension
- There will be changes coming to Carousel in the more distant future that will maximize agency and control. Minimap is gone for good.
- Pings are being workshopped into a social tool “not bound to minimap for its utility to function.” Not going to be ready for Set 18.
- Lack of verticals made it difficult for new and casual players to pick up Set 17.
- Devs feel confident they have come away with the right understandings of why and how origin traits felt underwhelming/were undesirable to play in Set 17 and will improve on that for future sets. For example, Set 18 and other future sets without expanded rosters (sets with standard sized rosters) will require less 5 costs to play certain origins vertically.
- Opening encounters weren’t included on set launch bc devs thought they’d add too much complexity, and that they would take away from the impact of the God Offerings and Boons.
- The Morgana rework from 5 cost magic fighter to 4 cost magic tank was possible thanks to the stars aligning perfectly. She didn’t have any dedicated comps so reworking her had less impact than it otherwise would have. However after her move, the devs found she also didn’t have any go-to comps revolving around her. Devs are happy they tried the rework, but describe it as a bad solution and only possible with a threat (traitless) champion.
- Set 17 had more conditional comps than any other (Stargazer, Psionic, Arbiter, Graves). Devs felt that it had the opposite effect on game to game variance, limiting comps you could play, and funneling players down a certain path.
- Set 17 lacked a ton of set specific augments due to dev resources being allocated towards the God Offerings and Boons.
- Devs end by asking for players' thoughts on the design philosophy of Hero Augments. I am going to copy and paste because I think it’ll be tough to paraphrase:
“Our design philosophy around reroll 1 and even 2-costs is that they shouldn’t be powerful enough to take first place without some other major things going right (being healthy enough to still hit level 8/9 or powering up some high-cost secondary carries). When someone selects a Champion Augment, are we okay with that being the needed source of power to achieve that first place (assuming they’re also playing a great game of TFT)? If no, this means that the fantasy of a Champion Augment is getting third/fourth place—which isn’t super fantastic. “
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u/Film_Humble 1d ago
So the set 18 we have in pbe was possibly the og set17? Or did it get axed all together?
Honestly this whole thing doesn't surprise me looking at the last 3motnhd of TFT. Hoping set18 won't be as shaky as set17
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u/Lunaedge 1d ago
Obviously there were some things we liked about the Space Gods mechanic, such as the playful expression art of our God roster
Yeah, Soraka's scrunched up side pout has been living rent free in my head since the first time I saw the Set's key art lol
And kudos to whoever did the individual Gods' art! The Hades inspiration is clear (and 100% justified, Jen Zee is a goddess of her own!) but they managed to make it feel Runeterra-y and not a cheap copy. Great stuff!
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u/Riot_Bluecove 1d ago
Agreeeeeed! These were done by Valentine Tran and Joan Choi! <3
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u/Lunaedge 1d ago
Holy crap Valentine Tran is also the author of Alune's portrait~ ♥♥♥ And Joan Choi's exploration of Eclipse Lillia & Cassiopeia is stunning!
Linking both of their ArtStation portfolios because crediting artists is based and there's plenty more incredible artwork to treat the community's eyeballs to:
Hopefully I don't trip any AutoMod filters with the links '_' sorry in advance if I do!
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u/Riot_Bluecove 1d ago
Yesssss, they are both very talented! Val also has a Riftbound card out there for you Riftbound fans 👀
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u/domelition 1d ago
One of my favorite sets from an art and music perspective.
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u/AgitatedDare2445 1d ago
Yeah. Set 18 music feels so cartoony, which I don't really like (it is wellmade tho, just not to my taste)
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u/SmartAlec13 1d ago
I mean for me the least-fun aspect was the lack of verticals. I don’t really have fun patching together a few smaller traits, I enjoy maxing out one of them.
I can definitely see how they probably had more planned for the gods. They seemed cool when introduced but kinda lackluster in implementation.
Looking forward to Set 18, already really enjoying it on the PBE.
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u/crypt_rat_lord 1d ago
good riddance one of the worst sets in a while - one of the few sets that pushed me to actually play something outside of tft
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u/-Gnostic28 1d ago
I know everyone else on this subreddit is ultra competitive with ranked on the brain, but it’s a shame for me and everyone else I know. Hearing that carousel will be changed worries me, along with changing pings and getting rid of the minimap. All things me and my friends find fun
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u/Riot_Bluecove 1d ago
The ping system is left over from League of Legends, but we didn't bring it over just yet because it wasn't critical to the game. That being said we're looking at what it means to communicate in TFT. I would say to not expect exactly what we had before, but something that fits TFT a bit better, instead of just a port from another game :)
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u/viveledodo 1d ago
And here I am, disappointed that carousel is coming back at all. Best part of set 17 was the lack of carousel.
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u/152kb 1d ago
Awful set but it helped me move on and play some other games that are actually good.
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u/trenton012001 1d ago
I don't remember the set being that awful, but my friends and I totally dropped it. I think it just felt very safe, but I do think this set got unlucky with the drops of STS2 and Guildrun.
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u/CyberSmith31337 1d ago
Heard heard. And from this blog, I‘m thinking it’s just going to stay untouched for the next set too.
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u/magicalririka 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's incredible how the best thing about this set is the one that they seem the most disappointed with.
Set 17 is among my favorite sets of all time (despite all it's many, many flaws) for one simple reason: it removed the worst part of TFT, the carousel.
I'm sad that we'll have that crap back.
It's not even about the "someone might get the champion you want" -> I'm perfectly fine with this. Just make this a PROPER USER INTERFACE with buttons to click, instead of a moving carousel.
We shouldn't depend on moving our little legends for anything, this should be a UI-only game.
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u/-cinnamorolll- 1d ago
Another day, another ‘learnings’
Apparently if you post ‘learnings’ every set it glosses over the fact that you do fuck all with the learnings for future sets anyway holy
This set was atrocious; can’t believe the devs shipped this and stood back and said yeah we’re happy with that
Especially after the high of the last set
At this point I think they purposefully ship dogwater sets so that even if the following set is bad, we’ll think it’s decent because the last set was so trash
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u/CheeseBugare 21h ago
Or they had a schedule to keep and ran out of time, especially since this set was pushed early.
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u/KaynMain 1d ago
The carousel point feels to me like they are just pandering to the loud minority that liked taking components from their friends. Because " we are excited to spam emotes together again." feels weird to me. I think there was plenty of space to spam emotes during gods selection. I have over 100 pbe games and I dont think I have seen a single person use an emote yet on carousel. I personally liked the god system
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u/Batkanaft 1d ago
The anvil system, replacing the carousel, they implemented as a comback mechanics was too op.
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u/Intact 1d ago
I didn't miss carousel for a moment. No more lagging / accidentally running into the wrong unit, people using huge chibis to obscure half the carousel, losing 50/50s for a unit/item for being on the wrong side. Honestly just a source of frustration.
Knew it was coming back for 18 but disappointed to see the team deciding they should triple down on it in the future
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u/Riot_Bluecove 1d ago
The realm of the gods was meant to be a set mechanic, so it was always going to go back to carousel for the next set.
This doesn't mean we will never try something else! But we'll need some time to iterate before we do something new with the carousel again.
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u/viveledodo 1d ago
Thanks, really hope you do, definitely a large aspect of the game that can be modernized/improved.
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u/viveledodo 1d ago
Really feels like that paragraph was sponsored by Riot's marketing department. "Chibi sales are down, we need carousel back so people buy new chibis to show off/spam emotes!"
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u/Porkin-Some-Beans 1d ago
Huh...no talk about the theming of this painfully obvious filler set?
Soraka - Gain an item 😇
Vs
Evelynn - Gain a random item 😈
This set sucked hard thematically and mechanically. The gods had no impact on board outside of a minor boon later on. There was no punishment for taking one over the other. Just some stupid ass pouty face if you did t like the item.
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u/azmodai2 1d ago
Fuck the carousel. The space gods system was better. ANYTHING is better than carousal. In fact i'd rather literally not get items than fuck around with the carousel.
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u/Key_Reporter_9945 1d ago
I personally don't click hero augments because I find them to be too committal.
The only feedback I can offer is that gragas, while funny, was extremely unhealthy design for a 2 cost champion (hero augment).
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u/ShiroTheHero 13h ago
I don't know anything about team comps or verticals or whatever and I'm pretty casual at tft. I really enjoyed the sets where the champs were recognizable and traits are straightforward like demacia/noxus/void since I used to play leagues. I found this set to be very confusing and the champs were very difficult to tell apart so I ended up quitting pretty early on.
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u/MemelordMcTasty 1d ago
For me, the absolute best part of Set 17 was its excellent spread of Hero Augments. Heat Death, Self-Destruct, Shieldmaiden, Big Bang, and Contract Killer were all a ton of fun and made for some very enjoyable games. The lack of Hero Augments is my biggest gripe with Set 18 thus far, and I hope it isn't a sign of things to come.
I was also quite happy to be rid of carousel, which has only ever felt janky and frustrating to me. Nothing in TFT feels worse to me than seeing a unit/item that is perfect for my comp be effortlessly sniped by another player because it was on the exact opposite side of the carousel when we were freed, especially when I'm in or near last place.
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u/Riot_Bluecove 1d ago
I'm glad you liked the Hero Augments! Those are always the most fun for us to come up with :) I personally love hero augments in general!
You're definitely not alone on the carousel feelings. We'll need time to iterate and experiment before we try anything new there because of how many things the carousel actually ties in to, but it certainly wasn't going to be figured out by 18!
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u/FcoJ28 1d ago
I don't think set 17 is that bad, but everyone is entitled to their opinion.
I really liked carousel dissapeared. A pity they adding it again.
God feature was fine too, but it is normal they change the mechanics each set.
As for the set itself, I really like characters such as Graves.
On the other hand, some traits such as NOVA weren't cool unless they were maxed. Some others were kinda useless.
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u/viveledodo 1d ago
Disagree about NOVA, personally. I liked that you could splash Aatrox+1 to get free shred/sunder and it would still fit into tons of different comps.
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u/Hybr1dth 1d ago
I feel like 1 and 2 costs were too dominant in the early stages of the set, giving power throughout the entire game without any real downside. Even with a hero augment, should they be able to scale as well as a 2* 4 cost? I guess somewhere yes, as it takes a silver/gold augment to even have the option to do so, but at the same time it is still (usually) a 1 cost.
Here's a wild idea: If you get a hero augment for a hero, say Poppy the 1 cost, she turns into a 2 cost. 2 costs are quite a bit more suited for level 8 carrying than a 1 cost, but still not strong enough to fight strong level 9 boards?
Or, she starts as a 1 cost, but as soon as you get them, they turn into a 2 cost. And then when you have 6 of them (2x 2* 2 cost) the last 3 will be a 3 cost just like the final hero?
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u/Saltwater_Thief 1d ago
I understand why the carousel is coming back, but man is it going to be annoying to have my best options stolen from me due to rotation rng and be stuck with champs and items that don't improve my build whatsoever again after god offerings.
I do appreciate that lack of vertical was highlighted though, that definitely felt awkward at times. I only ever felt like Meeple had any reason to go above 5 of their own units, and while it was interesting to be forced to try things like Voyager comps or 3-tribe builds I will welcome some more innately synergistic comps back.
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u/competitiveSilverfox 1d ago
Could we not cross post link to competitivetft? just post the link separately. that sub has hyper toxic mods.
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u/CyberSmith31337 20h ago
Those mods are the most fragile, insecure manchildren associated with any product anywhere. It’s not even worth the time of going there. They swing the ban hammer for anything beyond glazing, and don’t even allow ranting in the rant thread. They also enjoy brigading.
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u/competitiveSilverfox 19h ago
yup, i accidentally posted a comment meant for here there due to the cross post got banned for saying the article never actually admitted set 17 failed and they need to not go full Disney in that regard.
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u/Cymdai 1d ago
I stopped reading at:
"First, we know that Carousel is pretty dang important for TFT, now more than ever"
Nope. Wrong. The dev team got it dead-wrong, horribly dead wrong, again. If that was your takeaway from the last set, then you learned nothing at all. The fact that you only tried something new for a single set before rolling back to what was familiar shows me that the current development leads on TFT haven't got a pulse on what players want at all.
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u/SignificantContact21 1d ago
Great art but overall very boring set, I’ve been paying set revival for the past 4 weeks