Dear Oli "Beardilocks",
I'm a long-time Riven Player, as well as Custom Skin maker. I write this to you to give you feedback about the revealed Particle Update for Riven. I've seen the footage attached to the boards post and playtested it on PBE as well.
First of all, thanks for taking the time to update Riven's particles. There's for sure players claiming they prefer the "old" particles to what you've showed, but I think everyone agrees that Riven's particles are dated. That's what I believe and I'm here to help you do this right so everyone's happy about the update, and you can be proud of it too.
Anyways, let's get right into the actual feedback. This will be ordered by abilities. Everytime, I will point out the pros and cons of each element, and provide what I would do if I were to make this myself.
GENERAL CONCERNS
1) Color Scheme
Overall, the particles have a LOT of green. Like, seriously, a lot of it. Too much. It's something you have seen in feedback a lot probably already, but it gives off this overall "poisonous" feeling with the abilities, like if we're playing some sort of melee Cassiopeia / Twitch caster. This doesn't match with what Riven does in game. Also, I think that the color overload harms readability and clarity overall. Especially on Summoner's Rift, a map that already has a lot of green on it.
Here's my suggestion. Switch the Green accents from that sort of yellowish-green, which is very "poisony", to something slightly more "Emerald". Basically closer to have you've used on the E shield than what you used for the auto attack and Q on-target effects. Afterthought: not so necessary, more moderate use of Green will be sufficient to reduce the poisonous feeling. However, most importantly, it is important to use Green much more seldom. It will only make it look better. I think there should be a lot more of Dirt, Dust and Sand colors being used to represent the physical motion and energy released by the abilities. Green accents should only be used to highlight when "runic powers" are augmenting an ability. With this iteration of particles, it feels like it's the sword doing all the work, but I think most players prefer to think that it's mostly Riven with her physical strength and mental willpower.
2) Absence of Runic shards and markings
Now either this is an intentional choice, an artistic take you went for I suppose. In fact, on Riven's original particles, many of the runic shards and markings displayed were cropped directly from concept art and used as VFX.
However, many people appreciated those markings as they represented the extension of Riven's strength through her blade's powers. It also helped balance the color palette of her particles, adding a bit of clearly defined dark gray / black spots. I think you should give a go at integrating them again in the particles, as they were widely used and completely getting rid of them definitely affects the feel of the champion. Having clearly defined dark areas is also prettier than moderate but large-sized black blurs on the ground and such.
I suggest adding Runic shards and / or markings in some meaningful ways into the abilities again for thematic and aesthetic purposes.
3) No differentiation of particle effects between ult on vs ult off
Despite owning every single Riven skin on my main account (except that pesky Championship 2012 skin), I find myself to head back to using the Classic skin quite often. And quite a bunch of us do, actually. One of the reasons for it is that the Classic set of particles (base, redeemed, crimson, bunny) do quite a good job at differentiating particles between ult onf and ult off. The Q and W effects are bigger essentially.
Not only does this serve a satisfaction purpose, it helps clarity. It emphasizes the "big moment" that are the 15 seconds of Riven's ultimate, and also highlights the fact that Q and W have increased range during that time.
My suggestion is to simply figure out some way to differentiate them more. For example, have more green accents be used on the ulted version of abilities, assuming you go for much more seldom use of green in the first place. That can also just be larger sized particles, etc.
Also, I'll mention this here: looks like you fixed a long-lasting bug with Riven's particles (been there since Dawnbringer release). For a long time, Riven's Q1 during R didn't have particles on all skins except Dragonblade and old Championship. But it's not the case anymore, so it's nice, great job.
BASIC ATTACKS
1) Basic attacks don't have blood effects
I know this might be a censoring issue. Because Chinese servers have special censoring for blood, skin artists tend to move away from blood splurts to avoid having them turn into black blood effects on the screens of LPL for censorship reasons.
However, these blood effects are important. What happens when Yasuo does a basic attack ? He has a trail coming from the edge of his katana, a very nice "slash" particle on his target, and blood splurts out. Heck, he even makes towers bleed. I think it's important for Riven's blade to be just the same. It should make enemies bleed. Just censor it to black blood on Chinese servers, or just get rid of the particle altogether on Chinese regional settings.
PASSIVE
1) Radiocative Riven
The passive felt very weird to me. I the idea of making the blade glow is very cool and makes sense. However, the execution makes it so that it just feels like Riven is holding a sword made of Plutonium 239 (radioactive af). I don't have a suggestion as to how to adress it really, maybe make the glow less ominous, or only concentrated around the part of the blade that has a runic marking.
On live servers, the blade emits particles (including those good old runic markings) which decay and slowly fall down, which means there's be particles floating in the air as Riven moves around, and that is actually a good thing. It means people in game get a visual clue for Riven's passive without looking at her blade itself.
I think either version (sword glowing vs. runic markings) is fine, maybe a combination of both is best. I suggest one of the following: - Modernize the current (live) style of particles, with something looking clean such as Dragonblade for instance. - Tweak the version you made to have it feel less "radioactive", somehow.
Q - Broken Wings
1) Q particles have too much color and feel too poisonous
Seriously though, playtesting this felt like casting noxious blast. But it's Riven. There's way too much color going on at once. It's not as bas as W, but it still feels like too much. There should be more Dust / Sand / Dirt to emphasize the kinetic energy bound to the ability.
The trail following the sword is very good though. Making Riven custom skins, it was probably one of the toughest things to nail right for me, and I think you did it. Maybe the trail should only be very bright green at the front of the trail though, and should transition back to dustier tones further on.
2) The slashing marks on the ground are great! Too great, in fact
I think this addition is amazing. First introduced with God King Darius (I think?) and further on used by Odyssey Kayn, I think those markings on the ground are very satisfying and very crisp. I think it's a great way to emphasize the size of a hitbox for clarity and providing that extra "oomph" at that same time.
However, in this case, it's a bit much. I suggest reducing the size of the arc on the ground from Riven's Q1 and Q2 to something like a 220-240 degree arc. In fact, the hitbox isn't even a full circle, so it makes sense for clarity.
W - Ki Burst
1) Satisfaction issues, poisonous issues, electric issues
I'll go ahead and say this right here: I feel like W is the particle that needs the most adjustment. It's overloaded with green colors, the dark glow on the ground makes it feel like a dark green which conveys, yet again, that poisonous feeling. It doesn't feel satisfying to use, the particle lasts for a way too short amount of time.
The direction you went for was to add some electric sparks around Riven, a very widely used VFX among many skins in my experience. However, there's something wrong thematically. Riven's W stuns people because of the simple blast of energy. In some story of the lore, they mention people being blasted away by a brutal gust caused by the blade's runic powers. This is a perfect way to use dusty/sandy colors to represent this sort of "wind" effect, so strong it stuns people.
The particle needs to also remain for a longer time, or at least decay a bit slower. Trails and long decays are a big factor for satisfaction of particles, and this is no exception.
I don't think you guys have to load it so much with particles, it can have a lighter visual load and feel more satisfying at the same time. I also believe that the runic marks on the ground that were cast and expanding outward when casting played a great deal of what made the particle satisfying to use.
E - Valor
1) Actually pretty good
The E shield effects are quite nice, the way they form up look really good in my opinion. The floating runic pieces are a bit large, but they do the job and look better than we had before. We need more runic stuff across the board though (read: other abilities).
2) Lacks a bit of motion
The one thing I disagree with how the E works is that it doesn't emphasize the motion of the ability as much. Despite the windy / motion effects drawn on the ground, they don't stand out a lot. I suggest using somewhat lighter tones on those, as well as adding them directly following Riven's body instead of being kept to only her feet. Maybe a colored trail (not too large) would help emphasize the motion too.
R - Blade of the Exile / Wind Slash
1) Ult activation (R1) looks great, here's how to make it even better!
I really like what you did with R1. First, a full-sword glow pops up, then it gradually transitions to the actual blade. Really cool. Let's make it even better !
There's a devblog post about Riven's development that explains how Riven's ultimate was originally intended to look like. They wanted to make the sword gradually reforge from the handle to the tip of the blade. However, they deemed that 0.25s of cast time just isn't long enough to do that. I disagree and I think it's totally enough.
Now here's how to do it: have the full-sword glow appear gradually, like scrolling from the bottom of the blade to the tip. There's other ways to make it appear gradually by the way, if you believe it is more fitting, it's just an example. This gradual effect should start as soon as Riven presses R, not at the end of the 0.25s like the current effects are. After the 0.25s, the glow would transition into the actual blade, and voilà.
I think having VFX start immediately from the beginning of R instead of the very end of the cast time also helps clarity. Every time Riven ults, it will give the enemy an extra quarter of a second to realize "oh boy, I'm getting all-inned".
If you struggle too much to make the particle start from the very beginning of the cast time, no worries, I think what you've done for R1 already looks very cool.
2) Reforged blade still doesn't cast a shadow on the ground
Pretty self explanatory, if you ult, your blade doesn't cast a shadow on the ground. I'm pretty sure it's possible to code particles to cast a shadow on the ground. If it isn't, well no big deal because I'm probably among the 9 people in the world to have noticed it.
3) Wind Slash (R2) isn't ugly, but it's lackluster.
The Wind Slash is another "big moment" when playing Riven, and it's important for it to feel cool to use. The one you made for the skin basically looks like the HUD icon, and nothing more... If you compare it to Dragonblade's Wind Slash, there's a world of difference between the two. Dragonblade makes use of bright colors, darker tones, and some more discrete smoke / wind / dust effects, across the entire length of the hitbox. Here, you just have a green arc passing by.
I think the on-target hit particles are actually alright, they could do with more finnesse, more richness. Yet again (last time, I swear), dusty / sandy colors to create a trail and an aftermath behind the Slash itself would make it much, mure more satisfying. In the lore, Wind Slash killed Yasuo's elder. It's an execute ability after all, it should feel big and impressive. There should be visible remains of the slash after its cast, dust floating, wind effects, you get me.
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
That is all the feedback I had to provide. I hope you will take it into account to improve the particles. My personal opinion is that those particles do have plenty of issues (as you've read) and therefore shouldn't be shipped to live in that state. I appreciate you taking the time to read this and updating the visuals of our beloved champion.
Cheers :)
Submitted January 31, 2019 at 08:39PM by TDPigs_Hi_I_am_me http://bit.ly/2GaZDiK
No comments:
Post a Comment