Devlog #23

Playtest

A total of 11,154 players participated in the playtest, and over 21% of them played the game for more than 5 hours. We sincerely thank you for your deep interest!

In this dev log, we'd like to talk about the playtest that was conducted.

Purpose

The main objectives of this playtest were as follows:

• To see how players felt about the basic flow of the transfer market

• To see how the in-game match engine's player AI behavior was received by players

Thanks to the extensive feedback you sent us, we were able to thoroughly verify the areas we wanted to examine during the playtest, and we also gathered many valuable insights into what players are looking for. Once again, we truly appreciate your active participation.

Feedback

We'd like to share our thoughts and the direction we plan to take regarding the various opinions left through the playtest. Since we received so many opinions, we couldn't cover all the feedback, so we've organized the most frequently mentioned topics. Even if your feedback isn't listed here, please know that we've carefully read every single piece of feedback and are working to incorporate it!

Training System Improvements

We received a lot of feedback that various training-related features lacked explanation, their effects were difficult to understand, and they were inconvenient to use. We agree that the training system still has many unimplemented parts and needs significant improvement. We'll work to come back with a more intuitive and user-friendly design.

Game Information UI

There were many inconveniences caused by the inability to check the game's basic rules, including being unable to see the effects granted by defeating the Serpen. Many players brought this up, so we plan to add a UI that allows you to check the overall game rules in detail (stats of each object, towers, minion stats, gold income, Serpen buff stats, Morgard buff's minion enhancements, etc.).

Match Engine Improvements

Regarding the match engine, players generally left positive feedback about the changes made since the last demo version, but there were also several points raised, including detailed AI improvements.

• AdjustedVarious complaints about inexplicable AI behaviorThere was a lot of feedback along the lines of "the AI acts strangely," covering laning, teamfights, objective kills, closing out games, and including some bugs. However, as we mentioned in a previous dev log, these issues fundamentally cannot be perfectly resolved. Different players can evaluate the same situation differently, it's impossible to create AI that makes perfect decisions in every situation, and there are realistic implementation limitations due to various constraints. Of course, we will improve as much as we can wherever possible, but we want to be upfront that the match engine at Early Access launch is unlikely to be dramatically improved beyond its current level.

• Issues with player stat reflection: As we mentioned in a previous dev log, this area still needs improvement. In particular, stats related to player personality, positional stats, and communication-related stats are largely unimplemented, making their effects even harder to perceive. Additionally, while the impact of stats can be verified statistically, the differences are small, and while it's important that stats "have an effect," it's equally important that "the differences are intuitively visible" - and implementation in this regard is lacking. We are conducting extensive deliberation and experimentation to make stat effects more pronounced and intuitively observable during in-game matches. As a result, there may be changes to the detailed composition and number of stats at launch.

• Chat system and strategy issues: Currently, the match engine does not implement situations where players have differing opinions on strategy. Future match engine improvements will focus heavily on this area. The ultimate goal is to create differences in what each player wants to focus on strategically based on their personality, and to have the process of differing opinions and reaching consensus among players clearly reflected through in-game chat.

Tactics and Balance Direction

We received feedback on various in-game elements, such as the inability to properly execute split push tactics due to insufficient AI decision-making, the reward levels for Morgard/Serpen, and tower and map sizes.

First, regarding tactical aspects, there is a mix of features that are not yet fully implemented and features that need improvement. We will continuously improve to ensure that the tactical elements chosen by the coach feel properly realized in matches, and we have various tactical options in preparation that we'll introduce gradually and refine through feedback.

Regarding balance, there were many conflicting opinions depending on individual preferences. We believe much of the dissatisfaction arose because the provided version was a test build with no automatic patches applied. Additionally, since balance adjustments can be easily made through the Workshop, we will focus on calibrating the balance to our vision of appropriate pacing to ensure the most enjoyable play experience possible.

Presentation Improvements

We are considering various presentation improvements that would allow players to feel more emotionally immersed in matches. Many of you shared great ideas, and based on this input, we will work to create an environment where you can feel fully immersed as a coach by the time of launch.

Locker Room

The locker room content had existing plans, but it has been temporarily disabled due to several unresolved issues. We believe the locker room itself is a very fun element, but if done poorly, it can easily become a simple and tedious cycle of picking choices. We are working hard to create locker room content that is as fun and engaging as possible.

Transfer Season

There were many requests for the transfer season to be shorter and for the ability to skip it. We understand that due to the nature of the game, each player has very different areas they want to focus on. In this regard, we are considering improvements from both sides - providing features that allow you to quickly skip through the transfer market and focus on matches if desired, while also supplementing the content during the transfer market phase to make the team-building process more enjoyable.

We also received extensive feedback about the inconveniences of finding players, comparing players, and the negotiation process in the transfer market. We will improve usability as much as possible so that the transfer process feels seamless.

Match UI

We plan to add as many convenience features as possible that many of you mentioned, such as hotkeys, information display, zoom in/out, 0.5x speed, and more.

Position-Specific Characteristics

We had already been considering whether to give each position its own basic differences and distinct characteristics. Ideally, it would be most natural and intuitive for the game's basic rules and champion attributes to organically determine which champions belong in which positions, but we realized this is difficult to achieve in practice - even existing games struggle with this.

Therefore, we are currently considering a direction where each position receives slightly different in-game bonus effects to distinguish them. We expect to share more details after further testing.

Items

The most common request regarding items was to allow players to set champion item builds. This feature was already on our implementation roadmap, and since many of you want it, it will definitely be included at launch.

Beyond this, we are planning significant changes to the item tree's design and balance. Items will have their unique special abilities toned down, focusing more on basic stat enhancement, and will be simplified compared to the current system. When specific counters are needed (most notably healing reduction), the approach will be to draft champions that have such counter abilities, keeping functional aspects centered around the ban/pick phase while items focus more on specializing and boosting stats. While this change may be divisive, we believe there is little merit in maintaining a complex item tree if the diverse item effects don't significantly contribute to "viewing enjoyment."

Future Schedule and Goals

In summary, from a broader perspective, we believe the basic structure we envisioned is in place, and the fundamental direction and fun of the game we're pursuing have been conveyed to players to a reasonable degree. While there are still many detailed adjustments and implementations remaining, we are nearly reaching the minimum threshold we aimed to achieve for the Early Access stage.

Of course, there are still many areas that need work, but rather than focusing on filling every gap, we plan to concentrate on implementing the necessary elements and prioritize launching the Early Access version. We believe that addressing shortcomings through community feedback during Early Access is the right approach.

Your continued interest and support always mean so much to us. Thank you. That's all for this dev log!