Riot Games has given League of Legends fans a progress update on its crackdown of game-ruining behaviour in the game, and claims its in-game detection systems have massively improved at spotting griefing and inting on the Rift.
League of Legends’ gameplay producer Jessica ‘Safelocked’ Nam gives players the lowdown on the steps Riot has been taking to improve player experience and tackle negative behaviours. Champion select banning – which was one of the key areas Riot identified as problematic in maintaining a positive experience – has been addressed with a new prompt that pops up when you ban a champion your teammate is hovering over to select. The message requires players to confirm that they want to ban that champion in order to eliminate any accidental bans.
Safelocked also says that Riot’s improved detection systems are spotting AFK and inting players at “almost twice the rate as before,” meaning more players are being punished for negative in-game behaviour.
On the topic of punishments, it looks as if Riot wants to get stricter with players ruining the LoL experience. Safelocked says that ranked lock-out times and LP penalties could be increased for certain behaviours in order to deter frustrated players from inting, griefing, or going AFK.
For those who unfortunately find themselves in a game with someone looking to inflict some misery, there’s also some good news in the update. Improvements to the early surrender vote have apparently made 4v5 situations less common, while Riot is continuing to work on better “LP mitigation” for those who lose matches because of griefers.
Unrelated to the behaviour systems, Safelocked also updates players on a mass overhaul of items during the offseason in preparation for next year. This includes all items being reviewed by the gameplay team, with approximately “a third to stay the same, a third to be similar but improved, and a third to be replaced” by brand new items.
Mythic items will also be introduced, which will be limited to one per player but have very strong effects on your champion’s abilities.
With all these changes in the works, it’s a good job Riot is continuing to improve on detecting and punishing problematic players.
