I ready about this the other day and I'm very excited.
League has had custom games forever, but it was never a sandbox. You still had to play against bots or other players, level up as normal, etc. With this new mode, it will allow players to quickly try out different item builds, skill order leveling up, etc. It should be pretty awesome. You could always do this before, but you had to play a game, now you can just set the parameters and have at it. Very cool Riot, very cool.
I sent out a bunch of invites to the Forever Gaming club on League of Legends. If you get time, please sign in and accept. Even if you don't play anymore, I'd appreciate it. We need at least 5 people in the club to be able to use the club name/clan tag. Please/Thanks!
Stop dodging me tommy, I'm ready to carry you w/ Rammus top.
Can't listen to the video right now, but scrolled through it quick. If it's an open world puzzle game, and from what I saw quickly in the video, it reminds me of a Myst type of game. That would be pretty sweet.
Yeah, man. I hope they do it soon. I used to always have a good connection in this game, but the last month or so has been a bit off. Pretty pumped about this.
TL;DR: Very soon, we’ll move the NA game servers to a more centralized location in Chicago, Illinois. This move, along with other components of the NA Server Roadmap, should improve connection quality for the vast majority of NA players. West Coast players will see an uptick in raw ping numbers, but should also see that uptick mitigated by connection improvements in the form of better overall stability and reduced packet loss. We’ve now successfully completed initial testing and are planning for the final move to take place within the next few weeks. More details below.
Last week, we released the latest NA Server Roadmap update, in which we detailed the outlook for Phase 3 – the move to centralized game servers in Chicago, Illinois. Since then, we kicked off initial testing, which we’re happy to say was completed successfully earlier today!
With those results in hand, we’re now ready to confirm that we’re planning to move all NA game server activity from our current Portland servers to our new Chicago installation within the next few weeks. Due to the many factors in play, we don’t yet have an exact date for the switch, but we’ll be back shortly with both exact timing and final details. Trust us, you won't miss the announcement. In the meantime, read on for the backstory, post-Chicago service outlook, and day-of expectations for the server move.
The Backstory
Historically, lower-quality East Coast service has been a problem for a huge number of players, especially as the explosive growth of the NA player base has further strained pre-existing infrastructure. We’ve worked on the problem for a while now, but we’ve had plenty of missteps along the way. Last year, we redoubled both our behind-the-scenes tech work and our communication about it, putting together the NA Server Roadmap to keep you informed.
Since then, we’ve steadily knocked out milestones and have now arrived at the final phase of the Roadmap - the move to centralized servers in Chicago, Illinois that will even out raw ping discrepancies across NA. With top-quality infrastructure, a centralized location, and a preexisting role as a major exchange between the US and Canada, the Windy City is simply the premier place to provide the best overall service for the far-flung NA player base.
What’s this mean for me?
At the highest level, this server move will allow us to bring the vast majority of NA players under 80 ms ping. Currently, more than 50% of NA players actually fall above that threshold, so Chicago game servers (along with continued work on peering agreements and direct networking) will allow us to create a far more balanced latency outlook for the NA player base.
While this move will be an overall positive for the NA player base, the specific effects you experience will depend on which part of NA you call home. Compared to our current Portland servers, and speaking very broadly, moving to Chicago will result in:
•Moderate latency increases (up to ~45 ms) in the Pacific Northwest and outlying regions (Hawaii, other Pacific Islands, Japan, etc)
•Minor latency increases (up to ~30 ms) across the rest of the west coast of North America.
•Generally neutral effects across a broad strip of the Mountain States and Saskatchewan
•Moderate to major latency reductions (up to ~50 ms for much of the East Coast) across the entire eastern half of North America
Chicago has stellar infrastructure and connectivity to the rest of NA that, in combination with our own Roadmap work, will allow us to eventually provide all players with ping that’s determined purely by geographic distances rather than the eccentricities of your local ISPs or web architecture. That’s to say West Coast players aren’t simply becoming the “new East Coast.” While not smack dab in the middle of NA, the new Chicago server location is far better placed for reaching the whole of the US and Canada with equitable latency levels. We have every confidence that this move will allow us to bring nearly all NA players - west and east coast alike - under 80 ms ping.
Ping is also just one part of the overall service picture, and all NA players can expect continued service improvements from other elements of the NA Server Roadmap. Thanks to the PoP hardware (think on-ramps to our direct network) we’ve set up covering the US and Canada, you’ll also see continued stability gains, improved packet loss rates, and the aforementioned ping based purely on distance. Check out the map below for the various locations in our now fully armed and operational NA PoP network. Fear not if you don’t see your city - each PoP is also intended to pull in traffic from surrounding regions (including Canada for the northernmost PoPs) in order to make sure the network covers all of NA. So if you’re in Vancouver, you’d hop over to the Seattle PoP before your direct, high-speed route to Chicago.
To really make the PoP network hum, we also need to get ISPs on board with directing your traffic straight to our infrastructure, and we’ve been doing just that for the last year. We’re now maintaining or pursuing peering agreements with a huge number of ISPs across NA (check the bottom of our last update for the latest list). In many cases, we’ve seen these agreements and proper PoP routing work wonders in cases where players were previously being inefficiently routed. So, if post-switch your ping seems off from what’s expected, let us know so we can investigate!
Ok, what’s the plan?
So, what can you expect on the day we make the server switch? Well, assuming everything goes perfectly, very little. We’re planning for a phased, zero-downtime transfer of server activity, so if you’re playing League you’ll simply start one game on the current servers and the next on the new ones, with nothing noticeable on your end other than (possibly) a change to that little ping number on the loading screen. By the end of the day, all games will be supported out of Chicago whereas Portland will revert to a disaster-recovery backup while we continue to gather data and make any required adjustments.
As we mentioned, we’re planning for this move to take place within the next few weeks, but we can’t quite provide an exact date just yet. While that might seem strange given the move’s proximity, it essentially comes down to the fact that we’re trying to hit a moving target. The NA game servers handle A LOT of activity, and the need to fine tune a bunch of details means that we’re still deciding which timing will allow us to make the switch while causing the least possible disruption. Regardless, expect further updates and exact timing over the coming weeks. When Chicago goes live, we'll also offer free transfers directly to players located in the US and Canada who are playing on other servers - look out for a transfer email from us!
I don't know about the HUD yet. It still feels too new for me to judge it. There are things I like and don't like. Time will tell which ones hold and which I get used to. So far, I think it's good though. Being able to re-arrange the players in the scoreboard is awesome though. Much easier to set them how I like and be able to quickly check things.
Today we are announcing the Dota 2 Reborn Beta, which brings with it a new interface, new engine and Custom Games. Everything in the dashboard has been completely redesigned utilizing a new UI framework, and the engine that powers the game has been fully replaced. On today’s update page we will be giving you a preview of the new interface. Early next week we’ll be talking about Custom Games, and later that week we’ll conclude with various details about the new engine and launch the open beta.
Throughout the beta we’ll be releasing frequent updates in order to fix bugs and make changes based on the feedback you provide. As you browse around in the new client, you’ll notice a few things that aren’t fully functional yet. Additionally, our focus has been on the dashboard so you’ll find the in-game HUD currently looks the same.
We want you to help us during the beta with your suggestions and bug reports. Our intention is to keep gameplay and heroes looking and feeling the same, so if you find anything unexpected please let us know. We’ll be bringing the update out of beta some time after The International to ensure we have enough time to respond to all of your feedback.
When Riot unveiled its tribunal system for League of Legends in 2011, it sounded like one of the most ambitious plans to improve standards in a gaming community a developer had tried. Inviting players to participate in a democratic process to judge their peers seemed groundbreakingly egalitarian. Oftentimes, it was.
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Then in early 2014—almost exactly a year ago—it suddenly disappeared. Riot said it was “upgrading” the tribunal system in a post on its website explaining why it had been taken down. But as the months went on and players heard little to nothing about the tribunal specifically, it started to look like it had just been removed plain and simple. Rather than have a promising (albeit imperfect) social and political framework that provided for teams of League of Legends players to gather together and evaluate cases of, say, player-on-player harassment, Riot’s rockstar MOBA was just returning to an old-fashioned model of chat restrictions and bans. Or so it seemed.
Jeffrey “Lyte” Lin, Riot’s longtime social systems designer and the man most often credited for spearheading League’s initiatives to stamp out player toxicity, popped up on the game’s subreddit over the weekend to shed some light on the current state of the tribunal. Turns out, the tribunal is indeed coming back. Elements of the new and (hopefully) improved tribunal system will start to come into League of Legends as early as this month.
“We just have to do a better job tying everything together,” Lin wrote at one point, “which is what we want to do with the new Tribunal—it’s the system that will rule them all and bring all the penalties and rewards together into one cohesive experience.”
What does “tying everything together” mean, exactly? In a lengthy post that was also written on the League of Legends subreddit in early April, Lin offered some explanations for why the tribunal was done away with. He identified three core problems he and others at Riot had with it:
The system “was focused entirely on punishments,” meaning that participants in the tribunal ended up being biased towards negative votes because they were only exposed to examples of negative behavior.
It moved too slowly, which meant it failed to provide a successful feedback loop to help offending players understand or appreciate why, exactly, they were being punished.
It was only available in English. This obviously limited the range of influence the tribunal system could have. And it didn’t help Riot make its case that it was trying to establish universal standards for all League of Legends players to enjoy.
So how is Riot planning to do things differently in light of the original tribunal’s apparent shortcomings? I had two main takeaways from Lin’s most recent comments.
First, he mentioned incorporating rewards for positive behavior. This is in line with what League has been doing for the past year: adding incentives for being nice in addition to the wrist-slapping mechanics that exist when people are not-so-nice.
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In the tribunal of the future, Lin said, good behavior will be rewarded. Here’s a relevant passage from his recent ad hoc Q&A:
Q: are there going to be rewards associated with the new tribunal? if so, what kind of rewards do you have in plan/are sure that will happen?
A: Yup. We should spend more time acknowledging players that do awesome things, and we’re not going to wait until the Tribunal’s return to do so. There will be little things here and there we’ll do for you guys. Specific rewards I can’t talk about a lot yet, but I do know they can be tricky; no one reward will actually feel like a reward to every player (not everyone cares about IP boosts or mystery skins, for example). We’ll talk more about it when we’re ready.
Given that the original tribunal was a system designed to help adjudicate offenses—i.e., behavior in need of adjudication—there’s no telling what such a system would look like once it starts taking aim at positive behavior as well.
Ok, onto the second big thing Lin touched on: feedback, and how to improve it. Lin said repeatedly that a problem with feedback League of Legends currently receive is that it takes too long to process. Speeding up the pace at which League players receive any kind of feedback on their recent behavior is therefore a top priority in building out the next-gen tribunal system. “Our goal right is now is under 1 hour after the behavior happens,” Lin wrote in response to a question about how quickly players would receive feedback in the new system once it’s introduced. And alongside the existing feedback loops for punishments and rewards, he also wants to add in similar features for reports themselves, so the players who write reports can see what impact, if any, they’ve had on the game’s community.
Improving the speed and overall efficiency in League’s report and rewards systems sounds great. But it’s not totally clear if Riot can actually pull these updates off yet. In his comments from the beginning of April, Lin attributed the slowness of the old tribunal system to problems with its outdated “core tech” saying that it “needed to be re-made.”
“There is a huge difference in player behavior change when you deliver feedback in near real-time versus 1 hour versus 1 week,” he concluded. “We are striving to do near real-time. It’s going to be crazy. We don’t know if it’s possible, but we’re trying.”
It’s nice to see that Riot keeps trying to make its game, and the community around it, better. But gamers also need something firm to hold onto if they’re to be expected to change anything about their behavior. For the moment, the main tangible detail Lin mentioned that’s coming to League of Legends are “reform cards,” which will document the specific instances that warranted a player being reported or punished and show that player their own chat logs as evidence of their infraction.
That’s what’s coming to League later this month. We’ll have to wait a bit longer to see what else the revived tribunal system has to offer.
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There are some awesome updates happening. I'm pumped about this.
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