Dev Diary: STATCAST RELICS

MCOC Team · July 2

Greetings Summoners,
Now we know you’ve been hearing about these Statcast Relics for some time and are probably wondering about the deep deets, so we put together a bit of a behind-the-scenes info dive to get you ready for the upcoming Statcast Relics! With that, let’s start by answering a few questions.

What happened with Battlecasts?

When we were making Battlecasts, there were a few different goals we were trying to achieve…

Collectible - These should be desirable objects that players are excited to get
Scalable - Lots of design levers, easy to expand on
Theorycrafting - Players have lots of options to consider
Meaningful Choices - Decisions have real impacts

In practice, what we found was…

Too Complex (for players) - The data showed that many players weren’t making Rune selections at all. As a result, many players had an underwhelming first impression of Battlecasts, since the abilities they were designed to grant weren’t being selected by the player leading to those abilities not being enabled.
Too Flexible (for development) - Adding or modifying RPG abilities for an entire class is very challenging to balance. Whenever we introduced a new Battlecast, we had to make sure it didn’t break one of the ~40 Champions it could bind to, and whenever we create a new Champion, we have to make sure they aren’t broken with any of the existing Battlecasts. In many ways, building Battlecasts actually required more playtesting than did a new Champion, and our design team simply couldn’t sustainably support them.

Ultimately, this led us to a point where we could reasonably create about 3 Battlecasts for a similar, and in many cases in excess of the amount of design, balance, and QA effort as developing new Champions and Quests. At that sort of volume, the ROI ended up not making sense to continue to develop these, so they were put on pause.

What changed?

Battlerealm Brawl - This was a major inflection point for Relic sentiment in the community. When players saw how Battlecasts could clutch top-tier competitive fights, players became much more engaged with the system.
Battlegrounds - As players engaged more with the new Battlegrounds game mode, and started running multiple Battlegrounds Decks, it started to become a major pain point to move your Relics between Champions in each of your Decks and across other modes in-game. Players started proactively asking for more Relics.

Some Lessons Learned

Strikers Good! - Players really enjoyed the combo-extending functionality of the Strikers.
Complexity Bad! - Our hypothesis that end-game players wanted more crunchy Champion customization options proved incorrect. Relic management was generally perceived as another maintenance chore, rather than an exciting new way to customize your Champions.
Overly Cautious - Relics had the potential to blow up the game’s balance, so we were very conservative with their rollout (initially limited to certain game modes, lower rarity versions weren’t that strong, and higher rarity Relics required significant time to obtain, etc.) In hindsight, though, being so conservative undercut their release and compounded the underwhelmed player reception.

Introducing… STATCASTS!

After a lot of internal iteration on how to address the above issues, and what a compelling new Relic type could look like (within the limitations of the existing system), we will be introducing Statcasts to the Contest come August and beyond!
At a high level, they’ll be composed of…

Striker: Yes, Statcasts will STILL have the combo-extending Strikers you know and love
Primary Attribute: Each Statcast will have a Stat that it boosts by a large amount (e.g. Crit Damage, Special Damage, Block Proficiency, etc.)
Secondary Attribute: Each Statcast will have a Stat that it boosts by a smaller amount (e.g. Crit Damage, Special Damage, Block Proficiency, etc.)
Singular Runes: Each Rune will only have one option, no need to swap it around
Active on Defense: Statcast Rune effects will be active on DEFENSE (however, Defenders will NOT be able to use Strikers)
UX Improvements: We will be introducing several menuflow improvements to make it easier to manage and understand your Relics (both Battlecasts & Statcasts post August )

Each Statcast Relic statue will map to a specific combination of a Class and a Primary Attribute (e.g. Hulkling = Cosmic Armor Penetration), and each Statcast will have a number of Secondary Attribute variants (Armor Pen + Crit Rate, Armor Pen + Special Damage, Armor Pen + Energy Resist, etc.) This mix and match approach will allow us to produce lots of Statcasts and address the Relic scarcity issue that has caused Summoners so much frustration.

What does this mean for the future of Battlecasts?

Never say never. We won’t say that we’ll never make another Battlecast, but for right now, we don’t have any plans to make more.

What were some of the challenges in building out Statcast Relics?

Scale was the biggest challenge we faced. Relics were originally built to be bespoke, 1-off’s and hand crafted, both in terms of the UX (Screens and other Interactions) as well as on the back-end where we actually build the data which drives them. So it took some figuring out to find ways to adapt those bones to our new vision without just re-doing a huge feature, which took significant time and resources to build originally, with an intentionally smaller team and shorter timeline.

When can players expect to see Statcast Relics added to the contest?

The first batch will be released in our 52.0 build in August.

How can players get them?

We will run an initial Alliance Event with a mix of rarities, along with different crystal bundles for players to begin their collections.

Can I use my existing relic crystal shards?

Since Battlecasts have lived in the ecosystem for so long, players have wildly varying amounts of relic shards hoarded, making it impossible for us to release Statcasts into the existing pool without creating a huge imbalance in access.
Because of this, Statcast Relics will be obtainable through a NEW form of Shards and will not be added to existing crystal pools.

What about my existing Relic resources???

Existing and future Alloys and Embers will work on both Battlecasts and Statcasts
Existing and future Relics Gems (Awakening, Innate, Rank Up) will work on both Battlecasts and Statcasts

7 Star Relics?

Statcasts will be available at 5-7 Star rarities.
Battlecasts will remain at the existing 3-6 Star rarities for now

How many Statcast Relics are we talkin’ about here?

Our initial batch, slated for 52.0 release, is a whopping 60 unique Statcast Relics Per Rarity!
As a reminder, each Statcast Relic will have a Primary Attribute and a Secondary Attribute. There will be 2 Primary Attribute Relics per class, resulting in 12 unique statues, and each of them will have 5 possible Secondaries, getting us to that total of 60.
AND… we have even MORE slated for subsequent builds, so there’s a lot to be ecSTATic about..

What are some min-maxing opportunities you can think of theoretically?

Most of the Attributes that the Statcast Relics can currently boost go through the diminishing returns curve, so many of the best combinations involve either buffing relatively lower stats or finding champions with strong interactions with specific stats.
- For example, increasing the Block Proficiency of Champions like Guillotine (Deathless or otherwise), Tigra, or Mr Negative can make them much more survivable, and increasing the low base Critical Rating of someone like Kingpin or Hulkbuster can have a large impact of their damage output. Further, Lady Deathstrike gets additional Damage from increasing her Armor Rating, and Champions like Jack O’Lantern, Shuri, and Guardian all scale damaging effects with their Critical Damage Rating. What theories do you have?