League of Legends; Riot Confirms Warded Ping Incoming; Shows Prototype
.The announcement came in three parts. First, and most excitingly, was a Youtube video that demoed [...]
The promised time is nigh, League of Legends fans! Long have League players wished for a ping that could quickly convey that the enemy had vision in a target location, and long has Riot Games belabored the point. Well, the time for excuses and development is behind us, as Riot formally announced that the vision ping will be a reality in the next few patches (7.14 or 7.15, specifically).
The announcement came in three parts. First, and most excitingly, was a Youtube video that demoed the new ping. If you want to see how exactly you'll soon be able to tell your allies that "the enemy can see this shit", then it's definitely worth a quick look. The WWG staff all hopes that Riot decides to keep the current chat callout for the ping, as it'll fit right into the average solo queue chat box.
The second part was a brief explanation from Riot about why it took them so long to make the ping in the first place. Strangely "the technology wasn't there" wasn't a stated reason at al. Instead, the team was "pretty torn between wanting to add new functionality and preserving the ease of use of the current cardinal wheel." They finally ended up settling on a ping that wouldn't be on the cardinal wheel, but could still be keybound easily enough. Ease of use concerns weren't the only delay, however, as the team also admitted that manpower was a factor, but that Riot felt strongly enough about the ping that it was worthwhile to divert assets to make it a reality.
Finally, they finished up by explaining what they still needed to do to make the ping a reality, not just a mock-up. Before the ping can be shipped to the live servers it'll require new art assets, a unique sound effect that is distinct from all of the existing ping sound effects, and, strangely, a pass on the terminology that the ping will use. Calling it a "warded" ping makes the ping's usage very specific while calling it a "vision" ping makes it so broad as to be practically meaningless. Whatever they end up calling it, the new ping is slated for release in the new couple patches and should be hitting the PBE in the near future.