Source
r/TeamfightTactics•
Firstevertrex

How do people generally feel about units with skins?

Discussion

I've only played sets 1 and 9.5 thoroughly and tiny bouts in between. I feel like the game becomes a lot harder for me to stay into when I can't easily decipher what a units portrait is and when the traits don't align with what I'm familiar with. It was easy to picture Renekton as a shurima bruiser, but it was hard for me to remember what units were Star Guardians.

Wondering what others think, do you prefer when the theme is much more grounded in the base LoL world, or when it's based around skins?

Posted Nov 10, 2023, 2:36 AM UTC

171
MiniCorgi•

This game isn’t LoL. People shouldn’t come in expecting the units to look like LoL champs. Skins are a great way to keep the sets theme fresh. I think people whining about clarity because their Garen doesn’t look like LoL Garen should find a new hobby. Knowing what Garen should look like does absolutely nothing for improving or winning at TFT. The problem is people come into a new set every single time and talk about how a unit doesn’t align with what they thought it would be like based off previous knowledge of LoL.

43
FirstevertrexOP•

I'm not trying to complain that the characters don't look like they do in league, I'm simply stating a fact that it becomes exponentially harder for me to decipher what character I'm looking at, which has a direct impact on whether or not I enjoy playing the game.

There's lots of other things they can do to keep the game fresh, they have 150+ units they can cycle between, they can tweak what the attributes do, they can add in new game mechanics like they did with portals and legends (although I know people generally consider legends a failure)

While this isn't LoL, it's still using the same IP, it would be easier to learn a brand new IP than to rearrange everything I know about the current one several times a year

-14
SnowDayFiora:DannyDeVito:•

150+ that they use about 70+ per set, just think about them like new entities completely. Learning a new set from scratch will always be a mindfuck

15
Energyc091:Furyhorn:•

Also, we have some units that break the rules of LoL in the last set. GP is not a ranged champion, Neeko and Swain have about the same range as Ashe. Hell, Renek scales with AP instead of AD. Most champions' builds are totally different to their TFT counterparts.

9
FirstevertrexOP•

And that's completely fine to me at least. I'm not complaining about the gameplay of it, or the mechanics of a hero. I'm complaining about it being visually alarming as someone that came to TFT after a decade of League (which I feel isn't a small number of the players)

-1
FirstevertrexOP•

that's still an exponentially high number of combinations they can use. And I agree with the way they build their sets it'll always be a mindfuck. I think that can be reduced drastically with a little bit of consistency. Keeping the same traits ,but changing what the traits do for instance, to help players shift into that new mindset. Rotating in/out a couple traits and shifting around what units are in the pool, etc.

I think a complete overhaul of the UI every set is unhealthy and an extremely volatile way to try to keep your userbase locked in.

-9
SnowDayFiora:DannyDeVito:•

What are u suggesting? That we keep basically the same set forever but only do little changes from time to time? Like from set 9 to set 10 we just swapped bruisers for brawlers and bastion for bodyguards?

9
Front-Show7358•

just play the set. you'll figure it out. clearly the benefits u/MiniCorgi mentioned outweigh the cons

5
Waylornic•

I don’t play league, I don’t care that the portraits aren’t the “default” because I don’t know what the default is. So long as two units don’t look the same or two units from different traits look like the same trait, then it’s good.

I honestly don’t understand this complaint. You’re arguing for every set to look the same, which is boring to cater to your previous experience with a different game.

41
FirstevertrexOP•

I'm arguing for the art style of a game not to change several times a year, I don't think that's an odd argument to make if we're talking about literally any other game. I think it's a bad user experience to play TFT for years and periodically to have no idea what anything looks like. That's not a positive experience in my eyes at least.

The gameplay should get regular updates to keep it from being stale as it's a live service game, but the artwork should be consistent.

-29
Kevmeister_B•

The game's theme changes 3 times a year now, 1 up from 2 times a year. They aren't drastically changing the style every other week or anything like that.

Gameplay does get regular updates. 1 set now lasts for a full 4 months before moving onto the next one. And at some point the set has to change, if only because it allows champions to be different costs and roles and to otherwise shine, that way we aren't always stuck with a 1 cost Syndra that's boring

12
FirstevertrexOP•

I agree, and I never once said to not change up the sets. I'm just saying that it's hard to transition sets because the UI gets overhauled with it.
It's a live service game, I'd be insane to say not to change things, but it's objectively a bad user experience to make it so visually different every 4 months.

-16
Bizzaro6673•

So they should just use the same skins and not be able to do scifi stuff or anything because most of them are fantasy?

7
Mediocre_Gains•

Uhhh skill issue? Takes like 3 games to understand what is what and move on dude

4
mangkuku1am•

Objectively? It has never been a bad experience to me, just fun and dynamic

3
No_Asparagus_4322•

skill issue

2
Difficult-Risk3115•

Sounds like you want a different game.

8
bomban•

Skins are great as long as the different types dont look the same I dont mind. Let me go look for all the red people for my build.

17
Tiltish•

So for arguments sake let’s imagine that they keep Set 10 with the exact same skins as Set 9. Wouldn’t it be more confusing if saw units like K’Sante and Miss Fortune with the same skin? Even though they’re completely different in how they function and which traits they’re associated with? Personally, that would be a terrible experience for me. Learning the new units takes time, but they’re fundamentally different than the ones we used in the last set, the skins actually help the transition because our neurons aren’t firing “Assassin/Zaun/Piltover” when Ekko pops up in our shop. We have a slight delay where we think, “Uh, who’s that again?” and then we say, “Oh, right, this is True Damage/Sentinel/Spellthingy.”

I’m up to around 20 matches on PBE and the skins/traits are already becoming second nature. But believe me, the first few matches were super stressful and confusing, then it got much better. I don’t even want to go back to normal servers, it’s so much fun on PBE.

13
FirstevertrexOP•

I don't think that would be as confusing for me. I that comes down to planning your build, which you have a lot more time to do during a game, whereas the UI changes impact your ability to quickly identify a unit you're looking for while rerolling.

Don't get me wrong, overhauling the traits is also difficult to learn, which is why I prefer more 'traditional' traits to what I know in the game. For instance I think it's going to take me a long time to remember which units are a part of which trait for set 10, because aside from amumu (and vex maybe, but she wasn't a champ when I played LoL), none of those champions scream emo to me.

The 8-bit trait is baffling to me. I get it's related to their skin but that's just not a correlation my brain makes after 10 years of LoL.

But again, those things will become normalized after like 10 games or so. But the splash arts take a lot longer for me to get used to personally.

Like you said, our neurons don't fire with "Ekko has these traits" when I'm rolling, but it will fire with "Ok I'm looking for Ekko, are any of these 5 units Ekko?" and by changing Ekko's from the art I've been looking at on scoreboards/champ select for 10 years, it definitely impacts my ability to do that swiftly.

-7
Tiltish•

I think the 8 bits are pretty easy to distinguish because of the bright color palettes. The only one I mix them up with early game is Disco. The ones that still annoy me in the early game are Kennen and Gnar. I still mix them up on my board, not so much in the shops. But I think once you focus in on what’s tripping you up, you can find visual cues to help you in the future. Ultimately it depends on how much you like the game and are willing to put in the effort to learn a new set. If you really want to like it, you can make flash cards and run through them a few times until you’ve memorized them. You could also try taking a break for a couple weeks and coming back, might be easier to learn. I do think you’re in the minority on this issue, but you’re definitely not the only person who dislikes this aspect of the game. Like I said, I found it quite confusing at first, but after several matches I’ve mostly gotten the hang of everything that isn’t a yordle.

2
Bizzaro6673•

Wow if only there was a builder you could use to plan your team, if only they had a way to mark the champion you wanted to buy so you can see them easier in the shop

Oh wait there is

1
FirstevertrexOP•

While I appreciate your ability to drench everything in sarcasm, the planner doesn't hemp distinguish characters that look the same in your planner. And guess what? Similar themed units have historically looked similar and often you want multiple of them in your team to build synergies. So if I'm 1 unit away from 3* of a unit that looks 80% similar to another unit I have, when I'm rolling down for it, it doesn't help speed things up.

It's clear you've never had this issue and you've never mistook a unit for another, but I'm not blessed with your advanced brain and eyes, my visuals see a mostly blue square and say "hey that's probably anivia or lissandra" but nope, it's that green boy amumu that I'm used to because he's in his emumu skin

1
Bizzaro6673•

If you can't tell a woman from a bird that's on you

1
CompassionateThought:Furyhorn:•

Base skin sets are wildly boring for me. Hated 9 and 9.5.

10
FirstevertrexOP•

How does that work exactly? Like hypothetically if set 9.5 was identical to how it was, but had skins, would you have liked it?

The issue I have is strictly UI, not gameplay.

-1
CompassionateThought:Furyhorn:•

Its not necessarily about skins by default. Default skins get used occasionally in sets that do use skins if they're appropriate. The real thing is whether the devs got to have fun with it and really lean in to a concept. League has a colorful story and world, but at the end of the day they dont come into play during a match, so characters all balance out their thematic trope with mass appeal.

Set 9 and 9.5 feel absolutely sterile compared to 8 or 10. Creative theming that ties in with set mechanics, for me, is the difference between a quaint game of autochess and *TEAMFIGHT TACTICS*

5
Spring_Day_•

I generally play enough to eventually figure it out. There was definitely times where I thought Lee Sin was Sett in previous sets. It was good that they did the original skins in Set 9, in a way that was also a gimmick of the set, but I think having skins changes it up and keeps it interesting.

I haven't played Summoner's rift in years so I barely know what the new champs' default skins look like.

8
FirstevertrexOP•

Yeah I haven't played league in like 4 years either, but to me the skins are generally a deterrent to getting into tft. I just don't feel as attached to it because it's just a bunch of meaningless attributes and skins to me. I guess it loses the accessibility that came with 10 years of playing league for me

-6
nurse_uwu•

I find it strange that people complain about this. In any scenario, skins or no skin, ideally with a new set we get new traits and abilities and so on, so you have to relearn each unit again from scratch anyways, so...? I just don't understand. Just play a few games and you'll figure it out.

8
FirstevertrexOP•

Imagine you have years of relating the word "dog" to a specific picture of a dog. And you're trying to quickly figure out in the span of .5~1second whether 5 random pictures in front of you is dog.

Now imagine every couple of months or so they change that picture of a dog to be a fish, but its still called dog.

Having to relearn art is a lot harder, for me at least, than relearning traits, because the art is how I figure out quickly what I'm looking at when I'm rolling. I don't look at what traits a card has when I'm rolling

1
thekrstring•

Consensus is that you got this one wrong lol

8
ha_ck_rm_rk:Dango:•

It definitely takes some time learning all of the new skins, I've played all the sets and I still have to take some time to get used to it.

That being said, if they always did base skins then it would get pretty boring.

6
FirstevertrexOP•

I think there's definitely ways they could always use base skins and still keep it fresh. There are gimmicks they can add to the game (like legends/portals as the most recent example).
They can change the abilities of heroes and rotate champions.
They can still have a theme without actually changing the UI, like have a music theme where we use the characters in game models, but have the portraits be the base skin for accessibility's sake.
Etc

-1
ha_ck_rm_rk:Dango:•

I just don't see why they need to be restricted to skins, League already has a lot of skins and it's not really a problem there either. Besides, TFT has gone a long way in accessibility, you can hover over the traits on the left hand side and then hover over champion icons to see which champions they are, and you can also right click on champions on the carousel.

I don't think I'm gonna convince you but I personally prefer it this way. They go back to basics every once in a while and it's enough for my liking.

3
SenseiChrono•

The only thing I wish tft would do with skin sets is edit skin portraits with contrast or something to make the units more obvious when rolling down etc, a lot of sets have had like 6 units all with the same skin line and it’s hard to tell them apart

4
divineqc•

This thread comes up every new set, and consensus is always that it takes less than a week to learn the units. It's barely been 3 days and i'm already getting used to the units after 4-5 games total and a couple of VoDs. I also haven't played league in 7-8 years.

4
llp002•

I get used to the new portraits like 20 games in or so. I think it's way more fun to have the sets feel more visually distinct even if there is a short transition period.

3
Zerochl•

I think tft model does not appeals to you, then you should play something like dota underlords. Oh, you can not, because is a dead game that died because of lack of novelty

3
vinceftw•

I think it's actually better to change the skins. Champions usually change cost, ability and power level from 1 set to the other. If you'd not change their skins, you might be confused and think of their previous self when playing.

You learn the new unit portraits rather quickly anyway but I have to agree that some unit portraits are not easy to recognize at a glance.

3
FirstevertrexOP•

Maybe that would be the case for the majority. I don't think I'd confuse the units being overhauled in the same way I never got confused about a LoL champion being reworked.
But there definitely have been times in both TFT and LoL that I didn't immediately know what champion I was looking at because of a skin and blundered because of it.

Either way, I think it's clear that I'm in the minority in this case. I just personally prefer visual consistency over a fresh look periodically, I'm personally playing the game for the mechanics, not the art themes.

1
kamuimephisto•

as long as each group is distinct from another its fine by me

personally i find that initial period of discovery and figuring out who's who to be very fun

3
Insatiation•

You bad? stay mad!

2
Selthora•

After 4 games my brain figures it out.

2
Ch4de_•

I think if you want variance and new content, this is the best way to do it. And I like the way it gives a theme to the set.

Overall, I think this set has by far the best "vibe". Hard to put your finger on it, but the music just goes hard, the units feel flavourful and the skins add to this feeling imo.

Once we get used to them I will even be able to do rolldowns again without being completely overwhelmed, but that happens in every set (to me at least)

2
AdvancedPhoenix•

This set is surprisingly easier for me to figure out than the previous one.

Especially the hero one I had so much trouble with the units at the beginning.

2
KalleClimbs•

It’s just a matter of playing some games to memorize all the units and their portraits.

Yes, without skins you don’t need to do that. But just think of tft as a different game with completely different characters. This helps even further since sometimes units don’t have the traits you would expect from their appearance in normal league.

2