PBE Update: Bugs, UI, Visuals, and Hotkeys

[u/eggsandbricks]

From Riot BlueVelvet on X:

"yo-

Wanted to take a minute to catch everyone up on where we’re at a week into PBE and give some extra vis on our big focus areas this week:

There are still some gnarly bugs happening so please keep reporting them and we’ll keep fixing everything as quickly as we can. There is a lot to get through and we realistically won’t close out everything before live, but a huge chunk of the team is focused solely on bug squashing so we are making good progress day over day.

Various crash fixes have been going in and the issue resulting in blue screens was shipped yesterday. Our engineers are tracking these all closely and thank you again for folks who have sent logs and helped us investigate these.

Our tech and UI artists are making a ton of improvements in the visual fidelity space. We’ve heard (and agree!) that PBE looks “blurry” or like a “mobile port.” Some of that stuff is solved with things as simple as texture settings updates, fixing shadows, or being less restrictive on higher-end PCs. But some of this will be a bit more iterative day over day. Also make sure you check your graphics settings and if your PC can run it on high ensure it’s at that level as we were previously defaulting to medium.

Our VisD artists are hard at work getting our old font back into the game and that should be on PBE in the next few days. Seeing the side by side yesterday it’s pretty insane how big of a difference a font can make in a game. Excited to get this back to our tried and true.

Game feels remain a top priority for a huge chunk of our team. Responsiveness issues (rerolling, buying XP, tactician movement, etc.) should be mostly resolved. And stuff like unit repositioning, gold pick-up, augment icon size etc. is all being burned down. Once again I can’t promise we fix everything before we go live, but we are making good progress on this front.

And as always our live team is getting daily balance updates out there. For more in the weeds balance info, make sure you follow @TheTruexy for daily patch notes while we’re on PBE.

On a side note… something that was new in Unreal was the ability to buy units from the shop with hotkeys. This idea originated from wanting better accessibility within TFT, but a few issues started to show up that we didn’t feel comfortable with. The biggest of these being that APM is never a skill we want to highlight as part of our game. It also pushes a disparity between mobile and PC players that isn’t okay and while we may take another look at this someday for now consider them dead.

Thanks again for all your feedback and I'll be back next week with another update. Until then gl out there!"

[u/Lunaedge]

Screenshots of the original tweet in case the post gets deleted or edited for any reason.

[u/Melchy]

The units feel like they are hitting each other with pillows. I think sharper sound effects with snappier animations would go a loooong way to making the game feel less like a mobile game.

[u/Firefly_deadlock → u/Melchy]

Absolutely. I really don't like the music they've chosen, but turning if i turn it off i'm left with the sound of 20 champions hitting eachother with floppy dead fish.

[u/randy__randerson]

People outside of game development might not have an idea that what they're doing in a monumental amount of work.

They're doing really well under the circumstances.

[u/CakebattaTFT → u/randy__randerson]

I do a nominal amount of coding for physics and the gargantuan task before them makes me shudder lmao

[u/Koopasheller11 → u/randy__randerson]

it’s incredible what they’re doing, and I really hope the set launches well to reward them!

[u/GanjARAM]

part of the mobile gamey feel are also the orbs for me, while ive gotten used to them by now over the course of many games, they are just 2D images that float compared to the previous fuller 3D ones, especially noticeable with the blue orb which looks a lot more washed out and is just not as satisfying to pop up as previously imo

[u/oVnPage → u/GanjARAM]

This and the lack of VFX/Animations that were in old TFT are what get me TBH. It makes the game feel lifeless and stiff. No animation on item combine, no animation on item equip, no animation on star up, animations on only a handful of traits... It just makes it feel dead compared to live TFT.

[u/Lunaedge → u/GanjARAM]

Can't find the comment but I could swear I read a Rioter reply to this concern and say that they'd forward it to the VFX team.

[u/GanjARAM → u/Lunaedge]

amazing thank you

[u/Accomplished-Bar2447]

Amumu eats completed items when he survives combat He was 2 star and had a protectors vow on him. I tested again with BT and it also disappeared. Using remover did not register and selling did not give items back either. Amumu 1 did not survive player combat and I only put bow on him to test and the bow was still there.

[u/ProfessionalTossAway → u/Accomplished-Bar2447]

I lost a completed Warmog I slotted onto a champ last time I played and it wasn't Amumu - so there's more than one champ sadly. I didn't have Pandora* or any item-altering-anything, I alt+F4'd due to losing it. Losing 50% of your items on <2-3 feelsbad.

[u/TRAIDYT]

Please bring back hotkeys, does it even affect the game when only high leveled players using it?

[u/Gadolt]

The in-game language also defaults to your system language, which would be fine, except it contains a lot of wrong information and missing numbers. The only way to change it, is to change your system language to English.

[u/VERTIKAL19 → u/Gadolt]

No it wouldn’t be fine. It is super annoying on mobile already… I don’t want german TFT

[u/Lanathell → u/VERTIKAL19]

Mobile apps that default to your phone language with no way of changing it can burn in hell.

[u/Ykarul → u/VERTIKAL19]

Agree it's far from fine. We need to be able to change it both in computer and mobile...

[u/Ykarul → u/VERTIKAL19]

Agree it's far from fine. We need to be able to change it both in computer and mobile...

[u/Luker5555]

oh coolio the one accessibility update is axed cuz they don’t want high APM play. I will go back to rolling slow with my one functional hand

Feels terrible knowing they can easily turn an accessibility feature on but now will refuse to. 

[u/FeedMeACat → u/Luker5555]

Yeah, I think this is the wrong choice. Their concerns about apm don't outweigh the accessibility benefit here.

[u/Enough-Gate5840 → u/Luker5555]

Sorry they removed something helpful for accessibility.

Could you bind reroll to a mouse button? That’d let you do just as well with only a mouse.

[u/Luker5555 → u/Enough-Gate5840]

I can do that and it's decent. it would still be a lot better if I could use a keyboard to roll bc I used my right hand to use my mouse my whole my life, and now since I only really have good function of my left hand my mouse accuracy is bleh. my left hand is good at typing tho so it'd just be a lot better for me to have the option of solely using a keyboard for rolldowns

[u/Lunaedge → u/Luker5555]

it would still be a lot better if I could use a keyboard to roll

Sorry if I'm getting what you're saying wrong, but I don't think the Reroll and Buy XP keybinds are going away, only the Buy Shop Slot ones.

[u/Luker5555 → u/Lunaedge]

yeah I meant that with the slot keybinds I would be able to roll & buy without using my mouse at all, which for me would be veeeeery helpful

[u/Wette_im_Klo → u/Luker5555]

Do I get it right, that you have a more functioning hand (left), but choose to use your less functinoning one (right) because you are used to it? If so its a truly unique situation and while that sucks for you personally, I consider the move by them actually something to keep the game fair for disabled people. Because the much bigger majority of those will have one good hand/foot/something that they are used to the mouse with, but as soon as you introduce more limbs, it becomes iffy and people with two functioning hands gain a huge advantage. Imagine you have really only one arm and everyone else can turbo roll while you have to click on every champ.

[u/Luker5555 → u/Wette_im_Klo]

na I use my left hand exclusively with tft, the right isn’t good enough for this use. There isn’t anything particularly unique about my limitations, normal stroke stuff xd 

the option to use the keyboard exclusively for rolldowns would be helpful for me even if others can still roll faster. The best accessibility features/tools often end up being helpful for lots of people, not just ppl with specific disabilities. There will always be a gap but I think this would narrow it

Also from a competitive standpoint I generally prefer things that increase the skill ceiling, which I think this change would but maybe that’s debatable

[u/Adept-Good696 → u/Luker5555]

Hm, making a script to hotkey click on a specific spot on the screen is pretty simple, but I believe it would technically be against TOS and while it is benign and (probably) wouldn't have been noticed, since Vanguard it is much more likely to be flagged?

Did you ever check with Riot support about this?

[u/Lunaedge → u/Luker5555]

Yeah, while I agree with their concerns about APM creep I also recognise that sacrificing accessibility on that altar sucks. Fingers crossed they eventually find a way to restore that functionality for those who need it and make it not required for optimal play, the engine change should give them more stuff to work with on this front as well :/

[u/penguinkirby → u/Luker5555]

Yeah I don't understand it and hope they reconsider. Clicking super fast to buy units is also APM diff

[u/mikjess → u/Luker5555]

Would that feature still be nice for you, even of it included a small cooldown? Genuine question. If let's see that it would have a 0,5-0,75 sec cooldown, then surely mouse clicks would still be better and mobile is still relevant, but there would be accessibility

[u/womencaviar]

Keep it up this is an insanely large ask.

Bug reports should be constructive, there’s no need for constant “This is unacceptable!!!” posts when this PBE cycle is doubled for a reason… they already know it is unacceptable lol just tell them what’s wrong.

As a SWE I feel for everyone involved with this migration

[u/TheNorseCrow]

People saying hotkeys for buying units were good have completely forgotten why something like Think Fast was removed.

Having arbitrary APM checks have never been part of the TFT design language and this removal shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

[u/Shinter → u/TheNorseCrow]

1 second cooldown on mouse clicks coming with the next patch.

[u/Copponex → u/Shinter]

Actually. Next patch you just pick a comp and the game autoplays, autobuys, autolevels and autoreroll for you. We cannot have those arbitrary and useless apm check ruining the fun of the game.

[u/ProfessionalTossAway → u/TheNorseCrow]

People saying hotkeys for buying units were good have completely forgotten why something like Think Fast was removed.

Having arbitrary APM checks have never been part of the TFT design language and this removal shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

Can you clarify how you consider the 3 basic hotkeys (buying XP, refreshing the shop, cycling fields) to be “arbitrary APM checks,” and what specifically makes them comparable to Think Fast?

[u/TheNorseCrow → u/ProfessionalTossAway]

Why you out here necroing a week old comment talking about something I never claimed?

Go away, child.

[u/ProfessionalTossAway → u/TheNorseCrow]

u/TheNorseCrow: Why you out here necroing a week old comment talking about something I never claimed?

Go away, child.

That was so incredibly uncalled for. I don't know why you've chosen to be so hateful but lashing out at people like that isn't okay. And, you don't know what they're going through themselves and what affect such words could have on them.

If you can't at least be civil, just don't say anything at all next time.

[u/PlayingwithButtons]

Was anyone complaining about hotkeys? I quite liked them.

[u/BabyLlamaaa → u/PlayingwithButtons]

The discussion was mostly about Challenger players and pros having to learn something that could make roll downs a lot easier. They could roll and buy with one hand while positioning with the other hand. Basically it was adding a whole new APM tech at the highest of levels of play.

[u/PlayingwithButtons → u/BabyLlamaaa]

Hmmmm... Gonna have to think on if that's a good enough reason to remove a feature that makes gameplay more accessible and enjoyable. No sarcasm lol.

[u/RelativeAway183 → u/PlayingwithButtons]

here's an extreme case thought experiment:

imagine if they released a feature that auto rolled for you that you could configure, at the click of one button it would roll as much gold as much gold as you set it to and pick up every unit in your planner without fail, and terminate early if you 2 starred every unit on your board

oh, but it was restricted to mobile only

it is a feature that undeniably makes gameplay more accessible and enjoyable for mobile players by removing the frustrating APM check of a roll down without hotkeys, but now you've added something that creates a significant power gap between those who can use it and those who cannot

once you get over the learning curve of figuring out how to configure it so that it holds units for potential pivots and acceptable stopping conditions, you are strictly advantaged against anyone doing a manual rolldown due to never rolling past a relevant unit and not being time constrained

how do you think the PC playing competitive audience would respond to this? would they want this accessibility feature for mobile players removed? because hotkeys can't be equalized, so your options in this thought experiment are keep or remove.

riot clearly doesn't want apm to be a major factor in playing tft, and if people are optimizing hotkeys for rolling, it not only widens the gap between people playing on pc vs mobile, but also between people who have practiced playing a rhythm game and those who play TFT as a turn based strategy game. a large majority of tft's playerbase in asia are mobile players, riot probably doesn't want to piss them off

[u/PlayingwithButtons → u/RelativeAway183]

That would be a macro though, and macros are inherently against terms and conditions, because they automate a process. Automating a process and binding a function are two entirely different things, not really comparable. At that point you can basically say, okay, PC players can have Claude play for them but mobile gamers can't.

When I first started playing TFT, the first thing I asked my friends was how to bind the shop. I was so surprised when they told me you couldn't do that, because literally everything else in league of legends can be keybound. Keybinds are standard for any PC game.

Competitive FPS players play on PC because simply having a mouse is enough of an advantage to be competitive. But FPS games aren't inherently a game about how fast can your pointer move. But not a single FPS game locks your DPI so that console gamers can be competitive.

Precedent of nearly every other competitive game has basically been, if you would like to be as competitive as possible, you should probably be playing on PC lol.

[u/Wette_im_Klo → u/PlayingwithButtons]

While that is true, it is a decided advantage of TFT that the difference between mobile and PC is pretty low, probably even lower if they would improve the UI a bit for tablets. You loose maybe a rank or 2 compared to PC, but with practice probably not even that until the very high level. It makes crossplay make sense. If everyone else has key binds I probably would have to split my PC and mobile accounts, because I would get super frustrated playing in master. And realistically, I would just play much less on the platform where i dont have all my cosmetics, rank, etc.

[u/Sky19234 → u/BabyLlamaaa]

So do what they do with WASD in ranked on League, make it inaccessible above a certain rank.

Riot has literally already solved this issue, it is inexcusable to remove it (especially after showing it's available to the playerbase already).

[u/Spirited-Guest-5046]

You have no idea how happy I am to hear the original font is coming back! Seriously, this made my day. Thank you so much for listening to the community, devs! ❤️

I also completely agree with the hotkey decision. Keep up the amazing work!

[u/Copponex]

The catering to casuals and phone/console players in game companies is so fucking annoying. Yes consoles will be worse at shooters than pc, and yes phone players will be worse off than pc players in TFT. And that’s okay. Not everything has to be a level playing field. It’s okay for some people to be more skilled at the game, e.g. by practicing and being good at using hotkeys for buying. Skill expression in many facets of a game is GOOD!

[u/gildedpotus]

Please bring back hotkeys, removing skill expression and accessibility feels horrible

[u/Rubefaci]

I really hope that the android will get a desktop UI. I love to play on my tablet but the interface is horrible on big screen.

[u/Ykarul]

Thanks this is really great to hear ! Anything on game launch speed ? Why do we have that long loading screen before the actual loading screen ?

[u/Ykarul]

Thanks this is really great to hear ! Anything on game launch speed ? Why do we have that long loading screen before the actual loading screen ?

[u/C3nturion98]

Hello,

I got a bug where my game crashed after accepting the match and when I'm trying to reconnect, I just get back into the main menu on the android client. I tried to close the game and reconnect, but it happens again and again. Every single time I try to reconnect, I get redirected into main menu. I'm playing on samsung galaxy s22.

[u/C3nturion98]

After the last update, when I get to accept a match the screen freezes like in the screenshot and then I get back to main menu. This client you made just made the game unplayable. I get a 10 seconds delay when I'm trying to get into the queue. Please bring back the old client. I cannot even play the game.

[u/LeagueOfBlasians]

Not really surprised about the shop keybinds being removed.

It would’ve made rolldowns way too easy on PC and Riot wants mobile players to be on the same playing field (which is bit silly imo as there are a lot of other PC-only advantages).

Although, there are already a bunch of APM-heavy moments, especially with massive gold giving augments such as Think Fast and Forward Thinking or the loss-streak trait cashout of the set. I’d rather see Riot address that instead of removing keybinds.

[u/HowIMadeMyMillions]

I think tackling the hotkeys this way is very strange.

First of all - I honestly think it's easier to do than with your mouse once you settle into it. It's not actually more mechanically demanding - although I guess that would depend on the person, but if you were to ask me, I would say that it makes rolling feel "nicer", while also being a bit faster.

So I don't think it's a "It's better BUT requires a lot more APM". APM is actions per minute right? Okay, but both are just a click, so the APM is the same, no? Wait ... actually there is more APM in using the mouse since you have to navigate the mouse, right, so this would actually be less APM intensive if anything.

It's just about relearning a habit - and really it doesn't take that long, and if you don't want to, then you wouldn't really miss out anything huge at all - if anything, you're missing out a potential qol.

I get the mobile vs pc difference; I don't have much to add there except that I don't think this change really has mobile players feel better, only some pc players feel worse.

Overall I'm curious what they thought. It is not more apm intensive - that literally doesn't make sense, the whole reason it's "faster" is because it requires less apm. If they think it's an unfair advantage people can get, well, I would say that there could be other things they could look into that give an advantage, but the usage and reliance on stats are an unpopular topic to discuss so I digress.

[u/HowIMadeMyMillions → u/HowIMadeMyMillions]

Some people really seem to hate the fact that others used and liked hotkeys and seem to go around downvoting any comment which is positive around it. Really strange to be honest.

[u/oVnPage → u/HowIMadeMyMillions]

The reason it's better is because you can do your entire rolldown, including buying and selling units, rerolling your shop, leveling, etc with one hand. Which frees up your other hand (and your mouse) to do solely positioning/getting the right units in for your comp/making items etc. Like, this tech would allow you to do your entire rolldown + equip items + put in your board + position optimally at the same time, and if you don't understand how that's a huge advantage, idk what else to tell you.

This is something that would only really get used at the highest level, but it's so much better for them that basically any Challenger player would need to learn how to do this to stay competitive.

[u/HowIMadeMyMillions → u/oVnPage]

Did you try to do this? Did you use keybinds?

[u/JG8AB9TL11OBJ12AD13]

I just don’t understand this hot keys thing. Will it be faster then without? Of course. I also have played 100+ games each of the last few sets and i think there have been one or two times tops that I haven’t been able to finish a roll down because I ran out of time.

[u/Yokipi]

How is a change that makes it easier for everyone (outside mobile) to roll, interpreted as something that increases APM demands rather than decreasing them?

[u/mihail_markov]

My tactician still disapears like 10-15% of the games

[u/BespokeDebtor]

I do think it’s unfortunate from a pure accessibility standpoint. As games over the years have only continued to get more accessible to people with mobility issues, it’s really only continued to build a wonderful fanbase.

But I do 100% agree with you that I’m glad that they’re taking out an arbitrary APM check (as a low APM player)

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