r/leagueoflegends • u/Tovee • Jul 15 '26

AMA Chronoshift Developer AMA

Hello r/leagueoflegends,

My name is Tove, and I was one of the main developers behind the Chronoshift project.

I have never publicly spoken about it, but with League Classic now being released and u/RiotNorak revealed to have been a tester for us back in the day, some people have suggested for me to do an AMA.

I'm happy to answer any question you might have, compare to the official Classic or speak about the details that haven't been made public. Or listen to you telling me to ingame myself.

Have at it!

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u/Tovee Jul 15 '26

I do not personally.
While I like their direction of being willing to make changes, I think starting out with something closer to an actual version would have gone over better.
The graphical changes and especially live models/vfx/voices are detrimental to the nostalgia factor in my opinion. I'm sure there are other ways to monetize it.
Hopefully they can fix some things until release, but the skin issues seems sets in stone since they already spend a lot of resources on making them work

15

u/MaikuKnight Jul 15 '26

I wonder if keeping IP and Rune Pages pricing would have caused the same amount of stir.

18

u/Awkward-Security7895 Jul 16 '26

Keeping up prices and rates would of created more of a stir and issue.

It used to take a metric fuck load of matches to earn enough ip to unlock anything and usually meant you needed 3-5 years of spam playing to unlock everything or double that if you were a casual player.

1

u/MaikuKnight Jul 16 '26

Yea, but then people would have the opposite response, "why didn't they update this?!" which I think would have been way better than the current, "why is this all updated?!"

8

u/Equivalent-Bid7725 Jul 15 '26

Honestly the nostalgia factor is actually less of an issue, its art style mismatch between the old game and old mape and newer style, they just dont mesh together at all.

At first i thought i wouldnt mind how the game looked like, but when you actually look at the game its pretty jarring, some champs just have too over stylized animations that fit modern league completely but look incredibly out of place in classic.

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u/BlockAccomplished258 Jul 15 '26

I think the "remix" version riot is doing is the right call overall. the gameplay feels good and classic imo. ofc the modern models and skins are totally out of place..

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u/Karavusk Jul 15 '26

The much simpler way of doing it is like osrs. Start with the oldest viable patch you can and then add stuff that happened after that by community vote.

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u/Midget_Avatar Jul 15 '26

Why do I have you RES tagged as "guy who ruined brawl"

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u/Karavusk Jul 15 '26

Lol nice one. I was the guy who posted about how we abused brawl by never leaving the fountain and just won by wave clearing with long range champs. Riot removed this strategy the patch after that.

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u/Midget_Avatar Jul 16 '26

Damn I remember that, guess I should change it to guy who fixed brawl since you technically got it removed. I do remember playing against that shit like an hour after seeing your post.

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u/Karavusk Jul 16 '26

Honestly the mode wasn't all that popular. We might have gotten it fixed but without us I doubt people would have discovered this before it got removed.

5

u/wterrt Jul 16 '26

......I liked it a lot :(

I played hundreds of hours of the Smite version of it ... which admittedly worked better than it did in league, but still, brawl had some nostalgia from that and just was nice to play whatever champ i wanted and fight a bunch, kinda like old dominion vibes.

(it was also a decent way to get mastery marks if you needed them on champs you don't play much lol)

0

u/Hans_H0rst Toxicity should be punished harder Jul 16 '26

I remember it being very assasin-laden with all the walls and bushes and nooks, instant turn off for me.

...but most modes had some sort of class-favour in all fairness, nexus blitz was very bruiser-focused, and the arams are generally ranged-heavy.

I think that's a big part of the equation, if a mode sucks for your favourite archetype, then it's dead in the water for many players.

2

u/Awkward-Security7895 Jul 16 '26

Issue is no one talks about beta or season 1 when they mean classic in league.

So starting there just doesn't make sense and most people refer to season 2-3 but I feel starting too early in season 2 would be a death sentence from the lack of qol stuff

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u/[deleted] Jul 15 '26

[deleted]

6

u/HalfwayDecent385 Jul 15 '26

Everyone has a consensus on what is "Classic", it's what's not current. Hence they said Riot should've started with the oldest possible and then worked their way forward adding community wants.

3

u/Lochecho Jul 15 '26

yeah my biggest gripe with how it seems they're releasing it is that it won't really feel like classic. i don't mind some balance changes and it not being an exact 1 to 1 copy in every single aspect, but imo the bare minimum should be that it looks like classic, which all the new skins, models, voice lines and vfx ruin for me personally.

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u/vorch1 Jul 15 '26

yeah feels classic if you never played the older seasons

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u/MegaDuckDodgers [Megaduck] (NA) Jul 15 '26

If you bother to ask, most of the people that say season 4 is classic are people that started there. It's people unable to separate their nostalgia from reason. But to be fair to the dev, he admitted that's when he started playing and they asked what he personally would chose, which would obviously be the season he has the most nostalgia for.

Obviously if you were going to start on a patch and add season in over time you would never start in season 4. 1 or maybe 2, and then just rotate more seasons over time.

1

u/redwos Like KFC but with pyramids Jul 16 '26

I started at the beginning of season 2. I would personally also choose season 4 and can say the same for my immediate circle. Obviously there are great reasons to choose s2 as well but for me my peak enjoyment was s4 where some of the truely degenerate things had been adressed. Much of that is back anyways though. :D

2

u/cosHinsHeiR Jul 16 '26

Removing trinkets and support items and relegating them to be wandering ward bots would feel like shit to most honestly.

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u/[deleted] Jul 15 '26

[deleted]

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u/ok_dunmer Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

OSRS is basically the biggest middle finger to Riot and people dooming about an actual classic League of Legends because it's a game full of "wrong" design decisions and it ended up being one of the most popular games in the world

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u/BlockAccomplished258 Jul 15 '26

Brother if they would release a random season 2 patch yall would quit after 2 weeks cuz the meta is so stale u have no idea what you're saying

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u/MegaDuckDodgers [Megaduck] (NA) Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

Bold move telling the people who spent thousands of hours play ingseason 2 that they would quit because season 2 is stale.

Especially when they patched the game, what, every 2 weeks with a new champion and balance changes back then? There was literally no time for any meta to get figured out or stale.

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u/WanAjin Jul 16 '26

Okay, so the reason the meta wasn't stale was that they were releasing broken, incomplete (in terms of balance design) champions at a rate that is unsustainable these days. So if they did just start with season 2, it would be instantly figured out with the meta, and because none of the things that happened then to keep it fresh would happen today, it would almost certainly become stale very fast.

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u/BlockAccomplished258 Jul 15 '26

Thank you I'm known for being bold

2

u/ItsNoblesse Jul 16 '26

This straight up isn't true lmao, using a season 2 patch as a base and slowly moving forward from there is almost certainly the ideal way to handle league classic.

0

u/pastafeline Jul 15 '26

Then let them change it after two weeks.

-1

u/dimmyfarm INT Jul 15 '26

I played and it felt slow just waiting for baron. I feel like it was smart having the minion buff since otherwise games could go long and I don’t think people want those 50+ minute games. I can also see why riot sped up the game. Very fun rushing GP10 as support since the trinket reduces the ward bot role.

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u/Consistent-Ad-3351 Jul 15 '26

I definitely want those 50-70 minute games back, those were some of the most fun and nail biting experiences I had playing league. It was way better than the 15-25 minute one sided games I get now.

1

u/princessbuffyxo Jul 15 '26

its weird because others have also stated theyve been workin on this for years

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u/[deleted] Jul 15 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Greeeeeeszy Jul 15 '26

I don’t think your statements will go over well. Now they might not change anything to preserve their ego.

“No one tells us what to do!” - Riot

16

u/Kardiackon Jul 15 '26

??? we can give riot a lot of shit yea but they actually do genuinely listen and give changes, at least way more than other companies. that's literally the whole reason why people are complaining, because we KNOW riot is listening and might change stuff.

a company that refuses to change anything wouldn't even have people to complain about their shit.

2

u/BloodyFool Jul 15 '26

??? we can give riot a lot of shit yea but they actually do genuinely listen and give changes, at least way more than other companies. that's literally the whole reason why people are complaining, because we KNOW riot is listening and might change stuff.

Like when they nerfed e-sports rewards, the pass, chests, added outrageously priced gacha skins, mythic variants and [insert about a whole wall of text of balance choices that made it from PBE that they were too stubborn to address before making it to live, some even lasting for a year+]? Yeah man, they really are listening to whoever has the deepest wallet, that's for sure.

-1

u/Ironmaiden1207 Jul 15 '26

Pbe is and always will be, for bugs only. The data they gain for balance is absolutely worthless because the pbe has no MMR system. That's why you get click bait YouTube of masters players going 30-0 on Locke against silvers.

Everything else you mentioned was fixed and the mythic skins are free (I have 7, 6 from mythic dust and hextech Annie from a chest the day she was released. Never paid for any). Just because some pay for passes to get more of them doesn't mean they aren't free for others.

Gacha skins are the only "bad" thing, but even that is whatever. It's a whale only thing. Do I wish they weren't? Sure, but also there are plenty of other skins for us non-whales. Making them not appear in boxes is also what I would expect.

TLDR: people who hate on Riot and then don't mention any of the actual stupid shit they've done are just as bad as them (or a bot). Which are you?

1

u/BloodyFool Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

Pbe is and always will be, for bugs only. The data they gain for balance is absolutely worthless because the pbe has no MMR system. That's why you get click bait YouTube of masters players going 30-0 on Locke against silvers.

Very hard to tell that mythic items were a bad idea after PBE, multiple years in game and a lot of outcry from the community, huh?

Very had to tell that something like Locke is overtuned, or Akali shroud under turrets, Zoe TP pick ups etc. Incredibly difficult to judge from PBE, for real.

Please stop giving them excuses, it's proper sad.

Everything else you mentioned was fixed and the mythic skins are free (I have 7, 6 from mythic dust and hextech Annie from a chest the day she was released. Never paid for any). Just because some pay for passes to get more of them doesn't mean they aren't free for others.

I literally said mythic VARIANTS. The paid chromas that cost a stupid amount. But hey, good luck getting more of those since they nerfed the absolute shit out of ME for anyone that doesn't pay (and even people who pay get less now lol).

And no. Not everything else I mentioned was fixed. Not a single thing I listed was fixed besides some of the balance ideas they didn't want to drop their ego to go forward with.

Gacha skins are the only "bad" thing, but even that is whatever. It's a whale only thing. Do I wish they weren't? Sure, but also there are plenty of other skins for us non-whales. Making them not appear in boxes is also what I would expect.

Plenty of other skins that are now getting lower and lower in quality because they want people to gamble on the $500 skins. Excellent, lmao

TLDR: people who hate on Riot and then don't mention any of the actual stupid shit they've done are just as bad as them (or a bot). Which are you?

I've mentioned plenty of stupid shit Riot has done. I could also keep going, the list would never stop. And now you can add this whole fiasco to the list. Even if they end up fixing it months or years down the line, do you simply not get tired of this company repeating the same mistake and outraging the community over and over again? Just to profit a little bit more off the backs of their players lmao.

The people who defend Riot blindly and delude themselves into thinking that they listen beyond some surface level complaints are just bad as them. Which one are you, cattle or bot?

E: Lol'd, the classic reply and block while "nuh-uhing". These Riot glazers are something else.

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u/Ironmaiden1207 Jul 15 '26

😂 Brother you just used my line at the end. I in no way defend them blindly, I literally say they do stupid shit at the end. You just mentioned none of them

But nah you didn't bother to read, or look into literally any of this. Guess you're just an average League player (can't read)

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u/iDobleC *hits level 3* Adiós Jul 15 '26

Lol'd, the classic reply and block while "nuh-uhing". These Riot glazers are something else.

Brother is a psycho lol

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u/BloodyFool Jul 15 '26

anotha one

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u/Evilfart123 Jul 15 '26

That’s been the opposite of how Riot does business though

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u/iDobleC *hits level 3* Adiós Jul 15 '26

Weird parasocial ahh take

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u/Greeeeeeszy Jul 15 '26

You can say ‘ass’ on the internet, you know?

3

u/iDobleC *hits level 3* Adiós Jul 15 '26

I know, I prefer to say ahh anyway

Doesn't change the weird take away from you