League of Legends Eternals system revamped after mass community criticism
Riot GamesRiot Games have revealed new details regarding the upcoming release of premium stat-tracking feature ‘Eternals’ for League of Legends.
Eternals are a new achievement-tracking feature that would give players the ability to showcase personal accomplishments on particular heroes, including unique achievements and general gameplay milestones.
While players might have been enthusiastic about more stat and achievement tracking, though, there was a catch: not only would players have to pay for the feature, they’d have to do so on a per-champion basis. As a result, Riot faced heavy backlash from fans for locking Eternals behind a paywall, and not a particularly small one at that.
In response to the criticism, Riot delayed the feature’s release so that they could decide how to address the concerns, and have now given an update on how Eternals will work going forward.
Riot GamesEternals will no longer be exclusively purchasable with RP – the in-game currency that can be bought with real money – but also Blue Essence, which players can earn for free by playing the game.
The ‘Starter Series’ Eternals will be permanently available for Blue Essence or RP, and track basic stats like takedowns, structures destroyed, and epic monsters slain for each champion you pick them up for. Based on the video, it appears these will cost 225 RP or 2500 BE each, and 1000 RP or 25,000 BE to unlock all of them. It’s possible these numbers may be subject to change before the feature is released, however.
Riot also state that in a post-launch update they’ll be adding Eternals that can be earned via ranked splits, such that all Eternals should eventually be acquirable without having to spend any real money.
Eternals discussion starts at 5:13 for mobile viewers.
The developers have also worked on unique eternals, which track stats and achievements that are specific to each particular champion. Following feedback from players during PBE testing, unique Eternals have been adjusted to track more complex and interesting stats, such as the number of skill-shots dodged by using Vladimir’s Sanguine Pool.
Finally, Riot have also confirmed that those who aren’t interested in Eternals and don’t want to be able to see those being used by other players will be able to mute the feature.
So far, Riot haven’t given a specific release date for Eternals, stating only that the feature will be coming out “early this year.”