Just because you’re the top MOBA in the world and the most watched game on Twitch, that doesn’t mean that you should rest on your laurels. Last week, Riot Games took the covers off an upcoming update to their game’s main map, Summoner’s Rift.

For League fans and gamers, it’s important to note that the gameplay won’t be fundamentally changed by the updated design of the map. All the key elements of the map will remain functionally the same as they currently are. That includes “flashable walls, turret ranges, lane sizes, brush interaction and ward placements.”

However, Riot has updated the look of the map. Textures have been revised and improved. Lighting and particle effects have been given some work. The Baron and Dragon have been redesigned to look more threatening. Some of the jungle camp monsters have been redesigned as well. The western and eastern sides of the map have been changed so the west side is damaged and the east looks overgrown. There are also subtle colour cues near the red and blue buffs so it’s easier to see where players are on the map.

The idea behind the revision, according to Riot, is to draw attention to the critical parts of what is on-screen. That’s what is engaged in the fight rather than the environment the fight is taking place in. Given how much of an improvement is being made to the look of Summoner’s Rift, the emphasis on the action rather than the environment will take a bit as everyone stops staring at the new scenery.

One thing that players should keep their eyes open for is the higher RAM requirements for the new version of Summoner’s Rift as a result of the upgraded visuals. Riot says that optimizing the map is still in the work and the plan is to get it optimized to the point where there isn’t much of a performance difference between the current and new Summoner’s Rift on the same hardware.

The plan is for the updated version of Summoner’s Rift to be released into the Public Beta Environment (PBE) sometime in the near future. A firm timeline for the PBE release and the full release to all queues and servers hasn’t been set by Riot.

Source: League of Legends