So the new PvP.net launcher is officialy live since today (or yesterday, depending where you play from). I haven’t really been paying much attention about it until now so not sure if this feature is already known or not, but it certainly caught me off guard.
The new PvP.net Patcher represents a huge stride forward for us both in both technology and convenience. Not only will it relieve many of the technical difficulties that some League of Legends players may have experienced in the past when updating the game, but it also represents the removal of a technical blocker to some of our most anticipated features. While there is still work to be done, this new PvP.net Patcher will be able to launch older versions of League of Legends, allowing us to implement a polished replay system that will not break each time we distribute a new update for League of Legends.
So not only can we (or rather, will be able to) retire the unofficial LoL Replay app that some have been using, the official replays will surprisingly work with older versions. I remember back from my days of Warcraft III that replays couldn’t be watched if the game version it was saved on was different than the current one you had, so having such functionality in League of Legends is extremely awesome. We’ll be able to download and watch games regardless of the version or date when it was recorded, and I’m sure some of you will agree it’s a huge step forward. I’m sure some of the bigger LoL websites out there will soon have a database of matches we’ll be able to watch, hopefully with a decent rating system.
Riot is almost as notorious as Blizzard when it comes to dates, so all we have for now is “soon“. They said the same for Magma Chamber, the highly anticipated new map, and that was what, a year ago? Hopefully it won’t take nearly as long for them to finish the replay system. If some random person can develop a 3rd party replay app which isn’t perfect but it works, then Riot should be able to do the same, but hopefully even better.
Here’s a tip in case you haven’t logged in yet: be sure to run a custom game first, as the launcher resets all of your settings and keybinds. For some odd reason I wasn’t able to move or cast spells occasionally in my first game, as my keyboard and mouse were completely unresponsive for a few minutes after changing key bindings.
There is also one significant change in the LoL interface now, as Riot describes:
- updated interface to better reflect our matchmaking system
You can see the result below:
(no, unfortunately I made this last part up)