If Renata Golask appeared in our world, she would definitely invest in cryptocurrencies and then manipulate market prices through social platforms. But fortunately, she's not a real person—there are enough of those people in the real world.
Our Alchemy Baron, Renata Gorask, is a big capitalist whose forehand has just saved the lives of The Poor Zuan, and whose back hand has choked their throats. She is an evil auxiliary hero who uses powerful alchemy technology to brainwash enemies while "strengthening" her teammates (writing reinforcement, read brainwashing).
Seriously, what ulterior motives can a girl from a ditch from Zu'an have?
The cost of getting stronger
In the current hero segmentation positioning, the auxiliary heroes belonging to the guardian include the light and ethereal goddess, the passionate beauty, the crazy child who has become bigger and smaller, and a cat. But will we, those of us who love Pike, have a chance to play as a sinister and vicious defender?
"We talked about making a dark theme of the Protector in the early days of creation." Game designer Blake "Squad5" Smith recalls the situation, "So I started with the role of the escort: protecting teammates, empowering teammates, and making teammates show their fists." Then I wondered how I could add some sinister and cunning to these mechanisms. ”
On the surface, it seems impossible to design an evil guardian. Healing, shields, buffs, these actions are inherently selfless — you give your power to your teammates without asking for anything in return (unlike mage-type assists, who want to rob people's heads so they can buy themselves hats). But if you continue to dig deeper, there are actually many ways to make the skill mechanism of the Hero of the Guardian Division show a kind of malice.
Make your teammates pay for power, manipulate your enemies, and force your teammates to fight to the death without resting. These are the design ideas of the evil Guardian Hero found by Quad5.
"As early as when Leonarda was completely unformed, I had basically determined the gameplay mechanism." Squad5 further explains, "This is a special situation in hero development work, but because we set a relatively clear theme for the gameplay mechanics from the beginning, it was obvious what kind of skill sets we needed. Her R skill will cause a group of enemies to kill each other. This is the equivalent of a special taunt that forces you to attack your teammates. She will also increase the attack speed of this group of enemies, making them more fierce when hitting their friends. The effect of this trick is very cool, which is my favorite in the whole skill group, because this is a new design angle among the Heroes of the Guardians, and this mechanism does not currently exist in the League of Legends. ”
Leonarda's weapon is more like a tool, her minions. It is self-aware and obeys all her commands.
Each Ranger needs a weapon, and after looking at the weapons of other Guardsmen, senior illustrator Sunny "Kindlejack" Pandita noticed the lack of diversity. There are too many sticks—windy, watery, magical. However, they all have two identical characteristics: large size and many functions.
"I pretty much painted Leonarda hundreds of weapons. Her weapons need to send a clear message: to provoke others, to temporarily avoid death, to hurt enemies, to protect teammates, and to make enemies kill each other... Very versatile. "Also, considering that she's a ranger, I wanted to add some sort of medical black technology to her, so I tried syringes, weird alchemical compound cans, and even machine guns." But in the end, the best solution is to remind people of the 'snake staff' after seeing it. ”
One meter and eight meters tall, Renata Gorask would not look up to anyone. But in case of a higher opponent, she would open the umbrella and force the opponent to bend down and lower her line of sight.
At this point, the team's follow-up task is simply to design a convincing character that embodies the skill sets designed by The Quad5 in action — that is, to understand, what kind of evil people have these abilities?
Evil in League of Legends takes many forms. There are small and cute evil mages, there are death rages born of grief, and even a large number of demons that eat people for fun. But we have never had an evil person who can make people feel able to empathize with each other. Indeed, we all remember the heartache after the first love broke up, and we all felt that we would never be able to get out of the apocalyptic pain of lost love, but basically no one would flow black mist from the position of the heart and trigger the curse of destruction.
So what if we designed an evil person who was closer to the real world? Something closer to modern society?
Late-game capitalism
President, Entrepreneur,
Born into a poor family in Zuan, Renata,
Renata Gorask.
How fascinating the accumulation of capital is. Step on the wind outlet, climb up the socio-economic ladder, and build your own business empire. You just need to use all the people who have helped you as stepping stones, destroying the natural environment, and taking advantage of legal loopholes to avoid taxes reasonably. Isn't it great!
While we are all familiar with the evil capitalists, League of Legends has never explored this aspect. There's just one problem: these things are all too real, and it's equivalent to us moving reality into a fantasy world. How do we create an evil capitalist and make it justified in a world full of dragons, demons, and magic?
We already have the core of the skill set, we've determined that the hero is evil (or in a moral gray area), and now we need to mold this hero into a wealthy entrepreneur. So where did this hero have to be born? What kind of life do you have to have?
Zuan and Piltwolf are the unique twin cities in the Land of Runes. It is the cradle of progress and technology, and the evil land of the strong. We've seen the inner and niche cultural groups of these two cities through the perspectives of many of the characters, but none of the heroes have shown us the exploiters' perspectives. Well, now there is.
When we were thinking about what kind of character to use to adapt to this gameplay, personality and genre, The name of Hilco came to mind. But as Hero Team Leader Ryan "Reav3" Mireles once made clear, Hilco is not going to be the new hero.
"We explored Hilco early in the creative process, but we always felt he was far from the standard of a hero." Reav3 explains in detail, "Most of the characters in A Battle of Two Cities don't meet the standards of a hero, even Kinks, Caitlin, and Wei. Their personalities are somewhat vague, and their personalities are somewhat suppressed. This setting is perfect for "Battle of two cities", because the series is more realistic, so the characters are easy to resonate, but such characters are not what we are going to pursue in League of Legends. Our heroes need to be self-explanatory, unique, and have a clear source of power. We tried to strengthen Hilco's personality to make him a hero, but then he became a different person. As a key character in "A Battle of the Two Cities", this practice was unfair to Hilco, so in the end we adopted a different scheme. ”
Renata Gorask's coat should be reminiscent of the Alchemical Baron who appeared in The Battle of the Two Cities
Zuan's rulers were a group of alchemy barons who were the heads of criminal syndicates who profited by oppressing the citizens at the bottom. They are ruthless, sinister and cunning, and hungry for power. Simply met our requirements.
"If we think about who Renata really is, we can be sure that she must be very good at persuading and manipulating others." Narrative writer Dana Luery "griddlebones" Shaw said, "She must be someone who is willing to give orders without having to get her hands dirty." She must also be very good at turning enemies into friends. This reminds me of many of the leaders of the underworld, so we spent a lot of time studying the leaders of many organized crime. ”
"I asked myself, 'What kind of person should be the leader of the evil forces in his 20s and 30s who have this ability?' Because, like Renata, a large part of these people wanted to be legitimate businessmen, and they could kill people at will to achieve this goal. Griddlebones finally concluded, "So can we allow a real businessman to kill and kill at will in order to continue to do legitimate business?" Basically, That's where Renata's personality begins. ”
Renata's wealth was inherited from her parents, who were Zuan's alchemists, and the humanitarian behavior they espoused had reached an excessive level. They provide medical assistance to the poorest and do not charge any compensation, completely free of charge. Renata would often sleep hungry and resentful. So naturally, when she grew up, she did not follow in the footsteps of her parents and provided free assistance to the Zuan people. Instead, she decided to build a business empire.
"Being poor is actually expensive. But when you have money, they will give it to you for free. ”
Unlike real-world CEOs, Renata Gorask knows he's not a good person. Although she donated breathing devices to the citizens of Zuan after the alchemical compounds were leaked, that was only the cost of her business.
Add the concept of hierarchy to alchemy technology
Everything about Renata should feel like a high-grade one, like the Elite Piltwolf she secretly imitates (but she herself won't admit it). Whether it's a white suit that doesn't fit in with the dirty Zuan or a one-of-a-kind, luxurious three-barrel pistol. Lenata Golask's every item is tailor-made, elegant, and expensive. Including what she used to kill people.
Prosthetics are not a new concept in Zuan. Many citizens work in harsh conditions, suffer terrible accidents and suffer serious injuries. But The way Renata deals with the problem is even more... pragmatic.
Renata would shake hands with her left hand as a test of loyalty.
Renata's prosthetic arm itself is a series of winding tubes and syringes containing her alchemical technology "medicine." She was able to control the intensification dose freely; extend her arms to grasp items; twist her fingers to form keys; or, if necessary, prepare an alchemical mixture to sprinkle on the reckless man who stood in the way. If you're brave enough to put your life in the hands of Renata Gorask, maybe you can get closer to something beautiful and familiar.
"I want the design elements of the character to come from what you've seen, to stand firmly on the character. Regarding Leonarda's arm, I refer to Oriana's design. Kindlejack said, "Although Renata's prosthesis is not from the same person as Oriana, the person who made it must also be a craftsman who pays attention to beauty and pursues excellence, not the product of other Zuan heroes who only attaches importance to practicality and has no style and personality." Even the color scheme should be different from heroes like Kinks and Mondo. ”
But beneath the surface of grace and elegance, Renata Gorask has always been a fierce character and a strong woman in the city of Zuan. An ordinary person in a fine Aniuk plush coat may not necessarily exude The spirit of "if you dare to mess with me, you are a dead man".
Kindlejack and illustrator Jeremy "jermu" Anninos designed Leonarda's unique face.
"I referenced the masks of many heroes, such as Agart and Victor. I wonder if zuan's craftsmen share a certain style and manufacturing process. Kindlejack shares his creative journey, "I don't want this mask to feel extremely delicate and complex, but it should give people a high-quality taste." This mask was certainly not picked up by Leonarda directly from the shelves, it is estimated that an expert engineer was hired to design it, and this expert also had a relationship with Victor. Perhaps several engineers co-designed this type of mask, and some of them quit halfway, went to prison, and later designed a mask for Aggart. ”
As for why Renata wears a face shield... Mainly to create a sense of oppression. It's not that she won't live without taking off her mask (unless she goes to Piltwolf and has to breathe the disgustingly clean air there), but the mask provides her with a tiny amount of alchemical mixture. The cassette at the bottom of the mask is the atomization device, which continuously volatilizes the best potions in the range of Picheng and Zuan. (After half a day, it is an e-cigarette.) ）
The Gorask industry never fell
There is some visual language in the coat of arms of the Gorask family, inspired by the flower motif of another alchemical baron
Thus Renata Golask was born, the eldest sister, the capitalist, to control the Gate of the Sun, and thus the trade of Piltwolf and Zuan, as well as the entire Rune Land. But is that really enough for her?
Griddlebones laughed and said, "She can't be satisfied. As long as Renata achieves her goal, she dreams of greater achievement. Maybe she'll shoot a car into space or something. At least to me, she's like capitalism, needs to continue to expand, never settle for existing benefits, to earn more, more, more, sleeplessly. Such is the case with Leonarda, a bottomless mouth of blood, swallowing all ambition and greed. I can imagine her saying, 'Okay. It was time to hire some mercenaries to capture Noxus. There's no reason, because it's Thursday.