Game Flow: Teamfight Tactics (part 2)

Earlier this month we took an early look at Teamfight Tactics. It has recently received a significant update, and many of the issues mentioned in the first post have been addressed in the update. So, this week we will quickly check in again to see how the game is doing.

Challenge and Skill. These areas are mostly unchanged, as the core mechanics of the game remain unchanged. One new addition that does apply here, however, is guaranteed gold being dropped in the first few creep rounds if no item is dropped. Previously, it was possible to receive nothing at all from the initial creep rounds, leaving that player significantly weaker than others who did receive items. Now, if no item is dropped, gold will instead drop, giving item-less players at least some benefit. This relates to challenge and skill because it reduces the potential gap in players’ team strengths, making the game ever so slightly more about skill than pure chance. A ranked mode has also been added, which will assist in matchmaking to ensure that players are placed into a game with others of comparable skill levels.

Goals. This area was also largely untouched in the update, and for the same reasons as challenge and skill. The goals players will set are the same as before, but the biggest difference from last time is in the feedback they receive regarding progress towards those goals.

Feedback. The majority of the changes in the recent update are to the amount of feedback provided by the game. While there is still no in-game list of champions or items, they did both receive some good additions. For champions, a more detailed list of stats is now available, including attack damage, ability power, armor, magic resist, attack speed, attack range, critical hit chance, and critical hit damage. This is very helpful for understanding which champion does better in a particular area, and especially helpful for spacing champions according to their attack range. One piece of feedback regarding champion stats that could still be added is scaling of ability damage. It is not clear exactly how much ability power affects abilities, or even which numbers listed under the ability description actually benefit from ability power. Regarding items, it is now possible to hover items over each other to check what will result without needing to place one of them on a champion first. This makes it easier to see what item combinations are possible. Finally, the addition of the ranked mode gives feedback on performance that can be tracked out of game.

Conclusion. Teamfight Tactics is well on its way to shoring up its previous weaknesses regarding its ability to promote flow. Other than the already mentioned changes to feedback that are necessary, further updates will likely primarily involve balance changes, which will lead to games that are more dependent on skill than luck. This will stabilize the balance between challenge and skill, making for a better flow experience and a more enjoyable and engaging game. Depending on the extent of future updates, we may or may not take another look at Teamfight Tactics down the road.