TFT is the leader of the auto battler genre, which means any innovations we find have to come through experimentation and iteration. We often try to challenge our core rules to see if we can improve them. One such time, was our “Mana Per Auto” experiment.

In Fates (Set 4) we were struggling with people using damage taken and Guardian Angel to have champions like Ahri be on the front line, generate a bunch of mana, and cast a large spell very early into the fight. We were also struggling with tanks, and getting them to generate mana in any meaningful way except taking damage. The rule that every auto attack generates 10 mana was something we felt was worth challenging, so we came up with “Mana Per Auto”.

The MPA stat was different on each champ, and basically said this is how much mana you get per auto. A typical backline AD champ could stay at 10, but tanks could have 20 or 30 so their autos were more impactful. A champ like Ahri could now have a 240 mana pool, but be given 40 mana per auto. This meant mana through taking damage was much less valuable and no one front lined her. The change accomplished the goal, and autos were now more valuable.

BUT, the design tradeoffs were not worth it. It took a simple elegant system of “10 mana per auto” and complicated it a lot. Players constantly had to check each champ to understand their MPA and relative value. The notches we added on the mana bar to communicate it made the in game UI look less clean, and items like Shojin were now “increase your MPA 50%” which was more confusing as well. To accomplish the original goal really wasn’t worth the complexity trade off.

And that’s the thing with design, and frankly life as well. There often isn’t a perfect solution that hits every goal and solves every problem. It’s about evaluating the trade offs of potential answers, and choosing the one that has the most positives. One other factor is that TFT is a live service game, and changing a core system comes with a HUGE change aversion cost. To make a core system change like this, it really needs to be a massive net positive to be worth it, and this was more of a wash. So in the end, we scrapped the system and didn’t ship it.

Since we didn’t ship, it was a failure and a waste of time right? No, of course not. We got valuable learnings about our core system that to this day we often reference. It helped us consider more drastic solutions like the eventual removal of Guardian Angel and spell designs for future champs. That deeper understanding of our game helps us come up with even better designs in the future, which is extra important for a live service game that thrives on novelty and high player expectations.

Anyway, thought I’d share a behind the scenes look at something that didn’t ship. Have a great weekend and take it easy 🙂