TFT lead developer explains how a new designer saved Set 10’s headliner mechanic
Teamfight Tactics lead designer Mortdog announced that Set 10’s headlining mechanics were taken over by a new designer, whose changes significantly improved the gameplay experience.
Set 10 of Teamfight Tactics is about to hit the live servers. The tenth set to be released, Remix Rumble promises that players will fight for dominance in the Convergence based on their own preferences. Packed with bands and music-themed units, the next TFT series will be an absolute blast.
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As usual, there is a rotation of units, traits and mechanics in the new set, as well as the removal of the legend mechanic. Set 10 features a similar retaliation to the Chosen mechanic from Set 4, allowing players to field a powerful unit that grants bonuses to their army.
However, Headliners are slightly different from Chosen. Instead of completely blocking Headliners from appearing in your shop if you own one, the powerful units will appear once every 4 shops. This wasn’t originally the case, but was changed thanks to a new designer, according to lead developer Mortdog.
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TFT lead developer explains how a new developer saved Set 10’s mechanics
TFT chief designer Mortdog told the story of how a new designer defied all odds to make Set 10 better.
“When we first set up the Headliner mechanic, it actually worked like it used to on Chosen, where you had to sell it to get a new one. And it worked well… but there were a lot of the same problems where you felt like you had to high-roll and stuff like that.
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“This new designer was like, ‘Look, we need to make it for a lot of new players so they can see more headliners in the shop.'” And at first the team rejected that and was like, ‘No, we’ve done Chosen before. That’s how it worked, it’s fine.’”
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Luckily, the new designer didn’t back down and convinced Mortdog to test it out.
“When we tested it, it was very good. What it actually did was make it more clever, make it so you could sell it and get a bigger advantage, but you could still switch and things like that. It made it easier for new players, so it was just a huge win.
“So yeah, it was one of those things where if the designer gave up, he was told, no, we had worse set mechanics.”
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