Riot devs explain the difficulties faced while fixing League of Legends' client issues 

League of Legends' clients have been among the most talked-about aspects in the esports community for many years now.

Even though the game is updated regularly, the client saw its last big overhaul back in 2016.

The client basically runs two separate applications at once. One runs the game, and the other runs the menu. This is what players find frustrating.

Please for god's sake just make a new client. I promise you it will go 100 times better if you just swallow your pride and redo the client.

— tooR (@J2Danky) February 6, 2021

just make a new client and game engine holy fuck

— Nekomusume (@Nek0musum3) February 6, 2021

League of Legends regulars do not like the existing client system as it has caused data leaks before. It has also caused the game to lag a lot.

Frustration among the players has only increased after finding out that Riot's new PC game, Valorant, seamlessly switches between the menu and gameplay without any issues.

(Image via Riot Games)

Wild Rift, the mobile counterpart of League of Legends, also features the menus and the game on a common application despite having more technical limitations.

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Riot devs explain the reasons behind League of Legends client issues and why it is so hard to fix

To increase transparency in the League of Legends' client system, Riot's League Client Team (LCT) rolled out a Reddit AMA. There were some interesting responses as well.

Screengrab from Reddit

When a player questioned how the issues got to this state in the first place, Riot exphasized on the difficulties the programmers are facing to untangle the maze of codes. The maze was formed due to the numerous plugins that have been added at frequent intervals in the game.

(Image via Riot Games)

Riot's senior software engineer Gastón "Givanse" Silva clarified how the basic client was made up of 150 different plugins, all functioning simultaneously.

Even though the number has been reduced to 48 by the dev team, Riot aims to scrap the plugin system entirely within the next few years. Givanse had this to say on the matter:

“The lack of uniformity and the boundaries that exist between features (plugins) made it very hard to maintain and improve the client,” he said. “The ideal would be to get rid of the plugin system and have a single app. We are working towards that. The last few special configs are very tricky to get rid of.”

The client system seems to have a complicated maze of plugins, which is very difficult for developers to navigate. Fans have now been assured that a new client will be rebuilt from scratch.

Riot's Product Tech lead Brian "Penrif" Bossé added by saying this:

“For now, we’re committed to iterating and improving the existing, but that does not lock out the option for us to undertake the huge project of moving to in-game tech somewhere down the road.”

The good news for League of Legends fans is that the game's client issues top Riot's priority list. Even if a change in the client is not right around the corner, fans will certainly get to see improvisations somewhere down the line.