We want players to use Evolution of Combat because they want to, not because they have to. Last week, we announced some big upgrades to Evolution of Combat, which I知 confident will really improve the system. But we池e also planning to offer an alternative for players who just can稚 get on with EoC and instead want old combat.
Today we池e launching a poll for a Legacy Mode which would bring back the majority of the old combat gameplay and interfaces, in the modern game alongside EoC. The poll starts today and players have the next two weeks to vote on whether we should start developing Legacy Mode.
Log into the game to vote, or read on to find out more details.
Why now?
Power to the Players isn稚 just a slogan; it痴 our new ethos. It痴 about the community having a voice, and it痴 about us delivering what you want.
In the New Year, we announced in-game weekly content polls and the response was amazingly positive. However, one issue kept cropping up: you want the power to choose which combat system you have in the game. We致e listened. We池e going to do something about it. I知 sorry it痴 taken this long.
In all honesty we壇 struggled to find a solution which could bring back the old combat gameplay in a way which didn稚 affect those who do like EoC. We needed a solution that wouldn稚 split the community and was also technically viable for us to support well into the future. But as we saw that there was still a widespread demand for the old combat gameplay, we knew we had to find a way. I知 confident we致e found it.
What is Legacy Mode?
That solution is to create a Legacy Mode which re-creates the old combat gameplay, inside the modern game, alongside EoC. This means both the old and the new combat systems would co-exist within the same game, and you壇 be able to freely switch between them.
Turning on Legacy Mode will change your gameplay to be like the old combat system, circa 2012. This includes things like special attacks, no action bar, no abilities and type-to-chat. It will have the old interface layout, with combat info and buttons around the mini map, with the old side-panels in the lower right, plus an option for the old fixed-window interface layout. It will not be limited by membership status, world location or server type, and in most cases players of each system will be able to play side by side.
There will need to a be few differences to make it compatible (and competitive) with current game, including dual wielding weapons, modern gear and inheriting the combat triangle rebalance which improved Ranged and Magic combat. There are certain features, like the old '138' combat level formula, which have an impact beyond just Legacy Mode, for which we壇 need to work with the community to find a solution. That said, our aim is to make it look and play as close to the old system as possible.
How will it be made?
This is an ambitious vision, and we don稚 have all of the details worked out yet. This is where you come in - we値l need the guidance of the community to make sure Legacy Mode delivers the old style of combat you池e after. If the Legacy Mode poll succeeds, we値l start to develop this feature in collaboration with you, publishing our work-in-progress code to the beta servers, using forum input to get your requirements and running beta polls to measure whether the various elements are meeting your expectations. As with the current Combat Improvements beta, access will be open to free players.
Should the Legacy Mode poll succeed, we would work on it in parallel with the already announced Combat Improvements for EoC. I expect it would take at least a couple of months to have Legacy Mode ready for beta, by which time the features in the current Combat Improvements beta will mostly have been finished and launched.
This is obviously quite a lot of work, and would need at least a couple of developers focused on creating Legacy Mode over a number of months. That痴 why we池e doing a poll before we start, and we'll poll again to make sure you池e happy Legacy Mode is ready for the live game.
How can I get involved?
I知 sure you値l have a lot of questions about how this will work. We値l try our best to answer them on the forums and in the FAQ, but there痴 going to be some stuff we won稚 know until we get further into development, at which point we値l need to work with you to make the right choices.
If you壇 like to read more about how we reached the decision to bring back the old combat system, and what alternatives were considered, please check out my Legacy Mode dev blog, as well as Mod Mark's Og Blog on Old vs New Combat.
Thanks for reading,
Mod Pips
Executive Producer, RuneScape