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’m confident will really improve the system. But we’re also planning to offer an alternative for players who just can’t get on with EoC and instead want old combat.
Today we’re 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’t just a slogan; it’s our new ethos. It’s about the community having a voice, and it’s 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’ve listened. We’re going to do something about it. I’m sorry it’s taken this long.
In all honesty we’d struggled to find a solution which could bring back the old combat gameplay in a way which didn’t affect those who do like EoC. We needed a solution that wouldn’t 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’m confident we’ve 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’d 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’d 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’t have all of the details worked out yet. This is where you come in - we’ll need the guidance of the community to make sure Legacy Mode delivers the old style of combat you’re after. If the Legacy Mode poll succeeds, we’ll 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’s why we’re doing a poll before we start, and we'll poll again to make sure you’re happy Legacy Mode is ready for the live game.
How can I get involved?
I’m sure you’ll have a lot of questions about how this will work. We’ll try our best to answer them on the forums and in the FAQ, but there’s going to be some stuff we won’t know until we get further into development, at which point we’ll need to work with you to make the right choices.
If you’d 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