MMO Fallout

Evolution of Combat was introduced to RuneScape on November 20th, 2012. A massive undertaking and equally dramatic shift in gameplay for the eleven year old MMO, Evolution of Combat introduced abilities, a hotbar, dual wielding, new equipment, and altered how creatures in the world needed to be fought. New items were introduced and many spells and other items were removed entirely or rendered useless by changes to how the game balanced combat. As one might expect when a game implements such a radical change, an indeterminate number of players up and quit.

Nearly two years have passed and Jagex has slowly working to bring those players back. Old School RuneScape was introduced at the end of February, a snapshot version of RuneScape culled from 2007, long before the introduction of features such as the Evolution of Combat, Grand Exchange auction house, or microtransactions. To move even further, Jagex announced that further content on Old School would be sourced directly from the community and put up to a vote before it would be implemented.

On the RuneScape 3 front, Jagex implemented a combat mode called “momentum” which was meant to replace abilities in regular encounters with monsters, by boosting offensive and defensive stats. Revolution was later added that is similar to momentum, however this mode automatically activates abilities, allowing the player to play somewhat like they did prior to Evolution of Combat.

The latest update to bring back players from pre-Evolution of Combat is Legacy Mode, but Legacy does more than simply automate a player’s combat. Legacy Mode was voted in with an 81% (200 thousand votes) majority. The mode reintroduces the old user interface and completely removes the abilities for people who choose it (unlike Revolution/Momentum which automates or ignores abilities). For all players, the maximum combat level has been reconfigured to its old cap of 138 (as opposed to 200), and weapon-specific special attacks are being reintroduced. Damage output and experience rates are supposed to be lower on Legacy Mode, but “near optimum” in comparison according to Jagex.

A few people have emailed me asking if I think that Jagex will remove Evolution of Combat altogether, and my prediction is to wait and see on legacy mode. 81% of the community wanted legacy mode introduced, and that doesn’t count those who quit due to Evolution of Combat and didn’t vote. I think what Jagex will do is iterate on legacy mode to become just as viable as using abilities and, should  the time ever come where not enough people are using Evolution of Combat to justify the resources spent on updating both systems, it might be removed entirely.

For right now, however, Jagex wants to appeal to both crowds.