Yoko Kurama

I agree that the divide between resources is not as clear as gear in all instances, but it is still sort of there. However, I disagree with your other problem. Training skills is easier than it has ever been, with mounds of bonus experience at every corner, and various D&D's that give generous experience, and serve as alternatives to training skills that used to be exclusively buyable and things like that. I don't think it would be much of a problem. Not in 2014, anyways. Also, a lot of the higher tiers of skilling have been filled now a days, that high level players are less likely to train the same way that lower level players do; they have separate markets now. I will consider your particular example (though I acknowledge that your general point is not contingent upon just one example) of Dragon Bones. If there was massive inflation, then the people who accumulated money would much likely use their wealth for bones such as Airut, Daggonath, or Frost, rather than Dragon Bones. There is just a lot of high level stuff that is separate from lower level stuff, inflation is much likely to his us hard while not touching lower-medium levels much if at all.

I can't say I feel too sympathetic to either article. Both of them seem overly melodramatic, and seem to place little consideration into how older players (the sort that did not like EoC) feel, or their interests. They are no less of the playerbase than EoC players, and surely their interests deserve some representation. Both articles were very flippant with this. A lot of the arguments weren't very convincing either. Yes, games need change, but it needs to a well-thought out change, not simply change for the sake of change. EoC was a change, but fell dramatically short of its expectations, its core aims (balancing various aspects of combat, which to this day remain unbalanced), it was massively unpopular with large segments of the community, and it failed to generate new interest into the game or revitalize the dwindling player base -- these are all facts; in my view, it isn't unreasonable that after realizing that their project failed on quite a few levels and alienated a lot of passionate and dedicated players/customers, that Jagex is making an effort to reincorporate them into the game. No, it probably won't work, but it has brought positive things such as polls on the combat formula and other things which were long overdue and which Jagex was intransigent on. It's far too early and they do seem to be more responsive than before -- there's plenty of time to work out the details. I am firmly an EoC player who always supported it, and who was initially against Legacy and likely will never toggle it (aside from the experience), and even I feel this way towards the articles, so take that for what it's worth.

Wouldn't that cause virtus wand to drop out of the list of acceptable weps for bossing? Then you would need to have seismics to be accepted if you wanted to mage.Well covering my bases I meant dw mage in general taking a hit from concentrated blasts nerf. With that said no I don't expect that virtus wand would drop out from acceptable bossing weapons. People will still need their mage tanks in vorago and such. Virtus Wand might be excluded if Conc Blast is nerfed. It's one of the few things Mage has going for it, now with the Range Buff. Currently Range has a super great bleed attack (while the one for Mage sucks, Frag Shot vs. Combut), and Range actually has 3 super useful threshold abilities (Rapid Fire, Bombardment, Snapshot), while Mage has 2 (Wild Magik, Asphyxiate). In fact, at places like KK, Range might already be better (and it's also better, probably, at say, Arma, though that's not really a high level thing anymore). If Conc blast is nerfed, teams might simply demand that Ascensions/Seismics or no entry.

Direct gold drops from monsters also leads to higher inflation with gold being worth less because of so much of it being in game which leads to higher prices for everything because people with access to this gold monster have all the money they need to buy things they want except they don't because supply can't keep up with demand so you have to pay more to get what you want. The point is, there is far too much gp already in the game; intertrading between players (using the GE middleman as you put it) will, overall, keep the price of everything down, meaning the average player can afford more. I knew someone was going to bring up the inflation argument as soon as I made my last post. :D I don't think that it would be a problem though for a few reasons. There are a lot of deflating mechanisms in the game already, such as the entirety of high level gear being degrading and having hefty recharge prices, the decreasing popularity of alching as a training method, the removal of coinshare and so on. Yes there is inflation in the game, but it's rather concentrated away from lower level or medium level players. For instance consider medium level armour and weapons, such as God Wars Armour or weaponry, or Corp Shields. There are enough of them in the game, and high level players have better alternatives (for the most part, aside from Corp shields) that they probably won't ever skyrocket. I mean there's plenty of money in the game at the moment but Bandos is still pretty cheap and affordable for the moment. Unless of course there is *hyperinflation* (Wiemar Republic type scenario where currency is so useless that bronze armour is like a million GP or whatever), where Jagex literally gives everyone billions of GP each, then you have a situation where everyone can buy anything for a lot more. But I don't think we are anywhere near that, and a Gold Dragon won't change that. It will give solo players something to do, which a lot of people have been asking for, since a lot of PVM is about teams. Even if generates a lot of money, we still wouldn't have hyperinflation, but we would have inflation that would be targeted towards high level stuff. Even if it turns out to be a fantastic money maker, the GP generated will mostly be in high level hands (because it has pretty decent requirements, like a GM quest to access the dragon), and that probably means stuff like Seismics or Party Hats *might* rise. It won't make things like Bandos rise because all the people who have a lot of money have no interest or use for medium level armour like that. I suppose you might respond, well, Seismics rising is bad, but that's a separate situation, they are already ridiculously expensive independent of any future or current inflation and need a separate solution. I don't think this would adversely affect the average player. I can see why you might be concerned with inflation, it's a reasonable concern, but I don't think we have much to worry about. Every economy has inflation and depending on the circumstances it may be a good or bad thing, it is not inherently a problem.

I don't have much to say, but I would like to say thanks to 'xpx' in particular for the information provided here relating to Ports which has been invaluable, and without which this probably would have been a confusing region. Thanks, and keep up the good work, xpx.

Can't really blame people for going for the DPS abilities when we are obviously in DPS-scape. In 9.9/10 situations involving combat, that's usually the most relevant factor, so why wouldn't people go for that? The game is horribly one-dimensional for PVM. Yeah, there's some tank roles, but they are very few and the choice that Jagex likes to present where "players can feel free to choose between tank gear and power armour gear based on their preferences" is an illusion and doesn't exist. It's the same reason why most people don't really use Shields as often as off-hands and why they are so cheap.

I am excited for the Quest. Hopefully this one will be a *real* GM quest (unlike certain other ones), but probably not. I am terribly disappointed that the Gold Dragon lost -- what a tremendous mistake. It had the potential to be a new QBD, a solo high-level moneymaker. Instead everyone went for the Summoning supplies Dragon. The problem with that is the same that is there with every such dragon (including QBD). The reason people do them is for money, so if you have them drop noted resources, people just dump them for quick GPies, and that just crashes the market, and over time GP/hour decreases sharply. That's why gold caches are better, it removes the middleman, and you just get the GP up straight, and you can do whatever you want with it. With this dragon though, all it will do is crash summoning supplies, and that will be that, and once that happens, it won't be of much use, as a moneymaker, to people not looking for summoning supplies. At least a Gold Dragon would have been useful to a variety of players. God, people are shortsighted sometimes.

Not really. Voking is the least of worries as far as fitting Vorago into Legacy is concerned. If it was just voking, that's easy and there's a bazillion different solutions (that's why I think KK can be fit into Legacy, though Vorago can't). The reason Vorago can't be fit into the old system is because he is specifically designed so everyone from the base, to the DPS, to the bomb, have to use specific abilities to deal damage in a certain way, or to heal themselves or to heal others. You could probably get the DPS aspect right into the old system, but what about bomb tank? How is he/she supposed to function without resonance, devotion, reflect, barricade, immortality, rejuvenate, etc etc? I suppose he could just use a TON of food, but you'd be lucky to get one kill per trip and everyone would probably constantly be dropping food for him. The alternative is to nerf Vorago hard to make him easy enough for Legacy, and obviously they shouldn't do that.

That's not the real issue, whether or not if people can change frequently. The real issue is how do you accommodate really complex bosses like KK or Vorago into the old system? What happens to voking, for instance? The answer is it's going to be an exceptionally hard thing to do even with a great balancing/developing team. Eventually they aren't going to be able to keep squaring bosses like that into the old system or they'll have to dumb the bosses down so they are simple enough so they can be shoehorned in. It's a tough spot. I undersand they are trying to get back some of the older players (I can appreciate their effort), but this is way too complicated and I can't see much good coming out of this. If you recall, Nex was out before EOC and it worked just fine. If they bring back the mechanic of Nex tanking on the player with the lowest defense, that might pose a slight problem, but everything else is manageable. Get pulled on smoke? Oh well. Get prisoned on ice, wow, you need to depend on your friends to get you out again! I know, I used to Nex in 2011. Which is why I didn't mention Nex. She could easily be incorporated into Legacy, but a boss like Vorago most assuredly can't be. KK -- possibly, maybe, but Vorago? No way at all.

That's not the real issue, whether or not if people can change frequently. The real issue is how do you accommodate really complex bosses like KK or Vorago into the old system? What happens to voking, for instance? The answer is it's going to be an exceptionally hard thing to do even with a great balancing/developing team. Eventually they aren't going to be able to keep squaring bosses like that into the old system or they'll have to dumb the bosses down so they are simple enough so they can be shoehorned in. It's a tough spot. I undersand they are trying to get back some of the older players (I can appreciate their effort), but this is way too complicated and I can't see much good coming out of this.

Quorra just beat me to posting that screen shot of Legacy Mode. All I can say is a BIG 'lol'. So much for not voting on EoC, they really are rolling it back one poll at a time. Hilarious, I voted no though. I am glad that Inventor didn't win also. :D

Allegedly the first ring sold for 20M or something. Given that, unlike our earlier suspicions of the ring being useless, the ring is actually useful for tank roles, I would much rather make the Superior version first. 20M isn't a lot in 2k14; if it's selling for 4-5M as some people in this thread seem to be saying, then it's even worse, it's barely chump change. It's not like PoP batch 1 where some of first people to get tradeable armours were selling them for a couple hundred mil.

God I hope double XP wins, I can't be forced into no-lifing Rago for a weekend, done enough of that.

I will of course take advantage of the Double Drops, though I don't think this is a good idea. More market instability...

Mod Timbo actually balancing something right? I must be dreaming. :D

138 at least takes into account (though in a flawed manner) all real skills that actually impact combat. The new formula has the gall to pretend that prayer and summoning aren't combat skills, which is a ludcrious suggestion. In a fight between someone with with 99 attack/strength/defense, prayer and summoning, and someone with only 99 attack/strength/defense and 1 summoning and 1 prayer; you tell me, who is more likely to win? You tell me. Hint: it's not the person without turmoil. Second, and most importantly, the 138 combat actually means that the person who has 138 is maxed (or nearly maxed in all combat skills). The current combat formula for 200 suggests that someone with 2 level 99s (1 'combat skill' + defense + 2) is level 200 and as equally as maxed as someone who has all combat stats at 99. It's ridiculous. Maxed combat should actually mean maxed combat, not 2 out of 8 skills at 99. It's the equivalent of Jagex decided that anyone with 1 out 8 skills at 99 is worthy of a Maxed cape, it's silly. The 200 combat formula is also so easy to obtain (only 2 out of 8 skills at 99), that just about everyone (purposeful exaggeration) is at 200. I have no meaningful way to tell in places like Dungeoneering or whatever whether my teammates are actually maxed combat or noobs with 2 99s. The only way I have to distinguish people is through the highscores, which is lame. 138, as flawed as it was, at least told me that the person was reasonably competent in combat. The new formula does no such thing.

The old combat wasn't perfect but it's far better than the current farce which does not even deserved to be labeled a formula of any sort. 138, and modify it if you need, but 138 easily.

If this goes live, does that mean inventory quick slots are gone? In the beta the colored blue and green boxes are still there in the inventory but not on the bar. Incidentally, someone asked me to give them my seismics on the beta today, and only after it happened did I realize what a blunder that was. Knowing Jagex, I could have easily lost it on the main game or something.

As it currently stands, all the old specials suck for PVM (for the most part). Why is that? Because the weapons they are linked to have accuracy that is inferior to T90 weaponry, and because the old specials use adrenaline that is equivalent to the old combat system - which is a big no-no. So for instance, the Armadyl Godsword's special attack requires you to have 50% threshold to activate it, but after that, it drains it from 50% to 0%. It's far better to use normal thresholds which require 50% adrenaline to activate but only eat up 15% adrenaline. Unless they address at least this problem, and possibly give some of the specials a boost, they won't make a dent in EoC at all.

I agree that these aren't terribly great solutions. Nothing substantial in fact. I am only slightly optimistic because at least they are finally openly admitting that EoC needs more work (something which they completely ignored for a large portion of last year). Also, the special attacks for weapons are rather useless, but they are a decent compromise. Before EoC, a lot of weapons that were significant lore-wise, historically, from an in-game perspective, had special abilities and EoC made them useless overnight by stripping them of their special abilities, crashing their markets and their sources (like God Wars). This will restore some of those items. There isn't anything useful for higher-levels (as Drygore + Assault will probably easily beat something like AGS switch/special). Ideally, if Adrenaline was the best they could have come up with (ability spamming), then special attacks should have never been removed, but whatever. So there isn't really anything there, but at least it's a small little thing for a few of the old-school pre-EoC people. So yeah, nothing substantial or interesting here, just a very late concession. I am excited for inventory/equipment pre-slots, but that's about it.

All I can say is finally. I have been screaming about this for a year. It should have been here from the start, since everyone could see there were quite a few things that needed ironing out in EoC which Jagex just ignored and pretended as if everything was fine. A lot of people might not have left if they had pursued this from the start.

My understanding was that it would be a high-level hub. With skills being so easy and fast to train, it seems silly for them to stick to their traditional definition of high-level (70+). If this is going to be a real high-level hub, HLF isn't exactly a bad place to start.

They are definitely in the very early stages of development, to anyone who might have thought otherwise.

I don't think he specifically wants a world without war. You can tell because he just participated in a war in order to kill a weaker god. Actually not really. Sometimes you accept as a temporary or transitional tactic something which you intend to eliminate in the long-run, nothing contradictory in that.

The prestige system got shot down, sorry. I wish they did some reset system. old runescape: set goal lvl 50 you get lvl 50 more ppl get lvl 50 lvl 50 isn't now high lvl set new goal: lvl 75 ... now: set goal: lvl 99 you get lvl 99 more ppl get lvl 99 lvl 99 isn't now high lvl set new goal: 30m xp ... Now is the same as before just numbers are bigger. If you want to be on top you have to improve your skills continuously. It was like this from beggining of runescape and it have nothing to do with prestige system. Quantity matters, the fact that the numbers are bigger matter. Also, this isn't a matter of people really improving their skills. It's a matter of most them being very easy and fast to train, and then Jagex dumping loads of free experience at every step on top of that -- that's what has led to this 'devaluation', it was not a natural or healthy progression.