Narmoth

One of the biggest holdouts for many to get into the original combat styles are the costs of codex drops from bosses. Is there any talk of swapping the codex'es out with alchables (so bosses retain GP value) and have all those abilities unlocked via regular gameplay or from completing existing quests?

I think it'd be a mistake to replace them with alchables as it means i just go to the boss with the biggest one / there's a lack of progression there.
My preferred is reducing the discrepancy between standard/greater abilities so the upgrades feel like upgrades but less life or death mandatory items (e.g. Base ricochet having some of greater ricochets single target power, and they greater codex upping the stats of it)

Legal_Evil

Will Jagex move more of Necromancy's features over to the other combat styles, like the auto-attack ability?

What does Jagex thinks about the current state of switchscape of the other combat styles. Is it too much? Too little? Just right?

May Jagex make more bosses where only one combat style is viable to make lesser used styles more used, like in OSRS bosses?

May Jagex make more bosses with forced mechanics at certain HP thresholds that cannot be skipped with dps?

Will Jagex move more of Necromancy's features over to the other combat styles, like the auto-attack ability?

We hope to yeah, but there's quirks to the existing system that some of the high level audience enjoy to min max that we'd hope to cement in proper gameplay before stripping out the current attacks

What does Jagex thinks about the current state of switchscape of the other combat styles. Is it too much? Too little? Just right?

Ultimately I don't mind as long as the general consensus amongst players is that it is fun - we've stripped out some of the more annoying ones like PF/Vigor as the consensus was they're not fun.
I think ultimately i'd word it as it's something we're actively aware of and try to not add switches that are too powerful/mandatory feeling because that leads to unfun gameplay for some players

May Jagex make more bosses where only one combat style is viable to make lesser used styles more used, like in OSRS bosses?

I wouldn't write it off

May Jagex ...

TheSmallIceburg

Is there any chance of the Gemstone Armor being made augmentable? It is an awesome hybrid set that sits there as a worthless drop because it can't be augmented even though it is a rare t80 drop.

Uhh maybe; i'm, not sure there'd be much value to it even then.

Realistically i'd like us to rework hybrid armor to be good for hybridding

Shadiochao

People have been asking for old bosses to get tweaks or QOL changes for years. With the combat achievements coming out, and being designed for how bosses are now, it makes me worry that these changes will be even less likely to happen because it'll involve redesigning a whole set of achievements people have been earning ingame.

Is there any chance existing bosses could get some attention before combat achievements come out?

Given the current schedule/team working on CA's right now it's not likely bosses would get changed prior to release.

However internally we don't see adding CA's as a blocker to changing/updating bosses, as we can 'just' change the cheevo/treat it like we would a new boss.

boredguy12

Will slayer ever be a 150 skill?

maybe in like 2040

RunicLordofMelons

Obviously there’s a mile long list of combat fixes and improvements you and the community want. What would you consider as your priority list of combat fixes/improvements?

Is there any potential avenue on having the community vote on what issue they want worked on/fixed next for combat?

(there's often combat team discussion where we move things around/voice opinions, priorities etc )

BUT my personal top list:

T95/Vanilla gear effects (tect/ezk etc)
DoT rework
Magic/Ranged/Melee core rework (abilties/giving them proper style identities, modernise anims etc)
Core combat balancing (realistically this breaks down into sub issues like, XP / Mob stats / simplifying some combat calculations & stats / tutorialisation etc)

Is there any potential avenue on having the community vote on what issue they want worked on/fixed next for combat?

u/jagexyuey ?

Proper_Shiny

1. Can we please see how much dev time it would take to reorganise abilities? Or have a reason as to why they aren't organised from basic to ultimate? It'll look cleaner in terms of interface, and much easier to find abilities when they aren't on a bar.

2. Could we also look at adding an ability to the bar without juggling everything? Similar to how the bank works where I can move an item and it shifts everything to the right.

Thank you and really enjoying AMA's as of recent.

Can we please see how much dev time it would take to reorganise abilities? Or have a reason as to why they aren't organised from basic to ultimate? It'll look cleaner in terms of interface, and much easier to find abilities when they aren't on a bar.

It's not a big project by any means and something we'd like to do ( especially for organising basic->ultimate) this sort of thing is just often priorities of what has the most impact for time (this example being pretty low impact i think)

Could we also look at adding an ability to the bar without juggling everything? Similar to how the bank works where I can move an item and it shifts everything to the right.

Same thing as above, we'd like to do this as a team, (albeit this one is a longer project) and actionbar improvements in general i think is how we'd word it; but it's a time vs impact scenario (where most players would likely prefer we rework bleeds / other bits higher on their priority list first)

RsBugsAndGlitches

Some more questions that popped into my head.

1. Can Attuned Crystal Chakrams be finally made augmentable? They were planned to be made augmentable 9 years ago. https://x.com/JagexRowley/status/692308651772624896 I always support being patient and trusting the Jmods, but goddamn 9 years is crazy.

2. Attuned crystal bows were suppose to have their attack range be 9 when seren godbow got updated from 7 to 9 attack range, can this finally be implemented?

3. A lot of invention related items were made tradable from invention's batch 2 update. Book switchers were one of the items that was missed. Can these be made tradable as changing the prayer book is a hassle? https://runescape.wiki/w/Book_switcher

4. What do you think about eclipse soul? Currently the healing is so bad that a player can't really sustain solely on it for things like simple slayer at a soul devourer task, while soulsplit alone can make nearly all slayer tasks campable.

Can Attuned Crystal Chakrams be finally made augmentable? They were planned to be made augmentable 9 years ago. https://x.com/JagexRowley/status/692308651772624896 I always support being patient and trusting the Jmods, but goddamn 9 years is crazy.

Attuned crystal bows were suppose to have their attack range be 9 when seren godbow got updated from 7 to 9 attack range, can this finally be implemented?

Answered on stream - there's jobs in, i'm happy to do these as a quick job

RitualKnif3

What are you thoughts on turning switches into abilities to reduce switchscape? Things like Jaws of the Abyss, Masterwork Spear and Gloves of Passage could be turned into abilities like the Demon/Dragon/Undead Slayer abilities, able to activated off GCD.

I'm not SUPER keen on it, i think most of it is just piling on power a little meaninglessly, and i think the abilities we have need improving before adding many more.

piron44

Are there any plans yet on giving relics a permanent unlock version, even if we have to pay an excessive amount of chronotes to unlock them? I and many of my friends hate changing relics, so there are times we just don't play certain content because we want to finish content with other relics before changing back (like shadows grace for gate of elidinis).

edit: I was more so expecting a way to unlock a free way to swap relics, rather than having a passive unlocked version of it.

Whilst I would love it personally there is need for chronotes to drain out of the economy so they don't become worthless; I think there is improvements/work arounds to achieve both (like some relics becoming perm with upgrades - 'Staring at you luck') or skilling slots and pvm slots etc, but there's no strict plans no.

ProBro_1337

One of the things I completely LOVED about the combat beta update was how the Mods updated and modernize abilities to have very very clean numbers.

Example:

Old ability numbers were always these Weird Goofy numbers like 37.6-188% damage on dragon breath. Now it's 110-130%. The latter/2nd number is waaaaaay cleaner and easier to read/understand. A person back then always had to have a calculator at hand on the old values to get the average. Now, players can easily know the average without a calculator at hand and do it in their head quickly. This is very intuitive and helps players who are getting into combat to know which are the strong abilities and which ones are the weak ones easier. It helps them learn and understand combat smoothly.

With that being said, can weapons be modernized as well? Instead of some weird number of 9.6 per tier or 14.4 if 2h/dw, can it be 10 per tier or 15 if 2h/dw? This makes it much cleaner and intuitive just like how abilities were made cleaner and just overall better to read and calculate with your head on the fly.

Eoc was bad for many reasons and the Weird Goofy numbers was one of em. Dragon breath was some weird 37.6-188 damage with a weird 112.8 average -> into 110-130 damage with a clean 120 average. Would be grand if weapons tier damage wasn't some weird 9.6/14.4 and instead was a cleaner 10/15 per weapon tier. u/JagexSponge fixing one of the big flaws of eoc by providing clean and easy to understand ability numbers will always be my #1 favorite thing about the combat beta update, so thank you Sponge and Ryan genuinely. But please get the other half! No more WierdNumberScape and more CleanEasyToUnderstandScape.

Would love to modernise weapons / stat calculations for combat, hopefully we get a combat beta/modernisation 2 project at some point as it'd be a pretty big project that'd need a lot of community consultation.

Hey guys i've scanned through and think i've got most of them; alot of questions are repeats (TECT/EZK/FSOA) which I answered on stream.

If there's any you feel aren't answered between here and stream or you want clarification on; drop a reply to this message and i'll do my best to reply

MaxedPainRS

Are the new Scabarites task-only, or such as other popular releases instanced for the first week? I can imagine the dungeon being swarmed the next couple of days otherwise. What about coil or cannons in the cave?

theyre instanced to 4 people each (with 4-5 spots to kill them in, so shouldn't be too rammed)

Weiguken

Do you need to be on task to get the slayer helm drop? If not, does it affect the drop rate to be on task? Thanks so much!

no task needed to get the item, drop is improved greatly on task though

Laniakea
Sumona
Morvran
Kuradel

They can be killed under the old 'scabarite' slayer task
Drop rate does improve on task

Pork_Sword3

Were Scabarites added to Laniakea’s list? She never originally assigned them as a slayer task previously.

Standard scabs no - new ones yes

Yo!
I put together the list of prem store stuff this year and looks like i missed the swords accidentally (I assumed they were just part of the armor pack) My bad!
I'll see if we can get them added (if the armour was a valid i see no reason the swords won't be)

I'll check in on the steam stuff again as i can't remember why i black listed them for the time being (I believe they might still be available on steam right now? and so would cause issues with players purchasing in game and on steam at the same time)

Keep it positive though guys, this was my mistake and has nothing to do with Hooli - My apologies

Worldmagers3

Maybe its time to cook and bring another combat beta? I would really like to see this again. Maybe making it a yearly thing.

Unfortunately it's not as simple as that; we can pitch another one internally and see if there's time/scope to allow for it between our other projects, or if it can be slotted in. There was a bit of a consensus last time that it dragged on a little long, and some of that time could've been used to deliver more content to players

kinshraa

Mod sponge! Ezk spec buff and passive when?

https://x.com/JagexSponge/status/1849727753211249104

We were looking at these (commonly requested items to buff/rework) on the side of primary projects, however we're seeing if we can get a small project committed to it so it has a solid date, where we can essentially just deliver on all the little bit's we've been trying to find time to do/chipping away at.

(No confirmation / promises at this time though; the combat teams pretty rammed with CMA's currently)

Worldmagers3

I understand. It would be nice though to fix the things that players have wanted for a while/leftovers from last time. Was it dragged out too long? Combat is a core component of this game and I feel it would be worth it.

I 100% agree; i'd spend all day every day just tweaking/reworking/fixing combat / player requested bits if I could

Was it dragged out too long
- I personally think a little yeah; it's of course important, but i think the reduced content of 2-3 devs working on the project for a few months was felt by players