[2023] We know more about Jagex's vision now than we have in years

Originally posted by esunei

hates ironmen (xd)

I've talked to over a dozen irons who genuinely think this of mod Jack and I don't blame them. His blasé take of "f**k iron concerns, from wanting to shoot bows all the way to wanting to own a dark onyx core" just comes across as really short sighted and a bit mean-spirited, just like the average /r/runescape take on irons. We're paying customers as well. We're here to have fun playing the video game, just the same as others. Making content that favors rampant alt-scaping/bots and updates that hurt self-sufficiency like Garden of Kharid does not impress irons.

Being the most charitable possible he comes off as indifferent about the mode. And reading between the lines a little, looking at the last two years of updates, maybe tainting that perception with all the upvoted "f**k ironmen" posting from the community and its tribalism, it's easy to make the jump to assuming he's very negative towards the mode.

Originally posted by esunei

Some of your comments in recent videos did come off as having a stance on the mode, with things like "[for Irons] Dinarrows aren't worth making; they're designed that way on purpose". In the same breath you also mention dark onyx cores along with this pvm supply, though core droprate is now buffed. Many would argue pvm supply availability that combat is balanced around shouldn't have the same logic applied as a chase drop with very small, fringe benefits.

There's definitely a way to make this work for everyone, though the balance isn't easy to strike. When things are low output, very afk stuff with huge time costs (golden roses, most consumable arrow steps) this is content designed for afk skillers. It's okay for this to exist, but when entire combat style is balanced around huge time sinks as a recurring cost, it becomes untenable for self-sustaining players and alts/bots fill in for the mainscape economy. Golden Roses are a great example of this where this is doing very little to service actual skillers vs. alts/bots. It sucks that those players get update priority over irons.

Meanwhile if it's a high output (relative to self-use cost), high intensity activity like runecrafting, it feels so much better for self-sufficient players. Do one hour of runecrafting, be able to shoot FSoA for ~8 hours or so. The activity is actually more profitable for mains than afk dinarrows, only in the ballpark of the least afk step (Eggsperimentation), even in spite of the bots, probably because it's near impossible to runecraft on multiple accounts at once.

A lot of the more recent supply-based updates have been anti-iron, even if it's unconciously. Garden of Kharid adds a lot of time to extract your herbs from bosses, and I like farm runs more than most. And you get less herbs doing it in many cases. Nerfing supplies from croesus hurts irons more than anything, and I had over 1k KC at the boss at the time of the nerf so I'm hardly the most affected by it. Bloodwood runs being about 2/3 as lucrative as before, same deal, mains are largely using arrows.