RuneScape launched its new battle pass system, Hero Pass, this week, and the team has a new update responding to player feedback and will remove many features, restore Daily Challenges, and overhaul the whole Hero Pass system before a relaunch.
Even when they launched the Hero Pass season after announcing it, the team said that they knew that there would be work left to be done, especially with their goal to make it an engaging and consistent reward system. Yet, the feedback was immediate that, while some were enjoying the system and had begun to earn some new rewards and engage with the new mechanics, many felt it was too pay to win, missed Daily Challenges, and some aspects were too difficult.
Today, the team announced that they will be reflecting on all the feedback, they’ve begun to patch the game back to remove a number of features that were the main pain points and then redesign and redevelop and eventual do-over of the Hero Pass.
“As such, we will be making the following changes as soon as we can:
Pay-to-win aspects Hero Pass introduced will be removed. Specifically, this includes:
Disabling the purchase of Hero Pass levels or Underworld Emblems. This has been hot-fixed today.
Hero Pass Content Buffs will be removed entirely. This will happen as a cold-fix next week.
Hero Pass XP Buffs will be moved out of the Premier rewards track, to be available to all members and to be earnable only through gameplay. This will happen as a cold-fix next week.
The Premier Pass rewards will therefore only be cosmetics and consumables.”
The Daily Challenge system is going to be reinstated in full, giving players another option once it eventually goes live again. This will be as a standalone system with all the previous rewards that everyone was used to. You will be able to continue the daily challenges without engaging with Hero Pass. Hero Pass rewards are also going to be rebalanced to be easier, with first changes coming next week.
For those who upgraded to Premier Pass, the team is even offering refunds on request.
When asked why they're not just removing the entire pass system and reverting all of the changes, the team has several reasons. “The quickest solution is to patch-out specific problematic mechanics rather than remove a whole interlinked game system,” so speed is a priority. Second, Some people have already been completing missions and earning rewards and even using some of the new cosmetics. so they don't want to delete progress and rewards for those players who have already been playing with the new mechanics. Thirdly, they do believe in their goal of a better, always-on reward system that could make a positive addition after thought and careful redesign.
