RuneScape: Why Soul Wars Needs Improvement

Soul Wars is a minigame available only to RuneScape Members. Since its February 10th, 2009 release, Soul Wars has remained a popular game for RuneScape players. But Soul Wars has faded from its initial enjoyment, due to high-level RuneScape clans and freeloaders exploiting the minigame's flaws. Before I get into the problems concerning Soul wars, let's take a quick look at the game itself.

What is Soul Wars?

Soul Wars is a player versus player RuneScape minigame that pits two teams of ten or more RuneScape players against each other. Like Castle Wars, Soul Wars games last a full 20 minutes and consist primarily of combat between either other RuneScape players or non-player characters. Although Soul Wars can be played on any Member's RuneScape world, most RuneScape players go to either an official Soul Wars world or RuneScape worlds 2, 6, or 9. Some RuneScape players will go to a specific world to play a "tie game." That is when there is an agreement between the two teams that nobody will kill the avatars.

The object of Soul Wars is to slay the opponent's avatar more times then the opponent slays your avatar. To slay the avatar the team needs to gather soul fragments by slaying the pyrefiends and jellies, control the soul obelisk, and weaken the avatar by using the soul fragments with the soul obelisk. After the avatar dies, another avatar respawns with a slayer level of 100. All slayer boosts are prohibited in the Soul Wars game.

Although Soul Wars is technically west of Isafdar, the only way to get there is via portal south of the Edgeville bank. Therefore, any method of travel or teleportation to Edgeville will be your best means of getting to Soul Wars. There is a bank in the soul wars "lobby," so there is no need to bring anything to Edgeville.

There are no quest or experience requirements to get into soul wars. High slayer levels are needed to kill the pyrefiends, (level 30 slayer) Jellies, (Level 52 slayer) and Avatars (Level 0-100.) RuneScape players will need high combat levels to attack the NPC's and opposing RuneScape players. High defense is needed against high level foes and high prayer allows use of protection and retribution prayers. Bring a good weapon and armor. Potions can be used but barbarian mixes are not allowed. Potion bonuses are erased on death; players who are lower leveled may not want to use potions.

RuneScape players are rewarded with one to three zeal per game depending on whether their team lost, tied, or won. Zeal can be traded with Nomad for a combat experience reward based on the player's level in that skill. Players can also trade for summoning charms and other rewards.

The problems that are destroying Soul Wars:

Freeloaders: A recent RuneScape update has made it more difficult for freeloaders to play Soul Wars. Freeloaders join a team and do basically nothing, often killing time by erecting barricades and then fighting the barricades. This not only wastes the team's ten barricades allowed, but also gets in the way of players actually playing the game. After the update, freeloaders have to "heal" each other with bandages or run out into the battle to get killed every five minutes to stay "active." It remains to be seen whether these changes are enough.

Clan stacking: Jagex does not have a good method of picking the teams. As long as there are an equal number of RuneScape players on each team, they can play. Theoretically, a team of level 138 players can take on a team of level 3's. Should there be more players in one waiting room, the extra players have to wait. High-level RuneScape clans will all go into one room, making it hard for average players to be on the winning team.

Waiting Room Crowding: The high level RuneScape clans have become so large they now flood the selected waiting room to the point that players entering are faced with the choice of not getting in until the next game, basically playing every other game; or going on the losing team. Clans will stand in one spot to make it appear there are less people than there really are. Because of waiting room crowding, RuneScape players are left with a choice to either play every other game or play on the losing team. Sometimes the clan switches waiting rooms between games, resulting in a giant mismatch between the high level clan and everybody else; again, a guaranteed loss.

No official Tie Game worlds: A tie game is when the Soul Wars teams agree to not kill the avatars. These games consist mostly of PvP combat and training on the slayer creatures/doing slayer assignments. Because a tie is only a mutual agreement between the RuneScape players, high-level RuneScape clans will break the promise and sabotage the game in the final minutes. Jagex should add a few tie game worlds, having the slayer creatures and slain players drop lamps granting 1-99 experience in a selected or random skill in place of soul fragments or bones. Or allow the avatars to be slain but instead of counting the kills, each player in the game gets a slayer or other experience bonus that is measured based both on the RuneScape player's skill level and how active he was in the game.

Jagex needs to rework the entire team selection process. They need to establish "clan worlds" where players can pick their portal, while in all other worlds assign the player to either side based on his combat level. That way, RuneScape players can get in the game with a fair chance of winning. Crowding into one waiting room will also be solved; there will be less waiting and more playing. Selection needs to be based upon level, not just on team numbers or players will exit and re-enter hoping to make the other team, like they do in Castle Wars.

There also needs to be a more accurate way of measuring a player's potential impact during team pairing so pures or regular players don't get an unfair advantage or disadvantage. Potential damage balanced against weakness would be a lot more fair than a general combat level that is inflated by noob experience in skills such as summoning or inflated by a mid level stat such as a ranger with a moderate mage level, etc.

Soul wars used to be a fun minigame. Like anything, RuneScape players found the flaws in the system and turned them to their selfish advantage. Jagex needs to completely overhaul the team selection process in order to make Soul Wars a fun game for RuneScape players of all levels.