As of right now there is more benefit (most of the time) to throwing forts and zones in order to get a higher city. This goes against the core gameplay of defending your territory/city. It also creates a huge divide between the player base: Realm prides vs. throwers. I 100% see each side's point of view. On the one hand the game should be played the way it was intended and to an extent it makes it more fun. Players SHOULD want to defend their territory/city. On the other hand, there IS more reward to throwing to get a city. This can be because you only have an hour to play and if this fort goes down you have time for a city...you don’t have time in four hours (time zones/work/life). OR this could be because you enjoy progression and as of right now there is no way to progress past a certain level of gear without cities (royals in gold/purple bags are nice but unrealistic to get gear).
There HAS to be a reason to defend zones and this should be one of the developers top priorities to bring the community together instead of having arguments in T4 chat on whether to throw or not. Below I have two ideas my buddies and I talked about.
CITY IDEA 1
Right now it benefits both sides to get a 5 star city even if it is your own (hence the throws). Why not make it to where you get the rewards based off your cities level when attacking the opposite factions city. For example:
- Order are attacking IC
- Aldorf is a 4 star; IC is a 2 star
- Oder will get rewards from attacking IC with 4 star rewards (even though IC is 2 star) and destro will get rewards for 2 star.
- If oder win, IC drops to 1 star again
CITY IDEA 2
Give a reward for actually taking the other side's city which will benefit your realm and MAYBE give a slight disadvantage to the opposing side. Some ideas for this are (would love to hear more than my own):
- Winning side gets 10% more renown for 8 hours; losing side gets -10% renown for 8 hours (numbers can be adjusted)
- Winning side gets x2 currency from bags for 8 hours; losing sides gets -10% renown for 8 hours
- Winning side gets royals/invaders to drop from oRVR or considerably more from gold/purple bags for 8 hours; losers get -10% renown for 8 hours (MY FAVORITE and i’ll explain why below)
Many people miss cities due to timezone, life, or work. This would give them the opportunity to get Royals even if not able to participate in the city (the 1 per gold/purple bag just isn’t enough). Many people only play the game because the ONLY thing they need are Royals. These “city loggers” as people call them don’t feel (from what I have read on forums and in-game chat) there is anything to gain from flipping zones. I 100% understand this, even if I don’t 100% agree with it. I only need Royals on my shaman and I still roam with my friend; however, it does feel pointless sometimes when you know you are not getting anything to progress your character. Giving a decent amount of Royals from zone flips might encourage a large amount of the player base who only play during the city to participate in the campaign.
With both of these ideas I see one fundamental problem and that is xrealming. Players will be drawn to the side with the most rewards (invader for last zone before fort a few patches ago as an example). As it stands, both of these ideas would only hurt the game as I think it would cause massive population imbalance if the current timer on switching sides goes unchanged. I think it would have to be raised to at least 24 hours OR you choose your realm on weekly reset (unless anyone has a better idea).
There are obviously flaws I did not see in either of these two ideas and would love some feedback. However, as it stands, I think these ideas would greatly increase the health of this game.