Return of Reckoning

Hello,

What's the issue. Players choosing to fight on the defending side of Cities. Not so long ago, the change to Cities came in. In this change, not only was the time of the city predetermined but the attacking/defending side was also. I haven't been super active, but I've had plenty of cities since the change, and I've yet to see a city be undecided or come down to the timer. Did I miss one?

Why is this an issue? Because the defending side carries an inherent advantage in both Stage 1 and 2(ignoring stage 3 bug, since everyone else seems to be). Again, I haven't been super active but on discord and in-game I see a massive preponderance for the Defending side from premades. I don't blame them at all, defending is easier. It used to happen before this change also, players would push city on one side, then Xrealm over to defend. Now, it's just simpler.

How can this be resolved? First, I believe the campaign needs a different carrot. I don't have a great idea for that, but we used to have that possibly useful currency. Let's bring it back on Fort locks for appearance items. At the end of every week the winning realm gets a few bonus tokens. Or something entirely different, I'm not trying to argue the rewards for locking zones/forts, I think we already get far too much as it is, but telling a side they will be on the attacking/defending side of the next city depending on how they push forts seems counter-intuitive. The City will happen regardless, if you have the choice, defend. No?

Secondly, allow city queueing possible from an NPC in each City. Every instance is randomized Alt or IC and always 5*. This NPC could also be used for 24v24 fights(for no, less, some, or all rewards IDGAF) in either randomized City or SC of appropriate choice, we have a fancy place for duels, we have a fancy 6v6 command, why not WBvWB?

I'm not trying to argue whether City fights are fun, need adjustment, change, or similar. Just the part predetermining sides. I believe it would lead to better City content overall, and removing the campaign push from Cities could lead to other opportunities.


Cheers

Edits: Spell/grammar. My auto-correct sucks ass.

Yeah agree - wont stop a lot of people queueing defending side as they have chars both sides but will stop some of the swapping to the winning side so that they can lock forts so they get to defend altdorf behaviour thats going on at the moment.

Maybe I wasn't clear enough, I mean that each instance is randomized, not each occurance. So for example, City is about to happen. Everyone forms their groups, goes to the NPC and Queues from there. Timer ticks down and all the cities Pop. Each one is randomized, so if there was 5 pops you could have 3 IC and 2 Alt at the same time, or 4 Alt and 1 IC.

Alternatively, instead of random the defending side could be determined by overall RR/MMR. The lowest side defends. I'm not a fan of this, since it can still be gamed.

Even better