Bonus rolls for forts

[coldhunter]

I think we really need bonus rolls for forts. Right now a lot of ppl dont even try to defend fort if they dont have any strong wb leads on they side. They prefer to just xrealm and get free bag/crests for some of they toons. But if character will get bonus for next rolls, like in regular zone, it will stimulate ppl to do they best at defence, so they will get invader item sooner.

Btw, joke is that right now, ppl who get invader items from fort bags - dont need them, because they usually bis. And ppl who need invader items - never get them, because they gear is too low to get golden bag...

[Brakh]

With the exception of some players with masochistic tendencies, no one wants to be stomped. Knowing how easy is to xrealm these days, the obvious choice is to join the better organized and winning side and get some hefty reward for the time spent.

[wonshot]

I feel like the statement is too broad, the situation of Fortress defence is different between both the two realms, with Order having a stronger RDPS solo attendance culture and often shows up in numbers without coordinating for fort defs. Where as destro has a more pug YOLO fort attacking culture. Bring your sub 40 open warbands, and 2handed tanks and then grumble in region chat when it didnt work approach.

Also the 4 different timezones are vasty different in performance for fortress fights
Early EU morning super late NA forts are usually very pugish with no discord useage on either side
EU afternoon Asia prime is usually one strong warband on one side and it turning into PvD
EU afternoon stalemate unless one side is overstacked and then the campaign might move
NA prime with sometimes heavy Order AAO unless some of the discord builders are playing

In terms of incentive, there is the fort attacking 6day cd quest for each of the forts. This was probably introduced as a counter to the wincondtion of defending and lower effort it takes to defend. If something is needed to incentivize defending, I would guess is an isolated Destro issue and a culture that has been building for years where suddenly destro stopped showing up to fill their defensive forts 4 years or so back.

With a reservation system like in forts, crossrealming shouldnt really be an option if both sides filled their spots no? Im not sure what solution there is to forts not getting filled up. The set is too expensive, too few builds it and getting a goldbag for ward appropriate gearing very rarely happends or does anything as you might aswel get that 4th run of Bastion in.

[gisborne]

I think far too often people assume players are xrealming when really they just stop playing or go and do something else.

[reyaloran]

Fort unfortunately is just poorly designed from a rewards standpoint while also being a victim of the campaign changes over the years. On a loss you cannot get a gold bag regardless of the number of players in a fort. This means that in a fort where you see that you will face even just 50% aao you know that it is unlikely to be worth your time to go to it vs roaming or SCs. In addition to that currently most forts taken are under pop forts where neither the attackers or the defenders fill their numbers. This results in players that are on the def side who see that the fort is untenable without a full org band to lead it doing the math and saying why bother getting nothing for this fort when I can at least get the quest done and make it worth my time on attacker side and with no attacker cap they have zero friction to stop them from making the aao worse. Previously we would have realm pride 12 mans and WBs open up to the pugs during a fort which would encourage many of those players to stay on their faction and try to defend, however with the decoupling of fort from city those WBs have dried up with the ever downward trend of realm pride. Currently even after the change to make city require 2 forts to open again I doubt we will see defense rates rise any time soon as no one cares to defend their city anymore. If they wanted to help revitalize fort then they need to make the rewards for a desperate defense worth going to.

[Nameless]

Start with adding invader gear on all bags after white, make inv gloves and boots boe. Much more ppl will attend, then more meaningful changes could be made for the gameplay part