Contribution Reset on Keep Defense

[MasterYoda]

Hi everyone,

as people may or may not know does the contribution you build up in a zone reset once you successfully defend a keep and get your bagroll.

Currently there is a flaw in that system in my opinion in that unlike for zone lock you do not directly receive war crests for a successful keep defense, yet your contribution is reset. If you make good fights in a zone and contribute a lot of kills/protection/heals you can make a good amount of directly deposited war crests (~20-60) additionally to the bag roll when a zone locks. Those ~20-60 war crests are missing when the keep is defended and you only get a bag roll.

This effectively leads to a situation in which it is most profitable to contribute a lot of kills/protection/heals in a zone when the keep is attacked, but ultimately let the opposing realm take the keep in order to get both a bag roll and directly deposited zone lock war crests (~20-60 wc) - as opposed to only getting a bag roll for the keep defence. It effectively incentivizes losing in order to get the most war crests for your time by a considerable margin - e.g. exemplified by the infamous 3rd floor defense which can oftentimes be more profitable than actually defending the keep.

This considerable incentive for losing in RvR would be removed elatively simply, though I know that each change in the codebase is a lot of moving parts.

Option 1 would be to also reward directly deposited zone lock crests additionally to the bag roll when defending a keep and the contribution resets. This would be the neutral option effectively removing the incentive to lose in RvR but also not reward keep defense.

Option 2 would be to keep the current reward system for defending a keep but remove the contribution reset on a keep defense. This would incentivize keep defense since people are guaranteed at least 2 bag rolls - one for defending the keep and one for all the kills/protection/heals they did in a zone when it locks, while also keeping directly deposited war crests in the consideration. This option would on the one hand incentivize against PvD since defense is more profitable now, but on the other hand may incentivize 'turtling' in your own keep, which however might be considered more loreful/realm-prideful since people now really want to hold their keeps.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Either way, I think it is a topic that is worth being brought to the devs attention.
And while I have your ear and while we are talking about touching the contribution codebase anyway, might I suggest implementing zone contribution based on the character id and not on the account id. It is always very annoying when I run with a wb for 2 hours, make great kills/protection/heals but then have to relog to a tank/dd/heal since the wb is lacking that at the moment and in doing so am nullifying all the contribution I build up the 2h prior just because I want to help the warband leader create a balanced warband.


Cheers

[BluIzLucky]

Yup, mentioned this in my Suggestions
post as well, totally agree.
Depending on your luck and how you play, the majority of crests does not come from bags, but the zone reward which makes Keep defense ticks a net negative.

It's a legacy from pre-currency unification where only bags mattered.

And while we are at it, just treat a keep siege resolution as a zone lock for both sides, winner still get more rewards, but now at least you can siege without having people complain about giving "free bags" out, which should help break a few more 0-20% AAO stalemates.

[Fenris78]

And while we are at it, just treat a keep siege resolution as a zone lock for both sides, winner still get more rewards, but now at least you can siege without having people complain about giving "free bags" out, which should help break a few more 0-20% AAO stalemates.

This.
Sometimes you want crests more than renown, so giving crests after keep defense, but a bit less renown could make more people happy.

Getting huge renown and half the time no bags, but zero crests at the end is frustrating for people wanting to gear up.