There are bullies, unfortunately. They also like to raid often. Doing it just for pvp just seems so different without the bullies.
What sort of defensive tools did you have in mind?
The Bat and the Bridge are definitely offense tools.
Darkness and Invisibility are somewhat offensive tools but can be used for active defense.
The God Bubble has sorta become the all in one defensive tool, especially with the Drawbridge hp reduction.
well, there are options, the best i could have in mind is traps and that they are not as expensive as the land mines.
i remember when i started playing, i created a fake t1 floor and when you destroyed the T1, you would fall into spikes!
Problem was, that those spykes weren’t as good as i thought it would have been, endep up like a clown 
but hey, the idea was there!
but why not add something like that? have you ever seen indiana jones or the mommy? things like that.
maybe add the spikes you see on some dungeons like in warmaker.
What about the burning oil pot that we have in the trebuchet knowledge?
Now with sorcery maybe add fire traps, ice traps, petrified traps,ect and add forms to counter them maybe with sorcery itself, like you see a firetrap, cast ice to counter. i think this will also make spells more interesting.
and maybe add a system to have this trap use some sort of fuel so is not unlimited.
Or what about casting an earth wall that tanks proyectiles like arrows or even trebuchets for a few seconds.
hell there are plenty of ideas that comes to mind.
there are ways to make defense stronger without creating another drawbridge meta. i am SO glad that is over.
but if we want a pvp raid that is more like figthing a medieval war and not hiding behind 200 thousands fence foundations or 5 drawbridges you need to give the defender some love as well.
What I’m hoping is that all of this - the new ToS, the enforcement, the changing of the building system, is happening in preparation for offline raid protection on official servers. If… IF… they can get it up and running with few issues, it’ll fix a lot of problems with raid PvP. Even the op’s problems make more sense if you imagine the spells in the context of online raids only. The spells wouldn’t be anywhere near as bad if you’re there in your base with your mates and the poxy wizard is standing around outside.
And before anyone says offline raid protection would just end up with people using alts and being unraidable… that happens already. The official I’m mainly on right now has a bunch of two and three person clans with visible bases, and, mysteriously, a bunch of two and three person clans with no apparent buildings who pop up every now and then and raid. And wouldn’t you know it, no-one knows who or where they are!
No offline would suck for @Ethel though. Or anyone else goal oriented who is motivated by the objective and the reward, not the actual fight.
yes. because to me this is not much a pvp game but more a war game.
But i don’t mind if they maybe split officials with half having DbD and the other half has it turned off or only a few of them that says “officials with DbD damage”
but that is the easy solution.will it work? maybe we can try.
could be used as a experiment. (i think that playing with that its pure meme but whatever.)
but i have to agree that many of these “problems” are associated with offline raiding.
because this new mechanics does have counters.
Why don’t you push towards something like historical accuracy in terms of siege?
Historically, you could have a crew of a few hundred defend a castle/fortress against a couple of thousands, if the site & construction was done properly. You would need climbing ladders (i.e. - make the climbing of player structures on PvP servers off, maybe?), siege towers, rams, catapults/trebuchets, and the like.
Maybe make it so that if you place the thralls on some walls, they get some heavy boost (10k hp, 3.0-4.0 melee/ranged dmg multiplicator, etc) - so that as a sieging force, you actually need to work hard on crumbling the walls, and make it a multi-day operation?
For comparison, while having the building pieces on PvP servers have more hitpoints (or explosives/siege weapons do a limited amount of damage) - this would be offset by disabling the ability to repair the structures by the defenders - only allowing some wooden “makeshift” repairs with limited durability, etc.
That way, you could make those epic siege battles you dream of, without worrying for loosing your base in a few minutes…?
I don’t do PvP, though I could try to give some real world historic insight, if you wish. 
Those are some good ideas I have never seen anyone suggest before. I particularly like the defending thrall boost. Not so keen on the no-climbing thing, it’s one of the major mechanics of the game and part of the setting that barbarians can climb and scale almost anything with their grit and fingernails.
Historical fortification construction involves digging. Digging to set the foundation low. Digging a moat or trenches. Digging to undermine fortifications.
Historical siege warfare was much more often about resource management and denial than direct destruction of the fortification (which was as often as not, the actual prize). Troops eat, both the besieged and the besiegers. Weather and disease played a massive roll.
Attrition simply isn’t possible when one has a spawn point in the fortification.
We don’t want this game to go historical because we don’t want raids to be week long affairs settle as often by ransom and treachery as force of arms. Also, given how gunpowde- er, demonfire powder centric the game’s warfare is, it might as well be in the age of canons.
That said, none of your points made earlier are wrong. The form of warfare does have plenty of room for improvement.
Since the game is already in for a penny on siege engines, going in for a pound would be appropriate.
Siege Towers, Rams, mobile Ladders and Ballistae are options that should be added. Having a fortifications rating that improves thralls within the fortress is a good idea. At this interval, anything that breaks up the explosives and altars nature of PvP
If we are extremely lucky, the Age after the Age of Sorcery will be the Age of War and we can get some big overhauls and new toys.
In my experience, this is how many of my raids were settled, after hours of raiding instead of weeks though. The largest raid I’ve ever been in involved 20+ players on both sides. That went on for about 6 hours. The defenders eventually came to terms because they were getting fatigued (IRL) and didn’t wish to see their base take anymore damage than it already had.
They ended up paying restitution, and had to return the items stolen that instigated the raid. After that there wasn’t any hard feelings and we all got screenshots together. Pretty epic event and some of the most fun I’ve had in Conan.
I feel like 24/7 raid schedule and DBD turned on would be all that’s needed to see this sort of play in Officials. You official players really need to push for that rather than claiming x or y is going to be OP when its all untested on such a mass scale.
That sounds fun. The kind of thing civilized people might do.
Such negotiating assumes a common language (other than violence) and likewise assumes one isn’t dealing with reavers. Those whose goal is either total destruction of all foes, or who are looking to make an example.
That’s another marked departure from realism in this game. In history, it would have been very difficult for some of the cackle fiends who play this game to amass a loyal force and resources to build or take a fortification.
Then there are the various cheaters… Which is historically accurate… But there is no permanent remedy for those violating the god (admin) given rules of fictional warfare. If someone can crawl under the mesh, they likely can also evade a ban. Cheaters cheat and they cheat on their exile as well. There’s only one real permanent solution, and hopefully none of us are even considering it in response to a video game (mind you, it does happen, but we really don’t want another Streets of Ufa incident).
Privates make it easier to curate who one will be participating with/against
Officials are the royal rumble, the mosh pit, in all it’s visceral, uncensored, majestic horror.
There will be different tastes for different players
This one is very very divided on DBD…
While 24/7 raids is this one’s preference, the game is not currently tuned for it very well and DBD would need to be a mitigating factor, but it has it’s own issues.
However, the heart of your point stands that rather than poking at this little feature or that one which shine a spotlight on problems, it’s the foundational difficulties that should be focused upon.