I agree with removing towers instead of adding more:
However, what I don't like about this is that guilds of the past now get to parade around and hold it over everyone else's heads that they achieved some number of hours back when the game had 1000-2000 players, there were less guilds, towers had 250 HP, etc.
I personally think the entire idea of all-time leaderboards is sort of an oxymoron. The purpose of a leaderboard is to promote activity and competition, not praise players or guilds for doing something when the entire game was completely different.

Towering is actually fairly competitive right now. I checked the other day and I could count 13 guilds that actually seem to tower seriously and have a chance at taking towers when their people are online. That's because it's summer though. When school is in, towers are really easy. You don't see guilds holding 3 towers for more than 5 minutes right now. When school starts, guilds can do that for hours overnight (US time).

So, what I think should maybe happen is that there should be 1 or 2 towers that only open over the summer just to accommodate the playercount and increased guild activity.
Either that, or tower flag HPs need to scale dynamically with the playercount. Something like that. There's really no way to balance towering when the playercount is so volatile, because the current guild system basically enables you to recruit anyone and everyone with zero punishment, and that's what people do.

I think the major problem people have when towers are changed ("OMFG SARDINO IS RUINED") is that they compare what it once was to what it is now, and they get envious that people before them were able to reach 1k, 5k, 10k hours so easily, but now they'll have to work harder for it. There becomes a conflict of interest where people begin saying, "Oh, I think this tower's flag should have 500 HP," when no, they don't think that's what's best for the game, they just want that because they know the people before them didn't have as rough of a time.

Again though, that's why I think the all-time leaderboards suck (for everything). It's irrelevant today (from a towering perspective) that VG reached 10k hours, for example. The game was totally different then. All it does is stir up jealousy in people and make them complain and nag for the easiest towering experience possible. However, those same people who will beg you for a 500-HP flag and laser beams will tell you they are insanely bored at towers and that towering sucks. Well yeah, because you prefer a towering atmosphere where you AFK and chat all day until you hit the number you're after, not because it's fun or good for the game.

Did they had before where a guild challenged a guild that held a fort and it was kinda like a GS match, whoever won got the fort/stayed with it?

Shots fired!

guilds:

• Ban player from guild
• better guild houses; a guild spar room
• "real" guild houses, so guilds can share furniture

guild spar:

• guild spar streak room
• enemy indicators (indicators turn off randomly)
• timer (how long the gs has left b4 a tie)
• Guild spar screen locking

towers:

• fix snows respawn point
• buff mod
• nerf deadwood flag room (to congested)
• add more to castle its plain
• fix yorks respawn point
• widen swamp halls
• change how fast you fall down holes at destiny, give a chance to get out of the hole
• Add a tower to burger refuge!

I think I like that idea.

You can be smart sometimes

The only reference I can make is too competitive gaming: if something is tier zero and tearing up the meta, then they need to nerd it OR the format of the game moves so fast and the power creep needs to be slowed so they either raise the power of everything - in Classic's case raise first hat to 2k hours in the over world's current state - so that it actually a hard achievement that not everyone can get.

The solution to the first idea is nerf the towering structure on Classic. I think a seasonal tower system would be awesome. Instead of just going for one hat and dying, guilds like Revenge and Pandemonium (Pande back in the day) could take towers to get on the top of the seasonal boards, so in 2/3 months you could see who got the most tower hours in the allotted season. A reward would be dished out to those who make up the top 3, much like the Clash of Clans seasonal clan trophy system.

Overall, Thallen has nailed it. The format and setup of Graal is too easy to reward guilds for 1000 hours, if the 8 towers were cut down to 5 overnight, then there would be more activity at other forts and there would be 3 other guilds at least who would actually have to work and fight to get a tower who could! I know - actually working for something in Classic, simply mind boggling!

If I need to I'll make a whole new thread and go through it in way more detail when I get home, so what do you guys think?

Thallens idea of dynamic flag hp based on playercount:
This would make sense if the flag hp was based on the number of defenders, or the number of non-defenders in the tower. Either:
-More defenders = lower HP, fewer defenders = higher Hp; or
-More attackers/pkers = higher HP, fewer attackers/pkers = lower HP

The dynamic thing could probably be abused, by putting maybe 4-5 guarding flag on main tag, and then getting people on ally guild with 20+ to guard the halls, etc.

Unless you can control holding guild + allies, it will be abused, have high hp and high defense.

Also, people could just not be allied to the holding guild officially and even if allies were counted, they are not officially allies, and still defending the tower with high hp.

Edit:

Guild recruitment proccess fixed for competitiveness/loyalty:

Rules

1. If you join a guild, you can't join another guild.

2. Getting kicked from the guild will result in a 24 hour ban from that guild. So you better think about who you want to join before-hand, and keep them.

3. You can only have 1 ally. Better choose a totally different guild, that's good.

4. You can only recruit 50 members.

5. (Thallen's Idea example) Each member reduces flag hp by 10. Drop limit stops at 20 members
Let's put flag hp at 250, there are 25 members, flag is at 50 hp.

Unless the playercount is for total players online, then using allies or unoffical allies will abuse it.

I'd also like to give members of my guild the power to give other members guild powers. The giving powers power could be a leader-only thing though. It could make for better co-leaders and such.

They should add that as well to make official co-ldrs.

Still waiting on the warp ring's return

Those co-leaders should also only be able to be kicked by the leader. Would help stop trolls from clearing guilds 100%

It all depends on who you trust/can trust.

imo most of the activity suggestions would be pointless/abused unless they concentrate on guilds first.