The quest ko being used as is it is a symptom of some problems Kofi.
The major problem is two fold as I see it.
1. The worker and adventurer class needs a defensive upgrade. It is a problem for those who do not want to leave town and participate in the "community atmosphere" of a town, but face the prospect of being dueled with not only any chance of winning but in fact getting slaughtered.
2. The other major problem is the progressively worsening "me" attitude of way to may players who expect:
To play a class and receive all of the benefits from it with none of the negative trade offs for those benefits.
They want to build a "pure" build for part of these classes to capitalize on the advantages of their class so they can build, work, quest, acquire items for forts, etc without being dueled because they are a "soft" target. To be blunt they want to have their cake and eat it too.
They don't want to accept responsibility that many of these "pure builds" are in fact not only soft targets but a soft target they are responsible for the building of. They don't want to hear that. Its way to easy for way to many not to accept responsibility for their own actions but to blame someone else. So its much easier for them to "blame the duelers" than to say "well, when I placed my points that was part of the risk I accepted".
Quest are designed for players to gain exp from and to advance their character through the ranks. Some of them are not easy and as we all know some character classes have an advantage at them, some builds have to do a massive reskill in order to be able to accomplish them, and some builds will never be able to accomplish them.
But the one thing quest were not designed for were for players to deliberately fail at repeatedly to protect yourself so you can abuse the system.
But despite that under the disadvantages part of the classes face I can understand them doing so to protect themselves. They should be able to opt out of being a target of pvp attacks. But part of being able to do so should be them unable to participate in any sort of pvp to include fort fights. You don't want other players to be able to attack you then you should not be able to attack them. Can't get any more fair than that.
Despite that being fair to may object to it because of their "entitlement attitude". Quite simply put, they want to be able to gain exp from attacking you in what they see as their "specialty" while denying you the opportunity to attack them or gain exp from them in their "specialty". Again, they want to be able to have their cake and eat it to with no regard for game balance or what is fair to the other players.
But the main abusers and the ones who have no excuse to be abusing the system are the soldiers. They of all classes have the most advantages for not only dueling but for fort fighting also.
When they self ko repeatedly they are not only abusing the system but they are also abusing their own towns members and those they fort fight with for their own selfish gain. And in actuality there are not that many of them, but they have successfully manipulated many into believing this abuse should be allowed to continue for their own benefit, not everyone else's.
These "pure build fort fighting tanks" can not protect their towns members through retaliatory duels. So if you are a worker or adventurer in a town being repeatedly dueled they are unable to do what the soldier class is responsible for, protecting YOU !
And here is a cold hard fact. As much as a lot enjoy fort fights most players are nothing but cannon fodder. You are in fact being abused for the gain of a few.
You go to the fort fight, you follow orders like you are told to do so and die following them? No matter how hard you try you only make 200-500 exp at a fort fight. If you get real lucky you might max out exp one or two times in a world in your fort fighting career.
But those "fort fighting tanks", those soldiers who have already failed to protect you as a citizen of their town because of the self ko often gain the max exp. They stand their slugging it out not only getting hit, but hitting other players. If your side wins they are all to often the ones left standing, not you. You died so they could get max exp plain and simple. They end up with ongoing and steady level progression while you struggle, your attempts to level up made even harder through lost energy and HP loss from a fort fight.
Another hard cold truth, you could have probable made more exp working in the time it cost you to travel to the fort, wait for it to start, wait to see if you get a star, and if you are selected, wait to regain lost HP and ep.
And the final abuse and indignity these brave self ko'ing soldiers commit against you. When fort fighting gets boring they leave, leaving you behind in a now dying world.
The solution to this problem is not the continued defense of it.
The solution to the problem is for players to realize that this game has someone to offer everyone who enjoys playing it in a fair and balanced manner while accepting the limitations of the class they selected and the build they are responsible for.
The solution for the problem is for players to realize that every part of this game, working, questing, building towns, fort fighting, and dueling are just as equally important and this game would be much less without any of them.
And the final solution is for players to go to the Idea and Brainfart selection and help propose well thought out possible improvements for the developers to consider to fix things things that are "broken" or being "abused" not defend them. A good place to start would be some debate on how to improve the defensive capabilities of the worker and adventurer class.