I'm wondering why we have to pay literally millions on bgs and hq forts if it doesn't really do anything to defend you or your crew members.

Forts keeps your members without BGs safe from 'lol shots' with smaller guns.  If all your members have over 50 BGs, then forts from a financial standpoint add nothing to your members protection.

The game should never be 'swipe a card and no one can touch you'.  The #1 part of defense in this game is your 'Brand' and current positioning.  You take less shots if people like you and you add value to the experience/goal, you take more shots if you are viewed as indifferent, a liability, or take away value from the experience/goal.  If you depend on the math of the game to protect you from 100% of the userbase, then you will never be safe.  BGs, Defense, Forts, Bonuses and what not will only, at best, keep you safe from the overwhelming majority of the game, excluding those that worked their ass off to be the top few killers in the game.

Also why is it so easy to be !%ed on a pro shot when fighting rogues but getting proed as a rogue is usually without consequence.

Every shot, regardless of who it is from, has around a 1% chance of a .... 1% shot.  In fact there is code to lessen the chance of that 1% of happening if the the code can deem the pro shot being a pro shot (from inside the crew, authed, majority loyalty set to postiive, shooters loyalty set to take a bullet... if it deems the shot a pro shot, its less than 1% otherwise its static at 1%)

When team-rogue is doing 5 shots an hour.  Expect a single 1% to happen about once every 20 hours.  When team-defenders are doing 50 shots an hour, expect single 1% to happen about once every 2 hours.  1%s happen all the time, but other than war time situations, its normally on shots that go under the radar... That 800 kill consig shot a random gangster, she 1%d it, but its 'off the radar' because you expected a success.

Maybe there should be a seperate "Pro shot" button, that can be activated so cLs can't be 1%ed during war time. Just my 2 cents.

The CLs make a decision going into a war.  Is my brand enough to not get shot?  Am I an asset or a liability to this rogues goal? Can I reach an agreement to go unscathed in this war? Is the oppositions gun good enough to take me?  Is it safer to risk the 1% than it is to risk taking a shot that may not happen?  If you are going to get shot and it cant be avoided, do it under your own terms, take a pro.  If you are not going to get shot at, then 1% is higher than 0%. Thats the calculated math they have to do to determine how the work into their character, brand, and general position in the game offsets the threat of the shot.

You shouldn't view every rogue as bad and every crewleader as good.  The code cant tell if its its a rogue for good or a rogue for bad, it also cant tell if the cl should be removed or shouldnt.  Nor should it have to.  We have to lean into the social aspect of the game too, we have to stop relying on just the game protection mechanisms especially when its extremely situational.  Likewise, we should never code it in so that anyone can swipe a card and get to the top and stay there.  You should stay there because your skills created an environment where its better that you are there, rather than how much disposable income you have in the real world.

I saw someone say the other day that a casual builder can easily get 8 kills a day, a serious builder 16-20 a day and a monster builder can get 32-36 kills a day. That means that around 28-30 of those kills per day are free. 30-35 days to build a cap killer gun at a cost of 70-90 million and thats if you are buying credits from the market.

Just to touch on this comment a little bit.  Gun stats are like sexual partner stats, most arnt honest.

The fastest growing gun in the game is 23 per day.  When you get out of the top 10, you are down to 16 per day. The average of people who actively wack is 5.49 per day.  Lounge gives out a pretty consistent number of credits and kills and is designed to be given to the whole game, so when there is only a handful of them claiming them all, they definitely outpace every other person in income and kills.

The game gives out roughly 4300 rogue/ttes on lounge per month (with the capability of more if there were more successful full 60 rats) and about 2 billion in cash equiv in credits on average per month.  Both sides of the equations - wack and defense - can easily be funded through lounge and other aspects of the game.