Back to rearranging the deck-chairs on the Titanic then, and more poking about what remains of Tabula Rasa. Right from the word go, one of the big features of the game was its Control Points. I've talked a bit about those back in April 2008, in my guise of free-faced newbie, and on paper, they seemed like a great idea.

The basic setup is simple enough; a base with a flag in the middle, walls, turrets and a force-field gate, which every so often, gets rushed by the Bane. If the players don't put up a spirited enough defence the Bane capture it, and access to it's facilities is lost. The whole thing needs then to be sieged and liberated to restore the status quo.

Sounds like a bit of quick fun, and an alternative to questing and grinding of an average session, (and indeed, for a moment, it felt like the PvE Planetside I'd dreamt of) but on balance, I wonder if they should have been ditched before they even went in. Unlike my previous nitpicking, I suspect that this is more of a substantial issue, and one with ramifications for existing and future other titles.

The basic problem is that the Enemy, in this case, the Bane invasion force, is relentless, tireless and inexhaustible. We, on the other hand, are not. As I warp about the two worlds right now, almost all of the designated CP flags are red - enemy hands, with the exceptions being the first one or two in Wilderness - the first zone a new player will encounter one in. Granted, the game is basically full of sightseers on a free pass right now, but even at it's height, I have almost constant memories of not being able to get into these bases - having to sprint and hurtle at those few that did seem to come up blue when i was nearby, just to tag the waypoints or complete the missions there.

I expect to begin with, many people made a real effort to keep these outposts open, fighting hard and often, but every twenty minutes, on the clock, the invasion would start again. I'm doing research in the Purgas CP, in Divide at the moment, and every 20 mins, the alarms go and I'm seeing:

Wave 1: Approx 40x Incoming (Thrax, Machina, Caretakers, Grenadiers; both gates)

Wave 2: Approx 80x Incoming (As above, plus Super Thrax Boss commander; both gates; arrives immediately Wave 1 is destoryed)

All these monsters are Lv19-20, in a map with a suggested level range of 11-16. I ran about hosing the bejessus out of them all with the flamethrower, but then again, I am Lv46. It's trivial for me, so no loot or xp, but I like to think I'm performing a public service of sorts, keeping the road open. I guess what was intended, is that a practiced and complementary team of 8-10 Lv16-18 players in effect, permanently man the stockade, for the greater good of the larger playing public, er, I mean the remnants of mankind!

They added Prestige Points and the like, for taking part at these CPs, but few people could have ever been doing this infinitely repeatable task over and over, as intended, even in it's height, and I remember seeing all sorts of guides appearing, on how to solo-liberate the CP bases, mostly so folks could get inside and get on with missions and travel. Personally, using those techniques, as a Lv46, I can just about solo-capture the ones in the Marshes map (Lv 36-38), which isn't terribly practical, and even then, it's frighteningly easy to overpull and get decimated by sheer numbers. For anything more, I just have to do what many people seem to have had to do all along; ask forlornly on general chat for a bored high-level - not to help retake the place, but to just turn up and swat it.

I think this has roots in Tabula Rasa's lack of obvious or coherent group dependency, and also in the often solo-friendly nature of the title. People don't generally group for much, or didn't in my day anyway; poor LFG tools, basic online shyness, and ultimately, lack of anyone else to actually group with, all helping to teach people how to over-perform solo, and indeed, eventually get the trick of soloing CPs as needed. (I expect many L50s can, with patience, solo any CP they need; hats off to you of course, but my point is that is shouldn't be quite so necessary in the first place!)

It shouldn't have to be such a pain to get from A to B or hand in a mission, and the absolute regularity of the invasions taught volumes on the nature of futility. In the end, I expect most simply couldn't be bothered to retake that base AGAIN...what would be the point, when you turn your back for twenty minutes, and it falls? Very dispiriting that - seeing a red flag on the map, on a base you only just left, after fighting hard to win it back. And then, as a microcosm of MMOs in general, you start to ask yourself some very dark questions indeed...

So another possible reason, and one that worries me more than most, as in essence, what Control Points were was a kind of open ended quest, which anyone could just roll up and help with. A kind of Public Quest, if you will, with Open Grouping, if you like, and what TR has shown me, is that you absolutely cannot base automated gameplay mechanics on a permanent 'staffing' of a minimum number of players, ad infinitum. Sometimes there will be too many, mostly too few, and rarely will they all want the same thing in the same gaming session anyway...

Current TR General Chat Mood: Impotent Rage at WoW; 'fantasy is for fags'; Huxley will be awesome.

Shine on you crazy diamonds...