By Starr Long, Producer

One of the fundamental goals for Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa was to simulate a war by creating what we call a dynamic battlefield. One of the ways we did that was to have the NPCs fight each other, but we wanted to take these battles a step further where they didn't just fight each other sporadically as they encountered each other. Instead, we wanted them to actually fight over key pieces of territory which could alter the game environment in that area. These key territories are control points, and they are an integral part of what defines our dynamic battlefields.

Of course, there are more elements to the dynamics of the battlefield, but the control points are certainly a keystone of it. When the control points change ownership from the AFS to the Bane, for example, that changes a bunch of variables in the environment, including what NPCs are spawning and where they are spawning. In addition, this affects what missions are available to the players, so control point ownership even directly influences a player's ability to complete missions. And it makes sense. If you were a soldier and had been asked to deliver a field report, for instance, and the destination base was under heavy attack, it's unlikely you could just wander in, deliver your report, and then move on. You would more likely be ordered to help defend the outpost, or in the least, volunteer to stay and assist in the battle. Similarly, when I wander into a specific area in game that is under attack, I have to make an important decision, because what I'm fighting and where I'm fighting is directly linked to the control point. The fluid nature of where the front lines are and the ebb and flow of the battlefield is directly connected to the control points. As a result, a player's decision to defend a control point personally impacts the face of that particular map.

Whether players decide to defend a base or take a base back from the enemy, they are still directly impacting the surrounding area. If they stay and fight to defend a base, they help ensure that it remains in the hands of the Allies, and ensures that the missions and NPCs in that base are available to other players. Likewise, if they seek out an enemy base, or fight to re-take an AFS base that has been captured by the Bane, they are deciding the extent of the front lines in that area, and how many resources are available to them as well as the players around them. In this way, the players are constantly reshaping and influencing the game environment.

Control points add a definite level of excitement to the game as well. I remember a really fun experience with the control points system, back when they were first implemented into Tabula Rasa. I'll have to explain the background of this a bit. When the enemy takes and holds a control point, one of the things players can no longer access is the waypoint system within the base. Well, as we were first integrating the control points into the game, the waypoints were not set up to switch off, so we could teleport into a base even when it was under ownership of the Bane. So, I teleported into Wilderness LZ during one of my regular play sessions, only to find that it was no longer in AFS control. There were at least twenty Bane all around me. It was like one of those moments in an old western where a guy walks into a bar, the music screeches to a halt, and suddenly everyone is ducking for cover. I stood there a moment, and then they all open fire on me. It was a huge adrenaline rush and a lot of fun running back to the base with reinforcements to take it back. There was a real sense of satisfaction in clearing the last of the Bane out of that base.

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