Of all the names I see in the forums here, only Gangrel is someone that I *KNOW* played Tabula Rasa back when I did. So when I talk about aspects of gameplay that existed in Tabula Rasa ... things like having a Target Reticle for aiming, but which also featured Tab Lock Sticky Targeting, or even what it meant to go fight to capture (or defend) a --> [url=http://tabularasa.wikia.com/wiki/Control_Point]Control Point[/url] <-- in Tabula Rasa ... I get the feeling that hardly anyone here even knows what I'm talking about. And because they can't envision it, there's really no point of reference for understanding what the experience ... the RUSH(!) ... of playing around a Control Point in Tabula Rasa was like. Plus, Tabula Rasa launched and folded 5-6 years ago, so memories ... blur ... sometimes.

People talk often enough about World PvP.

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOC9jiPJ5L0][b]THIS[/b] is World [b]PvE[/b]![/url]

The video is only 6:26 long, and it happens in a part of the Tabula Rasa game that would be the equivalent of either Atlas Park or Galaxy City or Mercy Island in CoX ... a location called Concordia Wilderness. What you're looking at in that video is NOT something restricted to the end game or some kind of "special" area ... it was a fortification (called Landing Zone) that was basically halfway down the map [i]of the starter zone![/i] And it wasn't even the ONLY Control Point in the zone ... there were others besides this one! In fact, most zones in Tabula Rasa typically had at least 2-3 Control Points in them, and some zones even had as many as 5 or 6!

So Control Points were a fairly common "feature" in Tabula Rasa that provided opportunity for "instant" World PvE in a variety of settings. Even better yet ... [i]every Control Point in the game WAS DIFFERENT[/i] ... and by that I mean they had different layouts, different spawn points, and so on, beyond the "common" features they all had, such as the "massive force field" on the Door(s) (which were keyed to only let the faction that held the Control Point through it) and of course the Control Point "obelisk" that was your objective to capture it (see [url=http://tabularasa.wikia.com/wiki/Control_Point]wiki article[/url] already linked to above). In fact, it was actually pretty common to be soloing along on your own, start harassing the groups outside a Control Point by yourself, and then after a few minutes have another player (or few) who was just passing through decide to come over and join you in helping to assault the place. In another few minutes, someone else would be passing through and seeing that the Control Point was under attack, they'd join in too ... and then someone would pass the word in zone chat, and the snowball would start rolling as more people just came over to pitch in and take back the Control Point.

Total pick up group World PvE was the standard operating procedure for how these things went. You can even see how in this video, the person playing started out by themselves, but by the end of it, there are other players who have joined in to take the place. And it wasn't as if there were some kind of "special" reward for actually being the one to capture the Control Point ... aside from feeling a Rush Of Pride in having accomplished it. The "real" reward was all the XP and Drops you got from slaughtering all the Bane who had been defending the place and who had spawned in to protect it. That and the fact that it was just plain [b]FUN!![/b] Taking, or Defending, a Control Point was always something of an adrenaline rush when playing.

Also, if people look closely while watching the video I linked above, you'll be able to see the Tab Lock Sticky Targeting system in action that Tabula Rasa used. You've got a Target Reticle that sits dead center of the screen, and when you haven't got anything Tab Locked, that's where your shots/attacks go. But if you watch closely, you'll see that sometimes [b][i]A PART[/i][/b] of that Target Reticle "detaches" from the center of the screen and stays "sticky locked" onto a selected target, no matter how the camera is moved around to move the Target Reticle in the center of the screen OFF the target that is selected and being shot at. This kind of gameplay demonstrates (in a "real time" in game way) how this sort of combat system and User Interface fusion worked so very successfully in Tabula Rasa, without being as "unforgiving" as a lot of the more recent Active Combat Systems we see today, such as TERA has.

Now, the thing to keep in mind about these Control Points is that they are DEFENDED by PvE Mobs (in Tabula Rasa) ... and those Mobs keep respawning and summoning reinforcements while the Control Point is under attack. This is true both for the Bane (the aliens under attack in the video who are the "red" side faction) as well as for the Allied Free Sentients (the players and their supporting NPCs). In fact, it was actually rare for a Control Point to remain uncontested for very long, because there were NPCs spawning in to assault them relatively frequently. The difference though was that the Bane would stock up on their spawns pretty heavily (most spawn groups had like 6-8 Mobs in them) while the player allied AFS would have "paltry" spawn groups of usually 3 or less NPCs in a group. This meant "Advantage: Bane" in pretty much every encounter, because the Red Team virtually outnumbered the Blue Team by at least 2:1 ... so it was [i]up to the Players[/i] to swing things back into the balance for the AFS.

Furthermore, every Control Point when held by the Bane had within it what amounted to an Elite Boss that was specific to THAT Control Point. You can see this in the video I posted around the 2:25 mark, where there's a Bane Mob with a white glow FX on his chest. That's the Control Point Boss, and he'd spawned INSIDE the Control Point, but been "drawn out" by the combat outside (thanks to the force field door getting shot, which then Taunt Aggroed every Mob inside a certain radius).

Another point is that Mobs allied to the faction holding the Control Point spawn both inside AND outside the Control Point, as the video demonstrates. Mobs allied to the attacking faction ONLY spawn outside ... and during the video you can see some AFS Dropships swooping in to deposit NPC troops and mecha to assist with the assault.

Most Control Points were set up in a way that made it [b]NEARLY[/b] impossible for a single player to solo their way in and capture the Control Point, when playing at Even Level. With THREE players though, it became *somewhat* possible, although not guaranteed, and even with as many as 8-10 players lacking coordination it could sometimes be difficult to suppress EVERY hostile spawn group in a way that allowed for a Capture of the Control Point, although it sure made things a lot easier than they would have been otherwise.

Likewise, a Control Point held by the AFS (aka "Blue Team") got increasingly difficult to defend the longer it was held. The game had a built in "ramp up" for the number of Bane that would spawn in and assault so that EVENTUALLY the Control Point would get overrun and be captured by the Bane once more. Still, even though you knew ... you *KNEW* ... that it was hopeless and that you couldn't hold the place "forever" (because the NPCs on your side were too few, and the Bane Horde was just too many, so they'd win by attrition if nothing else) ... there was still a tremendous sense of satisfaction in being able to fight a Desperate Battle Against Incredible Odds {sigh!}. It was totally a feeling of the Texans At The Alamo (hint for anyone outside the US who doesn't know Texas history, the Texans LOST that battle) ... and yet YOU got to be "Davy Crocket" fighting against the Bane, making them pay IN BLOOD for every inch of ground they took from you ...

And then there was the fact that when "ownership" of a Control Point switched sides, no one inside the Control Point got "ejected" from it ... meaning that if you were taking a Control Point from the Bane, there could be stragglers left still inside (or outside) that the newly spawning in Defense Forces would engage and mop up. Or, if the Bane had successfully captured a Control Point while you were still in it ... the Front Door was now LOCKED AGAINST YOU and you were "stuck" inside! Now, to be sure, you could always climb up onto one of the parapets and jump over the wall to get out ... but where's the fun in that? No ... getting locked in when the Bane took over gave you an opportunity to take the Control Point back! FROM THE INSIDE!! All you needed to do was to wipe out all the mob spawns INSIDE the Control Point, and maybe a few that patrolled just outside the Front Door (because they might come running when you initiated the Change Of Control move) ... and then you'd be Free And Clear to retake the Control Point without having to bust down the door first! And with the change of ownership, all the Defenses got refreshed/repaired and changed sides, and thus any Bane who'd been on patrol outside now came under fire from the Control Point's now new Defenders and defensive systems, some of which were spawning in all around them! SURPRISE!!

So Control Points were just incredibly incredibly fun to play. They were "jump right in anytime" kinds of World PvE that were enjoyable simply because they brought the community of players together to achieve a goal that Change The World. Okay, admittedly changed a SMALL part of the world ... the Control Point itself and its immediate surroundings ... and only temporarily, because it was INEVITABLE that the Bane would take it back EVENTUALLY, because they'd just keep throwing more and more and more reinforcements against the place until they overwhelmed the defenders and TOOK IT ... [b]but still![/b] FUN!!! They were fun to do just like Zone Events were fun to do in City of Heroes. They brought the community together, spontaneously, just like the Zombie Apocalypse or the Rikiti Invasions did (and the Deadly Apocalypse DID NOT because it was too tedious and required too much coordination to complete).

Now ... take the idea of a Control Point ... and put it into a CoH/CoV/CoT sort of context, where Who Holds The Control Point could determine the "character" of that neighborhood for a time. PARTS of a Zone could be protected by the Heroes, or held in thrall by the Villains ... and the cast and character of the neighborhood CHANGES in response to that! Which faction holds a Control Point, [b]affects the World[/b] ... in a temporary way.

Also, I have to tell everyone, that watching that video for the battle of control of the Landing Zone Control Point there in the Concordia Wilderness zone [i]makes me incredibly nostalgic[/i] and wish SO HARD that I could play Tabula Rasa again, just one more time. The sights, the sounds, the gunfire, the terrain, the music ... all of it comes rushing back to me, when I watch that video. Technicians, Lightbenders, Linkers, Kael, Thrax ... gotta kill 'em all ... gotta kill 'em all ...

And the Control Points had "services" inside of them, such as Hospital and NPC Vendors, they had Teleport points to move to other parts of the zone (I think Landing Zone even had a Dropship point which would let you travel to other zones, if I recall correctly), and some of them even had NPCs that would give out Missions ... Missions that could only be obtained (and completed by returning to Contact) when the Control Point was held by Blue Team, not the Bane. So they were more than just "PvE Forts" that served "no purpose" in the wider scheme of things. Eventually, they even had a sort of Merit System set up for them, where you could earn Merits for killing off the Bane Defenders at Control Points, and then turn those Merits in for Rewards ... much like City of Heroes switched to for Task Force and Strike Force rewards later on, so that people could BUY what they wanted, rather than dealing with Random Drop Rewards after completing a Task Force (most of which were "trash" and unwanted).

So at any rate, I'm DEFINITELY of the opinion that Control Points were a game feature that Tabula Rasa innovated and which I'd really hate to see consigned to the dustbin of gaming history. :(

Gangrel? You want to step up and say anything about this?