Community News
Feedback Friday 4/25/2008

It’s been a while since we’ve last given an update on the progress of clan owned control points. I know a number of players have been hoping to hear more about the design and progress of this. With the 1.8 build you’ll notice the addition of a new pane on your character doll called Prestige. It’s the first part of a system that will be the basis for how clan owned control points will function.

So, what exactly is Prestige anyways? Glad you asked! Here’s a quick overview of the current design:

  • Prestige is a new form of currency that is recognized by the AFS. It is gained through the actions of your player.
  • Prestige can be gained through two types of actions: PvE and PvP.
  • On the PvE end, these actions are as follows:
    • Achieving a max kill streak
    • Killing control point minions and bosses
    • Killing standard bosses
    • Acquiring rare items off corpses of enemies you’ve killed
    • Included in the reward for specific missions
  • On the PvP side, Prestige can not only be gained, but lost as well:
    • Killing an opponent will net you prestige that is generated based on your level relationship to the player
    • You will also acquire a percentage of your opponent’s prestige that is taken directly from them.
  • If you’re looking to add a bit more risk, you’ll be able to wager an item:
    • Wagering an item requires that you ‘lock in’ a high quality item.
    • Once locked, the item cannot be removed unless substituted with a higher quality item or the out leveling the level of the item.
    • You will gain a boost to your prestige gain based on the quality of the item you’ve wagered.
    • Dying will cause you to lose the item to your opponent.

The first rollout of Prestige will contain the PvE actions. The second portion of PvP and item wagering is currently under testing and planned to be implemented shortly afterwards.

Prestige gained will allow players to open up unique content for their character. Currently, the content accessible is what was previously associated with the Assault and Defense tokens. Tokens will be removed in lieu of the Prestige system coming online. Their associated vendors are also going the way of the dodo and in their place you’ll find a Prestige Vendor that has all the items combined for sale. Don’t worry if you’ve amassed a ton of Assault and Defense tokens as there are token bankers at every control point that will let you convert them directly to Prestige.

While Prestige has its benefits for individual players, they’re crucial for acquiring clan owned control points due to the way clan lockboxes will work. These lockboxes, located at all clan owned control points and major cities, not only store items and credits but Prestige as well. Members of a clan can contribute their prestige to the lockbox and build up a pool of Clan Prestige to be used.

Why have Clan Prestige? Simple – so your clan can bid on control points. We’ll be introducing two types of clan owned control points:

  • PvE Clan Control Points – these are control points that can only be owned by PvE clans.
    • Bane attacks can still occur on these control points.
  • PvP Clan Control Points – these are control points that can only be owned by PvP clans.
    • No Bane attacks occur on these control points, and are strictly revolved around pvp attacks.
  • A new bidding interface will be available to clans called a Challenge Board.
  • The Challenge Board lets you bid on control points that are relevant to your type of clan using clan prestige:
    • For PvE control points, the winning bidder automatically becomes the owner of the control point for a period of time until a new bid is automatically opened and ends (with ownership being transferred).
      • PvE clans can lose their control point to Bane attacks though!
    • For PvP control points, the winning bidder is automatically set at war with the owning clan of the control point and an assault window is scheduled by the system.
      • During this window, success is defined by the assaulting clan taking over the control point or the defending clan keeping the assaulters at bay until the window ends.
Through this system players will need to make a decision with their prestige as to whether they wish to keep it for themselves or aid their clan. This cycle allows clans to expand their ownership of control points as you can own more than one at a time. Naturally, the more you wish to own, the more your clan will need to combine its efforts of Prestige that is gained to win the bids.

The initial implementation of this system will allow owning clans to have access to the following at control points:

  • A unique buff associated with that control point that is applied to the entire clan.
  • Waypoint and vendors normally accessible at the control point.
  • Hospital respawn point
  • Clan lockbox
  • Challenge Board

Concept Pieces

Challenge Board.jpg Holographic Table.jpg WarTent.jpg


I know many players are looking forward to seeing this released. The Control Point Team is hard at work on the various systems above, but it’s not just our group that is committed to making this experience polished. The Classes and Combat Team is working on the mechanics and balance for PvP combat. Additionally, the Maps and Missions Team is helping build the clan owned control points by updating specific control points with revised layouts as well as adding visual cues where appropriate (such as war room tents).

Finally, while I’ve described much of this system as it currently stands to be implemented, there are plans to expand and add features later on in the summer. Here’s a peek at some of the current discussions for systems to be implemented post release:

  • Placeable Defenses – Turrets/Forcefields are placed by clan members as opposed to automatically spawning.
  • Research and Development – use clan prestige to research upgrade paths for your control point defenses like turrets and forcefields, as well as tactics of reinforcements that can be hired.
  • Mercenaries – Reinforcements for hire that will protect the control point from attackers.
  • Vendor/Waypoint Prestige Gain – Clan Prestige gained by non clan members using your control point facilities (vendors, waypoints, crafting station, etc.)
  • Vendor Discount – Reduced cost for clan members when purchasing from vendors associated with their control point
  • Control Point Personal Wormhole – Personal wormholes that can be used from anywhere to access any control point your clan owns.
  • Clan flexibility – Customizable clan permissions for actions that clan members can do
  • Prestige Tithing – designating a percentage of individually gained prestige to be automatically donated to the clan

As always, the Control Point Team will be monitoring the community forums and encourage those involved to provide comments via our Feedback Form.


Christofer Strasz
Designer, Tabula Rasa
PvP, Clans, and Control Points