What does controlling an outpost give to your guild?

My guild recently got enough Faction to control one of the Kurzick towns. I go in and enter the exclusive area through the gatekeeper and access the merchant.
All I get is slightly cheaper prices for generic items. For example a kurzick key costs 480 in the exclusive area instead of 600 (so...a 20% discount?)

Is that it? A cheaper merchant?
I know some places have fireworks masters but this town doesn't seem to have one or, as a regular member I don't have access to that feature. I thought if you owned a town you were able to access a crafter that could make you some nice items or you were able to enter a minor elite mission. is it because the lowest level towns have next to no advantage to control?

What exactly are the advantages of owning a town? Is there an FAQ somewhere I can read or is it as pathetic as just a cheaper merchant?

Your only advantage is the Discounted Merchant in minor towns, and the ability to do the fireworks.

The only towns with Elite Missions are Cavalon and House.

No Crafter, or special items.

If that is the case, why bother Faction Farming when the reward is so small? A 20% discount is hardly enough motivation and I doubt many people care exactly who owns an outpost. They don't even have your guild's flags hung around the town, do they?

In other words, there's no point unless you really want to save that gold on salvage kits or look at pretty lights.

Don't forget fame amongst your peers!

"Ooh, xxx owns this place, they must be powerful!"

Or maybe...

"Ooh, xxx owns this place, they must faction farm 24/7 and have no life."

Look, owning a town is a neat perk, but don't expect much respect from the community, since it really has become just a faction farming contest.

1. Buy a shit load of keys from the merchant.
2. Sell them to people for 500g each.
3. ???
4. PROFIT!!!

I want to help my guild by donating faction but if the reward is just the merchants then I'm better off trading faction for amber and giving 120 gold to those guildies that pay 600G for a Kurzick key so they're still effectively getting a discount.

I also agree owning outposts says more about farming ability than skill. Wasn't this game supposed to be farm free? That must have been long forgotten.

Why does everything in this game have to be negative?

Fine, invite me in the guild and I'll buy out all the keys that merchant has so he'll have no other choice but to force to own another outpost.

LoL.

... No!! Faction Farming is pointless and worthless. There is no benefit to owning an outpost. As it is now, no guild or alliance should be worring about faction. The reward is HEAVILY outweighed by the amount of work required. Its like a respective 1 to 1 million balance. CMooon.

doesn't the guild that owns the place get some of the gold spent in the town?
I think I read that a while back...

No. you dont.

Underpants gnomes got lost here too!
Step 3: ?????
Step 4: Profit!

I loved that episode.

Look, if the achievement was something accomplished by actual combat finesse, people would respect that. Faction farming just requires knowing how to do one really easy PvE mission... a lot. If you want to play Guild Wars to be really good at doing the same thing over and over again, then have a blast. Just don't expect a whole lot of respect for it, because running a box from point A to point B through some easy spawns does not constitute being "powerful" to most people.

Farming faction via alliance battles or faming fame via HoH. Pretty much any worthwhile title or accomplishment in the game is a grind/farming. I just sense a lot of haters on this thread.

What does controlling an outpost give to your guild?

Bugger all worth having unless you control one of the two major towns with the elite missions - and they have limited appeal.

Who doesn't love only spending 480 gold on Kurzick or Luxon keys though?!

If you want to open 500 chests, buying the keys at the discounted price will save you 60 platinum pieces.

For the keys damnit, the keys!!!!!!!

I hate HoH.

<-- hater

Anyways, the good news for the faction-related stuff is that with the massive increase in reward for the alliance battles and competitive missions, we should see that start to play a bigger role in faction gain, meaning control of a town would be something respectable.