All Things Art: Building Edition

I think the most important thing you can do for the zones is update the textures like Bass points out. Give them the depth and intensity that GR is recieveing. Give the buildings some more character. Color the windows (in indianapolis there is a large building in downtown that is covered in gold tinted glass, it's absolutely blinding in the morning) all the glass in paragon is the same shade. It's not wrong but it'd be an easy way to add character to some of the buildings. Tinting the concrete to some different shades of beige or grey could also help diversify the zones. I'd like to request a building that is a beautiful shade of sky blue, with a badge that reads..."there is a reason there are no commercial helicopters in paragon" (bonus internet points if you know the reference)

I don't know that a zone redesign is in order. It doesn't make a lot of sense for some of these zones to suddenly recieve the massive amounts of money to upgrade from concrete jungle to glass utopia. unless paragon were to suddenly host the olympics or some other large event that would draw in a massive amount of people to spur an urban renewal. (herolympic games?) At least give your updates a little back story. A plaque, a badge, a note on the main page. Doesn't have to be much.

Outside that I think more street signage and some "lived in" touches would give the city a more alive feeling. Lived in touches could include things like patio furniture, cheap deck lights, an animmated bus system (we've got the stops where are the busses?) or even a taxi system. Say, during the war the busses were all destroyed and the depot was originally in boomtown or even eden. That would be an interesting addition to either of those zones. In eden you could say the station was only recently uncovered from the DE spawned forest, thus it's lack of prior existance. I think the train stations could use a little bit of remodelling to better match the zones they are in.

I'd love to see an outdoor market with lots of civies and watchfull PPD and then just beyond the shop stalls in the alleyways you see the criminal pressence hellions or skulls or OC and trolls. Galaxy city would be an awesome place for this type of market. I could see something like this in FF too especially around the fountain. There's no safer place to be than a place with two very powerful heroes (many more visiting all the time and enough protection wards to shake a sizable stick at.

I think going through all the zones and updating a building or two for every patch would be a nice gradual way to improve the "cities of" in the right direction. My 2 inf...more like 8inf but hey.

im not sure if this is an art issue, but it is somewhat in my opinion... Please raise the fly height. Being able to sore high above the city would be so much more awesome than not even beig able to get to the tops of the highest buildings...

I got one...give people a reason to want to go back to crey's folley, dark astoria, and boomtown. every issue, at least one zone should be built up or changed slightly to show natural progression.

Wish List Item #1: Mission interiors which logically match building exteriors on a more consistant basis.
This L-Space thing is good for a lark, but really . . .
Dead horse, I know. Still going to smack it.

This is more game mechanic than art, but... I would LOVE to be able to interact with environments more.

Here's my suggestion that can help gradually improve the overall quality of the look of the game: Every issue, devote enough time to overhaul one or two building's worth of textures to modern standards. The amount of repeat usage we see across all zones would create a wide-reaching effect without a ridiculous amount of effort. Yes, it would look a little patchwork. Yes, it would take time and detract from working on other New Stuff. But really guys. We have a lot of stuff here we're not using. Trim the fat or make it tasty again.
Bonus points: In areas that are getting redone you can ask BaB's to animate some Prisoner group NPC's in their orange jumpsuits doing community service work cleaning up the town supervised by PPD. In the Isles you can use Arachnobots, which is canon with the comics. But make 'em greyboxed so players won't try to hunt down the workforce.

I completely agree with giving Atlas Plaza a spitshine. As the first zone new players see right now after Outbreak, you really need to WOW them with that first approach up to Ms. Liberty underneath the shadow of Atlas. Maybe give him a shiny metal globe? Maybe spend one issue just devoted to glass/window textures for reflection mapping?

I would love some "major" municipal type buildings such as a grade/high school, library, museum, etc but I understand that unless it comes with a unique interior map, either we'll never enter the Paragon Museum of Fine Art or else (worse), it'll have Ridiculous_Office_Maze03 as the interior.

So, scaling back, how about a building labeled as an employment or welfare office? Community center? Cultural center? I suppose you don't want an explicit church but how about charitable organizations? Just stuff to make the city look lived in rather than block after block of identical office buildings, indistinct apartments and the same couple of blurry store windows.

Speaking of building interiors, can we get a few new bulletin boards and whiteboards? As much as I appreciate the notifications of for used college books in the police stations and the sales figures listed in the RWZ Vanguard base (complete with the "We care about customers..." mantra), I think they could be slightly more appropriate to the setting

Be nice to see Boomtown get some love..

More strip malls, free standing restaurants, drive-thru fast food joints, grocery stores, supercenters, movie theaters, gas stations. I'm a child of the suburbs, so that makes things real. Docks and skyscrapers are rare in my experience. As are 80 foot high steel walls.

A Subway. Complete with tunnels to hunt in.

A museum or two.

I really don't care much for the Rogue Isles in general, other than maybe parts of St. Martial. Maybe it's the lack of transportation (cars or mass transit) in many of the zones.

I think it would be awesome to be able to pick an actual location somewhere in a zone where the front door to a SG base is. From the hidden 23rd floor in a skyscraper in Steel Canyon to under the main island in Talos to the Abandoned Sewers.

Oh, yeah, I've noticed the in-game advertising hasn't seen much use. I honestly kind of miss it, because it gives a real-world feel to the game. Is there any chance you could have contests for SG recuitment billboards or other player created content?

I'm kinda disappointed at the whole feel of the Rogue Isles... it's as if someone took the worst version of ghetto and/or junkyard and spread it throughout Mercy, St Martial and Grandville and then went below average on everything else (save Cap and the Jackpot district of St Martial).

It gives rise to the question, why would any 'normals' want to be there (visit or inhabit). It feels like a place you go to work because there's no other option.

Where are the peds getting there groceries from? Where, outside of St Martial, do they go to have fun? Even if the Isles are supposed to have this grimy feel to it; outside of floating debris... I'm not seeing it. No bars, cantinas, nightclubs, market districts/flea markets, massage parlors, pawn shops, dog/horse tracks, actual junkyards, gun ranges?

You find more differentiation in Paragon City.


Another thing that stands out to me is that both sides seem to be all super-urban business districts or wilderness. These places don't have suburban or coastal residential/commerce areas?


Both sides definitely need more personality and definition instead of being structural husks.

Been playing for 6 years now, and one of the biggest things that has annoyed me since Day 1 is simple: the doors. We use them constantly, but we take them for granted: they are how we enter almost every indoor mission.

All of the doors are the same on every building, no matter what style of architecture. That's just so wrong. Different styles of buildings should have different kinds of doors. The doors that are in-game now are perfect for the small shops, but they're wrong for all of the other building styles.

Big office buildings should have big glassy vestibules. Small apartment buildings should have small wooden doors. Federal-style buildings (like City of Hall) should have ornate brass-, copper-, or iron- clad doors.

And even if you didn't change the shape of the current doors (that might require too much art work effort), you could apply a wider variety of textures or colors: glass, wood, steel, brass, copper, wrought-iron, etc. Doors also can have writing and logos printed on them, too.

It's such a piddling little thing, but changing simple details like that can go a long way to improving the charm and immersion of the environment.

I actually like Mercy but I think it could stand tweaks for the sake of not scaring people off. What I'm thinking is leaving most of Darwin's Landing the same but cleaning up the main street that leads to the clock tower and then freshening up the tower itself. This would lend a bit to Recluse's social Darwinism experiment in that people have attempted to rebuild amongst the destruction. Also, considering Arachnos is actually a military and Darwin's Landing has probably the largest amount of recruitment propaganda, it would be nice to see non-hostile Arachnos agents attempting to recruit people. It would make an interesting contrast to the rioters outside of the base you start at.

I'd argue that all of the redside zones except Grandville and Sharkhead could stand to have slightly brighter skies during the daytime. Despite the darker design style, nearly every redside zone has a "nice" neighborhood on the island. They should stay as dark as they are at night for the ominous presence it gives off.

The Rogue Islands could stand to have one more full island and the CoV maps support the territory existing but that's probably venturing into mission design and away from art.

With Paragon City, I want to see Hotel Geneva updated. While I don't think it currently has any lore purpose, it's always caught my eye and intrigued me. However, it just another generic building and the multiple Hotel Geneva buildings are not consistent in appearance. I'd like to see it transformed into a classy hotel that would draw a bit of attention. It could most benefit from the "lobby" style walk-in interior that the redside SG recruiter has. I also think a Hotel Geneva interior and interiors for several of the in-game restaurants like El Super Mexicano are feasible with the current graphic resources. Several of the instanced casino maps have eating areas.

I'd like to see the Skyway and/or Baumtom airports since both are listed on the foldout map (though the one for Boomtown is probably destroyed).

I would love to see some more "period buildings" as in architectural styles from days gone bye. Many of Paragon's zones look like they were thrown up within 20 minutes of each other, despite the rich history of the game. Paragon City's been around for a long time but the buildings all seem pretty modern. Where is the mock Gothic architecture with gargoyles, or the Georgian styles?

I'd also like to see some more "european type districts - we get pretty close in Bloody Bay and some areas of the Isles but Paragon itself should have a nice cafe district in Atlas where people could congregate - a leisure/commercial district, wharves and restaurants and bars and the like... somewhere in IP, Talos or Founders Falls... a thriving city and there's nothing much like that around.

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

Somebody just mentioned "suburbs" and that rang a bell with me. I've often thought about how it would be interesting to have a "suburban" zone (or sub-zone), with cookie-cutter houses and cul-de-sacs, that was crawling with super-powered villains or invaded by Rikti.

Of course, such an area would also need some larger structures to serve as mission platforms, so they'd need schools, shopping centers, warehouse stores, community centers, libraries, police and fire stations, etc.

There should be Paragon equivalents of big box stores like Wal-Mart, Costco, Fry's, Best Buy (Buy More!), etc.

Croatoa is supposed to be a suburb of Paragon City although it looks as cookie-cutter as the city proper. No single family homes, restaurants, gas stations, etc -- just block after block of apartments with a university and a monorail station.

"Unique" is kind of the way to think you know... Some thing looks EXACTLY the same in all Zones.

AE buildings are good looking? Yes, they are. But they´re also the same, don´t matter in what zone you are... Atlas Park, RWZ or Grandville, it is the same freaking building!

Train Stations... I would love to feel that you are in a different zone as soon you come out. Maybe art exhibition in Founder Falls? Graffitti? Show posters? Vendors? Different ramps? Make it feel real.

Black Market... Always the same truck? I find ammusing it also looks like the truck in the back of Wentworths, but how is that supposed to be a "hidden" market? Come on Long-Bow, just blow up that damn truck! Wouldn´t be nice to see a Tent in one place? A Flea Market in another? A Junkyard? It is easily located in the map so there´s no excuse you won´t find it if it looked different...

The War Walls were already talked about before so...

Again, make us feel we are at different places.... Uniqueness is quite good.

Suburbs are designed to be boring, so it'd be pretty hard to make them too interesting in a game. :P

Maybe they would work as a change of pace though.

Some good ideas here. I thought I'd highlight the ones that resonated with me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Caligdoiel Here's my suggestion that can help gradually improve the overall quality of the look of the game: Every issue, devote enough time to overhaul one or two building's worth of textures to modern standards. The amount of repeat usage we see across all zones would create a wide-reaching effect without a ridiculous amount of effort. Yes, it would look a little patchwork.

Totally cool idea. This scale of effort would keep each change manageable as a block of design work and real cities are patchwork, so it would transition into something that felt more organic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rush_Bolt Building-wise, I think the one thing I'd really like to see is more unique structures.

I have long thought each zone should have an iconic structure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoyLeyenda More strip malls, free standing restaurants, drive-thru fast food joints, grocery stores, supercenters, movie theaters, gas stations.

Agreed. There need to be structues that make it look like people actually live here. It is the little things that will help fill in the gaps on the general appearance.
More possibilities could be schools, bars, hotels, etc
And, given time, these could work their way into instance maps and storylines.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rathulfr All of the doors are the same on every building, no matter what style of architecture. That's just so wrong. Different styles of buildings should have different kinds of doors. The doors that are in-game now are perfect for the small shops, but they're wrong for all of the other building styles.

So, so true.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rathulfr Somebody just mentioned "suburbs" and that rang a bell with me. I've often thought about how it would be interesting to have a "suburban" zone (or sub-zone), with cookie-cutter houses and cul-de-sacs, that was crawling with super-powered villains or invaded by Rikti.

Doesn't have to be crawling with baddies, in fact maybe an idealic quiet area of the city where we can see the positive efforts of our heroes on the lives of the normals - they can live in peace.
Regardless, a less urban living area would be nice to see.

Add the vendor carts from The Rogue Isles to some locations in Paragon. For instance, Spanky's Boardwalk, or near some of the trams ( in appropriate zones)