All Things Art: Building Edition

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------->"Sic Semper Tyrannis"<-------

Though I know religion is avoided, it would still be cool to have some big cathedrals around. I'd second the schools/firestations/postoffices/etc. Just more of the stuff you see in cities. (This for paragon.)

The rogue isles could use cathedrals as well, due to the historical roots. But hey, I'm biased toward gothic architecture. (And how cool it would be to have my characters hanging out on gargoyles of a cathedral spire.) It would be cool to see some local arachnos/civilian interaction centers. Perhaps food ration stations, (complete with nutri-paste!) or something of the like to show how the people of the isles live their lives.

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I'll second what everyone has said- Chinatown would be sweet! Likewise holiday decorations at certain times of year.

I would like to see Independance Port get a REAL container terminal.
Actual container cranes look like this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3121754...78623/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3121754...49469/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3121754...49481/sizes/l/

The cranes I see in game now on the waterfront are pure fantasy, and impractical at that.

To make the in-game container terminal fun, it could be the scene of a periodic zone event- Dockworkers throwing down with the Family- you get to pitch in and help beat down the Family goons. There could also be some missions there- busting up smuggling rings, rooting out Family corruption, and so on.

I would also love to see more variety in skyscraper design too. Add some buses to the vehicles on the street, and so many of the "filler" buildings that make a city- gas stations, and others that people here have mentioned. Paragon city Airport would be cool too- it would be a great setting for missions and story arcs.

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A (Golden Gate) Bridge Too Far- arc 299315
Crazy NIMBY's, Railroad robber barons, and kickboxing Engineers, Oh My! Go back in time and join the fight to save a San Francisco icon!

Yes! Make buildings close to each other, so there is room for "Drug Dealers"... Make the street blocks tight and narrow. There is a main street which is wide but that's about it, just like 42nd street in NY. Make sure the "Main Street" is the only wide street, the rest is very very narrow, like Dr. (drive), Ln (Lane), Pl (Place) etc. Roads are a big part of a city.

IMO, St. Martial's city has the best city design all over CoX, only its a small portion. It has lights like Time Square, buildings close to each other, and so many billboards everywhere. Almost every building you can go inside. Buildings have elevators inside to go up and down. Yes we need every building accessible.

Do not make buildings look like the other, like in Hero side... gray and dull, every street is the same building.

Tokyo is spot on!

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I'm not sure where to even start with this subject

I think the first thing to do would be to upgrade the textues on some buildings, and totally replace others - like a lot fo the warehouses, or buildings in Kings Row and Founders' Falls look ok, but there are very few skyscraper models that look like real buildings, so if you did something like one skyscrpaer model type with a new type each Issue, I think that'd be awesome - like in I19, replace say, all the "skyscraper model 01" models with a new one using much more glass and steel to take advantage of ultra mode - and then in I20, replace all the "skyscraper model 02" ones with a new type, and so on.
It'd sort of be like the way I14 replaced city blocks in most of the zones with the new AE buildings.

Atlas Park and Galaxy City double up quite a bit on their scenery, so one fix for that would be too remove the main warehouse areas of Atlas Park and replace them with a shopping mall and the Paragon City museum - the mall could have origin-specific stores, as well as an insp seller, and, if the tech was available, a store that would give players direct access to the NCSoft online store.
The museum could be like City Hall, so people could just go in anytime, and the displays could be like the artifacts in Azuria's office, so we could click on info plaques to learn about them - plus, it could also be used in missions, the way City Hall has been used recently in the 5th Column TF and the revamped Positron TF.
If possible, I'd also like to see more fountains added to Atlas Plaza area, and have the globe revolving

Another thing would be to add more faction-specific buildings to the zones, and have the relevant missions using them instead of random mission doors.
For example, there should be a sleek, modern coporate office building for Cray in each of the normal city zones, and missions against Crey facilities would be entered via them, not just random buildings - and have Crey security guards outside, with invasion spawn coding, so any level of hero would get fired at if they got too close.
the Tsoo should also get unique Asian flavored buildings - the tattoo parlor map is awesome, and it'd be cool to see the outside of buildings like that too.

Steel Canyon needs to have Blyde Square truned into Times Square
Make it more of a genuine square, rather than just a intersection, and add lots of neon signs and new glass and steel skyscrapers to replace the old ones.

A more major change for a zone like Independence Port, which seems to be way bigger than it really needs to be, would be to retcon Terra Volta into the northern end of the zone, rather than making it a separate zone - so it'd be like Faultline with the dam, with the zone split into one large area and one smaller area.

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@Golden Girl

City of Heroes comics and artwork

I agree that the train stations could stand to match their locales. Just brainstorming a couple of ideas based off the current template of one entrance, one exit, and an elevated platform, I came up with a few possibilities of what could be done:

An older style platform, which would fit better in the brick and steel parts of Paragon, like Brickstown and King's Row

A more modern-looking station, for places like Steel, Galaxy and Talos.

Coupled with the one we have in-game already, there's most of the zones covered.

I also agree that a number of "life necessity" buildings would be nice to see around the city. Markets, shopping malls, fire halls, convention centres, and so on. Someone above mentioned one unique piece of architecture per zone, but I really think it should be more like one unique piece of architecture per neighbourhood, be it a cathedral, a supermarket, an arena or whatever. Something that would let us give directions based on these landmarks and not be ambiguous.

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My story arcs: #2370- Noah Reborn, #18672- The Clockwork War, #31490- Easy Money

Sartre once said, "Hell is other people." What does that make an MMO?

A lot of the suggest have already been stated but I'd like to reiterate the main bullet points.

1) Updated and varied skyscrapers. There are too many buildings in Paragon City that have "copypasta" disease. Each zone needs to be fairly distinct and while some them fit the bill there's no reason it couldn't be taken a step further.

Let me reiterate this: There are too many skyscrapers in Paragon City that look exactly the same and they also look incredibly dated.

2) More buildings with a distinct purpose. Museums, Courthouses, gas stations. A Paragon City TV station to compete with WSPDR. Even giving the more "nameless" buildings their own signs would be neat. For the business use the same tech that you'd use for the advertisements, but make them more low key.

Giving Paragon City a "Theater District" would be look really nice.

Note to Black Pebble: The advertising using the sign space wasn't bad it's just there weren't enough of them to make them interesting. The Jeter Shoe ad was more an example of not knowing the audience, we're not a "sport shoe" crowd.

Specific suggestions:

Considering the Tsoo have a very strong presence in the Flop in St. Martial, giving part of that neighborhood a "Little Hmong" make over would be awesome. This is in addition to the idea of adding similar makeovers to Tsoo controlled areas of Paragon City (Talos, Indy Port)

Buses in Paragon City, I have to imagine that Paragon City would have a more robust Busing system to supplement the Monorail system. You don't need many, just one Bus per zone.

Electronic signs - Similar to the really big video displays that you see in Times Square. Use a variation of the screens in Grandville, only have them cycle advertisements, and news footage of heroes fighting Giant Monsters.

Look into the idea of Moving the Black Line Helios in the Isles to different parts of the Zone, away from the Ferries.

Move the St Martial Helio over by the Arachnos Submarine in the North Flop area.
Move the Grandville Helio to either the north side of the Main island or the South side of the Fab Island.

The Nerva Helio isn't as bad as the other 2, but moving further north would be nice, say near the Quatermaster in Primeva.

On the subject of Helicopters. It would be nice if you used the Helio pad in Portal Court that used to go to the Rikti Crash Site and have a corresponding Helio in another part of Paragon City. I'd say Galaxy, Bricks, Skyway, or Indy Port, basically any zone that doesn't already have access to PI, the RWZ, The Midnight Club, or the Pocket D. I'd go with Bricks since it's the same level range as Founders' Falls but it's more of a Cul-de-sac.

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"Steady as a mountain, attack like fire, still as a wood, swift as the wind.
In heaven and earth I alone am to be revered."
- Motto on the war banner of Takeda Shingen (1521-1573)

Way back before the game came out, Cryptic had a contest to name the tallest skyscraper in Paragon City. I forget what the winning name was, but I remember that after I got the game I ran around town looking for this building that was supposed to be so much taller than any others. As far as I can tell, the building never made in - how about adding it now?

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You know I just thought of this after hearing more 'that game is nothing but warehouse battles.' At least make it more novel.

Add another type of warehouse indoor set and apply it to half of the warehouse maps currently used. Then try to avoid having any more warehouses in new content.

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A game is not supposed to be some kind of... place where people enjoy themselves!

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Something I've always found lacking: Gothic Buildings.

Y'know, buildings with:

• Arches
• Spires
• Stained glass windows
• Gargoyles
• Water spouts
• Billowing smoke stacks

Just be sure to leave plenty of flat corner perches for heroes to watch down over their city from.

Oh! and put me down as a +1 on the Chinatown suggestion

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Craft your inventions in AE!!

Play "Crafter's Cafe" - Arc #487283. A 1 mission, NON-COMBAT AE arc with workable invention tables!

As often mentioned above we have too many cookie cutter buildings, but equally egregious we have certain types of buildings in inappropriate zones. Examples: A modern, high-end Wentworth's building in the slum of King's Row. The ultra-high-tech Architect Entertainment building sitting on the industrial wharfs of Indy Port. Other examples would be the lack of commercial buildings in Paragon's commercial center, Steel Canyon. The center of Steel Canyon should look like Time's Square, NYC and should represent the city's distinct skyline.

We need a few unique buildings in appropriate places.
More commercial buildings (restaurants, shops) huddled around the trams. Every city in the world does its commerce at the hubs of its mass transit.
Comic shops, bars, bookstores and such all situated around the universities. The term "college town" grew from the unique flavor of our colleges.
Restaurants set up near the various recreational marinas.

It's time to have a new movie marquee contest. I'm not sure Fractured Dawn is still playing the game but I'm certain a movie wouldn't run for 6 years straight in a city considered the cultural capital of the US.

Stop tacking signs of random buildings and calling them banks, or police stations, when their design precludes such use.

Many more distinctive billboards and signage. Creating such content could be opened to the community as a contest, minimizing the drain on art resources and further building community.

For example a unique Paragon Times newspaper skyscraper, with distinctive features (think the Daily Planet building). In subsequent issues this building could be opened up and feature new contacts which give repeatable missions befitting the theme of the city newsroom.

Spanky's "Boardwalk" should look like a boardwalk. Add some Atlantic City, NJ flair, with a Ferris Wheel, concessions, etc. Add some Casino's and other tourist destinations to designate Talos Island as a destination. Later additions could be an amusement park tileset for outdoor maps. Add some child NPCs with ballons or cotton candy for immersion.

A distinctive Chamber of Commerce building and and financial district in Steel Canyon or Galaxy City. Again, future additions could open these areas to more mission options.

More unique restaurants and shops. Distinctive design for fast food joints like City of Gyros. Think McDonald's. Everyone can recognize a McDonalds.

A Museum of Art, and a Museum of Natural History that we can walk through, with flags advertising the latest exhibits. Don't put these important, world renowned centers of learning and entertainment in the slums of King's' Row, it isn't realistic. This could later open to a unique tileset for missions and unique contacts with repeatable themes befitting the museum theme.

According to the lore Founder's Falls is where the city began. It should look like a historic district. Think Quincy Market in Boston, or Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Founder's Falls should have building textures used infrequently elsewhere to give it a unique flavor. Make the buildings lower, use more wooden textures, make the alleys narrower. Don't use neon.

Make the shop windows look like the type of shop inside. There are many bowling alleys in Paragon City with windows that look like warehouses inside.

Since this is a wishlist I'll include a zoo, even though I'm aware that the art resources for such a thing will never be available.The comics are full of epic battles between heroes and villains taking place between the exhibits of zoo animals. Later additions could include an outdoor instance to stage such battles.

I'm of the opinion that dead zones like Boomtown should just be closed to cocnentrate the player base and the utilization of art resources alike.

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Meet my characters: Marqaha's Managerie
Adversity/Animosity: Strength through Diversity. Respect and Fun.

Just a reminder guys, try and keep your posts to a paragraph in length. :P

I know we're all excited and all want to contribute, but some of these posts...geesh.

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<-- SJ fan here.

I would like more multi-tiered buildings. I love it when jumping through the city I can find places to land. I also love being able to have a spot to just look around when way up high.

A decent amount of buildings do have these, but it should be much more prevalent. It seems some zones/areas of zones just have the same buildings that just go straight up.

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A few things I want to say:

First of all, I want to cast my vote AGAINST "more glass towers." Glass towers are boring. They have one shape - a box - and one finish - mirror-surface glass. You think zones look repetitive now? I shudder to think what they'd look like if they were all turned into glass towers. I'd much sooner see a city built out of architecture reminiscent of the Chrysler Building, the World Trade Centre or the Empire State Building than a whole city of Sears Towers.

Secondly, scale. Just about every building in the city is BADLY out of scale, When you climb a building's windowsills, you will quickly notice that each floor is around 6 feet tall, and most skyscrapers' foundations are smaller than most standing houses. It's not so evident in City of Heroes as there are just a lot of buildings, but in City of Villains, it's REALLY apparent. When Aion "City" is comprised of, like four buildings, each with a footprint smaller than my house (and I'm a poor sod, too), something is wrong.

Speaking of which, City of Villains. Something needs to happen to its dull-grey appearance and its slummy look. City of Villains is built out of black, white and brown right now, with very little else, and most of the areas are either monochrome depressing architecture or brown disgusting slums. A grand total of two... Well, one and a half zones have a blue sky - all the others are permanently overcast. Either we need a new zone that's less depressing, or we need to clean up some of the slums and diversify some of the buildings. Be nice to see CoV buildings that aren't made of either black stone or brown brick. Haven't those guys heard of paint?

And, of course, the Combine wannabe architecture that is Arachnos forts needs to have something happen to it. It stands out like a sore thumb and far too often makes no sense, being by far the most out-of-scale of them all. Just look at Ghost Widow's tower in Fort Cerberus. At the narrow part, the thing is about as wide as my outstretched hands, and we're running around huge, sprawling levels inside of it? BAD! This thing needs to be about ten times as wide as it is to so much as BEGIN to look reasonable. And that goes for most buildings in the entire game. An entire apartment building can't be as wide as a single room and as long as a short hallway. And who builds a building with a two-wing window every foot along the outside wall?

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P.S. The Architect building in the War Zone: Move it into the Vanguard Compound to be accessed off a side door and leave the current Architect building shot up, windows broken, equipment defunct and abandoned. That's what happens when you build a fancy internet cafe IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR ZONE!

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I would love to see some rebuilding taking place in Boomtown. Reconstruction in that area would not only bring some desperately needed aesthetic to the region, but also be a good reason to start using it more. It's one of many areas that's seldom ever mentioned. As far as design, I would LOVE a darker more moody atmosphere. Think... GOTHAM! Tall stone buildings, covered in gargoyles, deep dark alleys. Maybe using that nifty little Ultra Mode, give it a recently rained on look. You know, puddles with reflective surfaces. The sound of splashing water as our toons run down streets lit but street lanterns. Possibly even go for a more old world England "feel". As if Jack the Ripper would jump from around the corner. I think that could inspire some really interesting characters.

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Another building-related thing - now that there's no longer a 35+ restriction on co-op content, please move the AE building in the RWZ to Pocket D instead - it's way better suited to an entertainment zone than a war zone
Stick it on a floating rock island on the opposite side of the club from the ski slope, and either make a portal leading to it, or a covered bridge.

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@Golden Girl

City of Heroes comics and artwork

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@Golden Girl

City of Heroes comics and artwork

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Head of TRICK, the all Trick Arrow and Traps SG
Part of the Repeat Offenders
Still waiting for his Official BackAlleyBrawler No-Prize

I'd love MASSIVE buildings for major, plot important places.

Things that you just go up to and say "Whoa..."

Like the tower in Nova Praetoria.

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Three requests, which may or may not be appropriate for this thread:

1. Let me see in windows when I can see out of them. AE building for instance. When I am in AE looking out, I can see people standing outside AE through the windows, but if I'm outside, I can't see inside the building.

2. Let us enter more types of buildings, especially if they are "specialty" buildings like the Donut Shop in Faultine.

3. I'm gonna renew a request I made way back when bases where coming, but details were scarce. I appreciate the ability to enter my base from the swirly vortex portals in various parts of the city, but I also want the ability to give my base a physical location in Paragon City. My suggestion was to let the SG member with the proper permissions be able to select a door in Paragon that would be the door to the SG base.

The way I figure it, you've got all these clickable doors ALL OVER THE CITY, why not let people choose a door and say "That door, there, is the door to my SG Base". So people could use the portals if they weren't in the correct zone, but they could also go to the physical building and enter that way.

For instance, I've created a base and made it look all warehousey and I've decided I want the base to be located in Kings Row. I can go to Kings Row and find a door somewhere in the zone. Maybe at that point, I can right-click on a door and be given the option to "Select as Base Door" or something to that effect. From that point on, that door would/could be indicated by a marker on the map to all SG members. They could go to that location, click on the door and enter the base, or use the convenient portals just as they are now in other zones.

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(Liberty) Trick Dacy - Forge Steel - Hypother Mia
(Freedom) Folgus Sprit
(Infinity) Marcus Solomon
(Protector) Thylacine
(Justice) Ashkicker - Revile

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(Liberty) Trick Dacy - Forge Steel - Hypother Mia
(Freedom) Folgus Sprit
(Infinity) Marcus Solomon
(Protector) Thylacine
(Justice) Ashkicker - Revile

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Dec out.