If you could give one blue and one red zone a GR style revamp...

Blue side, I would have to also vote for Dark Astoria and Boomtown. He’s why, I would love to see what Dark Astoria would look like all gloomy and such with the new added technology they used to build Praetoria. Boomtown just needs a makeover, seriously how long does it take to rebuild? After all Faultline got a rebuild.

Red Side, I would have to vote for St. Martial and Grandville. St. Martial because I think that map looks great as it is, but would like to see it also get the same technology from Praetoria. Same goes for Grandville, why not make it look as gloomy as it came be, after all, Lord Recluse lives there.

The only really unique features of Terra Volta are the Reactor and Gordon Trench - the rest is just industrial space filler, and there's room for both of those in the red shaded area, plus a lot of the idustrial buildings on both sides of the trench.

Redside, I'd pick St. Martial. Those Casinos, which are already pretty cool looking, would look absolutely fabulous with a Praetorian style make-over.

Blueside, I'm thinking Steel Canyon. Those lackluster skyscrapers could use some Praetorian architecture, and also some new and interesting level 10-20 missions would be good.

Sharkhead. Sharkhead, Sharkhead, Sharkhead.

I'd agree that St. M is bland and pretty much a failure. But if I was to allocate resources I would trying to make a good area amazing rather than trying to up a poor one.

I do love sharkhead, sure a lot of the looks are generic redside - But what really makes it apt for a Gr style makeover is the factions. Sharkhead has such interesting factions, especially considering it's bookended by Cap and Nerva.

You have the Cage (by far my fave group) who are basically oppressing the Scrapyarders. The cage is a wonderful faceless corporation. They are one of the few factions I think should be left bland, they scream corporate giant far more than Crey to me.

The scrapyarder's on the other hand could use a spotlight on them, they have some interesting character in their arcs - All sorts of rogue/vigilante types that could be used for interesting moral choices.

Lets not forget while this is going on the land the Cage is trying to mine is used by the Circle for rituals, adding another competitor to the pot.

But far below that there are other creatures lurking and the mining activity is not exactly making them happy either. But after a hard days work where do you go?

Why back to your slum-like apartments, or perhaps an illegal gambling den run by the Family?

The whole place is a power keg ready to go bang when you think about it. When I think of a villainous city, it's pretty much falls into two categories - The 1984 Praetorian type, or the work-till-you-drop, crime filled, opressive dumps like Sharkhead.

As for visuals, I'd hate to bring it up - But ever played simcity societies? I know, I know, not the best game. But the industrial theme there is how I envision sharkhead. It's a sort of redbrick area from the past. Where the men are 90% steel workers whole enjoy a beer after a hard day and the women are at home trying to raise families on a shoestring.

Where pollution fills the sky and men get killed for their below minimum paycheck.

Ahhh...how I love sharkhead...

Actually looking back on this post it has an awful lot in common with Praetoria, the oppressive cage and the rebel scrapyarders. It's practically Prae without the pretence of utopia.

I'd say Steel Canyon blueside, since Imperial City is so damn gorgeous, I almost didn't want to leave Praetoria just to fly around those buildings some more.

Redside I would say Mercy Isle or Cap au Diable. I really hate Mercy Isle, since its a pretty HUGE map to travel across for such a low level zone (and when you die the hospital is ALL the way across the map), but that's more of a logistic reworking than a graphics....so Cap au Diable would be nicest to see redone.

The more I read this thread, the more I'm realizing I'd rather have thorough zone overhauls than new zones...

I'll go out of the norm here and say Kings Row. The whole zone is drab and dull. If i set my graphics card to display no more than 16 colours at one time, Kings Row would still come out looking the same.

Blue: Brickstown. Why? The Ziggurat. I think the new tech could make it really unforgettable. Especially if we got missions that made us go inside it (Villains: Break out! Heroes: Stop a riot!)

Red: Rather than revamp I'd like an alternative to Grandville. Preferably something not having to do with Arachnos. Have we ever seen what the Carnie's homefront looks like?

Don't forget Crey's Folly also has a freakshow city on the western side, there is a lot of potential there. The whole zone could be awesome, especially when I look at how well Praetoria's underground is done, specifically the puddles of water.

Additional thought: If we're talking "revamp" in the sense of adding new missions or other things for characters to do in a zone as well as graphical upgrades, I'd prefer that it fall in the 30-40 or 40-50 level ranges. The 20-30 game, particularly on the hero side, is already overloaded with things to do that range from i0-bad to pretty good to excellent. While I don't suffer xp stall-out in the upper 30's as I did before xp smoothing, I still find I end up doing the same things over and over as I run characters through those ranges, while each character almost has to take a different path through the 20's because there's more than a single character can handle there.