Tell me again we have War Walls?

Call me crazy, but I like the war walls. I like being able to clearly see the edges of the zone. The "not-really-visible-until-you-smash-into-them" outdoor instances where you can see areas but not get to them drive me crazy. Especially when the area is not square shaped. Not to mention the, uh, "fun" of super speeding around a map and seeing "Warning: You are about--" [Loading Screen]

I think they should change the War Walls to Sugar. You know, Sugar Walls.

They should at least put some anti-air turrets up on the tops of those walls, what with everything that can just fly over them.

Also, they should at least do the Vista thing at least partially with the boundary between Talos Island and Founders' Falls. Look at them on the game's map, then look at that wall from either TI or FF and try to peer into the opposite zone. Completely incongruous!

I actually think war walls make a certain amount of sense, even in the present context of the lore.

Sure, stuff can fly over them, teleport past them, whatever. But paragon is essentially still a militarized zone; under constant rikti threat, inhabited by various military/terrorist/criminal groups, host to daily running battles between them and the police/heroes. In that environment it makes sense to cordon off the city so that you can at least contain any crazy stuff that goes down.

That way, when the hollows/faultline/boomtown (or generic rikti invasion) happen, you have ready-made chokepoints you can use to keep the madness from spreading all over the place.

I like the War Walls, and would be very disappointed to see them removed. "Just a city" is incredibly boring, much like your typical Fantasy featureless forest, or your generic dungeon. Our competitors have proven that without a shadow of a doubt, and after having seen Praetoria, I'm even more convinced of this. "Just a city" has nothing which interests me, regardless of how much it looks like a real city. I look out my window and see a real city, and it's not that interesting.

The War Walls bring a fantastic element to the city. It reminds us that, even though this looks like any old place you may have been in, even though it looks 20th century, and in places even 19th century, it's still very much a city of the future, nestled between high-tech barriers and involved in a storyline bigger than your typical GTA. It's like Final Fantasy's Midgar, where a typical slum exists, but underneath a massive superstructure holding up an upper level of city, or the city in the skies in Battle Angel Alita towering over the less developed settlement below.

To me, the War Walls' omnipresence is what makes the settings interesting. It's like rounding a corner around an office building and realising the whole place is on a floating island, or looking up to see not sky, but the outer hull of a giant colony ship, or even looking into the distance and seeing the world curve up into a ring, all the way overhead and back down and around to the other side. It's something that's more than "just a city."

City environments don't grow boring because we don't spend enough time in the desert or in Canada. They don't get boring because you can't see far enough. They get boring because if you've seen one city - usually New York - you've pretty much seen them all. They're buildings and roads, with the occasional parks. That's why I love places like Terra Volta so much - because they provide a contrast to the downtown urban environment without being a completely different game altogether.

Without that omnipresent fantastic element, Paragon City would be a much more boring place.

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Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Heh, speak for yourself Sam, I personally find Praetoria way, way higher on the eye candy scale than Paragon

Besides, have you gone to Tiberian Bluff in Imp and stared at the forests behind the Sonic barrier? I was giving myself heebeejeebies. Something about it is freaky, I tell you.

That, and the subtle way Praetoria is a little too clean and shiny
Paragon would obviously be grittier. But it doesn't have to look like dirt.

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Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

I'll throw m 2 cents in and say I want the War Walls taken down and have Paragon City become more like how Praetoria is. The exception would be to keep the War Walls around hazard zones and around Terra Volta.

It is so much nicer to fly around Praetoria and be able too see 2 zones away. With City of Heroes I just feel trapped in little boxes that don't relate to each other in any meaningful way

Granted this will take a lot of work and the Devs would need to completely redo the game maps. But it is worth the work.

I mean technically Independence Port, being a port should have open water like Talos.

The Praetoria tech of zoning should be enabled in all old zones.. and Cimerora. Even though the zones are still seperate the loading and appearing on the same spot on the other side gives the illusion of one big zone.

And that is what we like to have at least.

I like to be able to fly in cimerora to the Oracle island. Without needing to go into the ITF! Its there.. I can see it! Let be fly to it (even if there would be a blue screen to hit and loading that places me on the other side and same spot).

There was a plan to take down the war walls ages ago. No idea why it fell down probably because they had better things to do.

Personally IMO leave em there. Taking them down means a lot of effort I'd rather see spent elsewhere.

It is a major rewrite of art and zone info for almost every zone unless they throw common sense into it which takes even longer. Eg. they need to be left up in RWZ and anything bordering it on that side. Then what about other Hazard zones? Would they really take down the walls and let swamp monsters from the park wander into Altas? Probably not. All this and not an ounce of additional content or real playability.

By the time you leave all the walls around all the Hazard Zones and the zones bordering them you end up with a lot of the walls still there anyway.

Secondly I HATE the lack of defined boundaries in Praetoria. I am forever accidently zoning when trying to get stupid badges. At the very least there should be absolutely no badge stuff at zone lines ever again as that is really annoying.

You know, maybe we should have more war walls! Why, Croatoa should have war walls!

And so should Cimerora. They need something to get all those traitors out of their city. Maybe something like this: