Suggestion for further city revamp
By
Aett_Thorn,
Posted on: 2011-09-25 23:56 in Suggestions and Ideas
Apparently, there's been something said (i.e. as far as I know it's rumour but I hope someone will pop in to this thread and provide a link to it) about a city zone that doesn't come up often on the boards being revamped.
Steel Canyon and Talos Island would fit this. And I have also envisaged Steel Canyon becoming a more neon, consumer zone than its current incarnation.
Talos Island - not sure about the Greco-Roman revamp. I get that with the heavy Warrior and Tsoo presence, it would make some sense for the place to have a more classical feel, but Talos is a hub zone and, for me at least, I'd say it was more of a beach-front zone. It's where the young, rich, and vacuous would go to hang out at the weekends and during Spring Break. Beach houses, a lower skyline with only a small number of skyscrapers towards the Skyway City exit would make sense to me in a 'real city'.
It is now in close proximity to 2 mystical zones (First Ward and Dark Astoria) and so I figure there must be some 'bleed', if not from First Ward then definitely from Dark Astoria. There already is in terms of the Banished Pantheon mask mobs appearing at night. Maybe add in some older-style abandoned houses approaching the entrance to Dark Astoria?
The place also has the Ghost Ship and now the occasional Seed of Hamidon event. For me this reiterates the need for a lower skyline. To have the ship passing overhead, as opposed to through a ton of geometry, would be much more impressive.
And finally, Talos Island is where Praetorians who become Heroes are dumped. The visual style needs to be different to that of Praetoria but certainly glossier than its current incarnation. With Atlas Park now looking like a 'park', why not add palm trees to Talos. The odd plaza is welcome but perhaps not swathes of marble with outdoor seating. Otherwise a Praetorian would think they're still in Praetoria when in fact they're on a distinctly different Primal Earth.
Oh and I just remembered - it would be a good place for a SAM (not surface to air missile...) building considering Adair and Nance are here. In fact the presence of three of the 'newer' contacts in Talos (the third being Roy Cooling) leads me to believe that it will be Talos that receives an update. Eventually.
The zones that really need looking at for an update are most of the CoV zones, Boomtown, Dark Astoria, and maybe even Eden.
I honestly think that the CoH main city zones are actually good about showing how each neighborhood is a little different from the next. But the CoV zones have always seemed a bit bland to me.
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I'm all for zone revamps. I think it makes sense to start at low level zones and work up.
High level folk have plenty of new stuff to do with the itrials and whatnot. Ideally, there'd be a new zone revamps blue side and redside and a new zone goldside (Praetoria, do we call it gold/yellowside?) working up to Peregrine Island and Grandville.
Obviously some hero zones don't need an overhaul (Faultline, RWZ) but a lot of them are begging for it. boomtown is the ugliest, stupidest place ever. Dark Astoria could be awesome, but right now it's just lame. Same for Crey's Folley.
Sharkhead Isle and Port Oakes could really use some new life. Heck, even Mercy Island could use a little bit more oomph. I mean, atlas got a total plastic surgery overhaul. Mercy just got a bit of makeup slapped on there.
I'd say if CoH wants to continue to survive, to say nothing of thriving, every zone needs to be given a massive redo on par with what happened in Atlas, if not more.
I realize that may be an unrealistic expectation, but I'd love to see it. Going into Atlas for i21 was just...it was awesome. It felt like a new game, but with all the stuff I love still there and refined.
It's not often I say this, but write Boomtown out of the game. Apart from a couple of hunts and a couple of door missions, the zone serves no purpose. There's nothing unique about it, nothing to draw you there if you don't have to go and the whole "destroyed city area" thing has been so epically superseded by First Ward that it just doesn't seem worth keeping it around any more.
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That is also an acceptable solution. It's seriously stupid.
My personal notions of zone themes/architecture/eras:
Kings Row: The Great Depression, 20s and 30s. Brownstones, warehouses and Art Deco skyscrapers in High Park. Police HQ is a post-WW2 addition, the last attempt to make things better.
Perez Park: The surrounding buildings should be upscale apartment buildings and department stores, now visibly abandoned, gutted, and decayed since the first Rikti invasion.
Steel Canyon: Like it is now, but even more so. Replace some of the older-style skyscrapers with glass monoliths, while leaving some as historical landmarks (e.g. the Flatiron Building). A center of commerce for the last century and beyond.
Boomtown: Start rebuilding part of it, close to the gate. For the rest of the zone, apply the lessons learned in making First Ward.
Skyway: 70s urban decay. Not that people still wear bellbottoms there, but think of gritty city neighborhoods under the El tracks and the freeways. The sort of zone that vigilantes moving up from KR would prowl.
Talos: A hotspot of 80s development. As pretty and as shallow as Nova Praetoria or Imperial City. Lots of neon at night.
Astoria: It needs something, but I'm not sure what.
Founders Falls: First, I'd say that the architecture here should be more "colonial", though built up - more like Croatoa. Also, I would really like to see this zone lose most of its villain spawns. It's supposed to be one of the oldest and most upscale districts; why is crime tolerated there at this sort of level, other than to give players a chance to street hunt (which few ever do these days)? Clean it up.
That's all I have for now.
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- Remove the "bandwidth hog" info terminals. If they're not going to be used in the Rogue Isles or Praetoria because of bandwidth issues, just remove them altogether.
- Replace terminals with city buses that actually stop at bus stops (even if the buses are decorative like any car in the game).
I was thinking this over and ran it past the roommate and a few players and they thought it was cool so and if this has not been suggested before I like to make a suggestion. If you devs remake another zone if you remake Steel Canyon how about making it a Neo-Tokyo type city, it would be cool to have a futuristic city like that. Another was Talos Island, a Roman or Greek/modern city. And Kings Row just needs a more Chicago like update.
Like I said it is a suggestion wanting it to keep it short and to the point.