More ethnically diverse content

[ZacKing]

I realize this is a huge undertaking, just making the suggestion in the hope the game survives and gets to a point where more large scale development can be done. 

 

I would like to see more ethnically diverse content.  By "content" I mean architecture, trees, skins, costume parts, weapons, stuff for bases all that kind of stuff.  maybe even a new zone or two.  Most every major city in the world have their own areas or districts where people of common ancestry gather and live and work, like a Chinatown or Little Italy, Little Tokyo, Little Havana etc.  these areas are sadly noticeably missing in Paragon City.   I think it would bring the city more to life and would be great to be able to have assets available for base building for the base builders out there to build with.  Not to mention more variety for ethnically diverse character concepts.

 

[Galaxy Brain]

I like the idea, but thatll be a little ways off to make all the new assets

[boggo2300]

While that would be really cool, the amount of work would be massive!

[ZacKing]

10 minutes ago, boggo2300 said:

While that would be really cool, the amount of work would be massive!

Yes.... I know.  read the first sentence of my post again.  This is a suggestion for the future where hopefully the game is legit and can have a full development staff working on stuff.

 

[krj12]

I'd like to have completely new cities in various parts of the country and the world.   be nice to have new start areas and new quests instead of repeating what we have ad-nauseum.

 

[Call Me Awesome]

City of Heroes Chinatown?  An expansion pack for City of Heroes, alongside a City of Paris, London etc.

 

Yeah, it's a HUGE undertaking and not likely to happen unless the game can go for profit and afford to hire a full time Dev staff.  I do like the idea though.

[Haijinx]

While not a bad idea, seems like an idea that needed proposed during the Alpha/beta of the main game, or one of the expansions.  

 

 That said a lot of real cities on the east coast also lack the described architectural diversity.    

 

And some stuff may seem missing, but maybe not as much?  For example I've never seen a mosque in City of Heroes.  But I don't remember seeing any churches either?   Churches may exist and never registered to me, though.  

[Haijinx]

I wonder how hard it would be to do something more simple like make some signs in other languages. 

 

For example Dearborn in Michigan has a large middle eastern community, but the architecture is the same as the rest if the area, but the signs are in arabic. 

[boggo2300]

2 hours ago, Call Me Awesome said:

City of Heroes Chinatown?  An expansion pack for City of Heroes, alongside a City of Paris, London etc.

 

Yeah, it's a HUGE undertaking and not likely to happen unless the game can go for profit and afford to hire a full time Dev staff.  I do like the idea though.

You do know that Homecoming team have said they will never go for profit, and it's pretty likely thats one of their major negotiating strengths with NC

[ZacKing]

29 minutes ago, Haijinx said:

While not a bad idea, seems like an idea that needed proposed during the Alpha/beta of the main game, or one of the expansions.  

The same thinking can be applied to 99% of all the other suggestions being made here on these forums.   I'll say it again I know this is a huge undertaking.  It is a suggestion which as I understand it the homecoming people have said they want to here from us, no matter how crazy or complex.

 

Seems to me if the game is to survive in the future if by some chance it isn't shut down, more development will be needed.  otherwise it withers and dies on the vine.  New powersets are great and all, but how many times can you explore the same places and do the same story content?

 

Atlas park was spruced up quite a bit after beta testing.  Many other zones were added over the years.  Little things like Wentworths buildings were added all over. 

32 minutes ago, Haijinx said:

I wonder how hard it would be to do something more simple like make some signs in other languages. 

That's a pretty good idea.  If you look at some of the images I posted, maybe the building textures in certain areas and signs on the streets could be changed to give it a bit more diverse flavor? 

[Lines]

There are unused areas of the city that could be themed in such a way. I'm thinking the residential part of Independence Port in the top right, for instance.

 

All this depends on us being able to get new assets into the game. At that point, I know I'll be trying to mess about with the city.

Edited December 30, 2019 by Lines

[Haijinx]

24 minutes ago, ZacKing said:

The same thinking can be applied to 99% of all the other suggestions being made here on these forums.  

99% of the suggestions made do not get adopted though.  

 

Even the ones with no new assets or specific coding requirements.  

 

 

[Leogunner]

Maybe I'm nitpicking, but do you mean "cultural" rather than "ethnic"?

 

Or perhaps I've got a warped definition of these two, cultural usually referring to a set of customs, traditions, art and achievements of a society while ethnically is referring to the actual population and their birth/origins/background.  Unless you're saying we need to diversify the skin color and faces of the people walking around?

 

I'm going by the context that you will hear those SJWs complain about cultural appropriation which is wearing the clothes or using the aesthetics of a subgroup of a non-white ethnicity.  That being the culture belongs to that specific ethnicity.

[Troo]

Some of this is already in game.

[Haijinx]

22 minutes ago, Leogunner said:

Maybe I'm nitpicking, but do you mean "cultural" rather than "ethnic"?

 

Or perhaps I've got a warped definition of these two, cultural usually referring to a set of customs, traditions, art and achievements of a society while ethnically is referring to the actual population and their birth/origins/background.  Unless you're saying we need to diversify the skin color and faces of the people walking around?

 

I'm going by the context that you will hear those SJWs complain about cultural appropriation which is wearing the clothes or using the aesthetics of a subgroup of a non-white ethnicity.  That being the culture belongs to that specific ethnicity.

This seems a good distinction to make.

 

Ethnic/cultural were terms used for what was often thought as same thing by people over a certain age.  Maybe because those of us hovering near 50 grew up in more biased times. 

 

But cultural is probably the better descriptor here.  As Leo suggests. 

 

There are some elements of this sort if Architecture variety in DCUO in Metropolis for example.   But not Gotham.

 

As far as skin color diversity,  that seems to be already represented in COH and has been from the beginning. 

[UltraAlt]

I would assume  that the easiest way to handle this would be to duplicate an existing zone, renaming it,  and slowly doing a makeover on it.

Subtle changes to the buildings to add flavor. Changes to the advertising signs. 

 

The hardest part of this is making the zone useful enough for players to have a reason to go there and the easiest way I can see to do that is to auto sidekick or mentor everyone in the zone to a certain set level, so that everyone is more-or-less equalized and anyone can participate in the zone for level relevant rewards.

 

Zone missions would default to those that are already in the zone and street enemies as well. Possibly modifying villain group names and appearances over-time for more flavour.

 

Of course, as players, we have the ability to make Cultural-related missions in the AE. I mean, that kind of thing is what the AE was designed for and not power-leveling. (So wish they have brought the 40-ton ban-hammer down hard the first day and kept hitting with it so that AE power-leveling had never happened the way that it did ... and apparently still goes on ... empty low level zones? yeah. looks like.).

[ZacKing]

On ‎12‎/‎30‎/‎2019 at 5:28 PM, Leogunner said:

Maybe I'm nitpicking, but do you mean "cultural" rather than "ethnic"?

 

Or perhaps I've got a warped definition of these two, cultural usually referring to a set of customs, traditions, art and achievements of a society while ethnically is referring to the actual population and their birth/origins/background.  Unless you're saying we need to diversify the skin color and faces of the people walking around?

 

I'm going by the context that you will hear those SJWs complain about cultural appropriation which is wearing the clothes or using the aesthetics of a subgroup of a non-white ethnicity.  That being the culture belongs to that specific ethnicity.

Yeah you're nitpicking and seems like you're trying very hard to find something that isn't there.  Nowhere in my post did I mention anything about changing skin colors of NPCs walking around.  waaaay off base there, like totally.  Read the post again.

 

What I suggested was to make Paragon City have more diverse "ethnic" or "culturally" or whatever word you want to use content.  that's all.  I would like to have my heroes and villains be able to do some missions in a Chinatown or Little Havana in CoH.

 

 

[Leogunner]

3 hours ago, ZacKing said:

Yeah you're nitpicking and seems like you're trying very hard to find something that isn't there.  Nowhere in my post did I mention anything about changing skin colors of NPCs walking around.  waaaay off base there, like totally.  Read the post again.

 

What I suggested was to make Paragon City have more diverse "ethnic" or "culturally" or whatever word you want to use content.  that's all.  I would like to have my heroes and villains be able to do some missions in a Chinatown or Little Havana in CoH.

I'm aware it's a nitpick.  My post was a correction of grammar which presented examples with a bit of context to show the difference in those two words.  I was assuming using the term "ethnic diversity" in the current political climate in the west, the specific context of it was pretty widely known so nitpicking that wouldn't be seen as a personal attack.  Another example, ethnic diversity in colleges is specifically talking about the alumni and maybe the professors, not the cultural climate of the school.

[ZacKing]

Grammar doesn't need correcting thanks.  And I would appreciate it if you could please leave politics of any kind out of the discussion.  it's got nothing to do with the suggestion at all and doesn't belong here.

[Daisho]

This really isn't thematic to City of Heroes. Not to mention not very realistic with the game's current development resources. Even if it was, it would just feel shoehorned in for "diversity."

[Lines]

8 minutes ago, Daisho said:

This really isn't thematic to City of Heroes. Not to mention not very realistic with the game's current development resources. Even if it was, it would just feel shoehorned in for "diversity."

I disagree on both counts. Absolutely, the existing lore would influence the city, but the lore is there to warrant this. And I'd be very excited to explore more variety and unique landmarks and environments in the city.

 

For example, a Boomtown redevelopment could have Tsoo funding and take some cultural cues in the architecture.

 

European architecture from the Rogue Isles and The Family may also start taking a hold.

 

St. Martial is also a good spot for culturally themed architecture, in a Vegas sort of way.

 

Once there are methods and tools for world design, this is the sort of thing that volunteer teams of 3D artists who don't mind a lower poly count than usual could collaborate on. It's happening, slowly.

[ShardWarrior]

18 minutes ago, Daisho said:

This really isn't thematic to City of Heroes. Not to mention not very realistic with the game's current development resources. Even if it was, it would just feel shoehorned in for "diversity."

I could not disagree more.  Adding more diversity is always a good thing in my opinion.  Having more diverse costume pieces, weapons, tailored NPCs and assets for base building opens up a whole lot more creativity for character concepts and themes. 

 

As for it being a huge undertaking, yes we already know.  The OP acknowledges and reiterated as much and is correct the majority of suggestions being made in this forum are "wishes" and more than likely will never be implemented.  I understood the Homecoming staff to want to hear our ideas as well, no matter how crazy.   It is nice for us to be able to dream and share ideas here even though they may never be implemented.  It should go without saying that in the current environment, most suggestions are simply not feasible. 

 

I personally love this idea.

 

[VileTerror]

I mean, let's not forget where Paragon City is geographically.  It's analogous to New York City in the real world in a lot of ways.  That's one of the most culturally AND ethnically diverse places in the whole world!

[Leogunner]

3 hours ago, ZacKing said:

Grammar doesn't need correcting thanks.  And I would appreciate it if you could please leave politics of any kind out of the discussion.  it's got nothing to do with the suggestion at all and doesn't belong here.

That's why I nitpicked, because ethnicity is quite political in the current year.  Not many complain about culturally authentic restaurants or festivals but they will obsess over the ethnicity of particular political candidates or topical stories.  You don't have to take my advice as I'm not forcing the matter, but it's unwise to ignore someone's point of view out of spite.  I was trying to help you.

[Haijinx]

1 hour ago, Leogunner said:

That's why I nitpicked, because ethnicity is quite political in the current year.  Not many complain about culturally authentic restaurants or festivals but they will obsess over the ethnicity of particular political candidates or topical stories.  You don't have to take my advice as I'm not forcing the matter, but it's unwise to ignore someone's point of view out of spite.  I was trying to help you.

That, and the example idea of a Chinatown that "looks like" Chinatown is a cultural distinction.  

 

Since by far most people of "Ethnically" Chinese descent in the US live in places that look exactly the same as people from anywhere else.