What is your Favorite City/Zone in COH?

[Bopper]

Personally, I have always loved Founder's Falls. It's my "chill zone" when I just want to log on and hop around the map mindlessly. I love the look, the architecture, the bridges, the canals, all of it.

 

This made me think, where are other folks' favorite destinations in CoH? Their paradise, so to speak. I broke up the question into three as a poll question is limited to 20 options, but feel free to vote on all the ones you like and if I forgot any, feel free to comment.

Edited June 11, 2020 by Bopper

[Apparition]

Imperial City.  The zone is simply beautiful.  I could and would spend all my time in game there if possible.

 

Before sunset, all of my characters would head to Imperial City via Pocket D and do all my crafting and marketeering there.  The trading house there is/was so peaceful compared to the Black Market or especially Wentworth's.

[Monos King]

I absolutely love Faultline, particularly New Overbrook. I remember stumbling in there as a street killing noob, no idea the tunnels actually took you to a new zone, and arriving at this super chill area with a donut shop and a lot of NPC interaction and purples because I was like level 7 and shouldn't have even been in Skyway, much less there. But the New Overbrook theme felt so dramatic, and that experience makes Faultline one of my favorites.

[Coyotedancer]

Wow... Not even an ENTRY for the Shard zones? I love the Cascades and the Chantry.

 

Saint Martial all the way red-side... although I also love the Primeva/Thorn Island parts of Nerva.

 

Imperial is gorgeous gold-side... and I've always been fond of both Croatoa blue-side and Cimerora as a co-op.

 

 

Edited June 11, 2020 by Coyotedancer

[Bopper]

12 minutes ago, Apparition said:

Imperial City.  The zone is simply beautiful.  I could and would spend all my time in game there if possible

 

10 minutes ago, Coyotedancer said:

Imperial is gorgeous gold-side..

Shame on me, but I should have added that. I limited my inclusion to Paragon City and Rogue Isles with a few extras thrown in, but excluding Praetorian content was a miss on my part. If I could have a 4th question in a poll, I would add that to it.

[Oubliette_Red]

Striga. Out of all the zones, is my favourite.

 

Wide variety of mobs and I like Mrs. Peebles.  Besides... giant robot in a volcano!  How can you beat that!?

 

[Troo]

St Martial for look and feel.

Sharkhead for the poor miner strike (closest thing to a stream of non stop targets)

Siren's Call for the evenly matched Longbow vs Arachnos zone battle where one hero or villain can actually turn the tide.

 

Edited June 11, 2020 by Troo

[Lazarillo]

For the hero zones, I had to go with Galaxy.  Maybe I'm just waxing nostalgic now that it's gone, I dunno.  It was the first zone I ever went to (after the tutorial) the first time I played the game.  I always liked the aesthetic more than AP.  Heck, when the servers were going to go down, it's where I went to take my "last" screen shots of the game.  I've just got a lot of sentiment for it; it's got a special place in my heart.

 

Hazard Zones?  Striga's such a cool zone in terms of atmosphere and lore.  Always kinda reminded me of Madripoor from the old Wolverine comics.  A leeeeeetle lacking on the story side (there's definitely some there, but it's still pretty par-for-the-early-game stuff), but in general a neat area, and "this is a rough town, but nobody likes the nazis, so just go ahead and beat the daylights out of 'em" is all you really need to be a hero, I guess.  I just re-ran the arcs in it with a character the other day, and despite how many hunts and boats it is, I really felt like I was having fun from start to finish.

 

And for villain zones?  I like Port Oakes.  Feels kinda like reverse-Striga.  Not so many nazis to beat up (well, there's Vendetti's arc, but he's awfully easy to out-level), but just something about the "rough town" atmosphere, prolly for all the Fambly running things and fighting in factions.  St. Martial's similar, but it's a little too on the nose with its...flaked gilding, so Port Oakes always had a more fun feel for me.

[Techwright]

Talos Island.  While I don't like the Northern 40%, per se, the central island makes up for it.  For a big city zone, it just feels so village-like cosy, with most needs fairly close together, you'd almost expect a barbershop called "Floyd's" on the center square.  Had it a bridge from the tram to the Founders Falls gate,  I could see my characters looking for apartment space...just not next door to Dark Astoria.

 

Hazard Zone, I'd have to say Striga Island.  

 

I've not spent enough time in the red zones, nor the gold zones since joining Homecoming in order to comment on either group.

[Sir Myshkin]

Back before Day Jobs were a thing I would often take my characters over to Croatoa if it was convenient or I knew I'd be logged out of them for a while. Croatoa is also probably one of the only zones I ever make some concerted effort to play the arcs from time to time over any other zone, and is the only story line I intentionally started up on Homecoming.

 

If I count a trial zone separately, then I'd put Striga as that vote (or just a general second). Back on Retail I spent a ton of time there with multiple alts, and even had one character "solo" the Council base by starting at the tunnel (Wolf's Throat I think it's called?) and working my way through it.

[Heraclea]

Cimerora is my in-game hub, where most of my 35+ characters go to auctioneer, dump salvage, and log out. 

 

St. Martial is my favorite villain zone.  Decrepit and sleazy don't really say 'villainous' to me, they say 'depressed and impoverished.'  St. Martial is more what I'd expect from a place where everybody's on the make and take. 

 

King's Row is probably the most uniquely atmospheric city zone.  I would really expect more of Paragon City to resemble it given how bad the local government is (Birch! Rabinowitz!! Alderman!!!) and how infested with crime the place is.  Founder's Falls is second. 

 

Croatoa is the most atmospheric, and I remain fond of Echo Dark Astoria. 

[Bill Z Bubba]

Croatoa and Dark Astoria are my main hangs. Love 'em both.

[Virtual Green]

Aw man.. As with every "what is your favorite CoX [insert topic]", it's pretty much impossible to decide, since CoX has just too many cool zones to pick. After some thinking, here are my favorites :

 

- Blueside : Faultline. Great story, great design, and the Blueside zone that feels most "alive" (runner up would be Brickstown or Kings Row). It has fantastic architecture and layout, the Arachnos-infested tunnels and the Dam are just awesome. And as mentioned before, the over-arching story makes this zone a must-play on basically every character (especially for Agent G's storyline and the final battle royale between the Arachnos and Sky Raiders lieutenants).

Runner-up : Croatoa (magic town, great story, 'nuff said)

 

- Hazard Zones : Striga Isle. How many villain groups can actually claim to have their own zone/volcano island? While I may find the Council to be pretty dull (especially compared to the more colorful and punchable 5th Column), Striga stands as one of the most unique and fun blueside zones. From the linear storylines to the amazing TFs, Striga reminds me of Syndrome's island in The Incredibles : full of green and baddies.

Runner-up : Dark Astoria (both the eerie original and Lovecraftian versions are some of the most atmospheric and freaky zones in the game)

 

- Redside : St. Martial. The Las Vegas of the Rogue Isles, and as others pointed out before me, the one Redside zone which truly feels like what a criminal town would actually look lik. St. Martial makes the player feel like part of a colorful world, and while the playing cards theme certainly helps, the zone's SAs are what makes it truly shine.

Runner-up : Grandville (the Arachnos metropolis, just for how iconic and representative of Recluse's mindset it is)

 

- Goldside : Imperial City. Probably the most beautiful and realistic city-like zone in the entire game, IMHO. IC makes me feel like a Marvel superhero every time I run the contacts there, just because it looks so much like NYC would look like in a comic book world. Nighttime IC.. is just downright gorgeous.

Runner-up : First Ward (amazing zone design, and who doesn't love a sunken/post-apocalyptic city?)

 

Here are my two cents about it, at least!

[Parabola]

Kings Row is the best row. It's the zone that I remembered the most when the game was gone and the one that brought a tear to my eye when we got back.

 

It has to be Perez Park for the hazard zone. I love the atmosphere. I have been known to hang out there for no good reason. It is ripe for a bit of content development too.

 

Rogue isles unfortunately have never done it for me.

[justicebeliever]

I love flying in Steel Canyon.  It feels the most like NYC to me, zig-zagging thru skyscrapers.

 

And the Hollows will always have a soft spot for me.  Not as it is, but as it was, when every low level hero earned their stripes in there.

[0th Power]

Kings row. It’s the best row. 

[cranebump]

The Row. It’s got a gritty feel to it. It’s the Hell’s Kitchen of Paragon City.

[Zombie Hustler]

No option for First Ward? (Or other Praetorian zones?)

 

😢

 

In any event, I went with King's Row for Blueside. The Atlas revamp is the best looking, but I really like the new content (i24 story arcs) in King's Row. A fresh coat of paint (okay, a gritty coat of paint) would make that zone even cooler.

 

St. Martial on Redside, and (new) Dark Astoria as hazard zone.

 

But First Ward is still my favorite zone. Gorgeous and bright, and post-apocalyptic as all get out. If we could only get an abandoned lab in the zone for crafting...

Edited June 12, 2020 by Zombie Hustler

[DoctorDitko]

Steel Canyon, for the soundtrack. Still get a thrill heading downtown.

[pyrocumulus]

Faultline for Blue - the zone is really interesting to explore, just so long as you don't bring super speed. I was amazed the first time I explored the Arachnos tunnels in full. And the arcs are great.

 

Cap au Diable with a honourable mention for St Martial for Red - Both have interesting neighbourhoods with a different feel to every one (especially downtown St Martial, which looks far livelier as a 'downtown' than anywhere Blue), but I spent so many hundreds of hours in Cap on Live it feels like 'home' to me when I zone in. Also I like Marshal Brass' Aeon arcs that lead up to the Virgil Tarikoss SF (and now Hammond's Luddite one, too.)

 

Imperial City for Gold - It's beautiful at night.

 

Bloody Bay for HZ/PVP - I love getting a pocket Shivan buddy. Honorable mention to RWZ for that rock riff when you zone in.

 

[Peacemoon]

Kings/Crey's/St. Martial

 

Was close between Kings Row and Steel Canyon, I like them both. Nothing says CoH to me than Steel Canyon. But if I had to choose 1, I woud miss Kings Row more. 

[Latex]

Kings Row - Has that whole 'amateur' Super Hero feeling to it, sorta Spiderverse beginnings, fighting simple crooks street to street.
Siren's Call - Metahumans fighting toe to toe, Arachnos vs Longbow, it has a great feeling of 'total warzone' when you enter Sirens Call, least of which you know the threat is very plausible.

Cap Au Diable - The zones history is great, love the place and I enjoy Roleplaying there as often as I can, it was a toss-up between this and St. Martial though!