Which zones wowed you the most?

[Nayland1971]

So basically, which zones in the game made the biggest impact when you first saw them? For me:

 

Crey's Folly:

 

Loading into the zone and seeing Crey's devastation was really amazing. I think I knew a bit about the backstory and seeing this flooded nightmare where normal people used to work was really impressive. The large masses of water also added to the atmosphere, showing the amount of flooding that had taken place.

 

King's Row:

 

After the glitz and glamour of Atlas Park and/or Galaxy City, it was startling to see the run-down neighbourhoods of King's Row, with its run-down brownstone buildings (using the term 'brownstone' loosely here). Despite all this, the giant coin with Blue Steel standing in front offers a spot of hope amidst the grime. I did a lot of street sweeps here in the early days.

 

St. Martial:

 

Well, the casino is cool. What more do you need?

 

Founders Falls:

 

It looks nice, but what grabbed me mostly was the theme, the one with those descending chords. I would sometimes visit the zone just to listen to it!

[JasperStone]

The original Dark Astoria, now Echo Dark Astoria.

 

The fog........ 'nuff said.

[laudwic]

3 minutes ago, JasperStone said:

The original Dark Astoria, now Echo Dark Astoria.

 

The fog........ 'nuff said.

 

And the ghosts of normal people walking in the fog as if they were continuing their normal lives.

 

Always liked the original Dark Astoria from a visuals standpoint.

[The_Warpact]

Croatoa an ancient blood feud, rolling country side, and Sally. All we need now is Rawhead Rex as a GM.

 

St. Martial I love the casino and the Longbow event. Which trashing Longbow in any zone on Redside is fun.

 

Shadow Shard, the bleak vastness of it all. The ultimate place to play hide and go seek.

 

All the pvp zones, just so fun to explore.

 

 

[Darmian]

Praetoria.  All of it.  Still looks amazing.

[Doomguide2005]

Which time?

 

On Live ~ 2005 Shadow Shard (Storm Palace)

 

On Homecoming  ~ 2019 hands down seeing Atlas Park for the first time (again) easily exceeds anything and everything else. 

[Nayland1971]

10 minutes ago, Doomguide2005 said:

Which time?

 

Whatever you want!

[Chrono-Bot]

Original Flavour Dark Astoria!

 

I used to just hang out in there bein' spooky on live and during shutdown it was the zone I thought of most, thinking of stories to go with the explore badges which are *amazing* for that zone.

The ghosts of people walking in the distance, the fog, the music, the way it builds out to a more and more arcane area with the graveyard... yes good.

[Techwright]

Peregrine Island and Striga Island.  Perhaps it was the lack of war walls, but these two vastly different islands have a different feel than the rest of blue side, including Talos Island

[TerroirNoir]

Finding Galaxy again through Ouro.  Ok, it's not as shiny as present Atlas, but...

 

I have a lot of love for Port Oakes.  Just the entire grimy, gritty feel of the place.

[Jiro Ito]

I've always loved Croatoa

[High_Beam]

21 hours ago, Doomguide2005 said:

Which time?

 

On Live ~ 2005 Shadow Shard (Storm Palace)

 

On Homecoming  ~ 2019 hands down seeing Atlas Park for the first time (again) easily exceeds anything and everything else. 

This.  Totally agree.  The Shard, the first time I went there seemed so daunting and alien and creepy at the same time.  Of course it became tedious and painful but that was the point I suppose.  Praetoria was nice the first time because of the clean nature but it sucks.  But yeah, coming back, zoning into Atlas for the first time after the shutdown was the best, my heart was literally racing (maybe that was the coffee and amphetamines but whatever).

[Greycat]

On 5/25/2022 at 10:39 AM, laudwic said:

 

And the ghosts of normal people walking in the fog as if they were continuing their normal lives.

 

 

... until they disappeared. :) It was a regular haunt (no pun intended... well, maybe a little pun intended) of one of my mains on live.

 

Along with original DA, Croatoa when we got to see it in beta. Both for the zone itself, which was quite different from anything else in game, but for seeing "Ooh, those mobs are fighting... and actually *damaging* each other!" for the first time, as opposed to the shadowboxing they were doing before.

 

Special mention (as it's not a "zone") to the underground caverns in the Eden trial. They almost look painted. Nothing else like them in the game. (And then there's the giant bones...)

[Spaghetti Betty]

Terra Volta, with the huge power plant in the sky. Wish there was more to do there.

 

Croatoa is still one of the coolest zones to date.

 

The first time I went through First Ward blew my mind.

[Jiro Ito]

2 hours ago, Greycat said:

 

 

Special mention (as it's not a "zone") to the underground caverns in the Eden trial. They almost look painted. Nothing else like them in the game. (And then there's the giant bones...)

 

looooovvvve the Eden Trial atmosphere.  wish there was more to do in there

[Oubliette_Red]

Night Ward, definitely Night Ward.

 

 

[Snarky]

I will always love the original Mercy Island.  Not the watered down version we currently have.  The grim sordid petty little place where you busted out of prison and then started becoming a villain.  Fort Darwin, my home, lost in time.

 

I was quite impressed with Goldside.  With a better understanding of the game, more time, more tools, the Devs really made a great environment there.  I hate the political nature of Goldside.  But the zones?  Fuggedaboutit.

[Marshal_General]

5 minutes ago, Oubliette_Red said:

Night Ward, definitely Night Ward.

 

 

Looks like someone is about to summon Gozer.

[Zhym]

2 minutes ago, Snarky said:

I will always love the original Mercy Island.  Not the watered down version we currently have.  The grim sordid petty little place where you busted out of prison and then started becoming a villain.  Fort Darwin, my home, lost in time.

Fort Darwin was so appropriately named back when it was where villain characters started out.  The number of times I ventured out from there, got my butt thoroughly kicked, and ran back to the relative "safety" of the fort (and had to look Kalinda in the eye as it became increasingly clear how lame I was as a villain)?  Well, it sure gave me a feel for how dangerous the rogue isles were.

 

It wasn't the same when they moved the starting point to somewhere safer and cleaner—and Longbow of all things took over Fort Darwin.  Feh! 

 

I do like that there's an arc you can do to reclaim Fort Darwin.  I just wish the arc weren't so repugnant.

[PeregrineFalcon]

40 minutes ago, Snarky said:

I will always love the original Mercy Island.  Not the watered down version we currently have.

Wait, what?

 

I played villain side a lot. In fact my first character was a villain. It was the mayhem missions that convinced me to buy CoV in the first place.

 

I don't remember Mercy Island being changed. Not saying that it wasn't. I'm old. There's lots of things that I forget. How was it changed?

[RCU7115]

The Hollows and original Faultline 

[Thrones]

Sure are a lot of shooting stars in the Night Ward, but none shine as bright as your eyes, beautiful. 

[Zhym]

49 minutes ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

I don't remember Mercy Island being changed. Not saying that it wasn't. I'm old. There's lots of things that I forget. How was it changed?

I don't remember what else, but the starting point used to be Fort Darwin.  For me, at least, starting out in a far corner of Mercy Island—where the walls of Mercy proper loomed over you—created a great feel for your character being a nobody who had to fight to get out of the (almost literal) gutter.  Moving the starting point to Mercy made sense for creating a more central starting area with amenities similar to what heroes get in Atlas Park, but a lot of atmosphere was lost in the process.

[Cutter]

Seconding the shout-out for Terra Volta. It features so much variety, unlike every other "oh look a disaster happened here" hazard zone. Not to mention rivaling (and in some ways exceeding) OG Faultline for the challenge for superspeedsters to get around. Finding my way around as much of TV as possible on foot is still on my to-do list.

 

Also, Striga Isle. I remember when that first came online. Again, a great variety of terrain unlike the average city zone, and the self-contained story arc chain was a nice treat. (Special mention for the Wolf's Throat underground tunnel - I would love to see that piece of map used for something!)

Edited May 27, 2022 by Cutter
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[Clave Dark 5]

Back on Live I didn't get too many chances to run TFs and whatnot (I soloed a LOT), so now that HC is back I've been catching up on the stuff I missed the first time round - like Hami raids!  The Abyss is a pretty cool and dramatic natural landscape kind of map, I kind of wish there was more to do there.

 

Croatoa's always been a fave.  Any new magicy-spooky-something characters of mine always tool through to get every badge there ASAP.

 

Speaking of both those things mentioned above, I'd never really gotten into the dark and winding paths of Perez Park until HC, I really like that area  too.