If you were to add a zone to Paragon City...

[Techwright]

If you were to add a zone to Paragon City, where would you think would be the most interesting location, and why? What would you like to see in that spot?  Please consider how bordering areas might overlap or affect a new zone, giving a more cohesive feel to the city.

 

I'm including a map with a few predefined areas, but please feel free to select anything not in those predefined spots, or perhaps overlapping those spots.  I'm choosing to ignore the background colors for the time being as most currently existing zones do not like up with the borders of those colors.  I'd rather consider it undefined territory for points of discussion.

 

"PDA"= Predefined area

PDA-1 - Croatoa to the NW, Independence Point and possibly Kallisti Warf to the south, Boomtown to the east

PDA-2 - Independence Point to the west, Kallisti Warf to the north, Steel Canyon to the east, Galaxy City to the south

PDA-3 - Siren's Call to the NW, Peregrine Island to the east/NE, The Hollows to the South, Atlas Park to the SW

PDA-4 - Rikti War Zone to the west, Independence Port to the east, Crey's Folly to the south

PDA-5 - Talos Island to the west/SW, Peregrine Island to the NW, Dark Astoria to the south

PDA-6 - Skyway City to the west, The Hollows to the north, Talos Island to the east

PDA-7 - Kings Row to the NW, Skyway City to the NE, Faultline to the east/SE, The Hive to the south, Brickstown to the west

PDA-8 - Faultline to the west, Skyway City to the NW, Talos Island to the NE, Founders Falls to the east, Eden to the south

PDA-9 - Crey's Folly to the NW, Brickstown to the north/NE, The Hive to the east

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2022 by Techwright
added to descriptions

[Glacier Peak]

Cut Talos in half north and south, take the north portion and combine it with the 5 box. Then add water enemies or Coralax. And a giant whirpool near the greek islands. And some giant cyclops. And the rest of the Odyssey.

[Akalabeth]

#1 should be a no travel power zone with "jump puzzles".  They would be popular if there were daily quests or accolades that needed them.

 

#3 & #5 should be underwater since everyone loves underwater zones.  Those are always popular.

 

#4 should be a graveyard with AE buildings... that wouldn't be as popular these days.

 

#9 should be cow pens with quick respawning cows for xp grinding.  That would be popular until the devs nerf the xp on it, but... people would still do it.

 

The rest should all be new pvp zones without any sort of badges in them... those are popular.

 

[El D]

3 or 5 would be the most interesting, with 5 winning out due to the landmass shape alone - that witch hat/Nightmare Before Christmas mountain curl is so much more interesting than yet another 'Here's a box of war walls.' Also because, for a coastal city, Paragon has a massive dearth of actual coastline in-game or beaches that aren't attached to islands.

 

As for content, there's a lot that could be done with it. Coralax invasion like what @Glacier Peak said - or have the Virtea finally appear in-game, since we've got fish monster costume bits now. Have it become 'Little Praetoria' overlooked by a Vanguard base (or/also a U.S. navy base). Include some kind of secret villain lair hidden in there somewhere, trying to take advantage of the refugees (Malta? Knives of Artemis? New group?). Do all of the above and more.

 

Just whatever is done, please don't surround it with war walls.

[tidge]

Can we please have the "under-mountain" zone between Port Oakes and Cap Au Diable first?

[Spaghetti Betty]

I'd like to suggest an underground zone as well - Oranbega. Sure we visit the area in missions, but it's screaming for a fully fleshed out zone.

[Arc-Mage]

Lore says there is a full set of underground tunnels next to the Earths Core. That would be pretty cool to see.

[Yaliw]

I'd like to see 'suburbia' added. I know it sounds weird but we have nothing like it.

 

 

 

 

[Pyriold]

Up above. I want a moon base zone with reduced gravity, would be a blast. And next a space station without any gravity.

[Icono04]

5 hours ago, Yaliw said:

I'd like to see 'suburbia' added. I know it sounds weird but we have nothing like it.

 

I second that motion. We have nice residential neighborhoods in Paragon City already, but they are built up with high-rise buildings which gives a different feel than a suburban neighborhood - street after street with single-family houses, white picket fences and well-cared-for lawns. 

Nothing is ever quite what it seems in the City of Heroes, of course, so there needs to be something sinister going on in suburbia 🙂 A few possibilities:

1) A Stepford Wives kind of place - it is a Nemesis plot somehow.

2) The underground Oranbega zone (as per @Spaghetti Betty's suggestion) is located directly below suburbia. So a very literal "evil lurks beneath the surface" vibe. As an added bonus, the presence of underground sorcerers probably keeps the moles away, which is great for property values because no one likes moles ruining their lawn.

[Disruptor]

Would be cool if there were a plains/fields farm-type country area. No buildings or trees, maybe a couple of giant moving futuristic portal corps farm tractors you can jump on, perhaps they could be part of an event where they take damage from some mob attacking it and will stop moving. Basically a kind of payload you must protect so portal corps or maybe even the city can get their crops/resources or some such.

 

it would be sunny and bright, lots of grass, crops, cornfields, maybe a bunch of cows/horses/pigs and poachers

 

you could run missions protecting crops and the land, maybe their is a group of evil scavenger gold miners or oil diggers that wanna destroy the land for profit.

[BurtHutt]

No new zones for me. I would be fine if the Devs made a new trial, TF and/or SF which included new zones within them. We already have way too many zones and many are rarely used.

[Jiro Ito]

7 hours ago, Icono04 said:

I second that motion. We have nice residential neighborhoods in Paragon City already, but they are built up with high-rise buildings which gives a different feel than a suburban neighborhood - street after street with single-family houses, white picket fences and well-cared-for lawns. 

Nothing is ever quite what it seems in the City of Heroes, of course, so there needs to be something sinister going on in suburbia 🙂 A few possibilities:

1) A Stepford Wives kind of place - it is a Nemesis plot somehow.

2) The underground Oranbega zone (as per @Spaghetti Betty's suggestion) is located directly below suburbia. So a very literal "evil lurks beneath the surface" vibe. As an added bonus, the presence of underground sorcerers probably keeps the moles away, which is great for property values because no one likes moles ruining their lawn.

 

I was going to say, I'd prefer more be added to the zones we have now, especially KW, but I really liked these ideas.

[JasperStone]

9 hours ago, Pyriold said:

Up above. I want a moon base zone with reduced gravity, would be a blast. And next a space station without any gravity.

I think the construction in northern Steel was for access to a moon-base ... 

[Icono04]

3 hours ago, Jiro Ito said:

I was going to say, I'd prefer more be added to the zones we have now

That was actually what I intended to reply when I first read this thread, but then the suggestion of a suburban neighborhood intrigued me so much that I got sidetracked 🙂  That said, there is plenty of unused real estate in the exisiting residential zones, so the suburbia could be added to e.g. the open areas of southeastern Talos Island or Founders Falls.

[Sir Myshkin]

How about we fix the zones we have? Faultline has been under construction for twenty years!

[Shred Monkey]

Wakanda

[UltraAlt]

On 11/5/2022 at 10:57 AM, Techwright said:

If you were to add a zone to Paragon City, where would you think would be the most interesting location, and why? What would you like to see in that spot?  Please consider how bordering areas might overlap or affect a new zone, giving a more cohesive feel to the city.

 

The new areas that I would like to see wouldn't be on the map, so that wouldn't make a difference.

 

Like Cimerora, they would be zones in a different time period.

 

A Western/Cowboy town with rival gun-slinging gangs and law enforcement groups.

 

A Feudal Japan would be fun as well.

 

Korean City/Village area - it looked like they were going to add a Korean City/village area with a supernatural angle.

I was looking forward to play in that environment.

 

[UltraAlt]

On 11/5/2022 at 12:30 PM, Akalabeth said:

#1 should be a no travel power zone with "jump puzzles".  They would be popular if there were daily quests or accolades that needed them.

 

The geysers in the Firebase Zulu weren't well received and a Dayjob flight pack was added so characters didn't have to use them to get around.

City of Heroes isn't a platformer.

 

I understand where you are coming from, but I rarely see characters jumping around on the current terrain features.

 

On 11/5/2022 at 12:30 PM, Akalabeth said:

#9 should be cow pens with quick respawning cows for xp grinding.  That would be popular until the devs nerf the xp on it, but... people would still do it.

 

I would "lol", but sounds like animal abuse.

 

 

On 11/6/2022 at 9:44 PM, tidge said:

Can we please have the "under-mountain" zone between Port Oakes and Cap Au Diable first?

 

What is this of which you speak?

You seem to have some info on this as some pre-existing plan, but I haven't heard of this one.

 

On 11/7/2022 at 5:32 AM, Icono04 said:

a different feel than a suburban neighborhood - street after street with single-family houses, white picket fences and well-cared-for lawns. 

 

Sounds like a Praetorian zone to me, but... yeah ....

Well-cared-for lawns - well-cared-for by ROBOTS!

 

On 11/7/2022 at 5:32 AM, Icono04 said:

1) A Stepford Wives kind of place - it is a Nemesis plot somehow.

 

Yeah, definitely Praetorian...

 

9 hours ago, Sir Myshkin said:

How about we fix the zones we have? Faultline has been under construction for twenty years!

 

Galaxy City was destroyed entirely.

I miss Galaxy City.

 

38 minutes ago, Shred Monkey said:

Wakanda

 

I would say Marvel, but, these days, Disney.

Don't awaken the tentacled beast.

[tidge]

On 11/6/2022 at 9:44 PM, tidge said:

Can we please have the "under-mountain" zone between Port Oakes and Cap Au Diable first?

 

4 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

What is this of which you speak?

You seem to have some info on this as some pre-existing plan, but I haven't heard of this one.

 

Those two red zones are obviously on the same island. There is a collapsed tunnel on the western edge of Port Oakes, and Dr. Aeon has got his tunnels and the PTS system.

 

The lore of both zones definitely implies a significant amount of history. Personally, I don't think red side needs a (low) level appropriate "trial zone", but I'd be up for either:

• A (low) level appropriate "hazard zone" connecting Port Oakes and Cap Au Diable, similar to the Sewer Network blue-side or better (IMO)
• a high level zone that offers a combination of Arachnos patrols,  (scaled) Cap au Diable Demons, (scaled) Coralax, et al.

I'm not terribly fond of the Sewer Network's (or Faultline's) "cramped tunnels", but some combination of (wide, 2.0) tunnels and (very) large open-ish areas (I don't want to call these "rooms", but effectively that is what they would be) would be an interesting bit of design space, I think. The Praetorian Underground does a good job of having (linked!) underground zones, I feel like something similar could be done here.

[Marine X]

Just a few Ideas by looking at where the areas are:

PDA 1: Airport/Spaceport with a Tram Station at the Terminal. Skyraiders/Council presence to the East, and Cabal in the West. Some Family activity to the south .( 25-30 )

PDA 2: Hydra from Perez come here following the river to Spawn, nearly endless sea of Young Hydra and a Mysterious Rikti Presence. ( 15-20 )

PDA 3: A Blue Zone with similar to Redside island architecture, and populated with minor Redside Factions up to no good. Coralax along the coast. ( 20-25 )

PDA 4: A Forest Maze similar to the ones featured in Goldside Missions populated with Devouring Earth with seeds of Hamidon towards the Center. ( 45-50 )

PDA 5: Main Malta Base, they haven't ever really had a defined Stronghold outside Missions so here we are, and it has access to land and sea spaces for variety. ( 45-50 )

PDA 7,8,9: Suburban Areas with winding streets, Parks and each one with a lurking Group Presence in the shadows, Circle, Cabal, & Clockwork. ( 10-20 )

 

[Yaliw]

An airport would be a neat zone!

[UltraAlt]

3 hours ago, tidge said:

Those two red zones are obviously on the same island. There is a collapsed tunnel on the western edge of Port Oakes, and Dr. Aeon has got his tunnels and the PTS system.

 

The lore of both zones definitely implies a significant amount of history. Personally, I don't think red side needs a (low) level appropriate "trial zone", but I'd be up for either:

• A (low) level appropriate "hazard zone" connecting Port Oakes and Cap Au Diable, similar to the Sewer Network blue-side or better (IMO)
• a high level zone that offers a combination of Arachnos patrols,  (scaled) Cap au Diable Demons, (scaled) Coralax, et al.

I'm not terribly fond of the Sewer Network's (or Faultline's) "cramped tunnels", but some combination of (wide, 2.0) tunnels and (very) large open-ish areas (I don't want to call these "rooms", but effectively that is what they would be) would be an interesting bit of design space, I think. The Praetorian Underground does a good job of having (linked!) underground zones, I feel like something similar could be done here.

 

If it is a complex tunnel system, it could have enemies at various levels. Lower level near the entrances from the lower level zone and then scale up to higher level enemies in the center or near the entrances from a higher level zone.

 

If it was like a standard sewer or cave map (versus just a sewer network), it would have larger room areas mixed in with the cramped spaces. This seems to be good to mix up the types of combat environment. 

 

I'm sure some people would like to see snakes down there.

 

 

[High_Beam]

On 11/7/2022 at 5:32 AM, Icono04 said:

I second that motion. We have nice residential neighborhoods in Paragon City already, but they are built up with high-rise buildings which gives a different feel than a suburban neighborhood - street after street with single-family houses, white picket fences and well-cared-for lawns. 

Nothing is ever quite what it seems in the City of Heroes, of course, so there needs to be something sinister going on in suburbia 🙂 A few possibilities:

1) A Stepford Wives kind of place - it is a Nemesis plot somehow.

2) The underground Oranbega zone (as per @Spaghetti Betty's suggestion) is located directly below suburbia. So a very literal "evil lurks beneath the surface" vibe. As an added bonus, the presence of underground sorcerers probably keeps the moles away, which is great for property values because no one likes moles ruining their lawn.

I am onboard with a suburbs of subtle menace.  Like the Springfield in the GI Joe world with the Synthoids is actually a freaky episode and sad (at least for Shipwreck).  

[High_Beam]

It took me a little to think out what I would like and reading other peoples input is fabulous.  This was about adding a zone not doing something with the zones they have (Kallisti Wharf with more than Market Crash) or ressurecting an old zone (Galaxy City as a hard hazard zone).

 

Airport-Spaceport - You zoom in close enough on the game map that came with the box and you will see a Skyway International Airport.  I could see that as a hub zone that had spawn points to "other venues", like gate 3 sends you to Paris or London and you get an instanced zone with a flavored mission.  Just add some "beyond the glass" images of the iconic objects (Eiffel Tower, Big Ben) while staying in the city zone.  Collect the stamps on your passport (badges) and add whatever enemy you want (new or used).  And it can be the launching pad (see what I did there) for a moon base mission or just another general lab skin but called an orbiting space station or whatever.

 

Suburbia - Yeah that one is interesting to me because someone said Nemesis plot and someone said Stepford wives and that works.  Maybe the mechanic of shifting alignment could be put into play, you know they are allies then turn.  You don't know who is normal or not so at any moment they could turn.  That's just the street.  Then you could totally go with secret cabal of menace or nemesis plot or magic or whatever.  I mentioned the Synthoids from GI Joe, just watch "There's No Place Like Springfield" and not say damn, that's freaking devious, and feel bad for Shipwreck.

 

Refugee Zone - This is one that I have pondered since the release of the Second Rikti War material.  The canon says the Traditionalists made peace with us and there is even allusions to establishing diplomatic ties and of course AMA Lore saying that they might have been allies in the fight against the Battalion.  But working with what is there, a small pocket where the good Rikti are and are trying to help us (cure the lost, deal with the imported Hydra, stop the Restructurists that are still causing problems).  Or if you are RIkti weary we could do it with Praetorians.  A whole small zone (not too big) of Praetorians who have no home but still want things to be like home and you have to deal with those entities that are trying to reshape our world to their image vice adapting to it.  There are several angles for moral story telling there.