What would Paragon City look like 21 years later? (Speculation)

[Billbailey96]

So I am probably not the first to say this on this forum (if so please send me a link to that thread), but some aspects of CoH and CoV definitely show this game was made in the early 00's. Take for example the beige tower computers present in the office tile sets. Another thing is that a major theme of some zones seems to be the transition from what heroism was in the 20th century to what it is going to be now in the 21st. So I wanted to see what changes you would make to Paragon City or the Rouge Isles to reflect 21 years of change. 

One Idea I had was The Kings Row Development Fund. The idea meant to reflect the growing trend of gentrification and trying to "redevelop" old working class neighborhoods in big cities. In true CoH fashion the KRDF could be a plot by Archanos to gain territory in Paragon while also stirring up discontent that they could exploit. 
What ideas would you implement if you could?
(Edit: Spelling Errors)

Edited June 4 by Billbailey96

[Doctor Thunder]

I would add some amusement park-like areas to the game. A water park in Talos, maybe a super-coaster in IP (Giant Squid-themed!) and so on. Just show that people and life continues. Then I'd update all the clunky computers and phones. And add cell towers to existing water towers etc. also OMG I'd upgrade the cars. The CARS!

[Doctor Thunder]

Also, I were creating new content, some of the maps would be a sports arena of some kind (ideally generic enough to be hockey or basketball or a concert, with the right set dressing) and then a fair/amusement park/renfest environment.

[Snarky]

Well.  The cars would be different for sure.  Most would be electric self driving models.  They would still run you over.  Some things never change.  

[keyguardactive]

I have a half-assed fantasy about, like, City of Heroes Beyond. 

 

Like Batman Beyond, Neo Paragon City is a neon and smoke filled future, cyber punk, Blade Runner, and flying cars and stuff. Old man Manticore is the guy in the chair giving you missions for an arc or two. Ms. Liberty has become Stateswoman. The Rogue Islands are annexed into the city proper so heroes and villains aren't cordoned off. The Circle of Thorns have raised Perez Park into a flying mote city. Maybe some more stuff that was rumored as possible future updates that never happened. 

 

Run it through Oroboros as just a possible future. Or make it in the style of Gold side where you can run a character up to 20 levels and then they get sent back in time to ensure their timeline comes to pass by stopping the Oncoming Storm. 

 

But yeah, that's what I would want. If we're jumping the city forward in time, lets JUMP it. 

[Octogoat]

12 hours ago, keyguardactive said:

I have a half-assed fantasy about, like, City of Heroes Beyond. 

 

Like Batman Beyond, Neo Paragon City is a neon and smoke filled future, cyber punk, Blade Runner, and flying cars and stuff. Old man Manticore is the guy in the chair giving you missions for an arc or two. Ms. Liberty has become Stateswoman. The Rogue Islands are annexed into the city proper so heroes and villains aren't cordoned off. The Circle of Thorns have raised Perez Park into a flying mote city. Maybe some more stuff that was rumored as possible future updates that never happened. 

 

Run it through Oroboros as just a possible future. Or make it in the style of Gold side where you can run a character up to 20 levels and then they get sent back in time to ensure their timeline comes to pass by stopping the Oncoming Storm. 

 

But yeah, that's what I would want. If we're jumping the city forward in time, lets JUMP it. 

I like this one

[Mopery]

Ahh Bladerunner, our old future.

[jprewitt73]

13 hours ago, keyguardactive said:

I have a half-assed fantasy about, like, City of Heroes Beyond. 

 

Like Batman Beyond, Neo Paragon City is a neon and smoke filled future, cyber punk, Blade Runner, and flying cars and stuff. Old man Manticore is the guy in the chair giving you missions for an arc or two. Ms. Liberty has become Stateswoman. The Rogue Islands are annexed into the city proper so heroes and villains aren't cordoned off. The Circle of Thorns have raised Perez Park into a flying mote city. Maybe some more stuff that was rumored as possible future updates that never happened. 

 

Run it through Oroboros as just a possible future. Or make it in the style of Gold side where you can run a character up to 20 levels and then they get sent back in time to ensure their timeline comes to pass by stopping the Oncoming Storm. 

 

But yeah, that's what I would want. If we're jumping the city forward in time, lets JUMP it. 

Two words: 

MOON BASE

[Billbailey96]

So to open up a can of worms: If CoH were to be brought up to today, how much should the game embrace the concept of the multiverse? I know they were doing that back during live with Portal Corp and with Going Rogue, but should more or less be done with the concept?

Personally I have a love hate/relationship with multiverses as they provide neat what ifs, but more often than not they often just provide more to keep track of and it can get confusing. 

 

[JKCarrier]

Praetoria was so poorly-received that the Devs ended up nuking the place. So I would maybe avoid any more multiverses.

[macskull]

Canonically it's at least 2023 in the game universe, so it looks like we already know what the city looks like 21 years later.

Edited June 11 by macskull

[TheMoneyMaker]

I would argue that, in true comic book fashion, Paragon City would remain largely static 21 years later. New construction is slowed by the constant need to rebuild due to giant monster, alien invasion, zombies crawling out of the ground, and general supervillain activity, not to mention heroes dropping nukes and incarnate judgement level bombshells all over the streets. For as much advanced tech there is out there in the world, people continue using old tech because it still works and is cheaper than upgrading until it becomes necessary to do so. One might expect fashion to change over a couple decades, but I'm still wearing the same kind of things for the past couple decades so I don't see much need to change what the civilian populace looks like.

 

Seriously, the only thing that stands out as obsolete in Paragon City are the occasional payphones and lack of changes of movie posters where theaters exist. I'd love to see some updates for those.

[Sakura Tenshi]

I mean it’s kind of a loaded question since it would depend a bit on how things would have shaken out in the storyline. Like The Coming Storm could have flattened Paragon into an Atlantic-filled Crater (or some side effect of said attack). Or it could have basically been turned into some exclusionary zone like First Ward because I think any actual government would see the BS constantly coming out of Paragon and just write the damn city off. Especially with an eldritch god sleeping underneath. That and there’s also the headache of “you mean lorewise or actual in-game?” But setting it aside I guess for just how I’d imagine updating Paragon based on the times:

 

• in general you’d see more modern tech around. Computers, tvs, cars (which were honestly dated looking back at launch)
• Several buildings and roads might have received an update due to the combined Rikti bombings, Praetorian invasion, Mot assault, and Coming Storm. (I also imagine this could have led to several war walls being irreparably damaged and either replaced with a new system or just parts of the city opened back up)
• Per-above, this could have resulted in heavy shifts in population centers, I imagine Atlas would remain largely the same due to how heavily defended it is, but formerly disastrous areas which, for that reason saw little aggression in those events, were would become rapidly gentrified. So Overbrook, Baumtown, Perez Park, and even Eastgate Park might have been reinhabited and efforts made to rebuild/refurbish them.
• Terra Volta may have been retired and decommissioned for similar reasons as the above leaving Paragon, at least for a time, precariously dependent on either outside power sources or the Overbrook Dam for energy.
• With the extrication of Pandora’s Box, the Zig may have also been decommissioned and a new prison might be set up elsewhere. Further adding Brickstown to a gentrified area of the city.
• With all this, and as these disasters were not always localized and the demand for laborers and so forth could result in an immigrant population influx creating or expanding many minority communities such as Chinatowns and the like.
• This would have the double-edged sword of possibly resulting in new Ethno-crime syndicates as well due to inevitable tensions that would rise in communities. Whether natural or deliberately provoked via villainous agents.
• Speaking of crime, I imagine there’d be a heavy reshuffling of many gangs throughout Paragon due to a mix of attrition, new communities pushing out old ones, and just changing leadership and even mergers like we see in Freakalok. Some would remain like Nemesis, Council, and such who are international threats. But I could see others vanish like Hellions (how many even know who their leadership is?) Tsoo and Circle of Thorns (too many members lost in Dark Astoria and leadership changing), Sky Raiders (loss of faith of leadership, too many losses, goldbrickers possibly making better offers), and more.

[Clave Dark 5]

6 hours ago, TheMoneyMaker said:

heroes dropping nukes and incarnate judgement level bombshells all over the streets. 

Considering that I can do that without having to worry about taking out my friends with them, I think I have enough control over my mushroom clouds to not damage the city as well. 😃

[LegionAlpha]

On 6/5/2025 at 3:04 PM, Doctor Thunder said:

 a fair/amusement park/renfest environment.

There is something to that in Khalisti(sp) Wharf villain side. 

[dopeninja]

You would think that in 21 years The Hollows would be done. The gangs and various villains out there could be quickly dispatched by a few Incarnates. It would be nice to see the AP updates applied to other zones.

 

I will add that we haven't really advanced that much outside of electronics in the last 20 years. Houses / apartment complexes are basically the same. It isn't like the shift from the 1930's to the 1950's. That was a time of rapid technological improvements (and missteps) in all areas of life. Now we're just making things smaller, lighter and more efficient. I live in a more rural area so I see just as many rusted out cars / trucks from the 90's as I do new(er) shiny vehicles. 

 

Would it hurt Recluse to send some of his minions to pick up the mess in Mercy? It isn't like the cannon fodder are stopping any of the supes. Maybe Longbow would even grab a broom and help out.

 

[High_Beam]

Remember, Steel Canyon, King's Row, etcetera are just districts of Paragon City, there would be one football team, one basketball team, the Paragon Pummelers or the Paragon Champions.  the districts would be more high school teams or college.  there is also no way they would have rebuilt those insane elevated roads in Skyway.

 

Then again my head canon and 6 books so far have Paragon in a different state as well.

[Skyhawke]

A Starbucks on every. single. corner. 

[merrypessimist]

3 hours ago, Skyhawke said:

A Starbucks on every. single. corner. 

 

Except for the ones where there's a Peet's Tea.

[Go0gleplex]

All the roads would be filled with potholes and cracking, gutters filled with weeds, and parks needing paid passes to be used by anyone due to funding issues, cost overruns, and poorly executed imaginary budgets made by people in charge that don't really get reality. lol  

Boom might finally have all the buildings demolished with a bit more urban renewal completed around the gate and an ad hoc rail station in place.  Faultline would also have a lot of the at risk buildings demolished and more restoration work completed. The Hollows would also have finally been retaken and life slowly returning with the pit being filled in from all the demo work in other zones.  Kings Row would still be a mess and even more of a full on slum despite the PPD HQ being there (for whatever reason rather than actually close to City Hall in Atlas or in Brick to better support the Zig and its frequent breakouts). Skyway's core below the elevated roadways would be also more slum-like as crime rates skyrocket in the shadows below). Perez would be retaken and cleared out with civilian life returning and the forest getting some much needed maintenance, the open space recovered being useful for a staging area to retake and restore the ruins of Galaxy City.  Terra Volta access will be cleared of debris and security restored...and hostile forces purged from the reactor and surrounding industry finally with Vanguard or US military facilities in place to ensure that things stay that way...though dealing with all the resulting industrial espionage and clandestine off the books projects by scientists of questionable morals and/or sanity would likely need increased hero sweeps. 

[TheMoneyMaker]

I would start adding dirt and graffiti to the buildings in Perez Park, and put trash blowing around everywhere. The place is a hazard zone, so no one is going in to do basic clean up, and I just don't see the gangs that hang out there as the type to clean up after themselves.

[Sakura Tenshi]

2 hours ago, TheMoneyMaker said:

I would start adding dirt and graffiti to the buildings in Perez Park, and put trash blowing around everywhere. The place is a hazard zone, so no one is going in to do basic clean up, and I just don't see the gangs that hang out there as the type to clean up after themselves.

 

Honestly, the fact that Perez Park's surrounding buildings seem in pretty good condition has honestly made me surprised it counts for a hazard zone. Part of why I even suggested that in twenty one years it'd become a normal zone was that, plus a lot of the gangs there both in canon and my own scenario would have become non-issues.

 

1. Circle of Thorns were apparently massively weakened due to being disembodied souls and Mot basically feasting on them on breaking out during the DA arcs (might not be helped since it seems implied the empowerment of the Tsoo wasn't just their own ancestors but bonding Oranbegan souls too. But that's just my inference)
2. Hydra and Lost would probably be getting rounded up with Rikti traditionalist and Midnighter aid.
3. Vazhilok has been drawn away into Freakalok stuff combined with Vazhilok having been vanquished back in a level 15 or so arc and the Posi TF.
4. Clockwork aggression may have a drop-off due to the events of the Signature Story Arc 2 and Penny having a talk to with CK (possibly getting help)

Now outside of those canon things, my headcanon adds:

• Hellions would have largely disintegrated into smaller, independent gang cells due to loss of faith in leadership (which might also lead to said leadership, if still around, trying to purge them back into line)
• Skulls seem to be moving onto bigger things, though given the Petrovich siblings apparently grew up there, they might retain a presence as one of the few original gangs.
• But also the devastation of Skyway city and possibly Steel Canyon in my own timeline would basically prove to be far more appealing places for small gangs to migrate to.

[lemming]

19 hours ago, Sakura Tenshi said:

Honestly, the fact that Perez Park's surrounding buildings seem in pretty good condition has honestly made me surprised it counts for a hazard zone.

The buildings in the game are full incarnate tier supers.    Elevators still work in mostly wrecked buildings, lights are on, items that a normal person in the real world could snap in half can't even be moved.   If we could tap into that power?

[Paradox Fate]

There would be no tram travel anymore, because screw public transportation - Have another road lane, instead.

[MTeague]

After 20 odd years, of people constantly re-writing it's history via Ourobous?

Paragon City would have imploded upon itself from the network of ever expanding paradoxes, and would no longer exist. 

At best, it would be some kind of Niflheim place like Night Ward.