Everyday things missing from Paragon City/The Rogue Isles/Praetoria.

[Darmian]

Having commented on the recent Day Job thread this led me to thinking about things that could have Day Jobs and that led to this.  Ordinary things missing from the game that really should exist.

 

First off.  Fire Stations.  Not a single one of them anywhere. And yet when the Steel Canyon fire alarm rings that Fireman shows up with his extinguishers.  From where?  Did he just carry them?  He's not a super.  

 

Churches/Places of worship.  Ok, possibly a delicate point given so many people's varied response to religion, whether for, against, indifferent or any shade in between.  There's one (Kinda two but not really) and that's in First Ward.  Plenty of graveyards though.

 

Theaters.  Nope, not cinemas, theaters. (Speaking of cinemas, maybe the signs could change every now and then?).  We have the Theater District in Kallisti Wharf, but it's historical and there's none left.  We have a theater building long since converted into offices in Imperial City, so none there. We have mention of a theater showing a production of something called "Mimi", but I have no idea where it is.  Can't find it.

 

Anything else?

[MsSmart]

I actually, there is a cinema in KR, but have not really been looking for these items to be quite honest. I think there is also a single restaurant as you enter Peres park from Atlas (El Super Mexicano Restaurante).

 

To add to your list:

1) Restaurants

2) Grocery Stores

3) Schools

4) Gas Stations

5) Hotels

 

[Rudra]

22 minutes ago, MsSmart said:

4) Gas Stations

Kallisti Wharf

[srmalloy]

There are other parts of the Paragon City urban area and environs that we don't normally see -- the instanced outdoor maps like the Janissary Heights map, and presumably other areas we never see, because they've got better access screening and aren't overrun with criminal organizations the way the city zones are. The 'missing' locations may be in these 'offscreen' areas. I remember an observation I made about how every place you get sent to in SWTOR as a Jedi is a crapsack world/location -- well, of course they're crapsack worlds; if they weren't crapsack worlds, they wouldn't need Jedi intervention.

[Rudra]

17 minutes ago, srmalloy said:

There are other parts of the Paragon City urban area and environs that we don't normally see -- the instanced outdoor maps like the Janissary Heights map, and presumably other areas we never see, because they've got better access screening and aren't overrun with criminal organizations the way the city zones are. The 'missing' locations may be in these 'offscreen' areas. I remember an observation I made about how every place you get sent to in SWTOR as a Jedi is a crapsack world/location -- well, of course they're crapsack worlds; if they weren't crapsack worlds, they wouldn't need Jedi intervention.

Good point. Like in the Laura Lockhart arc, in the timed mission, the mission is timed to keep the 5th Column and Council from destroying the apartment building at the end. And as far as gas stations go, the only one in  the game is boarded up and being used as a derelict storage area, so maybe Paragon City cars don't use gas any more. (And I haven't seen any cars in Praetoria or the Rogue Isles that I can currently remember.)

 

(Edit: And maybe the schooling is done online?)

 

Edited 4 hours ago by Rudra

[Rudra]

On 10/7/2025 at 9:50 AM, Darmian said:

Churches/Places of worship.  Ok, possibly a delicate point given so many people's varied response to religion, whether for, against, indifferent or any shade in between.  There's one (Kinda two but not really) and that's in First Ward.  Plenty of graveyards though.

Oh, yeah. About churches in the game. It isn't a delicate point so much as an extremely risky or map intensive one. There are multiple reasons to not add churches, but three immediately come to mind.

 

1)  Even in the Christian faith, which is what churches are typically associated with, every denomination within the umbrella of Christianity has their own take on churches. For instance, where I am, there are 5 churches about a block from me. Only two of them are styled in the manner I readily think of as churches. Two of them I didn't even realize were churches until I read the front sign and the building label. So which denominations would get represented by being added to the game and why that one or those ones?

 

2) Paragon City is in the US and we have more places of worship than just churches. There is a mosque I drive by almost routinely. So would mosques and synagogues also get in-game representation? And how much map space should be devoted to all these churches, mosques, synagogues, and other places of worship on the already full maps we have?

 

3) Paragon City is awash in gods. Most of them are player characters, but also NPCs like Tielekku and Hequat. How do we address places of worship for these gods too? And if they don't get their own places of worship, then why not? City of Heroes has actual gods walking the streets, so shouldn't the civilians pause in awe or run in terror even in Paragon City from the honest to goodness deity walking around? Or maybe prostrate themselves in abject worship?

 

So yeah, adding religion beyond current story driven interactions to a video game like City of is problematic at best.

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Rudra
Edited to correct "isn'6" to "isn't" and "ever' to "every".