I just played through the human personal storyline of a commoner who joins the Order of Whispers for the very first time… and was thrilled of how much of the old Lion’s Arch you get to visit during the story quest! <3
So, I was wondering: how would you like it if the prankster Mad King Thorne would cast a spell on LA for Halloween, turning it into its former version for the duration of the event?
I for once think that’s something ArenaNet should take into serious consideration.
P.S. I am so in love with this place, I don’t want to leave the instance! :p
The old lions arch looked alot better then the current and im not sure what to think of it. the new LA doesnt seem to be that of a scarlet attack or us rebuilding a place of trade for everyone to come too.
I dont understand why pirates dont just come take everything from the new LA since it doesnt seem to have the big walls or defenses, the old LA was quite something to look at.
The old lions arch looked alot better then the current and im not sure what to think of it. the new LA doesnt seem to be that of a scarlet attack or us rebuilding a place of trade for everyone to come too.
I dont understand why pirates dont just come take everything from the new LA since it doesnt seem to have the big walls or defenses, the old LA was quite something to look at.
I’d really like it. I loved the old LA, such a beautiful city, hub of trading that actually felt like an old trading city. The new LA doesn’t give me that feeling anymore. It’s too clean cut, to flashy and too bright.
The old LA encapsulated the “pirate stronghold” theme quite perfectly, and fit the entire theme of Kryta where it was situated.
At last resort, I really hope Anet creates a fractal based in LA, not just a section of it, all of it. There’s a great story to be told there anyway.
So maybe if you walk into the middle of the mystic forge you enter a pocket dimension and it is in old lion’s arch. Everyone there has bobbledheads and speaks Bork! Bork! Bork! It could happen. You don’t know!
I completely agree with this. I loved the character of old LA.
Mainly, I was very disappointed in how the Halloween decorations looked in the new plaza. It just doesn’t fit with the clean, sea theme. I loved loved LOVED the spooky vibe the whole place used to have. Last year just look sanitized. It didn’t have near the atmosphere it used to. So completely disappointed.
Can’t disagree more. I liked the old Lion’s Arch and it had its place… in the past. I like Halloween in the new LA and I like the new LA on its own.
More importantly, I’d prefer to see the devs work on new things rather than trying to offer old ones for nostalgia’s sake. Restoring the old LA, even just for Halloween, involves more than just restoring the map design. A lot of NPCs have changed, moved, or been removed — it would take someone a fair bit of time to make sure everything that is there now is available, works correctly, and can be swapped back|forth as needed. That’s time that could be spent on something else.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
I agree it for it being brought back for Halloween. Old Lions Arch was an important part of the game and it’s something that new people will only partially see in an instance. Bringing it back will allow them to see what it used to look like and explore it as it used to be. It would be work for the devs but it has a large amount of nostalgia value.
I say why not keep the Old Lions arch to being with. Let’s look at the changes they made to the new Lion’s arch things are spaced further apart. The new Troll Jumping Puzzle blows and Divinity’s Arch now is way better to utilize for crafting and shopping that Lion’s arch is which use to be the hub for all people to use. I personally am hoping for a dragon to kill this new Lion’s arch too or perhaps an invasion from space lol
Maybe they could move Halloween to another city, I bet they could make the grove super creepy if they wanted to or Divinity’s Reach. The new LA looks like a giant skate park to me, all coziness and charm gone. Plus it also looks like some giant child threw his sea toys all over the place, the buildings look silly. I much preferred the old LA.
The more I am thinking about this, the more disappointed I am in the changes. Like I said, the atmosphere is completely different. I don’t want a child’s Halloween party, I want to go to the haunted house. I want carved pumpkins on bales of hay with the feel of autumn in the air. Carts full of candy corn don’t cut it.
Even if they would somehow transform the look and feel of the plaza for Halloween only – I’m not talking radical changes – just an illusion spell that shifts the color away from sea-blue to darker tones. Something that makes the pretty filigree decorations more earthy and fitting for the season. Cover it with spiders and cobwebs or make the edging wood instead of flowing, graceful metal. The way the plaza is right now just does not mesh with the old Halloween aesthetic and I missed it a lot last year. I don’t want to have to jump in the maze to clear my head of the sanitized LA Halloween and get my fix of the good stuff.
Yes this New Lion’s Arch I will be the first to admit was quite frankly useless. I’d rather go back to the ships and challenges of the Old Lion’s arch. It was tastefully done and looked more like a place where pirate Captains would hang out. It was more seafaring. The designer of this new one – the place looks like you just scattered things and prayed it would look alright and I say okay you had your fun put it back please. Right now I don’t hardly even go to Lion’s arch I go to Divinity’s Reach which is still the best laid out city.
I used to go to the old LA all the time… Now I park in Rata Sum. The new one is to bright, to clean, to sanitized. I liked the wooden pirate look of the old one. Sorry, I’m, just not that into EPCOT ripoffs.
This disney waterpark was not Cobiah Marriners’ dream!
This.
Lions Arch now just looks kind of a theme Park, not a city!
Not only do I weep for Cobiah’s dream, the city is now actually useless. I mean you can’t do TP business there, when you have to go back and forth between the bank and the TP a lot. And when people complained about that they added hopping boards instead of a waypoint. Now I spent 95% of my work in either Divinity or Rata Sum (I even got the scroll for easy crafting/Mystic Forge periods)
But seriously, if the fractal portal wasn’t in LA, I would never be seen in that city ever again.
I’d really like it. I loved the old LA, such a beautiful city, hub of trading that actually felt like an old trading city. The new LA doesn’t give me that feeling anymore. It’s too clean cut, to flashy and too bright.
The old LA encapsulated the “pirate stronghold” theme quite perfectly, and fit the entire theme of Kryta where it was situated.
At last resort, I really hope Anet creates a fractal based in LA, not just a section of it, all of it. There’s a great story to be told there anyway.
Scarlet appears in the Thaumanova fractal, so there would be precedent for a fractal around those events.
I don’t really understand the nostalgia for the old LA..
I always thought the old LA was quite and eyesore.. very ugly place to be..
In Gw1 LA was a real town.. in Gw2 it just looked like a shanty town of shipwrecks.. hardly fitting for a capital city..
What LA looks like now is just wonderful.. I love going there.. like some sort of holiday resort lol
I do love that the old LA is used for the personal story though that was a big must have feature ^^
but I’ll take this new LA over the old shanty town one anyday.. it’s a vast improvement
and I am also very much looking forward to the next time LA gets attacked by something..
I can’t wait to see those defenses in action.. canons, airships it would be awesome ^^
I loved the old LA and I love the new one. With all the changes made to the city and it’s NPC’s, I think it is impractical to have the old one return.
I agree that the decorations could be much better than they were last year.
I think they miss the boat on festivals. They should have many of the festivals in cities that fit them.
For the creepiness factor, TBC would be a great place for Halloween.
Holbrak is a city of snow for pete’s sake, why isn’t Winter’s Day held there?
Dragon’s Festival is a “Canthan” throwback, so DR is a great place for it.
IMO, the cities could have been used much better when selection for festivals were decided upon.
Tbh what I’d love to see come to Gw2 in halloween is some sort of Ghost ship in the harbor that we can swim out to and get sucked inside some kind of mini dungeon full of ghost pirates with a major sugar addiction..
they are luring curious adventurers into their liar and transforming them into candycorn elementals so they can eat them and satisfy their never ending need for sugar
You manage to escape in your candy form and must use your transformed abilities to escape the Pirate lair and rescue other kidnapped adventurers.. the more NPC’s you manage to save the more rewards you get at the end ^^
One of the big issues I have with the new LA is not the look, I like the look.. but it takes SO LONG to load that I never go there anymore. I can get all I need everywhere else and nothing takes as long to load as the new LA does.. :P
One of the big issues I have with the new LA is not the look, I like the look.. but it takes SO LONG to load that I never go there anymore. I can get all I need everywhere else and nothing takes as long to load as the new LA does.. :P
That’s pretty much everywhere nowadays since Anet increased the map load times. I went from 5-10 seconds to load into any map to 15-20 seconds.
I don’t really understand the nostalgia for the old LA..
I always thought the old LA was quite and eyesore.. very ugly place to be..
In Gw1 LA was a real town.. in Gw2 it just looked like a shanty town of shipwrecks.. hardly fitting for a capital city..
Its because the people who read Sea of Sorrows know that Cobiah Marriner bought and rebuilt Lions Arch after Orr’s tidal waves demolished it. The base of the city was the many ships were washed astrand, thats why half the structures of the old LA was mainly made of ships and ship parts.
Also, the nostalgia comes from the fact that the people who know Cobiah Marriner’s story, know what he went through to make that Lions Arch, and how it was a symbol of freedom for all races. Before CM, Lions Arch was a deputy capital of Divinity’s Reach, which was being built after the destruction of LA to be the replacement of the human Capital.
So long story short; there was a lot of history in why and how the GW1 LA and GW2-old-LA came to be, all the while you can still find traces of the previous chapters. In the current form of LA all history of Cobiah and the Human Nation of Kryta has been dumped into the sea (literally) to make way for what was supposed to be a hub of trade but is now the most in-efficient trade-hub of all.
If we are talking about LA from GW1, then sign me up! I always loved that place, I still wander about it now when I play GW1. The view from the light house……. was said when it got crashed into in GW2.
the old Lion’s arch was beautiful indeed. I liked it better than the current one (the current one is stunjing too though) it’s just a matter of personal preferences.
But I don’t see how it would make any sense to make LA’s the previous version for halloween.
That’s what I said in my initial post, but it’s not the same as you have to pursue the “correct” path of the human storyline in order to get to see as much as possible of the old city version — and it’s still not enough. Hence my suggestion.
I’d really like it. I loved the old LA, such a beautiful city, hub of trading that actually felt like an old trading city. The new LA doesn’t give me that feeling anymore. It’s too clean cut, to flashy and too bright.
The old LA encapsulated the “pirate stronghold” theme quite perfectly, and fit the entire theme of Kryta where it was situated.
This. <3
I wouldn’t want a Fractal version of it, because playing Fractals is hectic and you don’t get to explore and enjoy the environment. So, a Halloween version would be quite the sight.
I also love the suggestion of a “pocket dimension” version, heh heh.
Not only do I weep for Cobiah’s dream, the city is now actually useless. I mean you can’t do TP business there, when you have to go back and forth between the bank and the TP a lot. And when people complained about that they added hopping boards instead of a waypoint. Now I spent 95% of my work in either Divinity or Rata Sum (I even got the scroll for easy crafting/Mystic Forge periods)
I don’t really understand the nostalgia for the old LA..
I always thought the old LA was quite and eyesore.. very ugly place to be..
In Gw1 LA was a real town.. in Gw2 it just looked like a shanty town of shipwrecks.. hardly fitting for a capital city..
Its because the people who read Sea of Sorrows know that Cobiah Marriner bought and rebuilt Lions Arch after Orr’s tidal waves demolished it. The base of the city was the many ships were washed astrand, thats why half the structures of the old LA was mainly made of ships and ship parts.
Also, the nostalgia comes from the fact that the people who know Cobiah Marriner’s story, know what he went through to make that Lions Arch, and how it was a symbol of freedom for all races. Before CM, Lions Arch was a deputy capital of Divinity’s Reach, which was being built after the destruction of LA to be the replacement of the human Capital.
So long story short; there was a lot of history in why and how the GW1 LA and GW2-old-LA came to be, all the while you can still find traces of the previous chapters. In the current form of LA all history of Cobiah and the Human Nation of Kryta has been dumped into the sea (literally) to make way for what was supposed to be a hub of trade but is now the most in-efficient trade-hub of all.
How many players who want the old LA have actually read that book though? It may be nostalgia for some who have read it but not all. The nostalgia likely taking place is simply because it is the first version of the town that they saw when they first started playing.
IT would seem to me that everyone has pretty much agreed that the Old Lion’s arch was a better choice. I for one agree with that sentiment. The NEW LA reminds me more of a Theme park with some very poor designs trying to make it look like some sort of seagoing city. Strangely I’ve never seen any ships coming into port in LA? I wonder if the rest of the races think like we do and choose to avoid it like some rejected Disney World. Careful kids the rides will kill you – just look at the new Troll Puzzle if the consistent pain to complete isn’t already enough to make you want to go screaming into the depths of the harbor begging Grenth to take me rather than go through that again,
Indeed, I do think Lionguard Tyrro sums it up perfectly.
It was its own city, not just another generic bright safe and pretty town that so many other games seem to feature as their main hubs. The old LA felt almost like a realistic evolution of how people would civilize the area. The new one seems to have willingly let the slate be cleaned.
I agree they should use old LA on Halloween. The maps exist so it shouldn’t be that hard for them to switch out during Halloween. They could do a cut scene when people first enter where the Mad King gives a speech about not liking the new LA and say “Let’s give this place some character!” then the whole thing shifts dropping the player into old LA.
I don’t see the point. Personally, I consider the newest version of Lion’s Arch or even the destroyed one (with all those crafting stations) to be an improvement over the original. And they already have a Halloween’d version for the newest version as well. I suppose they could pull up the Halloween version of the original Lion’s Arch, but it could turn out to take more effort than it’s worth.
IT would seem to me that everyone has pretty much agreed that the Old Lion’s arch was a better choice.
No, pretty much only those people who agreed decided to post here. I’ve seen threads like this before & I didn’t see the need to post my comments again. Please don’t draw conclusions from the handful of people in this thread.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
I would love them to add old Lion’s Arch to the game right before each Halloween also. They could then add in the animation where the Mad King destroys the Lion fountain to kick off Halloween and then the map switches over from non decorated to decorated. That would be cool. It would also give new players an essentially new map to explore and lots of nostalgia value for old players to see old Lion’s Arch the way it used to be. After the holiday it switches back to the new map.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
Even in gw2 lore current LA makes no sense it looks like it should be a Luzon city in Cantha.
Old LA is without a doubt superior however it was too good. For those that remember everyone did their crafting and banking in Old LA and ignored other areas cause LA was the complete package it had the feel and the design a breathing city.
New LA can’t be defended it’s just worse and anyone who defends it needs to know new LA is bad on porpose. They wanted to destroy the game and ruin something people loved and enjoyed. During the destroyed LA era Anet started to push those station passes like the airship pass a seperate card big and banking area people can buy a ticket to get access to permenatly.
If we still had the perfect old LA then tickets would be harder to sell. We have the current LA with its open and wasted spaces and yet we are getting maps with sealed of areas with crafting stations and whatnot built right in ready for that cash shop purpose to gain entry.
The majority obviously prefer the old LA even Anet but having a good map and enjoyable map makes it harder to sell this little crafting areas. Destroying it no doubt killed some enjoyment for some like myself as I liked that bar at the top of old LA and can only imagine how gliding would be in it. However they weren’t thinking about retention but future cash shop sales.
I mean you can’t do TP business there, when you have to go back and forth between the bank and the TP a lot.
So exactly like old Lion’s Arch, then.
Now destroyed Lion’s Arch, that was convenient to craft and do business in.
Well this.
Personally never really liked old LA, like the new one marginally better but on the whole prefer some of the racial cities instead.
Now, I honestly really liked some of the “Rebuilding LA” maps, they where much more convenient. Still miss the old “Cave” with everything so tightly packed. And would prefer that to either Old/New LA maps.
Elrik Noj (Norn Guardian, Kaineng [SIN][Owls])
“Understanding is a three edged sword: your side, their side, and the truth.”
“The objective is to win. The goal is to have fun.”
I would love to see dialog from a character about having to hunt for their old house/apartment to stay in also that least they were able to recover the stuff they lost and that they stored it in another safer place.
My biggest issue with new LA is the piazza area. It is sterile and lifeless. There are parts of LA that are beautiful and I think an improvement, but that’s not where we spend our time when we’re in LA. So instead of seeing the best of new LA, we mainly see the marine-life buildings and the empty, wasted piazza that doesn’t even have a lion statue. It hurts my soul.
(and to keep it on topic – the halloween decorations for new LA are simply inferior. Having the twisted trees with spooky pumpkins and fall inspired corn stalks doesn’t fit the new aesthetic, so we get bland candy corn. Booooo. I can’t say it enough. BOOOOO!)
My biggest issue with new LA is the piazza area. It is sterile and lifeless. There are parts of LA that are beautiful and I think an improvement, but that’s not where we spend our time when we’re in LA. So instead of seeing the best of new LA, we mainly see the marine-life buildings and the empty, wasted piazza that doesn’t even have a lion statue. It hurts my soul.
(and to keep it on topic – the halloween decorations for new LA are simply inferior. Having the twisted trees with spooky pumpkins and fall inspired corn stalks doesn’t fit the new aesthetic, so we get bland candy corn. Booooo. I can’t say it enough. BOOOOO!)
This is what Halloween in Tyria should ALWAYS look like…
Hence my suggestion.
