Guild Wars 2

Lishtenbird.2814:

Never liked that old shabby pirate look. Nice to see a fairly modern, southern city – finally feels like the fantasy MMO style I prefer.

+1

Lishtenbird.2814:

Never liked that old shabby pirate look. Nice to see a fairly modern, southern city – finally feels like the fantasy MMO style I prefer.

So… like every other fantasy MMO out there?

Well… yet we have another beautiful but lifeless city. In general there are not that lot of points in cities around Tyria at all. No quests (yeah you have several for ONE time story play and thats it), no need to put loot in person in the bank, neither do we have a travelling system that puts some points in cities and towns mere existance.

So and so… frankly ANet. We do believe you have awesome designers – thats not question for us. But… the whole logic behind and just a grain of pragmatism will help it big deal.

Consistency… All that me and many others are praying for. Thx for new talent system rebuild. It won’t help much but good to see smth besides new weapon skins and… ah… well… wings.

Yeah, I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t stick with the multiple city centers. That was incredibly convenient.

i had a flashback when i first stepped into the new lion’s arch…a flashback to the day i first beheld its original glory, 250 years ago

I’m disappointed with the fact that down by the lobster dock (don’t know if they are elsewhere) there is a Charr welder welding away with no welding mask and his face inches away from the weld.

So not only will he go blind, he’ll probably burn his face off with 3rd degree burns, probably on any other unprotected area of his body too.

So disappointed.

I’m disappointed they spent so much time and resources on this instead of on playable areas, etc.

Would have been perfectly happy with the old LA before it got destroyed, add in the new NPC’s and then get on with delivering actual content instead of cosmetic changes.

I like the new LA, cant say its better than the old one, they’r just different and I love’em both.

But there’s a political reason for this!

Next time vote for Evon Gnahsblade

Edit: I miss the water canals.

Lion’s Arch 3.0 looks amazing.
So amazing.
But it’s a real bummer that we can’t enter any houses like in DR or anything. But there are so many.
A small request, and not one that has to be done now.
But if you could at any point in the future, allow some of these buildings to be enterable?

I haven’t explored it that much yet, but a couple of things have just caught my eye:

. Jumping into the Mystic Forge
. The Quaggan water feature

I love detail like that.

I need to mooch around this place a bit more…

This new one looks like a Disney or Themepark attraction. All it needs is a food court and some costumes.

I don’t hate it, but I kind of miss the water views from the old design too. I feel like this design is too…landy? And lots of walls. Ah well, it’s alright.

Regh.8649:

I like the new LA, cant say its better than the old one, they’r just different and I love’em both.

But there’s a political reason for this!

Next time vote for Evon Gnahsblade

Edit: I miss the water canals.

That…. actually makes sense. The walls DO strike me as aesthetically similar to Divinity’s Reach, the human city, which Ellen is……..does that mean if we had Evon the city would have been more Charr-like? Slightly?

Vayne.8563:

Kite.2510:

The good!
The City is bright and beautiful.
Lots of hidden stuff to discover.
Troll’s End changed to something equally frustrating, but for good JP reasons this time!
Glad to see a dedicated BL and Guild Building.

The Bad!
While the destroyed LA had 3 city centers, (one for PVPers, one for Dungeoneers and one near the Mystic Toilet) this one for some reason has only one again!
It seems A-net is struggling to make bankers useful (despite crafting stations including a bank) and that’s more visible now as a bank is the closest thing to the Mystic Toilet.
Mystic Toilet Being away from the crafting stations, and so is the tradepost, that takes a few more steps that I would bother to take.
This looks less like a Pirate City and more like a Water Theme park!

The Ugly!
The biggest WOW moments with the old LA where:

• The moment I found the hidden Wispers base inside the rock behind a hidden passage.
• The tents that looked like Waves.
• The Ship turned into a bar/hotel being the tallest building there.

None of them Remained! Not even the Wispers Hideout that was spared from the destruction!
I would like to visit those again, even if it’s just as an instanced area during the old Personal Story.

The old personal story stuff is still the same in the personal story. Any new characters coming through will see the old areas.

When was this implemented?
1-2 months ago I did some Personal Story for an Alt, and it took place on the destroyed LA.

Chessrook.8643:

Regh.8649:

I like the new LA, cant say its better than the old one, they’r just different and I love’em both.

But there’s a political reason for this!

Next time vote for Evon Gnahsblade

Edit: I miss the water canals.

That…. actually makes sense. The walls DO strike me as aesthetically similar to Divinity’s Reach, the human city, which Ellen is……..does that mean if we had Evon the city would have been more Charr-like? Slightly?

No doubt about it
With so much salvageable metal value left after Scarlet’s attack… Evon would have never let this free material opportunity go to waste.

We’ll hear from Ellen and Evon soon enough… and how big is the debt of L.A. :P

I like the new one. The old lion’s arch looks a bit messy. Also, the new one has a lot more stunning places. Heck, even places that never interestest me now looks amazing

Actually, there’s still a hidden whispers base that freaked me out when I stumbled across it near Hero-Tron. And more references to apples, bless the memory!

new LA looks like Dorne from game of thrones.

I love new LA

Blackworm.2167:

Lishtenbird.2814:

Never liked that old shabby pirate look. Nice to see a fairly modern, southern city – finally feels like the fantasy MMO style I prefer.

So… like every other fantasy MMO out there?

There’s a reason why most MMOs are like that: most people want it. GW2 has unique combat mechanics and unique common sense in their business model that makes all other MMOs subpar though, so I’m happy that I can get best of both worlds bow. And to be fair, the new LA isn’t even that magical and fancy as one would expect from a main city of a fantasy MMO.

Didn’t have much time to spend in LA last night, but of what I saw, I agree with the OP: it is beautiful.

I think I like it. I didn’t really have a problem with the theme of the original Lion’s Arch, but it definitely felt too busy and cluttered, and the new aesthetic is nice and a bit less jarring. Overall, I’d say this is an improvement.

I broke my PrSc key….

All those cannons around the Fort are very phallic.
It sends the message:
“Mess with LA, and we’ll F you up”

Oh My

i wanted to show my brother a good view of the renewed lions arch since he doesnt play the game but remembers it when it was destroyed and how it looked before, what would you guys say is the best current lions arch vista point that shows the best overview of the rebuilt city?

may not be best…but include the one at the top of the new lighthouse in your tour…and then try the dive off the top…have fun!

There are many things I love about the new LA. I love that the neighborhoods now feel like neighborhoods, each with its own distinct character. I love that it feels more like the different cultures and races of the world influenced the city, it is no longer merely a pirate city. I love the huge references to underwater creatures in the architecture.

As the daughter of an artist (and Aunt of an artist: (digitaldk) shameless plug. I am impressed with some of the difficult textures and artwork. I love some of the new trees and the physics of them.

Also another reference to the mystery murders!

I could go on….but I will leave it at that. Great job!

It is amazing to think how well Anet had structured the living story for us to be so involved with the game. I felt like a little kid last night running around poking every one and exploring to such an extent that people forgot who Indiana Jones was. But to think that I was so involved in the game laughing giggling and the occasional WOW that escaped my lips. This was one hell of a memorable expierience. But 2 things that really ticked me off was

1stly . The lion that was not put back at the piazza is a big let down. The lion ontop of the mist portal simply doesnt cut it. Get the leonardo da vinci of Tyria to rebuild that lion pls. I was very sad to run over and it was not there.

And something that awoke an absolute monster within me was running towards the Tengu gate and to see those ********* ( insert any word you feel appropriate ) TEngu fellows standing IN LA acting like everything is fine. When we needed them they simply fired arrows and killed you on site close to that wall. I ran over and forced my Entropy so hard into a beak only for it to pass right through. Do they really deserve to be back IN LA ? can we as players not give them some payback and leave some corpses?

What evokes some emotion on your side?

Ps: Wd anet !

I can’t wait to kill the tengu. They are the one story sec I feel anet really needs to do something with. They live right next door and did nothing for us during the invasion or anything. They are the enemy and need to be slaughtered asap

Too organic and blue for me. Even if the Quaggans are the builders they should have followed humanoid lead to rebuild a humanoid city. What I like with the previous Lion’s Arch was the feeling of the Piracy is the city.

The lobster is funny, but not really nice other than that. It feels more like an easter egg or a joke. Mainly, what I dislike is all that is in the center of the city =].

Moreover, where is the Lion? Shouldn’t the city be renowned as the Lobster’s Arch :p?

I was wondering where the lion was, too. The only thing I don’t like is that it incorporates none of the original design (from GW1) of Lion’s Arch. That would have truly been epic.

Any plans for making Mordremoth destroy LA?

or Kralkatorrik or Jormag do it in the meantime maybe?

Pretty please~

Thorfinnr Sleggja.1209:

may not be best…but include the one at the top of the new lighthouse in your tour…and then try the dive off the top…have fun!

I agree, the lighthouse. Plus that dive afterwards. There was some serious pucker factor!

Otakun.1857:

Too organic and blue for me. Even if the Quaggans are the builders they should have followed humanoid lead to rebuild a humanoid city. What I like with the previous Lion’s Arch was the feeling of the Piracy is the city.

The lobster is funny, but not really nice other than that. It feels more like an easter egg or a joke. Mainly, what I dislike is all that is in the center of the city =].

Moreover, where is the Lion? Shouldn’t the city be renowned as the Lobster’s Arch :p?

There is a Lion,and if you ask me it’s a lot more kittened off than before.
I almost heard it say “If you destroy L.A again I’ll kick you in the nuts.
Whats you lookin at?”

The new LA is gorgeous, I like it a lot.

I think the Karka hunt was also a great idea, because it encouraged exploring and rediscovering the city.

The new JP is another nice touch, it adds another layer to the city, which makes it feel more real. It reminds me of the Silverwastes JP, which I think is another superb example of jumping puzzle that makes the whole map more interesting.

The Bed and Breakfast is pretty cool too, I wonder if it replaced the Order of Whispers area. I will have to explore some more.

Loved the easter eggs too. I chuckled when the “I’m rich, you know” dialogue option popped up. I’m not gonna spoil the twin thing, I’m just gonna say that at first I thought the Wild Eye NPC was crazy, until…

I find the new LA beautiful, alot nicer to look at than anythign before.

Now get to destroy Divinities Reach, Black Citadel, Rata Sum and the grove too, so that these get some serious improvements, that these towns need cough Polymok, Bar Brawls, Target Shooting, imprved Vendors, added Jumping Puzzles, so that they all have some, not only LA ect. pp)

In brief, add more life to the towns, so that we actually want to keep visiting and return to them once in a while…
If that needs to destroy first the towns always under the livign World concept, before something happens there and towns get serious improvements/changes, then let the destruction begin

start with DR, turn it into a modrem nest full of vines!! make it a vine maze.

First impression after having been in LA for about half an hour: it’s definitely pretty and I like how everything is more open and accessible, but it seems like it’s missing a lot of the “character” of the old design… I’m going to explore it some more tonight and see if my opinion changes at all.

Azure.8670:

I can’t wait to kill the tengu. They are the one story sec I feel anet really needs to do something with. They live right next door and did nothing for us during the invasion or anything. They are the enemy and need to be slaughtered asap

I’d love to invade the Dominion of Winds and kill me some tengu.

Seriously though, I’d love to see some infiltration missions, where you as a Commander of the Pact drop inside the Dominion from an airship and do some sort of covert operations there (gather intel, establish alliaces with Tengus unhappy with their isolationism, ect).
Maybe while inside you uncover some worrisome threat. Or maybe you find out that Tengus are being invaded by Mordrem and they need help.

I can even imagine a future Tengu Mastery based on gainig intel/trust/political power in the Dominion of Winds.

After spending a couple hours exploring the new Lion’s Arch I feel it’s a bit of a mixed bag. There certainly are a lot of new places with very high RP potential. I do like that there is a mix of architectural styles.

BUT… I think ANet went a little overboard with making it “new and shiny”. I would like to have seen more of the old LA still present, even if only subtly… to see that the new was built on top of the old. I would like to see more in the style of the guild building – new, but still harkens back to the previous atmosphere. So much of the old sandstone is now covered in white.

AND WHERE’S THE FOUNTAIN? Why was the Crow’s Nest destroyed and moved, it survived the attack! They were practically historical landmarks! And seriously, they couldn’t rebuild the statue of Cobiah Marriner, instead building a huge green monument around it?

New LA is a bit too open, it feels too much like a huge park, not a city. I suspect some of that was to address how some people had poor performance in LA. But still… they could kept it a little more interesting.

Ah well, it is what it is. I’m just being really critical because I LOVED the old Lion’s Arch. It was special, unique. There was something about the spirit of never giving up, making do what you had in the makeshift construction. There’s good stuff in the new. I’ll adapt. But I’ll miss the old Lion’s Arch.

Gaile Gray SAFE THE FROGS most of them are under ground

Kite.2510:

When was this implemented?
1-2 months ago I did some Personal Story for an Alt, and it took place on the destroyed LA.

It was implemented in yesterday’s patch. The details are in the patch notes. I’m psyched, I’ve been holding off on PS for quite a while now. I will have to find out which of my friends want to see the old version so I can bring them along on the PS for my alts who can still go there.

It’s amazing! I found it to be slightly a mix of Divinity’s Reach and The Grove.
I loved all the architectures especially the squid or octopus where the bank at, we roleplayed yesterday on top and had fun! <3
(P.S: I only wished to get inside octopus’s head and have a closer look on fishes, the view was so so beautiful )

Thank you Anet! Please give the designers and everyone who worked on LA a big tight hug for me

Thank you for the beautiful new city. It’s not what I expected – I still like it.

I am a little concerned though about how heavy it is.

My PC is a monster i7-4.3ghz 32gb 2.3ghz ram striped SSD (1GB/s seq read) and DUAL 980’s, which outputs to a 4k 55" monitor at max 60Hz.

Early in the morning and late at night, I was still seeing my frame rates dipping into the 35-40 range while others maps were in the 70-100 range. I had to turn off my Ultra shadows because of intense microstuttering. Of course, it was packed full of people during the day, but barely any at the outlier times I checked. Also, within the city I was finding fast portions and slow ones.

SW and DryTop are so much more optimized than the original maps – but it feels like this is more akin to the original. Did leaving legacy assets in the map result in this? Or, is it just a matter of waiting for a few months for it to be cleaned up (which is fine, I get it).

Please tell me HoT maps will run faster. I have great sympathy with players who have more average performing machines.

Anyhow, this is meant as positive feedback. Love the Princess, happy to have something to eat the 80+ stacks of dragonite I have kicking around.

Otakun.1857:

The lobster is funny, but not really nice other than that. It feels more like an easter egg or a joke. Mainly, what I dislike is all that is in the center of the city =].

Moreover, where is the Lion? Shouldn’t the city be renowned as the Lobster’s Arch :p?

The lobster bothered me too a bit. But now it is completely redeemed in my eyes because while I was standing on a seaside ledge near it a tour group formed. The guide explained the building of the lobster in bitter tones because she wished a far better design had won the building contest. “Instead, we got this … lobster,” she snarls.

So if even some of the LA inhabitants consider it an eyesore, that makes it a much more real touch to me. Any major new city construction RL gets detractors, and sometimes deservedly so.

Plus the part of the JP where you inch along on cables strung around the “claws” adds a bit of … fear factor? … sense of scale? … hmm, I’m not sure how to describe it, just that the JP gave me a more visceral connection to the structure.

OK… So the city IS awesome, it actually looks and feels like a city, unlike old one, and some of the racial capitals.

BUT, i have a few issues with it:
The loss of the dungeon NPCs seems like it kills the flavor a bit;
There’s no Guild banker near the player bank;
The Aerodrome isn’t a POI on the map (although it was one of the places we had to name) and is unaccessible (although i understand this might be because it will be a way to travel to heart of maguuma, and thus only be unlocked later);
Some of the old landmarks were lost;
Maybe i failed to find it, but there’s no significant Consortium Hub on the town. I mean the Black Lion got the huge Vaults building, but the guys that actually worked on rebuilding LA have a smaller presence than before? How the hell would a cutthroat mercantile guild/corporation/wtv would pass up the chance of improving their visibility in a town they rebuilt? And yet it seems they actually managed to erase their presence.

Visually the buildings themselves are very well done . However, it seems extremely flat with a lot of open spaces that I wish were filled. Although I guess this is understandable from a lore standpoint, I still wish the certain areas actually had more than just flat terrain to traverse.

However, the layout of the different tp/bank/stations is terrible, and is the main reason I’m going to stick with DR (visually stunning with good utility station locations).

The jumping puzzle was a ton of fun great job.

There is a Consortium office in the Commodore’s Quarter. One posh one, and next to it one full of cubicle desks. If you did the karka hunt, you shot a cubicle karka.

I’ll have to check to verify the cubicles are Consortiumites, but the posher office definitely holds them, they were in the blue and yellow outfits.

I saw it for a minute earlier and thought it was pretty good, after fully exploring it just now I came back in to say it’s actually fantastic.

It is beautiful, but not functional, at least not for WvW players.
WvW rally area needs to have the portals close together, a regular bank, guild bank, guild services, armor repair, merchants, trading post and crafting Stations for food, oils and stones near WvW portals to make a good wvw rally area. Think of the WvW rally area more like " the pit" for Nascar, people need to get what they need done fast and get back in the game. Wvw Players used to have a tiny corner of the world in Lions Arch, and they no longer do:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/WvW-players-forgotten-in-Beautiful-LA/first#post5198315

In Addition: We do not want the crafting to be done on wvw maps due to the player cap. We cannot afford to have players standing around and crafting taking the place of someone who could be fighting. IF there was no player cap on the maps it would be different, but there is and this can cause fights to be imbalanced if we have people on the map that are crafting or doing PVE during a match. It is like setting up a knitting club in the middle of a basketball court during a game, and forcing there to be less people on the team whose those players belong. It is not fair to the players trying to play the game to do so.

Suggestion Overview

Don’t get me wrong, the new Lion’s Arch is nice, but it’s too clean; I miss gritty, pirate-built LA. Luckily, the game-world has the amazing, inexplicable Mist and players can access fragments of the past… Using this mechanic, it’s no a far leap to present the old Lion’s Arch as existing in a stabilized mist pocket and the pass as a certificate that declares us fit for travel. It’d operate like the Airship or Royal Terrace pass but take us to an instance of Old LA, complete with vendors and the rest.

It seems implementation of this is straightforward and is basically adding back in a zone that is already built and quality tested and known to be a real crowd-pleaser. I think the beautiful work of old LA, and all the seasonal decorations for Halloween and Wintersday, deserve to be showcased, even if behind a gemstore paywall.

Demographics interested in purchasing these passes:

- People that enjoy exclusive zones.

- People that collect items and have the other two passes.

- People that skipped the other two passes because they didn’t seem to provide enough bang for the buck.

- Old players that miss the city. (Pow! Right in the nostalgia!)

- New players that never got to see splendid Old LA.

- RPers, who were told years ago that devs were looking into ways to allow access to empty instances for RP, would buy this pass even if they had never bought the prior passes because a city offers an RP backdrop that a condensed and convenient banking/trading/selling/Mysticforging area does not.

- Socialites that live the entirety of their social life in game and want a change of venue.

- Lore buffs that want all the lore.

Precedent:

A few might thing it is bad form to sell to us what was once free but consider: Arenanet repackaged and sold us Living Story Season 2. Initially, this content was provided for free before expiring and become pay-to-play. There was no significant backlash from the community. In fact, people are often clamoring for Season One to be released in a similar manner. It seems the community understands that this is a game but also a business and offers a fair exchange: we give the devs money if the devs give us what we want.

Voices of opposition:

Some people will never be happy and believe they are getting the short end of the stick. They will say that PVP or PVE needs focus more than fluff. To those detractors I reassure them that this is not a pressing suggestion; just something that I’d like to see implemented long-term… and quite likely by a different set of people than the ones working on balance or PVE mechanics.

Others will believe there is no market for the item but let me remind them of the true name of GuildWars— FashionWars. (:P) This game is about looks and experiences much more than it is about utility; a “pass to the past” might not make you kill faster or look cooler but so what? People pay to go on vacations IRL and those serve no purpose other than a change of scenery.

—
PS: Yes, I know we can visit a sepia-colored version of LA in our personal stories but personal story instances are not the same as the real deal. They’re segments, lacking the soul and decorations of LA… and, unless they changed it, personal story is not repayable.