Guild Wars 2

I like it the way it is, TBH.

Aleksandr.4635:

Hope to see the upgrade of Divinity’s Reach someday as happend with the Lion’s Arch.

Lion’s Arch was destroyed. It wasn’t “upgraded” so much as it was “rebuilt”.

And Divinity’s Reach already got the Crown Pavilion.

Aleksandr.4635:

It was rebuilt on a completely new design. So… upgraded

no

you just said it yourself:
completely new design

can be a downgrade too if its worse design than before…

I prefer the original Lions Arch, it had character and a quirkiness that I found entertaining .. the new one is like any modern city, just masses of concrete walkways and faux classic fountains.

I love playing the CS episodes which haven’t been re-made and so you get a glimpse of what we lost .. Lions Arch is simply a 20th century city which replaced earlier, characterful 19th century buildings with souless concrete.

The thing I’d like to see in DR would be the Canthan district. Yes, I know there was an original design for one, but, you never know, could be a launch platform for a potential Cantha release. Perhaps. One day.

Yakkus.8765:

The thing I’d like to see in DR would be the Canthan district. Yes, I know there was an original design for one, but, you never know, could be a launch platform for a potential Cantha release. Perhaps. One day.

The problem is, they replaced the Canthan District first with the big hole, and then with the Crown Pavillion. Slim chance we will ever get a Canthan District in DR. More likely we will get a Canthan expansion before that.

Aleksandr.4635:

Who said it worse than its been?

Orangensaft.7139:

Aleksandr.4635:

It was rebuilt on a completely new design. So… upgraded

no

you just said it yourself:
completely new design

can be a downgrade too if its worse design than before…

Much worse than the old LA (pre-destruction). Frankly, every iteration of LA they’ve made has been worse than the one they replaced.

I like old Lion’s Arch much better personally. Problem with new Lion’s Arch is it’s too sterile with too many smooth clean lines and lots of white whereas old Lion’s Arch had lots of wood, dirt streets, and had that gritty Caribbean pirate feel to it.

“The thing I’d like to see in DR would be the Canthan district. Yes, I know there was an original design for one, but, you never know, could be a launch platform for a potential Cantha release. Perhaps. One day.”

Unfortunately, there’s a radical disconnect between player wishes and what they give us story wise. The base an expansion off the least interesting race experiencing prejudice, even needing to play or have a member of that race open a story instance to complete an achievement, politically loaded story arcs, forgettable characters (mostly, Taimi was good), death of a major character like a punk, and overly vertical maps that aren’t that rewarding where the masteries are only useful for those specific maze like vertical maps with choke points and mob density.

What players wanted however was Cantha or Elona, continuing some GW1 arcs, balanced PvP (so much for that lol it’s to the point now where thief isn’t even wanted in PvE), more focus on non-Sylvari races (living story 1 and 2 spotlighted them enough, their day in the limelight should pretty much be done by now) like charr or Asura getting some major players and members getting focus (you even play as Caithe in part of LS 2), PvP balance, challenging yet fair content that relies more on the mechanics and skills themselves than the environment (open world only?), rewarding content that correlates with difficulty (logging and mining in base game Tyria feels more rewarding than grinding events since you need T2-4 mats for crafting ascended mats, which go for a good price on the TP) and reliable (a grind just for green vendor trash feels unrewarding…yay a rare I have the CHANCE at some ectos…yay…), and more audio cues* instead of player freedom. Instead of destructible environments (even if temporary I understand MMO’s have limits) we get…well the HoT flaws are well known. On a positive note we at least have gliding, although it’s locked behind masteries, which require mastery points (some needing mastery unlocks to obtain) and lots of EXP. Lots of events, lots of kills.

*Problem with having to rely on audio cues is it punishes players who wanna listen to music while playing and character voices are typically indistinguishable from ambient talking anyway so we hear voices not words. Audio cues are fine for explosions and such but not actual words.

I for one really like the new LA, kind of reminds me of the old Lego Imperial guard forts in the Pirates series. But I think getting bogged down in LA is probably veering off topic.
Yes, I’m aware of the pavilion, the district idea was just something I’d like to see. Space wise, squeezing in an Imperial chef’s hut would suffice for me, at least that token gesture would be there Don’t take it too seriously, Agemnon, it’s just an idea, I doubt they’ll be introducing Cantha or Elona any time soon, even though I and many GW1 loyalists feel it’s in their best interests to bring those areas into the game.

Old LA
Intriguing
Different
Unusual
Colorful
Explorable
Quirky

New LA
A white concrete vision of someone’s idea of a modern city

I guess it depends what you consider an upgrade.

(Gosh, I miss standing around the old LA bank. People dancing, talking, fun boxing. It’s like they had a New Orleans and they tore it all out to put in a abstract, soulless modern wasteland of white concrete).

Agemnon.4608:

I like old Lion’s Arch much better personally. Problem with new Lion’s Arch is it’s too sterile with too many smooth clean lines and lots of white whereas old Lion’s Arch had lots of wood, dirt streets

Yes I agree with this. It feels too much like Southsun which is the map I like least in the game.

The DR upgrade I’d like to see is the catacombs opening to an instance area. Maybe next Halloween the story can be expanded to open it up, and leave it explorable afterward.

i think the problem with new LA is

it feels a bit empty with those biiiiig empty spaces…
just flat ground on that whole middle to northern part where old LA had lost of buildings and more variety at that old “main spot”