Guild Wars 2

…and stop focusing on Lions Arch?!

A-net made all those great Cities for players to gather, yet they clearly favored one!

LA compared to the other 5 cities:

• Has Portals to every other City.
• Has the primary Mystic forge!
• Has 3 repeatable jumping puzzles.
• Is in the exact centre of the map (all WP cost the same to all directions)
• Is the clossest to Orr (end level area)
• The upcoming major patch will take place there.
• All other celebration events take place there.
• Takes the most time to load all the players and it’s the most common area to fall into an overflow.

There rest of the Cities are currently useless! Aside from a few Story quests the portal to fasttravel to a nearby area with minimum fees, there is no other real reason to go there! I hate ghost towns in MMOs, especially when they have clearly so much work on them and are so much preatier from the main one!

Don’t forget that travel to LA is free, at least to my knowledge, by warping with the PvP menu and using the portal there.

I spend a lot of time in Rata Sum because the bank, TP, and all crafting stations are all very close together.

I’m guessing you didn’t play GW1? Lion arch was the main area in that one also.

Yes please, more stuff in all cities. Would be nice with a few events in the cities and dailies handed out by high ranked people.

Well, seeing as to LA is the “Capitol City” of the entire continent, I’m not surprised. The other cities are just “home cities” for the races. Think about it like this: what’s a “Charr” going to do in “The Grove”?. He’s bred to kill all day long. What’s an Asura going to do in “Hoelbrak”?, freeze to death?..get stomped on by a drunk Norn???, What’s a Norn going to do in “Rata Sum”?…He probably wouldn’t even fit inside the door ways lol

Lion Arch is just too small for main city) i mean the center is lacking of space lol so crowded all day and so dark..

I like all players in the same city, because it makes it easier to find groups for dungeons that way. Now if there was a world-wide group finder, then yes, I’d like to see the racial cities being more crowded.

Rata Sum is second most usefull, it’s small and all the crafts and banks are close together, it’s a much nicer place to craft than LA or any other city, LA is just the central city.

I doubt they’ll make the other cities a more go to place, because it’ll require them to redo some things to make people want to go (rearranging where crafts are to make them closer and more convenient like Rata Sum for example), and chat channels are only specific to the area, LFGing for dungeon runs would take longer because people will be more spread out.

brandon.6735:

I’m guessing you didn’t play GW1? Lion arch was the main area in that one also.

And Kamadan.
Kaineng City was for a time, but really as soon as Nightfall was around it was Kamadan and Lion’s Arch.

But way back there were still folks in Droknar’s Forge.

This was mostly to be to facilitate trading. Unofficially the first district of these cities, and then the lower ones once it was filled, were where everyone went to trade. This didn’t change even when the LFG/Trade window was added to the UI. It helped, of course, that LA was the entrance point to Tyria from other places in the world, Kamadan for Elona, and KC for Cantha. Before Factions, Droknar’s was the biggest hub near the higher-end armor outposts (I cannot recall if any of the outposts in the Crystal Desert were populated much due to the farming that was possible down there), and I remember talking with old guildmates about Ascalon being a bigger trading hub for international trades using the international districts.

Here, in GW2, the one, singular trading post is everywhere. BUT LA has the asuran gateways to everywhere / is the closest city to the Orders’ gates to Fort Trinity. And has more access to higher-level areas than most of the cities. The Mists goes right back to Lion’s Arch only, as well. And can get you to the other parts of the world via these gates or less-expensive waypoint travel due to its central location when you need it ASAP.

It’s like Stormwind and Orgrimmar once Blizzard released Cata -- all of the other cities had the same services except the portals to all of the new zones and easy access to anywhere in the world (just as Dalaran and Shattrath were the focal points in their expansions). No one really goes to any of them, and LFG tools and a global trade/LFG chat channel just help keep them even more deserted.

So really aside from cultural armor vendors the other cities don’t have much draw, unfortunately. I know I’d rather take the convenience of LA over watching a few more loading screens coming from a racial city to the action in higher level questing areas or Orr. But it’s far from my favourite city.

Yoh.5129:

Lion Arch is just too small for main city) i mean the center is lacking of space lol so crowded all day and so dark..

Speaking of space and crowding, I’ve been annoyed by the placement of the mystic forge ever since beta, but I thought it was petty to say anything about it. That place is the primary gathering place in LA, and here’s the HUGE forge right in the dead center of it. Why couldn’t they have put it closer to the edge, near the crafting area, or where the twin bridges over the canal are is beyond me.

Phew, I finally got that off my chest.

Satakal.6971:

Yoh.5129:

Lion Arch is just too small for main city) i mean the center is lacking of space lol so crowded all day and so dark..

Speaking of space and crowding, I’ve been annoyed by the placement of the mystic forge ever since beta, but I thought it was petty to say anything about it. That place is the primary gathering place in LA, and here’s the HUGE forge right in the dead center of it. Why couldn’t they have put it closer to the edge, near the crafting area, or where the twin bridges over the canal are is beyond me.

Phew, I finally got that off my chest.

It’s not like Arenanet dropped a huge forge in the middle of a crowd. The forge was there first, it’s the players who choose to gather around it. Move the forge to the sewers and ppl will move to the sewers as well, probably. I honestly don’t see what’s wrong with a forge in the middle of a rather spacious square.

I had the idea for a “caravan merchant” event that would appear in a different racial city each weekend, selling a rotating stock of items for karma that you would have to complete a short heart quest to access.

The heart quest would be different for each city, and his stock would vary partly by city and partly at random. Each week he would have, for a high karma price, one blue crafting material for sale that is normally avalable only as a drop.

Kite.2510:

• Is the clossest to Orr (end level area)

The Grove and possibly Rata Sum is closest to Orr.

I love Rata Sum, its banks, TP, crafting stations are all very well centralised. I only go to LA because its free.

Paradox.5498:

Satakal.6971:

Yoh.5129:

Lion Arch is just too small for main city) i mean the center is lacking of space lol so crowded all day and so dark..

Speaking of space and crowding, I’ve been annoyed by the placement of the mystic forge ever since beta, but I thought it was petty to say anything about it. That place is the primary gathering place in LA, and here’s the HUGE forge right in the dead center of it. Why couldn’t they have put it closer to the edge, near the crafting area, or where the twin bridges over the canal are is beyond me.

Phew, I finally got that off my chest.

It’s not like Arenanet dropped a huge forge in the middle of a crowd. The forge was there first, it’s the players who choose to gather around it. Move the forge to the sewers and ppl will move to the sewers as well, probably. I honestly don’t see what’s wrong with a forge in the middle of a rather spacious square.

Because it’s no longer a spacious square. It’s a square right in between the bank and trading post, the crafting area, and the trainers are there too. It’s everything you want in a city in terms of services. It’s not rocket science, players are going to gather here. So lets put a gigantic forge right in the middle… But like I said, it’s a little petty, and not like they’re ever going to consider changing it.

No.

It’s more important to have a reliable hub for starting parties, trolling map chat, conducting auctions and trades, etc. Most of the time, with the exception of afternoon primetime, LA doesn’t even have overflow. If you took those people and spread them out 5 ways, there would hardly be anyone around.

Go to Rata Sum, Divinity’s Reach, etc for your crafting and personal business, and go to LA when you want/need other players. You’ve got both options, just use the right one at the right time.

Putting some racial/lore events into the other cities is still a good idea anyway, though. Good thinking, whoever that was.

All that is really needed in cross city chat (i’m shocked it shipped without it), with that no matter what city your in you can find groups and chat etc.

As for other things, i do hope at some point they decide to make certain events in other citys just for some variety.

Yes, they should have events in other cities for a change. Seems like such a waste for them to design and make all the other cities only for no one to really visit them.

Linked chat is one obvious solution.
The other Cities should also get a mystic forge on their own, and if possible, remove the one in LA since it stands excactly on the centre of the sqare where players meet, and LA has the advantage of location and free travel through mysts anyway! The other Cities should also get portals to multiple locations instead of just LA.

Any other City should have a mystic forge except LA.

Also those who say that “LA should be the ultimate City because of some bs lore reason” know that the realism and lore was abandoned the moment an Asura can run as fast and jump as high as a Charr. Fun and convinience should have priority over stuff like that, and having a crp ton of lag and overflow on a City you mandatory have to visit every hour isn’t fun or convinient.

Yoh.5129:

Lion Arch is just too small for main city) i mean the center is lacking of space lol so crowded all day and so dark..

Umm.. it’s not like one can see lots of players with the culling issues going on, I feel like I’m alone in LA from time to time ;(