Now that you’ve had a day or two to properly ooh and ahh over the reconstructed New Lion’s Arch in Guild Wars 2 like a tourist, you might be curious about how the devs went about making this new hub.
A behind-the-scenes dev blog is your semi-access pass to the minds at ArenaNet as the team explains the decision behind destroying Lion’s Arch (mostly because it was a city shared by all races) and the opportunity that rebuilding it presented.
“Services were sprawled haphazardly across [old Lion’s Arch], and there were few places to gather freely,” the article notes. “The layout also created a resource drain, so rebuilding presented a good opportunity to arrange or remove elements that significantly impacted performance.”
The team pointed out that not only is New Lion’s Arch more user-friendly, but it’s more roleplay-friendly as well, adding social areas such as a chapel for in-game weddings.
As a roleplayer I’m still feeling pretty sad over every single one of the buildings I used being gone.
Leviathonlx BalsBigBrother BobDobalina I agree.
meltedskul BalsBigBrother BobDobalina Leviathonlx Dead on
I think the new LA is a big letdown. The new theme has to much of a tourist trap feeling. I loved the old theme much better.
Serrenity Poor 3d models. Poor overall art aesthetic. Small textures laid out over large surfaces causing the texture to look blurry and low res when in-game. No overall cohesive artistic vision which leads the zone to feel feel rushed and/or done by an artist that has little to no experience in the field.
Cujo H how does a zone in a F2P game feel?
Tenthyr I wonder if they left it open to have a place to put big event things? Â Like the in-game holidays.
I like the new LA, mostly, but the central area of the Grand Piazza and the space aroudn it are very very empty of stuff. It doesn’t feel like a crowded, important city. It’s a bit of a shame.
i like the new LA more, than the old one. it has cool architecture and everything has meaning. maybe it is a little bit to “white” and “bright”, but on the other side it makes sense, because everything is new. ;)Â
the routes between the services are also ok. TP/chef/cooking station or bank/miyani/MF is acceptable!Â
i’m very sad that wintersday will stay in DR though. i didn’t liked it there last year…
but i’m very excited for the new halloween now!
I just went to look around the new place, as I didn’t know it was “a thing”.
Man, the old one was way cooler looking, like a pirate town. The 3d models were nicer and the overall… immersion was way better. The new zone feels like a free 2 play game.