Lion’s Arch Rebuilt, Guild Wars 2

Last month, I discussed my thoughts on the redevelopment of Lion’s Arch as it stood in an awkward state of ruins and fortifications awaiting a shiny new look via the in-game organisation called “The Consortium”.  One month on and we able to see how those pieces of scaffolding and concept drawings have to come to life alongside a significant change to gameplay via the implementation of the specialisation system and build creator.  As a quick note, I very much like this system (even if I was a little confused at first) and have been trying out some builds I haven’t touched in quite some time. 

The Asuran Gateways have a new plaza for players to look and interact with.  Screenshot taken 28/6/2015

Anyway, onto talking about the rebuild.

The harbor features a large sculpture of a lobster/ shellfish much like other important landmarks in LA.  Screenshot taken 28/6/2015 

Lion’s Arch new look is something that holds a great deal of aesthetical beauty and strength while maintaining its impression as a maritime-focused settlement.  It has a collection of aquatic-themed sculptures defining each section of the city such as trade skills, banks and harbour that use a combination of polished white stone and jade-like glass with minor details adorned with gems e.g. the squid’s eyes by the banker across from the mystic forge.  The residents have a nice mixture of timber framed lodges and stone-clad houses which fit nicely into the maritime feeling in particular with some of the timber buildings being built from a ship’s hull (or at least designed to look like it was).  The fortress gives the impression of a formidable position as it continues the stone masonry creating high walls punctuated by a collection of canons finished in metal and gold that tie into the Lion’s Guard regalia which gives credence to one NPC’s line saying that “Lion’s Arch is the safest place to be these days”.  Outside of this, a tall lighthouse sits on the edge of the city as its bold rays of light circle around its central point giving the people of LA a means to help those looking to dock and be more aware than ever when a threat is upon them.  Overall, it is a significant increase in size and bulk that is somewhat different to how I believe it would work out. 

A combination of wood and stone give LA a particular feeling.  Screenshot taken 28/6/2015

LA being this ‘pirate state’ originally fit into its aesthetic with a selection of shacks, wooden structures and makeshift architecture from boats alongside a bazaar-like trade district.  This is why in my earlier post, I wished for a North-African souk/bazaar feeling as I feel it would instil a feeling of business and life into the area.  That’s not to say that the current trade district doesn’t have the potential to be loud under its glass sea-life canopy, I just hope that place gets to be a bit chaotic from time to time; with NPCs peddling their goods and players running around achieving their goals for the day.  This follows into my thoughts about the landscape of the main areas in LA which feature an ordered array of houses and offices against a white stone formation.  This place to me feels like it’s been ‘colonized’ akin to the British Empire days where places like the West Indies would have their ports and architecture heavily influenced by their ruler’s design.  Although at first I was on the fence about the look, I feel that it does make sense when one considers the story, as LA has become a place that has seen its fair share of conflict and an external organisation (Consortium) has paid for its reconstruction.  So, by welcoming our new overlords, I’d like to talk about what I enjoy about the new LA. 

The spaces feel properly landscaped making open spaces feel relevant against the urban feel.  Screenshot taken 28/6/2015

Lion’s Arch is a lovely piece of landscaping which looks to create a good mix of tall structures, residential blocks, green spaces and artistic sculptures that all fit into the overall aesthetic.  It does a great job of bringing together an urban environment within a rural setting which the racial cities haven’t really experimented with to this degree.  I believe it’s something that is very much similar when we look at the development of town planning in the 20^th century with Garden Cities and New Towns. 

The Garden City and its concept of urban living in a rural environment.  Image from http://www.morrissociety.org/ accessed 29/6/2015

Ebenezer Howard’s vision for a Garden city was created towards the end of the Victorian age where the desire for industrialisation was closely followed by the increase of designated parkland and green-spaces as concepts like ‘jogging for pleasure / fitness’ started to become more apparent.  The idea of having factories fitting into a backdrop of rolling fields and wooded areas was commonly seen in concept work, finding its way into a couple real world examples with Letchworth and Welwyn in the late 1800s / early 1900s in England.  Garden Cities found a new lease of life after the Second World War due to the creation of New Towns with my home town, Harlow, being developed from 1947 onwards.  The ability for services, shops, residential blocks and communal spaces of an urban design being wrapped in a mixture of green verges, fields and forests is something I’ve greatly appreciated during my time living in this environment.  The fact that I can sit in the town centre and see 2 wooded areas, rolling hills and horses trotting around a field is something I’ve rarely experience elsewhere when it comes to a town and / or city.  Taking some time to review the new specialisation system made me have a similar feeling sitting on a landscaped piece of grass with a tall urban city present around me. 

(Right) Harlow Town centre (Left) green hills and woods.  Image from Google maps c.October 2014.  Image accessed 29/6/2015

Overall, I would say I’m happy with the design of the new Lion’s Arch.  It fits into the new identity of the city and it’s created some nice new vistas (visually not mechanically) which make for some lovely screenshots.  That being said, I still would like to see a bit more NPC life being brought into the place which potentially could be solved with some living world updates or short-term celebrations being held in LA. 

A spot to watch the world go past while I figure out my new engineer build.  Screenshot taken 28/6/2015

As a rough end-point, I’d say the patch is pretty cool and the Karka exterminate collection has created a nice incentive for people to explore the new city while gaining a very useful item in return.  If you’ve played GW2 in the past, it’s a pretty cool time to return.  

Thoughts on Rebuilding Lion’s Arch, Guild Wars 2

So I’ve been playing Guild Wars 2 over the past couple weeks to the point where I’ve got into the mentality of pre-expansion clear-up.  This generally means finishing up on little things you want to clear (gear, certain achievements, living story) before you’re hit with a large amount of content.  Because of this, I haven’t really been that engaged with Tyria recently, but a recent change to the city of Lion’s Arch perked my interest enough to talk about it. 

The lighthouse has seen its fair share of damage over the past couple years.  Screenshot taken 23/5/2015

Lion’s Arch has seen its fair share of damage over the 2-3 years of playtime with its most significant attack coming at the end of season one of the Living World.  It’s been left somewhat scattered and broken for over a year now and there has been a decent discussion about whether it should be rebuilt; with some believing it would undermine the factor of destruction and the toll it took on those who chose to defend the city.  Regardless, there has been some stirrings in Lion’s Arch recently and the Consortium (a corporation involved in Southsun Cove and the Fractals of the Mist) have footed the bill to rebuild the city and reignite some prestige into it.  It’s an interesting story with the potential for it to backfire but for now I want to look at what they’re doing from an architectural point of view. 

Construction slowly starts above the WvW portals.  Screenshot taken 23/5/2015

On the surface, one could say that there isn’t a great deal to look at when it comes to the current level of construction.  There are a great deal of scaffolding up with a wooden frame against a metal mesh and masonry that are focused in at 2-3 sites around the city.  These sites are quite tall, using airships to move in large curved formations giving the impression of a large rounded tower to be built overlooking the current Asuran portal gates to the major cities of each race.  Reading the blog post, one sees why these structures are being put into place as follows:

“The plan of the city leaders is not to attempt to fully restore the landmark as it once was, but rather to implement an enhanced design that will more realistically serve the Tyria of today. In light of the lessons learned from the Scarlet Briar and her massive airship drill, the Breachmaker, the city will be a more fortified city, with a design intended to protect citizen and visitor alike.”

The airship brings in a large piece of wall for the construction of a tower-like building.  Screenshot taken 23/5/2015

A tower of such height of course gives the city the ability to see threats from afar and the structures being curved diminish the potential weak spots of a square or flat frontage building.  That being said, having tall, imposing structures give the potential for them to impose onto the city itself disrupting the original feel of Lion’s Arch in Guild Wars 2 being this pirate run city and not a capital with a standing army.  The events of the Living Story may have changed this, but I still think it’s important to make sure these potential structures don’t stand out beyond the rest (A bit like Brutalism and how some structures are considered concrete monstrosities). 

Artist impression of what the new Lion's Arch could look like.  From https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/lions-arch-construction-nears-completion-new-player-poll-announced/ accessed 23/5/2015

Looking at the blog, they did show a couple impressions of what could be going on in Lion’s Arch but I don’t really feel connected with them for a couple reasons.  First of all, I’m not too sure where this picture would fit into Lion’s Arch at the moment.  I think I would need a couple perspective / axonometric shots to truly come to terms with what they’re looking to do.  Second of all, I don’t feel a sense of centralisation which is a bit harder to pin-point when it could it said that Lion’s wasn’t centralised in the past.  What I’m looking for with this rebuild is a means of people to connect through either a route or an action; like the forge square previously where people would pass through to access their bank, TP or crafting professions while also being a route for people to go beyond the city into the world.  Because of the setting, aesthetics and previous interactions with other organisations in the world of Tyria, I do feel there’s a way to do this well through the creation of a bazaar or market-like square akin to the Mediterranean / North African settlements that trade from its docks to its markets. 

Souk of Marrakech.  Image from http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ accessed 25/5/2015

Places like the Souk in Marrakech are a melting point of culture, art, food trade and social interactions that creates its own mini-settlement for all to enjoy.  The basis of the land may be calm, but the stalls are awash with colour across the spectrum to delight the eye and inspire the mind.  The act of trading is not just a matter of transaction, but a social event through introductions, haggling and the purchase which sums up the level of interactions one experiences in such a place.  This is what I would love to see come into the more pedestrian areas of Lion’s Arch; creating an environment that gets people to interact with from a sociable point of view as well as movement.  The city is kinda half way there when it comes to the current mystic forge spot, but I feel that if Lion’s Arch is going to have a remake I’d love to see an injection of mercantile chaos into this fray.  Whether players would warm to such an idea is of course something that is unknown before implementation, but much like my previous post on player housing, we can create architecture through more than just bricks and mortar. 

The pirate council of Lion’s arch have given the city a great sense of character to me coming to Guild Wars 2 as someone not involved with the series previously.  Its reconstruction led by the consortium showcases a great deal of potential for the city; I just hope that the character from its pirate / mercantile backgrounds shines through against the fortifications in progress. 

Time of course will tell.

Building in Starbound Part 1: early design and thoughts

As I mentioned last week, I was looking to get into building in Starbound beyond the typical hole in the ground storage space that I often create.  That’s not to say there’s nothing to discuss in that matter, it’s just I was looking to make something a bit more established or realistic (as far as one can go in a 2D space world).

The process to start building first featured a process of finding a ‘creative mode’ where one can spawn infinite blocks to design whatever plan s/he may desire to build.  This came up with a couple debugging mods and community lead creative projects, but unfortunately I didn’t have much luck with getting them to work.  I could put this down to not having much time to properly research the fixes and solutions, but some of the blame can be put down to not being great at fixing mods without guidance.  So, for this initial stage of the project, I looked to use what my current avatar had gathered over the two week period I had been playing on and off. 

Anyway, onto the build...

After a quick Google search of precedence, I had decided that for my first build, I would look to not create some aesthetic wonder house but merely recreate a timber framed dwelling in section akin to my early days of studying Architecture.  The aim of this was to take the parts of a building we’re well aware of (walls, floor, roof, etc) and input detail such as insulation, joists and foundations.  Due to the 2D world that the game offers, I feel this is an interesting way to represent such details and give an insight into basic construction.  Whereas previously I was looking into these massive builds, I am more interested in doing details akin to 1:20 scale drawings that draughtsmen do in practice, of course in a simplified manner. 

Foundation

Foundations of build #1.  Screenshot taken 19/4/2015

After levelling out a space for my build, I placed a large section of stone to represent the foundation.  In game, I presented this with cobblestone being covered by mud outside the space of the dwelling, as foundations tend to extend beyond the building by a small amount.  I then cut out a section on either side to simulate the start of the wall formations through a darker stone which would connect to the timber frame.  As these are load bearing walls, having the resistance of this stone supports against forces like the wind pushing against the frame and toppling the walls. 

Walls

Wall formation featuring Timber exterior, interior and insulation.  Screenshot taken 20/4/2015

My original plan for this was to feature 5 piece wall formation featuring these pieces; exterior wooden cladding, timber frame exterior, insulation, timber frame interior and interior render.  This became a bit awkward to achieve because of two reasons.  Firstly, the smallest block is 1x1 in an ordered grid fashion, so having exterior cladding that went at a 30 degree angle while keeping everything else to scale would the make the wall much bigger than my original foundation would allow.  Secondly, as I was doing this with my available supplies, I would have needed to gather a lot more wood for the frame and pink moon rocks for insulation.  This wasn’t viable with my available time so I stuck to a simpler wall-insulation-wall setup.  I also allowed for a couple windows where I put in a sill and overhang, but as with the wall would like to do again with a lot more detail. 

Roof

Roof, Guttering and formation.  Screenshot taken 19/4/2015

This is the section I’m most happy with, as I was able to add a nice couple touches to it.  I did a cut-off point where the wall meets the roof and create a typical gabled roof with a combination of refined wood, unrefined wood and insulation.  I originally thought to do a 30 degree angle (2-3 along 1 up) but keeping with the scale of the rest of the building it would have made the insulation look odd.  I kept with a typical 1 up 1 along set-up with a small overhang for the left-side where an attic room could be placed with a large window.  As a nice finishing touch, I added gutters out of a black block called “heavy dark block” to sit under the overhang to catch the rain.  If I had more of this material (or a similar colour / finish) I would bring the guttering down to the side of the building. 

Interior

Interior structure with joists and ceiling covering.  Screenshot taken 19/4/2015

After deforesting the planet to get enough wood to fill in the interior back walls, I sectioned off the interior to make 3 floors connected by a spiral staircase (or at least an attempt to).  I did have some issues with the wooden platforms turning about on them in a 2D space, but it does the job of movement well enough.  The floors have had joists put in at a ratio of 2:6 blocks to simulate the ordered structure of joists in timber frame buildings.  I also put a covering over the joists to show a ceiling which due to its neutral colour ended up as snow blocks (which thankfully don’t melt even when supporting a chandelier).  Over time, I will add to the interior it’s just was filled in for the purpose of this initial presentation.

As I have presented above, I do have things I would like to improve on and I hope that over the next couple weeks I get to make this into a proper dwelling.  As well as this, I would like to take some of these details like the wall structure and blow them up to a proper 1:20 detail so that we can talk about what goes on inside a building.  I’m kind of looking forward to it and see how accurately it can be done when I have more time and more experience with the tools.