One of, if not THE main hope I have with UE5 re-release of Entropia is this:
BRING BACK PORT ATLANTIS!
With the re-release of Entropia in CryEngine, I think MA got a little too ambitious with Port Atlantis and so the community moved main trade hub to Twin Peaks as the most convenient place to trade. Reasons?
Port Atlantis became much too cumbersome to navigate; newbies got lost there, too many levels and too many buildings obstructing the view and disorienting people. Trying to figure out where someone is exactly over there, especially since there is 3 TPs there, is too confusing, trying to help a newb find you, is even worse... So Twin Peaks became the best place to trade; very easy, one central TP, you can see everybody there while standing near the TP. Service center right there with all the terminals, bank, mall, etc... 2nd best place to meet in game became the best place, just like that.
How to bring back PA? A little bit of re-design is in order but here are some of the main points I think:
- Move the main TP to the ground, give more space around it, Mall entrance should be visible/accessible from main PA TP. (I like the outdoor levels concept, it's clean, can add some televators near the tp to make it easier to get to where you're going though)
- Introduce PA apartments. How can you have such a big city but no residential there? Those buildings should have apartments in them and players should be able to use them.
- Remove the damn no fly box, what the heck is that for?? There's really no point to it and makes getting back to PA tp complicated and annoying. Please allow people to fly to and from PA tp without having to avoid a no fly box.
- If you intend for PA to never be a noob starting point, then re-think mobs around there; no need for noob level mobs if it's no longer a noob area. I know that the Icarus mission chains do send people up to PA eventually. So yes I think there is a good reason for those mobs and I'm sure a lot of thought went into it, but it seems to me that the role of PA has changed over time, in an uncertain way. The role of PA may need to be better defined.
- Add some NPC token vendors there, not too far from main TP. (maybe there are already some there and I just don't know where they are, things are just too spread out over there)
And in doing this, it may become necessary for you to have a new look at Twin Peaks and have ITS role better defined. It could be as simple as: PA is intended as the main city/trade hub for players from level 5 to level 30, and Twin Peaks is intended as the main city/trade hub for players level 35 to level 80, etc... Or maybe it's a bit more complex than that.
Thanks for reading
Cheers,
Legends
PS: I really hope the new malls will have the vertical display bars
removed (red arrow is pointing to it in the below picture), they just obstruct the view and in my opinion, they do not add any styling or anything, just no value to having them. It would be much better if you just hung the light fixture from the ceiling instead (see red lines in the below picture). But of course this is just a minor pet peeve in comparison with the above.