Lion's Arch and the Story of LWS 4 and so on

I am a returning player. I started GW2 from beta and quit pretty soon after. I don’t know much about the Guild Wars lore and I might rub people wrong way by saying this, but…

I hate the current state of Lion’s Arch

I have very fond memory of old Lion’s Arch. It had a rustic charm, a built living quarters on top of its older remnant like an amalgamation of thriving life. Perhaps it didn’t have an air of trade central city, but it sure doesn’t feel like one right now anyway. The current LA feels empty, flat and glorified kids’ playground. I understand that it was rebuilt after the LWS 1 event, and what I think is that maybe it could be a beginning of something very prospective.

Just my two cents here, personally with the Living world season 4 around the corner, Kralkatorrik's influence throughout the season reduces the free city of Amnoon to a waste, driving many people to refuge/migrate to the Lion's Arch.A finale of LWS 4 could be the buildup of some sort of siege preparation against Kralkatorrik. A LWS 5 an open world event like LWS 1 could take place again on Lion’s Arch to have the occupants of the city’s resolve tested and for the people to endure, adapt and to build on top of the current foundation.With the Kralkatorrik's obvious weakness destroyed (Dragonsblood spear), I feel this elder dragon should be much more difficult to face off compared to the first two. I reckon it deserves a whole season 5 on its own like Scarlet for LWS 1.

Like I mentioned, I am a returning player. I only have about 3 month of time invested to the game so far, so I do not know the ins and out of its lore. Maybe what I have to offer is complete gibberish. I just want the Lion’s Arch to have a glorious, cultured and unique identity. How awesome would it be to watch the city grow along the story, getting richer and more diverse!

Is another catastrophe event upon LA too much? Do people like the current LA? Is there some sort of GW lore outlying the general direction of its story somewhere? I would love to hear. Thanks for reading!

Don't worry you're not alone. Many people hate the whole Disney World look it has now. Personally don't spend enough time in LA to care either way but yea old LA was pretty sweet. You can still see an instanced version of it in the personal story but obviously you'll be alone.

Yeah, those story instance is where it really hit me, of how much I miss the old Lion's Arch. I rarely go to LA too, but if it was awesome like before, maybe I would go out of my way to visit more often :anguished: (

I love new Lion's Arch, it's so pretty. The old one was just a prettier version of Black Citadel. Glad it looks so majestic. :)

I liked New LA at first when it was released, but overtime I have become less and less excited about the souless concrete themepark. At least Old LA had some character to it, and Ruined LA felt more alive somehow.Perhaps I would like it better if there was more ambient activity in areas outside of the main hubs (thinking mostly the lobster-harbour). Having a second hub in Farshore Ward like there was in Ruined LA would be welcome too.And why the Black Lion Vaults require such a obscene amount of space baffles me.

I was open for renovations of a new, modern Lion's Arch.I WAS NOT OPEN FOR A PARKING LOT NEXT TO DISNEY'S WATERPARK.Heck, they removed any and every reason to call it Lion's Arch.It's literally just 500 square feet of concrete with a few random buildings dropped here and there. Like a toddler was allowed to design it in Sims.. Where are the streets, where are the big harbors, where are the houses, why is the 'city' so empty and open??

Upon reflection I realized the thing I like least about New LA is that blaring soundtrack that keeps looping. Ambient music in most of gw2 is usually very good and subtle. This one was good and epic the first times, but has become quite obnoxius over the years.

I agree that something needs to breath more life into LA. It is already seiged up after it's destruction in LS1. They rebuilt the city into a fort more or less.
New sound track for the city for sure, add more going on with NPC's or something.An sadly we will never see any more LS on the same scale as LS1, LS1 made replaying the events nearly impossible with out major reworks.

It is so much better than the mess it used to be imo. Better look, better atmosphere, better soundtrack. I very much enjoy the sights and sounds of the modern version

I'm a bit ambivalent about it myself.

On the one hand, it does look like a properly fortified city now. It's lacking in actual housing and places where people live, but that's common for ArenaNet's cities - you generally have to assume that you're seeing the commercial districts and the housing districts are offscreen. But it's certainly lost a lot of character, and I hate that historical landmarks were literally paved over.

Agree, its just a disney amusement park now. It has no character, in my opinion, like the other cities (and the old LA of course). Too fluf for my taste.

I really hope they change it again in the future (perhaps when DSD attacks and floods the city, as seen on this concept art https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/202021/cover.jpg ). I loved the old shanty town feel it had, made it feel alive and really like a city built by pirates. There were a lot of interesting hidden places (like the sewers and the Order of Whispers base). Now it just looks boring, like Divinity's Reach 2.0 only more bland. Tons of concrete, huge empty spaces, random sea creatures everywhere. Why is the bank so far away from the TP btw?As other people said, it really looks soulless now, like some water themepark parking place indeed. Also, isn't LA supposed to be famous for it's market? Where's that?

I'd say bring the pirate shanty town back and spice it up a little. Perhaps even include some interesting NPCs around the city that give you small quests/sell unique stuff to add character to the city.

Maybe make it look somewhat like this instead:

https://imgur.com/a/jotG6

The new Lions Arch bothered me for quite a while and it took some time before I realized why.

1. Too many open spaces. For a big city LA is lacking the feeling of being crowded.
2. Missing market. There are some NPC merchants, but they're sparse and few. The center of LA should have a shopping mall where stalls are right next to each other, merchants shouting out to potential customers creating a noisy mix.
3. Not enough action at the harbor. For a city that is known for its huge harbor I would like some boats or even a big ship actually move in and out of the harbor and workers bustling around with boxes and cargo.
4. Having some shiny white districts is ok, but any city of this size has some place where the less fortunate live. A slum area built of LS1 wreckage and populated by beggars should be somewhere.

Someone mentioned the place feeling like the parking lot of some water themepark and I can only agree. The place even has it's own tour guide!

The new Lions Arch is an investment project built by the consortium. So what do you expect? ;)

..........

This comes up a lot. And I still think the new LA just makes more sense. The old LA was cute for a seedy pirate theme, but the exact opposite of practical. Wooden boats turned up on end would not be able to support their own weight for very long, much less weather any kind of attack, or even a hurricane. The new concrete structures are more practical.

A lot of people also complain that it looks like a place no one can actually live in, but I have to disagree with that too. The useful areas, like the bank, crafting corner, and raid area look all commercial, sure, but there are a ton of actual liveable looking homes in LA. Particularly around the waterfront.

I liked the old better. But the new one is not that bad. IT NEEDS MORE HUB ACTIVITY. Markets, people selling things, shady characters, workers moving stuff around. It needs more life, more cosmopolitan situations, more sections depicting different cultures expressing and colliding.

@Dashiva.6149 said:and Ruined LA felt more alive somehow.

In fact I liked ruined LA most :) and the old was better than the new