Either Paragon City or Rivendell, both were well-designed and memorable. Although I do have to give props to the Inevitable City and Stormwind, they are amazing as well.
My favourite would be Kaineng City in Guild Wars. I loved the feel of the city there, and since it was one of the main hubs, you could find basically everything there. The place was extremely beautiful as well, and it seemed like a very lifelike representation of an ancient Asian civilisation, which was what I loved about the place. It also had slumps and underground drainage systems, though those were instanced and crawling with gangsters, which added to the overall feel of the place.
It's not as populated as Lion's Arch or Kamadan, but in my opinion, it's the most beauitful.
Though I'd say I loved Tatooine in SWG as well, it really reminded me of the excitement I normally get whenever I was doing anything Star Wars related. I literally grew up on Star Wars so it's like a huge dose of nostagia for me. Though I did find the city extremely confusing.
I'm going to say Freeport in EQ2. I totally hate the place.
And that's why I'm calling it the best designed. I'll leave out the game aspects of zoning, since it's a way of life in EQ2 and just focus on the city itself as a whole. The place is simply oppressive. There's nothing comfortable about it. Nothing feels safe or inviting. It's cold. It's angry. It's a perfect architectural embodiment of the personality of the Overlord. In that, Sony hit the nail on the head. The fact that I hate it is proof, imo. I'm biased to the good guys, and no matter how much I try to roleplay an evil character, I just can't stand to stay in Freeport longer than absolutely necessary.
"You'll never win an argument with an idiot because he is too stupid to recognize his own defeat." ~Anonymous
1. WOW: Dalaran - Simple in design. Easy to get around in. Looks amazing. It floats.
2. EQ: West Freeport - Decent from a design standpoint, but it's oddly my favorite zone in any MMORPG.
3. EQ2: The Willow Wood - Super simple design. Impossible to NOT find what you want. The first city zone I ever saw in EQ2.
4. VG: Khal - Large city, but it looks amazing and is easy to get around in unlike many of VG's other hub cities.
5. SWG: Mos Eisley - SWG may have blew, but if they got one thing right, it's the look of this city as it's easily the most immersive representation of the city ever seen in a SW video game.
Britannia in UO. You could go into every building and it was a very busy hub with lots and lots of character interaction. I also quite liked Moonglow as well.
Visually Altdorf in WAR is very nice - but it lacks the player interaction (even npc interaction) to make it a truly great city. Too much just make it big for bigs sake (like cities in wow)
Bree in LOTRO us another good example (tho not the prettiest place like a few mentioned above RIvendale looks much nicer)
Hmm... Khal in Vanguard was indeed amazing. I would say New Targonor, but it was TOO big and confusing, and bereft of content.
My favorite, and I think ONE of the best, is Camelot City. You have the defenders of Albion with their knights, the Guild of Shadows, with secret earthen passages underneath the buildings to find the more devious trainers, recreational buildings like the Ye Olde Mug bar, the merchants squares for arms and armor, the crafting area with the lathe, smithy,, the Church, with the amazing stained glass, clerics and paladins, the Academy with all the magicians, a beautiful guarden with a statue for Artorius Rex, then you get into the INNER city, the pristine white walls, the Round Table, the guild headquarters, Merlin's Tower with his giant guardians. It was amazing. We used to play hide and seek there.
Dalaran. I love all the little shops with 'fun' things in them.
"If all you can say is... "It's awful, it's not innovative, it's ugly, it's blah.." Then you're an unimaginative and unpolished excuse for human life" -eburn
Isn't Moria in LotRO basically one huge dwarven city? If so I'd have to say Moria is the best designed mmo city. I mean it had a whole expansion dedicated entirely to it.
Cities in WOW seems to be the best among other mmorpgs but I prefer to see a samll to medium size town or a useful village to save time to explore in the city.
While there is best then there will be the 2nd worst. Cities in Aion is useless huge. There is no need to give quest uses distant npc locations, and the quest you can repeate 100 times to deliver useless thing from A to B, such design only tells one thing, Aion is a F2P scheme.
Cities in Lotro MoM are aweful because it is underground city.
The most terrible and worst city I will vote for Tortuga, the city in Pirates of The Burning Sea. I quit this game after went in Tortuga, because you would see how terrible is the game all from this city. And this game owned many worst cities among mmorpgs, some of them are forever midnight, and every habor city no matter was owned by French or owned by Spanish, they all looks the same.
Cities in AOC is also terrible because too many small alleys and useless large, terrible road sign with split up map.
EQ2 and FFXI cities are terrible. I wish they would created larger map like WOW than just use one of the same size of map for one city.
City in Warhammer also no good.
City in Pirates of Carribean Online after remodelled are OK.
Best city I can't put my finger on but best city atmosphere would have to go to any major port in Pirates of the burning sea, ...NPC fights breaking out....soldiers chasing criminals around the narrow streets....bands of drunk pirates walking down singing a yo hoho......street urchins thieving from shop sellers stalls...frisky drunken sea dogs propositioning passing maidens and getting a well earned slap across the face.
Now that's city life
that sounds cool, definitely gotta do the trial someday
it sounds cool but in the actual execution it sucks, really really bad. The cities in PotBS are lifeless after the charm of going into them once wears off...after seeing the same pirate carrying the same whore across the same alleyway in every city that you go to, it's not cool anymore.
Your argument is like a two legged dog with an eating disorder...weak and unbalanced.
My problem with amazing MMO cities like Tarantia is that they are placed into the middle of a combat/quest-centric game and there isn't much to truly do in them. Most of the buildings are locked doors, vacated taverns, useless NPC vendors and etc. The cities look nice... I just wish they were in an MMO where I could appreciate them.
"Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads. Here is a man who would not take it anymore. A man who stood up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit. Here is a man who stood up." - Robert DeNiro
It felt truly alive and remarkably atmospheric, even long after my char had outgrown the planet I couldn't help but come back again and again. It never felt 'fake' and 'artificial' as cities in WoW do, for example.
Comments
My favourite city is probably Trinsic from UO. There was just something about that place that felt alive when UO was in it's hayday.
I loved the feeling of impending doom I got leaving the gates of that city and the opposite feeling of relief upon entering.
great topic. This is bizarre for me but I might just say Freeport from EQ2. I don't like EQ2 but it had a couple of nice areas in it no doubt.
Gotta say probably Orgrimmar from WoW. It's hard to choose though, I'll tell you what WILL be the best though...
Coruscant , from SWTOR.
Kelethin in EQ 1. Lots of people still think of this as their mmo "home."
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Either Paragon City or Rivendell, both were well-designed and memorable. Although I do have to give props to the Inevitable City and Stormwind, they are amazing as well.
My favourite would be Kaineng City in Guild Wars. I loved the feel of the city there, and since it was one of the main hubs, you could find basically everything there. The place was extremely beautiful as well, and it seemed like a very lifelike representation of an ancient Asian civilisation, which was what I loved about the place. It also had slumps and underground drainage systems, though those were instanced and crawling with gangsters, which added to the overall feel of the place.
It's not as populated as Lion's Arch or Kamadan, but in my opinion, it's the most beauitful.
Though I'd say I loved Tatooine in SWG as well, it really reminded me of the excitement I normally get whenever I was doing anything Star Wars related. I literally grew up on Star Wars so it's like a huge dose of nostagia for me. Though I did find the city extremely confusing.
Main characters:
Jinn Gone Quiet (Guild Wars)
Princess Pudding (Guild Wars)
I'm going to say Freeport in EQ2. I totally hate the place.
And that's why I'm calling it the best designed. I'll leave out the game aspects of zoning, since it's a way of life in EQ2 and just focus on the city itself as a whole. The place is simply oppressive. There's nothing comfortable about it. Nothing feels safe or inviting. It's cold. It's angry. It's a perfect architectural embodiment of the personality of the Overlord. In that, Sony hit the nail on the head. The fact that I hate it is proof, imo. I'm biased to the good guys, and no matter how much I try to roleplay an evil character, I just can't stand to stay in Freeport longer than absolutely necessary.
"You'll never win an argument with an idiot because he is too stupid to recognize his own defeat." ~Anonymous
1. WOW: Dalaran - Simple in design. Easy to get around in. Looks amazing. It floats.
2. EQ: West Freeport - Decent from a design standpoint, but it's oddly my favorite zone in any MMORPG.
3. EQ2: The Willow Wood - Super simple design. Impossible to NOT find what you want. The first city zone I ever saw in EQ2.
4. VG: Khal - Large city, but it looks amazing and is easy to get around in unlike many of VG's other hub cities.
5. SWG: Mos Eisley - SWG may have blew, but if they got one thing right, it's the look of this city as it's easily the most immersive representation of the city ever seen in a SW video game.
Britannia in UO. You could go into every building and it was a very busy hub with lots and lots of character interaction. I also quite liked Moonglow as well.
Visually Altdorf in WAR is very nice - but it lacks the player interaction (even npc interaction) to make it a truly great city. Too much just make it big for bigs sake (like cities in wow)
Bree in LOTRO us another good example (tho not the prettiest place like a few mentioned above RIvendale looks much nicer)
Strange... my post seems to be missing, I said Kelethin (EQ1) too.
M59, UO, EQ1, WWIIOL, PS, EnB, SL, SWG. MoM, EQ2, AO, SB, CoH, LOTRO, WoW, DDO+ f2p's, Demos & indie alpha's.
Hmm... Khal in Vanguard was indeed amazing. I would say New Targonor, but it was TOO big and confusing, and bereft of content.
My favorite, and I think ONE of the best, is Camelot City. You have the defenders of Albion with their knights, the Guild of Shadows, with secret earthen passages underneath the buildings to find the more devious trainers, recreational buildings like the Ye Olde Mug bar, the merchants squares for arms and armor, the crafting area with the lathe, smithy,, the Church, with the amazing stained glass, clerics and paladins, the Academy with all the magicians, a beautiful guarden with a statue for Artorius Rex, then you get into the INNER city, the pristine white walls, the Round Table, the guild headquarters, Merlin's Tower with his giant guardians. It was amazing. We used to play hide and seek there.
Dalaran. I love all the little shops with 'fun' things in them.
"If all you can say is... "It's awful, it's not innovative, it's ugly, it's blah.." Then you're an unimaginative and unpolished excuse for human life" -eburn
Isn't Moria in LotRO basically one huge dwarven city? If so I'd have to say Moria is the best designed mmo city. I mean it had a whole expansion dedicated entirely to it.
enough said
Cities in WOW seems to be the best among other mmorpgs but I prefer to see a samll to medium size town or a useful village to save time to explore in the city.
While there is best then there will be the 2nd worst. Cities in Aion is useless huge. There is no need to give quest uses distant npc locations, and the quest you can repeate 100 times to deliver useless thing from A to B, such design only tells one thing, Aion is a F2P scheme.
Cities in Lotro MoM are aweful because it is underground city.
The most terrible and worst city I will vote for Tortuga, the city in Pirates of The Burning Sea. I quit this game after went in Tortuga, because you would see how terrible is the game all from this city. And this game owned many worst cities among mmorpgs, some of them are forever midnight, and every habor city no matter was owned by French or owned by Spanish, they all looks the same.
Cities in AOC is also terrible because too many small alleys and useless large, terrible road sign with split up map.
EQ2 and FFXI cities are terrible. I wish they would created larger map like WOW than just use one of the same size of map for one city.
City in Warhammer also no good.
City in Pirates of Carribean Online after remodelled are OK.
Conclusion, Stormwind was best city.
it sounds cool but in the actual execution it sucks, really really bad. The cities in PotBS are lifeless after the charm of going into them once wears off...after seeing the same pirate carrying the same whore across the same alleyway in every city that you go to, it's not cool anymore.
Your argument is like a two legged dog with an eating disorder...weak and unbalanced.
ironforge
Guild Wars 2 is my religion
Tarantia City in AoC
honorable mention to Bree Town in Lotro.
Tir Na Nog, hands down, nothing else even comes close to comparing.
East Carolina University, Computer Science BS, 2011
--------------------
Current game: DAOC
Games played and quit: L2, PlanetSide, RF Online, GuildWars, SWG, COH/COV, Vanguard, LOTRO, WoW, WW2 Online, FFXI, Auto-Assault, EVE Online, ShadowBane, RYL, Rappelz, Last Chaos, Myst Online, POTBS, EQ2, Warhammer Online, AoC, Aion, Champions Online, Star Trek Online, Allods, Darkfall.
Waiting on: Earthrise
Names: Citio, Goldie, Sportacus
Tarantia (AoC)
Kaineng Center (GW)
oh and not a MMO city but best city in the multiverse is of course Sigil
I need more vespene gas.
Medieval
Undercity
Ironforge
Thunderbluff
Stormwind
Freeport
Modern/Comic
City of Heroes
ex Atlas Park
AC2 Player RIP Final Death Jan 31st 2017
Refugee of Auberean
Refugee of Dereth
hmm.. thats a hard one.. id probably have to say either The Undercity from WoW.. or Lions Arch in Guild Wars. Both are just amazing.
If Shadowbane was to come out now you guys would change your opinions. But I would say the Undercity in Wow.
As far as being Unique.. Go to any city in Shadowbane and you would never see the exact same player made city twice.
My problem with amazing MMO cities like Tarantia is that they are placed into the middle of a combat/quest-centric game and there isn't much to truly do in them. Most of the buildings are locked doors, vacated taverns, useless NPC vendors and etc. The cities look nice... I just wish they were in an MMO where I could appreciate them.
"Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads. Here is a man who would not take it anymore. A man who stood up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit. Here is a man who stood up." - Robert DeNiro
Mos Eisley - SWG
It felt truly alive and remarkably atmospheric, even long after my char had outgrown the planet I couldn't help but come back again and again. It never felt 'fake' and 'artificial' as cities in WoW do, for example.
- Ordokai