redesigning Vallaki?

[herkles]

Hello,

After exploring the Watcher estate today, I was wondering if Vallaki could ever be rebuilt? It feels rather old, not to mention the size is just huge with empty space. So I am curious what others think of redesigning vallaki as well as if the devs have any plans to spruce it up and make it as cool as the watcher estate?

-herkles

[-Rotten Fish-]

*cough* gundarakite street...

though i do agree with what herkles is saying. i know the devs are keen to expand the world, but show the town that started it all some love. 

[Bluebomber4evr]

It's been asked at least a dozen times in the past, and the answer is still the same: no. We might touch it up here and there, but a complete redesign is out of the question.

[herkles]

It's been asked at least a dozen times in the past, and the answer is still the same: no. We might touch it up here and there, but a complete redesign is out of the question.

so basically vallaki is destined to look like old guy next to the shiny and awesomly looking watcher estates

[Feronius]

It's been asked at least a dozen times in the past, and the answer is still the same: no. We might touch it up here and there, but a complete redesign is out of the question.

so basically vallaki is destined to look like old guy next to the shiny and awesomly looking watcher estates

They're not even remotely compareable? One is an estate with surrounding buildings and some Farmland. The other is a walled off city / town.

And to be honest, I don't get the "it's too big" complaint. Never have. It looks about right to me according to the estimated amount of residents.
Although I do agree it is a bit dull and empty in places, some redesigning or making the streets seem more dynamic can't really do any harm.


Probably shouldn't bring up vague threads like these too often, unless you can actually do the redesign as well. I doubt it's very helpful to any dev.

[Soren / Zarathustra217]

Aesthetics are to some extend always a subjective thing. To me, the areas surrounding Vallaki and all the way up to peak of Mt. Baratak remains among the most well crafted and containing the highest aesthetic value that we have.

[ManticoreRO]

Aesthetics are to some extend always a subjective thing. To me, the areas surrounding Vallaki and all the way up to peak of Mt. Baratak remains among the most well crafted and containing the highest aesthetic value that we have.

+1

[~Shadow~]

Aesthetics are to some extend always a subjective thing. To me, the areas surrounding Vallaki and all the way up to peak of Mt. Baratak remains among the most well crafted and containing the highest aesthetic value that we have.

+1

++

Personally I love the way Vallaki looks and feels. It has that very somber gothic feel to it. It may not have a bunch of pretties but it has atmosphere.


Atmosphere...

[VeeTpl]

I think it's worth mentioning how the entire city looks and plays (!) completely different dependent on whether it is day or night.

It's not always about the amount of fog, lightning and sound effects. The server supports the Vallaki feel also through mechanics that force the player to adjust on how to cross or explore the city. This is why it has such an impact without going over-the-top with the toolset.

Vallaki looks logically built, if I can say that. And in my book, that is a big plus.

[Anonymoose]

Normally I would be annoyed to the point that I quit when I played on a server with ridiculously large cities but in the case of Vallaki, the builder(s) of that area have managed to "conceal" the empty spaces very well and have at the same time managed to create a sizable city that you don't run through in a couple of seconds. The only settlement that I have a hard time enjoying is VoB for some reason, it doesn't click with me.

Thumbs up Vallaki, thumbs down VoB.

[greeneggs]

loved vallaki since day 1!   

[Tycat]

I am a huge fan of the network of alley ways, the realistic segregation of districts,, the size. The size is perfect. I love it. I love that it takes time to traverse, like a real town. Sure its not as pretty in terms of tileset, but its perfect as it is designed.

[Budly]

Normally I would be annoyed to the point that I quit when I played on a server with ridiculously large cities but in the case of Vallaki, the builder(s) of that area have managed to "conceal" the empty spaces very well and have at the same time managed to create a sizable city that you don't run through in a couple of seconds. The only settlement that I have a hard time enjoying is VoB for some reason, it doesn't click with me.

Thumbs up Vallaki, thumbs down VoB.

I myself find VoB spokey to enter at night. Feels like a middle size village as you enter the gate but as you traverse into the center. That night fog and the emotes comnig up explaining the outlook of the town. Been hiding many nights in that Shrine of Ezra back when I was a new players!

[MAB77]

To a certain extent, Barovia village is supposed to be an appaling place to be, you want to get away from it. Yet it definitively has its use if you know where to look. I would redesign a few sections of it, but that would be purely for cosmetic reasons, I'm sure the dev team has more important issues to tackle.

[IDreamofDaleks]

So I may be missing something Lore wise, but this always intrigued me:

I thought Vallaki was supposed to be a small to moderately sized fishing village who'se only claim to fame was that it was geographically located on an economic crossroads?
Did we take creative liberty here
or was there a line of events that made Vallaki grow?

[DM Vinculum]

So I may be missing something Lore wise, but this always intrigued me:

I thought Vallaki was supposed to be a small to moderately sized fishing village who'se only claim to fame was that it was geographically located on an economic crossroads?
Did we take creative liberty here
or was there a line of events that made Vallaki grow?

At the time the server was created liberties were taken. Essentially, the server itself was MUCH smaller.

[BahamutZ3RO]

So I may be missing something Lore wise, but this always intrigued me:

I thought Vallaki was supposed to be a small to moderately sized fishing village who'se only claim to fame was that it was geographically located on an economic crossroads?
Did we take creative liberty here
or was there a line of events that made Vallaki grow?

Vallaki's always been described as a 'city' in the materials I've seen, and I think it's about the right size for what it should be. It's really not that big when you think about it, it just feels large because of how much walking you need to do.

[emptyanima]

So I may be missing something Lore wise, but this always intrigued me:

I thought Vallaki was supposed to be a small to moderately sized fishing village who'se only claim to fame was that it was geographically located on an economic crossroads?
Did we take creative liberty here
or was there a line of events that made Vallaki grow?

Vallaki's always been described as a 'city' in the materials I've seen, and I think it's about the right size for what it should be. It's really not that big when you think about it, it just feels large because of how much walking you need to do.

I've seen it described as a city too, and I feel it's perfectly sized! It's one of my favourite areas, actually.

[Purist]

The city doesn't need to be "re-planned"/"rebuilt" from zero. It needs the new the textures that came with the past years. Maybe change one building here, another there, and it's fine. What we really, really, need more in iadul are transitions linking the walls so a Garda can travel from the Citadel to anywhere over the walls, without having to get exposed to the dangers of the night. Also, the gateways, it would be greaaat if they linked both walls. Because if I'm at one side of the wall and I have to go to the other side, past the gate, I have to open the door, cross the street, then open another door and get up there. In the meanwhile, five ninja stalkers and two invisible witches exploited this mechanical failure and are breathing on the back of my neck, ready to slit my throat. Why mechanical failure? Because in reality, I'd only open a small gap, enough for myself to squeeze through and only so briefly. In the game the door gets wide open and there is the time to move from the bottom to the top to finally close the door and then, all sort of evil comes in.

[IDreamofDaleks]

So I may be missing something Lore wise, but this always intrigued me:

I thought Vallaki was supposed to be a small to moderately sized fishing village who'se only claim to fame was that it was geographically located on an economic crossroads?
Did we take creative liberty here
or was there a line of events that made Vallaki grow?

Vallaki's always been described as a 'city' in the materials I've seen, and I think it's about the right size for what it should be. It's really not that big when you think about it, it just feels large because of how much walking you need to do.

Not that I care either way what the server decides to do with Vallaki but as per cannon from the Gazetter:

Vallaki (small town) : Conventional AL LN: 800 GP limit Assets: 61880 Population: 1547
etc etc etc

Not sure if these things are considered canon, or what edition they are as opposed to what we are, or what.

[Legion XXI]

Yeah, it's been brought up quite a few times in the past that Vallaki is supposed to be a "small town".  Just like the Red Vardo isn't supposed to have this strong of a presence in Vallaki, or any of the other things that have been tweaked in the name of fun and RP rather than 110% accuracy.

Keep in mind, though, that way back when this server was created, they didn't have fancy city domains like Dementlieu.  A lot of things were different, most of the players were confined to a much smaller area, and the team made decisions to fit the needs of a growing server at that time.  Is it vital that Vallaki be represented as this big now that we have much more space?  No, but it's not worth the time/effort/resources to completely remake the city.  It works fine, and it would just be wasting the Dev team's time to ask them to remake something so trivial that really doesn't impact us much.  Even if they made it exactly the scale it should be, with exactly 1547 NPCs in the city, I bet you anything that someone out there would still complain about it. 


For most other things, though, Gazetters are a great resource for lore on the setting.  If you're going to play a native from any domain, the best thing you can do in preparation is read that domain's Gazetter entry.  Just don't go quoting population figures, and you'll be fine.

[Dread]

So I may be missing something Lore wise, but this always intrigued me:

I thought Vallaki was supposed to be a small to moderately sized fishing village who'se only claim to fame was that it was geographically located on an economic crossroads?
Did we take creative liberty here
or was there a line of events that made Vallaki grow?

I always assumed Vallaki was just very spread out, with a lot of room for people to live in. It's still a town, not a city. Port-a-Lucine appears to be smaller, but it's also way more crowded (particularly in its slums). Incidentally, Vallaki is also known as a place where there's a lot of magical stuff going on.

[Bluebomber4evr]

I don't get how anyone can look at our version of Vallaki and declare it a "city." It's nowhere near that large. It's always seemed the right size for 1500+ people to me.

[herkles]

So I may be missing something Lore wise, but this always intrigued me:

I thought Vallaki was supposed to be a small to moderately sized fishing village who'se only claim to fame was that it was geographically located on an economic crossroads?
Did we take creative liberty here
or was there a line of events that made Vallaki grow?

I always assumed Vallaki was just very spread out, with a lot of room for people to live in. It's still a town, not a city. Port-a-Lucine appears to be smaller, but it's also way more crowded (particularly in its slums). Incidentally, Vallaki is also known as a place where there's a lot of magical stuff going on.

Port-a-lucine feels much smaller then vallaki, which is where my dissononence is comming from.

[Syl]

I don't know... Valiki feels right to me on size I understand the need to have it multiple transitions since there is alot of things in valiki with ababdnoned houses the citidel and many sewer entrences...SO i think its more than the right size

Port also feels big while it may consist of four tranitions there are many levels of that city that give it depth and feel and to included the ruined looking ezrite church that rests at the very top and a segment of it is in every section I feel like it takes a good while to even walk around that so... that city is big enough if you ask me....