I’m sure part of it is just all the time I’ve spent in Paragon City of late, but I felt more aware of the cityscape around me as I drove around LA yesterday on the way back home. Outside my office, over the railroad tracks, was another big electrical substation. Beside it, a big corrugated steel warehouse with stairways up the side. Around it, dirt lots. No clockworks, but it sure felt like the southern reaches of the Galaxy City zone.
Then, driving down through downtown, along the Harbor Freeway (110), it was time for Skyway City. Freeway interchanges, overpasses, the “Four Level.” Glancing under odd corners of confluence, bits of concrete backwater, expecting to see trolls chatting in the shadows, or Vahzilok shuffling along, staring at the cars. Then down south of the downtown, the big elevated carpool lane area towering over the freeway, and thinking how much faster Velvet Super-Jumped her way through town than I was driving.
(And, yes, I know that the acceleration of time in the game means she doesn’t move nearly that fast. Except traffic was really bad, and Velvet could actually run faster than I was driving. Heck, she could run without Sprint on faster than I was driving.)
And, actually, that’s the difference between Paragon City and LA (aside from the huge bombed-out or collapsed zones — and just wait until the Big One hits for that): LA has cars. Lots of cars. Lots and lots of cars. All of whom were traveling the same time I was. Paragon City, on the other hand, seems to have trains, a busy sidewalk life, and — well, enough cars in populated zones not to seem too utter abandoned, but a hell of a lot fewer than real life. Or at least what passes for it in LA.
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***Dave Does the Game
I’d been meaning to ask why there are so few cars in Paragon City.
I haven’t tried it with Sprint/Prestige Power Slide, but I did time the Avocet while flying. I was 1.0 miles from my mission, and took the straightest line possible. It took about two minutes! It certainly seemed as if I were making better than 30 mph, but apparently that’s not so.
I went through the same game/RL overlap with Star Wars Galaxies (I’d see a lamppost in the distance, and think it was a waypoint beacon. Some yellow tape around a lawn was the path to the waypoint.) and Half-Life 2 (I’d see a guy on the roof of a building under construction and think “Sniper!). Hasn’t happened with CoH yet, nor have I started dreaming about the game.
You can see the time scale if you look at the moon rising visibly through the sky (props to Doyce for the observation), not to mention the quick cycle from day to night and back.
There’s a picture somewhere, I don’t remember where, of some rooftop electrical fixtures of some sort that look exactly like a gaggle of sprockets on the march.
I’m sure with all that information you’ll have no problem finding it.
I’ll have to look for that.
And I’ve seen your tells a couple of times, David, while I’ve been hip-deep in mission melee madness, so I’ve been remiss in answering back. Sorry, and I have Bobbysoxer on my Friends list now …