Melissa Bianco (War Witch) talks about how they go about designing a new (or revamped) zone in CoX.
When we decided to redo Faultline, we assumed it would be quick and easy because we weren’t starting from scratch, we were just ‘moving a few things around’. Yeah, we were wrong. We eliminated 1/3 of the zone and added access to the ‘hazard’ area. We raised it up and flattened it out. Yes, many elements stayed the same, but it was so much work to incorporate the new geometry that it was far from simple because every single neighborhood had a fundamental layout change to it. Live and learn!
Rikti War Zone was easier because the changes were more subtle. Well, except for a few places where I chose massive changes (i.e. the path leading to the Rikti ship and the Vanguard Base), but even the Base was a piece that I could do “underneath” the world so it didn’t affect the zone ‘topside’ too much (except for the compound), even that was added on to the existing zone by adding a cubby hole.
Good stuff.