Port Atlantis: A study in urban design and how to improve on it.

Urban design concerns the arrangement, appearance and functionality of towns and cities, and in particular the shaping and uses of urban public space. It has traditionally been regarded as a disciplinary subset of urban planning, landscape architecture, or architecture and in more recent times has been linked to emergent disciplines such as landscape urbanism.

However, with its increasing prominence in the activities of these disciplines, it is better conceptualized as a design practice that operates at the intersection of all three, and requires a good understanding of a range of others besides, such as real estate development, urban economics, political economy and social theory.

The basic reason why I'm posting this because I've always been fascinated by the fact that many city designs are unique in their own right.. and since the release of content package 2010.5, Port Atlantis is now unique and is in fact more interesting than it's pre-VU 2010.5 self or even it's Pre VU10.0.0 self..

But this does bring up a few questions, like the issue of gathering places.. (I've noted in my short 2 day expedition of the city, that there are really no so called "meeting places" for folks in the city. I mean let's take a look back at Version 9.xx and explore some of the things that made that city work in a way. )

First off the city was laid out around a centralized hub.. (Though Newcomers were usually started in a 'New Arrival Zone'). Most of the activity was in the area around a centralized teleporter, with people being able to go in and come out of the teleporter, and be met with a lot of folks either talking, trading, or even discussing things from the weather to hot topic debates and even heated arguments.

Of course there were landmarks that some folks were easy to spot or locate.. such as the "Boxes", the landing pad, etc. But the plaza was wide and in fact it wasn't too hard to locate people n that plaza.. you just had to know to look for them).

In the VU10.0 incarnation, PA was in fact a bit better designed in someways, than it's predecessor.. Granted there was a wide plaza, and people (when they were there,) congregated around the teleporter and again the trading the argueing and the topics were discussed.

Still comfortable but now because of the lack of a larger player base, the town had literally become desolate, or had become Barren because folks complained about the lag. Also folks tended to centralize around one city (rather than the three to five in game (such as Port Atlantis, Twin Peaks, Omegaton West, Genesis Amathera HQ, New Oxford, and even Atlas haven). Most notably as of late people have been visiting Twin where it's crowded and laggy, and until this release, Port Atlantis was wsort of a Ghost town.

So I guess it took this content to fix those problems.. But with the advent of the current city, some new problems do arise, and have crept in (Albeit unknowingly), and again it deals with two things, namely location, and of course layout design of said city.

Now in this version (and if you really walk around PA like I did for the last 2 days), there are some pluses to this latest incarnation of a city. Things like at least 3 Teleporters (including the downtown teleporter, the PA Mall Teleporter (Which is located on a large roof that is perfect for landing VTOL's..), and the new Marina TP.. which is where most of the newcomers land at, once they want to come down off Calypso gateway.

But it got me to sitting there and analyzing the situation more. And the thing is that it seems that now the city isn't being used properly.

One flaw is in fact the central Main TP itself. The area around it, is closed and really confining, and in fact there's very little room to move around in.. (Not that I'm saying you can't but rather that compared to the previous versions, and incarnations, you had a hub that was just right, and then in the VU 10 update too large).

But now, the converse is true, and things are too small around that tp.. (and thus this is why they've programmed the newcomers to arrive at the marina (Or what I like to jokingly refer to as "Coming off the boat"),

Also here's another flaw and now that VTOL aircraft are in play, there seems to be a lack of "Landing zones or Landing pads" for these vehicles to land on.. (Granted some land near the beach, and others doe use the Mall roof.. but still others just try to sit down on the docks or on the main Marina TP where newcomers come into play. It's because of these issues that some players don't oeve bother overflying the area, let alone land there..

(Granted a friend of mine noted that there is a landing platform (which sort of can be used as a Taxi service platform." But if you have multiple players vying for just that one spot, the airspace over the city can become quite crowded, and of course that burns up fuel..

But as for other landing zones? There aren't any..

Now as for the city itself, it's small and compact, but I also observed this: I feel that this is just what is called "The Core" structure of the city, " The hub" as it were.) But maybe the issue is that maybe this core can be the basis of what could be developed..

For example I noted a lot of open space around the city.. (Granted it's open cause I have a feeling these areas will be modified to have apartments included on them.. (and of course I'm also thinking abstractly here).

Now the apartment complexes can be modern, futuristic even, and have areas for those VTOL flyers to land.. and the areas can be either be on the rooves of the apartment complexes or even landing pads around the buildings..

In short the current PA that was just released is maybe at best a small hub but eventually a larger one could be developed.. (and this comes back to my initial point about VU9 and it's "hub"

Now VU9's "Hub" (around the TP was uite spacious.. but still it was a congregation place for a number of people..

but now, I've noted on my radar that a lot of folks are scattered all over the place..

Now I'm not saying that having one large area is good, (Considering that folks do complain about Game lag here), but rather it's about really dividing up the city into sectors or even neighborhoods.. And maybe this is what MA is proposing...

Having smaller meeting areas for people that circle th city.. where smaller groups of people can meet and interact. This actually serves two fold .. One it helps spread out the community as a whole thus reducing game lag, but it also means that if you have a friend in one neighborhood, and you're in another, well then you and he/she need to meet somewhere.. and usually that is around a core or hub.. (Which in this case is the Downtown TP..)

But I say this.. I think a lot of folks could actually build a better layout of PA.. I'm not saying it should be done, but rather it should be considered as an option.. so I thought this out and thought about it..and here's my thoughts on this..

A centralized hub section where people can meet and interact, (that isn't too large nor tpo small.) but still soe folks would have some sort of central common ground.

There should be "Shopping districts" as well.. Granted a single mall is nice, but you do have neighborhoods, and thus you need places to go to do your shopping.. And you shouldn't have to go do centralized shopping .. this would actually improve things in a way, cause then it's more about Location, location, location, rather than just going to a locale, and walking through the stores..
It would make some player who are store owners wonder if their store is in the right location or not..

Also apartments. This seems to be PA's prime sticking point at the moment, which is of course the price of affordable housing.. or even housing in general. By placing apartment complexes in a radial like spokes on a wheel with the central area (hence "The Hub") being the main central location. Thus allowing folks to congregate between places.. (either in their apartments or in their own neighborhood interaction areas, or even at the centralized location.)

Also Landing spaces and parking spaces.. Granted we're able to pick our cars/vans up and put them in our back piocket.. the same for our VTOL's and boats as well.. But then this brings up a new question.. Why have a landing place?

Well this goes back to the question that deals with the shuttle pilots that have hangars and ships.. They need a place to store their items.. and yes right now we can not leave our toys lying about, due to the issues of game lag.

But still, wouldn't it be nice to have landing pads around the city, where you can land your vehicle, get out of it and even pick it up?

I mean think about it.. This idea could be as futuristic as this, yet even though it is a cartoo opening, it's probably a well thought out idea in itself.

I mean think about this.. Look closely at the video.. The apartments have parking spots at the bottom of the complex the schools have parking areas (or large landing areas0, and even the shopping mall? large and plenty of room to park (This point at the moment is moot cause of the fact that the mall has a landing pad on the roof..)

But still think about the apartments.. Why not have some sort of elevated apartments (much like in that above sequence and a landing area underneath where you can put VTOL's down.. and what about the ground based equivalents like Parking lots? .

After all, this is just conjecture and theory here.. of what PA (and the rest of the Cities on Eurdoria and Amathera could become.. vibrant, alive and even fun to explore.

Because in stating this, having proper city or urban design, will things tend to attract the player, and make it more interactive.. I mean these are just only suggestions I make cause I know that a lot of folks think I might be crazy, but then again. maybe it's the need for places to go and things to do that makes this game interesting.

So I'd like to hear some thoughts on this commentary.. Sure it's long and verbose, but in the end, it's pretty well thought out..

But what are your thoughts on all of this?

Let the discussion begin.

Benjamin "Ben" Coyote a.k.a. "The Blind sniper'