Does Goblet need a revamp?

[Zojha]

The desert is probably fighting an uphill battle against the forest, beach, and Eastern beach.

It's not even a desert.

It's a secluded rock pillar inside a canyon, surrounded by bottomless pits as you know them from dungeons. Looks a bit like a prison colony from the distance, with an easily defensible bridge in case of insurgence.

I dunno. I suppose more water and green could help, but I have my doubts the concept as such is overly popular.

[Jellybums]

Three words come to mind when I hear Goblet: dry, dusty, heatstroke. Maybe they can add canals/aqueducts/cascading fountains so there's running water going around the area to lower temperatures, blue accent tiles like in the hanging gardens and more palm trees and flowering succulents. Just add more life and color to the place so it doesn't look like people carved their homes out of rocks.

[Madbunny]

This is only way how i see Goblet...


If you want some alternative then this could be an option even i like first picture way more...


The point is the desert should dominate and not huge mountains and endless abysses. The rest (as the center of Goblet) could stay the same. So to put it short, Goblet should have huge walls and from them onward just desert with few distant oases. This will make Goblet so much brighter with astonishing view in all directions.
During the night there could be distant caravan lights next to the oases - something like this


If SE do this change (what i highly doubt) you can bet all your money that Shirogane and other residential zones will immediately feel somehow empty.

[Kaurhz]

I think if anything it is just a really underappreciated district, it has plenty of amazing views, and plots.. Such as the Mansion on Plot 13, essentially overlooking the entire ward, or the plots at Brimming Heart. I don't think it needs any rework, just Massively underappreciated!

Although I guess Goblet West, and Goblet exchange could do with some NPCs to add a little to the atmosphere, but then again, there's an under-abundance of NPCs in all districts which really do fail to give each district some life.

[Nalette]

I've made no secret of actually loving the Goblet as a setting and have been an advocate for it here on the forums now and again, but I do agree it needs some sprucing up - I've made suggestions here and there already, though I'd probably have to look through my post history to actually lay them all out.

It would really only be little things here and there to make it really neat.

One of my biggest suggestions would be to look at how Shirogane was handled. We already have the suggestion of a "Market" area at the start of the Goblet - but imagine an entire open air market for the the various vendors and other NPCs as you come into the district proper where that one tent already is. Maybe a small amphitheater / covered area with seating where those dancing miqo'te are now, with several other shaded canopies / gazebos littered around the zone.


More mosaic-work / statues - the new Brimming heart is gorgeous, and the rest of the zone should reflect that more. I love the various cactus gardens, etc - but add some glitz and glow and verticality to some of them. This is supposed to be an oasis - lush greenery / vines / palmtrees (or even desert ironwoods with their widespread shade) would help break up some of the brown sandstone.

The pools scattered around the zone are neat enough, but make them standout more! Fountains with places to sit filled with the lilies they already have would add more flavor.

I, for one, love the secret mazes and passages -- but give them purpose! In Shirogane, you see hidden beaches and hotsprings. Why not have some of those passages lead to hidden locales as well? They're barren right now. Shrines to Nald'thal maybe? How about a secret underground tavern or even a hidden "black market" of sorts? RPers LOVE nooks like this.

Again, I love the Goblet. Adding a little visual interest would go a long way.

[Waemliht]

I really like those pictures Madbunny posted.

[Ariel_Valmont]

The new brimming heart ruined the goblet for me. Loved my plot in the goblet and would have bought another one (took an extended break and gave up my house during heavensward) had it not been for that remodel. I enjoy the labyrinthine alleys and roads, with all the secretive nooks and crannies everywhere, the sunsets, tracking the shadow of the windmill, and imo they have access to the best wall for a house, the one with all the cacti... But that new pool area is just the ugliest, gaudiest thing, and completely ruins the view.

[Mikki]

I do think that all of the original 3 housing areas could do with an update... they need more logical designs. I ALWAYS go to my private home in Shirogane rather than my Free Company house in Lavender Beds despite liking the aesthetics there more simply because if I want to go to the vendors in the main section, it's so much easier to find the ones I want in Shirogane.

However, I think it would be difficult to do this without making people unhappy. I could certainly imagine if I had a house I LOVED and in the rework, that beautiful house I had managed to get ended up in a new spot that I hated and how miffed I'd be over it.

I think Goblet falls flat for most people because there is no greenery and most of the views are just....canyon walls. Which is not that exciting to say the least. I think most people like greenery and lush places that feel alive. Even Mist, despite being a beach, has tons of greenery and beautiful plants. Whereas Goblet has little and is mostly stone and rock. I think they'd have done better to make it an Oasis type theme rather than sticking to the strict feeling of a desert. Or at least given it a more compelling feeling like the pictures MadBunny posted where everything feels very grand. Currently it feels underwhelming and almost like a small little town in the middle of nowhere, where a very small community lives.

[enthauptet]

This is kind of long and just rambling a bit, but walked around goblet and came up with some thoughts on things.

The scenery around the goblet could be improved for sure since 99% of it is just "mists" some bottomless pit (why would you want to make a house next to a 10000+ foot drop? lol)

But my main issue with goblet is the layout. The way the houses, roads and walls/walkways are arranged make it so a large portion of it makes no sense! There are walkways which go nowhere! Houses face into walls!

The western area:

Spot at 12.8,8.8 is nice but there's pretty much nothing near it and it's annoying to get to. The house next to it plot 21 is isolated and is surrounded by paths going random directions.

Marketboard at 13.6,9.8 next to it is like the worst spot, just stupid there are 300 staircases here and it makes no sense. You walk around a long walkway on the edge and amazing another marketboard at 14.3,10.9! Why?! This one is actually near houses! The first one should be redone.

Plot 23 faces the back of another house and the crazy walkway/stair area.

There's a giant raised walkway wall from the entrance over to 12.8,12.3 which I don't really see the purpose of aside from blocking views. It's above all the houses so it's not like it's just a regular walkway. The area at 13.1,11,1 is just a hundred ramps! It could be more houses or maybe rearranged to give better views? It's just bad.

Plot 25 probably has the best view in the goblet, but there is nothing to see, really. The mountains are so far away it's just misty/foggy emptiness.

The houses over at 14.5,11.8 area both face the wrong direction. Why does the large face the small, and why does the small face the wall right in front of it? It really makes no sense, just flip them the opposite way. These are 2 of the coolest housing spots but some of the lamest in reality because of the stupid orientation.

Plot 27 next to them faces the wall, again.

Plot 28 has a wall on 2 sides and faces a wall with an archway. It could be rotated like 45 degrees and look out to the emptiness instead lol. It's also next to the weird inaccessible area where there are lots of detail but all in places that you can't go so...why?

Onto the inside area:

The planters at 11.8,12.7 look out of place. Not really sure what you could do here but it looks weird. Maybe a ramp up to the inaccessible area right above it?

Plot 18 is squashed in between plot 17 and a ramp up to the giant pointless walkway wall. Its location is alright since it's the poolside area, but the sides and back are really cramped. The house next to it is raised up too making it claustrophobic a bit.

Plot 17 and 16 just face the wrong way. Their plots are okay overall besides that. I'm not really sure why they are raised up aside from just making it harder to get to them. They also have the giant walkway wall behind them with the 300 ramps.

The heart section is okay, I liked it better before without the hot tub look but that is whatever. The waterfall being separated just looks odd to me though.

Plot 14 faces toward another plot yet again though it's not so bad this time. If you could move houses inside the plot to the right instead of on the left it wouldn't be so bad since otherwise this would be a really nice plot.

Plot 15 is my plot on famfrit, I think it's one of the best plots in the goblet as it faces the right direction, isn't crouded as much as other plots and doesn't have asinine marketboard location, etc. You can also jump onto the roof from behind if you want. Having the back so walled off is meh since the rest is open.

The area next to 15 though again has like 300 walkways which go the same place. Why is there a raised walkway area if there's just a tunnel through it?

Moving onto the north and east sections now:

Plot 2, 3 just weird orientation looking at the back of plot 6. The area in between these plots and 6 though is like why? So many pointless walkways everywhere yet this one place which would make sense to have one does not?

Plot 6 is so isolated but it is in the middle of everything? It also faces a wall and the back of plot 7 and is hard to get to! This is an awful plot. In my apt ward on excalibur it is owned by a house hoarder whom owns several of the plots in the ward.

Paths, stairs, walkways at 10.1,10.7. Just why, 300 walkways going every which way. This is just a nightmare to navigate.

The large plot 13 area is okay but kind of weird, it's pretty constrained feeling with the wall of the fence being the edge of the area. It's not like a terrible view, but seeing how the majority of the open area is blocked because how the edge of the house/wall is make it kind of mediocre when it could be a really cool spot!

Plot 11,12 are okay I guess but again facing the inside and 11 has the same wall issue as plot 13.

Plot 1 feels by itself because it is. It's got one of the openings of the random tunnels which is cool I guess? This plot is okay just by itself.

The area at 9.4,13.9 is neat but it's so out of the way! Why does one of those tunnels not come here? The walkway from apartments is not bad, but the other way takes forever to get here and is just a giant unused space where it meets back up.

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

For my tastes I rank the housing areas as follows:

#1 Mist (where my house is) is a beach resort town. It's got great views and a really fun atmosphere.

#2 Lavender Beds is a fairy tale forest setting with waterfalls, wonderful views and magical forest feel to it.

#3 Shirogane has a touch of that beachfront feel of Mist with an eastern theme. Again nice views and I'd rate it higher if I had a bigger appreciation of the themes.

#4 The Goblet doesn't seem "bad" to me but the layout isn't intuitive and it suffers from a lack of color. The zone itself is nice looking, particularly near the pools and in the right spots it does have nice views but they are more limited because of how the area is laid out.

Ultimately I don't think a drastic redesign is realistic to expect. But the area could have its "brown same-ness" broken up with more planters and statues to add some more color and opulence to the area.