Tobias · Senior Level Designer, Persistent Universe

We want to go and update several of our landing zones when we get new systems, like has been mentioned here several times. Removal of the no-fly zone and stuff like that is a bit more tricky. We're always going to have the no-fly zone for all locations. New Babbage also has it. It's just not as intrusive, as in your face, as it is in Area 18, for example. That's a big example, where the whole planet is pretty much covered by it. So the simplest answer is yes, we will go back to locations, we will update them. We also obviously see and hear feedback from players when we have released a location. It's really good to get the feedback in, and then when we want to expand this or we get time to expand it, it's like, what should we focus on? And then maybe we heard that this is the stuff that players find most interesting in this location. Then we'll make sure to focus on that first. So it's a yes and no question. We will go back, but we don't plan on making a complete rework of an old location as it looks.

Friedrich Bode · Principal Level Designer, Persistent Universe

Just to add to that, there are a lot of updates going into existing locations that are sometimes not that obvious to players. Remember when elevators were just traveling between two endpoints, and you had to go to a specific elevator to reach a certain hangar? Now, with transit system 2.0, we can change that around. There are performance optimizations. A lot went into 3.9, actually. We split interiors and exteriors for performance reasons. A colleague of ours is working on the restricted area with the feature team that's developing that. So that is being improved, and previously released locations are benefiting from that as well. It's just when it comes to tearing the entire layout apart or reworking large libraries of assets, that's substantially more work. And again, not to dismiss what Toby said, we are listening to player feedback and we definitely let that influence which locations we improve. But there are also certain things, the layout, it's just the nature of the location. Lorville is different from New Babbage. It is more of that big, chunky, industrial, low-tech mega city in the middle of the desert, Judge Dredd style. And New Babbage is a little more intricate, with the domes that are connected, more like little islands. And there are just some things that we won't change.

Tobias · Senior Level Designer, Persistent Universe

The lore obviously comes into it a bit as well. Lorville is a harsh location compared to other areas we have.

Friedrich Bode · Principal Level Designer, Persistent Universe

Art direction too, of course.