As it stands at the moment, cities look pretty much the same, with the same fountains, buildings etc. Therefore I just decided to note down a few ideas for decorations, mainlybased on city specialization:
Basic items would include those that are wanted, including small walls that do not clip, therefore you can easily walk through them (jump over them). They would therefore not look nice but not have any kind of funneling effect in combat, giving anyone a significant advantage. Also, not everyone wants a nice clean city, so a few styles of junk piles and piles of boxes would be appreciated. Finally, a few trainer tents would be a appreciated I think, so like in NPC cities, trainers can be placed in an area next to a few appropriate boxes, droids or whatever.
A clone lab should get a new design of clone centre to represent its special status. This should also include nice rooms such as actual labs. In my opinion it should also be called a bacta facility or something similar, and all talk of cloning should be replaced with the idea of bacta regeneration, but thats for another thread. Perhaps a couple of crates of medical items could also be placed as decorations.
Entertainment district's should get a nice new cantina and theatre design. (Perhaps a theatre that you can actually place props on stage and has a sign to announce upcoming events!) There should also be acouple ofunique gardens with stages for outdoor performances. There should also be a few sign designs that can be placed around the town that can be assigned text by the mayor so when you click read on the radial menu it will give you information on upcoming events.
Manufacturing Centre's should get the ability for citizens to place warehouses, which come in small, medium and large varieties, can store 75, 150 and 225 items respectively, and cost 1, 2 or 3 lots. The advantage of having these is that they come with a ready furnished shelf and box interior, so you don't need to worry about furnishing it, so all the space inside can be used for actual items. You cannot, however, declare residence in these structures. Binary Load Lifters can be used to transfer goods straight from a player's factory and into the storeroom.
Research Centres should be able to place a nice workshop, which is just a nicely designed building complete with an outdoor garageworkshop area containing public crafting stations.
Medical Centre should get a bigger, nicer hospital to show its status. Perhaps a couple of crates of medical items could also be placed as decorations.
Sample Rich cities are supposed to represent mining communities. Therefore, I think a mine entrance and farm decoration would be nice. Perhaps it is possible to go work in the mine by using a terminal at the mine/farm entrance. In a mine you would get a lift down and then have an animation showing you chipping away at some rock. In a farm you would simply step into the field areaand use a forage animation as you harvest different things. This would have the bonus of the concentration counting as double, up to a maximum of 100, but other than that it counts as normal sampling.
Improved job Market cities should have nicer mission terminals, perhaps giving them a shelter or something.
Strongholds should get a militia headquarters building, as well as actually being able to place city gates. For every gate you get, you are allowed a couple of lengths of wall. Unlike standard walls mentioned above, these would actually stop players passing, However, there would be a large number ofgate sections, which can be locked andwill not opento overt members of an opposing faction, but when locked can be destroyed by members ofan opposing faction, slowing them down by a few seconds, but not stopping an attack. To represent the reason to need a stronghold, there should be increased spawns of agro creatures and pirates outside the city limits.
FACTION BASES
The following is actually copied from a post I made on theGCW in the followingthread, but is reapted here for completeness:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=GCW&message.id=145153&page=5
The Imperial Bases as they stand are fine. However, the Rebel bases need completely new artwork. Quite simply, the only real Rebel base is currently under construction on Hoth, and there is a temperory on on Corellia. Therefore, the Rebel's should instead have hideouts, which include hidden defences such as turrets and act in pretty much the same way as they do now. There should be 32 possible designs, with4 base types with2 different styles (one for player cities, one for wilderness), in each of the four different planetery styles (Generic, Tatooine, Naboo and Corellia):
Forward Headquarters should become an abandoned mine or a vehicle garage with recruiter mechanic.
Field Hospital should become a small farmhouse or a medical centre with a network of Rebel tunnels and rooms below.
Tactical Centre should become a homestead or a cantina style building with a basement containing a hidden rebel operation.
Detachment Headquarters should become a county estate or a guild hall with a huge basement containing a huge hidden Rebel base of operations.
While this would make little difference in terms of actual gameplay, it would make a HUGE difference in terms of roleplay.
Please note that I am not a mayor, just someone who has been a little disappointed with visiting all these similar looking Player Cities. Fell free to add extra ideas for decorations/ specialization structures below, although try to keep them balanced rather than overpowering.