Warlords of Draenor Press Events - Gameplay Footage and Press Kit

oh man those dance faces on the orc DK, dwarf and gnome.

especially the orc.

also guys seriously must we do this every expansion.

early sneakpeaks are very incomplete and full of placeholders. It will also not include a lot of completed stuff just cause its not ready to be inserted in the build yet or they're focusing on testing other things first before including other stuff (step by step) for testing or they just dont wish to reveal more than is neccessary.

Placeholders for faces, entire models, armor, etc.

Originally Posted by Tenjen

oh man those dance faces on the orc DK, dwarf and gnome.

especially the orc.

also guys seriously must we do this every expansion.

early sneakpeaks are very incomplete and full of placeholders. It will also not include a lot of completed stuff just cause its not ready to be inserted in the build yet or they're focusing on testing other things first before including other stuff (step by step) for testing or they just dont wish to reveal more than is neccessary.

Placeholders for faces, entire models, armor, etc.

This is the trouble with people today they are all too quick to jump on the complaining bandwagon when we see early glimpses of a new xpac.. Hell I remember during MoP beta how much would change from one week to the next, and we have not even seen a date for the WoD beta yet..

Now is they could somehow get a twitch Arena Match going, even just 1v1 I would watch it. It could go on for months!

The last photo for the gnome male dancing is amazing.

Originally Posted by Granyala

Things you see....

you can never unsee!

The hands, feet, ears and cloths still looks like extremely outdated. I know its work in progress so I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Upon closer inspection, I can see the differences in the faces. It's mostly through the shading on the texture to simulate differences in facial structure (more pronounced bone structure, a heavier brow, etc). However, the differences just aren't going to read well unless you zoom your camera right up a character's nose. They're going to need to really punch it up if they want to avoid "sameface" complaints. A major stumbling block there (especially with the orc skins) is that there's not much complexity to the colors, giving them a "modeling clay" sort of look. One thing I've learned from Face Off is that you lose a lot of detail with a paintjob that's too simple for your sculpt. Enhancing the shadows/highlights on those faces would go a long way, especially if the colors were a little more nuanced (different complexions for different faces, a little more color blending, etc). One thing that would help (and a suggestion I will give if I ever have the good fortune to be invited to the beta someday) is to add an "other facial features" slider to some of the races, similar to the Goblin ear/nose/chin options. Things that slightly alter the physical sculpt of the face. That might be more difficult with the newer more expressive faces, but it would help add a lot of character to them. The more outlandish races already have that of course (Tauren horns, Troll tusks, Draenei horns/squidbeards, undead "attachments"), and those are the primary way you can tell one character of those races from another. Aside from hairstyle and beard/jewelry, which a number of races have in addition to the extra features, a good example for orcs would be things like mismatched tusks, different ears, scars and tattoos, noses, war paint, etc.

I feel like this won't be as much of a problem with the more "human-like" races, since the complexion and shading palette is more well established for human skin and thus differences in those aspects will be more apparent, but I see all of the above as potential issues for the races with weird skin tones and/or facial anatomy, including Draenei and perhaps Trolls and Night Elves.
But, just adding scars/tattoos/warpaint to the existing faces, as well as punching up the shading and improving the color complexity, would do a lot to differentiate one orc from another.

I'm disappointed that they aren't more significant changes. If you're going to do character remodels, then completely change everything about them. Leave the option for people to use the old ones if they want, but don't just add more shadowing and some smoother animations and call it year's worth of work. I don't like any of the races seen show far, though I do see the improvement. It's just not so much improvement that it deserves this extreme hype everyone has over it. It still looks like it was colored on with a crayon. And the armor still looks flat and smudged in some areas from where they stretched out the pixels or whatever they did. Like the gnome's little metal brackets on his pants. They look like caterpillars instead of braces!

I don't like the orc hunch at all. I'm really hoping for Throne of Thunder style troll models, but I doubt that will happen because they for some reason want to keep everything as close to the original as possible. I'm really hoping for longer more animated tails, better tentacles, and more horns for all of the Draenei, as well as new reduced frames for the male draenei, but I imagine it will just be the exact same with more animations, giant doll eyes because I guess they needed to make them larger to give them more range of motion, and more shadowing thrown into it to create an optical illusion that they have some kind of 3d muscle definition.

Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I feel like they should have gone even further out of the box and completely redone the models with new everything and no previous influence other than what's mandated by the race's features. What would have really been great is if they had created different models to showcase and let us vote on the ones we wanted. Because I think a lot of people's minds would be swayed from the no deviation from original template debacle if they had something to actually visualize.

Originally Posted by Rhywolver

Can't say I'm surprised, and I'm sure they won't add much more faces. Even if it's beta, the orc model is done and there is so much other stuff to do until release.

The question is still: Why? They did such an amazing job with the goblins. Just check them out: Faces, noses, ears, everything is customizable. And now this?

You do realise in that link all the faces are EXACTLY the same, meaning they haven't put the proper ones in yet.

as expected the models play the same when zoomed out to a normal player view distance the only thing you'll notice with new models is maybe a slighty more akward run then you're used to. Also if you have your cloak enabled it flows better when you run but how many people use their cloak its still not over the shoulder or hood cool its lame cloak still. I notice little difference with the models in full gear compared to now especially attack animations like in the hunter. Also good to know that under the boots are still solid color like the flintstones feet lol.

Originally Posted by bazyk

unreal tournament from 1999 has betta graphic ;<

You need to put down your nostalgia glasses or get some real glasses:

vs.

Originally Posted by cptaylor38

I'm disappointed that they aren't more significant changes. If you're going to do character remodels, then completely change everything about them. Leave the option for people to use the old ones if they want, but don't just add more shadowing and some smoother animations and call it year's worth of work. I don't like any of the races seen show far, though I do see the improvement. It's just not so much improvement that it deserves this extreme hype everyone has over it. It still looks like it was colored on with a crayon. And the armor still looks flat and smudged in some areas from where they stretched out the pixels or whatever they did. Like the gnome's little metal brackets on his pants. They look like caterpillars instead of braces!

I don't like the orc hunch at all. I'm really hoping for Throne of Thunder style troll models, but I doubt that will happen because they for some reason want to keep everything as close to the original as possible. I'm really hoping for longer more animated tails, better tentacles, and more horns for all of the Draenei, as well as new reduced frames for the male draenei, but I imagine it will just be the exact same with more animations, giant doll eyes because I guess they needed to make them larger to give them more range of motion, and more shadowing thrown into it to create an optical illusion that they have some kind of 3d muscle definition.

Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I feel like they should have gone even further out of the box and completely redone the models with new everything and no previous influence other than what's mandated by the race's features. What would have really been great is if they had created different models to showcase and let us vote on the ones we wanted. Because I think a lot of people's minds would be swayed from the no deviation from original template debacle if they had something to actually visualize.

So your basically saying a big fuck you to all those who fell in love with the race they play as and just want to alienate them? I think the way they are doing it now is the best way to go about. Keeping the look and feel of the original models and just upping their detail.

Originally Posted by WarpKnight

I really hope they're not finished with the graphical fidelity and models in the previews here.

Really just looks like the same old crap, the fountains are still decagonal and not truly circles, textures are still bland and uninspired. Hmm, at least Pandaria shook things up with the graphical style by being totally different

this was kinda my fellings when i watched the videos - it mainly recolored textures that are already in game :/ its loosing graphicaly with all other new mmorpgs by miles :/ i know know that the gameplay is most important but come on its completly new zone they could up the bar a bit with the terrain details :/

what a shame for the whole press and for blizzard, that the first presentation of the new xpac, was playing by persons who have no plans from playing this game.
this presentation is a complete fail..

Originally Posted by Anneuh

You do realise in that link all the faces are EXACTLY the same, meaning they haven't put the proper ones in yet.

They are not exactly the same, which is more worrying. There is a VERY small difference between them, such as shading below the eyes etc. I guess we get new models at the expense of losing any meaningful choice when it comes to faces. If you need to strain your eyes to see the difference on a still image, in game they will all look identical. If this doesn't change, its pathetic.

Originally Posted by kamuimac

this was kinda my fellings when i watched the videos - it mainly recolored textures that are already in game :/ its loosing graphicaly with all other new mmorpgs by miles :/ i know know that the gameplay is most important but come on its completly new zone they could up the bar a bit with the terrain details :/

A 10 year old game does not look like a 1 year old game even with some better shaders. That's a real surprise.
And there are MMORPGs (that are not out yet but soon) that try the comic look and do not look that much better if you ask me.
Example:

Jesus H Christ, can't they invite over someone who knows how to play the damn game and take a clue?

That dk had a red weapon for most of the video, didn't move out of the telegraphed attacks, and at the end when Thrall goes all Twister on the ogres, not only does he cover the ground effect with his character model, but when Thrall says "stand back" he seems to make a point of moving in front of Thrall and placing the camera in such a way that it misses the whole action.

These videos don't make me want to play WoD, they make me want to punch a Korean.

Most of the male orcs seem to have the same Garrosh face which I really don't like.

Originally Posted by Dominating

That was added in MoP... It's for all absorbs.

Goes to show how long it's been since I've used the default UI.

Originally Posted by sebun

Thrall seems to lose his unique Cata model.

I like the return of his old updated model!

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by Stylez

The hands, feet, ears and cloths still looks like extremely outdated. I know its work in progress so I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Only thing that looks bad is the feet, rest looks good. Idk what u dislike aboutthem, butthis is the final product.

Originally Posted by Visenna

Most of the male orcs seem to have the same Garrosh face which I really don't like.

That's the only thing I dislike about the male orcs. I'll change my mind as soon as I see (hopefully) new faces but atm I'm sick to death of seeing that Garrosh face everywhere.