Patch 5.1 out. When can we expect the new Models?

[Yig]

THEY DID NOT SAY human and dwarf will be the first out or when they will be out. This is a rumor based on people repeating Blizzard's words in bad ways.

Dwarves were almost finished in time for MOP's release, but Chilton SPECIFICALLY told Pico in the interview that this doesn't mean they will be released first or that they will be releasing them separately AT ALL.

As of 2 months ago, Ghostcrawler mentioned humans and orcs are now being worked on, again, NOBODY SAID ANYTHING about races being released separately or early.

And stop equating this to the Dance Studio, anti Blizzard fanboys.

The Dance Studio was barely mentioned for WOTLK's announcement, and they told us straight up it wasn't a priority and they never knew if it was ever happening.

New models were straight up announced and we haven't gone 4-6 months without news of some kind, and as of 6 months ago we haven't gone 2 months with news of some kind. From the very beginning they made it sound like this is something coming for the next expansion, and more and it only confirms that suspicion.

Most likely you're not going to see a preview until Blizzcon, no matter how impatient and no matter petulant and bitter you act about it. Stop fretting and kicking stones and acting like this is just some lie from Blizzard's PR department to string along people.

The Dance Studio was never even advertised or announced, "New Dances" was all we saw in the WOTLK announcement, and we got an April Fool's Joke about dance off studios where players could dance off with each other.

People who want to equate that in any way with New Player Models are simply looking for a "gotcha" argument they hit and run with and feel superior about in their trolling.

[Leare315]

Wasn't the dance studio mentioned in the Cata unveiling trailer, a handful of times at the corresponding Blizzcon, and then pretty much never mentioned again?

I'm just amazed that people champion it so much.

Right, but the dance studio wasn't as a big or compelling a feature as new race models. Players let it slip through the cracks, I don't think they're going to be able to walk away from this even if they wanted to, they're going to get hounded about it from now until a year after their release.

[Yig]

I fear it'll be the selling point of the next expansion. But my question is... how is that possible. I doubt blizzard will in the end let people play their old model. It will be new model, or no model. Like how cataclysm changed the world, it's happening no matter what you do. So won't model updates be introduced through a patch... not an expansion?

Ghostcrawler just told me last month they are still approaching this an option people can choose to not make use of.

As of over a year, they've gotten to 3 races since the announcement. As that rate, they wouldn't even be done by the next expansion.

To do this right, they're going to have to justify putting more effort on it to the exclusion of new content. That means pretty much one thing, it's going to have to be a an advertised feature of the next expansion, and they're going to have to probably take the place of a new player race and a new starting zone for that race.

If that is true, we could feasibly see not only updated character models, but expanded choices like new haircuts and skins.

[unholytestament]

Right, but the dance studio wasn't as a big or compelling a feature as new race models. Players let it slip through the cracks, I don't think they're going to be able to walk away from this even if they wanted to, they're going to get hounded about it from now until a year after their release.

And that's the sound of my point sailing clear over your head.

See Yig's post. Blizz is talking about the updated models on a damn near regular basis.

[Yig]

Right, but the dance studio wasn't as a big or compelling a feature as new race models. Players let it slip through the cracks, I don't think they're going to be able to walk away from this even if they wanted to, they're going to get hounded about it from now until a year after their release.

Actually no, not "right". They were announced for WOTLK, not cata, and they only announced "new dances", not a dance studio.

http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/05/27/th...dio/#continued

[Leare315]

And that's the sound of my point sailing clear over your head.

See Yig's post. Blizz is talking about the updated models on a damn near regular basis.

I think I just misunderstood you then. My point, anyway, is that with the amount of feedback they're giving and receiving regarding the new race models, that they'd stand to lose more by walking away than they did with dance studios, which they hadn't fielded as much player feedback over at the time. Player races and the dance studio are not the same story playing itself out.

[Black Rider]

It's in developement, they already have some progress on that.
Why u can't understand that it's a hard work. Blizz talks a lot of about it. I think it will be in 6.0.

[Deleted]

I wouldn't expect them, ever. Are they likely coming? Sure, they've talked about it plenty. Will I like them, probably. Will affect in great detail how I play or what I play? Unlikely.

I'm just not really sure what all the concern is over new models. I spend so little time actually focused on the look of my character or others. Only on rare occasions does a character catch my eye and thats likely due to some transmog'd set of gear that likely took longer then I would want to spend to gather. I just don't see the huge itch to have new models, but meh, to each his own I suppose.

No matter what they end up delivering with a revamped model, some portion of the community will be all excited and love it, some portion will be all excited and hate it, some portion will not be excited at all, some portion will think they didn't go far enough while others will think they went to far and some portion will of course complain that time spent on new models could have spent on <insert whatever is the most important idea to them>.

Well mate, it seems to me that you figured out how the WoW community works. Gratz!

I agree with you, my character is something I barely look at and even if I would, I only see gear.

[Ielenia]

Wasn't the dance studio mentioned in the Cata unveiling trailer, a handful of times at the corresponding Blizzcon, and then pretty much never mentioned again?

I'm just amazed that people champion it so much.

Heck, I'm still waiting for the new dances Blizzard announced back on the 'Wrath of the Lich King' trailer!

[krykiett]

I remember years ago when "updated" gnome skin files accidently got leaked onto live. They were ugly as hell, but I can't find a google link anywhere on this. People FREAKED. Doesn't anyone else remember this?

Anyways, it takes work to make all the new skins still resemble the original form to make people still feel attached to their toons, but different and updated enough to go along with the aesthetics of the new world they are creating. The character skins are just about the only skins we have left from the original game and they don't match with the world anymore, but people have come to love their characters and Blizzard doesn't want to alienate players from their characters. So this becomes an endeavor of technical limitations and maintaining the world for their customers.

My guess as most have said: Next expansion.

Edit: To those people who keep saying they don't look at their characters: While most of us don't, I think it's not how pretty the characters are but more how the graphics fit into the rest of the world. At this point it's like putting the original Mario graphic into Mario Cart. There is a point where they no longer match up and we've hit that point. Look at how much better the pandaren fit into the world graphics when compared to the other races.

[Deleted]

Consider how long it took them to make 2 races.

Now, apply that to 8.

If you wanna adjust for Male/Female..

That's 16 from 4.

Calculations should be in the year range or more.

They have to rebuild the models from the ground up. It's not just a matter of re skinning. This does not take into account the design complications since they have to be careful about the changes they make. You could only imagine people demanding free race changes and crap when new models do come out.

That's not true in some cases, Vol'jin is a "new model" but has exactly the same skeleton that all troll npc's do. Varian is a tad more high res than regular humans, same skeleton. Sylvanas, same skeleton as a blood elf. This is no argument for demanding new models quicker i'm just pointing out that not all models need a complete re-work.

[Shinratensei]

patch 7.3.0

along with the dance studio

Nah.. it's 7.3.0b - because something won't be working as intended

[twh]

never

10chars

[Shampro]

Blizzcon 2013. Write it down.

[wariofan1]

They never promised them for MoP, they just said that the Dwarf model was the one getting along the fastest, with Human and Orc being right behind.

Don't hold your breath tbh, I don't expect them in MoP. Knowing a lot about 3D modelling I can't see how they can pull it off here in MoP, especially if they've only started talking about maybe updating animations as we heard 1 or 2 months ago. They also said it wasn't on of their top priorities, it's there but more in the back. Might aswell put your focus on other content, because this is far ahead in the future.

[unholytestament]

That's not true in some cases, Vol'jin is a "new model" but has exactly the same skeleton that all troll npc's do. Varian is a tad more high res than regular humans, same skeleton. Sylvanas, same skeleton as a blood elf. This is no argument for demanding new models quicker i'm just pointing out that not all models need a complete re-work.

Except the new race models will need improved skeletons too if they are going to be anything like pandaren like Blizzard said.

[wariofan1]

Except the new race models will need improved skeletons too if they are going to be anything like pandaren like Blizzard said.

They don't need a new skeleton, they simply need more edges and vertexes to make for more advanced facial expressions and movements. The skeleton is solely used for control of animations.

[fangless]

People still care about models?


I thought that was the flavor of the month complaint for last expansion.

[Baine]

Whenever we get that Dance Studio...

Get over it geez. It gets old. Besides, it is confirmed they are working on races models at the moment.

[diegoa]

For interest sake how big is Patch 5.1?