New character models..

[Urti]

They would have told us if they working on troll player models too at the same time as GC mentioned humans and orcs. There's no reason to keep that hidden for a surprise.

Not necessarily true. Given the shitstorm that has happened in the past when Blizz would drop info about stuff that they eventually cut (Dance studio, Path o' Titans, etc) they do have a very good reason to keep player expectations muted. It even happened when they very clearly said they were working on dwarves but that they wouldn't be ready for MoP launch. The playerbase went nuts with speculation.

That being said, I agree with you that they will release them all together, but they do have a reason to keep their cards close to their chest.

[Edds]

How did you make this?

you can check the wireframe in wowmodelviewer

[Unholyground]

you can check the wireframe in wowmodelviewer

Holy many poly's is it? I know they use a standard for their newer models do you know what it was?

[Draknalor186]

Dreading the day more than anticipating it.
don't really want them fucking around with all the other races like that.

100 times this

[Yig]

Not necessarily true. Given the shitstorm that has happened in the past when Blizz would drop info about stuff that they eventually cut (Dance studio, Path o' Titans, etc) they do have a very good reason to keep player expectations muted. It even happened when they very clearly said they were working on dwarves but that they wouldn't be ready for MoP launch. The playerbase went nuts with speculation.

That being said, I agree with you that they will release them all together, but they do have a reason to keep their cards close to their chest.

Nonsensical.

They already have announced they are doing all of the races. To hide such a thing would be redundant. They would have not told us about dwarves, humans, or orcs if this were the case.

There are plenty of things in development they of course don't tell us about because they might not happen. This issue just isn't equivalent to that imo.

I bet at this point there are even more races they've worked on since last we heard, but at the time this was announced there is no reason to tell us about 2 races being worked on specifically while omitting others.

We were straight up told the same time they mentioned orcs and humans they were also updating Zandalari trolls to have straighter posture and updated models. I don't think there was 3 weeks between the news of both projects.

[Edds]

Holy many poly's is it? I know they use a standard for their newer models do you know what it was?

http://i.imgur.com/iJuRy.jpg

[Zulkathan]

thinking when the models see the light.... a loot of work must be there.

keep waiting.

[lolalola]

Nice they change animations. Hopefully also the female worgen one. But probly not :P

Nonsensical.

They already have announced they are doing all of the races. To hide such a thing would be redundant. They would have not told us about dwarves, humans, or orcs if this were the case.

There are plenty of things in development they of course don't tell us about because they might not happen. This issue just isn't equivalent to that imo.

I bet at this point there are even more races they've worked on since last we heard, but at the time this was announced there is no reason to tell us about 2 races being worked on specifically while omitting others.

We were straight up told the same time they mentioned orcs and humans they were also updating Zandalari trolls to have straighter posture and updated models. I don't think there was 3 weeks between the news of both projects.

You also can stagger the release of info till the time is right. For example, we're getting some PTR news lately, but there's also been times where not much news came from Blizzard.

[Mormolyce]

Why do people make these threads where they say "I'm quitting until <insert personal grudge here>" as if anyone cares? If you want to try to hold your sub to ransom to get your way at least post it in the actual Blizzard forums where they'll see it... not that they're going to jump to your tune either...

I'm also eagerly awaiting new character models but yes, they're a way off yet and there's no point spilling your apple juice everywhere just because you can't have your shiny new toys right away.

I just don't see why they can't hire more people.

Want to pay more money?

---------- Post added 2013-01-17 at 06:05 AM ----------

Sega GT blow that shit out of the water brah.

For me it will always be:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stunts_(video_game)

[Psychotrip]

DS was better.

Dry bones all the way.



I can only think of a handful of times in the past... well, quite a long time, where I flipped the camera around to stare at my characters face.

90% of the time my character occupies either 1/16th of my screen, or I'm looking at where I'm going/what I'm doing/who I'm fighting, or both.

New models are fine and dandy, but honestly... pretending that they're some sort of requirement, when the old ones have sufficed for the past 8 years, is laughable.

If they both were to take the same amount of time, I'd rather they redo the entire world again than character models; that's what I spend all of MY time looking at.

If you only play for the gameplay (which is fine) then I can understand your opinion, but you're forgetting about the rest of the playerbase: many other people who are only in it for the gameplay would rather play with a character model that's up to snuff and doesn't look like a wooden doll compared to the pandaren. You may not have an issue with it, but many cant bear to have that ugly freak in the center of their screen all day. Others, such as roleplayers, invest a lot of creativity into their characters, and DO care about how they look.

Not everyone plays this game just to get to endgame and raod the same dungeons and do the same dailies all day. Some people dont get all that excited when blizzard announces "OMG NEW RAID AND DAILIES OMG", but rather freak out when they release things like transmogrification, more emotes, and....yes....new character models.

This is a priority for some. Blizzard even said it was now a proprity for the art team. All I want right now is a preview of what the models will look like, and the announcement that we'll have the option to stay the way we are just in case we dont like them (which was alluded to in a twitter post)

[Graffin]

The new troll model for the 5.2 raid looks really good, hope we get these soon!

[lolalola]

Why do people make these threads where they say "I'm quitting until <insert personal grudge here>" as if anyone cares? If you want to try to hold your sub to ransom to get your way at least post it in the actual Blizzard forums where they'll see it... not that they're going to jump to your tune either...

Because Blizzard themselves won't listen to one player. Whenever Blizzard replies to one person on forum they keep into account they're addressing thousands. Its a mass game, and it sucks when you're a customer and the salesman isn't going to do as you tell him to.

Want to pay more money?

Doesn't work as simple as that.

For me it will always be:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stunts_(video_game)

I remember that one, was proper fun. I more prefer 1st or 3rd person view than from above (like GTA). I got good memories of GTA as well, just like Carmagaddeon. I like games which allow me in various ways to win instead of only one. Dishonored also allows this.

[Vellerix]

They will come when they are ready. That's really all there is to it. I for one am glad that it's taking a long time, at least they aren't doing a quick reskin and throwing them at us all in one big sloppy mess and saying "here ya go"

When they arrive I expect they will be quality. Sure people are going to cry like they always do about everything, but I have enough faith that they will find a middleground between improving and keeping what makes the race what they are.

And if we have another female worgen incident, well, at least we'll have something to laugh about.

[Kaleredar]

If you only play for the gameplay (which is fine) then I can understand your opinion, but you're forgetting about the rest of the playerbase: many other people who are only in it for the gameplay would rather play with a character model that's up to snuff and doesn't look like a wooden doll compared to the pandaren. You may not have an issue with it, but many cant bear to have that ugly freak in the center of their screen all day. Others, such as roleplayers, invest a lot of creativity into their characters, and DO care about how they look.

Not everyone plays this game just to get to endgame and raod the same dungeons and do the same dailies all day. Some people dont get all that excited when blizzard announces "OMG NEW RAID AND DAILIES OMG", but rather freak out when they release things like transmogrification, more emotes, and....yes....new character models.

This is a priority for some. Blizzard even said it was now a proprity for the art team. All I want right now is a preview of what the models will look like, and the announcement that we'll have the option to stay the way we are just in case we dont like them (which was alluded to in a twitter post)

I'm a very detail oriented person. Like, ridiculously detail oriented. That wolves and owls exist on outland pisses me off. How did they get there? Why do they look the same? The parapet blocks in SW that are all various parallelograms instead of cubes? Really? Your stonemasons were that lazy? Alternatively, from a graphics design standpoint, those probably took MORE time to deform than just dropping in cubes would have, and look about five times more crappy. And the walls bent at weird angles that flair out in parts? Again, more work, less good looking. I know warcraft is supposed to be cartoony, but that doesn't mean it has to look like it was held under a magnifying glass in the sun too long. And another thing, in most buildings, windows on the outside don't have any openings on the insides of the building. Oh, and in "cave" dungeons like blackrock caverns, did they notice how terrible the final "stretch" looked where Deathwing supposedly clawed his way from the earth? It was just a repeated vague rock pattern over a slightly beat up tunnel mesh. They didn't even attempt to blend it with the ground.

What's more, have you ever noticed how ridiculously screwed up the scale is in WoW? Most wall moldings are taller than your character is, while most "ground level windows" are actually above your character's head. And I'm not just talking huge Vrykul buildings or something. These are the hum-drum little shops in Stormwind. Imagine walking up to a building, where the first floor window is about 7 feet off the ground (and all the doorways are 14 feet tall.) Those hanging sign posts are even worse. They're almost literally 8 by 8 feet or so. That'd be like having a medium sized billboard hanging off the edge of a shop. And I'm pretty sure the Horde/Alliance shrines in Vale of Eternal blossoms are comparable in size to the freakin' Cathedral of Notre Dame.

Oh, and how about dungeon sizes versus their exteriors? I mean sure, some are more subtle, like Drak'tharon keep; a cursory comparison makes it look fine, but look again... in the grizzly hills facade, there are no raptor pens, no overlook, no top terrace where you battle tharon'ja... And then some dungeons don't even make an ATTEMPT to hide the scaling issues. Tempest Keep? Arcatraz? Botanica? Mechanaar? There are ROOMS inside those dungeons that are bigger than the supposed ship they're contained in. Oh, and Hellfire Citadel? The entirety of Blood furnace is supposedly contained in that little HUT?



Case in point? I REALLY take notice of detail in game. I am VERY anal about those things, and I am bugged by them. BUT, at the same time, I DO know that blizzard has MORE important things to do with their art department.





...That and they wouldn't change it even if I complained about it, because I know how trivial those things actually are.

[Yig]

I'm a very detail oriented person. Like, ridiculously detail oriented. That wolves and owls exist on outland pisses me off. How did they get there? Why do they look the same?

Because this world is based on creationism, silly. Seriously though, the Titans probably designed these basic lifeforms and use them all over the universe.

Things like dungeons being bigger on the inside and buildings looking lopsided are what can only be called whimsical. The charm in a lot of this is in them not being literal at all, so I imagine with how literal you seem to be it drives you insane. I actually like that sort of thing. It reminds me of all the little fake fantasy world maps and sidescroller levels I filled hundreds of sheets of printer paper up with as a wee child. Mario for instance had world maps with small icon like structures to represent the actual place, and I used to carry that over in my own childhood projects as if it were an aesthetic. Seeing it in WOW makes me feel like I am in a real cartoon world with cartoon laws of physics.
Most of all I think it's meant to make WOW feel more like Warcraft 3. The buildings were always smaller in the game than they would actually be, but they served their function through having a lot of character.

I know they bug you and I empathize, but I don't think it's an issue of Blizz having more impotant things to do, they did these things on purpose or they liked how they ended up looking and feeling and left them as is.

Things like having to re use buildings and architecture drives me up the wall though, and I wish Blizzard went the extra mile concerning brand new skeletons for new NPCs, but I am still amazed at how far out of their way Blizzard goes in the areas they actually seem to want to. It's part of what blew me away with WOW compared to all other MMOs in 2004. For instance other MMOs back then would have maybe only one type of tree model for an entire zone, stamped next to each other in long repeating rows. WOW's devs hand placed every tree and bush and shrub to look like an artist put them there, and they created dozens of tree variations just for a single zone. That's part of why I can forgive them so much for things I don't like about their choices. And now they go even further in regard to things like that. Jade Forest is just mind boggling for how many individual tree and plant models they have created and placed in so many different ways.

[lolalola]

[...]

Case in point? I REALLY take notice of detail in game. I am VERY anal about those things, and I am bugged by them. BUT, at the same time, I DO know that blizzard has MORE important things to do with their art department.

In that case I am not sure you're playing the right genre (fantasy).

[Kaleredar]

Because this world is based on creationism, silly. Seriously though, the Titans probably designed these basic lifeforms and use them all over the universe.

I don't think the titans ever descended upon outland. But that's a discussion for another day...

Things like dungeons being bigger on the inside and buildings looking lopsided are what can only be called whimsical. The charm in a lot of this is in them not being literal at all, so I imagine with how literal you seem to be it drives you insane. I actually like that sort of thing. It reminds me of all the little fake fantasy world maps and sidescroller levels I filled hundreds of sheets of printer paper up with as a wee child. Mario for instance had world maps with small icon like structures to represent the actual place, and I used to carry that over in my own childhood projects as if it were an aesthetic. Seeing it in WOW makes me feel like I am in a real cartoon world with cartoon laws of physics.

I'm fine with "scaling down" dungeons to some degree, as it's more efficient, but I like the exterior of buildings to be indicative of what their interior contains. Like Utgarde keep. I can more or less swallow that one (though the dragonflayer pens part irks me.) As for the others, however, take Arcatraz... it's a giant maze on the inside, but on the outside it's a little orb of a ship. It'd be awesome if it were larger (which wouldn't be too huge of an issue, as it's just floating) and had multiple "hanging off" parts meant to represent different sections. Things like that help tie the exterior to the interior, and above all, make them look unique and that love and care were put into them.

These kinds of things are what perturb me more than character models, because, as I said earlier, I'm really more focused on where I'm going, and, therefore, what I'm looking at, than what my character looks like in any given animation frame.


Oh, and another thing, I love Mists of Pandaria's art style, I'm not knocking that, but from a layout standpoint... for the most part, they make horrible use of interior space. Temple of the Jade serpent, which can literally be seen from every corner of Jade forest... Three rooms. Three. Damn. Rooms. The library is pretty cool, because it looks "enormous and complex" on the inside (I'd actually like it to be larger,) but for the waterspeaker's sanctum and the final boss room... just big rooms. Another building that actually angers me a little bit... Temple of the white tiger. Again, it looks awesome, but... It's in APPRECIABLE scale to Mount Neverest. Like seriously, if you're in the Zouchin province, and you look South... it might as well be one of the mountains. And while giant titanic structures can be pretty cool... it's ONE ROOM. Like, literally. Sure, it's a giant Arena, but does the edifice for it have to be, like, 700 feet tall? Maybe a few upper floors would be in order?

*cough* But I digress again...

[lolalola]

Ignoring we're discussing a fantasy world for a moment... name one MMO or RPG which has an art style of buildings which is accurate?

I'd say it is just you who looks really into the details of these things. Not that you're wrong, but I think for most people its "good enough".

Aside from that, buildings isn't something I see whole time while I'm playing WoW. My character though I do see all time. And other characters as well. That's true for everyone. We see our own character always, unless completely zoomed in (but nobody plays WoW like that).

[Pickwickman]

I haven't read half of the thread, so I don't know if this has been noted or not.

The problem with new models is that you have to also make EVERY. SINGLE. ITEM. in game to work with the models, just imagine how deformed something like t6 would look on a new dwarf, they need to change those models slightly to accompany the new race models too. And that is another thing that makes new models hard to make.

[Imnick]

I haven't read half of the thread, so I don't know if this has been noted or not.

The problem with new models is that you have to also make EVERY. SINGLE. ITEM. in game to work with the models, just imagine how deformed something like t6 would look on a new dwarf, they need to change those models slightly to accompany the new race models too. And that is another thing that makes new models hard to make.

They don't change the models, they just set a scale factor and tinker with attachment points.
It's still some work but this can be applied as a blanket change to virtually every model, most won't need individual tweaking.