Sub-Race Photoshop Mockups

[Aeluron Lightsong]

They're the same race calling themselves different names.

http://wowpedia.org/The_Warcraft_Enc...nd_Blood_Elves

Hazzikostas said just the other day that HEs could be a potential sub race, and that's exactly what they are -- a small ethnic group of an existing race. Not brand new race material like ogres or naga or Ethereals.

I still consider them a different race to the Blood Elves.

[Zaelsino]

I still consider them a different race to the Blood Elves.

But according to Blizzard, you're wrong.

[Psychotrip]

Can we get back on topic?

I love all these subrace ideas, but unfortunately until we can convince Blizzard to actually do anything with them I'm afraid this is just wishful thinking. We're not even getting brown orcs for some reason. I don't get why it's so hard when these models are already in the game...

[Amozabael]

Can we get back on topic?

I love all these subrace ideas, but unfortunately until we can convince Blizzard to actually do anything with them I'm afraid this is just wishful thinking. We're not even getting brown orcs for some reason. I don't get why it's so hard when these models are already in the game...

Assume by "Models" you mean the sub-race textures, yes? Well, let me explain, then. Short answer: They're not made with character customization in mind.

Long answer: This could be seen in the cataclysm beta as well as WoW model viewer. If you picked the wildhammer tattoos all you could select was hair styles, everything else was static; you were stuck with one skin tone, one face and one hair color: red.

Same thing with the dark irons, Ma'ghar, Etc (Though the Ma'ghar have different hair colors). That's why they don't just flip a switch and make them playable, because they're essentially broken for that purpose.

Those options need some time of their own to be done right as a result. Hopefully that cleared things up.

[laughtrey]

My argument towards High Elves are that they are not fit for a sub-race of any Alliance race, if they are to be added, they should be an entire race of their own. Since they share a visual identity with Blood Elves, they should be given their own visual identity with a new model, similar to Blood Elves but with slightly different models, stances and animations.

Your argument would've worked pre-horde/alliance Pandaren. Keeping both sides having their own unique silhouettes was a thing at one point, but it's obviously not anymore.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Can we get back on topic?

I love all these subrace ideas, but unfortunately until we can convince Blizzard to actually do anything with them I'm afraid this is just wishful thinking. We're not even getting brown orcs for some reason. I don't get why it's so hard when these models are already in the game...

Customization seems to be a very slow thing for them.

[Psychotrip]

Assume by "Models" you mean the sub-race textures, yes? Well, let me explain, then. Short answer: They're not made with character customization in mind.

Long answer: This could be seen in the cataclysm beta as well as WoW model viewer. If you picked the wildhammer tattoos all you could select was hair styles, everything else was static; you were stuck with one skin tone, one face and one hair color: red.

Same thing with the dark irons, Ma'ghar, Etc (Though the Ma'ghar have different hair colors). That's why they don't just flip a switch and make them playable, because they're essentially broken for that purpose.

Those options need some time of their own to be done right as a result. Hopefully that cleared things up.

All it would take is some tweaking though right? Is it that hard to add more color hair and stuff? I don't know much about programming but would that take a lot of time or difficulty? It's just changing the skin color in most cases.

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Customization seems to be a very slow thing for them.

But why? I have yet to see a solid answer that makes sense on this.

[Mace]

They're the same race calling themselves different names.

http://wowpedia.org/The_Warcraft_Enc...nd_Blood_Elves

Hazzikostas said just the other day that HEs could be a potential sub race, and that's exactly what they are -- a small ethnic group of an existing race. Not brand new race material like ogres or naga or Ethereals.

she is right.. High elves may be the original name they all identified with, but when the majority choose to cal themselves blood elves, then high elves becomes the sub-faction. still blood elves are not an off shoot .. for a while they were written in that direction, taking fel magic, slowly turning into demons, but once they decided they'd be playable, blizzard decided ot let only the ones who followed Kael'thas turn into demons and the rest get redeemed.. keeping the new blood elf rename. they are still the same race.

Politically different, they can have different body gait's , different styles and colour themes, even different skin colous much the same way white's and blacks are, but they are still the same race.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

But why? I have yet to see a solid answer that makes sense on this

I don't understand it either personally.

[Mace]

My argument towards High Elves are that they are not fit for a sub-race of any Alliance race, if they are to be added, they should be an entire race of their own. Since they share a visual identity with Blood Elves, they should be given their own visual identity with a new model, similar to Blood Elves but with slightly different models, stances and animations.

i cna't understand that logic, it just sounds more of a desire to have a separate race called high elves when the lore is clear they are not. They have slight variations from blood elves, but the visual identity does not belong apart from their blood lef rivals.

they are one of the two faction of eles, and in the game one of the 3 races that have a sub-faction in botht he horde and the allinace, . the other two being the Panderan and Humans off course. in the case of humans, the human hordes did get a separate visual identity, whcih you know as the forsaken, they a humans who have been raised as undead, but they're humans, similar does not exist for high elves and blood elves in the lore. As i pointed out earlier, it did when they were going ahead with the fel magic thing, but they tied that up.. now the only way you wil get a visual identity is if some other even ti swritten in to cause some sort of mass change.

but i see little point tbh, they are simply a faction of elves, and if you want to make em playalbe you should present them as such,

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I don't understand it either personally.

priority, they got their fingers in so many pies, and are not conivicted about spending time to do this

[Amozabael]

All it would take is some tweaking though right? Is it that hard to add more color hair and stuff? I don't know much about programming but would that take a lot of time or difficulty? It's just changing the skin color in most cases.

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But why? I have yet to see a solid answer that makes sense on this.

Is it hard to add sub-races? Probably not. They've worked on that engine for years, they should know it inside-out by now. Is it hard to do it right? Yeah. Of course.

What I mean by that is that there are questions to be asked regarding how it's implemented before one even starts working on it. Like;

should they worry about faction balance with sub-races?

If so, how many races per faction should be given sub-races? All of them? and what would they be? Some are obvious, like Dwarves, trolls and Orcs, others not so much (like night elves, for example: Some people mention highborne as a sub race for them but their characteristics are silver hair, bluish silver skin and silver eyes, all of those options are already available simply by rolling a female night elf)

should sub-races allow players to access previously inaccessible race/class combos (For example: Should choosing the broken sub-race for Draenei allow you access to warlocks?)

If so, what would those classes be?

And the classic one: Should they have their own starting area (I've seen this idea pop up for years now)?

The list probably goes on.

My point is, it's likely much more complicated than we think. Seriously, Blizzard tends to take the more complicated route with these things, like connected realms. 'Cause server mergers just weren't good enough for Blizzard. lol

[Aeluron Lightsong]

priority, they got their fingers in so many pies, and are not conivicted about spending time to do this

Sounds yummy.

[Deleted]

Chris G. Robinson ‏@artofcgrobinson 4h
Hearing a lot of concern regarding same face, I'll address that concern in future Artcraft. Also Tauren male anim and female Draenei, cont.

[Alanar]

I still consider them a different race to the Blood Elves.

god man hahaha thats just stupid.

[Hellspawn]

I still consider them a different race to the Blood Elves.

Well they should have other racials from a lore standpoint.

[Yig]

Its called beating a dead horse.

No it's not, a Blizzard rep even referenced them absent mindedly when talking about new racial diversity, but they could work if given a brand new model, just as humans have so many different models or their faction leaders have completely different models but are the same race, or Forsaken are just dead humans.

If they made them have different faces, different bodies and poses and idle stances and different animations and hairstyles they could be a whole new race.

It's not very likely, but I think it's the only way to go about it. Simply changing eye colors would not be good enough. The dead horse is insisting on either outcome. Never say never.

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But why? I have yet to see a solid answer that makes sense on this

I don't understand it either personally.

Wait, since when were subraces ruled out? They've said many many times it's something they're going to do. Did something change int he last week or two? Chris Robinson said they won't be here in the launch of WOD, but they've been hinted at coming later.

Robinson has confirmed later in WOD they are adding more customization, he hasn't said what it is. Hair styles are confirmed 100%, and he's said longer beards are coming later, so they will probably come with the new hair styles. But he's talked about tattoos and other things specifically inspired by the concept art of the Sons of the Storm as things they want to get around to.

He said with certainty more customization is being added later, not "we want to", but "we are".

So what has people thinking sub races aren't happening now? They've said they plan to and want to so many time, is this just someone lamenting over them not happening at launch or was something just said to the effect of they're not coming at all? Because every single Dark Iron and Mag'har NPC is getting updated, we got that confirmed. Wildhammers were different, they only have a few skins with limited options with how they were updated for CATA.

The Dark Irons and Mag'har in Outland and Azeroth all use the entire diversity of the player models, so as they confirmed there are updated mag'har and dark iron NPC's in the old world of vanilla, they should also have all the hair styles their older models did, unless they are changing them to be like the Wildhammer and only have a few limited options.

Is this just people being pessimistic or was something said specifically about subraces?

[Archangel Tyrael]

Is this just people being pessimistic or was something said specifically about subraces?

well we want raid tiers so...

can't have them adding more customization options.

[Zathrendar]

Draenei absorb sacred energy all the time like elves now? is a guess, if you absorb fel become a demon, I imagine if I absorb sacred become a angel

They absorb a mixture of arcane and holy energies. Not just the one or the other. There is no race of "angels" in WoW. Naaru don't have fluffy white wings. The only reason Blizzard uses it is keeping in tradition with fantasy lore.

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god man hahaha thats just stupid.

Not really. Remember, in the WRPG, fel did give them a different set of racial powers. Over time, they would split apart from the High elves like the Eredar did from the Draenei, if their evolution continued in that direction; which it still may. We don't have much of an idea of how fel and light energies interact, and one of the traits of fel has always been that it is nigh irresistible in nature, both in how addictive it is and how hard it is to resist fel energies. Strictly speaking, they're not a different race, yet, but they are/were on the way there. Who knows, their evolutionary pathway may converge again, if the fel is eradicated from them from those who choose for it to be.

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They're the same race calling themselves different names.

http://wowpedia.org/The_Warcraft_Enc...nd_Blood_Elves

Hazzikostas said just the other day that HEs could be a potential sub race, and that's exactly what they are -- a small ethnic group of an existing race. Not brand new race material like ogres or naga or Ethereals.

Hmmm interesting. Definitely shows Blizzard is giving it thought. The subrace direction is interesting, if it were tacked onto one of the Alliance races.

[PomPomPop]

Does the released pre-purchase trailer give Shoc some screenshots to play around with for some Gnome madness?

[Psychotrip]

Chris G. Robinson ‏@artofcgrobinson 4h
Hearing a lot of concern regarding same face, I'll address that concern in future Artcraft. Also Tauren male anim and female Draenei, cont.

Really?? When was this said? I can't wait!

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No it's not, a Blizzard rep even referenced them absent mindedly when talking about new racial diversity, but they could work if given a brand new model, just as humans have so many different models or their faction leaders have completely different models but are the same race, or Forsaken are just dead humans.

If they made them have different faces, different bodies and poses and idle stances and different animations and hairstyles they could be a whole new race.

It's not very likely, but I think it's the only way to go about it. Simply changing eye colors would not be good enough. The dead horse is insisting on either outcome. Never say never.

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Wait, since when were subraces ruled out? They've said many many times it's something they're going to do. Did something change int he last week or two? Chris Robinson said they won't be here in the launch of WOD, but they've been hinted at coming later.

Robinson has confirmed later in WOD they are adding more customization, he hasn't said what it is. Hair styles are confirmed 100%, and he's said longer beards are coming later, so they will probably come with the new hair styles. But he's talked about tattoos and other things specifically inspired by the concept art of the Sons of the Storm as things they want to get around to.

He said with certainty more customization is being added later, not "we want to", but "we are".

So what has people thinking sub races aren't happening now? They've said they plan to and want to so many time, is this just someone lamenting over them not happening at launch or was something just said to the effect of they're not coming at all? Because every single Dark Iron and Mag'har NPC is getting updated, we got that confirmed. Wildhammers were different, they only have a few skins with limited options with how they were updated for CATA.

The Dark Irons and Mag'har in Outland and Azeroth all use the entire diversity of the player models, so as they confirmed there are updated mag'har and dark iron NPC's in the old world of vanilla, they should also have all the hair styles their older models did, unless they are changing them to be like the Wildhammer and only have a few limited options.

Is this just people being pessimistic or was something said specifically about subraces?

The reason I'm pessimistic is because they explicitly said brown orcs would not be an option for us. This was stated im the comments of the "artcraft" for female orcs to clear up confusion when it seemed we would have that option. If they have no plans to let us be brown orcs, then I doubt they have plans for any subrace.