Vulpera as an allied race?

[RangerDaz]

Not sure I agree that the unlocking portion is why Allied Race numbers tend to be low, though it certainly plays a part in it. Most races tend to be low when they first come out (save for the BC races). You can see that they are still that way currently for the most part. Pandaren are low on either side, Goblins are still pretty low, and Worgen are only ahead of the Allied and small races (Dwarf/Gnome) on the Alliance side. Plus, you are splitting the player base that might want to swap into 6 (soon to be 8, maybe more) races rather than just two.

I think the unlocking portion does makes sense when you look at them as a reward rather than just a new race. You grind rep and get achievements to get various things like Mounts and Pets...why is it such a foreign idea that a subrace might be counted in as part of this as well? Other games do it...unlockable ships, characters, etc.

I would say that perhaps doing the Heritage Armor on top of the other grindery is a bit over the top. You've already gotten their faction to exalted to even unlock the race, why should you have to level a ton more on top of that for it? This may well also account for some of the low race numbers mentioned earlier...feeling like you have to level a new one, only to get caught up in the drudgery of certain zones.

It really depends on Blizzard's business model regarding selling the Allied Race feature. What do they want with it? Do they want them to be hugely popular and bring massively players to play them (as much players as possible), or just a prestige/elite reward to players that commit several months of their gaiming time to unlock them?

As they are locking them under big time consuming requirements (see my previous post about them), i presume they prefer the second business model, aka a reward. As not everyone has patience to accomplish all requirements per race (each race unlock is different from the others, which requires different time consuming efforts for each race, and also for each faction), this clearly is a wall that slows down the creation of allied race characters.

Both in NA and EU realm pop statistics, we can see that their population aren't big. I agree that Mag'har Orcs and Dark Iron Dwarves are still recent, but the other four races have been playable since january/february 2018 for people who pre purchased BfA, so their numbers should be much higher than they are today.

If we sum the percentages of the 6 allied races in realm pop, either on NA or EU on the total available range levels (1 til 120), we can see that that total percentage is aproximately the same as the sum of both Horde and Alliance Pandaren (!!!), or the sum of the combined population of gnomes and goblins. Being one of the biggest sellouts of the expansion, isn't it rather odd that their total numbers haven't surpassed the previous races? Counting only level 120 characters makes the statistics different, but it isn't that much different as we would expect: We can see that nightborne and Void elf populations have surpassed Pandaren, Goblin and Gnome populations (in NA even Dwarf and Worgen populations), but the highest share of level 120 chars is 3,3% to void elves, which isn't much compared to other popular older races.

Blizzard could improve the popularity of the races by reducing the requirements i believe. But then my first question pops up again: what does Blizzard really want to do with the Allied Races feature?

[Fabled]

I don't see how Vulpera is on pair with Mag'har, Zandalari trolls, Dark Iron Dwarves and Kul Tirans.

Because all the other allied races, save maybe Zandalari, use preexisting skeletons. Vulpera use the Goblin skeletons.

[Re4leader1]

Totally disagree here. With KT/Zandalari coming in 8.1.5 and 8.2 filled with a ton of new content to come, it stands to reason that they may well opt to hold off the next set until 8.2.5...of which they said they wouldn't talk about any of it aside from the Worgen/Goblin model updates. Still plenty of time for that story to come and be developed, particularly if they have another big event (PAX East?, Gamescom?) where they could make a new splash with that announcement.

It's good your hopeful, I just really doubt it look at what were getting compared to legion, its pathetic, and look how long they're pushing off zandalar, it's been over a year since they announced it and it's just a reskin....

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Because all the other allied races, save maybe Zandalari, use preexisting skeletons. Vulpera use the Goblin skeletons.

Males are nelf skeleton females are female troll skele. Just more Redskins we've been waiting over a year for

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I don't get the allergy some people have towards furry races... do people need to prove themselves to someone while playing a race? I don't and i play whatever i want. I pay my bills and don't need to give satisfactions to anyone about my wow ingame choices. If people don't like a certain race, just don't play if they become available. Voldun looks great, and they perfectly fit into the Zandalar & Voldun lore.

Where is warcraft do furry little pandas fit? Next to the undead scourge and its lich king? Next to the burning legion of demons and its universe slaying destoryer??? Nowhere. It have no part of warcraft it's the worst thing they could've possibly come up with

[ImTheMizAwesome]

Because all the other allied races, save maybe Zandalari, use preexisting skeletons. Vulpera use the Goblin skeletons.

Wrong. Zandalari use NE skeleton, they also share a lot of animations.

Kul'tirans are basically something you could call a ''new race'', they use a couple of modified skeletons to work together but most of the stuff is build from scratch like they even said in the interview.

[seleri]

Horde. There's zero reason for them to go Alliance.

[RangerDaz]

Where is warcraft do furry little pandas fit? Next to the undead scourge and its lich king? Next to the burning legion of demons and its universe slaying destoryer??? Nowhere. It have no part of warcraft it's the worst thing they could've possibly come up with

In warcraft 3 you can see that pandaren exist there, which make them older or as old as many currently playable wow races. And when i'm measuring how old they are, im not talking about ingame lore, but about being known by the warcraft playerbase.

also Blizzard introduces new races in every expansion. BfA isn't any different, so new races are always granted in the warcraft universe. That is why playable Vulpera aren't that farfetched either.

[Re4leader1]

In warcraft 3 you can see that pandaren exist there, which make them older or as old as many currently playable wow races. And when i'm measuring how old they are, im not talking about ingame lore, but about being known by the warcraft playerbase.

also Blizzard introduces new races in every expansion. BfA isn't any different, so new races are always granted in the warcraft universe. That is why playable Vulpera aren't that farfetched either.

Wheres is our murloc xpac? They've been part of warcraft even longer, they have more history and lore than pandas. I demand a rise of the murlocs!!!!

[JoshuaNLG]

I'm betting horde get Vulpera and Alliance get Mechagnomes.

[Fabled]

How does that make a sense lore wise and faction wise?

Atm, it doesn't. But from a gameplay standpoint, it makes as much sense as the other ones we've gotten/are getting. We help them in Vol'dun, they have a reputation to grind out. They have multiple options in character creation found out through data mining.

[netherflame]

Let's be honest here, people have assumed they will become playable, but the truth is all we got from blizz was a no.

They also said no to high elves but we still see daily posts where people try to explain their way though the lore pathways to say why they are NECESSARY in WoW.

[Weeps]

I don't get the allergy some people have towards furry races... do people need to prove themselves to someone while playing a race? I don't and i play whatever i want. I pay my bills and don't need to give satisfactions to anyone about my wow ingame choices. If people don't like a certain race, just don't play if they become available. Voldun looks great, and they perfectly fit into the Zandalar & Voldun lore.

Pandas were a small reference in one of the WarCraft games. Vulperas make zero sense.

Zandalari makes sense.
Kul Tirans makes sense.

Vulperas... just roll a goblin, ffs.

It, like I said, cheapens the game. Makes it too comical when it is already comical enough.

[Deleted]

They also said no to high elves but we still see daily posts where people try to explain their way though the lore pathways to say why they are NECESSARY in WoW.

Why is the difference between no and never so difficult to understand?

[hablix]

Who cares about the story? They're cool and they should be playable.

[AngerFork]

It really depends on Blizzard's business model regarding selling the Allied Race feature. What do they want with it? Do they want them to be hugely popular and bring massively players to play them (as much players as possible), or just a prestige/elite reward to players that commit several months of their gaiming time to unlock them?

As they are locking them under big time consuming requirements (see my previous post about them), i presume they prefer the second business model, aka a reward. As not everyone has patience to accomplish all requirements per race (each race unlock is different from the others, which requires different time consuming efforts for each race, and also for each faction), this clearly is a wall that slows down the creation of allied race characters.

Both in NA and EU realm pop statistics, we can see that their population aren't big. I agree that Mag'har Orcs and Dark Iron Dwarves are still recent, but the other four races have been playable since january/february 2018 for people who pre purchased BfA, so their numbers should be much higher than they are today.

If we sum the percentages of the 6 allied races in realm pop, either on NA or EU on the total available range levels (1 til 120), we can see that that total percentage is aproximately the same as the sum of both Horde and Alliance Pandaren (!!!), or the sum of the combined population of gnomes and goblins. Being one of the biggest sellouts of the expansion, isn't it rather odd that their total numbers haven't surpassed the previous races? Counting only level 120 characters makes the statistics different, but it isn't that much different as we would expect: We can see that nightborne and Void elf populations have surpassed Pandaren, Goblin and Gnome populations (in NA even Dwarf and Worgen populations), but the highest share of level 120 chars is 3,3% to void elves, which isn't much compared to other popular older races.

Blizzard could improve the popularity of the races by reducing the requirements i believe. But then my first question pops up again: what does Blizzard really want to do with the Allied Races feature?

I think they could definitely increase the popularity some by reducing the requirements, but there are other factors to consider here. We are still waiting on at least two more Allied Races which seemingly will be popular, that being Zandalar Trolls and Kul Tiran Humans. Those will have to factor in some.

I feel like we are perhaps seeing different numbers...were yours based on the EU? Doing a quick specifically Alliance check for all level 120 characters (characters that would have required BfA leveling) in the US region (had to choose one, but this has all Latin America, Brazil, Oceanic, etc), Void Elves as playable characters are at 7.2% of the Alliance...a larger percentage than Dwarf (6.4), Worgen (6.2), Gnome (5.5), Pandaren (3), LF Draenei (2.7), or Dark Irons (2.2). On the Horde side, Nightborne are at 3.9% of the Horde, higher than Goblins (3.4), Pandaren (3.2), Highmountain Tauren (2.2), or Mag'har Orcs (2.2). Each side has at least one Allied Race that is getting some play ahead of non-Allied Races at max level, which to me says this really isn't a failure.

If you combine Allied Race percentages at max level, you get 12.2% (7.2, 2.7, 2.3) Allied Race characters on the Alliance and 8.3% (3.9, 2.2, 2.2) Allied Race characters on the Horde. While that is still lower than the next highest race on the Horde Side (Undead at 10.1), that does move the Allied Races together ahead of the next highest on the Alliance Side (Draenei at 8.9). As a whole, that means that these have been overall largely accepted.

All of those numbers to me spell this as a success thus far, even if they aren't as widespread in the lower brackets or as popular as some races as perhaps one might expect.

It's good your hopeful, I just really doubt it look at what were getting compared to legion, its pathetic, and look how long they're pushing off zandalar, it's been over a year since they announced it and it's just a reskin....

IMO, the Zandalari release date is a victim partially of how cool the Zandalari are, as well as the finishing touches needed on the Kul Tirans.

It always seemed weird to me that the DI Dwarves and the Zandalar Trolls were meant to be released at the same time. What really did the DI Dwarves have to do with the story of Kul Tiras? Plus, there is an inherent cool factor that the Zandalari have that the DI Dwarves somewhat lack...the history of Zandalar, the largely-more-custom-than-most models, as well as the overall feel of Zandalar being a central story piece. I can totally see why Blizz might have opted to push them back to go along with the Kul Tirans, also a race with better customization and a central storyline in BfA with a ton of history.

It sucks, totally feel for those super excited to get their hands on those races. But IMO it has less to do with Legion comparison and more to do with the "my neighbor got more food than me" factor that both sides tend to have in spades.

[Jibjub]

I agree with all the others. The fact that Z trolls have taken this long (and still aren't playable -- shit we still don't even know the DETAILS of their racials)... I wouldn't hold your breath for any more Allied Races.

Here's the thing. Blizzard is smart enough to know to use new races as a selling point. So if new allied races are added, it will be with an ew expansion. Other than race change $$$, it doesn't do much for them to add a new, unannounced (and therefore unmarketed) allied race.

You could argue that it would be used in a patch to get lapsed players to return... but I don't know.

[Dellis0991]

Vupera for the Horde

Junker gnomes for the Alliance.

[Fabled]

Hmm, well okay I agree 90% but for those 10% that I don't, I only think that rep grind and the way we help them is not enough. Mag'har and Zandalari bring a lot to the Horde, Vulpera doesn't (at all almost).

They can shoe-horn them in somewhere. I feel the same about Void Elves. It wasn't even a lore thing at the end of the day, it was just a way for Alliance to have more elves to play as.

[Obelisk Kai]

I agree with all the others. The fact that Z trolls have taken this long (and still aren't playable -- shit we still don't even know the DETAILS of their racials)... I wouldn't hold your breath for any more Allied Races.

Here's the thing. Blizzard is smart enough to know to use new races as a selling point. So if new allied races are added, it will be with an ew expansion. Other than race change $$$, it doesn't do much for them to add a new, unannounced (and therefore unmarketed) allied race.

You could argue that it would be used in a patch to get lapsed players to return... but I don't know.

I don't think Zandalari trolls have been delayed at all nor do I believe that Allied races are shackled to an expansion launch. Allied races are a system are designed to be introduced whenever they make sense, and BFA has been designed to give us a LOT of Allied races, a lot more than will ever be added in such a short period again.

They are clearly finished. Blizzard is deliberately pacing content. People may object to how the content is paced, but from their perspective it likely makes more sense to space the content out than blow it all in a shorter time frame and then leave a much longer gap with nothing to fill it. And if a new set of Allied races every six months over the course of this expansion perks interest, well, that is all the better isn't it?

Patch 8.0 launched with one new Allied race per side.

Zandalari Trolls and Kul Tirans are probably coming with Kul Tirans in 8.1.5.

Patch 8.2 is going to introduce the Mecha Gnomes. From what we saw, they scream future Allied race. They will probably be added in 8.2.5 which will also be after the end of the Mechagon storyline. The logical Horde counterpart race for the Mecha Gnomes are the Vulpera, the evidence supporting their inclusion as an upcoming allied race is still substantial and I believe the only reason they weren't announced at Blizzcon was because their Alliance counterpart wasn't ready yet (as that is Mecha Gnomes, 8.2 will sort that nicely).

[ImTheMizAwesome]

Patch 8.2 is going to introduce the Mecha Gnomes. From what we saw, they scream future Allied race. They will probably be added in 8.2.5 which will also be after the end of the Mechagon storyline. The logical Horde counterpart race for the Mecha Gnomes are the Vulpera, the evidence supporting their inclusion as an upcoming allied race is still substantial and I believe the only reason they weren't announced at Blizzcon was because their Alliance counterpart wasn't ready yet (as that is Mecha Gnomes, 8.2 will sort that nicely).

Mechagnomes are both friendly to Alliance and horde.

[Axial]

Mechagnomes are both friendly to Alliance and horde.

It's very obvious where they're going with them. With Mekkatorque getting injured and suddenly mechagnomes out of nowhere. "we have the techonology.. we can rebuild him"

Heck just play the horde war campaign. Flying around with Gallywix he even says about Mekkatorque "Seriously, this guy is really obsessed with machines. Makes me think he wants to be part robot or somethin'!"

The foreshadowing could not be more in front of your face.