[8.3 PTR] 2 More Allied Races before 9.0 Inc?

[LostSinclair]

I hate every single one of you that are putting the "Lightborne" undead as a viable option.... *Disgust*

Exageration aside, fuck those Calia copies!

Just give us Ankoan + Jinyu for the Alliance and something else for the Horde (heck i take even Gilgoblins as long as we stay as far away from the abomination that Lightborne undead are)

For what it's worth I'm not any happier about the sparkly undead that are likely coming our way than you are but as far as Allied Race requirements/patterns go they pretty much hit the nail on the head. (female models, easy customization for blizz, the whole "death" thing will probably tie in with whatever pre patch fuckery involving the scourge is going to happen) And given that the Alliance already has a sparkly version of a core race that means hordies will likely have to suffer this insult(I'm genuinely sorry and hope I'm wrong for your sakes)

The Ankoan and Jinyu are cool in their own ways but they don't fit the bill for AR's at least not from what we've seen, if blizzard has been sitting on female models for this long just for shock value I'd be pretty fucking impressed, but as it is now they're as likely to become a race as pre-Cataclysm Worgen (possible, but not without a lot of work on blizzards end)

[Yarathir]

I do agree, i personally think that the Jinyu and Ankoan are unique enough to not feel like the shafted the Alliance, even more if they do add both together (Jinyu and Ankoan).

And the female Mogu, i'm ok even if they don't get unique animations, in the end, we do not have those animations in the Horde (and i do like the female Draneai animation)

Personally, I think there are a lot of cool options they could give to Ankoan to make them worthwhile. They are already pretty cool conceptually, you know. Deepsea Samurai Anglerfish people. I think that sounds pretty swell.

As for customization:
Spines and webbing, either customizable all over the body or just the head. A replacement for hair.
Bioluminescent spots. The Ankoan equivalent of the Nightborne and Lightforged markings. All kinds of different glowing patterns that can be altered in color.
Different skin colors, ones you can see on both Ankoan and Jinyu.
Different faces, with two examples being the Ankoan faces we are used to and a Jinyu face, as well as whatever else they can give us.
Maybe some accessories, like naga bone amulets or fin piercings.

Animations can just be mainly Night Elf (for Ankoan) and mainly Draenei (for Mogu), with a few unique ones, like walking, running, laughing, dancing, etc. Like with Vulpera.

I though i do feel that the Mogu are a questionable option but... hey, we already have questionable AR options so not that bad

Amusingly, it's 8.3 that gives the most hope for Mogu, since there's a faction of friendly, Ra-den following Mogu in 8.3.

Well... if they do add this abominations, it will be in the Alliance, but IMHO that's still really bad for the story development of the Forsaken.

I honestly see no point to it myself. The whole argument for Lightforged Forsaken to begin with is this assumption that Blizzard is deliberately and strictly adding allied races based on new skeletons, which brings life to the notion that the next allied race must per se be based on the Worgen and Undead rigs.
But Shadowlands will add a no-bones option for Forsaken. They already have yellow eyes and pale skin. What can you give Lightforged Undead to set them apart from regular Forsaken? Holy tattoos?
And if the alternative is to make them based on the Human model instead, then that kills the whole point of using the Forsaken rig.

- - - Updated - - -

For what it's worth I'm not any happier about the sparkly undead that are likely coming our way than you are but as far as Allied Race requirements/patterns go they pretty much hit the nail on the head. (female models, easy customization for blizz, the whole "death" thing will probably tie in with whatever pre patch fuckery involving the scourge is going to happen) And given that the Alliance already has a sparkly version of a core race that means hordies will likely have to suffer this insult(I'm genuinely sorry and hope I'm wrong for your sakes)

The Ankoan and Jinyu are cool in their own ways but they don't fit the bill for AR's at least not from what we've seen, if blizzard has been sitting on female models for this long just for shock value I'd be pretty fucking impressed, but as it is now they're as likely to become a race as pre-Cataclysm Worgen (possible, but not without a lot of work on blizzards end)

This is where the notion that we have no idea what they've been working on and how long comes into the topic.
There's a lot of stuff in the database we don't know about. We only usually find out about stuff that's not meant to make it into the game until later by somebody either intentionally leaving a hint of it in the game files or accidentally.
So while I am not saying it's 100% happening, it's very much possibly that alongside the NPC Ankoan, they've been working on player-ready models for them since 8.2's development or shortly after, and we wouldn't have known about that simply because there's no reason for that information to be in the game files unless it's meant to be part of the patch.

And as I said, Lightforged Forsaken have really nothing to offer. Come Shadowlands, Forsaken will have the option to hide their bones. At that point, what sets a Forsaken and a Lightforged Forsaken apart? Pale skin? Glowing, yellow eyes? Forsaken have those too.

And using the Human model kills the entire reason people thought Lightforged Forsaken would ever be a thing anyway, which was to finish the list of Allied Races that use player skeletons. (Forsaken skeleton and Worgen skeleton)

[Maxilian]

For what it's worth I'm not any happier about the sparkly undead that are likely coming our way than you are but as far as Allied Race requirements/patterns go they pretty much hit the nail on the head. (female models, easy customization for blizz, the whole "death" thing will probably tie in with whatever pre patch fuckery involving the scourge is going to happen) And given that the Alliance already has a sparkly version of a core race that means hordies will likely have to suffer this insult(I'm genuinely sorry and hope I'm wrong for your sakes)

The Ankoan and Jinyu are cool in their own ways but they don't fit the bill for AR's at least not from what we've seen, if blizzard has been sitting on female models for this long just for shock value I'd be pretty fucking impressed, but as it is now they're as likely to become a race as pre-Cataclysm Worgen (possible, but not without a lot of work on blizzards end)

Well the Ankoan and Jinyu does not seen to have any difference between male and female (as they are female Ankoan between them), that's the main reason why i think it would be a good idea to add them with minor to no difference between gender, and give them more options that other AR with the addition of Ankoan and Jinyu together.

[Yarathir]

Well the Ankoan and Jinyu does not seen to have any difference between male and female (as they are female Ankoan between them), that's the main reason why i think it would be a good idea to add them with minor to no difference between gender, and give them more options that other AR with the addition of Ankoan and Jinyu together.

Plot twist: Ankoan are male Jinyu. Jinyu are.. well.. y'know.
(Seriously, though, I think they could still have made a female model for Ankoan for player use behind the scenes.)

[LostSinclair]

This is where the notion that we have no idea what they've been working on and how long comes into the topic.
There's a lot of stuff in the database we don't know about. We only usually find out about stuff that's not meant to make it into the game until later by somebody either intentionally leaving a hint of it in the game files or accidentally.
So while I am not saying it's 100% happening, it's very much possibly that alongside the NPC Ankoan, they've been working on player-ready models for them since 8.2's development or shortly after, and we wouldn't have known about that simply because there's no reason for that information to be in the game files unless it's meant to be part of the patch.

And as I said, Lightforged Forsaken have really nothing to offer. Come Shadowlands, Forsaken will have the option to hide their bones. At that point, what sets a Forsaken and a Lightforged Forsaken apart? Pale skin? Glowing, yellow eyes? Forsaken have those too.

And using the Human model kills the entire reason people thought Lightforged Forsaken would ever be a thing anyway, which was to finish the list of Allied Races that use player skeletons. (Forsaken skeleton and Worgen skeleton)

While I don't disagree that Lightborne undead have nothing really spectacular to offer(aside from probably being able to roll pally or whatever Racials they'd have)
the argument that because they don't have any real different feature aside from their "core" race loses some of it's edge when you compare the Dranei and the Lightforged Dranei besides from slightly different horns, paler skins, sparkly tattoos and bling they're esentially the same, why wouldn't blizzard be willing to do the exact same thing with undead.
The way I forsee it is that the core undead race is going to play up the whole rot/undeath color scheme even if they aren't showing bones they'll still have some type of corpse "decay" feature that make you think "dead body", The lightborne may have a much paler spirit like thing going if Calia is any example to go off of. (to me with Shadowlands being around the corner that sounds exactly like something they would do)

[Yarathir]

While I don't disagree that Lightborne undead have nothing really spectacular to offer(aside from probably being able to roll pally or whatever Racials they'd have)
the argument that because they don't have any real different feature aside from their "core" race loses some of it's edge when you compare the Dranei and the Lightforged Dranei besides from slightly different horns, paler skins, sparkly tattoos and bling they're esentially the same, why wouldn't blizzard be willing to do the exact same thing with undead.
The way I forsee it is that the core undead race is going to play up the whole rot/undeath color scheme even if they aren't showing bones they'll still have some type of corpse "decay" feature that make you think "dead body", The lightborne may have a much paler spirit like thing going if Calia is any example to go off of. (to me with Shadowlands being around the corner that sounds exactly like something they would do)

Well, even Lightforged Draenei would end up being more unique than the Lightforged Forsaken. And there are people now that still think Lightforged Draenei were a weak addition.
I would also argue that the 7.3.5 races (Lightforged, Void Elves, Highmountain, Nightborne) were more or less test drive races. Barring Nightborne, who have some sort of uniqueness (for better or worse) model-wise compared to Night Elves, they're mostly reskin races. And 8.0 races seemed more like a stopgap measure for Kul Tiran and Zandalari, which were postponed because Kul Tirans weren't ready yet.

Since then, allied races have become more involved. Although I'm not a fan of Mechagnomes at all, they have unique animations and a lot of model changes that are more impressive than the 7.3.5 (initial/beta test?) and 8.0 (filler) allied races.

If we look at allied races from Kul Tiran/Zandalari and beyond, the last four have all been significant model changes and I doubt Blizzard will go back to basic skin color change allied races. Especially when they have shown that they are planning to make Wildhammer Dwarves a regular Dwarf customization option in Shadowlands.

[Directionalk9]

Fingers crossed for a whole MoP throwback with Allied Races, Alliance - Jinyu/Ankoan, Horde - Hozen, Neutral - Rajani Mogu.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Something like these guys would be cool. We might get Venthyr instead in the future though

A little late on replying to this. While I'm a huge fan of the San'layn and was refreshingly surprised with their appearance on the Alliance side of the War Campaign, I think the game has enough playable elf races.


But they should still appear in the story though!


Long live Dreven. (he ded)

[Futhark]

Suggestions like Jinyu and Hozen don't make sense to me. If Nightborne couldn't use the Nightborne NPC models, what hope do these disparate NPCs really have?

[Maxilian]

Suggestions like Jinyu and Hozen don't make sense to me. If Nightborne couldn't use the Nightborne NPC models, what hope do these disparate NPCs really have?

Jinyu use the Nightelf skeleton, though i do see why Hozen may be seen as a hard option to implement

[Ameonna]

Suggestions like Jinyu and Hozen don't make sense to me. If Nightborne couldn't use the Nightborne NPC models, what hope do these disparate NPCs really have?

Well, NB werent planned yeah but thing is they have lot more time to do 2 more ar before shadowlands than 4 in a little time before bfa

[Kithelle]

High Elf + Night Elf undead
The setup is there in 8.3, it fits the next xpack aswell.

Would love that, but I doubt it will happen.

[Chain Chungus]

So really we need to look at what skeletons are still available for use. The worgen and forsaken rigs are still up for grabs, pandaren isn't because it was used to make Kul Tirans.

Saberon seems like a safe bet for the worgen rig. However, they could just pull something out of thin air like vulpera again. Maybe a humanoid lizard, dragon, or even snake.

Forsaken rigs could be used for a thin human option on the Horde. Maybe Ashvane's pirates decide they can't go back to Kul Tiras with her gone so they join the Horde. Since the thin human male uses the female forsaken rig, all they would need to do is make the thin human female use the male forsaken rig.

[ey b0ss]

Shitty Nazjatar goblins for the horde and Sethrak for the Alliance :^).

[Phaelia]

Shitty Nazjatar goblins for the horde and Sethrak for the Alliance :^).

No. It won’t happen. The Alliance really need to stop grasping at straws for the Sethrak. They’ll join the horde if they join anyone at all. This subject has been thoroughly exhausted in several threads.

[RangerDaz]

I have a feeling the new cosmetic extras for blood elves and night elves will include their undead versions, where san'layn and dark rangers might be included

[Maxilian]

I have a feeling the new cosmetic extras for blood elves and night elves will include their undead versions, where san'layn and dark rangers might be included

It would be weird to have the Undead Night Elves for the Alliance, though that can easily be explained, they just need a small quest chain where Calia goes into Stormwind with this Dark Rangers at her back

[Yarathir]

Crossing fingers, still, for Ankoan and Mogu.

It would be weird to have the Undead Night Elves for the Alliance, though that can easily be explained, they just need a small quest chain where Calia goes into Stormwind with this Dark Rangers at her back

I'm personally just hoping the Night Elf Dark Rangers get brushed under the rug and forgotten for all eternity.

- - - Updated - - -

Suggestions like Jinyu and Hozen don't make sense to me. If Nightborne couldn't use the Nightborne NPC models, what hope do these disparate NPCs really have?

Hozen I get, but Jinyu/Ankoan are built on the Night Elf animation set and Mogu are built on the Draenei animation set.

[Maxilian]

Crossing fingers, still, for Ankoan and Mogu.

Yes please, but i would be really sad if we get Ankoan without Jinyu

I'm personally just hoping the Night Elf Dark Rangers get brushed under the rug and forgotten for all eternity.

I don't dislike them, but they are such a small number and have no real way to create more (nor do i think they will have any desire to create more of their type) to make it as an actual option

[Yarathir]

[QUOTE=Maxilian;51927789]Yes please, but i would be really sad if we get Ankoan without Jinyu
True. I would still take Ankoan over Jinyu, though, if I had to choose. But it would make sense to add both in one, although I technically do not know how they would best do that. It's a bit too different to just be a face option, I think?
A toggle?

I don't dislike them, but they are such a small number and have no real way to create more (nor do i think they will have any desire to create more of their type) to make it as an actual option

As a Night Elf or former Night Elf fan, I despise them and the Dark Wardens. I hope Blizzard can just stop involving Night Elves in the story if all they are is a bunch of victims.