Would you Play as Centaurs (Horde) and/or Keepers of the Grove/Dryads (Alliance)?

[Aucald]

Wouldn't fly, people would complain about not being able to use their mounts on their main (centaur).

Yeah, mounts would be a big issue for any kind of strictly non-humanoid type races (e.g. not having at least two arms, two legs, etc. etc.) Might resolve this for Centaurs by having the mount "replace" the PC graphically as a kind of illusion type effect, effectively showing the mount without the rider. Centaurs would probably also get a version of the Worgen Running Wild racial, basically acting as a ground mount themselves (perhaps even allowing passengers).

[Martymark]

I would play a centaur before I'd play a diaper gnome.

[Powerogue]

Centaurs for Horde? they are the mortal enemies of the Taurens.. makes no sense when those races have been enemies for years to suddenly become best friends.

* cough *




Or blood elves and trolls, or blood elves and undead, or Everyone and death knights, or Everyone and Illidan's demon hunters...


Or dwarves and dark iron dwarves, or lightforged and void elves, or...

[Feanoro]

* cough *
Or blood elves and trolls, or blood elves and undead, or Everyone and death knights, or Everyone and Illidan's demon hunters...

Or dwarves and dark iron dwarves, or lightforged and void elves, or...

It's almost like what we call the Horde today is a complete fucking mishmash of races the devs like.

[Alvito]

It won't happen for the same reasons there won't ever be naga. Armor and mounts.

That is besides many other things that would prevent blizzard from saying no to that.

The way the new gnome limbs ignore armor opens the door for other body types now.

[schwank05]

Something I've been thinking about for about a week and that is 4-legged playable races in MMORPG games. I haven't really played any other MMO's out there other than WoW and maybe Skyforge (like spent an hour on that one) but I will look through other MMO games. I've not yet seen a 4-legged playable race.

But with WoW...

...WoW has the potential for it, in my opinion. Here are my thoughts:



#1. Both Keepers/Dryads and Centaurs share a lineage. They both are descended from Cenarius. While the Keepers/Dryads are directly descended from Cenarius, the Cenatur come from Zaetar who himself is a son of Cenarius. Since they then branch off into their respective race that leaves the door open (again in my opinion) to be brought into the major factions for conflict.



#2. Keepers/Dryads already fit the Alliance aesthetic since they more-or-less just look like Night Elves with 4 legs and Centaurs fit the Horde aesthetic looking more brutish and rugged with tan-like skin.



#3. Centaurs have had their contention with the Horde no doubt. We have seen this since WC3 and vanilla WoW. Development of a separate clan of Centaur that aren't barbaric and murderous isn't too far-fetched of an idea and we have seen races like Worgen who were developed into playable races apart from their original "feral" incarnations.



#4. I may be wrong but I believe the in-game models for Keepers, Dryads, and Centaur are all different. Personally I would love to seem them updated much like all of the races were in WoD so they don't look dopey and their animations are more fluid. Or, alternatively, you could develop a brand new model between male and female and just re-skin/re-texturize them between Keepers/Dryads and male/female Centaur. This leads me to point #5:



#5. Armor customization would be a sticking point. As we see with Mechagnomes, who get certain racial customization that overrides armor appearances, Blizzard seemingly does not view that as a major issue. The only thing I can really think of that would an issue with this Keepers/Dryads/Centaur idea would be for belt and pants appearances.


(Apologies for distorted pictures, best ones I could find that showcased the look as well as would show up in this post)

Hell yeah Id play either.

[Grazrug]

It's almost like what we call the Horde today is a complete fucking mishmash of races the devs like.

No. The devs are just actually trying to break established fantasy norms of the warhammer and Tolkien tropes and allies. And I think they're doing a good job.

[Feanoro]

No. The devs are just actually trying to break established fantasy norms of the warhammer and Tolkien tropes and allies. And I think they're doing a good job.

They're doing a great job ignoring all previous lore as to why those races despised each other.

[Grazrug]

They're doing a great job ignoring all previous lore as to why those races despised each other.

The more exotic the mix is the better it feels.

[Psykho]

They're doing a great job ignoring all previous lore as to why those races despised each other.

In their defense the only one that feels particularly shoehorned is the Blood Elves which only happened because Horde needed a pretty race, though they only had a specific problem with the Amani they never interacted with the Darkspear pre-horde, and there was a patch where Blizz pretty much showed just that, the only other current pair that "hates" eachother was Pandaren and Zandalari, Pandaren hold a grudge like a plate holds water, and modern Zandalari weren't attacking because they hated the Pandaren, they were because the cataclysm hit Zandalar hard and they thought that the whole island was gonna sink

[ZazuuPriest]

No More Allied Race Ideas 2020 (all of your ideas are trash and the allied races we have so far are garbage)

Something to believe in

[Rae888]

Worgen were the mortal enemies of everyone until they weren't. It's not a stretch that the centaur could strike a peace treaty with the horde in the face of a greater threat. In fact it could be the basis of some interesting intra-faction storytelling.

I'd love to see centaurs/keepers/dryads happen, but I doubt they will due to their inability to use mounts. (I'd eagerly give up my ability to use mounts if the races came with a racial running wild/flight form, but I doubt Blizzard would see that as a compelling tradeoff for most players).

[Gurluas]

Definitely would go Dryad. They are cute, and they're not as self-righteous and arrogant as Night elves and aren't descended from trolls.
Plus the deerbutt is cute, definite bonus

[Magicon]

Something I've been thinking about for about a week and that is 4-legged playable races in MMORPG games. I haven't really played any other MMO's out there other than WoW and maybe Skyforge (like spent an hour on that one) but I will look through other MMO games. I've not yet seen a 4-legged playable race.

But with WoW...

...WoW has the potential for it, in my opinion. Here are my thoughts:



#1. Both Keepers/Dryads and Centaurs share a lineage. They both are descended from Cenarius. While the Keepers/Dryads are directly descended from Cenarius, the Cenatur come from Zaetar who himself is a son of Cenarius. Since they then branch off into their respective race that leaves the door open (again in my opinion) to be brought into the major factions for conflict.



#2. Keepers/Dryads already fit the Alliance aesthetic since they more-or-less just look like Night Elves with 4 legs and Centaurs fit the Horde aesthetic looking more brutish and rugged with tan-like skin.



#3. Centaurs have had their contention with the Horde no doubt. We have seen this since WC3 and vanilla WoW. Development of a separate clan of Centaur that aren't barbaric and murderous isn't too far-fetched of an idea and we have seen races like Worgen who were developed into playable races apart from their original "feral" incarnations.



#4. I may be wrong but I believe the in-game models for Keepers, Dryads, and Centaur are all different. Personally I would love to seem them updated much like all of the races were in WoD so they don't look dopey and their animations are more fluid. Or, alternatively, you could develop a brand new model between male and female and just re-skin/re-texturize them between Keepers/Dryads and male/female Centaur. This leads me to point #5:



#5. Armor customization would be a sticking point. As we see with Mechagnomes, who get certain racial customization that overrides armor appearances, Blizzard seemingly does not view that as a major issue. The only thing I can really think of that would an issue with this Keepers/Dryads/Centaur idea would be for belt and pants appearances.


(Apologies for distorted pictures, best ones I could find that showcased the look as well as would show up in this post)

yo, Horde hates the centaurs, they have made the tauren lives miserable for hundreds of years.

[cparle87]

For the sake or argument, the blood elves hated the amani and gurubashi tribes. The trolls in the Horde are from a different tribe, though, some won't see any difference.

Um, question. When did the blood elves have the opportunity to meet the Gurubashi before the events of WoW to end up hating them? If I remember right their beef was purely with the Amani, who were understandably upset that the high elves just moved it and built on top of a sacred place of theirs.

[Arikara]

While I'd like to see something like it, I think three big things prevent this from being realistic: flying mounts, armor models, and character size.

There is no way in hell you could explain putting a centaur on a flying mount. You could maybe give a dryad some kind of druid-like 'grow vine wings and fly' thing, but that would never work for the centaur flavor.

With tens of thousands of armor models in the game, it is crucial that they are capable of being adapted to fit a player character. Some pieces failing to fit (such as has always been the case with tauren, trolls, and boots even from day one) is fine, but the centaur body is probably too much.

If you look at many of the old vanilla centaurs, they are actually pathetically tiny. But if you're going to do a playable race like that, you'd expect that the centaur stand taller than any other existing race lest they look silly. They'd need to be larger than tauren. That's a problem.

Ultimately, I think playable naga is much more realistic. They don't face these issues to the same extent—it's not at all unrealistic to put them on a mount if you just get creative with the animation, though the armor problem remains an issue—and they'd probably need some kind of system that lets the tail behave dynamically while moving and zigzagging and such, rather than acting purely as an animation.

[Traveler Voltin]

How would doors work for them?

[Psykho]

While I'd like to see something like it, I think three big things prevent this from being realistic: flying mounts, armor models, and character size.

There is no way in hell you could explain putting a centaur on a flying mount. You could maybe give a dryad some kind of druid-like 'grow vine wings and fly' thing, but that would never work for the centaur flavor.

With tens of thousands of armor models in the game, it is crucial that they are capable of being adapted to fit a player character. Some pieces failing to fit (such as has always been the case with tauren, trolls, and boots even from day one) is fine, but the centaur body is probably too much.

If you look at many of the old vanilla centaurs, they are actually pathetically tiny. But if you're going to do a playable race like that, you'd expect that the centaur stand taller than any other existing race lest they look silly. They'd need to be larger than tauren. That's a problem.

Ultimately, I think playable naga is much more realistic. They don't face these issues to the same extent—it's not at all unrealistic to put them on a mount if you just get creative with the animation, though the armor problem remains an issue—and they'd probably need some kind of system that lets the tail behave dynamically while moving and zigzagging and such, rather than acting purely as an animation.

Mounts could work where instead of them mounting up they turn into the mount but it has an indicator that your "in" the saddle like a cloud of flies or a green orb
Armor wouldn't be much more of a problem than it was for mechagnomes compared to entire arms and legs, just the waist down doesn't seem too implossible to me, though they might have to get creative with robes, same with Naga
I don't think that it'd be a problem that Centaurs and Keepers/Dryads stand a similar height than Tauren they don't have to be taller

[Zuben]

I wouldn't, but it's more because the game has become bloated with options. In the past my alts served a very specific purpose: profession support for my main. Nowadays I can't be arsed to tend to them even for that, so creating an entirely new toon is pointless, be it a centaur or an orc.

[Stormdash]

yo, Horde hates the centaurs, they have made the tauren lives miserable for hundreds of years.

So less time than the main of Kal'dorei society despised the Highborne?