Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Fahrad Wagner]

Yea.. it's wishfull thinking for sure, but it would just be very cool if race is just purely cosmetic, people really picking what they like visually. But then have fun little perks per race/clan. It would just open up more space to go a little deeper and some that didn't make it such as wildhammer would still get a shot for the ones who care. There is so much more that you could do with such a system, but again this is just dreaming.

This thinking came about when I heard that we would get Void elves and high mountain tauren, when Vrykul or broken were right in front of me.. still baffles me.
I guess I keep telling myself, don't worry they didn't fit the allied race theme persee. Hopefully one day I will play a Vrykul.

Why we didn't get Broken, Jinyu, Gilgoblins and such is beyond me as well... but again, there's hope for the future.

Vrykul would be an instant favourite I believe, I think it has been one of the most requested races ever, with HE, Ethereals and perhaps Arrakoa?

[Alanar]

Why we didn't get Broken, Jinyu, Gilgoblins and such is beyond me as well... but again, there's hope for the future.

Just because there are still so much options out there in the world, I won't believe it's the end of Allied races or new races in general.
They said in bfa that the world is full of allies.. well we didn't go that far or reached out to that many so hopefully man, we will see

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Vrykul would be an instant favourite I believe, I think it has been one of the most requested races ever, with HE, Ethereals and perhaps Arrakoa?

I loved their model since I saw them in wrath. They were just cooler humans imo. Stormheim was my personal favorite. That one city looked like fucking Rohan for god sake. With Sigryn and everything I really though.. oo cmon you can't leave us hanging here.. we have a friendly clan of Vrykul right there lets go lol.

Ye, Ethereals have potential for sure. Arrakoa is also a favorite. High and Low Arrakoa could be a really cool light vs shadow race theme in the future I loved their short stories in wod.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

Bronzebeards cosplaying as Wildhammers, Ren'dorei cosplaying as Quel'dorei, story of a heartbreak! But eh, one baby step at a time... We got customisations, so there's that.

It would really add some nice flavor and to be fair all the assets are already in, it's all about reorganization.



These have been my favorite concepts about such a system, the only things I'd add would be an overall revamp in racials, and to add a "Generic" or such template as well where you can choose any customization, but you get the generic name of the race (Dwarf). In contrast, if you choose one of the different groups, you'd get that name tag (Bronzebeard Dwarf, etc)

[Fahrad Wagner]

It would really add some nice flavor and to be fair all the assets are already in, it's all about reorganization.



These have been my favorite concepts about such a system, the only things I'd add would be an overall revamp in racials, and to add a "Generic" or such template as well where you can choose any customization, but you get the generic name of the race (Dwarf). In contrast, if you choose one of the different groups, you'd get that name tag (Bronzebeard Dwarf, etc)

That is precisely how I would imagine it.

[Cosmic Janitor]

I'm glad to read I'm not the only one thinking the split of customizations is an utter mess. It's like there is no continuity/homogeneity between has been "enabled" for races apart from skin, hair, face, and eyes. All the rest is scattered sometimes in one tab, sometimes in another, sometimes available, sometimes not... it is just begging for a smooth rework.

Absolutely. Even for races that were touched relatively recently, there is a difference of night and day between belfs and nightborne for example, not to mention some of the ones that weren't touched upon recently. Giving every race the full customization treatment would be very welcome. Last I checked some stuff was still attached to certain skincolors and such or needed to be duplicated because of it.

[therumblings]

It would really add some nice flavor and to be fair all the assets are already in, it's all about reorganization.



These have been my favorite concepts about such a system, the only things I'd add would be an overall revamp in racials, and to add a "Generic" or such template as well where you can choose any customization, but you get the generic name of the race (Dwarf). In contrast, if you choose one of the different groups, you'd get that name tag (Bronzebeard Dwarf, etc)

Yeah this would be great

[Fahrad Wagner]

Absolutely. Even for races that were touched relatively recently, there is a difference of night and day between belfs and nightborne for example, not to mention some of the ones that weren't touched upon recently. Giving every race the full customization treatment would be very welcome. Last I checked some stuff was still attached to certain skincolors and such or needed to be duplicated because of it.

As someone who spends way too much time creating small rerolls, I can confirm the latter. Some options were not duplicated correctly and it's bugging me so hard haha! Also, the yellow Tauren flower (which is great): I'll never understand why they did not add a recolour for that, when NE got plenty with their ivy situation.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

This thinking came about when I heard that we would get Void elves and high mountain tauren, when Vrykul or broken were right in front of me.. still baffles me.
I guess I keep telling myself, don't worry they didn't fit the allied race theme persee. Hopefully one day I will play a Vrykul.

I think -IMO- that the main reason we got the AR's we got is because they were just easier to implement. HMT and LFD were implemented in game with Player Models before AR's were revealed to be a thing, and VE's came after that. NB were the only that was implemented as an NPC model first -perhaps because they were developed earlier, before they started to actively work on AR's- and we all know the growing pains in making them a PC model starting from an NPC base; they had to restart all over again with a NE model and edit it to look like the NPC model they had made, and yeah.

Sadly, Argus Broken also were made with NPC models, so it would be the same process, and Vrykul stand in an odd place where the male model is Player Ready, but the female one is an NPC model.

One thing is for sure, if you know a race is gonna be an AR beforehand, you can develop them as a player model from the beginning and don't end up with the NB issue. So it would seem all the later AR's have always been intended to be so since introduction.

[PhillyCheese]

I mean as cool as that menu is there would definitely be some irritation about Wildhammer not having its own racials.

And then you would need racials for each troll tribe... and Helf... etc etc.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

Yeah this would be great

That is precisely how I would imagine it.

It really is such a neat and clean visualization of something the community has asked for so long *cry*

[Fahrad Wagner]

I mean as cool as that menu is there would definitely be some irritation about Wildhammer not having its own racials.

And then you would need racials for each troll tribe... and Helf... etc etc.

It could just be a different flavour of a same racial to be fair.

[Hagakure]

Vrykul would be an instant favourite I believe, I think it has been one of the most requested races ever, with HE, Ethereals and perhaps Arrakoa?

Along with Naga & Firbolgs.

[Fahrad Wagner]

It really is such a neat and clean visualization of something the community has asked for so long *cry*

I don't know if it's me being a neat freak or not, but such choices in terms of design appear to be so evident, that it baffles me professional developers didn't go that way and came up with the messy thing we have today (which is still much better than what we had before, but come on...). I don't work in the gaming industry so I have no idea how all of this is decided/built upon, but sometimes it seems like there is no one to check that what was done actually makes sense, specifically with Blizzard. That goes for UI, story, etc.

Anyway, that is wishful thinking but I certainly do hope they keep building upon current customisations: those were a step in the right direction, imho.

[PhillyCheese]

It could just be a different flavour of a same racial to be fair.

Or just don't give them racials and people have to deal with certain subraces having them and certain other ones not having them.

In that case the only critique is the troll page would have a LOT of buttons.

[Fahrad Wagner]

Along with Naga & Firbolgs.

True! How could I forget naga, one of the most requested race! Furbolg is a personal favourite, but I do not know if it really is that popular with players

[ercarp]

Naga don't need legs, I'm sure they could figure something out with mounts, considering they just disabled transmog for mechagnome slots because it didn't work.

I think they are being more creative with races, but anything without 2 legs will always be out of the realm of possibility.

Like if we get Naga they are gonna have legs for some reason.

Naga aren't an issue. You can just have them sit sideways on mounts (or with a curled up tail if it's a mount like Mimiron's Head). Could even disable certain mounts for Naga to make it work, because as Gifdwarf pointed out, they had zero problems disabling transmog for like 80% of Mechagnome slots—so why not just go all the way and disable a couple of mounts too to make it work?

Pretend this is a Naga:

[PhillyCheese]

I don't know if it's me being a neat freak or not, but such choices in terms of design appear to be so evident, that it baffles me professional developers didn't go that way and came up with the messy thing we have today (which is still much better than what we had before, but come on...). I don't work in the gaming industry so I have no idea how all of this is decided/built upon, but sometimes it seems like there is no one to check that what was done actually makes sense, specifically with Blizzard. That goes for UI, story, etc.

Anyway, that is wishful thinking but I certainly do hope they keep building upon current customisations: those were a step in the right direction, imho.

I don't think it's an issue of professionalism. I think it is genuinely a matter of the devs not seeing the importance of the Wildhammer, troll tribes and helves being labeled as their own thing.

HMT/LFD/Dark Iron are ARs, which are not the same as regular races. To them, that's it. I think they just underestimated the voice of not-casuals who really want them to be combined.

Also, hiding the ARs from the main screen makes them less visible to new players which makes it harder for them to see something they can use their subscription time to unlock. So there's a monetary argument.

[Jokubas]

These have been my favorite concepts about such a system, the only things I'd add would be an overall revamp in racials, and to add a "Generic" or such template as well where you can choose any customization, but you get the generic name of the race (Dwarf). In contrast, if you choose one of the different groups, you'd get that name tag (Bronzebeard Dwarf, etc)

I haven't seen that in awhile. Thanks for reminding me!

I really tried to spread the word about that idea when it was new. It would make such a huge difference with such relatively little extra development effort. Maybe with a new expansion on the horizon we can get enough awareness to make it happen this time!

[Fahrad Wagner]

Or just don't give them racials and people have to deal with certain subraces having them and certain other ones not having them.

In that case the only critique is the troll page would have a LOT of buttons.

If the troll racial is the same, but only its flavour changes based on the tribe, it would solve the issue. Only Zandalari would have a specific racial. That, or you give the choice to all troll characters between the classic racial, or the AR racial, and you expand the flavour to match all races present under the "troll" etiquette. Add a few loa to the Zandalari racial, and allow for visual twists to the Berserker one... and you may have a working compromise at a pretty low effort!

I don't think it's an issue of professionalism. I think it is genuinely a matter of the devs not seeing the importance of the Wildhammer, troll tribes and helves being labeled as their own thing.

HMT/LFD/Dark Iron are ARs, which are not the same as regular races. To them, that's it. I think they just underestimated the voice of not-casuals who really want them to be their own thing.

That may be it, but I think that precisely IS a professionalism issue: we're talking about a game, which is an RPG, immersion is key to any kind of story, whether it is written, seen, heard, or played through a game. This kind of details, the small things, they're the spice bringing a fictional universe together, and allowing you to play the game the way you want it is always a good thing in my book, as long as it doesn't ruin the established lore (I won't venture on that dangerous slope that is Blizzard's choices in terms of narration and story hehe).

I just think this can be done while still satisfying casuals and non casuals, people who want specific racials and those who don't care: there is a way to accomodate everybody and to do things the right way, if you analyse the situation and adjust accordingly. The issue is... analysis and reading the room aren't Blizzard's forte.

I haven't seen that in awhile. Thanks for reminding me!

I really tried to spread the word about that idea when it was new. It would make such a huge difference with such relatively little extra development effort. Maybe with a new expansion on the horizon we can get enough awareness to make it happen this time!

Agreed, even though I don't understand why players have to bring this up when it's so damn "natural" and already present in many other games similarly built to WoW. But to remain positive, let's hope indeed this eventually catches the attention of someone at Blizzard, one day, like some things have in the past year. I may sound a bit vindicative towards them, but I am truly hopefuly, and I believe the recent changes in 9.1.5 and 9.2 are a great first step.

[Alanar]

It would really add some nice flavor and to be fair all the assets are already in, it's all about reorganization.



These have been my favorite concepts about such a system, the only things I'd add would be an overall revamp in racials, and to add a "Generic" or such template as well where you can choose any customization, but you get the generic name of the race (Dwarf). In contrast, if you choose one of the different groups, you'd get that name tag (Bronzebeard Dwarf, etc)

100 yes to something like this. It would realy give it so much flavor.