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Feedback poll - updated skins that need improvement

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2018 6:40 pm
by Quiv
Based on the BfA alpha updated models, we wanted to start gathering feedback. You can find the Petopia comparison page HERE and the comparison forum topic HERE.

In an effort to officially concentrate our feedback as a pet loving community, I wanted to make a poll to see which of the updates we collectively thought could use the most improvement. As part of the effort to concentrate feedback, we've limited the choices to 3. We encourage you to post below with some context as to what in particular about your 3 choices you think needs improving. Any feedback is welcome, but we are looking for brief, specific, and detailed thoughts. I can say a skin is ugly, and that would certainly portray my distaste for it, but it doesn't help anyone improve it.

We don't want to turn this into a debate thread, so I would respectfully ask any debate on each others feedback be directed to the image comparison thread: http://forums.wow-petopia.com/viewtopic ... 60&t=25223

There will be a companion poll to show our appreciate and pick our top favorite updates. Please participate in both! We want to help facilitate feedback, and now is the time to start working it up.

Re: Feedback poll - updated skins that need improvement

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2018 6:40 pm
by Quiv
I'll start things off.

Grand Vulture White: Needs black on ends of wings like Zaricotl now has (and the new albatross has. Also one of the things that gave Zaricotl character was his manic red eye. I hate to see that gone.

Black Widow: I wish the black was deeper and more faithful to the original, such as the black used on the new black bee.

Grand crab onyx and ruby: I just want the new crab color to be faithful to the old Karkin color. It doesn't have that same shine, doesn't look like same beast.

Re: Feedback poll - updated skins that need improvement

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2018 6:43 pm
by Valnaaros
I will definately be taking pary in this once I get home from work. Thanks for putting this up, Quiv! Hopefully the results will get to Blizz and make a difference :)

Re: Feedback poll - updated skins that need improvement

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2018 7:02 pm
by Thwip
White Vulture, I agree there. I feel the beak and talons need to be darker along with adding the black on the wings and giving it back it's red-eye. That one is one of the more startling differences.

Red Thunder Lizard. This is extremely dark compared to the older model's color pallet which was honestly pink instead of red. Lightening it up would do it good! It's also missing it's purple dorsal colors. (I'm actually really torn on this and the Brown. I probably should have said Brown over Red since it's replacing a very light green with yellow dorsals.)

White Wind Serpent. This one is so far off from it's original base colors. I understand wanting to perhaps make something more natural to look at then the stark eye-burn white it was, but it can still be done with muted shades of white, grey, and purple. I'd prefer to see a more whitish one then the dark sandy beige it's been given. Could still use the one that's there currently, just not as a replacement for the white.

(It's hard to choose just three when there are several more I'd love to comment on.)

Re: Feedback poll - updated skins that need improvement

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2018 7:34 pm
by Vephriel
White Vulture
I'm going to be honest, I'm not a fan of these new vulture models in general. Their faces convey a completely different attitude than the originals. The first ones had large striking eyes, a long grasping beak, and a long neck. I find the new model's face is far too squashed - the head is pushed too far against the body and they lose their iconic bare neck. The eyes are small and beady and completely lose that manic, intimidating glare. I'm also just not liking the shape of the new beak. It seems short and rounded compared to the first.

As for the white skin specifically, this really loses all the charm of its original. The white feathers look more like a dirty yellowed tan, it's completely missing the black accents on the wings, and those iconic red eyes are no longer the most striking feature. The original Zaricotl stood out - the new one is dull and lifeless.

White Wind Serpent
Once again, the colours are the big problem here. I actually have no issues with the model itself, but side by side these are not the same creature at all. I'd like to see another skin created that kept the bright, pristine white scales against the lavender accents. The new version is just muddy by comparison.

Red Hyena
I do like the new hyena models overall, but their skin colours seem to suffer from a lack of shading and details that leave them feeling rather unfinished.

The brown nose on this skin doesn't fit at all (I'd say it should be black if anything, this applies to most of the new hyena colours actually, the brown noses really don't fit and look strange against the other black accents and black claws). I also wonder where all of the texture and detail went from their fur? The original had these lovely mottled colours of red and purple and yellow. There's hardly any pattern on the new one and not enough contrast for that bright red to work.


These are the 3 I chose that need the most improvement, even though there are many other ones I could comment on. As a blanket statement - most of my issues with the new versions boil down to colour choice. Loss of saturation, vibrancy, and in some cases a completely different colour palette. I'd really appreciate if the artists could go back and take a closer look at the originals and maybe give us some updated versions that are more faithful.

Re: Feedback poll - updated skins that need improvement

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2018 8:14 pm
by Tomb
Any plans to present the results to Blizzard? :)

Re: Feedback poll - updated skins that need improvement

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2018 8:44 pm
by Valnaaros
White Vulture

As has already been said, this new variant is just not like the original. I love the new vulture models and I will probably be taming one. I don't even so much mind the white one just in and of itself, but since it is going to be a replacement, it just doesn't work. The shade of White is much duller and the eyes don't have that same crazy look to them.

White Wind Serpent

I love the new wind serpent model and definitely will be taming one. However, as a replacement, the new white doesn't work. It is a tan, not a bright white.

Red Hyena

I understand that Blizz probably won't be putting the same level of detail into models as they did in Vanilla, and this in order to prolong the life of the model. I agree with them doing this. However, the Red Hyena is just not the right shade of red. The nose should be black in order to better match the claws and the other black accents of the model.

Overall, it comes down to color for me. I love the new models and agree with Blizz's art direction in making models last more than an xpac or two. If these were models that weren't going to replace the original ones, I don't think we would even be having this poll/discussion. But they will be, and I think people will be much more satisfied if the colors are tweaked to better match up with the old ones.

Re: Feedback poll - updated skins that need improvement

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2018 8:50 pm
by Funk
I've put my votes in--but they're a bit biased to what I personally have tamed and would be upset to see changed so drastically. However I do have feedback on the models (not just my own tames) and I will edit this post and provide them in a little bit.

Thanks for all of your work, Quiv.

Re: Feedback poll - updated skins that need improvement

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2018 11:04 pm
by Lupis
I picked most of the list before I realized it was a 'pick 3' situation :,D As the top offenders have already been written about at great length, however...

Vermilion Crab: I know these guy's aren't the most popular and I do think the new skin is pretty darn cute, but it suffers from what a lot of the new skins suffer from- it's only accurate to the name. Something I'd always loved about the old one was the pretty white belly and the way the red was accented with blue. The new one is pretty and certainly fits WoW's new style, but I can't say it's a valid replacement. (This is going to be my main point as a whole, as people have mostly pointed out the skins that look flat out bad. Rather, I want to focus on ones that just.. aren't faithful.)

Thunder Lizard Brown: uh i don't even think I need to really say anything about this one. it's just- not even labeled the same. something happened here, and it's not light green.

Barbed Spider Burnt orange: I was sure this one was the red replacement until I looked closer. The 'orange' on its back is nothing like the bright, near-gold orange of the old one, which is strange because the 'amber and yellow' shows that the problem wasn't that all the new skins for barbed spiders went too dark. While I like the new one, once again, it's just nothing like the old skin.

Re: Feedback poll - updated skins that need improvement

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2018 11:47 pm
by GormanGhaste
beige thunder lizard: where are the green...fins?

Re: Feedback poll - updated skins that need improvement

Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 7:51 am
by Quiv
Tomb wrote:Any plans to present the results to Blizzard? :)
Yep thats the goal. We're just players at the end of the day, but I am hoping we can get some blue eyes over this way somehow. We may end up aggregating all this data after the poll has been up for a bit so we can present it in format thats easier to digest.

Re: Feedback poll - updated skins that need improvement

Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 8:39 am
by Ana
Hmm with only 3 options i chose

Grand vulture white - because it needs red eyes and black wing tips.

Grand hyena red - imo all the hyenas need a new pose. ..so I just chose on of them. .

Wind serpent light brown - its not white. .It needs some serious tuning

I also think that the crystal spider, the mine spider and the crabs need some refining.

Re: Feedback poll - updated skins that need improvement

Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:40 am
by Krysteena
Grand Vulture White: I like the model itself, and I'm much more preferable of the lack of the crazy eye, but if these are supposed to be updates, they need to be loyal to what they once were. Even if it was just the black tips on the wings, then it would look at least a little more like it used to.

Truesilver crab: I don't like crabs as pets in general, but the truesilver model had some gorgeous colours to it that have just been lost with the update. The new one looks weirdly flat and not at all like what it used to. Again, updates need to look like updates, not a completely different pet.

Grand Hyena Purple: Now, the grand hyenas are really quite nice. I've got some qualms with the head and neck being the size of the body, but that's just a problem of bulking the creatures up on a model that's a little too small for that kind of detail. But the purple one, Blizzard. It's just the colour. That's a very bright, very saturated colour that feels unnecessary and a bit startling to look at.

Some other pets are also deserving of another go-round but they've already been mentioned by a few, so I didn't need to mention those. I feel like Blizzard have given vibrant colours to some where it's unnecessary and doesn't look right (such as the hyenas), and then removed colour where it's otherwise needed (such as the truesilver crab). That being said, I do appreciate what they're doing. Some updates are absolutely gorgeous and I'm definitely looking forward to taming some pets I wouldn't have considered before :)

Re: Feedback poll - updated skins that need improvement

Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 10:09 am
by Joonces
Ditto to the white vulture. The best part of Zaricotl are those crazy red eyes! Do you think the old skin will still be available as a rare spawn (like the old white bear skin and others)?

Re: Feedback poll - updated skins that need improvement

Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 8:05 pm
by Xota
I only voted for two, because my third choice would be to make an updated skin to match the new beetle model for this skin:
Image
The two I voted for were the red and purple hyenas. In addition to their giant plush heads, the spots don't look good on them. The dark gray doesn't match right (even for the legs/mane/etc), and the spots should be two-colored, like the original. Those two skins are an example how just changing the base color of a palette doesn't always end up with an equally good result.

Re: Feedback poll - updated skins that need improvement

Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 10:17 pm
by Teigan
I chose the white vulture, red hyena and white windserpent.

I concur with others' comments on the white vulture. His charm in was looking like a crazed serial killer. Giving him the red eyes would help alot. And he really needs the black tips on his wingfeathers.

The white windserpent would make a great standalone tan windserpent, but that is not a proper replacement. I'd love to see such a pretty model done in a cleaner white. It would be lovely!

Finally, the red hyena. Overall, I'm super excited for the hyenas. They really look good. So, I am sad that they seem to have stopped short of brilliance. All they need is a little more color and shading. I don't know why the hyenas got super-saturated and the crabs, spiders, and lizards got dulled down, but so be it, I guess. Just add in some of the golden tones the original red hyena has and I'll be happy. Oh, and his nose shouldn't be brown. It just looks weird.

Re: Feedback poll - updated skins that need improvement

Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 10:39 pm
by Bowno
*SPAM CLICKS HYENAS*
SAVE THEM

Re: Feedback poll - updated skins that need improvement

Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 11:04 pm
by Rhyela
White vulture: It's just an overall muddy, yellowed white that is not a faithful replacement of Zaricotl. He needs his red eyes and black wing tips back.

Red mine spider: This one's personal for me. I was drawn to the original model in ICC because the vivid red critters just stood out so much. Now, the red has been toned down so much it doesn't even look like my Naphtali anymore. Please deepen the red!

"White" wind serpent: The models themselves look great, but the colors on this one are so far removed from the original that I can't believe they're even calling it the same thing. It's fine as a standalone model/skin, but NOT as a replacement of the white we have now. (I actually really like the new orange because of the splash of the teal on its wings, so I know they're capable of using vivid, contrasting colors.)

Re: Feedback poll - updated skins that need improvement

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2018 11:33 am
by Quiv
Looks like the thread is dying down and we've got 74 votes over 4 days. I wanted to recap the tally as of March 4th, 10:15AM (Eastern Standard Time).

We've got a clear top 3 and they aren't super surprising.

model--- votes
Grand Hyena Red--- 19% 14
Wind Serpent-Grand Light Brown--- 19% 14
Grand Vulture White--- 18% 13
Grand Hyena Purple--- 8% 6
Grand Crab Truesilver--- 7% 5
Grand Crab Onyx & Ruby--- 5% 4
Thunder Lizard Brown--- 5% 4
Wind Serpent-Grand Blue Black--- 4% 3
Spider-Grand Gracile Black Widow--- 3% 2
Grand Vulture Black--- 1% 1
Grand Crab Indigo--- 1% 1
Grand Crab Vermillion--- 1% 1
Thunder Lizard Beige--- 1% 1
Thunder Lizard Red--- 1% 1
Spider-Grand Gravile Crystal--- 1% 1
Spider-Grand Gracile Red Olive--- 1% 1
Spider-Grand Bone Brown--- 1% 1
Spider-Grand Barbed Burnt Orange--- 1% 1

Re: Feedback poll - updated skins that need improvement

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2018 11:43 am
by Ana
I would have voted for more if I could ; ). Nice to see the results . Will be stalking to see if Blizzard will do anything about it.