Anyone miss the older models?

[Zoruaronan]

I don't know if its just my nostalgia bias or if people will agree with Me but I want to say.. I seriously miss a lot of the older pet models for some families, As I feel some of the newer models just look so ugly and boring now, If you don't get what I mean, Let me bring in some examples

Wind Serpents used to be these winged, scaly creatures that looked fierce and terrifying, While I don't necessarily hate the newer model, I do hate some of the changes they made to the colors, The prime example being the White one, What was once this ghostly ramen noodle of death now looks like a +4 strength +4 stamina leather belt with wings slapped onto it and it looks so much less cool..


Another example I can make is the thunder lizards, While in some regards I do agree they look better, I can not and refused to accept how they massacred Thunderstomp, What was once a nice pale-green skin combined with some nice yellow spikes is now looks like a walking brownie and it just.. eugh, Even the blue ones look so much less appealing!


The hyenas also I feel took a massive hit in the model update, The colors on them looked so much better back then and now it just looks oversaturated and like someone used the paint bucket tool on the fur and said "Job's done!"


I will bring up one finally example and let me make something clear, Not all of the updates we've received for our old friends are bad, In fact for some, Quite the contrary! But at the same time, I feel a lot of the newer models have lost their soul in terms of either animations, colors, etc and if you want a prime example of that.

Then look no further then the vultures, The flying animation they once had is now replaced with this boring druid flight animation that too many new birds have been using, From Kalirls, Ravens, Owls, Eagles, Falcons, Parrots and even our beloved Vultures.. Its not the fact the new model looks bad per say, But using the same stoic and repetitive pose for every single bird is just tiresome to say the least and I hope in a future update they add some more animations for our feathered friends so we don't keep getting the same poses over and over..


At the end of the day, Most of these models are much needed improvements to our friends that we've relished for many years.. But I just feel that sometimes I need to question weather or not certain changes are better then what we've had for so long.

[worgpower]

A agree, many colors didn’t receive the well deserved update like the red hyena and fawn windserpent, I cannot call it white. Many updates have been only slightly faithful to the original like dark hounds, which went from weird demon goats to lion maned goat horned bull terriers, I like them better but many don’t. A few amazing faithful model replacements were the rams and the old school boars. They look fun and new while still having their original aesthetics, the ram hooves are weird. The kodos were also given good model updates. Most of the less superior model updates tended to be on bfa. Dragonflight and Shadowlands, and legion had very good model updating and I hope the future of old models will be very good, I’m hoping to see old cat models and old wolf models updated but with the original feel

[Bowno]

What happened to the hyena is a straight up crime :C
And poor Darkhounds lost all their character. They now use coyote skeleton/animations.

Also both darkhound AND hyena both make dog sounds and dog howls. Such a shame.

[worgpower]

What happened to the hyena is a straight up crime :C
And poor Darkhounds lost all their character. They now use coyote skeleton/animations.

Also both darkhound AND hyena both make dog sounds and dog howls. Such a shame.

If they had the wolf rig, at least they should’ve kept the superior running animation. I agree they howl too much

[Aroim]

I don't miss the old pixel models, but some of the colors are not good :/ I posted something about the hyenas, at least on Twitter, where I took the time to transfer their original colors to the new model. Or at least I tried to get as close to the originals as possible
here:

[Dialga]

Nothing was a worse model update than the old rabbits to the new. I used to dream about taming a rabbit, now even if one glitched into taming existence I don't think I'd use it.

[Zoruaronan]

I don't miss the old pixel models, but some of the colors are not good :/ I posted something about the hyenas, at least on Twitter, where I took the time to transfer their original colors to the new model. Or at least I tried to get as close to the originals as possible
here:

Now these are what the Hyenas SHOULD have been, The colors are recognizable and not as soft/bright as the modern ones, While keeping the fancy new hyena model intact, Great stuff!

What happened to the hyena is a straight up crime :C
And poor Darkhounds lost all their character. They now use coyote skeleton/animations.

Also both darkhound AND hyena both make dog sounds and dog howls. Such a shame.

Darkhounds honestly Don't look too bad, While I absolutely do miss the old skeleton instead of the modern wolf ones they've been using, I think they're a much needed improvement tbh. Maybe if they used the Worg skeleton and the model was made with that in mind, I think it would look much less bland and dull as the same wolf/coyote skeleton we've had for basically all our new wolves.

[worgpower]

I hope the older wolf and hyena animations will go to rest since blizzard has been developing better animated creatures, like the lupine and bakar with the new wolf/dog skeleton. It runs like a canine and stands like one. The vulpine animations could also be used, very sleek and smooth and not jumpy at all. Don’t get me started with the worg skeleton though, it stands fine but it runs like it’s on ice about to fall flat on their face. I also hope cats in the future will also stand taller and not sway back and forth crouching. Another animation rig that could be used more is the older boar. For draenor boars and skullboars, they should ditch the direhorn walk animations and give them a gallop or ditch the skeleton altogether

[Ana]

I miss the old windserpent model soo much... it was way way way better than the one we have now imo. I liked the old hyena model too but I also like the new one.. I think they should keep atleast one of each of the old models when making a new one...

[Dewclaw]

There was a pink spider that got "upgraded" and was no longer pink. My undead hunter had been so attached to that pet.

[Zoruaronan]

There was a pink spider that got "upgraded" and was no longer pink. My undead hunter had been so attached to that pet.

Yea tbh I'm not a fan of some of the new spider model updates, Specifically the gracile spiders, They looked so much more vibrant and nicer, Rather then the bleak muted colors of today.


I especially hate the changes made to the red and crystal ones, They look so much worse in my opinion and just don't look as appealing..

[worgpower]

Here’s an example of an old model that I loved but the upgrade didn’t do it justice, it is the gorilla.
I loved the old white gorilla, it was one of my favorites when i first found it, when they upgraded it, it became a entirely different model that looked more like a fat chimpanzee rather than a gorilla. What was even more disappointing was they made Grong a patch later which looks way better than both the old and current gorilla. At least they could have waited to make a wild model that looks like grong’s, but lacking the huge hairdo and the tusks, and it’s sad because gorillas are lacking models for a great pet to use. My criticism for the current white gorilla is it’s too blue and metallic

Before

Now

What should of been a updated look


I may enjoy the new darkhound and wind serpent models depending on what color I tamed, but the gorilla, even though I have the purple black which is the darkest gorilla I could tame. The new gorilla and its color palettes are a huge miss

[Zoruaronan]

Here’s an example of an old model that I loved but the upgrade didn’t do it justice, it is the gorilla.
I loved the old white gorilla, it was one of my favorites when i first found it, when they upgraded it, it became a entirely different model that looked more like a fat chimpanzee rather than a gorilla. What was even more disappointing was they made Grong a patch later which looks way better than both the old and current gorilla. At least they could have waited to make a wild model that looks like grong’s, but lacking the huge hairdo and the tusks, and it’s sad because gorillas are lacking models for a great pet to use. My criticism for the current white gorilla is it’s too blue and metallic

Before

Now

What should of been a updated look


I may enjoy the new darkhound and wind serpent models depending on what color I tamed, but the gorilla, even though I have the purple black which is the darkest gorilla I could tame. The new gorilla and its color palettes are a huge miss

This might be a hottake but.. I don't mind the new gorillas tbh, I do agree they are way to "Metallic" but I don't necessarily think its that bad, Gorillas definitely are a family that needs more love in general and I absolutely wished they used grong's animations though..

Also this might just be me but, I also wish that some old rares that use commonly available colors would get some updates, A prime candidate for this would be Crusty in Desolace who uses the vermillion crab model.

Personally I would change him into the red crab model or give him a shell to make him stand out more , But really anything would be better.

[Renard]

I like the newer model but the older color schemes. Like the Hyena for example.

[Dysphoria]

I'm definitely in agreeance with regards to the windserpents. I love the old model so much more than the new ones as well as the colour variants.

I have made the suggestion before, all Blizzard needs to do is include at least ONE of each of the old models in the game (as a rare for example). They did it with bears and corehounds, so I don't see why they can't do it with the other retired models.

[Ana]

Ohh i forgot about Gorillas.. Yes the old model i miss soo much.. i actually abandon my gorilla when the gorillas got upgraded.
I had this one and the new model just isnt the same

[Bambu]

It's be cool if they got some rares sprinkled around like bears did. Or some rares with redundant looks were updated to the older models. Zaricotl is one that immediately crosses my mind.

[worgpower]

I found another nice model improvement with an off-putting example, it’s the bone and gracile spiders. The way the eyes are placed are so weird, like it has no head as opposed to the older models. The tarantulas look great so no criticism for those at all, but those are weird. The bodies and legs from the new bone spiders look great though
Old

New


I gladly won’t touch those spiders any time soon since the newer great spiders, barbed spiders, demon spiders, and ice spiders are much superior and a little scarier which is a good thing. Those bodies with eyes don’t do it for me

[Vephriel]

I found another nice model improvement with an off-putting example, it’s the bone and gracile spiders. The way the eyes are placed are so weird, like it has no head as opposed to the older models. The tarantulas look great so no criticism for those at all, but those are weird. The bodies and legs from the new bone spiders look great though
Old

New


I gladly won’t touch those spiders any time soon since the newer great spiders, barbed spiders, demon spiders, and ice spiders are much superior and a little scarier which is a good thing. Those bodies with eyes don’t do it for me

This is actually a big model improvement, as were all of the spider updates. The original models, with the 'heads', were so biologically inaccurate it drove me crazy. Ants are the insects that have 3 segmented bodies, not spiders. Spiders have a head and an abdomen. Whoever updated the spiders knew what they were doing.

[Zoruaronan]

I found another nice model improvement with an off-putting example, it’s the bone and gracile spiders. The way the eyes are placed are so weird, like it has no head as opposed to the older models. The tarantulas look great so no criticism for those at all, but those are weird. The bodies and legs from the new bone spiders look great though
Old

New


I gladly won’t touch those spiders any time soon since the newer great spiders, barbed spiders, demon spiders, and ice spiders are much superior and a little scarier which is a good thing. Those bodies with eyes don’t do it for me

This is actually a big model improvement, as were all of the spider updates. The original models, with the 'heads', were so biologically inaccurate it drove me crazy. Ants are the insects that have 3 segmented bodies, not spiders. Spiders have a head and an abdomen. Whoever updated the spiders knew what they were doing.

Yea I'm gonna be honest, The bone spiders and the New spider models in general were really needed... But my only true complaint is the Colors they chose for the redesigns.

The crystal spiders had this really beautiful and glass-like texture on them which has since been replaced with what I can only describe as "The ice spider at home"

The red spiders also took a massive hit, What was once a vibrant, beautiful, blood red mixed with a nice shade of olive-green.

Now looks like a walking pimple with how dull the colors became, Its basically near brown at this point.

But for the most part, Spiders got way more then what they lost, Especially the Lava Tarantula, Who for years looked like a tarantula with gloss on it until it finally got the update it deserved

Honestly now that I think about it.. Why haven't they made rock spiders with like, Geode abdomens? The possibilities for color combos with the rocky skin colors and different crystal colors would be amazing, Plus Shale Beast in general could use something somewhat new, Even if they ended up in spiders I think the design could work?