Playable race model revamp in the works

[Kayb]

When they do overhaul them all, i want Skyrim/SWKOTR style customising. the options there are great

[Hesantia]

Also, give us the NPC faces that aren't available, like Kalecgos' human form, if only for the sake of variety. Not every adventurer is gonna be in the 30-to-50 age range, give us more youthful faces, and faces with injuries (various scars, missing eye, tattoos).

This! So want to have tattoos and scars for my characters, especially the warrior and paladin... I mean, they must have learnt how to fight somehow

[Ket Shi]

I hope at the least when they do complete the model revamp that there's more than 5 options for customization. Maybe de-link eyes and face, and potentially add new things, like scars as you guys are suggesting.

I'm not sure that the engine could handle different heights/builds, but I'm sure there's extra customization they could reasonably add.

[Ellaran]

I hope at the least when they do complete the model revamp that there's more than 5 options for customization. Maybe de-link eyes and face, and potentially add new things, like scars as you guys are suggesting.

I'm not sure that the engine could handle different heights/builds, but I'm sure there's extra customization they could reasonably add.

I'm certain the engine could handle various heights perfectly fine. If it's a big issue, then just give us the normal height, half-a-head shorter, and a head shorter, along with normal width, 25% slimmer, and 15% wider (or something similar). Even that small change will give a much larger amount of variety to the world of WoW, no longer will every character of the same race and gender look like Attack of the Clones.

More variety of youthful and elder faces is also a major plus, to give a sense of a world filled with veterans of the wars and youngsters fresh out of the academy or caught up in the mess along with the middle-age soldiers.

[Ket Shi]

I hope at the least when they do complete the model revamp that there's more than 5 options for customization. Maybe de-link eyes and face, and potentially add new things, like scars as you guys are suggesting.

I'm not sure that the engine could handle different heights/builds, but I'm sure there's extra customization they could reasonably add.

I'm certain the engine could handle various heights perfectly fine. If it's a big issue, then just give us the normal height, half-a-head shorter, and a head shorter, along with normal width, 25% slimmer, and 15% wider (or something similar). Even that small change will give a much larger amount of variety to the world of WoW, no longer will every character of the same race and gender look like Attack of the Clones.

More variety of youthful and elder faces is also a major plus, to give a sense of a world filled with veterans of the wars and youngsters fresh out of the academy or caught up in the mess along with the middle-age soldiers.

Unless it was simply scaling down the model down or up slightly in size, I'm not sure. Currently, equipment that has a unique model -- helms and shoulders -- has a model scaled and fitted for the males and females of each race. 12 races, 24 different ones in total. If they made new builds, they'd have to add new models for each combination (unless they were willing to leave them look bad and oddly-fitted/too big/too small for some). My guess is that they'd have to change the whole way that armor is rendered, or devote tons of extra time to making all sorts of extra variations...ouch!

[MaximumOverdrive]

I hope at the least when they do complete the model revamp that there's more than 5 options for customization. Maybe de-link eyes and face, and potentially add new things, like scars as you guys are suggesting.

I'm not sure that the engine could handle different heights/builds, but I'm sure there's extra customization they could reasonably add.

I'm certain the engine could handle various heights perfectly fine. If it's a big issue, then just give us the normal height, half-a-head shorter, and a head shorter, along with normal width, 25% slimmer, and 15% wider (or something similar). Even that small change will give a much larger amount of variety to the world of WoW, no longer will every character of the same race and gender look like Attack of the Clones.

More variety of youthful and elder faces is also a major plus, to give a sense of a world filled with veterans of the wars and youngsters fresh out of the academy or caught up in the mess along with the middle-age soldiers.

Unless it was simply scaling down the model down or up slightly in size, I'm not sure. Currently, equipment that has a unique model -- helms and shoulders -- has a model scaled and fitted for the males and females of each race. 12 races, 24 different ones in total. If they made new builds, they'd have to add new models for each combination (unless they were willing to leave them look bad and oddly-fitted/too big/too small for some). My guess is that they'd have to change the whole way that armor is rendered, or devote tons of extra time to making all sorts of extra variations...ouch!

I remember a blue somewhere saying this was one of the big reasons they can't do size scaling of toons in WoW, in terms of the model having different proportions than what's currently in game. But I would definitely like more face features, hair, colors, etc. Worgen are pretty crappy when it comes to hair styles and facial features I think...I liked the old ones better where they had a variety of hair styles (also would like one expression that wasn't snarling all the time too). I always feel spoiled when I play something like City of Villains or Champions Online when it comes to customization lol

[Vespias]

After watching the animations for the Pandas....after seeing the new tiger....and after seeing gameplay of new games like Skyrim I have to say, that looking at my toons now is like looking at your Nintendo 64 football team while your buddy is showing you his Madden team. WTF! At any rate, I really do hope the Blizz Gods decide an update is long over due. And the ability to add character to my toons faces via age, scars, ect. is just way too much. I think I would have to quit my job and live on welfare just so I could play the game even more. This is a big vote "FOR" Blizz....unleash your magik!!!!!

[Umbriel of Halaa]

I hope at the least when they do complete the model revamp that there's more than 5 options for customization. Maybe de-link eyes and face, and potentially add new things, like scars as you guys are suggesting.

I'm not sure that the engine could handle different heights/builds, but I'm sure there's extra customization they could reasonably add.

If Gamebryo can handle a rather simple height slider (albeit one that just scales the entire character), I'm sure WoW's engine could. Builds, on the other hand, would probably require separate "template models."

I'd be all for the addition of a few more sliders. For one, I'd like to see male draenei beards decoupled from their barbels and their crests decoupled from their hair. But if this isn't feasible, just the addition of more options to each slider would be an improvement.

I'd also like to see the character creation screen made a bit more intuitive, as per that of Rift or Dungeons and Dragons Online (color palettes rather than sliders for skin and hair, and so on).

[Ket Shi]

I hope that they do, at least, add a modest size scaler. I'd stick with only being able to decrease or increase size slightly, because it would make the whole character size up or down. But even a small range of variation would add so many more options, especially to roleplayers.

[Demonicow]

im tired of having to pick a certain face for my tauren just cuz i want blue or red eyes not to mention id like to be able to choose my tauren's hair and possibly hair style seperate from skin color i also agree with scars thatd be badass btw is there a way to make armor not clip because every piece of armor my tauren hunter got in this expansion has clipped one way or another and i know u cant help ur stuff clipping with your cloak and all that but hopefully when they revamp the models that will be fixed

[SylviaDragon]

I would love to see more marking customization such as tattoos pricing and scars for all races and genders. When I was farming for <the insane> I was a bit jealous of the pirates with all the tattoos. Wish my rogue had them. Things like streaks and highlights for your hair would also be nice to further customize things. (honestly more the half the night elves on my sever have the same two haircuts and hair color. Just some extra choices for a “cookie cutter” hairdo would go a long way.)
Last of all body builds and older/younger faces would be amazing. I would love to have an extra tall Nelf or a blood elf who has just enough meat on her bones to make it look like she can actually swing that mace that’s almost as big as she is. xD I wont get my hopes up for height and with customizations but I do look forward to the new models and will hope for the best.

[Slickrock]

One other thing that hasn't been mentioned, and it's a reason why we'll never see the micro customization that many want.

Lag.

Imagine, every toon having 40 or 50 more variables, and you fly into town, and all that has to be processed for rendering. Hope you bought a new graphics card... while it would be nice to have all that detail, and I'd be the first to get a new look, I don't think we'll see it with this graphics engine, and without much stiffer requirements on system hardware and memory.

[inico]

Excuse me for necroposting, but that model was also shown in Blizzcon 2009:

[Demonicow]

speakin of chuck norris remember that even were mr t would give out grenades well how badass would it be to see a chuck norris event u would have an item that tells chuck norris jokes or perhaps a chuck norris costume or maybe a set of fist weapons that look liek chuck norris's fists!

[Ket Shi]

Fresh from the Mists of Pandaria information release:

We already know that new character models are in the works for old races. Do you have any idea of when players will be able to see them and do you plan to also revamp newer races such as the Blood Elves and the Draeneis?

We are slowly in progress with revamping the races, but the reality is that at best we would get the Dwarves for Mists of Pandaria, and even that's on the bubble. It is something that we are planning to do, it is something that we want to get to and actually believe is valuable. As to when the the Blood Elves and the Draeneis would have that happen, they would probably be near the end of the list. We would probably get through all of the original races first before we go on to them since they are better than the original ones. Any of the ones we have done more recently tend to be a little bit higher fidelity.

Well, darn. That disproves some of my theories. At the pace they're going at, it will probably take years for a full revamp. But at least we have more proof it's in progress.

[Vephriel]

Yeah, I think it's more or less what I was expecting. It's clear they've wanted to update the race models for some time, but changing every single person's main character is just...such a huge undertaking. They have to update the textures on each race, both male and female, then go over all the customization options...I just couldn't imagine there being any chance of all that being ready for sometime within the next expansion. Perhaps the next one. *crosses fingers*

[Ellaran]

Well, guess we shouldn't even bother expecting it during the game's lifetime. One can dream...

[Vornesoul]

Don't count it out yet. It depends on how much time the art/modeling/animation teams will be spending on the major content patches. I imagine any time not spent on those will be devoted to both the expansion after this one and the old models.

Blizzard has never been one to confirm working on something lightly and I'm sure they get enough flak over the dance studio/similar issues. Looking at the MoP screenshots, those teams had their hands full. Maybe with less on their plates, the work on the models can proceed faster.

Even if we don't have a time of expected release, at least they confirmed they are indeed working on new player models.