Updated Models? Yes?

[Kientrae]

SO I was messing around with character creation earlier and noticed a few changes with some of the races! Or at least the troll for sure. They updated the male trolls which I find awesome! Hopefully they update a few more~



What do ya'll think?

And if you missed it from the obvious screenshot above, trolls have painted faces now o_o

[Kahane]

uh, trolls have -ALWAYS- had that option, the face paint patterns are tied to specific tusk styles, while the face paint colours are tied to hair colour. I've had a troll with the exact same blue hair/purple makeup pairing ever since vanilla.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Newly updated race models are something we're probably unlikely to see in beta yet anyway since, if I remember right, they're only working on a couple of races at a time to make sure they work with monk animations and whatnot.

[Kientrae]

Okay yeah >> I've never made a male character in my whole time of playing wow... I'm sorry about that. I didn't try to troll ya'll I promise. It was just unique looking and so I was like HEY! Sorry... x.x

[Ellaran]

The dwarves are the first race they're doing, from what we know they're pretty far along and will be the first done, though still not in time for launch. Humans and orcs are the next ones on the list.

Though, and I apologize if it's more of the same bellyaching , but one guy with a copy of Studio MAX can whip up a fully modeled, textured, skeletoned, and animated WoW-style character in less than a day. So why does it take Blizzard so long to do it when they have vastly more resources and people?

[Ziarre]

Because they have to make sure it's updated enough to look nice, but not different enough to cause mass outrage. I remember...I think it was in vanilla, they changed how one of the races moved in stealth. Holy crap, there was a fuss over it...but it was so long ago, I may not be remembering it at all! D8

[Ellaran]

Because they have to make sure it's updated enough to look nice, but not different enough to cause mass outrage. I remember...I think it was in vanilla, they changed how one of the races moved in stealth. Holy crap, there was a fuss over it...but it was so long ago, I may not be remembering it at all! D8

The broken fanbase can outrage all it wants, after nearly eight years the Vanilla and BC models desperately need an overhaul, especially compared to the Cata and Panda models. Maybe Blizz can leave some NPCs the same for the nostalgia, but the playable models need those updates, and badly.

[Ziarre]

Yes, but there's nothing wrong with taking the time to do it right, so that everything's up to date without suddenly logging into a stranger...so to speak. I trust that attention to detail they claim to desire will pay off in the end.

[Kalliope]

Yes, but there's nothing wrong with taking the time to do it right, so that everything's up to date without suddenly logging into a stranger...so to speak. I trust that attention to detail they claim to desire will pay off in the end.

I'm sure that this is (at least part of) why Blizzard's taken so long to do this massive update. It's got to be done right so players feel like they're playing a smoother, more refined version of their old character, rather than some shiny new thing that has no soul. That's a really dangerous risk too, since a lot of the newer pet models (for example) have that exact problem; the detailing is gorgeous, but the beast itself is harder to connect with. Sure, they're shiny, but do they really make you feel warm and fuzzy inside?

[Rower]

Yes, but there's nothing wrong with taking the time to do it right, so that everything's up to date without suddenly logging into a stranger...so to speak. I trust that attention to detail they claim to desire will pay off in the end.

They should update the models every time a new playable race comes, other game companies redo the whole cast every time a new game hits (and I'm talking about 40+ different characters with a unique body each), so all the models look new and fresh, but I guess because they're Japanese, maybe are a bit more efficient on this matter...
If they would do this regulary, it won't be such a huge work now. Delay delay delay, and then you are in trouble.

[CrystalKitten]

I have to agree with everyone else, in that it's because they want the characters to look BETTER, not different. I've had Thyira since open beta (of vanilla... before the game was launched at all) and while i don't play her MUCH.. I can say I'd probably play her even less if she suddenly looked like a completely different character... Not only that, but who knows how much other work there is to do. There's every class' animation to fix. Including all the general ones, like mounting, emotes, etc. And depending on how much the models change, they might even end up having to tweak some armor if it no longer seems to fit right.

Also, it's different when companies redo the entire cast when an entire new game hits. Each WoW expansion isn't a new game, it's just an expansion. Most companies don't recreate everything for an expansion (at least not that I've seen), they use all the same textures and models, only recreating more if they have to. I really don't think redoing the ENTIRE game EVERY time they do a new expansion would be necessary anyways. And it would have to be the ENTIRE game. Every zone, every npc, or beast... Otherwise people would start complaining about "Leveling a new alt.. and omg the old zones look like crap compared to my character". And that would take insane amounts of time and resources to retexture and remodel everything.

I just think people underestimate the amount of time it takes a company to do something, vs a single person.

Single Person: Throw together something on it's own, make it look how YOU want. Done.

Company:
Put together a concept sketch. Send to quality control. Wait for response.
Receive response, make adjustments. Send Back. Wait for response. Repeat until it's approved.
Make a model, rig it, texture it. Send to quality control. Wait for response.
Quality control sticks it in the environment, runs it around, runs through animations. Sends it back with suggestions.
Changes are made... Sent to quality control...
etc etc

You get the picture. It would take a while, especially if there's loads of other things going through the people that approve such things.. Or if things seem to be going well and then "Oh no! any of the big/cool looking shoulder armor goes on sideways!"

[Worba]

I agree with Crystal. Also wanted to add - for a given xpac, there is a limited budget of hours available, e.g. any one thing you choose to do, means there is less time for anything else. This is why cata only raised the cap 5 levels instead of the usual 10 - because they had to allocate so much time to reworking the 1-60 zones (among other things). Etc.

Players didn't like that, but they lived with it. Now imagine if the cap was 84... because someone decided to re-route additional hours into character skin remakes.

Yeah.

This is one reason why wow is head and shoulders more successful than other MMOs (including ones who regularly redo character lineup).

[Smyelmdar]

Now if only troll females could have the face paint too....