New Character Models Discussion - Update! Fem Gnome Faces

[Lisaara]

Yessss....I want the alpha fem worgen so hardcore.

[Nachtwulf]

I hate the bulging mutant forehead, the slutty come-hither eyes (that don't glow!), the upturned chihuahua nose, and the bloody permasnarl. Blizzard's even said they "aren't happy" with them but given they're a recent race I doubt they're going to touch them.

I also kind of wonder if someone wasn't just like 'qqing about how 'cute and furry' they are, huh? WELL LET'S MAKE THEM PISSY SLUT-CHIHUAHUAS, LET'S SEE HOW YOU LIKE THAT, YOU WHINERS.'

Geh.

The males look pretty good but their -extremely- limited array of options (fewer than tauren) mean that they all pretty much look the same.

[Qraljar]

I hate the bulging mutant forehead, the slutty come-hither eyes (that don't glow!), the upturned chihuahua nose, and the bloody permasnarl. Blizzard's even said they "aren't happy" with them but given they're a recent race I doubt they're going to touch them.

I also kind of wonder if someone wasn't just like 'qqing about how 'cute and furry' they are, huh? WELL LET'S MAKE THEM PISSY SLUT-CHIHUAHUAS, LET'S SEE HOW YOU LIKE THAT, YOU WHINERS.'

Geh.

The males look pretty good but their -extremely- limited array of options (fewer than tauren) mean that they all pretty much look the same.

Not necessarily true. At Blizzcon, and a few times after Blizzard, they have stated that they are going to overhaul/update the classic and TBC models. And after doing that, that they were going to take a look at the Goblins and the Worgen to see if they needed tweaks/updates too.


And yes, they do. Goblins don't have toes and their hands are nice, but not nearly on the same level as it is for the updated models, Worgen have a lack of facial expression, plus.. the atrocity that is the female Worgen's head, and actually.. her fake-looking breasts. Also, neither have the amount of bones in the face that the Pandaren have and the new models will also have.

Oh, and yes. Neither of them have eye-balls. To explain: Pandaren and the new models don't have textured eyes on the model. They have actual eyeballs in actual sockets so they can make the wacky expressions they do. Goblins and Worgen both still use the old system, where the eyes are directly textured onto the model itself, with the irises being a flat piece of texture that randomly moves across now and then. Same with the eyelids. For the Pandaren and the updated models, they actually blink. The actual model makes the blinking motion. For the Goblins and the Worgen, this is not the case. For them, it's -- again- the old system, where a slab of texture that is supposed to represent the eyelid pops up and then pops away quick to look like they are blinking.


So yes. They certainly do need some updates


This would also be the perfect time for them to add new faces for the Worgen females. Like they are considering now with the classic and TBC models, they could add a toggle to switch between the new and old model. Ta-daa!

[Nachtwulf]

I never got too upset with the -rest- of the female worgen model. Yeah, their boobs are a little weird, but at least they don't sag like bags of warm jello with every movement (dwarf females) and aren't as bad as draenei or female troll boobs. (Or like... how human girls' inflate and deflate... do humans in Azeroth keep their lungs in their boobs?). Compared to how awful the head is... the rest of it just sort of paled in comparison.

[Qraljar]

I never got too upset with the -rest- of the female worgen model. Yeah, their boobs are a little weird, but at least they don't sag like bags of warm jello with every movement (dwarf females) and aren't as bad as draenei or female troll boobs. (Or like... how human girls' inflate and deflate... do humans in Azeroth keep their lungs in their boobs?). Compared to how awful the head is... the rest of it just sort of paled in comparison.

Much truth, you speak, young padawan.

[Nachtwulf]

I think the main reason they won't ever do a "toggle" is that it'd mean they'd have to keep duplicates of every player (of that race) in the database. It's because of WoW's 'sprite' based models (they're whole and complete) instead of the vector based models (such as in the games with size sliders) that mean they can't just alter a given model back and forth as need be. All of the models flagged as 'x' will be replaced with 'y' when they input the code fort the new models, all across the board. If you still want 'x' then you have to keep what amount to 'backup copies' in the database and that causes bloat. Yes, the technology is there to do it that way but the thing is, WoW is old enough that at this point, to strip the sprite based coding out of the engine would be more work than creating an entire game, so they're still using the sprite architecture even though "better" coding types exist now. They're just working to get more out of it than they used to.

I'm sure their new MMO (Titan?) will utilize all this shiny new technology but right now, WoW's status as basically a 'legacy game' means that things that are "standard" in other MMOs now can't be done in its engine.

Edit: I know they made noise vaguely about 'being able to keep old models for performance reasons' but I'm betting that doesn't happen. In the past, when people's machines got too old, they pretty much just said 'too bad so sad buy a new machine'. I know mine is going to be right on the bottom edge of suck when WoD comes out, and stands a good chance of not even being supported.

[Danielfboone]

They did say in one of the interviews that because the new models would require significantly more rendering power due to the increase in polygons that they would be optional to use. I'm pretty sure it was Tom Chilton who said that.

[Chimera]

I'd like female worgens to be tweaked a bit and more facial and piercing (rather, lack of) options for both goblin genders but I don't have too many quarrels with them. I play female worgens regardless but I can only play the blackish-blue skin toned ones, the other colors are really disturbing with those eyes. It truly does bring out the rabid chihuahua visage. Male goblins could use more options for happier faces rather than the constant slumpy-grouchy-hates-all-of-you look. Goblins had those really big grins before they got overhauled, why did they suddenly turn moody and snappy?? xD Female goblins need less barbaric piercings. They aren't savages. Bring more bling and pretty shiny treasure options-- as well as options to have no piercings or only like one or two, not an entire face full. (Note: I haven't been a goblin since the beginning of Cata so I don't actually remember many of the piercing options. I just remember a lot making them look like they just came out of the stone age)

[cowmuflage]

Well I think it's safe to assume Worgen and Goblins would be the last to get a update. That is if they do indeed get one in the first place!

[SylviaDragon]

wow. I never actually kept up with the creation of the worgen in cata. (I was stuck in the bc expack so I didn't care since I couldn't play roll one.) But after looking up the female Alpha models, I'm kinda sad. I would have loved to play one of those guys. Really liked the look they had. shame.

[Shade]

Okay my big question, for the person who can tweet to one of the designers is thus:

The cat, bear and most importantly BIRD forms of a druid are really, really outdated on the night elf version. Are we going to be looking forward to any updates on those? (Really, bird ears are creepy)

[Makoes]

The moonkin form is what needs the biggest update ^^

[SpiritBinder]

Okay my big question, for the person who can tweet to one of the designers is thus:

The cat, bear and most importantly BIRD forms of a druid are really, really outdated on the night elf version. Are we going to be looking forward to any updates on those? (Really, bird ears are creepy)

each to their own, but I thought the bird forms for the druids were still great, they are really ageless. As for the other forms (excluding the moonkin) were updated not that long ago (only just done for cata), so doubt they will be touched for quite some time tbh. As for the bird with ears, that was a design decision from blizzard to have them retain traits of their human form (as they do with all the druid forms and their races) Tis why the flight form for Tauren druids have horns ^.^.
Again, if they did upgrade the flight form, my guess would be the ears would be staying

[Lisaara]

The devs already addressed that on mmo champ. They said it's very unlikely they'll be messing with druid forms since they got a recent update. Moonkin is the only one they're heavily considering. The rest, not so much.

[Nachtwulf]

I wish they'd fix the "broken" right rear leg on the nelf and troll cats. That's a model folding error, not a model change but it REALLY REALLY REALLY JESUS PLEASE needs to be fixed. I've reported it 100000 times and they STILL haven't done anything about it. It's so glaring I can't stand to play a nelf or troll druid because I typically play feral and I hate looking at it.

Front screenshot showing the botched ankle joint...


Back view showing that the left side looks fine and the right is borked...

[Silivren]

I wish they'd fix the "broken" right rear leg on the nelf and troll cats. That's a model folding error, not a model change but it REALLY REALLY REALLY JESUS PLEASE needs to be fixed. I've reported it 100000 times and they STILL haven't done anything about it. It's so glaring I can't stand to play a nelf or troll druid because I typically play feral and I hate looking at it.

Front screenshot showing the botched ankle joint...


Back view showing that the left side looks fine and the right is borked...

Don't forget that the two "brown" versions of the worgen cat form are borked still too. The dark brown bear is with the light brown cat and the light brown bear is with the dark brown cat. It's VERY apparent that the dark brown has purple eyes and suddenly you've got green eyes when you switch to the other form.

[Demonicow]

Lol in this picture the one on the left looks like hes plotting something(i wanna see the lower half of the forsaken models) and btw dont those shoulder bones look kinda like doorknobs?

Idk if im the only one but i dont see anything wrong with the current female worgen model they are very beautiful doggies, after seeing the female gnome and her various expressions i thought she looked very attractive for a gnome of all races!? lol also the female dwarves are a much needed improvement now when i pass by female dwarves its not so much as an eyesore to me anymore

[Snowy]

Found this drawn and posted by an MVP on the official forums. Made me laugh a little. (':

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8k3a ... 1_1280.jpg

Also found this, which is a large image, but lists aaaaaaaall the problems that female worgen have. Which are many.

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/ ... 3dl2jo.png

If I'm completely honest, Blizzard might need some new game artists. I've noticed *so many problems* in so many of the animal or animalistic models and, despite their modelling skills getting better and better, they still don't seem to be studying animals well enough to know what they actually look like. (E.g. The camel mounts/NPCs. Not so much an artist problem here though as an animator problem. Guys... Camels DO NOT run like that!!!)

Yes, you can give the excuse that it's not real so they can do what they like, but why make a camel that looks just like they do in real life but then have them run with such an awkward limp? It makes no sense. I couldn't use the camel mounts at all because of how terrible they looked while running, even walking.

And that's why I think female worgen look like a joke. It's like something they came up with, laughed at, and threw into the game to piss everyone off without so much as glancing at reference images of wolves or werewolves. I genuinely believe that's what happened. It's the only logical explanation I can think of as to why they went from looking so beautiful and wolf-like, to so... pissed off, derpy and chihuahua-like. It baffles me how much they changed them at the last minute in the beta. For anyone that didn't follow their progress at the time, the sudden change was *very* last minute. I believe there was only a couple of weeks left until the game was officially released. They *need* to work on them again.

And if that's not reason enough, the females look drastically different from the males. It makes no sense. How come males have a bright eye-glow but the females look blind and lifeless? I wasn't even that happy with the change they made to the males, since they now have a perma-snarl too. :/

I'm sorry if I offend anyone that likes the current models, but I can't help but throw in my opinion when people start talking about female worgen. As someone who's studying games art and how to model and texture game assets like this, these things become so noticeable to me and it pisses me off. x'D

[Lisaara]

I honestly think Blizz DOESNT need new artists and I will use the argument that this is a fantasy game. If you're expecting it to be 100% realistic, you're playing the wrong game.

That said, the alpha worgens we would've had....but noooo. People whined about them. So Blizz did what the fans demanded. Thus we got the worgen we have today. Those alpha models were designed by the same people and so are the new models and Pandaren, which are absolutely breathtaking.

So before ya point fingers at Blizz, you may wanna think of why we got the change to begin with. Not usually a good idea to shoot the person following what was asked of them.

[Nachtwulf]

The thing is, we didn't get what people wanted. We got someone's idea of a 'we're gonna show you what you get when you whine', 'shut up and take what we give you' response. Maybe they're still sore over the blood elf 'Cockatrice' thing. Make fun of a cool-ass model... and they give you a giant disney-barf chicken instead.