The footman model became ugly. In the demonstration last year, the infantry was perfect, why this time the infantry shield became ugly. The Archmage and the Prophet became ugly, the architecture of the Human was not noble, and the architecture of the Orc was too chaotic.
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Because the new screens don’t have shaders and SE unlike at Blizzcon.
Models are loaded with old Warcraft 3 engine.
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They also changed the Footman to make them a bit normal at the same time make them look like the ones from opening cinematic. The Blizzcon Footmen were looking like Expensive units and almost on par with Captains.
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In the movie, the infantry’s shield is very beautiful. The shield here is like a toy, which is much worse than last year’s shield.
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Does that mean we can convert these models to run in Classic Warcraft 3? Cos that’d be awesome!
Changing the shield was a specific request done by many melee players, so that they could recognize the model easily, since in the blizzcon beta map it was pretty hard to distinguish it from other heavy armoured units
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You mean Grubby and Grubby alone? Because any sensible person would understand that although the shield is the most recognizable feature of the old Footman, its removal does not mean that the 2018 model had no possible recognizable features of its own (the plume on the head is a beautiful example).
Yay, because of streamers and YourArthas, they have uglified the glorious Footman. Yay. I hope you’re happy.
Maybe, the 2018 version is going to be purchasable for $2.50.
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Let aside the fact that grubby (and I doubt Grubby alone) has just a little bigger knowledge than us on melee games, and models have to be recognisable before being cool, I don’t think a plume of the same colour of your entire army could make the difference (while the shield part remains white). Yes they could have found other ways of doing it, but they just followed the feedback. If more people woke up and suggested different ideas, things may have changed, but that didn’t happen 
Are you kidding? Footman is the model that got the biggest number of complaints, and it was mostly about the oversized shoulderpads and the shield. I have seen complaints about that everywhere, in Blizzard forum, Hive, Reddit, Youtube, etc.
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Still, Blizz could’ve made the shield holding animation closer to SD instead of remaking the model.
Yeah, I wish they had sticked to the SD design, especially for footman. But for some reason they decided to be original and do something different.
Some people complained that the Footman looked too heroic, epic, high tier, and just plain cool looking.
They complained that he didn’t look enough like the indiscernible block man they were used to.
Basically, inertia and “muh” nostalgia in full force like it’s been since the announcement. I still think it looks good, but you know, there are still more complaints even now about how cool the footman looks.
Would be nice if those people just turned the new visuals off… But you know…
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Tanks, planes, griffins, too bad, did Blizzard dismiss the designer of last year, why did the design fall back so much?
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You guys are looking at hacked models. We have no clue if those will be the final looks. Complain after actual official release. Footman looks good.
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I like the new shield better.
When I watch gameplay footage from my phone, I can instantly pick up that it is a Footman unit now unlike before where it was still a bit murky and my brain wasn’t recognizing certain units as what they were supposed to be.
I’m fine with that for most other units, but I think all standard units that you use a lot should have a more recognizable look to them.
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They’re looking at hacked models without proper post-processing.
I guarantee that in game at max graphics they’ll look as they’re intended to.
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You should notice that some models are the models in campaign like those of the footman of lordaeron, with that shield with lordaeron blazon on it and some, are of the generic footman of melee games, that doesn’t have the Lordaeron’s blaze on the shield and has it’s own shape of armor. There’s a variety of models now.
It’s the same for the archmage. The model you’re used to see is now the model of Anthonidas only. The archmage with more simple model is now of the generic archmages we play in generic melee games. Same for mountain king, compare the generic mountain king model of melee games with Muradin for example. It’s a big diference.
and is it a bad thing?
In my opinion, yes. I don’t mind new and different stuff, provided that the original Warcraft III is not altered too much. In other words, I want the existing models to be HD, not completely different; and if Blizzard wants to add new stuff, such as new models, it’s great, as long as it doesn’t replace existing models. It’s just my opinion of course. But I know a lot of people would like the same thing too.
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What you’re asking for is nigh unattainable. You can’t just HD old models that worked with just double digit polygon counts and up it to 4-5 digit polygon counts but still have it look good. A the WC3 models were designed for economical use during early 2000s graphics tech. If you upscale that it’s going to look extremely jarring and ugly because what you lose in simplicity is also lost in abstraction.
Higher fidelity models are going to be less abstract. Take a look at how many corners are cut on ANY of the classic WC3 flying cavalry models. Try keeping their aesthetic unchanged with higher fidelity. It just can’t be done.
There will end up being sacrifices on the altar of HD… except there won’t because the graphics are a toggle. (Thankfully.) So you can choose which one you like best, classic charming more abstract and cartoony or HD but with greater realism and definition to make the HD work.
Best of both worlds is practically impossible.
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