I would love to know how everyone feels about this topic.
Don’t get me wrong I am very much excited for Classic WoW, being that I started playing WoW back at the beginning of 2005. Leveling from 1 - 60 again, exploring without wings, no quest tracker / having to read quest text thus actually absorbing the lore, and most importantly ‘connecting and socializing with other players’.
Even though all that sounds great! There is just 1 thing I would change in this glorious remake of our beloved Vanilla WoW.
[ I would love it if we had the option to switch between ‘Classic’ to ‘HD’ character models via settings menu.]
Classic was indeed very special to me and many others, not because of its looks but because of its play style. Retail WoW however has very attractive character models and animations that really do catch the players eye as they play the game. It makes the combat and emote part of the game even more entertaining. So it would be cool if the option could not only update character models but also npc models as well throughout the world. Currently in retail WoW, I love playing my dwarf hunter because his beard looks Glorious! His run anim, attack anim, even right down to his face anim when using emotes is a joy to see. But I also love my bear pet model as well. The way they run is far more life-like and unlike classic, their mouths don’t hang open all the time like the older models. The new version just feels a lot better, as do many other renewed models.
In addition the Classic WoW models do not look particularly attractive on ultra HD monitors… I believe the HD models would be far more appropriate for a re-release to compete alongside other MMORPG titles with newer models / textures and animations. Blizzard have done it with ‘Warcraft III - Reforged’. Why not do a ‘World of Warcraft - Reforged’?
That being said this is all just my opinion and I would love to hear what everyone else has to say regarding this topic. ‘Would you like to see a HD option in the game for the player and npc models?’ or ‘Do you think it should stay true to the original formula?’
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You can do whatever you like on a Classic+ server, as long as the Classic servers remain untouched.
If Blizzard is willing to make the different models interact without glitches, it’s not a problem for me.
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I am all about not touching or keeping it as close as possible. But somethings should be touched and HD graphics for character, terrain etc…Would be amazing I totally agree with you
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Honestly, I don’t think a Reforged version of classic would be that much better. We’ve got slightly newer models for most creatures, better particle effects, but the trees and other art assets haven’t changed. Even if they did rework every single asset to being them up to 2014 standards (what most models in retail are), it wouldn’t be THAT much different from what we have now.
Very unlikely.
If it was something that could be done easily, I’d think that would already be an option.
The way Classic is being rolled out I’d think it foolish to expect any type of updates to the game after launch given everything they’ve said so far.
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Better graphics won’t make or break this game. It’s not designed to survive on the graphics. It’s the experience. Enjoy it and don’t worry about how many pixels the rock or your sword have. It would ultimately have less than a 5% impact on your overall enjoyment of the game.
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I really don’t care about graphics. In fact it is the least important thing about a game. The gameplay is all that matters.
A lifetime of buying games has taught me that if a game mentions its graphics as a selling point, you are buying a crap game because there wasn’t enough good points about the gameplay for them to mention.
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Unfortunately that’s not true. It’s clearly evident from the forums that a lot of people can’t stand the idea of playing a 15 year old game that has 15 year old graphics. Classic must have bfa graphics to get them to even create a character. It’s pretty sad but it’s true.
Most of those people are tourists thankfully and we won’t see them around for long.
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Probably best that they do move on.
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Agreed. Every time I see someone say just add a toggle, I say well that person doesn’t develop software for a living.
Like you said, if it was easy, it would already be in the game
Yes, and all those in the forum complaining about the possible graphical difference are what we call “retail players” who actually think retail is fun to play, and therefore not the target market anyway.
Blizzard already had it when WOD was introduced. The option was there in the settings menu to toggle between HD and original for a little while. So there is no reason why it cant be done. They just removed it before legion as the game was moving on.
Aside for that, some great feedback peeps! Love it!
I can totally understand where people are coming from with regards to screenshots / streams of a single event shared amongst many players of ‘said’ event and some screenshots / streams will have HD models and some without, which I know can be a little frustrating.
But in the long run, I do believe that just by having this little option in the settings menu, it will attract a bigger player base. Players that want the modern models, let them be able to switch it on. Players who want original models, let them switch it off. Everybody wins!! There is no reason why this game can’t do that.
I’ve played WoW since in 2005 and ideally I would prefer to have a toggle. As an animation artist I would rather enjoy classic with all its glorious classic game design with the modern character and npc models.
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You guys know you’d like a graphical update that includes models like the remake of the Stormpike Battle Charger:
Old version:
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I’d love an optional toggle. The old models look like butt even if the new ones aren’t perfect. If I could a male orc that stood up straight, I’d do so without hesitation.
But if a toggle isn’t technically feasible, then it should be solely old graphics. Preserve the vanilla experience as much as possible
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I definitely want Classic to get the “reforged” treatment at some point, but only if the old vanilla graphics are maintained as well without any glitches or problems. I think it’s important to maintain this because for many players this is an important part of the nostalgia trip.
I’d rather see old graphics and no remaster at all than see a remaster with a glitched toggle or removal of old graphics. A remaster doesn’t damage my experience because I’m not playing for the graphics to begin with, so I can take or leave it.
The art and graphics are more important to others and I think it’s important that they still have that option completely.
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Good. That’s exactly what we want. To weed out the BFA babies so they don’t want to play to begin with.