Covenant allied race megathread

Community General Discussion
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Hello for any/all wanting the covenant races to become playable allied races please show your support here. Also use the in game support tool to implement a suggestion in game. The more the hear us the more likely they are too make it happen. I was one of many players who hardcore campaigned for Vulpera and I will continue by Campaign for the covenant races.

Currently Sylvar and Venthyr show a lot of evidence of being player friendly (comparable to npc vulpera). Including backwards swim, several player exclusive animations. Mount animations. Able to wear most player gear with minimum issue.

While Maldraxxi and Kyrians are further behind they do possess the ability to wear player gear (well one species of maldraxxi the ones that use the kul tiran skeleton). Interestingly the aspirants have more animations than the ascended so sorry but we probably won’t be getting winged Kyrians. though suppose we could get a slow fall racial or like demon hunter ability as a racial. Maldraxxi are undead skinned Kul Tiran and have almost all of the kul tiran animations but they currently don’t have textured faces so all of them wear helmet/hood that covers their face.

It’ll be some work yes but I am quite sure blizzard will be able to justify it from race changes alone. I’d spend $100+ if they became playable on race changes. Plus increased time metric playing for those heritage armours.

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We already have werewolves. Now give me my vampire character!

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Allow me to complete my fantasy collection! Angels, Vampires, Faeries!

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Can you call it a megathread with 4 posts?

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Every megathread gotta begin somewhere

Anywho, let’s look at a technical level

1: None of the races have been set up to be player-model ready. The Vulpera were which is how I called them as a future allied race in the beta, but none of the Covenant races are
2: Despite this, the Fauns and the Kyrians are notable in that their backend textures aren’t set up like most creatures like say, the Mantid or the older Zandalari from MoP. They’re set up more like player capable ones and ogres. Now, notably only the Kyrians and the Fauns are set up like this. The Ven’thyr are not, nor are any of the Maldraxxus possibilities. Also, Ogres obviously aren’t playable yet so it may not mean anything. But its interesting.
3: They have an entry in the backend thing already in place to be allied races. It seems incomplete and seems to use other values (like, skeletons), but there seems to have at least been a stab at it. But was this just reusing the allied race fields for the Covenant abiliteis field instead? Who knows.

So, I reckon there’s a possibility, but nothing has been done for it so far

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Maybe it’s cause I’m not really as excited about shadowlands as I thought I would be, but honestly I don’t care about any of the covenants. Give me Ogres, Sethrak, Arakkoa, or perhaps some other old races, but the covenants ones? Meh w/e, if they make it great for some I guess, makes 0 difference to me.

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Well they ahve. This has been datamined. They can wear player gear already and possess many player animations akin to where vulpera was.

They’re called Sylvar now I believe.

One of them is. One of the maldraxxus races are Kul’tiran based.

Most likely pre-coding for their inevitable edition. They were clearly not intended to be playable in 9.0.

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I am actually enjoying it WAY more than I thought I was.

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Nah, they’re not set up right for it. You know how WoWhead and all that have the ability to display certain races and stuff like skeletons and the Tuskarr, but none of the Covenant races? This is why. Skeletons, Naga, Vrykul males are all set up for it. The Covenant races, Ogres and Vrykul females all aren’t. Now, setting them up to be can be done, but they’re not set up right to do so.

Now, its easy to switch the Sylvar and Kryian over as they’re set up proper. You just need to give them a black armor-less model and then set up the various other models. But… They’re not set up like that yet. They’re close, but not done quite yet.

There’s a few possiblities for Maldraxxus, but none of them are in that “Almost player ready” state that Sylvar and Kryians are. And Kyrians and Syvlar are the two furthest along, and they’re both still not as far along as Vulpera were

Now, is that because Blizzard learnt from when we call called Vulpera back at launch and not wanting the same mistake? Possible

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Idk why WoWhead hasn’t done it but other third party sites have done it. They are INDEED set up that one.

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I’d play a Sylvar.

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I have a feeling the next allied race will be neutral.

This expansion is all neutral even same questing experience on horde alliance

Budget wise for blizz make sense too

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They’re not in character/ though?

Its the same situation as Ogres have. The textures are in the format, but there’s no suitable base model or set up shoulders/helmets

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I would kill to play a Sylvar. If they do add the Covenant races though, I hope they added them as able to be played by both factions. We’re going to be spending the entire faction with these Covenants, and working closely with them. It would make sense to have their unlocks just tied to something to do with the Covenant itself, and then have them available for that account no matter the faction.

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Will comment on this just to share my personal opinion on it, and not putting down those that want them. By all means, share ideas, and be creative.

Personally, however, I don’t support the idea myself. I would rather see races playable that have been established on Azeroth. For example, San’layn over the Venthyr. I would never play a Venthyr, and wish they would expand the vampyr lore from Wrath. (Like they did with “Vampirates” in Legion, and then the Alliance War campaign. Even a Night Warrior questline for customization/lore would be sufficient in this case. Or connecting it to Revendreth & Dreadlords, and giving customization as a reward.)

Not to mention, it would feel strange that suddenly all of these souls meant for the afterlife are suddenly playable. This is the afterlife, after all.

Only race I would support as playable would be the Candle/ethereal people, which aren’t technically tied to the Shadowlands.

I like the look of the gargoyles and would maybe play them based on their models, but due to lore, I also am not really all in for it–plus, again, wanting to see races people have been asking for, like Ogres, Arakkoa, Sethrak, Saurok, Kelfin etc.

Again, and I can’t stress this enough, this is my personal opinion on the subject, and just me sharing my views on it. I’m not wishing to put others down in the process, and I do wish you the best of luck even if I don’t see eye-to-eye with the idea at all.

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I would caution you still. Putting forth the mere notion that someone’s requested allied race can’t shouldn’t be playable can be seen as putting it down since people with agendas will do often do anything to silence opposing threats. Thankfully for you, there is no venthyr discord or active lobbying effort.

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It’s why I worded specifically: “I would rather see playable” and then said why it would feel odd to have Shadowlands races as playable. Blizzard very well could make a lore explanation for it–which would be fine. Lore is lore, and they’re fully capable of doing so. People in this thread could also come up with lore ideas to make it viable, too.

And that would be fine, and even a very good idea, considering idea sharing is the point of these threads.

But yeah, the purpose of that was to just very carefully put out an opposing opinion without trying to hurt feelings. Because it’s just how I feel on the matter, and like I said, major props to those who contribute with extensive creative ideas, even if I personally do not agree.

Edit: And trust me, I know many disagree with what I want playable as well–which is just fine! I just ask they do so politely, as I hope I am doing right here. Also I would not agree with supporters of what I want added bombarding threads and being toxic–ever. People should share opinions in a polite way and then move on if they have nothing further to contribute.

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You did nothing wrong honestly. Caution is all I am saying. I’ve seen people get eaten alive in threads like these before for expressing different opinions the the notion put forth.

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Oh yeah, I know. I think most of GD already knows what I run, and how I feel on things. I think it’s a good idea for people to make a discord and lobby what they want. Even if I do not want it, you know? If there’s a large playerbase behind those that want playable Venthyr, then there is. And if what I want isn’t meant to be added, that’s alright–it’ll just be time to move on. Communities are communities, and the best we can do is try not to be toxic.

Which is something I work on not being, even if I’m passionate about certain subjects. I just ask people disagree with me in a nice way rather than… well, being horribly insulting to my person (which happens. A lot. ><)

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Venthyr… on one hand, vampires yes please thank you.
On the other hand, I’d only want them as playable if they FIX THE FACES to be how they were in the concept art; I’m not going to play a male one, but I’m not going to play a lady whose only option is a butterface.

The Sylvar… they’re neat, but honestly they don’t look much different from Draenei. Now if they could give Male Draenei the option to have the same body type as Male Sylvar, that would be pretty cool. I’d rather have the Faerie people as a playable race (mainly because those wings are amazing), but I can see player armor being a large issue with them.

Kyrian are okay but I can’t see myself playing as one or them becoming playable. The lack of customization for aesthetics is very apparent.

Absolutely nothing from Maldraxxus strikes me as playable, but might be biased since I’m not big on the aesthetic regardless.

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