Well the visage forms are clearly male/female. I understand the dragon form not being sexually dimorphic because true dragons aren’t and dracthyr are basically just small, bipedal dragons whereas drakonids/dragonspawn are mortals mutated into more draconic forms (hence some dragonspawn having breasts). Ysera and Alexstrasza other than jewelry don’t have ‘feminine assets’ in their dragon forms either.
Big is beautiful. Dont hulk shame
Yea but i am not talking about lore or in reality or dragon gender or sex i am just asking for a customization option. The fact you are so much against having one more body customization basically tells me you just dont want people to have more options.
The goal should be to make a race that everybody wants to play. Why limit it by not adding one extra body option
in fact it is still the same but with different colors something to see us as idiots only that we care that the hat is new.
instead we have even more models and physique like this dragon
thing that we need even more in dragons that comes from vanilla, but is recommended to a normal humanoid body.
Not saying a slender model shouldn’t exist. But there should absolutely be a big buff model too
2 Likes
I know I’m repeating what others have already said. I know. Yes.
But I’m repeating it because I want to add my voice in the vain hope that Blizzard will read our posts and relay it up the chain.
Yes, I want a bulkier OPTION (emphasis on option). I understand people who are tired of and want a not-muscle race option. I’m not, heh. The fact they have given options here, I have to wonder who thought “slightly more slender” and “slightly bulkier” would go over well with the general populous.
A better philosophy should have been, “We’re going to give people options, and we know people are going to want muscle mass, and people are going to want lithe. So let’s give them both, with a spectrum in between.”
I guarantee you, without a doubt, if they had gone in with and designed around that, you would not hear nearly so many dissenting opinions. Yes, you’d still have the outlier who wants to take it further, but far more of the player base would have been fine with them as-presented, because the majority would have their personal tastes covered.
So yes, I am repeating what others have been saying, and I hope Blizzard recognizes that this isn’t a request to take away options, it’s a request (dare I say, opportunity) to expand them.
2 Likes
It makes no sense to have a caster race be buff.
That’s the general defense that you’ll hear, but the defense actually makes no sense. Whether or not someone primarily uses magic has nothing to do with their personal exercise routine. Not all magic users are necessarily scrawny geeks in the same way that not all gamers hate the gym.
So yes. If you’re going to give an entire race body options that cover all the individuals it encompasses and their various genetics, what “makes no sense” is to not give a broader range of options to match.
Oh, and as an eternally buff Tauren druid caster… Or even a musclebound human caster… Or any of the other races that are buff but also casters… that argument also makes no sense in that light either.
Accidentally deleted the quote.
2 Likes
They are also supposed to be lithe, agile, graceful, and mobile.
Hard to suspend your disbelief that the race could nimbly fly around the battlefield when built like a freight train.
People link the drakonid model all the time without realizing that it has never once been depicted as having any of those qualities, nevermind the fact that they can’t even fly.
And from a technical standpoint, the more mass they add to the model the more clipping will occur. If they used a different model they’d have to go out of their way to rig it with all the dracthyr animations, and i promise you they won’t spend the time doing that.
This race uses 3 recycled models with new skin and some bells and whistles. This race doesn’t scream “we went above and beyond” to me. They went a little hog wild with the bells and whistles, presumably with the time they saved not making unique models for them, but that’s it.
It’s almost like we have a lot of roided out character models already and were due for one that isn’t
Which is why I’m championing options, which I’ve stressed multiple times. I find it incredible that people go to lengths to say options are a bad thing.
It’s almost like it’s more about them not wanting to see those options on other people’s characters rather than just focusing on their own tastes, but I could be wrong.
But to be fair, and to clarify
I actually wouldn’t want a Dracthyr form that’s as bulky as a Tauren (or the Drakonid), for example. What I would like to see is a broader spectrum of body type covered in their body options, because the options that exist, for the most visible trait that defines a character, are really difficult to notice in average gameplay.
Most people didn’t even realize all three body types had been previewed in the Dracthyr release shots because they all looked the same. And while mass might add ‘clipping’ it really depends on how it’s added and how the models of the armor are rigged.
There’s an image floating around of a Dracthyr that looks like it was inflated at a helium stand. I don’t think anything so extreme would be necessary. I think most people like myself are just looking for a wider range from one that looks truly ‘muscular’ to the lithe form on the other end of the scale.
In Summary: The fact Blizzard has implemented a way to have different body types is fantastic. But if they’re going to crow about giving body options, they should make sure the options are varied enough to actually make a difference.
3 Likes
It’s perfectly fine to want to express your sexual preferences in game by asking for bulkier dracthyr. Some people just like beefcakes, nothing wrong with that. This is (or should be) a judgement free zone.
It’s not ok to be condescending and rude about it. That’s just the wrong kinda vibe.
I think any curtness is generally a response to the dismissive reactions the requests often garner. It’s often difficult not to feel on the defensive as it were. Most of the posts I’ve seen requesting the beefier bodies have been just looking for options added, not taken away, so a handwave “you don’t need those options” can be frustrating to them.
Still, I get what you’re saying, and in a perfect world it’d be a two-way street. But the ideal end to the conversation would generally be, “Oh, I like lithe characters. We’ve got that, so we can add options for others!” Everybody wins. So when the “Everybody wins” scenario is opposed, it does tend to feel more like a “We just want you to lose.”
2 Likes
Just because something is skinny doesn’t mean it doesn’t fit a metal aesthetic. The figure on the Gojira album The Way of All Flesh is pretty skinny, and so is the character on the cover art of Devin Townsend’s Ziltoid the Omniscient. The guy on the cover of Meshuggah’s Obzen clearly does not have a muscular body also
1 Like
Other race comparisons are not applicable, they were made by deathwing to be a caster race, he also made other creations that are front line soldiers that are buff.
Dracthyr are not frontline soldiers and again, specifically made to be casters as designed by deathwing.
The defense makes perfect sense as they were designed by deathwing who is known among his kind for his prowess in creating various dragonkin that no other can mimic.
I’ll agree to disagree on that. I mention those races on the sheer fact that there are buff races which can be casters, so the precedent is there and is certainly not a reason to actively avoid allowing it to be an option. And again, I stress, an option. Not a “Redo everything to be super buff,” but an option, in a race that is specifically designed purportedly over having a broad range of variety.
When the entire feature revolves around giving people options, the logical thing to do is provide a good spectrum.
“Designed” is a very strict way of looking at it. In my opinion “Created” is a more apt term. This race was clearly not created in the same manner as cookie-cutter robots or stoneforged where they’re all identical.
Deathwing’s ‘goal’ was to create a combination of mortal and dragon who had full use of the various flights’ abilities. He wanted them to be the ‘ideal soldiers,’ a very vague mandate, and one that certainly doesn’t preclude having the (again) option of a bit more body mass as is natural among individuals of a given species and personality.
I doubt Deathwing created a race that could have so many varied appearances and really cared all that much to specifically limit their body type. Tying this into lore simply isn’t enough of an excuse to reject any and all additional options.
However, I will add this: One of the primary points of feedback in most of the Dracthyr alpha review videos is just how short their casting range is, 25 vs the normal 40. As a result, yes, Dracthyr need to be closer to their targets and are constantly under risk of engaging them directly.
In addition, their armor type is mail, suggesting they have need of heavier armor than your typical cloth-wearing caster. You could blame scales, but the shorter, closer engagement range and armor type definitely does not make them your average caster with no need for physical prowess or any amount of strength.
We all know that the devs are MLP G4 fans.
Ember from My Little Pony Friendship is Magic.
3 Likes
The Dracthyr look like Jar-Jar Binks, and that alone completely kills any enthusiasm I would have had to play them. Even the jokester Hozen from Mists of Panderia look more fierce than the Dracthyr.
1 Like
It’s not a zero sum game. I’d say most of these posts are thinly veiled homophobic rants about wanting to play something that falls short of toxic/hyper masculinity, and that the existing design is wrong.
I think it’s perfectly fine for everyone’s preferences to be observed. But every time I have to field some wildly inappropriate and inflammatory post to look for the kernel of compromise, I lose patience for coddling that world view. Now, anything even remotely adjacent just gets both barrels of disdain, deserved or not.
The precedent that there are buff casters of other races is completely irrelevant here, This race was literally Made to be a castor as per deathwings designs.
Per that logic it also does not make sense for them to have a bulky body type, What you doubt about Deathwing is irrelevant as the design is already here and your suggestion is simply that, it doesn’t match what we got. A Dev even upvoted a post a twitter that said it made no sense for a caster race to be swol which further reinforces the design intention and Deathwings logical conclusion that said race wouldn’t be buff.
The Dragon aspects powers are also manifested through magical means, not physical which again wouldn’t require a swol body to fulfill.
They are also Mail because we desperately needed another mail class and cloth doesn’t suit them due to their mobility and hit and run tactics.
There are also other buffer dragon kin humanoids in dragonflight that do fulfill a more physical roll, which further reinforces bodytypes and purpose of use played a part in his designs.
At this point I’m not actually sure which posts you’re referring to, so I’m a little confused.
Alright, I get it. You don’t want a bulkier model on the Dracthyr, and I do. That’s all this really comes down to at this point, because we’ve both been spouting our reasons why we think our interpretation is the more reasonable one, and neither of us are agreeing with the other. I don’t agree with yours, and you don’t agree with mine.
I’m going to continue to hope that Blizzard implements another option with a broader range of body types. If they do, they won’t remove the others. If they don’t, so be it.