There is no explanation at this point. All of the “lore” reasons for customizations and race/class combos are out the window. Blizzard let go a TON of employees in recent years, most of which were probably senior content artists.
They’ve also made new customization options that they never even added to the game files.
All of these images feature customization options that were left out of the game files for some reason.
Lastly, they seriously botched the inclusion of new Asian and Black customization options by failing to add the dark brown eye colors and the eye shape options to the game files, as well as left out the blending textures for the new Human hairstyles.
The general jankiness of some of the new Human customization options along with a few races having scars restricted to specific faces (and sometimes skin colors, as the case for Humans) are some of the things that have gotten me especially frustrated with what they said during Blizzconline where they implied that they’re not even going to look at races that “received a lot.”
I am genuinely concerned that some of these issues regarding Human customization will get ignored, and that Worgen could get overlooked because they inherit all of the Human customization options.
I feel like I should be discussing what races other than Humans should get, but it just bothers me so much that we didn’t get some of the key customization options for Humans that they made such a big deal out of at Blizzcon 2019.
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Or copying the Blood Elf ears to Void Elves lol
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If there are seriously only 4 graphics artists now wow is truly in maintenance mode.
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No, no, you got it wrong. We are the hot Highborne. The Nightborne are the exotic Highborne and the Shen’dralar are the OG Highborne.
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Very much this, we have a lot of options already made but just used by NPCs. Nightborne are very much hurt by this fact, so many things locked away. Just changing the color of an existing objects like jewelry and body details should not be a huge chore either. Also not a fan of both genders not getting jewelry still.
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Blizzard is not putting resources into the game beyond what will get you to buy it’s expansions and hopes a massive time sink system will keep you playing.
I wouldn’t get your hopes up.
That’s why I’m giving them these EZ-Mode ideas.
Heck, if they asked me, I would do these things for them for free, just out of kindness of my heart lol
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You can’t, the npc nightborne are creatures models so it’s literally impossible to just transplant said features . . . Also upon closer inspection the nightborne npc’s faces are kinda low res.
You don’t get it Mortis. This world is all about how much you can use and abuse each other. Expecting Blizzard to give you that mog and customization you want won’t happen!
You have to let go, you can do it… I believe in you~
That’s what I mean though - the stuff I want implemented doesn’t require a high level artists’ supervision, or a legion of artists to make rigs and models from scratch.
I legit just want other tints and colours for the already-existing tattoos and hairstyles just to tide us over.
Surely, that cannot be hard to implement?
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It isn’t. Take for instance -Druids. Lore wise, in the real world, there are actual REAL living breathing humans who are druids (shamans too) and there are in fact no cows, elves, wolves, or trolls who are druids.
In game, every armor model needed to make playable Human Druids is in the game right now because of Worgens being Druids. In their human form, Worgen armor morphs to fit the human model perfectly. 0 reason not to have human druids. Just laziness. Look at DKs, all races can now be DK, even allies races.
There was a post on Reddit from someone who works with the models as a hobby, and had given tons and tons of suggestions to Blizzard.
You’re right, a lot of it isn’t that hard to implement, according to them. A lot of things, like swapping over hairstyles and then painting them to suit the race, apparently takes minutes to do, not even hours.
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No, there are not only four graphic artists.
There are four art producers responsible for tracking and co-ordination of the art, not creating all the art.
Stuff is already in there for sure. There are even looks for the models that have never even been used. They need a QoL team that can move across game boundaries and address these issues.
Wow came out in an era where the guy to beat was everquest.
Now the average FTP has so many customization sliders for everything from wrist length and ear lobe size to chin pointiness.
Since WoW is pay to own, pay to play, and pay to win… it’s an embarrassment the current state of it all, though to be fair for an engine pushing two decades old they are doing better than could be expected.
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I am sure that’s why nightborne use the night elf skeleton and models. The facial rigging would take more time then other stuff like skin tones which is understandable as one of the most wanted features for night elves is different eye shapes. And more slender faces. The male models we got seem more bloated. And the lack of facial metal jewelry is upsetting for males. The chin metal guards for example.