Possible future races

Lore Story Forum
61

I made the following suggestion several times on the EU forum, but nobody cares what’s written there so I will repeat it here.

We have the Blightcaller model which uses the human rig. We have the skinny kultiran which uses the female undead rig.

Make them playable. But make it so that the Alliance can pick the male undead model for their frail human and also add a straight back option for it and also give that to the Forsaken which have been asking for this option for a while.
You can respond to several requests in one go.

To me, this is much better than more neutral races. Honestly I don’t like those because they do not have an impact on the faction they join like exclusive races and therefore get almost no attention. What have pandas done since MoP? Nothing at all. You see the odd NPC around and nothing else. So yeah, I’d rather we get more faction exclusive races or if not, more customization options for existing races. No more neutral crap.

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62

I don’t know how the tech would work but I want the forsaken to have a modular decay system.

I think being able to pick different body parts of the model and choosing to be at a state of fresh, rot or skeletal might be neat.

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63

Figured it is time for me to finally join this thread. I am a HUGE advocate of adding the races that we know are story-wise already in the factions. Old allies that should have been added years ago.

And just to preface this: I do not agree with adding any as customization unless they upgrade how they do it.

Horde

Taunka - Joined the Horde back in Wrath of the Lich King, led by Roanauk Icemist. This is perhaps my most wished for playable race! VERY possible in the Last Titan!

Ogre - A staple race of the Horde since the start, it is criminal they have not been added yet. We have various clans in the Horde, including the Stonemaul, Dunemaul, and Ogres from AU clans that came with the mag’har. ATM no currently announced expansions scream “Ogres”, but hopefully soon!

Forest Troll - While most Forest Trolls no longer support the Horde, the Revantusk Tribe have continued to be staunch allies of the Horde. They reconfirmed that in BfA, and could be added in Midnight when we revisit their homeland!

Mok’nathal - Half-ogres from Outland, they recently expressed interest in perhaps reconnecting with their kin in the Horde. Currently no announced expansions would seem to obviously include them, but hopefully we see them gradually appear going forward!

Hozen - The Forest Hozen have been loyal Horde warriors since the time of Mists of Pandaria, most recently appearing as soldiers in BfA (Alive and Skeletal). Main obstacle would be how their anatomy is structured, though with a revamp we could see it become more playable in style.

Gilgoblins - Former slaves aided by the Horde during BfA, we have seen them journey to Orgrimmar and keep relations. Perhaps they will fully join the ranks of the Horde one day!

(Honorable mentions that are unfortunately added as “customization” already, Darkfallen & Farraki Trolls)

Alliance

Broken/Krokul - A marginalized part of Draenei society, we have seen recent developments to bring them formally into the mainstream Draenei society once more. This would be a perfect opportunity to make them playable! Perhaps as a counterpart to a Horde AR in Midnight.

Frostborne Dwarves - Allies of the Alliance since Wrath, would be a perfect Allied Race in the Last Titan as a counterpart to the Horde Taunka. They most recently appeared in Exploring Azeroth: Northrend, where Muradin formally invited the frostborne to Ironforge.

Jinyu/Ankoan - Allies of the Alliance since Mists of Pandaria and BfA respectfully, they would be a great counterpart to Hozen or Gilgoblin one day!

Furbolg - Ancient allies of the Kaldorei, and most recently the Stillpine Tribe has had close relations with the Alliance overall. They most recently appeared in the Draenei heritage armor where they reconfirm their friendship. Seeing them become formally playable would be great one day!

(Honorable mentions that have been added as “customization”, High Elves, Wildhammer Dwarves, Man’ari Eredar, Darkfallen).

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64

I know people want this and that people feel like in an RPG you should always get what you want, but this is not a single player RPG and artistic directors way smarter than who they have now resisted this for a reason.

Your avatar isn’t just your character. It is a striking silhouette designed to communicate information to other players. Allies in the world or enemies in battle grounds. Most of not all races are instantly recognizable by their silhouette. Their posture isn’t your posture. It is an exercise in shape language meant to communicate something about your chosen race. If you don’t want to play a hunched over, shady looking zombie with visible bones, don’t play hunched over shady zombies. Make a Tauren or something.

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65

Like Pandas? Dragon-things? Velfs and belfs? Really?

Like if I don’t want to play a green hunched orc, I’d rather play a brown straight backed one?

Sorry, boss, you are dead wrong here.

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Shouldn’t be that hard given that they do have those options for the whole body, they’d just have to make it modular (case in point, the options for Earthen let you pick where you want your skin tags and the options for Drakthyr are extremely robust)

Have to disagree with you there given that now you have neutral races like the Pandaren and Drakthyr and Earthen as well as the Velf/Belf, and that Nightborne and Kaldorei use the same animation rig and are in fact, both purple/blue skinned long eared elves.

67

Yeah. I don’t think the straight backed orc was an artistically sound design choice even if they are more attractive to the player. Even if I want to play a heroic looking, proud character, that doesn’t mean every race should give me that option.

They don’t need to offer tall, musclebound goblins. If I want to play a tall musclebound character, I have options.

Just because something “sells” doesn’t mean it is a good move.

68

Not sure why this is relevant. Can you elaborate?

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So prior to MoP, the silhouette thing was relevant; you look over and see a clump of pixels and you can instantly identify it’s faction by how it moves and it’s size. The waters have gotten a lot muddier since then; every Pandaren, elf, Drakthyr, and dwarf you see at first glance could be either Horde or Alliance. So as far as making the argument that double-dipping with model/animation rigs is a bridge too far, I’m saying it’s been done already and the neutral races show that making faction-distinct silhouettes isn’t the highest priority for Blizzard.

However, I do agree that just because people want something doesn’t mean they should get it, and the slope shouldn’t be made more slippery just for the sake of options. While I’ll always argue for more customization options for the races already playable, there should be lines drawn where for the sake of fidelity you don’t cross them. So rather than total body overhauls I’m more for things like hair options (GIVE US FREAKING BEARDS ON FORSAKEN, WE’RE THE ONLY RACE THAT DOESN’T HAVE THEM) and DK skins for allied races, that kinda thing. Little things but lots of them.

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70

Ah, Ok.

So, as far as I’m concerned (though I may have confused this position by mentioning enemies and allies) the silhouette issue is less about faction identification and more about story telling.

We know how the image of a forsaken makes us feel and that feeling is intentional. The art director chose the Forsaken silhouette from a number of potential concept art sketches to communicate specific things about the Forsaken as a race.

While there may be individual characters among the orcs who are proud, intelligent, noble… Your character may be among them, but not to me in a BG. In a BG your orc is just an orc and the image should communicate “orc” instantly, while still allowing some level of customization. That balance is delicate but one thing that protects that integrity is a distinctive silhouette.

This hasnt gone anywhere with changes to factions or technology. It’s not even unique to WoW. Hollywood cinematographers use strong silhouettes and shape language to tell stories all the time.

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71

I don’t know what your deal is but to me, right now you sound like you are disagreeing for the sake of disagreement. Not an artistically sound choice? Why? And I never said anything about every race. Just one. So, yeah, weird.

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Just holding the same position on the topic of upright forsaken that I’ve championed for years. You can probably find a similar rant from 3 years ago.

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73

Sorry but you don’t have an argument any more. We already have neutral races that look identical on both sides and the ability to choose postures. So yeah, I feel you are disagreeing for the sake of it.

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And that is bad. Neutral races should have never happened.

75

Why are you so against naga

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I am against all non two legged people.

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Naga and Centaur aren’t even feasible as playable races just from a mount perspective. They would be at a severe disadvantage.

Plus people complained about the dracthyr and how you can’t see the majority of the armor they wear. I can’t imagine blizz making that mistake again

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78

Naga still have an butt, they just need to sit that down on the saddle and then place their tail on side or the other.

I can’t link it, but the flowrider card from Hearthstone shows exactly this. A naga women riding a half horse/half fish.

79

Races like Forest Troll and Taunka are long overdue, IMO. Even if they added them as customization extensions to pre-existing races similar to how they implemented Man’ari and Darkfallen skins, maybe even playing with the ‘body type’ option to make them more accurate. Heck, Forest trolls have been a part of the Horde since Vanilla… it’s crazy to me that they aren’t an option at this point.

That being said, as much as I love Naga I don’t think they’d make a good playable race. The Dracthyr got a lot of backlash for not having transmoggable features and even Mechagnomes are widely unpopular and everyone calls them ‘diaper babies’ due to their inability to transmog leg options. I think certain races are just cool as villainous factions and I can enjoy them as just that without needing them to be playable.

I think the only race that I wish would be playable but I doubt ever will be is Arrakoa. Whether that be Cursed or High Arrakoa, I wouldn’t care. They have some of my favourite lore and Spires of Arak is my favourite zone in Draenor (Which is saying a lot considering my favourite playable race is Draenei) An Arrakoa Shadow Priest would be the dream.

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80

After going through the Ringing Deeps story more than once there is one race I would play in a heartbeat.

Kobolds!

I want to be a hero of the Kobold people fighting against the darkness and preserving the candles! Blizzard made me fall in love with the Kobolds and now I would love to play one.

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