The AR myth debunking Megathread. Why your favorite allied race won't become an AR

Community General Discussion
21

All I wanted was playable Arakkoa.

#shadowsgather

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22

This thread is sad. Have some kitties.

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I love kitties /pets.

But no. This isn’t about quashing people’s hopes for allied races, but it is all about keeping things in perspective. I’ve long thought it just didn’t make sense that people would get so excited over ARs that may very well never end up happening.

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We can hope and hype, it’s what people do.

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25

Personally. I would love to mechagnomes become an allied race, but I am not getting my hopes up. For all we know, there may be something like Proto Gnomes next expansion. Some sort of even more futuristic set of gnomes. I don’t know.

26

Vulpera are not related to goblins. Just because they share a skeleton does not mean they are an AR of goblins.

Vulpera would be considered a new race. Period. No an AR.

An AR of goblins would- quite literally- be giblins.

KT are another branch of humans. NB another branch of elves. Lightforged Draenai are another branch of Draenai. Etc. Same with the trolls and the dwarves.

I still don’t understand why people are so confused on this.

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27

Of course it is always possible that a few other things could happen:

  1. No allied races at all next expansion.
  2. Different races we haven’t seen altogether.
  3. Blizzard adds lore connecting Vulpera to goblins and we learn they are related somehow.

Possibilities like these are why I typically at this stage of the game, just like to think about what I like rather than thinking"Ya. Its definitely gonna be an AR".

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Ah yes. Thats what I was thinking. It’ll be goblins, not vulpera. And if that’s the case, no one will care about it since everyone hates goblins. So no salty alliance. Popcorn for everyone! :popcorn:

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One of the things they have said in the past is they looked at every “possible race that walks on two legs” so that is one of the requirements so no Naga or Tol’vir races no matter how much you want them.

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They are called “Allied Races”, not “Subgroup Races”. A lot of them are races with nearly identical models as the are easy to do. No reason they can’t do more high effort ones. The point of the system is unlocking races through reputation and inviting them to be allies.

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31

There is a strong pattern though. So far not a single race has every been a different racial type to the one it has been paired with and there is only 4 left to have ARs released for.

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32

Thank you for posting this. It’s time people WOKE UP.

Ha.

Oops posted on Paladin instead of Druid, oh well.

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33

I can’t speak for anybody but myself, but I clearly state on the front page of the Vulpera megathread that all the evidence provided only makes Vulpera likely, not confirmed. Nothing short of Blizzard giving official confirmation is actually confirmation, and I believe most people in the megathreads understand that.

The megathreads are not here to try to argue that their titular race is a guaranteed thing, they are here to make the case to Blizzard that these races are loved and popular and we would LIKE them added. (And maybe just a little bit of hype about new evidence)

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34

Please point to the exact definition of Allied Race that Blizzard uses.

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People like to speculate, and with a system like allied races in place, people will try to predict what we are going to get next.

As for the OP…

Actually, it is a good indicator, for the simple fact that Blizzard won’t spend a ton of resources for something it has no plan to use. Making playable-quality models for NPCs is a waste of resources unless you have more plans for them than being featured in a single zone and forgotten later.

There has been NPC models capable of using gear since the beginning. Old goblin models, TBC ogre models, forest troll models, male vrykul, TBC broken, TBC naga… But they are clearly NPC models still: their customization is very limited, they can’t equip every slot, their animations are very crude, there are some glaring clip problems, the textures are of lower quality…

This is nothing compared to the amount of work Blizzard did on vulpera and junker gnomes. Both have models fit for players: HD textures, high polygon count, several customization categories, able to equip most gear, new animations. Neither are finished so far, but neither were Zandalari and Kul Tirans before 7.2.5, when they got their last few touches.

“Follow the money”. If Blizzard is spending too much resources on these models, you can guess with a higher chance of success that they’ll end up playable.

Why would there be 7.2.5 content in 7.2 PTR?
And vulpera and mechagnomes ARE in 7.2 PTR anyway: they are in the races tab files; their models are there for everyone to see.

Blizzard will of course announce allied races in advance, but that does not mean they aren’t working on those races right now. We know almost nothing of future patches (the only post-8.2 feature we know of are the new goblin and worgen models). No one can say with certainty if 8.2.5 will have allied races, but even if it doesn’t, that does not rule out 8.3 or 8.3.5.

But we do know Blizzard is working on more allied races, so it’s reasonable to speculate on that front.

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36

  1. It is always possible the allied races may be something won’t even begin to see until next expansion.

  2. Blizzard has said that they have wanted to make npcs more detailed and varied.

  3. It is possible that they got a lot of the data from previous npcs and/or content.

Speculation is good and fine, there may be some strong variables involved we don’t know about and will not until much later on.

And vulpera and mechagnomes ARE in 7.2 PTR anyway: they are in the races tab files; their models are there for everyone to see.

This could be the result of the author of wowmodelviewer and less wow. wowmodelviewer is independent of wow and the way the author chooses to categorize those files is up to him or her.

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Then what’s the issue?

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The issue lies in following a path lined with gems and assuming there will be a treasure trove at the end. Just because the path is lined with gems, doesn’t mean that there will be gems at the end. Oh darn. I am talking like a Pandaren now. Someone get me a brew!

39

Very few people are doing that, and the ones that are are doing it because of rapid opposition that keeps popping up that won’t even consider the possibility in the first place.

40

LOL, and you wonder why everyone has left the Alliance to the point where they are having a problem clearing content. Yea, keep on with this line of thinking. We wouldn’t want to have a dying faction get things the playerbase want to play would we? Better to stick with the greatness of fat humans with 20 more horse mounts to get.