that only works for bipedal species with the same skeletal structure as the playable race they are copied from. put a robe on a dryad, a centaur, a naga, a sethrak, a keeper of the grove, oopsie. so you dont put a robe on them because mechagnomes dont have pants, but they cant wear pants either. pants on a naga would be weird. so no pants either. eventually you just end up with something akin to a preset armor shapeshift, as i suggested
naga can actually already wear player gear.
It just gets applied to them like a skin.
and it looks really weird.
not really. It looks rather natural for a serpent.
You can search videos of it on youtube. The 3d assets of the upper pieces get fully rendered barring head pieces for obvious reasons.
?
it’d work if it was a preset armor shapeshift, where the armor is designed for the model based on the available class and doesnt change beyond maybe some small customizations. otherwise, it’s a mess. in one set, the bracers couldnt fit the arms so we’re extended off the back of the arm fins. the pant legs were hanging off the backside, and other odd things.
crazy idea, read summary below
Summary
i was working with one of the other players on the classic forums, on an idea for a wow 2. the premise was that people in retail could go on one of chromie’s time trips that would place them on an alternate azeroth in the vanilla timeframe.
since some of the people going on this journey would be races that arent in vanilla, they’d instead have them as a shapeshift (they are time travellers, afterall). the idea was to make various unplayable races, playable, including some long requested classes, such as bards and necromancers. it’d have the flavor of retail, but with a new approach to vanilla, perhaps including the dragon isles, the emerald dream and karazhan crypts.
all classes would have the ability to shapeshift, similar to the druid class, where the shift is not forced, rather than the worgen example where you’re forced to be a worgen the moment you enter combat. the shapeshift would be based on the class. so a warrior might have a vrykul or ogre shapeshift. a priest might have a naga shapeshift in faction colors. a mage might have a high elf shapeshift dressed in faction colors. maybe a lich or banshee shapeshift in faction colors for the necromancer. a dryad/keeper of the grove for druids. a centaur for shaman. etc
and you’d also have the shapeshift for your original retail race as well. this would give you 3 different appearances - the unique shapeshift, your actual retail race shapeshift or your vanilla appearance, which would be the basic appearance of your character.
so lets say you want to be a paladin in vanilla but your character on retail is a blood elf. there are no paladins on horde in vanilla. so you’d select human or dwarf paladin but you’d still have your blood elf shapeshift. or you want to be a shaman in vanilla but on retail you’re a draenei. there are no shaman on alliance in vanilla, so you’d select a horde shaman but you’d still have your draenei shapeshift. essentially you’d have draenei on the horde and blood elves on the alliance but only as the shapeshift and only for paladins and shaman.
maybe make the retail shapeshift unusable in cities or around faction guards, though, cause you’re kinda incognito in the vanilla timeline.
things like this can be fixed in the same way as it is for playable races. Simply have the fins clip through the bracers (it wouldn’t even necessarily be clipping)
they’d have to do that for all the bracers in the game. or make some modification to the fins that would essentially cut most of them away.
Are you seriously looking for lore in an ancestral orcish bow using a blood elf symbol? Blizzard isn’t nearly that consistent man.
Sometimes a bow is just a bow.
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I like the idea of a unicorn as well and all, but couldn’t there be something else? I mean… It does make sense. Would a falcon be too similar to the Phoenix?
I am confused by this.
So…
“It would be much easier for Blizzard to add new races if they had to do more work to add new races.”
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well the alternative of adding a new race that doesnt share a body type with existing playable races is having to make all the gear in the game, fit them. which is worse. you came in at the end of a conversation about odd body type races or brand new races, who dont share a skeleton with existing playable races, causing massive workloads since every piece of gear in visible slots, would have to be configured for that body type. if a core race, then from level 1 to max and if allied, then from level 20 to max, or whatever the equivalent of level 20 will be when level 60 is max.
Perhaps from a visual perspective - clipping specifically - but certainly not from a workload perspective. The ability to wrap existing armor sets onto a new frame already exists which, while admittedly not perfect, lowers the effort to add races dramatically.
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well lets say the new race is dryad. its a 4 legged race. we dont have playable 4 legged races yet. my solution was to make them unique sets for them exclusively or alternatively, make them a shapeshift with preset gear.
Sure, if you posit that new races will not be bipedal then new armor has to be created. But that’s a stretch. Quadruped races are few and far between in comparison to bipedal races.
also, dunno if you read this/heard this, but people asked to be able to play ethereals as a core race, back before wotlk was released and have expressed an interest in that ever since. blizzard’s position on it was they couldnt do it because they have an odd body type and it would cause armor problems - and they are a bipedal race. i think the same thing was expressed regarding naga and other unique body types. so it isn’t just the amount of arms/legs or the lack thereof, but some technical issues with getting armor to work correctly on unusual body types of all kinds.
I do know, I was one of them. The problem with them is that they already have a wrapper on their mesh - they have no flesh for armor to wrap on. They have loosely fitting and irregular cloth wrappings instead (being ethereals and having no actual body). I understand why that was a problem and would have been a massive effort.
Without that wrapping you would see armor and…nothing. They had to one-off the articles of clothing/armor made for the NPCs.
I don’t know, Hyper…maybe you’ll accept the technical explanations from a High Elf fan where you won’t from me, so hopefully one who understands this situation will weigh in (that is, if there are any willing to support an evil anti’s explanation).
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something like that could still work but as i had been discussing with the other fellow, it’d have to be special armor just for them, perhaps as rewards from 10 level increment quest chains, and they likely wouldnt be able to wear the tier sets without those also being heavily modified. and heirloom gear would be a problem also.
this is why i think making unusual body types into shapeshift options instead, attached to a class, is the more feasible route. for example, dryad or keeper of the grove, for druids, as shapeshift options. vrykul or ogres for warriors as shapeshift options. etc. the gear is preset with extremely limited customizations, similar to how druid forms can be customized.
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erm, are we arguing? i was just explaining what i meant about odd body types and included ethereals to help detail the issue with unique body types while i was talking to the other guy. then you came in and expressed confusion. so i clarified. as far as i’m aware, we have yet to disagree.
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I’ll help you then:
You said
If this isn’t confusing:
…followed by…
…then I don’t know what to tell you.
easier=/=huge undertaking
To be fair that’d be the tamest thing we’ve been called in weeks,
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