So obviously by the title you know what you’re about to read for the 100th time, but nevertheless it is necessary to show support for.
I personally became obsessed with the Nightborne as soon as they were released in Legion, just like a lot of people. Their aesthetic, their models, and their story. I remember when they were announced as an allied race and I rushed to complete the achievements to unlock them for when BFA prepatch hit. Yet I was almost disgusted with what we were presented as “Nightborne”. I spent the next few months of BFA hoping for a datamine showing us a fixed model and what was expected of the Nightborne originally, but even 2 years after that we STILL haven’t had one mention or acknowledgement of the clear issue there is (genuinely wonder if Blizzard is blind or just don’t care they ruined one of the most beautiful races in modern Warcraft development?).
I’ve actually come to find the Nightborne tolerable now that there is promise of customisation updates to come. But I’m hanging on by a thread of hope. I completely understand that allied races were said to be given updates in the future after the core races, however, this isn’t a customisation request but a literal error of design (specifically referring to the ghastly eyes transfered from the Night Elves) that Blizzard is too cowardly to take responsibility for.
Anyways, I didn’t come here to rant about how disappointed I am (only a little lol). My main point is to provoke conversation further about expectations going forward so devs may actually listen and realise the only reason the Nightborne is one of the most unpopular races is because what we were given was never and will never be considered to be a proper Nightborne.
I’ve been playing around with taking screenshots of my Nightborne while they are mid animation blinking and it shows the biggest improvement to the Nightborne. They could legit not give Nightborne any new customisation for another year and I’d be content with that as long as we were given the eye fix the Nightborne deserve. Have a look at some of the screenshots and try tell me that doesn’t make them instantly more playable:
https:// imgur .com/a/Lc0hhQX
I would rather have no working eye animation (since that seems to be the only reason they haven’t implemented this fix?) than continue on for another year looking like a Night Elf. Yes, the eyes are still not exactly like the NPCs, but its the closest we might ever get considering there is no way in hell Blizzard will redesign the entire model from scratch (even if that is what the Nightborne truly deserve).
Some other fixes/customisation would include (but aren’t necessary to be implemented immediately):
- Making the male Nightborne ears more like the NPCs. I mean c’mon, you changed the shape of the male Night Elf ears for the Nightborne model but didn’t even get the right proportions?
- Fix the faces in general i.e. more sharp features and less dopey Night Elf looks.
- There are other Nightborne hairstyles used by the NPCs that I would love to use that for some reason Blizzard forgot existed (i.e. Ly’leth’s hair)? Make your jobs easier and maybe refer to the actual Legion race for inspiration?
- M A N A H A I R
- Gold jewellery
- And obviously the usual, more skin colours and hair colours etc.
Thanks for reading if you got this far, I don’t want Nightborne fixing discussions to blow out of proportion like High Elf discussions have, but the devs will never care if we just sit back and hope they figure it out themselves.
(Also if you have a look at Nightborne face 3 in the Wowhead dressing room, you’ll see something interesting. It’s what has boosted my confidence in Blizzard actually fixing this, but I’d rather it happen sooner rather than later … cough please not another year cough)
Don’t expect them to fix it instantly, but it would be nice if they’d hint at them working on it at the very least lol
