Vulpera Discussion Megathread (Part 1)

At this point any other company would have just said "no" just to get people to stop asking and wasting time that could be spent on other topics.
Sorry to rain on your thread, but I myself am very happy they didn't release these rodents as playable-race. They belong as NPCs. In my mind, They fall into the same category as Quillboars and Nagas, which should not be a Faction Race. It would just be dumb and most people returning to the game (In my opinion) would view this as a bit of a childish Race

If they bring them out down the road, Sure that's fine, I have no offense towards people that want them. I just wanted to share my opinion

Edit: And also face the facts. This is the most Blizz has ever released new Races. We're about to be getting 2 more new ones

We do not need these as a Faction Race.
Really disappointed with the lack of teasers/hype/allied races at Blizzcon. I think the community at large is really desperate for *something* shiny to get excited about and look forward to, I know I am!

Vulpera just make sense. The detail and care put into their models and options, the clear cut story and personalities that not only mesh with the Horde but add a much needed new dimension to the Horde and a reason to be grateful/want to help the effort.

Ion himself said they wanted to mix up the demographics of both Alliance and Horde so no side had a monopoly on "fierce" or "cute" and honestly Vulpera and Sethrak are the perfect solution.

As to people raining on the Vulpera parade and acting like it somehow personally impacts them... it doesn't. They are already in the game, leading quests and world quests and driving major story lines. They're smaller than Pandas and much more "Horde-like" in their culture and personality.

It's in EVERYONE's best interest for the community to be excited and happy about the game, subscribing and actively playing. Please keep the Vulpera hype alive!
11/04/2018 09:07 AMPosted by Nalthrex
https://www.wowhead.com/news=288418/blizzcon-2018-interview-with-ion-hazzikostas-and-chris-robinson-azshara-raises-n

"We also asked about the possibility of Vulpera as an Allied Race, since they had so many customization options and animations."

"Blizzard is able to add a lot of flavor and customization to major NPC characters—it makes the world feel alive. It opens up the ability for designers to do cool, custom things.
For Allied Races in general, it comes down to timing. Is a particular Allied Race endearing enough to players? Does it make sense in the story to add them as player characters."


When asked regarding Vulpera again, they just paraphrase that dreaded post about NPC customization we all know about. While Vulpera are clearly a fan-favourite, the question of "does it make sense to the story," sounds a lot like "do we have to? Don't you want an edgy race like murlocs or something?"

I want Vulpera to be an allied race more than anything. However, this beating around the bush is agonizing! If they're not planning on making them playable and just chose to waste resources on an one-off NPC race, why don't they just say so?

This is not an answer to the question we are all asking, they're just leading us on with a carrot on a stick. Which does no good at all.


I feel like if this wasn't a sure thing, they would just take the opportunity to say "no, we aren't planning on making them playable at this time." They did that for the high elves multiple times. They couldn't be any clearer that high elves will not be added as an allied race.

This constant speculation on Vulpera, however, is good PR for them. Especially if it's already determined that they will be an allied race down the line. It makes it look like Blizzard is giving the fans exactly what they want when this happens. I'm sure they enjoy these threads.
While I'm disappointed at no new on any Allied Races at Blizzcon outside of KT and Zandalari confirmations, this doesn't change a change a thing for us or the other AR communities. We're exactly where we were speculating and tearing everything apart for any shred of info. I'm still confident.
11/04/2018 11:06 AMPosted by Arron
11/04/2018 09:07 AMPosted by Nalthrex
https://www.wowhead.com/news=288418/blizzcon-2018-interview-with-ion-hazzikostas-and-chris-robinson-azshara-raises-n

"We also asked about the possibility of Vulpera as an Allied Race, since they had so many customization options and animations."

"Blizzard is able to add a lot of flavor and customization to major NPC characters—it makes the world feel alive. It opens up the ability for designers to do cool, custom things.
For Allied Races in general, it comes down to timing. Is a particular Allied Race endearing enough to players? Does it make sense in the story to add them as player characters."


When asked regarding Vulpera again, they just paraphrase that dreaded post about NPC customization we all know about. While Vulpera are clearly a fan-favourite, the question of "does it make sense to the story," sounds a lot like "do we have to? Don't you want an edgy race like murlocs or something?"

I want Vulpera to be an allied race more than anything. However, this beating around the bush is agonizing! If they're not planning on making them playable and just chose to waste resources on an one-off NPC race, why don't they just say so?

This is not an answer to the question we are all asking, they're just leading us on with a carrot on a stick. Which does no good at all.


I feel like if this wasn't a sure thing, they would just take the opportunity to say "no, we aren't planning on making them playable at this time." They did that for the high elves multiple times. They couldn't be any clearer that high elves will not be added as an allied race.

This constant speculation on Vulpera, however, is good PR for them. Especially if it's already determined that they will be an allied race down the line. It makes it look like Blizzard is giving the fans exactly what they want when this happens. I'm sure they enjoy these threads.

THIS! They declined high elves twice now specifically for BfA. They might not be ready yet if they do plan Vulpera. They never said Vulpera won't be in BfA. I think there still is a huge chance and will continue to help you guys out.
11/04/2018 11:11 AMPosted by Umbrafang
While I'm disappointed at no new on any Allied Races at Blizzcon outside of KT and Zandalari confirmations, this doesn't change a change a thing for us or the other AR communities. We're exactly where we were speculating and tearing everything apart for any shred of info. I'm still confident.


"If you build it, he will come"

Even if it takes time, I'd rather keep believing they'll come!
After all, you can not destroy hope!
Almost everyone wants some new playable race. If you combine all of us, there are at least 70 new races, and at least 15 of those are popular with many, many players.

Meanwhile Blizzard went live with 4 in Feb'18, 2 in Aug'18, and 2 in Feb'19. I guess the devs aren't on the same page as us.
If they want to keep the hype alive, they need to give us another carrot because the old one is rotting.

We need something. New animations, proper belt/shoulder scaling,

The incursions are great, but we haven't had the vol'dun one in 2 weeks and even that was barely anything.

A voice line, a character teasing it, polishing emotes and/or animations (especially the ones that are used but broken, like sprint and situp.

Just... something. We haven't had anything to dig our teeth into in a while and people are getting disheartened.

Moreover, with how vulpera look so advanced for an NPC, they need to update or release another race of similar quality for people to get excited about. They showed Junker Gnomes... which is similar quality ... but not something anyone got excited about.

Sethrak model updates would be great. More Mok'nathal updates (including females), an actual half elf model, just give us more player quality npcs.

Thats the issue vulpera have, they were (up until blizzcon) the only player quality NPC added. So most of the attention and hype. Without others around - the hype for allied races is dying and Vulpera can't hold it up on their own. Especially for the people that aren't interested in playing them.
11/04/2018 09:07 AMPosted by Nalthrex
I want Vulpera to be an allied race more than anything. However, this beating around the bush is agonizing! If they're not planning on making them playable and just chose to waste resources on an one-off NPC race, why don't they just say so?


Because a ton of players take every announcement as a promise, a commitment. And Blizzard doesn't WANT to pre-commit so many things that those are the ONLY things they can work on for the next 2 years!

What if new, better ideas show up in the forums? What if their in-game stats tell them there is a big problem, and they have to re-do or change a lot of stuff?

Then a bunch of things they "just say so"d will get post-poned, and the forums will be full of "Blizzard lied" accusations for the next 2 years. Again.
11/04/2018 12:24 PMPosted by Gnarlibar
11/04/2018 09:07 AMPosted by Nalthrex
I want Vulpera to be an allied race more than anything. However, this beating around the bush is agonizing! If they're not planning on making them playable and just chose to waste resources on an one-off NPC race, why don't they just say so?


Because a ton of players take every announcement as a promise, a commitment. And Blizzard doesn't WANT to pre-commit so many things that those are the ONLY things they can work on for the next 2 years!

What if new, better ideas show up in the forums? What if their in-game stats tell them there is a big problem, and they have to re-do or change a lot of stuff?

Then a bunch of things they "just say so"d will get post-poned, and the forums will be full of "Blizzard lied" accusations for the next 2 years. Again.


Then to be honest, they shouldn't have played up allied races as one of the big draws for the expansion. That's the rub. Right now we have absolutely no known allied races planned, which is a let down as the other big draws they pushed the expansion on got stuff. We're not asking them to fully commit right now with everything, just a 'hey these are the next two planned, but things may change'. Personally, I'd rather be disappointed that something they talked about didn't happen, then deal with the despair of radio-silence.
The chose to specifically not talk plot details for 8.3 (the earliest we could get Vulpira) at all probably because the recruitment of allied races is interwoven with the ongoing story and they didnt want to reveal what was going on a full patch ahead as it might spoil things to come in the patch on the horizon.
You think you want Vulpera, but actually you don't! You want gilgoblin as the goblin allied race.
11/04/2018 03:54 PMPosted by Släm
You think you want Vulpera, but actually you don't! You want gilgoblin as the goblin allied race.
Gilgoblin are more likely for 8.2/8.3 than Vulpera. But I still need Vulpera.
What are you guys even discussing? We do not want Vulpera as a playable race.
There's so many people who said they'd play vulpera just to spite people who don't like them, so I'm gloating over the disappointment in this thread just to spite them.
11/04/2018 01:04 PMPosted by Keeba
The chose to specifically not talk plot details for 8.3 (the earliest we could get Vulpira) at all probably because the recruitment of allied races is interwoven with the ongoing story and they didnt want to reveal what was going on a full patch ahead as it might spoil things to come in the patch on the horizon.


Revealing that vulpera were coming down the pipeline would not have spoiled any story and would've only provided some easy hype.

Given the radio silence on the matter at blizzcon and how they essentially said they weren't happening months ago, I think that seals the deal on playable vulpera.
As I said in the high elf thread:

There’s no way Blizzard worked so hard on vulpera to not make them playable. People expecting gilblins are deluding themselves. Even the slide that is inspiring all the speculation shows gilblin, sea giant, makrura and the fish samurai has the gilblin as the only outdated low-polygon model.

No way Blizz will give up on vulpera for a goblin with slightly different texture and ears.

Only reason vulpera wasn’t announced is because its counterpart still needs a proper presentation. Announcing vulpera and junknomes now would be pretty underwhelming for Alliance.

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And I also said in another thread:

8.2.5 pair: vulpera and junknomes for sure.

Vulpera: player-quality models, great range of customization options, can equip gear, only need a few gear details (like head slot) worked on. Already introduced in-game, have a whole zone exploring them and their culture. No way Blizzard spent so many resources on the race without planning to make it playable.

Junker gnomes: Less certain, but very very likely. Speculated to be playable since "junker gnome" references were found on 8.0 files. Blizz devs had shown interest in the concept of half-machine gnomes before. The only image we have of them show potential customization options (color and variations of mechanical parts) and unique hair styles, thought they may just be NPC models. Will have a whole mega-dungeon about their story.

So, I'm fairly sure these are going to be the next ones.

8.3.5 pair: Not as sure, but I'm betting on either mok'nathal or ogres for Horde. Why? Rexxar model seems have been built over an ogre or mok'nathal model. Rexxar's face bellow the mask is just too detailed for something not intended to be seen, and it looks a lot like the old world ogre's model. So, I'm sure there's more to it. Blizzard is working in a proper mok'nathal or playable ogre model.

For Alliance, I'm not sure. I have a hunch it will be holy undead like Calia. Since the mok'nathal/ogre model seems built out of the kul tiran skeleton, it would make sense to give Alliance another Horde skeleton as well. But this idea is not supported anywhere, so consider it just a wild guess.

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So, summing it up, there's less things more certain right now than playable vulpera. Don't worry about it, they'll come.

11/04/2018 04:43 PMPosted by Valenus
Revealing that vulpera were coming down the pipeline would not have spoiled any story and would've only provided some easy hype.

Given the radio silence on the matter at blizzcon and how they essentially said they weren't happening months ago, I think that seals the deal on playable vulpera.

They probably didn't reveal vulpera because the Alliance counterpart is not ready to be shown. Revealing vulpera would be seen as "Horde bias".

Or maybe they want to reveal more than a pair of allied races, so they need to work on the other pair before they can reveal it. Announcing four new races has more chances of making people happy than just two.
11/04/2018 04:38 PMPosted by Stylo
There's so many people who said they'd play vulpera just to spite people who don't like them, so I'm gloating over the disappointment in this thread just to spite them.
It is some what amusing because of how arrogant a certain someone was being, but only slightly. No vulpera means no sethrak probably. So while I may bask in this ones humbling experience, I am saddened I probably wont get to play sethrak.
I love all the speculations in this thread.