Why the lack of Customization?

And succubus, but nothing playable.

A such cool post by the way that Bliz should take a look, and a lot of people will be more than happy to see if Bliz add a couple of new things and uniques from it of the Void Elf

3 Likes

Also, I’m sure this is in your radar already, but once more remind you about these

Which are the best hair ever thought for velves.

16 Likes

Thanks for relaying feedback to the developers and moving so quickly to improve the Nightborne!

Please consider taking a look at these threads for further discussions and feedback on the Nightborne model and customization:

15 Likes

In general, the original 4 allied races should probably have some adjustments done to their animations to set them apart a bit. Not everything, but just the general upfront ones you see right away.

The non-Legion AR’s (besides Mag’har) all had extra polish put into them.
New animations / dances, entirely custom models (lolVulpera), or just more attention to aesthetic diversity on the actual models (Dark Iron / Zandalari). I think the only post-Legion AR that’s on par with the Legion ones is Mag’har, and that was actually requested, so it’s hard to lump that one in.

However, this also extends even further than just the allied races.
Stuff like custom stances is starting to become common in the genre so players can set themselves apart from other players of the same race.
My Au Ra in XIV has a different idle animation than that of my friend who plays the same race. We all have multiple dances, and I can literally /poke my friends, “air hug” them, ect ect.

When all the player models are brought up to a level where things feel “finished” and most subraces are covered, and the aesthetic diversity between the two factions is fixed (subraces can really help this on the Alliance if we have less diverse races overall. Frost Dwaves, San’layn (void elves), Nightmare Druids, Fully Mechanized Gnomes, ect ect, all would give a temporary boost using current races.), we really need to sit down and work on the emote system as a whole.

The effort in giving stuff like basic facial expressions, new talk cycles, and just new general animations, would actually relieve some of the work from the cinematics too. And, if they’re unlockable in game, provide more content for casuals to work towards.

They’re 10,000+ year old elves that lived under a bubble secluded from the rest of the world feeding off mana. The models aesthetics are fine.

5 Likes

Approaching this from a lore perspective is silly. The Night Elves have lived just as long as the Nightborne, yet haven’t been saddled with the same haggard, “old” visual features in nearly every aspect of their customization options.

The models aesthetics are not fine. Players are unanimous in saying that they don’t like them, yet the developers persist in doubling down on visual features players have been lobbying against since their release. We’re not saying that mature, wrinkled, old options shouldn’t exist. We’re saying they shouldn’t make up the majority of visual expression for the Nightborne.

9 Likes

Night Elves didn’t live in a literal bubble feeding off magic for 10,000 years.

This reminds me of players who draw their trolls like uwu cute pretty elves, or turn them into literal furries.

The base designs are fine and the intentions are there as to why they are the way they are.

If you want to play a less haggard looking tall purple elf, the Alliance is waiting for you.

Fix the perma-scowl though.

1 Like

Since you want to play this game of justifying the Nightborne’s appearance with lore:

Arcanist Valtrois, after taking the arcan’dor:

Oh, if feels so good to be my old self again.
Valtrois runs the back of her hand gently across her high cheekbone.
As you can see, mana is wonderful for the skin!

Thalyssra, after the changes brought on by the Nightwell, without a wrinkle in sight:

13 Likes

Definitely, they should work a lot more in the animations, particularly for the 8 original races and the Allied races based on others.

As long as nightborne are presented the way they were in Legion I think it’s fine.
For now, the faces improved greatly with the new eye options, honestly they look even better than their NPC counterparts. Well, females at least.

Therein lies the problem, they aren’t. Tweaks need to happen to the female Nightborne’s face, and the male Nightborne needs a much more serious rework/revision. The facial proportions of the male Nightborne, most notably the nose and chin size are completely inaccurate.

2 Likes

I don’t know about the female, as I said, IMO they look better.

That being said, I do understand is a problem of the rig but I also think NPCs might not be able to be copied.

What I mean with presented the way they were in legion is the general vibe, looking more like Snape elves and so. Not so much do a carbon copy of it.

NPC faces are famously different for many reasons though, and I do think it should be improved to those standards for all races.

Humans having faces more like Turalyon, khadgar instead of…whatever the heck they are now.
Females more like Jaina.
Belves/Velves more like Valeera

Night elves more like Illidan and so.

But that might require some overhaul. And is definitely an issue that goes beyond Nightborne.

1 Like

In the specific case of the Nightborne, copying the NPC faces wasn’t an option due to the nature of the models themselves. That being said, the route the developers took in translating them into the playable model was a failure, met with nearly unanimous negative feedback.

The Nightborne, at release, are undisputedly one of the worst playable models the developers have ever released in recent times, and this warrants special consideration when talks of the feasibility of major revisions/reworks are on the table.

7 Likes

Girl please, Worgen literally say hello.

Y’all should just stick to supplying feedback. Bickering on who wants what and who deserves what is so dumb.

1 Like

Do you not realize how silly it is to compare the standards of character customization/model work of a race released 11 years to one released relatively recently? Did the Worgen, on release, not look like Worgen? Were they a lazily thrown together model with barebones customization? Cataclysm was long before my time, so I honestly don’t know.

If you’d like a more accurate statement to put your mind at ease, here’s one:
The Nightborne, at release, are undisputedly one of the worst playable model the developers have ever released, and this warrants special consideration when talks of the feasibility of major revisions/reworks are on the table.

This isn’t related to your post, but it’s funny to me how many players who have no personal interest in the Nightborne come out of the woodwork to protest against changes the majority of players are lobbying for.

Like this one, who attempted to use lore to justify the Nightborne’s appearance, not even knowing the lore themselves.

10 Likes

Why do people even think NB are ugly? The men are, but the ladies are easily the best-looking women in the game. They’re straight up amazing

1 Like

Definitely, they did a rushed job. I do think however the new options improved them a lot and I do hope they continue to be improved in certain areas.

Sadly the main issue is that they are based on night elves and night elves models suck, badly they are absolutely terrible so it stands to reason nightborne are too.

Night elves also don’t look like they are presented in literally anywhere else.
Honestly they need to fix both elves together so nightborne presentation makes sense too.

Ehm nope, male night elf, female worgen, mechangnomes…

Worgen were completely f over because their models were rushed in beta due people complaining about furries and they were turned into malformed chihuahuas monstrocities.

Don’t make claims if you don’t know the honest history of it maybe.

2 Likes

Because people are weird. People have always been weird. It’s best to just supply your feedback because getting sucked into a debate over who deserves what and who needs what more isn’t a healthy debate. Like I had that epiphany last night over some garbage HE/BE bickering. It’s just dumb and not constructive.

The one thing I’ve realized over these last few weeks is that customizations, like golf, bring the worse out of people. It’s maddening how starved this community is for customizations and fixes to their PC models that people are literally attacking one another because they probably feel that this is it for customizations for the next 14 years.

I mean, I still will not agree with this statement. But that’s fine :woman_shrugging:

I’ve updated my claim so as to not to reopen your 11 year old wounds and cause such grave offense. They’re still very fresh for some, I see.

Simple answer: a majority of old face options, coupled with the fact that the model released looking nothing at all like the NPC models players were accustomed to seeing. We’ve only just gotten model accurate eyes, and they aren’t even the default option as they should be.

The male Nightborne and Night Elf both have similar facial patterns: one decent face, and then a majority of snarling, wrinkled, haggard, hideous faces. Why they decided to go this route is beyond me.

Maybe the Nightborne and Night Elf players should join forces to lobby for changes, but I never see any posts from NE players on the forums asking for changes to the male NE’s faces.

4 Likes

It’s because the new models only arrived in BFA, 8.2.5. Before that, it was literally a decade of this. Yes, the eyes don’t even look to the same point.

https://i.imgur.com/ICmx54b.png

It’s the same for most males, most males have only one young face, save belves/velves.
Most females also only have one pretty/not-angry face and Blizzard knows this, because they use those good faces on most NPCs, which is infuriating.

They need much more faces for each race. As I posted above, they even removed a second pretty non-angry face from lightforged. So they have a thing against it it seems.

4 Likes

I mean, Night Elves were fighting to not freeze when in their sitting position since their WoD update that only recently got fixed. You start to just stop asking for things.

I’ve already given up on magenta eyes for Draenei :woman_shrugging:

Their update feels incomplete anyways and if it is, I wish Blizzard would communicate that they are continuing on their redesign of the customization UI in general. Things are redundant and cumbersome in their current state.