Considering how unprecedented some of the customization additions for 9.1.5 are, I think big things are coming in the next expansion for core races and allied races alike. The backlash to the “no more customization in Shadowlands” Blizzcon announcement, which was covered across the internet, has definitely opened the developer’s eyes to what the players are passionate about.
Why do you think magenta eyes for the Draenei are an impossible ask? As we’ve seen with the Void Elves, hair and eye color changes can be implemented in the blink of an eye.
I had given up hope after the Blizzcon announcement that there’d be no further customization, and coincidentally, my subscription ended a few days after that announcement. I opted to leave the game, and I’m only back now because they reversed their course and seem to be more receptive to feedback.
If ever there was a time to make your feedback known, now is it.
Is there any chance male nightborne can get some younger faces and/or maybe a toggle for the scowl? It’s really unfortunate how the scowl ruins so many faces
If “you” think this is ugly, go play a male blood elf. Some of us like sophisticated older men, which nightborne are supposed to be after you know, being stuck in a bubble for 10,000 years.
They look unique and regal, and the men in particular have a classic french vibe with their facial hair. Overhauling the aesthetic of the race without a proper subrace to support such demands is exhausting.
They just need to fix the awful >: < face they have going on, and fix that for male nelfs too. (And as an aside, Nelf players have been asking for fixes for their male model for a very long time, even back during the original iteration because of the whacky body proportions. A lot of the players leading those feedback campaigns have quit the game, but it pops up from time to time still. It’s been brushed aside as a lost cause for the most part. Stuff collapsed around the time Nightborne were introduced, because surprise, Highborne Nelf aesthetics were requested by them too and oops, all horde.)
I’d actually wager some of the bickering does provide relevant information on what races need to have passes next, honestly.
Nightborne are getting their overhaul, and now have as many - and more - options than several core races. They deserve it, yes, but sitting here having people constantly go after mostly Alliance people asking for expansion on subraces and customization got old 10 years ago. (And subraces, sadly, are now the only way they’re going to be able to add some aesthetic diversity to the faction now after the AR trainwreck in BFA.)
Nightborne models sucked (not aesthetically, just options wise.), but when they’re getting fixed in less than a decade, and having a good chunk of their requests given (every single one of mine actually got given, which is amazing.) having those same players talk down to people constantly over other races, especially worgen - not just the helf subrace - , is getting old.
Worgen still don’t have actual hair styles and hair colours, which they had at one point, but they were removed. It’d be like if Nightborne had the NPC models live on PTR with the options they have on current PTR, but then swapped it at the last second to the live models.
Some of us are getting fed up with trying to ask for things and just having - mostly Horde - players come in and cry about the Nightborne model that’s now fixed on PTR, when we’ve been dealing with the exact same problem for far longer, and they still won’t fix it despite worgen being a core race, and one of the most popular fantasy archetypes.
And for the record, just to toss some more salt in the pile as to why people are getting fed up, especially with this particular topic;
One thing that could fix the constant derailments is to remove the people constantly spamming off-topic (most other forums would have nipped this 5 years ago, it’s not just this thread), and to just communicate what they’re wanting to work on next patch, and let us know every race is eventually going to be looked at, but there’s indeed a priority system going on to fix some wrongs, and lift up some races (…or a whole faction) that’s been neglected.
When people state that they’re upset about x or y, and it’s one side telling the other to bugger off constantly, the side that’s getting hassled heavily is going to wind up being the one that’s going to need a bit more help. The only aside being Void Elves, which got their subrace added presumably early, to fix the whole issue of Alliance only getting one AR it actually asked for. (Dark Iron)
Here’s hoping Worgen get some love early alongside the other AR’s that need some help, like Zandalari, which seem to have gotten sort of shoved in the closet right now under all the Blood Elves screeching.
Yeah, I think male night elves can benefit from this as well. They already have an unintentional toggle in place, so I think it would be possible to implement it for reals for both races. Below is face 1 with the scowl and without. You can change the mouth by hovering over other faces.
Between the face shape options for humans, and the eye options for Nightborne, more options like this that change the entire “face” of a race for others is desperately needed.
It’s probably been brought up before - I don’t want to scroll through a thread of the same few people crying about High Elves existing - but the ability to change eye shape could bring back the original feeling of faces for the pre-WoD Blood Elf / Draenei faces, as the biggest example.
I don’t have TBC installed, but when it comes to the female belf model, I think it’s face 8 - the one with the heavy eyeliner - had the entire eye shape changed to O _ O with the revamp.
The same tech can be applied to fix that.
I get the female blood elf model is supposed to be based on california girl socialites, but the transition to the giant eyes feels more anime, and that one face especially looks weird because of it.
This also raises the plausibility of body options. If we’re able to adjust the geometry of the face, can it be done for the body as well? Some races would benefit heavily from being able to slim down or bulk up.
Male Humans are in dire need of an option to slim down to fix the “gorilla” look they have going on.
Male Night Elves could also be allowed to slim down a bit, especially with unmutated Highborne being in their roster.
Female Blood/Void Elves could have some more muscle on their bones.
And lastly, there are a few races where a toggle just simply isn’t enough, which leads to the prospect of just having a whole new “body” available for the model. Obviously something that would come after every race has a pass, and most players are satisfied with the options.
Thinner male Draenei is one that comes up a lot in my social circles, but just “slimming” down the model would look weird. People want to play a Velen-like goat, and go as far as using the female avatar with TRP’s stating it’s a male character to try and get the illuion.
Giving a whole new model with a toggle on the same race, instead of using an allied race spot, could also open up options like attaching Dark Rangers to the Forsaken to avoid having weird aesthetic overlaps with dark ranger paladins (something something void elf paladin isn’t okay but this is?), or even allowing a Worgen to switch their parent race to a Night Elf without needing to make a new race slot for it.
By the heavens…They are listening finally…Purple eyes and arcane hair streaks are like the last two things they need. When nightborne first dropped they had purple eye glow that was lost with the new glow on eyes. They were just given the normal night elf eye glow. Heck I will drop the arcane hair glow if they give Nightborne back their purple eyes.
I hate to point out the elephant in the room; but your a blood elf. The most played race in wow. Hunny for someone who wants to be unique you sure picked the wrong race. You could not have picked something more “un-unique” than Blood Elf. You really want to be unique? Faction change to Alliance. Then. Yes then you will be unique. Blood Elves have NEVER been unique.
So, instead of giving an update for the only legion allied race without new options, devs keep making more customisations for the allied race with more new options? Void elves only getting copy paste options from belves, and we don’t even know if we are getting new options. Void elves don’t even have unique model like nightborne, could blizzard devs care less about the alliance?
Nightborne and Lightforged Draenei were the two Allied Races planned to get more customizations this round. They managed to wrap up work on Highmountain Tauren and include them as well. They never announced any plans for Void Elf work other than ear lengths, originally. The addition of hair colors and the tentacle toggle came out of nowhere.
To summarize, Void Elves weren’t slated to be getting anything new for 9.1.5. Polishing Nightborne (who still need a second dedicated pass to be honest, even with glowing hands they still need so much more work), is entirely logical.
Eventually, I’m sure. Maybe the next customization pass.
Nightborne don’t have a unique model either. Its the Night Elf model slimmed down.
That’s a pretty weak excuse though, as clearly they have time to work on more things. But aside from that, it seems that the planing itself should’ve bee more parallel then.
Nightborne don’t deserve special consideration beyond many other races BTW. We can say Night elf males have as much if or more problems than them since day one and that seems to never be addressed or considered a holy problem like NB are, same as plenty of other races. Worgen males still look like trash and the still got the least customization in the base races aside from…pandas maybe?
Let’s not be disingenuous, it is much more unique and featured, you won’t be confused even a fully armored one with a night elf.
Void elves however despite having many options for their slots (colours) don’t actually have any customizable slots. Their most unique feature is the tentacles which aren’t even in all hair styles and when the togle is turned off just causes the hairstyles to look incomplete because clearly a complete design was just chopped off.
