Blue Posts and Other WoW News: Characters being dark in the armory means nothing
by Adam Holisky 
Jan 19th 2012 at 11:59PM
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Blue posts
Zarhym -- New Player Models QQ
Quote:
So my question is, Why not transfer *more resources to getting new player models out if a whole lot of people want to see them right this moment? Do we as a people need to gather 1 thousand signatures to make this happen or is it a "Too bad, soo sad" situation?
Sutei - Daggerspine
So my question is, Why not transfer *more resources to getting new player models out if a whole lot of people want to see them right this moment? Do we as a people need to gather 1 thousand signatures to make this happen or is it a "Too bad, soo sad" situation?
Sutei - Daggerspine
It's absolutely not a "too bad" situation, Sutei. I know the concept of us having near unlimited resources to throw at whatever we want to is intriguing, but it's just not the case. We don't have an army of artists on layaway that we can transfer onto a project.
Just the same, we don't necessarily want to exponentially expand the head count of the art team to ensure a specific project gets done. There's a synergy we strive for on each of our development teams. In fact, we go to pretty great lengths to vet applicants whenever hiring for a new position. We need to know our iterative design philosophy and our core values are shared. So, if we were to hire several new artists to get this project finished, you certainly wouldn't see the results of that "right this moment."
Right now it's just difficult to give any sort of estimate on when new models might be available. Whenever a new expansion is in development there are many, many requests for new art assets. We're elbow deep in designing new gear sets, fleshing out the environments, finishing up several new creature models, etc.
If all of this makes you feel that much further away from ever seeing new character models, I can say the project is still a regular topic of discussion for us. We want to figure out the best way to introduce such a feature without shocking a huge chunk of the playerbase that doesn't really think about how their character's features could be improved every time they log into the game.
Zarhym -- Characters being dark in the armory means nothing
Nothing about the forums being down and characters being stuck with silhouettes earlier has anything to do with some sort of preparation for an announcement.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Pyromelter Jan 20th 2012 1:40AM
I read Zarhym's response as a bit of a cop-out, as well as making pre-emptive excuses for not updating the models in time for MoP. Am I the only one seeing it like that?
darksky Jan 20th 2012 1:49AM
That last paragraph sure did have a "Dance Studio"-esque feel to it, didn't it?
Marco Polaris Jan 20th 2012 1:57AM
How do you want him to phrase that answer so it doesn't sound like a cop out? Other than than, "Yes" ? I mean, "we don't have the resources to do this on top of what we already want to do, but we still have it on our arms-length priority list" doesn't sound like a cheap excuse to me. They aren't saying "magical technical hassle," or even the old "players might not like the changes so we are waiting." They'd just rather make new content for now.
muffin_of_chaos Jan 20th 2012 2:26AM
@Marco
In a way so that he answers the question...? Reread the question.
Eirik Jan 20th 2012 2:39AM
> without shocking a huge chunk of the playerbase
I can cite an example... At one point, Everquest changed models for armor (and possibly faces, but armor is what you notice the most). It was a VERY noticeable change, and a friend of mine quit playing because of it.
If your character changes significantly in appearance, it may no longer feel like your character. Especially if you have no choice in the matter.
Marco Polaris Jan 20th 2012 2:51AM
He did answer the question. He said they weren't going to because they'd rather spend those resources on the new content. Are you asking him to explain why the new content is better than remodeling? Why he thinks new content is better than remodeled content?
Eirik Jan 20th 2012 2:54AM
@Muffin of chaos: I went back and re-read the question.
> Why not transfer *more resources to getting new player models ... ?
The answer was:
- We don't have an army of artists on layaway that we can transfer onto a project. (All our artists are busy on other things right now.)
- if we were to hire several new artists to get this project finished, you certainly wouldn't see the results of that "right this moment." (If we were willing to hire more specifically for this, you still wouldn't get immediate results.)
- Whenever a new expansion is in development there are many, many requests for new art assets. (People are unhappy about clumbsy models. People are quitting because they don't have new content. Which would YOU choose?)
- ...is still a regular topic of discussion for us. (We aren't doing it on the sly, either.)
On consideration, I would have omitted the last paragraph entirely, and simplified the one above it to just the essentials: The new expansion is our current priority.
But all of that is still an answer to the question. What do you think was left unanswered? The second "question" of that question?
Truthfully, the question might have been better phrased. "What can we do, that would affect the priority you give to creating new models?" is perhaps the most direct question, followed by "How BIG a project (estimated man-hours, or time-to-completion) is creating the new models?" In a "please help us adjust our expectations" sort of way...
Noyou Jan 20th 2012 4:25AM
I dunno, to me it's crystal clear. They said when they announced the monk would be the next class, that they would have had pandaren monks in BC but all the players needed new skeletons to be able to execute the moves. With MoP, all races will be able to be monks, save worgen and goblins. Pyro- you are dead on in thinking this answer was a run around, or a cop out. It is. I fully expect the new models to roll out with MoP. Unless they go back and only make Pandaren able to be monks at launch, we should be playing new models from day 1 of MoP.
RetPallyJil Jan 20th 2012 5:11AM
Hey, I remember the incredible "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY FACE???" fiasco during the Wrath beta.
I couldn't bring myself to believe that it was some graphics glitch that just changed faces to entirely new designs randomly. Those new designs were created for a reason - that they got slapped on unexpectedly was the glitch.
Arrohon Jan 20th 2012 5:57AM
@Noyou They still might not truly update the models in MoP. They might only change the skeletons, which would make more animations possible. However; skeletons need to be redone for an update, so while we might not get updated models YET. It'll be quicker to get them sooner as all that would be left is the textures. It's even possible that we won't get new models in 5.0, but they could come out in 5.2/3. I do expect to have new models in either 6.0 or sometime before that. Blizzard really can't afford to hold it off for that long.
Orrine Jan 20th 2012 7:43AM
The monk class has new animations and all old races can be monks. It was said some time ago that pandaren skeleton has about 10 times more 'bones' than old races. So I think artists will at least remake old models skeletons because I don't think they will make monk movement animation twice - for MoP and for models renewal
Amaxe Jan 20th 2012 11:15AM
Well, in response to the fear of not liking redesigned faces, I think the problem is Blizz seems to be thinking too small. In some other games (LOTRO, TOR... perhaps others) you have options for customizing the faces... not just the choice of 10 +/- heads (of which only a small number seem to be actually used because the others are hideous)
Blizz indicates they don't have the resources to do this without sacrificing content. I guess I'll arbitrarily interpret this as "We won't make changes unless a lack of change pisses off enough people to cause a migration elsewhere."
Marius W. Jan 20th 2012 3:21AM
I just want to say that the Dance Studio was a dumb idea.
The amount of server assets it would take to run the dance studio as well as remember who knows what dance as well as storing new dances aren't worth learning a new dance step. Better fight/spell animations are definitely cooler.
I'm happy they didn't do it and concentrated on doing other things and "dance studio" has become a great metaphor and has taken on a life of its own.
EaterOfBirds Jan 20th 2012 7:41AM
Indeed, I'd rather have a million other things over it, and frankly hope it never appears in game as there will always be something the team would be better served working on IMO.
But the expression is handy.
matt Jan 20th 2012 9:18AM
AMEN, If they ever announced that they were prioritizing the creation of the long forgotten dance studio, I would reconsider my investment in the game. I don't want to pay for dance studios. I can tolerate there being features that are of no interest to me in the game (pokemon /wrech) but something abut the concept of dance studio puts me off in a serious way.
Derek Jan 20th 2012 12:03PM
If I could up-vote you further, sir, I would. I never understood the excitement about the Dance Studio. Don't get me wrong -- I would have played around with it if they had put it in, but compared to so many other things, it wasn't a big deal. The only dropped feature that sounded more worthless than the Dance Studio to me was the other "Great Loss," the Path of the Titans. I mean, it was like glyphs, but instead of glyphs you acquired various Titan artifacts, knowledge, whatever, and it was connected to Arhcaeology in some vague way. Even when they announced it, I just said, "So, why don't they just improve the glyph system instead?" And that's what they did. I swear, players bring up these two "features" with about as much meaning as "QQ because of Reasons." At the end of the day, I think the little "Open Map" animation they added a few patches ago gets used far more than the Dance Studio ever would have.
The only missing feature I've ever truly missed was the idea, very early on, that the Nerubian Old Kingdom wouldn't just be a couple instances, but an entire underground zone. I thought having a "Warcraft Underdark" would have been really cool, and when I saw all the gorgeous art that you just pass by in Azjol-Nerub / Old Kingdom, I missed it (if you can miss a thing you never had) even more. But, of course, we finally got an underground zone with Deepholme, and it's pretty awesome in its own way. :-)
Scunosi Jan 20th 2012 5:16PM
Man, I didn't even want to make my own dance, though that would've been fairly unique and cool for an MMO.
I just wanted to be able to "purchase" the dances of other races (a simple animation swap) so that if I happened to be stuck with the suck-fest that is the Macarena or Hammer Time, I at least had the option of something else. Is that too much to ask?
jon_talbain Jan 20th 2012 4:05AM
If you look at the information that has been released about Mists of Pandaria, it's almost certain they are working on new character models, or at least SOME kind of update to them. The evidence is there if you look.
1) Blizzard already talked about the fact the Pandarens have a way more complex skeletal structure for movements than any of the current races. This alone really means nothing, but when mixed with the next piece of information:
2) Every race (except Worgen & Goblins) can be a Monk. Think about that for a second. If they're basing the Monk class off the Pandarens, then that means the movements and abilities are based off the Pandaren's skeletal structure. The older classes would at least need an update to their skeletal models in order to perform some of these new movements.
3) Worgens & Goblins were left out of the Monk class. Why? Because they're too new to already update. They JUST came out with Cataclysm and Blizzard, more than likely, doesn't want to already have to update their models in order to bring them up to speed with the Pandaren's models.
*removes tin-foil hat*
Tfish92 Jan 20th 2012 4:56AM
The fact that every race except the worgen, and goblin were the biggest tip offs to me that we were getting upgraded character models. Just that roll animation you see the pandas doing would be impossible for a current human, or orc to pull off without looking terrible.
Not to mention the chuck norris character is clearly different from the in-game human model. He might not be what the final product look like, but they didn't make new models for any of the other celebrity commercials, so why would they decide to make a completely new model solely for chuck norris when all they would really have to do is give that model a new hair style like they did with Mr. T.
I think they are trying to down play the character model issue to the point where the majority of people will think it's never coming, so they can blow everyone's mind when they release them. It's the same thing they did with the MoP announcements. They downplayed the discovery of the name so much that people really started thinking that was in no way the actual expansion.
jon_talbain Jan 20th 2012 5:37AM
Yeah, I didn't touch on the Chuck Norris advertisement they released a while back, but it's true. A lot of the things the character was doing in the ad seemed like they might be Monk abilities and moves. Then again, it could have just been that weird half in-game/half CG stuff Blizzard does for a lot of it's in-game cutscenes.