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Fairly long, thorough, mostly subjective and randomly objective feedback on the new female draenei models.
I have compared the 12 skin colors, 10 faces, 11 hair styles, 7 hair colors and 7 horn styles that are available in character creation for non-death knight female draenei characters. I will also comment on one of the hair styles that are only available from the barber shop (the high pony tail). For screenshots from old and new character creation, see: Female Draenei Character Creation
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First of all I want to say that I appreciate the artistic work that has been done when creating the new models. I would have absolutely loved to have them implemented as additional looks that I could choose from for my new alts. But as they are here to replace the looks that I and many others love, that is how I will judge them. There is a standard already set by the old models that the new ones need to at least reach, and preferably exceed, before I will hook "Show New Character Models" in the graphics settings.
I know the art team has worked hard to preserve the feel and soul of our characters. But perception is tricky and highly subjective. Where I perceive someone as "shy", someone else would perceive them as "grumpy", and so on. I think we can all agree that there has indeed been change to the models, but how we view those different changes are also highly subjective! For instance I love the new defined muscles on my monk, they make so much sense to me (with all the running and fighting that she does, I mean). But I wouldn't be surprised at all if there is someone else out there that doesn't like them. Actually, I would be surprised if there proves to be noone that doesn't like them.
I'm also aware that I'm a bit late to the party, as I haven't been in the beta. I downloaded PTR yesterday, and that was my first experience with the new looks hands-on. There are other threads on the subject, but I don't have access to write on the beta forum.
With that said, on to the feedback from me.
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EYES
My characters have white beautiful glowy eyes, and as far as I know they've had these eyes since I started playing 7 years ago. However, in the "Warlords of Draenor Announcement Trailer" I noticed that the two featured draenei had blue eyes, much like the draenei death knights have now. Then Artcraft: Daughter of Argus was released and the eyes were still blue, although more toned down compared to the trailer. On PTR/beta they are SUPER-BLUE, almost green. I can only assume they're still not done, so consider this my plea to keep them white like they have been for all these years! Much like the night elf eyes are on PTR/beta.
FANGS
Draenei have fangs. Where are they? :)
MARKINGS ON THE FOREHEAD
With higher definition and more polygons, I wonder why the markings on the forehead are almost less prominent and detailed on the new models than what they are on the old ones?
GIFT OF THE NAARU
On live the shiny sigil-effect across the forehead lasts for the entire duration of Gift of the Naaru, but on PTR it appears when cast, and then disappears straight away. I'm aware that the duration of Gift of the Naaru has been lowered to 5 seconds, but the effect disappears much sooner than that even (1-2 seconds).
MUSCLES
My opinion: I love them!
THE RUN
The run has changed. I can't really put my finger on it, but it seems her steps has no weight to them any longer. And there's also something going on with the arms.
EMOTES
Most (19!) of the emotes seem perfectably fine to me: /applaud, /beg, /bow, /chicken, /cry, /eat, /kiss, /kneel, /laugh, /point, /roar, /salute, /sleep, /talk, /cheer, /flee, /no, /nod and /train.
Though she does seem to have (too) many teeth in some of the emotes.
/dance: There's two facial expressions during one particular part of the dance routine that look very odd to me. We have here a draenei, a noble stoic being from Argus who is somewhere around 200-10.000 years old. I don't really think her face bends that way. I know there's /chicken and /train too for sillyness, but still.
/flex: First part seems fine, I'm on the fence about the teethy grin in the second part.
/rude: Not sure about this one.
/wave: That smile... Too wide and too fake.
SKIN COLOR
The only skin color I use on my draenei characters is skin color 5, so this is the one I feel strongest about.
Skin Color 3, 4, 8, 10 and 12 seem to be very similar on live and PTR.
Skin Color 1: The new one seems more blue.
Skin Color 2: The new one seems more blue here too. The old one seems more green.
Skin Color 5: The new one is much paler, and the purple has more red in it than the old one.
Skin Color 6: The new one is paler/whiter.
Skin Color 7: The new one is paler.
Skin Color 9: The new one seems paler.
Skin Color 11: The new one is more blue, the old one is more green.
FACE
As I have so many draenei characters, I have nicknames for most of the faces relating to how they look to me. Face 3, 7 and 8 have been my favorites for a good while now. My first character back in 2007 was a Face 7, while my current cute main is a Face 8.
What they have tried to do with the faces must have been really difficult. Where the only real difference before was lip shape, eyebrow shape and shading, they have now tried to add features where there were none, like different noses and face shapes. At the same time they've tried to keep the eyebrow shape from the originals, so that we can recognize them.
Face 1: The vacant round face.
Face 2: The dark lip face.
Face 3: The strict freckle face.
Face 4: The sad and strict face.
Face 5: The really really sad face.
Face 6: The angry face.
Face 7: The smooth porcelain angel face.
Face 8: The cute happy face. :D
Face 9: The eyelid face (the eyelids look pink when skin color 5 is selected).
Face 10: The angry face with smaller eyes.
I feel like all the familiar faces are gone, and the draenei beauty has faded a bit. Face 7 and Face 8 are so different that I don't even... My favorite among the new ones is Face 9, which wasn't even in my top 5 before. And I don't really feel like applying that same face to my 20+ draenei characters.
HAIR STYLE
I would love some new hair styles to choose from! Perhaps choose from some of the goblin ones? :-) And for those hair styles that changed; I would love to keep both the old and the new look.
The new hair looks a bit more like actual hair now I think, but I have yet to check if it flows and moves like promised.
Hair Style 1: "Straight". Separated in the middle, slick. Not that slick anymore, and has a lock that misbehaves.
Hair Style 2: "Flipped": Separated on the side. Now covers more of the eye it falls down over, and has a single lock that misbehaves.
Hair Style 3: "Cute". Two ponytails and bangs. Seems very true to the original. Position of ponytails may be a tad lower.
Hair Style 4: "Feathered". Pretty true to original, but seems to not flow in same direction any longer.
Hair Style 5: "Buns". Looks unchanged to me.
Hair Style 6: "Jeweled Band". Headband with curls. Looks unchanged to me.
Hair Style 7: "Bangs". Shoulderlong hair with bangs. Looks both very familiar but changed at the same time, but can't put my finger on what is different.
Hair Style 8: "Elegant". Tidy do that has changed a bit. Now has bangs falling down over forehead.
Hair Style 9: "Bounce". Casual bob with bangs. Looks unchanged to me.
Hair Style 10: "Nape". Short with bangs. The bangs used to be fuller on the sides.
Hair Style 11: "Sassy". Spiky. Seems very similar, only thing is direction of hair could be corrected a bit.
"High" tail from barber shop: The bangs start way lower on the new one than the old, and the ponytail isn't as perky as it is now. I do like this new look, but I would like to keep the old one too.
HAIR COLOR
I have no comments on the hair colors, they all seem fine to me. Listing them anyway if others want to comment.
Hair Color 1: Brown
Hair Color 2: Purple
Hair Color 3: Yellow
Hair Color 4: White
Hair Color 5: Black
Hair Color 6: Green
Hair Color 7: Blue
HORN STYLE
For the longest time I chose the smallest horns, but when I make new alts now I try to embrace the horns and go for big and powerful ones. :)
The new horns are a bit different from the old ones, in that they seem to come out of the head, while with the old ones the head seemed to be bigger/broader where the horns started.
Horn Style 1: "Sweeping". Laid back, points backwards.
Horn Style 2: "Curled". Round, points downwards
Horn Style 3: "Arced". Bigger, points downwards.
Horn Style 4: "High". Talbuk, points upwards. The new ones seem less pointy and more broad.
Horn Style 5: "Spread". Big, points sideways. The new ones seem leaner.
Horn Style 6: "Grand". Bull, points sideways/upwards.
Horn Style 7: "Short". Small, points upwards.
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TL;DR
I recognize and appreciate the amount of work and effort that has been done by the art team! I'm not trying to insult their work.
I want to keep the white eyes we have now.
I think the run still needs work.
I don't think the new faces match the old ones good enough.
I want the dark purple skin color to stay as it is; darker and with less red in it than what it is on the PTR.
I don't want facial expressions that are too silly.
Glad to see I'm not the only dissenter on the new models although my complaint is more angled at the human female which suffers the same issue of all new face models failing to look like the old models.
ReplyDeleteSee my 2 posts on the subject @ www.evlyxx.co.uk