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The Tattered Notebook: The EQII face that launched a thousand ships
The tale of Helen and Paris is a classic one. Paris of Troy, blinded by Helen's beauty, was willing to risk full-scale naval invasion and the destruction of his home city in order to be with her. But what if the Paris and Helen love story had been more like the movie Shallow Hal, in which the women that Hal's attracted to are not very attractive on the outside to say the least? That pretty much sums up EverQuest II's character models for the past several years, and it creates a tricky situation on a number of levels. Gamers spend hours getting every nose wrinkle and hair curl just right, but what if that didn't matter? What if your carefully tailored character looked completely different to others than it does to you? And is it worth it to preserve two distinct sets of character models if it causes a mountain of work every time a new armor set is created? This past week, the EQII team responded to a discussion about this very topic, and in this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll take a look at whether the current system needs to go!
Mists of Pandaria Beta: New female pandaren emotes added
If you watched our last video of the female pandaren emote animations, you may have noticed that some emotes were missing. The latest beta build seems to have added quite a few more, including a second idle animation. We've made a video of the newly added animations for you, including a shot of the secondary idle animation. Be sure to view it in high quality for the best picture. I think my two favorites on this particular roundup are the beg animation, which has a lot of subtle nuances in the face and posture of the model, and the new idle addition. For some reason, her new idle reminds me a lot of Ariel from The Little Mermaid, excitedly exploring. It suits the pandaren, since they've spent thousands of years on the Wandering Isle for the most part and away from the world at large. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
The aesthetic consequences of new character models
This is neither a post excoriating nor exulting but rather simply contemplating the process of updating character models in World of Warcraft. I got to thinking about this when I realized that I'm always happiest when I get Well of Eternity because I like the night elf model. Tall, spare, muscular, it looks excellent in plate. There are certainly flaws to the model, but they're concealed entirely by my gear. Night elf males have large hands, but those hands look just fine curled around a weapon, and the faces are entirely concealed behind my helmet. As you can see above, the night elf male does an excellent job of showing off the textures and details of my armor set, especially the plated legs. Redesigning these models will have a variety of effects. As a long-time player, I have my own stylistic loves and hates. Human females look astonishingly vapid and nigh-idiotic, and their animations in melee look ludicrous to the point that I expect them to fall over every weapon swing, while gnomes and blood elves have excellent combat flow. Female undead melee are awesome to watch, but I can't stand the bones poking through my gear. That's part of the complication here. The models you love, someone else hates, and the models you hate, someone else loves. That's often viewed as a cop-out -- but man, if you screw up my tauren, I will burn your world. (Note: Will not actually burn your world ... too lazy.)
Amazing player-animated and -rendered WoW avatar
Mother of sweet things! I saw this on Reddit's /r/wow community a few days ago and realized that I'm kind of a slacker when it comes to my own forum signatures (which is apparently the whole purpose of the project). Thovald, the player responsible for the video, wrote that he did it in 3D Studio Max and didn't actually change the female troll model itself. The big difference is an increased polygon count for the robes and (I would assume) the graphics of the fire spell being cast. It reminded me more than a bit of the perennial favorite Blind, and it's all the more amazing that Thovald is apparently self-taught. We know that Blizzard is working on an update for character models, but it's pretty cool to see what players can do with them in the meantime. They might be old, but as Thovald noted, they're still a surprisingly expressive bunch.
New character models are in the works
One of the most interesting tidbits dropped during the World of Warcraft Open Q&A is a note concerning new character models for the game's older races. If you've played the game for any length of time, it's instantly obvious that not all character models are created equal, and the game's earliest races are in a pretty sorry state in comparison to their later counterparts. As we learned in the art panel, the male pandaren has 10 times the number of digital "bones" possessed by the game's older races, allowing them an unprecedented number of fluid and dynamic animations. As Milka, one of our commenters, just noted, "I heard that they're creating animated belts. My troll woman still can't blink. Result: My belt will be more expressive than my face." Players have been asking for updates to older races as a result, and developers have confirmed that they are in the works and being actively designed by the character artists. However, they don't want to put something in the game that feels like a betrayal to a character that you've had for years, so they're proceeding carefully. There's no word yet on when we can expect to see them, but it's good news for everyone who'd like their older toons to look as good as their newer ones! Edit: Zarhym has just posted on the forums clarifying the information given at BlizzCon, although there's no new information to share. The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!
WRUP: Why the ugly face?
Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too! This past week, someone filed a complaint on the official forums about the WoW character models -- specifically the Orc -- not being up to Cataclysm standards. Ultimately, blue poster Nethaera responded to the thread: orc needs (model) buffed We often see people request for model updates. This is something we'd definitely like to do at some point in time, but time is a very limited commodity for our art team. We also have to be very careful about what it means to "update" a model. We've made changes in the past to various characters and had some people be a bit upset that it was changed on them as they had made very specific choices about the look of their character. We try to be as sensitive as possible about these types of things. source Who the heck are these people who would riot in the streets if they changed the original WoW character models? I mean, nostalgia is one thing, but have you ever looked at your character's hands? Or a Human male's face? Yikes. This week, our WRUP is all about in-game models. In addition to the usual What are you playing? question, I asked our columnists: What in-game model would you most like to see retired and why?
Through Turbine's palantír: Developers outline LotRO's future
In J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, characters would use magical orbs known as palantírs to see and communicate with far away places. While Massively's own palantír is at the shop, we had access to the next best thing -- a one-on-two chat about Lord of the Rings Online's future with Turbine's Aaron Campbell and Adam Mersky. A lot's been happening since LotRO's free-to-play version went online last fall -- the closest thing to a relaunch that this game is likely to ever see -- and both Campbell and Mersky have one important message for fans: We're just getting started. Even as the Turbine team gears up for LotRO's third expansion, Rise of Isengard, the devs want you to know that they're also dedicated to bringing a good amount of content between now and then. Everything was on the table during this discussion, from this weekend's anniversary celebration to next month's update to the new expansion. Join us after the jump for a look through the palantír to see what information we can pry from the future!
Alganon dev blog talks character models, more PvP
If you've been following the long and indie road of Quest Online's Alganon, you'd know that development has picked up over the last several months. PvP was released in a recent patch, despite warnings that it might not fit into a game that was meant solely for PvE. Well, PvP fans can rejoice as a "PvP phase III" will be rolling out soon. This means that players will be able to interact with towers while murdering each other. "Capturing all three Towers in a particular area provides a benefit to your entire faction while adventuring and defending that zone," stated a recent blog post. Concerns for adding PvP were always high. At one point, Derek Smart even told the team that, "I think this would be asking for trouble because we would have the PvP players in a world primarily designed for PvE. It could be a can of worms that I'm not sure we want to deal with." However, according to the official blog, PvP has gone off pretty well. New character models are coming, as well. The much-anticipated addition will be rolled out in the "early part of this year" according to the latest entry. While the before and after shots could be more dramatic -- something Smart admits in the blog -- he goes on to honestly explain the thinking behind the development process. You can check the official blog out here, and find out more information about Alganon on their main site.
Shifting Perspectives: Fun with race choice
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week, we have absolutely no excuse for the column we've written. I'll be honest; I wrote this week's column purely for brainless fun. You won't learn anything (not that you do normally), there are no insights to be gained (not that there are normally) and I don't have any new Cataclysm alpha information. I am very sorry to anyone who came here looking for a solid, informative column, and if you wish to excoriate me in the comments then I encourage you to do so. Anyway. When it comes to druids, the deal with race choice is that you don't really have any. If you play Alliance, you have to play a night elf; if you play Horde, you have to play a tauren. We're the most race-restricted class in the game, and even in Cataclysm, that's not really going to change. Some of you might recall a bug from a little while back that allowed you to model-swap between characters on the same realm by "choosing" two of them at once. I'm pretty sure it's been fixed now, so I wouldn't bother trying it if I were you, but I had lot of fun swapping non-druid races into our various tier sets and wondering what it might have been like to play them. I screenshotted like a maniac while doing so and then set them aside for a future column whenever I felt like doing something just for fun. That would be today. %Gallery-94013%
Female worgen models and animations datamined
Posters on MMO-Champion's boards have gotten into the Cataclysm alpha and started datamining female worgen models and animations. While the models don't have textures yet (i.e. you're only going to see a bunch of black and not their faces or anything) and some of the animations are placeholders borrowed from existing models (mostly female draenei), this is the first look we're getting at one of Cataclysm's most hotly anticipated features. WARNING: This post is stuffed full of spoilers. It is a spoiled piece of concentrated awesome wrapped in spoiled paper boxed and shipped to Spoilertopia courtesy of Spoiler Express. Don't click below if you don't want anything to do with unofficial information.
Patch 3.3.3 PTR: New mounts, models [Updated]
Patch 3.3.3 will be bringing about some welcome changes in the user interface, instances, and those pesky frozen orbs you can never get rid of, but it looks like they aren't the only things getting an overhaul. Fishing around in the PTR files found some new models as well. Two new mounts have been added to the game files, the Blazing Hippogryph and the Wooly White Rhino. Where these mounts are obtained is currently unknown -- we'll update with more information on the new mounts as we learn more. In addition, it looks like Anduin Wrynn finally got his wish -- a new model has been added for the young king-in-training. With more and more models getting overhauls, does this mean players of male humans might finally get rid of that funky overbite? Check out the gallery for pictures of the new mounts and models, and stay tuned for more 3.3.3 PTR info as it develops! Update: MMO-Champion is reporting that the two mounts are TCG rewards. However, with the recent developments between Blizzard and UDE, this information may change. Keep that in mind, and we'll let you know if we hear any word from the blues about it. %Gallery-86065%
Breakfast Topic: Is it time to update WoW character models yet?
Ok, I'm going to come right out and admit it: I'm thinking of cheating on WoW. No, I don't mean like Mass Effect or Dragon Age, I mean seriously playing another MMO and sticking with it. I'm talking in specific, of Lego Universe, the upcoming title from NetDevil. I've been a Lego Maniac from a pretty young age. One of the best days of my childhood was the day my parents bought a massive bin of Legos from a garage sale. I created my own massive Lego castle village. My birthday and Christmas wish lists invariably consisted of Lego sets. Even to this day I sometimes think I should have pursued a master builder career. So the chance to do this all again in an MMORPG? You know I'll leap at it. Of course, other MMOs are usually the purvey of our sister blog, Massively, but in this case, something caught our eye in a recent report on the making of Lego Universe by the Denver Westword News: The article claims that the number of 3-dimensional surfaces on a single 16-stud Lego Universe brick is twice as many as found on your average World of Warcraft character.
[1.Local]: What's all that morrowgrain for, anyway?
Reader comments -- ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week. You know, Archdruid Fandouche Toolhelm Fandral Staghelm sure does ask for a lot of Morrowgrain ... So what's up with that? Shade: He constructed a World Tree without the blessing of the dragon flights, causing a tree that is warped and corrupted enough that it's being invaded by harpies, grell and grelkin, and corrupting the furbolgs that are supposed to be living happily on it. A tree that invites the invasion of satyr -- and the satyr are referenced in the War of the Ancients trilogy as being products of Sargeras, warping some dude with a god complex. Silithus? He defended Silithus once, yes -- and watched his son ripped apart before his eyes in the process. That broke him. He shattered the Sceptre of the Shifting Sands, the key to opening the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj, when the dragon flights asked him to keep guard over it in the event that the Qiraj returned. He said he was done with the dragon flights and done with protecting the place. His last words upon leaving the scene were as follows: "My son's soul will find no comfort in this hollow victory, dragon. I will have him back. Though it takes millennia, I will have my son back!" You want to know what he's doing with the morrowgrain? He's trying to find a way to use it to bring his son back from the dead. He may have been a "leader" at some point, but after the War of the Shifting Sands, everything -- and I mean everything -- that man does is somehow related to his son's death. ... well, at least, that's what I'm putting my money on.
Vanguard Game Update 6 goes live, adds free trial/newbie area
One thousand. That's how many bug fixes are in Vanguard's sixth game update, which has now gone live. In addition to the fixes, there's a new newbie area for levels one through ten called the Isle of Dawn. Word is that it will eventually serve as a free trial setting. For now, though, it's just an easy place to get a new character started.SOE also redid character models, offering new customization options and making some changes that lower the models' system performance hit. You can keep your old look if you want, though.The most controversial changes are a whole slew of class damage adjustments. SOE looked at every single class in the game and adjusted its damage output to ensure "that each lands in their correct place in the spectrum of classes." The details of all those changes are buried in the patch notes. Did you get nerfed or buffed? Read up to find out.
Funcom apologizes for involuntary breast reductions
We'll have to be completely honest with you; ever since Jorgen Tharaldsen's famous proclamation,"You'll see titties," the topic of Age of Conan and its famously epic mammaries is one that comes up rather frequently around the Massively offices. What can we say, we're admirers of the female form... also, we like boob jokes. In any case, we were rather distressed to hear of some Age of Conan players complaining that their in-game counterparts were lacking a certain lactoid luster.It might seem like a frivolous complaint, but from the images provided by a forum user named Gust, it's become evident that the change in chesticle size is actually significant. And Funcom is taking the complaint seriously, saying in part, "Funcom can confirm that some of the female models in the game have had the size of their breasts changed. This is due to an unintended change in data that was introduced in an earlier patch, data which controls the so-called morph values associated with character models and the size of their respective body parts. We are working on a fix for this and your breasts should be back to normal soon." It's sporting of them admit their mistake, and hopefully they'll have it fixed as quickly as many of the other bugs they've had since launch.[Via Kotaku]
2.4 model changes: Good or bad?
David Bowers touched on this just the other day, and the WoW community has mostly seen this change as a negative thing. Example: The original thread from the official forums.My favorite little change out of the various, random character model changes in patch 2.4 is actually the change to the human female eyes. Sure, it looks silly in some cases, but for my own characters it was an improvement. I could never find the perfect eye choice for them before, because they all looked either empty and sunken, or incredibly angry. I'm not sure exactly how to describe how the eyes look now, but there's some sparkle that wasn't there before. I like that! Yeah, there's some that look horrible, which is lame for the players with those particular eyes. Overall, though? I like it. Even if the iris seems a little over sized, they have character.The outcry over this very minor detail drives home a point that Blizzard has made before, too. It's a very unfortunate one. The character models most likely will not receive any substantial overhaul in the future because there will be a lot of people very angry about it. I didn't really want to buy into that, because I really want updated character models, but it seems much less likely after this. Such a big deal over eyes is not a good sign when it comes to model upgrades.
Rolling the same toon
When I'm being completely honest with myself, I'm forced to admit that one of the things holding my alts back is that I get dissatisfied with their appearance. Whether it's the limited number of options you get at the character selection screen, or just an overwhelming and completely inexplicable preference for a single character model, I always find myself thinking at some point in an alt's 20's or 30's that I'd take them back to the drawing board if I could. I deleted a level 30 Night Elf Druid in no small part because she bore an uncanny resemblance to Cher, and I am very uncomfortable both with the idea of playing Cher and Cher being able to kill people with Moonfire spam. I'm pretty close to deleting a level 30 Draenei Mage for the same reason. Well, not because she looks like Cher, but something about her appearance just....bugs me.My main is the only character for whom I've never had that impulse, and I don't know why. Female Tauren don't have particularly interesting animations, jokes, or special attacks. They're less plausible (how on earth do they run like that?), less dramatic, and less impressive-looking in endgame armor than their male counterparts. Maybe it's just their distinctively awkward gait -- you can tell it's them from a mile away -- or just that so few people play a Hordeside female who's not a Blood Elf, but I find them hopelessly endearing.So I keep rolling moo-cows. Or, to be accurate, a particular model. Call me boring, but no toon from my growing herd will ever be mistaken for Cher.
