Kilsin said:Now that the November Newsletter has dropped, what do you think about the new character models? Is there anything else that caught your eye? #PRF #MMORPG #MMO #communitymatters
Great progress but graviated towards the old concept art designs.
Orges models don't really live up to their name. I expected larger frames from the neck down and faces with massive bottom teeth. The color looks very human like and needs to stand out against other races. No piercings, facial scarring, bone/leather decor, or other distinctive traits are shown while fully armored from neck to toes and fingers. Things missing from the concept art.
Halfing models look closer to fairies. I expected much larger eye sockets, protruding ears, and then match with larger mouths. The sizing seems disproportionate. Concept art had way more hair/styling.
Elf models looks too similar with the Halfing models. Ears and nose need to be thinner/pointy like in the concept art. Are those Ember or Ashen Elves? Where's the Ashen Elf with the pale skin and dark hair? Can't tell without any distinctive traits above the armor. There should be much more filigree, leather strapping/metalwork, or flower/vines details all over these characters.
Ogres and Halflings look fine. As others have stated, the Elves look pretty terrible. I’m not saying to clone Wood Elves, but think something to the tune of how Wood Elves were really unique and its own thing in Classic EQ. Now those were Elves! Same could be said of the classic Dark Elves! Both really captured the uniqueness of Elves. That can be done in its own way here as well.
Kilsin said:Now that the November Newsletter has dropped, what do you think about the new character models? Is there anything else that caught your eye? #PRF #MMORPG #MMO #communitymatters
I'm adding the following. My first glance at the elves, was it had an "asian" air to it, not that's a bad thing and on top of that, who am I to object to a newly evented elven race and it's appearance. But, after looking at the elves for a longer while. With both Ashen as well as Ember elves in mind.
I would think that the male would be Ashen (darker hair, paler skin tone, less "vibrant", more stoically,reserved, mysterious, more sincere, "noble? even"). The ears seem smaller and closer to the skull. Males could have a more musculare build (depending on character creation options), but place this elf into a none-combat content and he's got an entirely different flow going. He'll still have that slender build, "that elven-grace".
Where as the female elf, looks to have a darker/bronzed (less pale) skintone, a little more sparkle/energy coming from the expression. She seems more vivid, warmer, down to earth. Her ears seem to point further away from the body.
It could all be my imagination, but perhaps it's not and Pantheon really has shown us the subtle, but noticeable !! difference between the two elven races.
That would be awesome. (with ofc costumization on character creation allowing for tweaks within their boundaries).
Of course it could all be just in my head, but for those who doubt... Have a long look at them and imagine Ashen and Ember elves.
@Barin999 I thought the same thing. The Elves really, really should NOT look ’Asian.’ Really - let’s leave it there. Again, Wood Elves looked like Wood Elves. Dark Elves looked like Dark Elves. These are examples. Ashen Elves and Ember Elves need to look like Elves, not like ‘Asians.’ Really. Nothing wrong with getting inspiration from cultural architecture or sacred places and whatnot, but please just let the Elves look like Elves. The Dwarves look like Dwarves. Do the same with Elves. Thanks.
Well I have to say that I'm going to be that debbi downer, but I was personally disapointed with the news letter.
First off I do not like that once again we see another pass over on character models that are already in game and playable, yet where are the dark myr and skar? I would much rather see the resources put into getting all the character models in the game then going back and in my opinion butcher exisiting character models. The orges now look like half-orcs, the halflings look like they are being massed produced by fisher price and the elves well enough has already been said about the elves.
The story of the girl going into the danger zone was a ok read if it's in a book, but when I'm reading a story like this for the game it should adhere to in game components and gameplay. What I mean by that is in game when climbing ropes will we need to remove our armor and weapons like in the story? Will it take a period of time to re-equip our armor and weapons as in the story? And I thought the monsters in game were going to be challenging yet the girl in the story slays dozens and dozens of "CHILDREN OF THE VALLEY"? And really children of the valley?First thing that went through my mind reading that name was: children of the dammed,children of the corn,children of the forest.Please change the name.
The reopening of the pre-alpha plegdes yet again plants a seed of doubt in my mind that now alpha is being intenionally being pushed back so that pre-alpha can be used as more of a cash grab instead of finishing the foundation of the game for alpha. Because really, you dont need 10 character model remakes of 5 races for alpha, but you do need all the character models in game for alpha.
Finally I don't have any comments on the Community spot light, because I never read it and feel that it's wasted space to talk about random player whatever number player you've interviewed when the game is still 2 years from being released. And who knows if said random players are even going to be playing the game in 2 years or if they are even going to be a part of the community of the server I will be playing on.
Now with all the holidays approaching I don't hold much optimism that the next 2 newsletter will hold much content so I will just set my sights on the Febuary newsletter.
Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.
@Velrak I appreciate your honesty. I shared mine about the Elves in my post. When I play an Elf I want to feel like I’m playing an Elf. Velrak - what you say about the Ogres and Halflings are true. I noticed that as well but didn’t mention it. What’s up with the Half-Orc look now? Reminds me of the World of Warcraft movie. These are supposed to be Ogres not Orcs. Improvement needed. Otherwise, the streams looked good.
Anyway, happy holidays.
All of you saying that the elves are too "Asian" looking need to tone down your latent racism. Next thing you'll be saying the Erudites in EQ1 were too African looking. It's okay to look different people, if the look truly bothers you try to find a better way of describing it.
@Bookwyrm Asians are totally cool.. on planet Earth :) I initially thought of Erudites too (I mained one by the way), but the problem with your point is, well.. Erudites were still Erudites. Let Erudites be Erudites. Let Asians be Asians. And last but not least, let Elves be Elves :) lol.
Also, an Erudite with blonde hair and blue eyes like Tunare would look pretty ridiculous now wouldn’t it?
Now, if someone wants to make a humanoid race inspired from Asians, then that‘s cool.
The problem being just what the hell does an Elf look like? And when was the last time you saw one? Inspiration has to come from somewhere and if it's an Asiatic look well then that's fine with me. All the Humans in most games seem to be Caucasian anyway, let's get some diversity.
@Bookwyrm I’ve been following the fantasy genre for a long time & Elves originated in Nordic mythology.
If I were going by your perspective, then I suppose we should have Dwarves inspired from Asians too? Again, Dwarves come from Nordic folklore. That’s why they look the way they do.
I’m all for diversity - as I mentioned the Erudites were my favorite race. Erudites were obviously inspired by Africa, and it worked for that race. Perhaps some humans from Thronefast can have Asian features at character creation? And for the record, Everquest had plenty of diversity. I think my point has been made and this is getting kinda ridiculous - I’ll leave it at that. Cheers.
Syrif said:Again, let Elves just be Elves.
I subscribe completely . Why the heck must there always be somebody trying to troll and derail a thread by bringing in his obsessions about diversity and what not ? This is a forum about a game and about fantasy archetypes so keep it like that . There are more than enough political forums where people can fight about all they want . Otherwise all that will happen is that this thread will get locked and this would be a pity .
Thanks .
Syrif said:@Bookwyrm Asians are totally cool.. on planet Earth :) I initially thought of Erudites too (I mained one by the way), but the problem with your point is, well.. Erudites were still Erudites. Let Erudites be Erudites. Let Asians be Asians. And last but not least, let Elves be Elves :) lol.
Why do you think Elves need European features? Europeans are cool... on planet Earth.
This is an absolutely absurd argument. Elves can have whatever features a creator wants them to have. Personally I LOVE the southeast asian features of the elves in that screenshot. I think it's very striking.
@Naunet sorry you have missed my point. I was referring to the Nordic folklore and mythology of Elves and Dwarves where they originated - that is nothing I did. Also, if you’ve watched LoTR or are familiar with EQ Classic, Warhammer, Forgotten Realms, Dungeons&Dragons, many things ‘Elf,’ etc, then you might see where I was coming from.
If the devs want to do something totally different with Elves, then that’s out of my control. I’ve stated my opinion, as have others. There‘s actually nothing absurd about that.
Syrif said:@Naunet sorry you have missed my point. I was referring to the Nordic folklore and mythology of Elves and Dwarves where they originated - that is nothing I did. Also, if you’ve watched LoTR or are familiar with EQ Classic, Warhammer, Forgotten Realms, Dungeons&Dragons, many things ‘Elf,’ etc, then you might see where I was coming from.
If the devs want to do something totally different with Elves, then that’s out of my control. I’ve stated my opinion, as have others. There‘s actually nothing absurd about that.
I think there's such a wide range of portrayals of "elves" in various media that "humanoids with southeast asian facial structure and pointy ears" easy falls within the realm of "let elves be elves". When people start talking about how elves "can't" have this or that feature just because it's distinctive of a particular Earth ethnic group - that's when I get super questioning. Because the opposite assumption is always that somehow european features are okay, but non-european are not.
@ Naunet I don‘t mean to single anyone out. I was just saying that Elves and Dwarves in particular are both equally rooted in Nordic folklore and mythology hence why they look somewhat ‘Nordic.’ I also mentioned that the Erudite was my favorite race in Classic Everquest - Erudites were literally ’black.’ If someone had decided one day out of the blue to just drastically change what an Erudite looked like just because, then I would think wow that is pretty dumb. Unfortunately, that is what I saw being done with Elves in the screenshot.
BookWyrm said:All of you saying that the elves are too "Asian" looking need to tone down your latent racism. Next thing you'll be saying the Erudites in EQ1 were too African looking. It's okay to look different people, if the look truly bothers you try to find a better way of describing it.
nm.
Haha, no, actually. Long time lurker, new poster. And the word Asian may have factored into it, words have power. I'm also fairly certain I said "latent racism", look up the word if it's unfamiliar. If you have concerns about the looks of a certain race use constructive criticism that does not offend a large majority of people, that was my original point I think. Anyway, we beat this to death already, bark up another tree.
MyNegation said:honestly,
I am not into the general artistic style of the game as we see and saw it in the past.
I prefer more "drawn" graphic style, for example: I prefer "crowfall" roughly drawn style rather than "camelot unchained" persice style
I really liked the lycans drawing in the previous newsletter, i less like the latest pictures.
but this is a preference, not a dealbreaker.
p.s. the dwarf picture was OK. nice beard ^^
You're following/backing the wrong game here if you're hoping for a cartoony style like Crowfall or World of Warcraft.
The models are ok I suppose, I do hope you also work on Animation more so they aren't so stiff, I guess I'm just a sucker though for nice swordplay and casting animations. Less stiff and more fluid and weighty. I feel like this is just as important and nice looking models in a game that you look at many hours per week :) The Ogres look good to me. I've never been a fan of elves in any game :)
@Naunet
By your premise, what do you think about American Indian Dwarves? Or Aboriginal Halflings? The point people are making is it's outside of a standard that must be met before an aesthetic variation is propositioned.
Now, what they should have and what I expect is the 'POSSIBILITY' to alter your character's appearance to look more Asian, not just Elves but Humans, Halflings etc as well. As long as Elves allow the option for appearance to be made more traditional, then aesthetics outside of the norm can easily be tolerated.
Janus said:By your premise, what do you think about American Indian Dwarves? Or Aboriginal Halflings? The point people are making is it's outside of a standard that must be met before an aesthetic variation is propositioned.
110% okay with those. I find the strict reliance on purely European features in fantasy to be incredibly boring and welcome all diversions away from it.
Honestly reread your last paragraph and really think about what you typed - "appearance to be made more traditional", "aesthetics outside the norm". You may not mean it, but this comes across as extremely racist.