Why not create new, updated models and give players the CHOICE to use them or keep the old ones. Everybody happy.

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I remember when Luclin came out for EQ. They had gone through and updated all the player models and looked pretty slick. The problem though, was they lagged everybody's computer performance horribly.

Everybody ended up reverting back to the old models in order to make the game playable again.

Ah....the bad old days of EQ downtime. I mean patches...

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I'll tell you what. More than changing my physical appearance I'd love to be able to set my outer look. I like what EQ2 is doing with having a second set of item slots which allow you set your appearance. Make it a whole additional level of item. I don't care.

I just hate the mix and match look and having to choose function over having purple pants.

Haircuts. Fine. Go for it. I just want to stop looking like I got dressed by a blind drunk monkey.

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I wouldn't mind the option to redesign my character's face or skin color. I hope the option to recolor hair is available, with the option to change hair style.

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#1 basically said exactly what I was going to say:

Why not create new, updated models and give players the CHOICE to use them or keep the old ones. Everybody happy.

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I don't think anyone can be opposed to new choices. I'd like to see a roll-out of a bunch of new hairstyles, faces, whatever, and offer a free "look respec" with WLK...when you log in, it offers you the chance to change your look once for free. everything after that is pay (in-game, none of this out of game $10 bull.)

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Sounds like the start of a new paid character change.
It could even scale.

$5 to change your skin, hair, and face,
+$5 to change your sex
+$5 to change your race.

Restrictions: must chose a race of your faction and with your class type (sorry druids and shaman) will have no effect on racial mount selection, current reputation status, or racial abilities.


So for $15 you can have a gnome warior with a tiger mount and all the racials of a night elf.

Where do I sign up ;)

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The 3d models themselves are fine, it's the textures that need to be updated just for a start. And not just for character graphics but even moreso for the textures that make up the world itself. Particularly painful are the textures on every tree in the game. They are like 1998-level low rez and I'm noticing more and more that everything is looking worse in comparison to other current PC games out there.

The art "style" itself is perfect - no changes needed really. But an engine update is sorely needed. I'm not expecting DX10 level effects as that would be an unrealistic expectation right now probably. But at least getting some DX9 effects shoehorned in would go a long way towards prolonging the life of the game graphically.

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What they need to do is alowe us to up load a picture of our faces and have the Blizzard wrap that on our characters heads. LOL

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Let's be realistic. Blizzard can - and should - upgrade models at some juncture, but to change one's race? Skin color? Gender? Come on. Better models for avatars? Yes. Changing avatars completely? Not a chance.

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just more choices would be great

no changes to existing.

to improve textures ? yes.

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I would like more body shape.

the characters are great but I would like choice. bigger, fatter, slimer, taller, sexier, less sexy, and so on.

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More choices is always a good thing!

I agree with the poster that said we should get one free change per character with purchase of WLK and then make it a payed service so people don't go crazy with it.

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I wonder if Blizz already has some higher-resolution textures for all the items in the game. Theoretically, whoever drew/created the textures probably made them large, then scaled them down.

I'd be happy just seeing better textures. Polygon count isn't nearly as important as texture resolution.

However they do it, there will always be people saying "I liked it better before", and these people should be ignored.

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The quality of the models and the polygon count needs to be an option of the video settings.

While the gameplay in WoW is great the visuals don't even come close to competing with games like Lineage 2 that were released prior to WoW.

If I have a PC that can handle the load why not see nicer models and more polygons/better textures.

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I would welcome a model change/update. If I logged in and my character looked slightly different but was updated I wouldn't mind so much, especially if they gave us a free "look respec" where we could choose what we wanted out of the new textures and models.

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@#1

I totally agree. I would love to have the options to change some of my characters' erm, characteristics. I love having a female troll mage, but hate the fact that almost all female trolls have the same face (You know, the only female troll face that isn't fugly).

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When it comes to hairstyle, I'm perfectly happy with it. What I don't like is the fact that my hair bursts through certain helm graphics, and that looks really lame, so I end up turning the helm graphics off most of the time. I'd be happy if they would just fix that.

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I'm fine with the way the models currently are, although as #8 said, updating or adding new textures would be nice.

The comparatively rough 3d models are a hallmark of Blizzard. Even during the time of W3:RoC and W3:TFT, the graphics were not as good as the other strategy games out at the time, but the way they did it (with rougher 3d models, but with complex-looking textures) made it more accessible to more systems.

It isn't as though Blizzard can't come up with more sophisticated graphics (just viewing the cut scenes of W3 and the intro videos of WoW are evidence of that), it's just that their current way of doing the graphics makes them more accessible and causes less problems.

That said, a few small steps toward more complex graphics would be nice. No big overhauls or whatnot.

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"Anyone who's run Old Hillsbrad can see exactly how far we've come from the WoW original models..."

Um, no. I presume you're referring to the variety of human models that populate old Southshore? Those models were in the early betas/alphas of (vanilla) WoW, and were been sitting around unused in the game files for 2-3 years before getting dug up for use in BC. If you look closely, you'll notice their polygon count is quite a bit lower than that of the player models.

Nice points, wrong example. :)

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@Gazmik Fizzwidget

That is *exactly* her point. She isn't claiming that the models in Old Hillsbrad are new, she is pointing to them as an easy way to contrast between the new (your player) models and the original (Old Hillsbrad) models.

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