Greetings, glorious adventurers! If you're joining in our Alpha One spot testing, please follow the steps here to see all the latest test info on our forums and Discord!
Options
Both in game and in the art Elves are nearly indistinguishable from Humans
Maezriel
Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
This is especially true when you're zoomed out as most people are during play.
I would suggest considering a change to make Elves more "elemental/colorful" so they can stand out a bit more...similar to Godlike from Pillars or Tiefling from D&D.
I'm not against a paler skin tone option for both , but I do think the game would benefit from some greens and blues to help distinguish Elves from the other races.
I would suggest considering a change to make Elves more "elemental/colorful" so they can stand out a bit more...similar to Godlike from Pillars or Tiefling from D&D.
I'm not against a paler skin tone option for both , but I do think the game would benefit from some greens and blues to help distinguish Elves from the other races.
If I said something that you disagree w/ feel free to say so here.
5
Comments
Odd skin colors may not be as evident under helmet and clothes (besides being hideous).
Ears sticking out would be so.
As an elf guy, I agree. You have to really zoom in on the elves ears to know you are dealing with an elf currently.
These elves don't have that large of ears, but you can tell them at a glance.
Let's hope this is a case where sliders will fix everything.
If I had more time, I would write a shorter post.
It's a thought, however the length they would have to stick out to be notable would border on WoW ears.
I doubt that the Elves will change to be elemental/colorful because that's not the lore Steven created for his Pathfinder game.
We should be able to recognize Elves by their gear.
I'm very aware of what the game is based on but the lore isn't cemented in stone yet and if a light retcon is all that's needed to ensure Elves stand out in the actual game that we're all paying for that shouldn't be too big of a deal. On top of that, I doubt everyone is going to go through the trouble of memorizing what every piece of gear looks like on each race.
Races should be visually distinct and stand out from one another whether it be in height, build, or pigmentation and seeing as how Elves are the exact same height in build as humans and the Orcs aren't really a distinct color either I picked the attribute that made the most sense to change.
We elves know we're better than humans.
💁♀️💁♀️💁♀️💁♀️
I did come up to a node that had elven looking architecture, the other day. I was not certain if it was an elven node, so I zoomed in on the ears of the guards to confirm it was elven. It was, an elven node. While slightly confusing at this current time in game. After seeing the recent tweets with screenshots from the character creator I have to say that I want to wait until we see what the character creator allows before asking for more from it.
Just something I have been thinking recently. I have a whole thread dedicated to character creation:
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/48710/was-board-ranked-mmorpg-character-creators-lets-talk-about-it#latest
I want the most from these character creators.
That tweet gives me hope.
If I had more time, I would write a shorter post.
This coming from the guy who consistently talks about gear visuals don't matter because they could and should be changed at will lol
I do agree that we should be ab le to recognize people by their gear.
But I also agree with the people who think the current races are way too homogenous. But I'm not the creator of the setting.
And the colors are probably cemented in stone as well. If we need to able to distinguish the races that badly, then it’s going to have to be body shape because my Dünir is currently covered head to toe in Corvid/Plague Doctor gear and neither her skin color nor her ears are visible.
It’s Alpha.
What’s the comparison in the concept art?
I don’t recall looking at the concept art and mistaking Elves for Humans.
Crazy busy day at work waiting for AT&T to fix the internet outage, so I just jumped in and gave a quick response and then jumped out again.
But, like I just said...my Dünir is covered up head-to-toe. She is discernible as a Dünir due to body shape and size.
Have we seen concept art that compare race sizes? Those should help give us some idea of what the ultimate goals are.
Having them be different enough through gear-look is not really a good option, due to the hundreds, and probably thousands, of skins we'll get through cosmetics and transmogs. Not enough to be distinct from a distance that is. Maybe they can do something with weapons and shields, assuming they are always visible and there are very limited or no transmog/cosmetic skin options for them.
With that said, I wouldn't mind some coloring options that are unavailable to the other races, so they can stand out upon closer inspection. Hair, skin, eye colors etc.
Lore-wise, I think the most common fantasy themes are that elves and humans look enough alike from a distance that elves can pass for humans, for example, just by covering their ears and people not getting a closer look at their faces. In some fantasy settings they are definitely different though, including body sizes.
I think it’s fairly typical in RPGs that Elves could be mistaken for Humans if they are wearing helmets.
The female elf has long elven ears (Male has long hair so ears are obscured). I think it is too early to fear Elves will look like Humans when the character models are still being created and perfected. Of course, you could build your Elf to look Elven (dependant on hairstyle) or you could obscure your Elven Gifts to appear more Human (Keeping your race a personal parameter you're free to share or not).
Overall, I don't think we have a major problem at the present time. I would love to see Py-Rai in pixels though. Of course, the alpha build is limited and the Dev diary build are also limited.
Edit:
Of course, the pixel renditions don't match the concept art in most cases so far:
You can see in the rendition above, the empyreans have smaller elf ears which make them less distinguishable against Humans. Though, the image is an older image and may not indicate the current state of the build.
Again, we will have to see what’s possible to achieve with sliders.
So I guess it will up to players to decide if they want their elf more "elf looking" or more "human looking". I remember reading some people asking about half-elves, half-orcs and others, so having an editor that allows these things can be good for some players and will add more variety to the world.
I don’t think BDO has the same armor mechanics, but...I haven’t played it, so I don’t know for sure.
I don’t think the character creator will allow for Half-Elves and Half-Orcs due to Ashes lore.
Edit: Shai could be classed as a Child Depiction though or a **** if you prefer, so the sexualised female cosmetics aren't really appropriate for Shai.
So, the way armor works in Ashes, armor doesn’t stretch to fit any proportions.
So, there is a limit to how beefy and wide a Dünir can be, for instance.
I think what we currently see is that the Dünir base model is actually wider than some of the armor sets, so Dünir seem thinner when wearing some armor sets than they do without any armor.
Remember that Steven uses a lot of hyperbole. “As good or better than BDO” really means the goal is for the character creator to offer a lot of options. And he hopes people will like it as much as they like the BDO character creator.
I don’t think people will be able to make overly-exaggerated characters, primarily due to the constraints of the armor designs for each race.
The ears are the signature, please forgive the eyes. I love wonderful eyes.
I think Humans will not be able to make pointy ears and Elf ears will be able to be larger than default Elf ears but not smaller.
Edit: Spelling mistakes.
But, maybe they won’t care about visual Half-Elves.
We’ll have to see.
So I would not worry too much guys.
However it may be a great thing to continue to post how in your ideal world you would envision the elves!! That would be constructive, as the character creator is still in development, you have a chance to influence the work with proper feedback