Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Comments
I agree with the other posters that something looks off about the female's body.
The male and female both have heads that are larger than human heads in comparison to their bodies. If that's an intended racial feature, then that's fine.
However, the female's eyes are weirdly large compared to the male's. I think that's what's making her look a bit like a goblin.
These edits are so much better! She looks like a believable person and less like a misshapen barbie. It’s very weird that Intrepid did so well for the male, then flopped on the female model.
Personal tastes?
I particularly like more what Intrepid showed, not that everything should have the stereotype of human beauty but that each race has its own physical peculiarities.
To me I liken her face to that of a deer.
It’s not about the features, it about the proportions. The first model was deep in uncanny valley territory and was drastically off compared to the more believable male proportions.
I did not see a slider for head size in the Character Creator presentation. Why do you believe there will be one?
Still looks weird to me but I appreciate the effort.
For me it's more about how different the model is from the concept art. The concept art had a beautiful, elegant female face, distinctly elven in appearance, with features making it lean more towards a wood/forest elf as opposed to a high elf. They'd said in the past they were going to go with a Native American inspired look for this race and I loved how it turned out in the concept art. Overall loved the concept and wanted to play the race as a result.
The model looks nothing like the concept at all. Looks wood elfy but more in the ESO style of Wood Elf/Bosmer (which is to be clear, awful), with a heavy dose of a goblin inspired look. Doesn't look beautiful or elegant, facial features are entirely different, body shape is short and misshapen, overall proportions are off for both face and body, face is just so different and not in the same style of face at all as the concept. Not to mention the extra adornments - green pattern, jewelry, white stripes - just exacerbate the problems and make it hard to see the base model without that. It's an entirely different race and I don't want to play it.
I want to play a race other than human but I feel like my choices are dwindling and it's getting really tiring with each new race reveal.
The branchlers do beg the question though of, why branches? Why aren't they antlers (made of bone)? Are there other aspects of the py'rai that are made of/related to trees? They seem kinda human with branches growing out of their forehead. Regular antlers would make more sense...or if you keep the branches (which I love), then more of their aesthic should be naturey I think. (See Sylvari in GW2). Lore-wise, what does a Py-rai look like when it's born? Why does its branches grow? What happens if one of their branches breaks, does it grow back? Like, what's the "branchler" physiology within their lore?
I don't really like the mossy/green texture that appears on their bodies in the latest update. Please either allow a variety of skin texture options, plus the option to not have a texture like that at all, or remove the idea altogether. The orc having a scaly texture on it's skin...now that's kinda badass, but the nature elf having moss on their skin looks like they don't know how to shower.
I do love the models and think the slight head adjustments bring the whole thing together. I think that a race should be a little more than a different head but then again with armour and clothing the head is often all we will see and therefore its all cool.
As I have seen AoC to be a "bucket list" of MMO features how about;
The antlers grow as suggested by others but when a player is killed in pvp they are cut off, the growing process starts again but this kind of feature would allow someone to look at this character with a massive and impressive set of antlers and realize that they have survived (much like in real life). Players could also have the option to trim the antlers as others have requested to make them a less attractive target.
Im not a pvp'er myself and would hate to see my antlers removed but I am trying to put myself in the shoes of other players. This could even be expanded to a scar system that temporarily scars the body/face of recently killed players, I dunno, just dreaming here.
And Hi.
Head is too big for a standard model, as are the eyes as others have said but I see a few critiques missing that others seemed to not want to touch on. The waist line is ridiculously thin compared to the Kaelar females in a way that makes little sense anatomically, but even if we consider this a racial feature, it does not feel like a very good 'middle' in that you can't go much thinner than what is currently there.
Partially due too how thin her waist is, but also just due to her over all slender frame, the, chest and shoulder area look fairly difficult to modify to be larger in a way that would feel 'pretty' due to how narrow a lot of the rest of her proportions are. But if you don't have ways to alter those to be wider and larger in ways that feel balanced, certain bust shapes and sizes will just look out of proportion and unpleasant on this model. If bust shape and size is a way you intend to distinguish races, it's not a very good one and I recommend against it. A character's bust should be able to look good and to ones own taste regardless of race.
I really hope you fix them so they're their own, unique models. Also please fix the female face so it looks more like the concept art. The one you made looks like a Bosmer from ESO and they're ugly.
Pics for comparison: