Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
I'll add to this that someone at some point offered a sort of 'Halo' option (see @Westergard post above) and while I didn't think about it much at the time, from the perspective of 'Parity'...
I think I'd like the Halo more than the Crown, because I could believe that the 'magic focuses on either side of their head' like that for... reasons... And the Nature-loving Py'rai manifested the branchlers with their magic, the Empyreans manifest the 'Halos'.
The thing I don't 'like' about the Crowns relative to this, is that they don't currently give any feeling/indication of being magical. If they are supposed to be, and just 'shouldn't glow for various reasons', or 'only glow sometimes', no complaints, but I'm still with the:
I definitely would LOVE to have an empyrean with glowing tattoos and/or marks, glowing eyes, and floating halos/crowns/other "accesories". Such beautiful and amazing features!.
I second this. Super important for the headgear to be entirely removable. That being said, this concept art looks absolutely incredible! The Empyrean look is definitely moving in the best possible direction. Slam dunk 10/10!
Everything! You guys nailed it for both the male and the female. An absolutely perfect post-UE5 debut!
Is there anything you dislike about the art direction for this race, and why?
The headgear is the only thing I'm not a fan of. I think it fits the high elven vibe well so it's ok, but that was the one thing I think should have been left out of this showcase. This however, is an extremely minor gripe. I also think I have a good guess as to why the art team chose to include the headgear. I assume it was to give them a little bit more flare. Personally, I would have gone with arcane rune face tattoos or perhaps some kind of warpaint, but the headgear does not look bad in the slightest. It's just not something I'd personally want on my character.
What are your thoughts on what was shown during the livestream for the Empyrean female & male concept?
I thought it was really good! Can't wait to see more customization options!
Are there any specific Character Creator customizations you would like to see for the Empyrean race?
Elven/arcane/runic tattoos on both face and body. Scars, warpaint, glowing eyes, and piercings.
I really like this, i feel like you hit the nail here. I like the ears, the high cheek bones, the pointed chin and how the eye brows meet the nose bridge.
Is there anything you dislike about the art direction for this race, and why?
I would like to see larger eyes, but i dont know if that's just me, for they seem to fit the size with the forehead.
Are there any specific Character Creator customizations you would like to see for the Empyrean race?
I would like to have rounded lower jaw bone and bigger eyes. Jewelry like a jem stone between the eyes, nose rings, earrings with chains, feathers on the head fixtures and eyes that change color.
Lame designs sorry. The ashes ones are superor to this cheap RGB lights
Also in disagreement with some comments in this thread that empyreans need tattoos. No i dont want tattoos or glowing eyes i want a clean looking elf like the ones in the pic. Tattoos shouldn't even be a mainstream thing for the race im sure there will be a lot of skins and applicable designs ingame down the road.
If people want to look more like dark elves or drow from other universes its a REALLY bad idea to make empyreans more "angelic" than this
I just hope there are still considerable amounts of facial customization. AKA, I want to still make my elf man HOT but with long hair and pointed ears. While the long pointy nose, high cheek bones, skinny face, and slanted eyes can all be called "elvish", I want to be able to see a variety of faces, and not just the stereotypical ones.
Love the headdress. If I were to describe the Emperean elves in one word, I would say "Elegance"
- I like the strong cheekbones with thin cheeks as well as the strong brow with deeper eye cavities and feel like this could be highlighted somewhat more. I like that the facial features are stretched vertically and made longer and thinner compared to a human’s, this is key. The longer forehead, nose, jaw, and chin are definitely noticeable and should continue to be leaned into. Overall the team did a good job of balancing the fact that high elves should overall have more delicate features, but with very specific features that are stronger than a human’s.
Is there anything you dislike about the art direction for this race, and why?
- I think the ears are potentially not striking enough. I would like to see them be slightly longer and pointed slightly higher vertically. Because the Py’Rai ears already extend horizontally and satisfy that particular style of elven ear, I think the ears need to extend vertically slightly higher above the temples. Currently they are higher than the Py’Rai, yes, but a small adjustment might make them stand out more from the other races as many also have long ears which extend horizontally.
- I feel that for the female model, the feminine features are undermining the elven features. Losing some of the sharpness in the bone structure for her cheekbones, jaw, chin, and brow is potentially leaning her facial structure too close to a human’s.
Are there any specific Character Creator customizations you would like to see for the Empyrean race?
- I would like to see a lot of customization options for both the ears and the eyebrows. Because these are two of their most prominent features, I feel like Empyrean players might enjoy having decorations on their ears or eyebrows including piercings, jewelry, makeup, and plenty of customization options for the shape and size of both.
I think this a great compromise for default imo with an additional note that there should be a way to permanently have them off or on. This is the sort of thing that I think needs a lot of customization choices surrounding it due to the way Pyrai are.
In my opinion these look great. I don't think anything really needs to change with the art style. Just give lots of customization options of course in the character creator and lots of cosmetic options. I think this is the right direction here. No complaints.
So idk about that. When you look up the term "Empyrean" it means from the heavens. Steven seems to be a pretty deep thinker when it comes to lore with things meaning something deeper than just what is presented. Now with that said. I do believe the race that holds the use of essence as absolutely necessary to their success on Verra and their connection to the gods. Well I would see them being a bit more magically inclined if not Angelic in some ways.
So you want angels... I want Empyrean's.
Elf/angel doesn't equal Greco-Roman/elf. At least to us shallow thinkers.
I think the most crucial factor for this particular race however will be their animations & whether they give me that high elf feel when casting spells & running in particular.
Also, they don't look.... ethereal.
Elves should look ethereal. Not very, just a bit.
member of Gray Sentinels
The facial structure and features alone are already very different from the humans.
I'm hoping the bodies will be tall and slender, giving the true High Elf look, noticeably taller than humans. I'm interested to see what tattoo options are available for them but looking at other peoples comments I don't think they should be just regular dark tattoos for this race. I agree that it should be more like bright body paint, just not glowing or overly magical. These are elves not fairys.
I think the art direction is going in the right direction, as others have mentioned the thinner face and more delicate features looks good.
Is there anything you dislike about the art direction for this race, and why?
I think that the male should have more feminine and "fair" features however, with the larger eyes, and more similar nose, brow and chin to the female model. Elves male or female shouldn't look "rugged" but instead fey like, untouched by the world, I don't imagine tolkeinesque elves ever aged out of their early 20's in terms of looks. I think this accentuates their differences, elves are fey they should be timeless with distinctly youthful features but ancient eyes which have lived many lifetimes.
What are your thoughts on what was shown during the livestream for the Empyrean female & male concept?
I think they are the best depictions of elves in a video game that I've yet seen, truly great to see something closer to the old Dungeons and Dragons depictions.
Are there any specific Character Creator customizations you would like to see for the Empyrean race?
Given how robust the customization is for your other races I think what you'll implement is more than enough.
I think the Empyreans are exactly what a lot of people wanted. The most important thing is diversity. I think the request for glowing tatoos and eyes can definitely be an exclusive customization option for the race but I wouldn’t force every player to have these as there are a lot in the thread that seem to not want it.