Player Feedback Request] Ren’Kai Race - Feb 2022

Hello glorious community,

We’d like your feedback regarding the look and feel of the Ren’Kai race. We shared our most recent art of this race during the January Development Update livestream.

As a reminder, your feedback matters to us! For example: during Alpha One, players felt the Dünir race did not meet their expectations of a dwarf. Due to that feedback, we made adjustments to the Dünir race as mentioned in our September Development Update last year.

Ren’Kai Art

Ren’Kai race discussion from January Development Update livestream.

To help guide the conversation, here are a few thought starters:

What do you like about the current art direction of this race?
Is there anything you dislike about the art direction for this race, and why?
What are your thoughts on what was shown during the livestream for the Ren’Kai race?
Are there any specific Character Creator customizations you would like to see for the Ren'Kai race?

Don’t feel limited to the questions above. Please, share anything you’d like about the Ren’Kai race design.

We’ll be leaving this thread open for your feedback until the end of the day on Thursday, February 24, 2022, so that we can begin compiling a report for our development team.

Everyone here at Intrepid Studios looks forward to reading all the great reactions to our latest character designs!

UPDATE: Hi again friends! Thank you all for taking the time to stop by and share your thoughts on the male Ren'kai! We had a blast reading through your thoughts and comments! We created an awesome report with the feedback you gave us for the design team!

Your thoughts and opinions matter to all of us here at Intrepid and we appreciate you all very much! ^_^

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Comments

Firebrand

Capricorn wrote: »

Not really a fan of their skin tone. The model is alright and may look much better once we apply different colors to it, but I preferred some of the earlier concept art.

For the most part I agree. In light of looking at the Vek who have a very strong purple coloration I would have expected the Ren'Kai to be similar...just with a deeper reddish tone. As a whole I like the concept but the skin tone is a bit too human like. Perhaps more color saturation will be something you can do in the character creation matrix. Also they look just a tad bit too friendly...a little more menacing or fierce would probably fit the race better. In that aspect the Vek knocked it out of the park.

Anonymous332

Fitting body for an orc, hopefully we get option to have broader/longer nose bridge and darker skin, even green'ish option would be dope

Anonymous332

HappyGoLucky wrote: »

I feel they are far to Tolkienish. I understand at this point it's almost played out to claim that the classic western european fantasy is played out (I mean no one does it anymore besides ESO) , but I was under the impression the at the Toren empire was modeled after the Macedonian/Roman empires. Which I feel is a great idea as the age of antiquity is completely unrepresented. With that said, I feel as though it would be fitting for them to fill the role of the Mongolian hordes.

Considering both empires covered 100s-1000s of ethnicities. I don't suggest simply making all Asian peoples represented as orcs, Africans as Vaelune, Romans as Elves, Western Europeans as Kaelal. I feel it's insensitive (eurocentric). I would like for each race to have many ethnicities within themselves, but cultural and architectural design to be less varied and encompassing of all the Roman empire.

Why do you bring real life identity politics to a fantasy game? You guys are nuts

Ryoshin25

What do you like about the current art direction of this race? I like the size of the overall body
Is there anything you dislike about the art direction for this race, and why? I feel the face is a little weird for my taste, the nose to mouth region. But if I have an overall customization of the aspect I would be good with it.
What are your thoughts on what was shown during the livestream for the Ren’Kai race? I think having a dragon background and theme to the race is really cool. Again even more customization.
Are there any specific Character Creator customization's you would like to see for the Ren'Kai race? Scaling features enhanced, webbed fingers, larger teeth, webbed toes, hair, skin color, the facial features from nose to mouth.

Anvil

Nope... Not for Me... Sure they will be Popular though.... If it was Green it could pass as a Certain OTHER game's Orc, but then again... They All Look alike..... Seriously though.. You guys do Great work... (Just need to get rid of that poor guy's Eczema....)

Woar

I know this thread is closed at this point but, hopefully it gets considered anyways. My two cents on the matter is:

1) know your planing to have a robust character creator. I hope we can adjust the face. ie the jaw size etc

2) I know Steven talked about them as these large hulking bruts. But, with as many classes as your gonna have in AoC. I hope we are not locked to the large hulking idea. While I like that and it would be great for warrior types it always seems odd to me to have big hulking types when it comes to the rogue or more nimble classes. While they could still be strong I hope we get the option to trim them down for those types of classes.

Over all I like the race and I think it's a great direction. I just hope they are not locked in so they are all hulking types.

Anduin Kayvaan

Do keep in mind that the Ren'kai skin tone will range from current example to reds to greens and everything in between. They will not just be human tannish. I do love their design and hope they stay as they are.

Vaknar

Hey all!

We updated the images for this thread. We consolidated the full body front and back images into a single image and also removed the beard so you can see the full Ren'kai male's face.

Just a heads up! ^_^

Atama

It looks a little better without the beard.

Given some time to look this over, though, I'm a bit uncomfortable with the silly cross-eyed look of the face. I think it's mostly the nose. It's just too high and small. The noses on the older concept art looked better.

You still had the long distance from the mouth to the nose, but it wasn't the cute little button nose we have in the newer photo. I also think the jaw is too wide, the narrower jaw in the older concept was better.

I like the new ears better, and I like the red eyes and slitted pupils. Otherwise, overall, as far as the face goes, the previous concept art was more appealing to me.

EDIT: Another thing that occurred to me that is also contributing to the "doofusness" of the face; the exaggerated chin. The chin looks large and swollen. Combine that with the wide jaw sticking out the sides with huge mandibles, and the whole lower part of the head looks bloated. Again, I prefer the older concept art.

Now, if we had sliders that could shrink those features to be closer to the original concept art, I'd be very happy. I wouldn't mind the option to look like a meathead, as long as it wasn't mandatory.

Caeryl

lmao this race literally can’t reach their own heads if these are their proportions

Teyloune

I very strongly like that the Ren'Kai remind me of Japanese Ogres / Oni, but with a Dragon flair. I wish this was a lot stronger pronounced.
How different the Ren'Kai are from the orcs of other fantasy universes is a huge strong point in my opinion, please lean more into that. I greatly appreciate the creativity.

I would like to see the scales pop out more.
It would be nice, If players had the option to choose from different scale shapes.
I would like to see some scales on the cheekbones, that could look great!

I like the dragon-like eyes, but I believe they could look even more awesome, if there was an option to make the sclera black, so that the color from the iris pops out more, and gives them an even more intimidating look.

I'm looking forward to a more red skin tone, as the skin tone in the example still reminds me too much of Humans.

To me the skin of the Ren'Kai looks a bit leathery, I think that is pretty cool!

I would love to see a wide Variety of big and small tusks for character customization.

What I don't like:
That their uniqueness isn't even more pronounced.

Atama

Teyloune wrote: »

I very strongly like that the Ren'Kai remind me of Japanese Ogres / Oni, but with a Dragon flair. I wish this was a lot stronger pronounced.
How different the Ren'Kai are from the orcs of other fantasy universes is a huge strong point in my opinion, please lean more into that. I greatly appreciate the creativity.

I would like to see the scales pop out more.
It would be nice, If players had the option to choose from different scale shapes.
I would like to see some scales on the cheekbones, that could look great!

I like the dragon-like eyes, but I believe they could look even more awesome, if there was an option to make the sclera black, so that the color from the iris pops out more, and gives them an even more intimidating look.

I'm looking forward to a more red skin tone, as the skin tone in the example still reminds me too much of Humans.

To me the skin of the Ren'Kai looks a bit leathery, I think that is pretty cool!

I would love to see a wide Variety of big and small tusks for character customization.

What I don't like:
That their uniqueness isn't even more pronounced.

Yes, yes. As someone who wants to play a Ren'Kai as a main, leaning into the "Dragon-like Orc" concept would be just freaking fantastic.

Dogwogle

Feel like knuckles at the hands and feet proportionally should be more thinner.. Hope we will have option for a little bit smaller built in terms of muscle's also.. But overall direction is 10 out of 10 for me.. 💪😎👌

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