Pandaren need some love

Community General Discussion
1

Hi everybody,

I keep seeing these threads popping up over and over again about how race X needs some love, so I thought I’d make a thread for my own.

Pandaren have the oldest player character models in the game, and it’s starting to show.

Although it is reasonable to say that they started out with the new rigging and therefore weren’t in the state that the other races were in when they were upgraded, they were still the first.

As a result Pandaren have a few glitches and other oddities that witness of a team stretched to its limits trying to get this new rigging to work.

The bodies are not too egregious. They could use a little smoothing around the edges by simply getting some more polygons, and some more loose fur here and there would probably also look great.

No - the issues are the faces. Or rather, the face - and the transition from that face to the body.

Pandaren only have a single facial geometry per gender, and that should be fixed. Broader snouts, flatter brows, a more gaunt face perhaps - whatever you can think of. Some facial options would be nice.

Pandaren males have facial hair, which give a little bit of variety, but the females do not. Outside of facial hair, the different faces are different fur patterns.

Furthermore, on both genders, they have this pretty unsightly neckline where the texture stretches and switches resolution. It looks absolutely horrible. Here’s a picture where I’ve taken the chestpiece off to show that it isn’t just old armour pieces that do this:
https://imgur.com/a/P9ATqZE

(Yes, that’s my hilariously cluttered inventory. Sue me. Just look at the neckline please. xD)

Furthermore, Pandaren females can be red pandas with tails. Pandaren males cannot. Though they can have red fur, they don’t get the tail. This is pretty bloody weird. Would it be too much of a stretch to ask for more than 4 customisation sliders, such as one for a tail?

So - can Pandaren please have:

  1. Variety in facial geometry
  2. An uprezzing of their body geometry and, in particular, texture
  3. Tails for the males
  4. A fixed neckline
  5. A customisation option to choose a tail
  6. A couple more customisation options, especially in the hair department
11 Likes
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This bothers me the most. It is unbelievable that this isn´t fixt after almost 10 years. Blizzard must be blind or they have no quality control.

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3

yeah, it really does look bad. blizzard is just way too slow to add new costumisation options and fixing bugs. everything is so outdated.

tauren have like 4 or 5 hairstyles. i was so jealous when mechagnomes and voidelves were released. :frowning: they have so many options while tauren float dead in the water.

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They really are! Character cosmetics shouldn’t even be an expansion feature either imo - just roll that stuff out RIGHT NOW and keep adding/fine turning things continuously not from patch to patch.

Pandas were one of the first suffering from “same face syndrome”, I really can’t stand that sh*t they need more variety. Hope they’ll get something beyond fur colors come SL!

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FYI Pandaren were the first HD player models to be introduced before other races followed in WoD after with their revamping.

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yeah. although they have updated a lot of things it still feels we are kind of stuck in 2005. :confused:

1 Like
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Yep. They really do need some love at this point.

I would say several older races need some more options, but Pandaren are the worst offenders by far.

I actually checked the topic a bit before I posted, and I found this:
https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1161075-Female-Pandaren-Complete-NO-FACE-CHANGES-AT-ALL/page33

That’s an 8 year old thread remarking these problems…

2 Likes
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I generally see threads suggesting removal of Panda race, now this is a different one :smiley:

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Oldest as of 1 patch, try and not blow it out of the water. Try looking at it this way, you had the newest models for way longer than you had the oldest.

Isn’t that the same for the Taurens? Even after the update.

In or out of context, this still is a moot point.

10

I think the females look fine but the male model is atrocious, feels so clunky and big, they need a rework, make them slightly more slim or better proportionate.

The model in the cinematic for Mop actually looks nice and nimble, there’s nothing monk-like or nimble about the in game model.

11

Well… yeah…

So what? Now I’ve got the oldest.

I stood on the forums and supported Worgen getting a new model for a very long time - especially the females because that was truly an epic horrorshow.

Why would you not reciprocate, exactly? Do you think I’m wrong? Do you think I just complain for no reason? If so, what do you think of all the people asking for new customisation for humans and undead and many other races that are already newer? Is this because you think Pandaren deserve to suffer the same as Worgen did because you hate them? Why do you wish your legitimate problems unto others?

No, Tauren do have multiple facial geometries. Females don’t have a lot though, true, but they have more than 1! And so do Worgen, by the way.

Of course it’s a moot point that females don’t have facial hair… ?!

The point is that there are no facial geometries.

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They should just assemble a small team whos only job is to improve character customization, I can’t repeat this enough but blizzard really really needs to do this imo.

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13

To be fair, they have a lot of corners they need to bring up to date regarding visuals.
Certain race mounts, sky boxes in zones and terrain updates would go a long way.

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yeeh that neck seam is annoying.

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I’m looking forward to Pandaren heritage, when ever they get round to it. Something made to fit their body shape and look good.

1 Like
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Pandaren are maybe a few development months behind most other races.
The rework for the other races had started early on with Mop already.
So I doubt they will revamp pandaren anytime soon. However, extra features being added is highely likely for SL. As Worgen have gotten extra fur colours so will pandaren is my guess.

17

This is awesome! Pandas are an endangered species! They need this love!

And yeah, them males need to get some tail! (pun deeply intended) :laughing:

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I think the pandaren look great despite having such an old model, what can I say, i just love pandas!

2 Likes
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Well they predate most player characters models by 1 expansion (only worgen and goblin can be considered new). I assume they’ll update all old models when they decide to deal with it.

Well sadly you know the saying, there are more pandaren in WoW than there are pandas in the wild.

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Yes, but Pandaren were the first time they did it. It’s very reasonable to consider them a prototype for what they were going to do for Warlords, and as such their quality isn’t quite up to standard with the rest.

Personally, I think Night Elves look pretty much on par with, say, Kul’Tirans. It’s not far off.

But the pandas are miles off.

I agree they look great from an artistic standpoint, but they do need some technical improvements. :stuck_out_tongue: