While most of the Backe Beta dicussion has been focused on combat, it seems to me that another important game feature is being overlooked.

 

The Character models for the different races need work. (I think the Genasi in NWN2 look way better than the godlike we currently have for instance)

 

What do you guys think of the models for the various races?

Edited November 15, 201411 yr by Anaeme

Pretty much all of them need work, there's tonnes of character art bugs and quite a few not great models, however the new Aumaua head from the v351 steam looked quite promising. I wonder if it's actually attached to the body properly as well.

Edited November 15, 201411 yr by Sensuki

The Dwarves cranium, please shrink.

The Dwarves need a little work cause their heads are a bit out of whack and they have horrid hair clipping.  Other than that the models are okay.  They aren't perfect, they could see some improvement, but they are plenty good enough.  Just touch up the Dwarves and introduce some idle animations.

It's a shame that the new Aumaua head isn't in the twitch recording. It looked fantastic. Would have loved to have screencapped it.

All of them.

 

In BG I had no problem identyfing race from the main screen. In PoE I have problem not only to identify race, but to see characters at all.

All of them.

 

In BG I had no problem identyfing race from the main screen. In PoE I have problem not only to identify race, but to see characters at all.

This is just from my memory, as I haven't played BG in a number of years, but aren't there only ~3 models for PC races? Dwarf/halfling/gnome, human/half-orc, and elf/half-elf? They had some distinction in their paperdolls, but I'm pretty sure on the main screen it was impossible to distinguish a dwarf from a halfling or a human from a half-orc, and so on.

Halflings had a different model. It was Dwarves and Gnomes that looked the same. They had different models for Warriors, Thieves, Priests and Mages though. PE doesn't have that unfortunately.

Edited November 16, 201411 yr by Sensuki

Ah that's true, I forgot that they had different models per class in addition to "similar body" groups. That probably helped a lot with differentiation. Even if you had a human and a half orc, if one was a thief and one was a fighter it was easy to tell who was who.

Edited November 16, 201411 yr by Rahkir

The arms of the Aumaua look slightly distorted when you turn the model round.

 

Also the anatomical differences between male and female across all the models seem off.

 

 

In particular I dislike the heads of the godlike. There is something not organic about the way they look. A head should never have sharp geometric edges...nature does not form like that

 

Details like that do matter in any game where players are required spend time customising their avatars...the Devs need to pay more attention to getting the models right

 

As I see it NWN2 models are way better than PoE models and NWN2 was made ages ago.

The arms of the Aumaua look slightly distorted when you turn the model round.

 

That's not the model itself that's a LOD issue - try it with a shield, if you turn the char on a certain angle, the shield will lose detail at a certain degrees

The dwarves are the most unappealing. I believe they are the worst dwarves I've seen in a fantasy setting. That doesen't mean they are terrible, but they're the worst ever

Edited November 17, 201411 yr by Sedrefilos

I take it back, the dwarves from Heroes of Might and Magic 1, 2 and 3 are the worst

The first thing I noticed when the original gameplay videos came out was the fact that they went for the large rag-doll in character creation, and I remember at the time thinking that might be a bad idea. RPG players love a good bit of character customisation, but it's not worth a great deal when it isn't going to be remotely visible, and indeed it is worth even less when it stands up so poorly in comparison to other RPGs where you might actually see your character in a bit more detail.

 

Personally, I think they would've done better to completely remove those models, replace them with a handful of "actual size" models to pick from, and just offered many more portraits in order to showcase variation.

 

I really think that aspect of character creation is digging a very unnecessary grave for PoE.

I'm not a fan of the Wild "Bad Fur Day" Orlan, but otherwise I don't have much to complain about with the models since they improved the hair selections. Then again, I'm not really particular about that sort of thing.