falka
Gibberling
Posts: 10
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Post by falka on Aug 2, 2014 18:10:26 GMT
This might not be the biggest or the most important part of the incoming Inquisition game but since I've always played Elves in DA games (and most other RPGs, sucker for stats) I thought I might share my opinion here. First of all, I wasn't a huge fan of how Elves looked in DA:O - most of them looked like humans with pointy ears or disturbingly like a hamster (I'm looking at you, Cammen). I was overjoyed when I've found Elves update on my replay - social.bioware.com/project/4483/#details . It's one of those mods I can't imagine playing without now (along with Qunari update). Sometimes I think I was the only one who liked Elves in DA2 - they looked like another race. Different. Alien. They weren't human, they didn't need to be aesthetically pleasing to humans. I understand a lot of people called the design ugly since it didn't fit with the whole elf image we have ingrained in our heads thanks to Tolkien (and you can thank Shakespear for elves as little sprites with wings... the bastard) and that's ok, still the amount of vitriol the design suffered was astonishing. (I suppose the same might be said about elf races in Elder Scrolls games - there're heaps of mods changing the design, some of them minor, some of them totally changing it and some of them best left unsaid). This brings me to DA:I Most comments I've read about Sera and Solas were about how ugly they are. Not the story, not what skills they might bring into the party but 'zomg fugly won;t romance, mod asap'. I'd like to know what everyone else thinks of the designs in the games, what you hope for and what you will mod when you have a chance (I'm gonna get off the high horse of mine and say it straight - if Iron Bull is romanceable I will change his look into something more DA2 qunari like. Double standards ftw).
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Post by melbella on Aug 2, 2014 20:19:07 GMT
This brings me to DA:I Most comments I've read about Sera and Solas were about how ugly they are. Not the story, not what skills they might bring into the party but 'zomg fugly won;t romance, mod asap'. I'd like to know what everyone else thinks of the designs in the games, what you hope for and what you will mod when you have a chance (I'm gonna get off the high horse of mine and say it straight - if Iron Bull is romanceable I will change his look into something more DA2 qunari like. Double standards ftw).
I never gave much thought to how "races" look but rather individual characters. So far, I think all the female NPCs/companions in DAI look less than appealing. Vivienne wears that stupid hat that in bad light makes her look like a Qunari. I really hope it's removable/replaceable or she is going nowhere with me. Sera has ugly bad makeup for some unknown reason - really? raccoon eyes? Even Leliana and Morrigan just look....off. I actually like how Solas looks though; Cullen too, though he doesn't look like he did before. For previous games, I hated Anders' makeover for DA2....his features were more angular in DAA, which I liked better. It was like his chin disappeared or something. Weird.
As for mods....not for NPCs. To me they have a canon look and if I change that (a little or a lot) then they aren't the same person anymore. I hate watching videos where the player has used NPC mods...I have no idea who the characters are supposed to be.
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Post by Shades of Night on Aug 17, 2014 10:48:09 GMT
Ah! I didn't see this topic. Hmm I was going to say I'll pop it over in the Dragon Age section, but if we're comparing to other elves I guess it might be more general.Edit: It's called Dragon Age Elves, so into the Dragon Age section it goes~ Anyway. I'm not terribly fond of the DA2 elves. But the funny thing is the ones that are your companions, Fenris and Merril, both have much more human faces than most of the other elves in DA2. It's like they realized that a number of people wouldn't be too fond of the new look and so de-elfed the companion/romance interest ones a bit. The main thing that got to me though was the inconsistency. Drastically changing something from one game to another. I can understand small changes but these weren't that small. I think if they'd had them looking like they do in DA2 from the start in DAO there would have been much less backlash because it would have been easy to take it as 'the way they were meant to be from the start'. Also the shoeless thing really bugged me. Part of their tradition? But when most other parts of their traditions have been obliterated by living as slaves why would their masters have allowed something like not wearing shoes to continue? (unless they saw it as a sign of their lower station). As for DA:I, I haven't really seen much of the elves in that yet. I've seen a bit of Solas and remember first thinking that the picture was a photoshop of whats-his-name, Nicholas cage (probably just something to do with how the picture on the wiki looks), then when I realized it wasn't I was struck by how incredibly short his forehead was. There is something really strange going on with the top of his head. I don't think I would call either of them ugly though. As for mods, first mods I'll look for will be more appearance options for my player character, especially hair. There is never enough and modders tend to make nicer hair than Bioware I don't tend to really mod companions either. I just eventually get used to however they look.
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Post by Gileadan on Aug 24, 2014 12:09:08 GMT
I really, really didn't like the elf design in DA2 and the inconsistencies it created. I definitely didn't find the DA2 elves attractive in any way, and yet the game occasionally explicitly stated (like in the quest "Magistrate's Orders", I believe) that humans found elves attractive. When I walked into the Blooming Rose and saw those not-so-pretty female elf models with their giraffe necks and shark fin noses, my first thought was "Uh, how desperate would you have to be...?" Not very nice, I know. It just looked and felt completely unreal. The game explicitly stated "A" and then showed me "B".
But then again, I think that DA2 was a poorly designed mess in general. This discrepancy of what the game tells you (in dialogue and codex entries) and what you actually see happening often differs so much that I personally couldn't connect to the story and characters at all.
Examples: "Templars persecute mages everywhere! Watch out!" --> Mage Hawke merrily shoots fireballs down main street, nothing happens. "The city is overrun with Fereldan refugees! We're out of space!" --> Streets so empty that you instinctively wait for tumbleweeds to roll by and a single, lonely dude in a duster whistle an Ennio Morricone tune. "Elves are so incredibly attractive to humans!" --> ...yeah.
I'm not sure why they felt the need to deviate from the classic fantasy elf look so far. Sure, their DA:O elves looked like humans with pointy ears, but it's up to their art department to make them look different enough for people to tell the difference without wandering off into the freak zone like they did in DA2. That just looked like a desperate attempt to be different in some way. Like designing a creature that looks like a hairless, upright walking hippo and then call it a werewolf... because, ya know, werewolves are boring and mainstream when they just look like upright walking dogs.
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Post by notabarbiegirl on Sept 3, 2014 0:00:48 GMT
I think that I shall defend Tolkien Elves. I like the idea of the heritage, statue , and looks JRR gave them in his stories. I also like Faerun Elves for the most part, they were designed smaller of statue than Tolkien elves, but maintained a grace and beauty, through out the lore. The exception was the eye sore than NWN2 turned them into, yes I had a mod for that.
DA:O Reworked the lore for Elves, fine they lost their long life and affinity for magic, fine they are still shorter than an average human, fine they do not have racial bonuses. I did personally choose eyes that were more Elf like in the character creator so they looked more elf like.
DA:2 I still haven't played, but have looked at images and "lets play" videos. I will ring in and say that with the exception of playable characters ( Hawke, and family, and the companions) people just looked like they had been hit with a bag of ugly sticks.
Yes I think Elves need slanted eyes, and yes I think pointed ears should be a norm. But, looking Alien, not so much. Ears, oh the ears. I have seen a ton of changes in Elf ears. Three feet long and curly? Ears so long that a ranger or druid is risking physical damage running through the trees ? Elves with rabbit like ears that emote? I know that every artist has their own style, I just am not fond of those.
And while on the subject 1/2 elves come on, the thought that they take after their father totally bothers me. I will use my real life argument. I joke saying that I was a great copy machine my kids look like their father. Mostly. There are distinct features that are pure Momma, even on my son who could be his Bio fathers copy, except for he has my wide shoulders, and my smile, and my ears. So I think a 1/2 elf would have characteristics of both parents.
DA:I I will agree with Mebella, the chick with the Maleficent head dress, that would get on my nerves and I hope that that eye sore would be removable. It seems to me that in order to be "ground breaking" with each release they are reinventing the wheel each time. The old adage of "if it ain't broke; don't fix it" springs, to mind.
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Post by Shades of Night on Sept 5, 2014 0:15:00 GMT
And while on the subject 1/2 elves come on, the thought that they take after their father totally bothers me. I will use my real life argument. I joke saying that I was a great copy machine my kids look like their father. Mostly. There are distinct features that are pure Momma, even on my son who could be his Bio fathers copy, except for he has my wide shoulders, and my smile, and my ears. So I think a 1/2 elf would have characteristics of both parents. Oho, don't even get me started on how absolutely absurd and ridiculous the thing with half elves is. An elf + a human = a human just doesn't seem to make sense. I think somewhere they tried to use science or nature as an excuse, but in nature you DO get halfbreeds and they DO take after both parents. It would have been nice to have half-elves that are sterile because a number of the examples that you see in nature are. But then again there are also a number that aren't and they go on to breed with no problems. Really I'm just still highly irritated and annoyed that they deprived me of the option to play as a half elf But I would have been happy if they'd just had half-elves, actual half-elves, not 'Oh I'm a half-elf but I look human' ones. Ahem. Why yes, I am rather fond of half-elves
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