Make helves less fuggly

[DawnofEntropy]

Oh... my beloved gripe of old!
Half elves!
The red-headed, misshapen, uncanny-valleyed step-children we all love to hate...



...

I first suggested a few graphical tweaks over the Lamannia forum, when they first introduced Helves, last year.
I guess this picture warrants being posted again, given helves still give me the creeps when I try building one.
I'm yet to create one...



My humble attempt at tweaking helven appearance, using existing models and textures.

...

As an aside, I truly feel graphical dept did a poor job on helves.
We provided actionable advice.
I've bought them, and I'm yet to create any of them.
I've even created a horc barb - and that's the furthest from my fave race/class as it comes...

I guess it's my pet peeve with DDO; some people lose it when you mention the bugs.
I freak out when I see what they did to helves...

Beards=Epic win that makes any char look better.

Afterwards: Bearded Kobolds anyone?

[Alabore]

Beards=Epic win that makes any char look better.

Eh, I wear a beard, myself!

[brickwall]

helfs are mad fuggly there not even big and mean looking like a horc they got nothing there little fuggly ppl and i will never make one that that im a fan of meat bags but still.

[SirValentine]

So if you don't want us to make fun of the way helves look, why most them look so . . . <thinks of what I can say that won't get me another infraction> . . . um . . . fug it, I can't but you know what I'm talking about.

I know what you are talking about.

The male half-elves look like females. The female half-elves look like aliens.

Which is very strange, because the full elves and the humans both look fine.

[Pape_27]

when update 7 was about to be released, Fernando, at one of the cons, said in an interview that the Helf Race was (paraphrasing here) "one of the best looking races in the game"...

Fernando... dude... get some glasses... seriously.

Most helfs looks like the should be riding the short bus to school, iffn you catch my meaning.

I would like to see the looks revamped, tweaked, reworked, etc... Oh yeah, and provide a free cosmetic respec for those of us with helves.

_

[brian14]

I got to be of the very few that thinks Helf doesn't look that bad :P

IMHO, they look alot better then humans

Males do not look bad IMO. Yes they are effeminate, but that's what I would expect. It's females who look like a pancake with four push-pins in it.

[karnokvolrath]

The h-elves looks are so terrible that i will flat out never play one.

Just think with the new UI skin you can always look at your half-elf.

[Chette]

/signed x 1E6

Half elves are just hideous, I'm embarrassed to play them.

But I wouldn't feel half as awful about them if it weren't clear that the devs had but so little work into them, expecting us to be satisfied with these half-arsed abominations. If you are ever creating a half-elf, start changing the lips. Go on, do it now if you haven't already. What do you notice? Oh, that's right, all the lips are the same size, and one half (I forget if it's the top half or the bottom half) is the exact same in every one. They have no depth, no texture. It's a lazy chop job and whoever put it into the game should be ashamed. A good 9/10 of the eyes look like they belong on somebody with down syndrome. I'm sorry, no offense intended to people with that disease, but I bet even they, if creating a character in a role-playing fantasy game, would chose an alternate appearance.

Half elves, for being so powerful and versatility, deserve something better than to be hidden under a ninja mask.

Since they were implemented the devs haven't commented at all on the near unanimous rejection of their looks. I'm not sure if their feelings are hurt, or they're just in denial.

I'm sorry devs, we all make mistakes, you made one. Be a man (or woman) and admit it and fix it.

[Alabore]

But I wouldn't feel half as awful about them if it weren't clear that the devs had but so little work into them.

What baffles me is, they DID put work into helves.
They created models and textures from scratch - even going the length of drawing new skins, eyes and lips - and jewellery for helves.

They could have picked the easy way: port and adapt existing textures from other races.
If you check closely, halflings share facial textures with elves; humans with dwarves.
Why couldn't they simply recycle textures from haflings/elves?
Elven/Halfling skin looks a bit saggy but natural looking; why did they spend - no, waste - production cycles to draw new textures for helves from scratch, when they could have used existing skins?!

Not only they stick out as different, but they also do in a comparatively negative way.
They stick out like the proverbial sore thumb.

...

[nerdrage]

Whoever said male helves should look "effeminate"!?
DDO Male elves don't, especially compared to LOTRO elves.
Why are male helves supposed to look "effeminate"!?

Why are DnD c-rpgs always struggling to portray helves as moderately attractive?
NWN2 did an awful job - female helves in NWN2 reminded me of Cinderella's step-sisters.
NWN1/BG didn't even try - helves shared models with either human or elf.

Is it because players tend to consider helves as a sissy's choice?
Real men use horcs?
I'm baffled and disappointed.

[/nerdrage]

Sigh...
I guess this is still a sore topic for me.



Gods know I tried creating helves but I could never bear myself to hit the Create button.
Maybe devs will tweak them a bit.
Sorry DDO art dept, you really let me down on this one - and I sincerely like what you've done with the rest of the game.

[Aelonwy]

To Alabore... they really look much better than what we currently have, although the guy looks exhausted. Still much better.

[Alabore]

although the guy looks exhausted.

I guess I shouldn't have given him a helven lady, to keep him company...



...

Adult jokes aside, I was influenced by Tanis Half-Elven's sharp features.
I borrowed bits from halfling and elven textures; trying to emphasise skin sagginess to make my helves less youthful, while still retaining elven heritage.

In a sense, I went the other way from DDO helves: DDO artists made them artificially - and IMHO unattractively - youthful by smoothing out their textures, while keeping basically human models.

The underlyng mistake I blame on DDO artists was: they used human models, while trying to make them "elfin", and actually getting "alien".
They could have used elven/halfling models, and made them more human, instead.

[Hutoth]

(pictures of half elves the way they should be)

+1 to you

Make helves less fuggly

/signed.

And while we're at it roll D2 for either:
1 = rename horcs as hogres
2 = revisit the body mesh for horcs to reduce their cartoonish size

... then I'll buy 'em both.

[DawnofEntropy]

At least let our half-elf males wear make up so they look like they try to look like Lady Gaga.

[Emili]

There has to be a reason not to consider a h-elf and the negative fiffty, yes, -50 in Comeliness (hidden stat left over from 2.5 only available on H-elves) was the way to do it.

[LeLoric]

I just can't sign this.

If turbine fixes it then people will no longer have a way to make extremely ugly half-elfs and as such people will complain that my existing half-elfs are something they can't get. orum flame wars will ensue, feelings hurt, and infraction points doled out. I just can't be responsible for this.

[Candela90]

I agree. They look just hilarious. Big body with small head, and face that looks like some "people" in Star Trek. Come on...

Humans are nice, elves are beautifull - so how mix of this 2 is sooo ugly?
I will never roll one too, if they dont change that look. Helfs should be a little more slim and a little less tall - something between human and elf. And should have normal head size, and normal face.... i just dont know how to say it about their face when its all so... ugly and not normal
Theyre just.... Star Trek

[macubrae]

I just really find it funny that people taking up for helfs mention that they are "not that bad looking" and "look okay if you tweek them a bit". Is that supposed to fix things? I think, if I ever decide to make a helf, I'm going to have full faced helms ready for levels 1-20. Helfs alone are a reason to get crafting up, just to make sure you keep their faces covered.

Is it too much to ask for a paper sack helm skin in the DDO store?

[DawnofEntropy]

I just really find it funny that people taking up for helfs mention that they are "not that bad looking" and "look okay if you tweek them a bit". Is that supposed to fix things? I think, if I ever decide to make a helf, I'm going to have full faced helms ready for levels 1-20. Helfs alone are a reason to get crafting up, just to make sure you keep their faces covered.

Is it too much to ask for a paper sack helm skin in the DDO store?

Although I must says a half-elf with the wildman haircut looks surprisingly good. Only way to make a cool half-elf.