Early Private Access Preview: Tabaxi on Lamannia!

[Cordovan]

Lamannia is now open for a specialearly preview of the Tabaxi ahead of the opening of our regularpublic preview on Wednesday! Wiki editors, bloggers, video makers,and other content creators can now log into Lamannia and check thingsout if they have been cleared by us first per last week's forumthread. Feel free to use this thread to spotlight your work! If youwant in on future previews, get in touch with me through a forumprivate message. This is not an opportunity to get in early justbecause you are curious, but is rather an opportunity for peopledoing creative community work to get started before the formal publicpreview. If you have a good reason to be there, we'll likely let youin for future early previews.


Our regular public preview has beenextended due to technical issues yesterday that forced us to delaythe preview process. So, expect Lamannia to open to the generalpublic at 11:00 AM Eastern on Wednesday, April 13th andremain available until 3:00 PM Eastern on Friday, April 15th.Please use this time to check out the Tabaxi and let us know what yousee! Note that the Test Dojo has undergone some renovations to bothgive the place a bit of Isle of Dread flavor in addition to somegeneral visual improvements. We'll probably end up making some otherchanges in the future. Thanks!

[Burtle]

I sent you and the DDO twitter page, a message Cordo, but you guys never responded.. guess I'll have to live vicoursly thru other streamers, while I don't get a chance to stream it myself..

[J1NG]

I sent you and the DDO twitter page, a message Cordo, but you guys never responded.. guess I'll have to live vicoursly thru other streamers, while I don't get a chance to stream it myself..

J1NG

[Arkat]

Iconic Tabaxi is a Monk.

[irnimnode]

So the new preview is suppose to be open but I am showing it closed. How do I get to see the new content?

[drathdragon]

So the new preview is suppose to be open but I am showing it closed. How do I get to see the new content?

i'm honestly confused as well

[J1NG]

So the new preview is suppose to be open but I am showing it closed. How do I get to see the new content?

i'm honestly confused as well

If you were never added into the special preview list, you won't be able to log in for it today (the preview from yesterday got pushed to today and the general Lamannia preview has been pushed to tomorrow).

If you were supposed to have access, like myself, but can't, make sure you list this out. And/or get in touch with Cordovan about it.

J1NG

[MasterKernel]

If you were supposed to have access, like myself, but can't

[drathdragon]

i still don't understand: i must be thor to have access ?




XD

[DRoark]

A single positive note, they're not hunched over Stroke-Vincents like the Shifters are.

On a gaming note, we're CONSTANTLY going to be yelling at party members to stop running ahead of the tanks and healers, because they completely butchered the Tabaxi racial movement.

Fight for 3 seconds, 50% speed boost for 18 seconds. Repeat. Good luck healers! I hate to be "that guy", but this is horrible racial scaling.
Tabaxi speed never, ever, scaled... At best, this should be a racial boost on a cooldown, like 30/40/50 as you tier up. But every 3 seconds? No.

This also makes the Tabaxi if I'm seeing this right, the ONLY way to get "unlimited" speed boosts. I'd suggest either make ALL speed boosts a "cooldown" only,
and not X number of charges, or keep the Tabaxi in-line with everyone else and limit the rediculous overclocking of an established race.

[The_Human_Cypher]

So, I took multiple screenshots of both the regular Tabaxi race and the Trailblazer monk Iconic race and then sent the images to MassivelyOP.com. I let Justin (Syp) know that this was a special, early preview of the character races and that these images are only available to select few people in the community.

I then shared all of the images to DDOCentral's Twitter following (over 25K) and in the DDO Argonnessen Facebook group, which has over 700 members.

https://twitter.com/ddocentral

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ddoargonnessen

I later posted the images on DDOCentral's Facebook page as well.

https://www.facebook.com/gaming/ddocentral

[Aelonwy]

They look very cartoony, arms and heads a little too big for their bodies. Stylized textures. Very World of Warcraft character art.

[Baahb3]

Just watch some videos from DDOCast.

Model belongs in Yu-gi-oh, not DDO. Sorry for the art people but we should not be catering to 10 year olds with our character models.

The mounts were nice looking.

I am going to say this here and I will Andy Dufrense this if I have to.

You have to have options for your top two packages for people that don't care about cosmetics and mounts. You need to have options to replace all that stuff with XP potions, bags, tomes, ANYTHING that would be useful in game. Disposable income is limited right now and if people don't feel like they will get their money's worth out of a package, they just won't buy it.

It is already going to be a hard sell to ask people to pump money into a game with so many performance problems and the copious amounts of bugs that have not been addressed from the past 2 expansions.

[The_Human_Cypher]

Here is the MassivelyOP.com article with the Tabaxi screenshots I sent in:

https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/13/d...isle-of-dread/

[Arkat]

Trying to find a compelling reason to change my Aasimar Unarmed (handwraps) Monk to some sort of Tabaxi Monk, but can't find one.

Trying to find a compelling reason to change my Bladeforged Paladin Q-Staff user to some sort of Tabaxi Q-Staff user, but can't find one.

Trying to find a compelling reason to change my Razorclaw Shifter Barbarian Handwraps user to some sort of Tabaxi Unarmed Monk, but can't find one, either.

I've only been looking at the Tabaxi Trailblazer on Lamannia for an hour or so, though. Maybe something, besides the very nice fast movement, will jump out at me later.

We'll see.


P.S. I really think it's a bit odd that I'm having to look so hard for a reason to TR any of my toons into a Tabaxi. FYI, I'm not a TR hamster so getting all the racial past lives is not a reason for me to change any of my toons into a Tabaxi.

[DRoark]

I agree on that point. Aside from some questionable perks (like trying to Featherfall 1.5 seconds in the middle of a fight), and the unbalanced movement
that we hope they just change to the actual Tabaxi non-scaling Racial Sprint Boost (like every other one in the game), it's very cartoonish.

Kitty, Warcraft Edition.

It just seems that the models have declined over the years, like the Neanderthal PDK, Vincent the Shifter, and now Thundercat Lite. I suppose we're a bit biased,
since most games now have a graphic engine that supports more realistic racial features, and can cover up the shifting blocky terrain-building that DDO still uses.

[Aelonwy]

FLAWS

• I am displeased that ALL the markings are identical we only get to choose the color. There should have been at least 3 patterns of markings to choose from.
• The ONLY pattern appears to be missing on the back of the legs and is poorly rendered on the back of the neck.
• I don't like the permanent scar.
• I only play female characters, and female Tabaxi have ZERO hairstyles?! Really? So these cat-people from another plane, another universe, these fantasy cat people have evolved specifically like the lions of earth such that ONLY males have manes? Lame.
• I would like the selection of facial hairstyles for females to specifically affect the whiskers. I would like to make them as small and unnoticeable as possible. Perhaps someone else would like larger whiskers.
• Head shape as it affects muzzle/snout... the muzzle/snout area of the head looks too large, its making the whole head look too large.
• Elbow seems to extend below the waist and hands below the knees making the entire figure look out of proportion.
• The two new cosmetic cloaks for the Isle of Dread are NOT displaying on the female Tabaxi
• Texture looks too smooth and plastic-like
• If raptor mount has a dance animation it does not play well with Tabaxi female

Pleasantries

• Excellent selection of eyes
• Excellent selection of colors for fur, skin, and eyes
• Pleasantly surprised at color and shape selection for noses
• Adequate ear selection, bonus for with and without earrings
• Various tail decorations, interesting
  
  Further non-Tabaxi pleasantries
• Raptor mounts are awesome
• Set decorating artists and designers have improved the jungle set pieces so much
• Dread Pirate cosmetics are absolutely top notch

Images for Clarification:

Blurry back of neck pattern


Oddness of body pattern not extending to at least part of the back of the legs, looks weird
Also shows strangely over-large arms...or...perhaps its that the torso is too small for those arms and legs


Female Tabaxi
Left as created in character creation screen, right with muzzle quickly photoshopped 10% smaller

Better proportioned IMHO

[GramercyRiff]

FLAWS

• I am displeased that ALL the markings are identical we only get to choose the color. There should have been at least 3 patterns of markings to choose from.
• The ONLY pattern appears to be missing on the back of the legs and is poorly rendered on the back of the neck.
• I don't like the permanent scar.
• I only play female characters, and female Tabaxi have ZERO hairstyles?! Really? So these cat-people from another plane, another universe, these fantasy cat people have evolved specifically like the lions of earth such that ONLY males have manes? Lame.
• I would like the selection of facial hairstyles for females to specifically affect the whiskers. I would like to make them as small and unnoticeable as possible. Perhaps someone else would like larger whiskers.
• Head shape as it affects muzzle/snout... the muzzle/snout area of the head looks too large, its making the whole head look too large.
• Elbow seems to extend below the waist and hands below the knees making the entire figure look out of proportion.
• The two new cosmetic cloaks for the Isle of Dread are NOT displaying on the female Tabaxi
• Texture looks too smooth and plastic-like
• If raptor mount has a dance animation it does not play well with Tabaxi female

Pleasantries

• Excellent selection of eyes
• Excellent selection of colors for fur, skin, and eyes
• Pleasantly surprised at color and shape selection for noses
• Adequate ear selection, bonus for with and without earrings
• Various tail decorations, interesting
  
  Further non-Tabaxi pleasantries
• Raptor mounts are awesome
• Set decorating artists and designers have improved the jungle set pieces so much
• Dread Pirate cosmetics are absolutely top notch

Images for Clarification:

Blurry back of neck pattern


Oddness of body pattern not extending to at least part of the back of the legs, looks weird
Also shows strangely over-large arms...or...perhaps its that the torso is too small for those arms and legs


Female Tabaxi
Left as created in character creation screen, right with muzzle quickly photoshopped 10% smaller

Better proportioned IMHO

Good job making the Tabaxi look less bizarre. It's still pretty bizarre and that's probably ok since it's a cat person, but you improved it drastically with just a small change.

I also agree female Tabaxi should have the option for a glorious mane. Fantasy should only ever be loosely based on reality. Fantasy is the realm of imagination after all.

[Lynnabel]

FLAWS

• I am displeased that ALL the markings are identical we only get to choose the color. There should have been at least 3 patterns of markings to choose from.
• The ONLY pattern appears to be missing on the back of the legs and is poorly rendered on the back of the neck.
• I don't like the permanent scar.
• I only play female characters, and female Tabaxi have ZERO hairstyles?! Really? So these cat-people from another plane, another universe, these fantasy cat people have evolved specifically like the lions of earth such that ONLY males have manes? Lame.
• I would like the selection of facial hairstyles for females to specifically affect the whiskers. I would like to make them as small and unnoticeable as possible. Perhaps someone else would like larger whiskers.
• Head shape as it affects muzzle/snout... the muzzle/snout area of the head looks too large, its making the whole head look too large.
• Elbow seems to extend below the waist and hands below the knees making the entire figure look out of proportion.
• The two new cosmetic cloaks for the Isle of Dread are NOT displaying on the female Tabaxi
• Texture looks too smooth and plastic-like
• If raptor mount has a dance animation it does not play well with Tabaxi female

It sounds like you didn't scroll down on the character creation page. The scar is not permanent (check Facial Details) and there are many markings to choose from. Also, please take note of any Known Issues. The one you're looking for is this one:

A few Known Issues before we start:

• Female Tabaxi do not have hair customization options yet in this build.

Since you are far from the only person who may have missed the scrollbar, this makes me think that the scrollbar is way too easy to miss. Scars are cool and all, but having everyone have them all the time? Not as cool. I'll see if I can get the scrollbar to fit a little nicer - that might help it be easier to notice when you're making changes to your soon-to-be-unscarred Tabaxi

[Artos_Fabril]

FLAWS

• I only play female characters, and female Tabaxi have ZERO hairstyles?! Really? So these cat-people from another plane, another universe, these fantasy cat people have evolved specifically like the lions of earth such that ONLY males have manes? Lame.
• I would like the selection of facial hairstyles for females to specifically affect the whiskers. I would like to make them as small and unnoticeable as possible. Perhaps someone else would like larger whiskers.

Out of curiosity, did you try out any hair dyes to see what, if anything, they do on female Tabaxi?