I have an issue with the look of player characters in this game (all classes) - they don’t look like adults, but more so resemble either kids in their early teens, or some oversized midgets.
What’s causing that is their body proportions that are simply off.
Take a look at the below example (I’m sorry, but once you’ve seen this, you won’t be able to unsee it).
I’m using a D2 class as a benchmark, comparing to LE’s class side by side. I made sure their height was equal on the picture. Notice: the LE model has an oversized head and enlarged torso, and at the same time it’s got shorter limbs. This is what makes LE chars (all classes) look more like decorated kids, rather than developed adults.
Questions to EHG:
Was the above childlike look intentional in your game?
If it was intentional, what were you trying to accomplish?
If it was not intentional, will you be able to adjust the models in future patches?
IRL, I’m an inch or so taller than my wife (5’ 10 or 5’11 or so) but because she has long legs and I have stumpy legs our body proportions are different.
He’s right, the body proportions are ‘different’. But people are all different.
I don’t think the issue here is the proportions but the artistic style. Those are two vastly different art styles in those two photos and they will feel very different from each other. I am not the biggest fan of the character designs in LE because I really like things rough around the edges and LE characters are a bit too clean and pristine for me.
If I can make an overly simplified comparison LE is more D3 and that other pic is more GD.
Aesthetics are hard to get ‘right’ for everybody because people responding to them intrinsically. As long as the aesthetic is consistent in the world, I can appreciate it even if it’s not to my ‘tastes.’
There are lots of older posts about this (and odd armour issues too).
I will admit some models do tend to look odd. But I think thats just because we are used to the idealised artistic proportions and the real world tends to be a little more janky (LE like?) so we dont like seeing our characters looking so odd in a game.
Definitely wouldnt want LE chars to all look like the Chinese stylised game chars (or dare I say western superhero comics with huge boobs & impossible muscles), but they could use a little tweak here or there imho.
Please, definitely not this. I also hope they steer clear of the WoW, Warhammer MY ARMOR IS A POWER SUIT WITH MY LITTLE TINY HEAD STICKING OUT OF IT, sort of thing as well.
Again, it’s all personal choices. I don’t honestly mind whatever they do as long as the world they create is cohesive. And for the most part it seems to be. Usually the outliers for LE are the old models (terrain or character) that haven’t yet got an update. Who remembers Alpha characters?
I do agree the characters look off. The eyes of the primalist are uncanny and the arms/legs look way too small. I think all characters look a bit dwarf-ish and I’m starting to think it might be head size.
I think if this game is looking to take on such names as Diablo or PoE, they will absolutely have to get the character design right, so that it can be taken seriously and appeals to the vast majority of ARPG players. At the moment, unfortunately, that is simply not the case.
I’ve never heard them talk about wanting to compete with either Blizzard or GGG, so I can’t speak to that. As to the character design, while it certainly needs work (good thing it’s still in BETA!) I think they’re making great progress. But I also only speak for myself, I can’t speak to the ‘vast majority’ because my finger isn’t on the pulse.
So I ran a quick experiment: showed my daughter (a teenager) the character creation screen in LE with Primalist on it, and asked her what she thinks of it (note: that was her first time seeing this – she hadn’t known anything about the game before).
Her first response was “I don’t know, what do you want me to tell you?.. body proportions?..”
I laughed a bit, then asked her to clarify what it meant
Something to keep in mind here is that looking at the model dead on is not the normal gameplay view of the models and their armors. The models look quite good when viewed from our isometric lens.
Most games use the “perfect” proportion as their standard and create their toons respectively, it’s not wrong for a game to make their toons a little less “perfect” in proportions.
I doubt that the designers have created the models with the message in mind “you dont have to be perfect, love yourself as you are. See, our character models are not perfect, either.”
Things in fantasy games should look badass and cool. And if big heads don’t look that cool and badass and turn people off, maybe they could change it a bit.
EHG already adjusted the broader hips of the Roge on the character screen.
