Glad to know I'm not the only one who likes Aeducan/Leliana. I feel like they can understand each other better b/c they both got burned by the Game. They were victims to politics. Players in the game that got humbled unexpectedly. Warden betrayed by his brother, Leliana betrayed by her lover/mentor, those close to them (Bhelen and Marjolaine) chose their own power over loyalty.
That is why I think it makes for a good foundation of a friendship/relationship between Aeducan and Leliana. Then again that's just my opinion.
Cadash sword and board is awesome! Even more so with the Golden Nug bc now he'll get his legion armor and dwarf helmet, and dwarf sword and shield as soon as I get the materials.
I'm at the beginning of the game and I have legion of the dead armor, inquisitor's helm and dwarf shield.
Just got my butt kicked at Haven with my Dwarven Inquisitor. Have cleared Storm Coast, minus entering the cave with the red lyrium as I can't yet, the Fallow Mire and nearly all of the Hinterlands.
Then I spent a good while recording the "Dawn will Come" scene on my Xbox One and editing it in the OneDrive to be uploaded to the internet. I added voice-overs to add thoughts to Cadash, so I'm voicing what he's thinking the whole time.
I'll post it once it's uploaded from my xbox to the internet.
The way I'm roleplaying him, he sees himself being forced to sit at the table and roll the dice, so he's rolling with it and, in his mind, running a huge con on the whole of Thedas. He's going around telling everyone he's the Herald of Andraste, but he had told Cassandra he didn't believe in the Maker and Josephine he believes in the Stone but by the time of finding Skyhold he's beginning to actually believe there may be something to him being chosen.
Anyone here play XCom2? I can't believe it took me as many hours as it did to recognize who was voice-acting the main liaison character with the player, Central Bradford... I'd've guessed sooner if they'd showed Bradford's inevitably hairy chest.
Brian Bloom voiced characters in other games as well, naturally, but it just sorta made XCom2 a little more homey to hear what job the Han-Solo-like dwarf took after he retired his Kirkwall post. "Commander, you may wish to speak with Lily about the new plasma weapon she's designed called The Bianca. She's going to be named a Paragon for it, wouldn't ya know..."
Anyhoots, thought I'd chime in on this discussion from days ago:
If memory serves, the female dwarf model in Origins was nearly universally derided for its proportions, namely the relatively broad shoulders and longer arms in relation to the torso. Personally, I thought it made them look strong, but the phrase 'gorilla arms' was pretty popular in dwarf threads.
I don't recall the broad shoulders bit, but I was very surprised to find myself the only one on the DAO dwarf thread (at the time I joined it anyway) not bestowing heavy praises on the DAO mod for shortening dwarf arms. I drew this up at the time just to demonstrate difference, but as awful as I thought it made the modded dwarves, apparently my Kruklya was seen as the "wrong" one.
(Actually Veylya seemed between the "extremes," but I think that might be a trick of positioning since she also had the mod applied, I believe.)
I've mentioned before that longer arms for dwarves just makes sense in a world of swordfighting in which the guy with the shorter arms has to wade further into the slash range of an enemy just to be able to hit. Evolutionarily speaking, dwarves with shorter arms would survive battles with long-limbs less often. Not to mention long bows for dwarves...
In any case I saw no aesthetic issue with long-armed Kruklya whose wider dagger swings and jabs looked wonderfully natural... and just plain awesome:
Spoiler
And so on...
It was discussed on the old thread as pretty much standard issue for a dwarf player to shrink dwarf arms with that mod... which made dwarf arms just about as stubby as *ahem* DAI dwarves... It'd be a shame if that sort of near-universal sentiment is the reason for the dwarf build we see in DAI. But since it's fairly standard issue on this thread that we want our burlier DAO dwarf girls back, maybe that'll help guide the designers by the same token.
I wasn't around for that initially, but when I heard "gorilla arms" used when I started playing DAO later, the people always said they were talking about the arms being too long, not the shoulders. I'm particularly put out by the change because it flushes the entire f!Brosca origin story down the privy. Didn't happen unless someone drugged the entire city of Orzammar with some really good psychadelics. I'd have understood if it was a minor change, but in DAO, the male and female dwarves looked like the same race. Now the sexual dimorphism is so extreme, as far as I'm concerned, they turned female dwarves into hobbits, sigh. The fact that DAO did NOT create unnecessary artificial distinctions between male and female PCs was one of the things that attracted me to it.
It's as if someone is absolutely terrified at presenting a female body type that looks physically strong. I want a female dwarf who looks like she can spend 10 hours at a forge swinging a heavy hammer, etc. I want Serena Williams-esque, not a runway model. They already have two very slender, non-muscular (visibly) female body types - elves and humans. Why not a bit of variety? You know, we hadn't seen a female qunari (to my knowledge) before DAI, why did they automatically default to, again, a body type that's so much smaller than the male? Dwarves and qunari are non-human races, there's no reason that the women can't be the same size, if not bigger or taller. Instead they went for a much more extreme level of sexual dimorphism, sigh. Until people start seeing a variety of female body types, people are going to continue to forget that women come in a lot of sizes and shapes too. And frankly, keeping the body types between the genders much closer would make the animations that much easier to do...
I agree, as you know- especially when you introduce terms like "sexual dimorphism" into casual conversation- but I'm starting to think it's not really so much a matter of the devs having very deliberately designed the f!dwarf model as it is in DAI because that was their vision so much as just that that's the sort of model you'll get when you don't care two tosses about something. Of course, they were initially going to leave out non-humans for DAI altogether, so already dwarves were going to have been somewhat of an afterthought along with everything else not Ken and Barbie, but I think they just lack anyone on the creative staff who's a significant dwarf fan. No one's there who might find themselves interacting with the graphics staff to say, "Wait, are we adding halflings? Ohh, that's your take on dwarf females then. Can I give a suggestion?" Or with the encounters writers to say, "You're aware that Bianca is one the most anticipated characters in the DAverse, right?" Or with the romance team to say, "But why wouldn't you let the player continue further with their relationship with Harding after you've already taken it that far?" They need someone- or better someones- on the creative team who would bring the enthusiasm for dwarves that would "do it" for DA dwarfiness- the type who'd love singing along with "Diggy Diggy Hole." DAO had at least one such someone (OK, she probably didn't know the song), but I doubt DAI really has anyone. It seems like a staffing issue, and obviously not all dwarf fan writers are going to be up to DA standards, so, fine, not anyone will do, but that's likely what they need- someone on the inside affecting design decisions in a way not gratuitous for dwarf fans but amenable to us. The devs as it stands don't seem particularly dwarf-enthusiast-friendly: more like dwarf-enthusiast-placating...
Just got my butt kicked at Haven with my Dwarven Inquisitor. Have cleared Storm Coast, minus entering the cave with the red lyrium as I can't yet, the Fallow Mire and nearly all of the Hinterlands.
Then I spent a good while recording the "Dawn will Come" scene on my Xbox One and editing it in the OneDrive to be uploaded to the internet. I added voice-overs to add thoughts to Cadash, so I'm voicing what he's thinking the whole time.
I'll post it once it's uploaded from my xbox to the internet.
The way I'm roleplaying him, he sees himself being forced to sit at the table and roll the dice, so he's rolling with it and, in his mind, running a huge con on the whole of Thedas. He's going around telling everyone he's the Herald of Andraste, but he had told Cassandra he didn't believe in the Maker and Josephine he believes in the Stone but by the time of finding Skyhold he's beginning to actually believe there may be something to him being chosen.
Well, as Varric pointed out, bad luck was Andraste's thing, and considering all the amount of bad things that happened to the Herald in very little time...it's more than enough to shake someone's convictions to their core. Also I liked your Cadash's thoughts about the song, and Giselle becoming the next divine. She should have been a candidate, dammit!
Also I got lucky to commission the adorable coffeependulum and I asked for Fjal' smoking his pipe like a proper dwarf. The result is just as adorable!
Anyone here play XCom2? I can't believe it took me as many hours as it did to recognize who was voice-acting the main liaison character with the player, Central Bradford... I'd've guessed sooner if they'd showed Bradford's inevitably hairy chest.
Brian Bloom voiced characters in other games as well, naturally, but it just sorta made XCom2 a little more homey to hear what job the Han-Solo-like dwarf took after he retired his Kirkwall post. "Commander, you may wish to speak with Lily about the new plasma weapon she's designed called The Bianca. She's going to be named a Paragon for it, wouldn't ya know..."
Anyhoots, thought I'd chime in on this discussion from days ago:
I don't recall the broad shoulders bit, but I was very surprised to find myself the only one on the DAO dwarf thread (at the time I joined it anyway) not bestowing heavy praises on the DAO mod for shortening dwarf arms. I drew this up at the time just to demonstrate difference, but as awful as I thought it made the modded dwarves, apparently my Kruklya was seen as the "wrong" one.
(Actually Veylya seemed between the "extremes," but I think that might be a trick of positioning since she also had the mod applied, I believe.)
I've mentioned before that longer arms for dwarves just makes sense in a world of swordfighting in which the guy with the shorter arms has to wade further into the slash range of an enemy just to be able to hit. Evolutionarily speaking, dwarves with shorter arms would survive battles with long-limbs less often. Not to mention long bows for dwarves...
In any case I saw no aesthetic issue with long-armed Kruklya whose wider dagger swings and jabs looked wonderfully natural... and just plain awesome:
Spoiler
And so on...
It was discussed on the old thread as pretty much standard issue for a dwarf player to shrink dwarf arms with that mod... which made dwarf arms just about as stubby as *ahem* DAI dwarves... It'd be a shame if that sort of near-universal sentiment is the reason for the dwarf build we see in DAI. But since it's fairly standard issue on this thread that we want our burlier DAO dwarf girls back, maybe that'll help guide the designers by the same token.
I agree, as you know- especially when you introduce terms like "sexual dimorphism" into casual conversation- but I'm starting to think it's not really so much a matter of the devs having very deliberately designed the f!dwarf model as it is in DAI because that was their vision so much as just that that's the sort of model you'll get when you don't care two tosses about something. Of course, they were initially going to leave out non-humans for DAI altogether, so already dwarves were going to have been somewhat of an afterthought along with everything else not Ken and Barbie, but I think they just lack anyone on the creative staff who's a significant dwarf fan. No one's there who might find themselves interacting with the graphics staff to say, "Wait, are we adding halflings? Ohh, that's your take on dwarf females then. Can I give a suggestion?" Or with the encounters writers to say, "You're aware that Bianca is one the most anticipated characters in the DAverse, right?" Or with the romance team to say, "But why wouldn't you let the player continue further with their relationship with Harding after you've already taken it that far?" They need someone- or better someones- on the creative team who would bring the enthusiasm for dwarves that would "do it" for DA dwarfiness- the type who'd love singing along with "Diggy Diggy Hole." DAO had at least one such someone (OK, she probably didn't know the song), but I doubt DAI really has anyone. It seems like a staffing issue, and obviously not all dwarf fan writers are going to be up to DA standards, so, fine, not anyone will do, but that's likely what they need- someone on the inside affecting design decisions in a way not gratuitous for dwarf fans but amenable to us. The devs as it stands don't seem particularly dwarf-enthusiast-friendly: more like dwarf-enthusiast-placating...
I think your Kruklya looks great! The model in the middle looks like the body's been modded as well to be thinner all around and taller, sigh. The arms might have been slightly long for the body length, but I really had no issues with it and didn't even notice the proportions until I ran across complaints about it. Frankly, I really think they redid the female dwarves to satisfy players who will never play a female dwarf, except perhaps briefly as a novelty PC that they abandon within a few hours of gameplay to go back to one of the runway model races. I'd be less annoyed if they'd made the male dwarves correspondingly thinner so they still looked like the same race, sigh.
Yes, I think having someone on their dev team who's a serious dwarf enthusiast would help. The only thing that gives me even a *little* hope is the fact Mike Laidlaw (I think it was him?) seemed to really like Harding...
I think your Kruklya looks great! The model in the middle looks like the body's been modded as well to be thinner all around and taller, sigh. The arms might have been slightly long for the body length, but I really had no issues with it and didn't even notice the proportions until I ran across complaints about it. Frankly, I really think they redid the female dwarves to satisfy players who will never play a female dwarf, except perhaps briefly as a novelty PC that they abandon within a few hours of gameplay to go back to one of the runway model races. I'd be less annoyed if they'd made the male dwarves correspondingly thinner so they still looked like the same race, sigh.
Yes, I think having someone on their dev team who's a serious dwarf enthusiast would help. The only thing that gives me even a *little* hope is the fact Mike Laidlaw (I think it was him?) seemed to really like Harding...
So they designed the DAI f!dwarf as a disposable novelty...? Ugh, not liking that interpretation...
Well, I went looking for a quote by Laidlaw that looked promising about dwarves and was kinda unsuccessful, alas, but I did find a couple instances that were "not bad..." and a couple yrs old by now. One was this by our Mark Druffalo (when did you change your name?):
"You don't anger the dwarf fans. They're prepared to go to war." - Mike Laidlaw
Not sure if that was just Mark's humor, pretending that was Laidlaw, or it actually was Laidlaw showing a little dorfy humor himself.
Another was a Tweet of his liking a fan's use of Harding as the Inq. And then there's the way he revealed in another Tweet the new freckles addition to the DAI CC by featuring a dwarf female. Kinda cool. Can't find the Tweet I'd also come across where he mentioned that he wanted to have all four races playable.
Felt a bit like scraping the barrel really... But still, never know 'til ya know. I still want Laidlaw- however empathetic he may be- to hire someone else who can do a DA4 Orzammar right proud...
Thanks on Kruklya. Still love that character- has become a recurring character for me in every game now, even XCOM (as a human heh). If I can manage to stomach another bout of DAI's excessive MMO grinding again, it's probably only by remaking her in DAI (as a halfling heh) that I'll be interested enough to go through it again. I'll have to mod her in a ponytail...
Another reason Veylya might appear thinner is the modded armor (can't recall the name) which seems to slim the torso dimensions and fit skin-tight. Kruklya's wearing vanilla armor (colored by mod) which tends to be a bit more bulky (and also more showy *rawr*) and leaves the open arm and leg proportions vanilla size...
So they designed the DAI f!dwarf as a disposable novelty...? Ugh, not liking that interpretation...
Well, I went looking for a quote by Laidlaw that looked promising about dwarves and was kinda unsuccessful, alas, but I did find a couple instances that were "not bad..." and a couple yrs old by now. One was this by our Mark Druffalo (when did you change your name?):
Not sure if that was just Mark's humor, pretending that was Laidlaw, or it actually was Laidlaw showing a little dorfy humor himself.
Another was a Tweet of his liking a fan's use of Harding as the Inq. And then there's the way he revealed in another Tweet the new freckles addition to the DAI CC by featuring a dwarf female. Kinda cool. Can't find the Tweet I'd also come across where he mentioned that he wanted to have all four races playable.
Felt a bit like scraping the barrel really... But still, never know 'til ya know. I still want Laidlaw- however empathetic he may be- to hire someone else who can do a DA4 Orzammar right proud...
Thanks on Kruklya. Still love that character- has become a recurring character for me in every game now, even XCOM (as a human heh). If I can manage to stomach another bout of DAI's excessive MMO grinding again, it's probably only by remaking her in DAI (as a halfling heh) that I'll be interested enough to go through it again. I'll have to mod her in a ponytail...
Another reason Veylya might appear thinner is the modded armor (can't recall the name) which seems to slim the torso dimensions and fit skin-tight. Kruklya's wearing vanilla armor (colored by mod) which tends to be a bit more bulky (and also more showy *rawr*) and leaves the open arm and leg proportions vanilla size...
Actually, the comments I remember by Laidlaw (at least I think it was him) was during some of the pre-game livestreams during the summer of 2014. I think Harding was one of the first characters they showed in these, and I particularly remember they show the clip unlocking the Hinterlands where she takes out the fighting mages and templars with her bow, then launches the bird to overfly the Crossroads. If I recall correctly, when she gets that little grin after taking all of them down, he commented something about her being a cute little bundle of murder (someone correct me if they remember the exact wording.) From the tone of voice and other comments pointing her out, I had the feeling that he liked her character. Her large role in JoH kind of suggests that fan response to her had impressed them...
Hmm, I wish we could get modded armor to change the body shape to bulkier overall. I've got the one custom body mod which I think is a big improvement, but it's still not quite what I want for a f!dwarf warrior.
I've been going back over DAI modding (unable to get ModManager to work again *sigh* troubleshooting now...), found that mod you mentioned for a bulkier f!dwarf (and others), saw a mention from the modder in the comment section that acknowledged what I was wondering before- that it only affects the Skyhold appearance. I also found in my old folder a mod for giving f!dwarves a "Thunder Body." Ever heard of it? Odd appearance on Nexus since it doesn't have a full file section for description and comments and such. No idea how I'd come across it other than stumbling into it while googling, but I'll try it out to see what it does and whether it does it anywhere other than Skyhold... when I can get mods working, that is. Already got enough ponytails to try out...
True though that it'd be great if there were a way to alter the body mesh in DAI simply by creating armor that looks the part. It seemed to work in DAO anyway. The bulky-build mod modder mentioned that for body appearance outside Skyhold it would take creating for a completely different mesh. Seems odd that they're different meshes since in vanilla the character looks the same in Skyhold or out, albeit with a different set of armor/clothing.
EDIT:
Already have one answer... The "Thunder Body" is by the same modder intended (by request) for f!dwarves. Still have to try it though. Got MM working, found that I can only have one ponytail type at a time or they'll just overwrite each other... *grumble* The devs should definitely look to make DA4 more mod-friendly...
EDIT2:
And the other answer... "Thunder Body" is likely another Skyhold-exclusive body- no difference in the normal game. I'm starting over so I won't be able to test it for a while, but if you want to test it, it's right there in that same "Custom Body Models" modder's files, under Miscellaneous.
Looks like the ponytail option is already an overwrite of the tiny vanilla ponytail. So that's the only way modders figured out how to get new hairstyles in the game? Overwriting vanilla assets? In DAO every new hairstyle would just populate the cc choices so long as they were all named differently in Overrides. *more grumbling*
I've been going back over DAI modding (unable to get ModManager to work again *sigh* troubleshooting now...), found that mod you mentioned for a bulkier f!dwarf (and others), saw a mention from the modder in the comment section that acknowledged what I was wondering before- that it only affects the Skyhold appearance. I also found in my old folder a mod for giving f!dwarves a "Thunder Body." Ever heard of it? Odd appearance on Nexus since it doesn't have a full file section for description and comments and such. No idea how I'd come across it other than stumbling into it while googling, but I'll try it out to see what it does and whether it does it anywhere other than Skyhold... when I can get mods working, that is. Already got enough ponytails to try out...
True though that it'd be great if there were a way to alter the body mesh in DAI simply by creating armor that looks the part. It seemed to work in DAO anyway. The bulky-build mod modder mentioned that for body appearance outside Skyhold it would take creating for a completely different mesh. Seems odd that they're different meshes since in vanilla the character looks the same in Skyhold or out, albeit with a different set of armor/clothing.
EDIT:
Already have one answer... The "Thunder Body" is by the same modder intended (by request) for f!dwarves. Still have to try it though. Got MM working, found that I can only have one ponytail type at a time or they'll just overwrite each other... *grumble* The devs should definitely look to make DA4 more mod-friendly...
EDIT2:
And the other answer... "Thunder Body" is likely another Skyhold-exclusive body- no difference in the normal game. I'm starting over so I won't be able to test it for a while, but if you want to test it, it's right there in that same "Custom Body Models" modder's files, under Miscellaneous.
Looks like the ponytail option is already an overwrite of the tiny vanilla ponytail. So that's the only way modders figured out how to get new hairstyles in the game? Overwriting vanilla assets? In DAO every new hairstyle would just populate the cc choices so long as they were all named differently in Overrides. *more grumbling*
Oh, thanks! Yes, I saw the Thunder body option, but as far as I can tell, it narrows the shoulders in proportion to hips so I can't quite make out whether it just shifts the extra from shoulders to hips or it's actually broader overall. If I have to choose between broader overall and wider shoulders, most of the time the shoulders are going to win Partly that's because I view dwarves as a race developing around mining and smithing, and both of those require that kind of upper body strength that shouldn't be missing from f!dwarves. I may give it a try to see if I like it, though...
Yes, the new engine has really complicated modding, sigh. The modders have performed wonders, mind you, considering the difficulties.
OK, new DF, Kruklya Cadash... probly have to tweak her when I get to Haven, but, oh, well. DW is the most frustrating class in DAI for me (despite usually being my favorite), but hopefully that won't ruin it...
Backstory attempt:
Adopted into the Cadash clan due to impressing them by inadvertently saving a member of the Cadash family during a deal-gone-wrong in Dust Town... Kruklya was looking to get out of Dust Town as it was, albeit at that moment just trying to make a name for herself and even a score with the same hothead daring to defy the Cadashes during the deal. She knew no fondness for the wayward House Cadash- or any other than House Brosca that had been established in Kruklya Brosca's honor, formerly casteless herself but made paragon by leading the Wardens to end the last blight. Kruklya had been named after her, but hadn't until then been able to conceive how a Duster could ever get free of Dust Town to pull off such an epic move. Life on Cadash terms was more accommodating but still not what she had in mind. When the opportunity arose to attend the Conclave meeting, she jumped at it- as she would have anything out of the usual Cadash duties- setting her on a path that would force me to reload constantly to keep her arse from... I mean, a path of adventure!
stop_him, Merela, dragonflight288 et 1 autre aiment ceci
Oh, thanks! Yes, I saw the Thunder body option, but as far as I can tell, it narrows the shoulders in proportion to hips so I can't quite make out whether it just shifts the extra from shoulders to hips or it's actually broader overall. If I have to choose between broader overall and wider shoulders, most of the time the shoulders are going to win Partly that's because I view dwarves as a race developing around mining and smithing, and both of those require that kind of upper body strength that shouldn't be missing from f!dwarves. I may give it a try to see if I like it, though...
Yes, the new engine has really complicated modding, sigh. The modders have performed wonders, mind you, considering the difficulties.
Harrumph. And that "Thunder Body" appearance was a special request that the modder managed- hehe. It seems to overwrite the arm options as well during the merge, so whatever arm appearance you see is presumably part of the total "Thunder" package also.
Yeah, I didn't mention but was thinking, the modders must be that much more innovative to be able to get mods going in DAI. I've barely looked at the available mods though, just a few that addressed issues I was having, so maybe I'll meddle there in case something makes a new playthrough more intriguing or amenable.
EDIT:
Ha! Hurray! I got to see the mod in action after all... Not sure which though. But this is the toughie it made Kruklya... for a glorious few seconds before her Haven PJ's got replaced with dingy lime green fatigues again...
OK, new DF, Kruklya Cadash... probly have to tweak her when I get to Haven, but, oh, well. DW is the most frustrating class in DAI for me (despite usually being my favorite), but hopefully that won't ruin it...
Bravo! I love her. She looks like a real dwarf. Makes me want to make another dwarven woman.
And the other answer... "Thunder Body" is likely another Skyhold-exclusive body- no difference in the normal game. I'm starting over so I won't be able to test it for a while, but if you want to test it, it's right there in that same "Custom Body Models" modder's files, under Miscellaneous.
That's such a cool body model. Wish I had a PC sometimes.
Hello again fellow dwarf fans. It has been a little while, but I just wanted to pop back in to redact the misinformed declaration of a previous post. At the time, I felt I needed to better pave the way for a decent Dalish roleplaying opportunity in the future, and dropped my Cadash for an Adaar.
However, one should never make such declarations without completing the whole story. Having played through Descent recently after upgrading my console, I recognized I was too quick to decide. Cadash is definitely back to stay, with a minor beard change and some freckles. I feel the fool for ever doubting. Here's to a celebratory round with my gay, Andrastian, witty, Dalish-adopted (just kidding; but he did have the orb-magic, and drank from the well, and explored all those ruins, and had a Dalish shield, and gave the Red Crossing account to that clan on the plains...), Templar tank!
Harrumph. And that "Thunder Body" appearance was a special request that the modder managed- hehe. It seems to overwrite the arm options as well during the merge, so whatever arm appearance you see is presumably part of the total "Thunder" package also.
Yeah, I didn't mention but was thinking, the modders must be that much more innovative to be able to get mods going in DAI. I've barely looked at the available mods though, just a few that addressed issues I was having, so maybe I'll meddle there in case something makes a new playthrough more intriguing or amenable.
EDIT:
Ha! Hurray! I got to see the mod in action after all... Not sure which though. But this is the toughie it made Kruklya... for a glorious few seconds before her Haven PJ's got replaced with dingy lime green fatigues again...
I think that's the broad body and athletic arms, the version I use. Very nice!
Bravo! I love her. She looks like a real dwarf. Makes me want to make another dwarven woman.
Not to be a downer, mind you, but honestly this rendition of my red-headed rogue Kruklya reminds me much less of a "real dwarf" (at least the non-Skyhold-outfitted rendition- i.e., the one I see 95% of the game) and much more of the Neverwinter Nights character Tomi "Grin" Undergallows... a halfling:
Or rather my own character Fribin Dagger that was also an NWN red-headed halfling rogue using the Tomi voiceset who I used in numerous servers and modded adventures in NWN1. But if she looks more dwarfy to you, I'm certainly not against it!
Hello again fellow dwarf fans. It has been a little while, but I just wanted to pop back in to redact the misinformed declaration of a previous post. At the time, I felt I needed to better pave the way for a decent Dalish roleplaying opportunity in the future, and dropped my Cadash for an Adaar.
However, one should never make such declarations without completing the whole story. Having played through Descent recently after upgrading my console, I recognized I was too quick to decide. Cadash is definitely back to stay, with a minor beard change and some freckles. I feel the fool for ever doubting. Here's to a celebratory round with my gay, Andrastian, witty, Dalish-adopted (just kidding; but he did have the orb-magic, and drank from the well, and explored all those ruins, and had a Dalish shield, and gave the Red Crossing account to that clan on the plains...), Templar tank!
Dwarf content is always so convincing.
One thing great about dwarf fandom is that it's never a matter of succumbing to the sway of a crowd or surrendering oneself to a fandom cult, but rather learning to appreciate what's right in front of ya. Stone-met!
I'll just title this post "SCHOOLIN' THE DEVS ON FEMALE DWARF APPEARANCE..."
I just found myself a huge amount of great f!dwarf pics that just make the DAI f!dwarf seem wildly inconsistent... if the inconsistency with DAO f!dwarfies wasn't bad enough... (Really just a Google image search, but sifted through for the best examples and put in one place...) Couldn't help but share it as a portfolio for future reference in DA4 f!dwarf mesh design... cuzzat's what I's talkin' 'bout...
Spoiler
And if that doesn't give future design artists a clue as to the more correct (haha) dwarven female form, not sure what can... You'd think with all the "strong women" clamor about in recent years that they wouldn't have been so trepidatious about designing a physically tough dwarf girl body.
I didn't add pics from other games, but the NWN (1&2) version is pretty good, kinda RIFT (a bit skinny), as is WoW apparently:
And, of course, that obscure game DAO that apparently wasn't consulted... but now that I consider it, the DAO f!dwarf arms are pretty thin compared to more clearly dwarven thickness in other games and dwarf fan art. They may have been intending a sort of halfling/dwarf option from the, erm, origin, trying to please fans of both.
EDIT:
The main thing to note is that it's not just stockiness or shortness that makes a good f!dwarf. I found a lot (though a minority) of the dwarf girl art that looked more like a short human, a muscular or large-featured halfling (or just a regular one), or just some froofy pugmuffin munchkin bug-thing. It's a particular combination of shortness and stockiness that works, and the stockiness looks best as coming from large bones, the muscularity bound to that, hence the larger, rounder facial features as well. A prominent jawline doesn't add chubbiness after all. They're supposed to look sturdy, their more squarish body frame lending itself to a more centered stance and solid balance on their feet, and not even the DAverse has divorced the dwarven storyline from the Stone.
Or maybe another dwarf fan might disagree, but... There's a wealth of dwarf imagery out there, the vast bulk of it contradicting the DAI halfling dwarf-wannabe girl look we're playing with... even the official Bioware concept art for DAI dwarves which retains the thinner arms but has thicker legs, wider hips, and a more squarish frame:
Not to be a downer, mind you, but honestly this rendition of my red-headed rogue Kruklya reminds me much less of a "real dwarf" (at least the non-Skyhold-outfitted rendition- i.e., the one I see 95% of the game) and much more of the Neverwinter Nights character Tomi "Grin" Undergallows... a halfling:
One thing great about dwarf fandom is that it's never a matter of succumbing to the sway of a crowd or surrendering oneself to a fandom cult, but rather learning to appreciate what's right in front of ya. Stone-met!
Ah, well I was referring more to the facial features. I think you did a great job there! I don't like how DAI went for a "little human" look for the dwarf women. Maybe next game we'll have body morpher so that the faces we make match the body.
Ah, well I was referring more to the facial features. I think you did a great job there! I don't like how DAI went for a "little human" look for the dwarf women. Maybe next game we'll have body morpher so that the faces we make match the body.
Oh, well, OK then. Thanks! I nearly min-maxed the majority of settings to get her there- which means she's not all that finely tuned if you want to make one like her. The more DFs the better! They must've ignored telemetry figures on dwarves, f!dwarves especially, in order to give us back our dwarfy characters in DAI, so I doubt we'll ever see enough DFs made and played in DAI to impress upon the devs to make more dorfy content by sheer numbers alone, but still... More the merrier!
This was my first (playable) DF, Brosca, that I sorta abandoned- looks very close to Kruklya in features despite not having taken screenshots of the settings (so again, not that hard to approximate). Just as well I started over because I needed her red-haired to be a wannabe Kruklya reborn...
Well, I went looking for a quote by Laidlaw that looked promising about dwarves and was kinda unsuccessful, alas, but I did find a couple instances that were "not bad..." and a couple yrs old by now. One was this by our Mark Druffalo (when did you change your name?):
[snip]
Not sure if that was just Mark's humor, pretending that was Laidlaw, or it actually was Laidlaw showing a little dorfy humor himself.
I have retuuuurrnneed.
Nope, it was Laidlaw. The "don't anger the dwarf fans, they are prepared to go to war" quote was from this video.
Merela, Spectre4hire, Bhryaen et 1 autre aiment ceci
Nope, it was Laidlaw. The "don't anger the dwarf fans, they are prepared to go to war" quote was from this video.
For the first time, I'm glad the Exalted Marches DLC for DA2 was cancelled, because Gaider apparently mentioned at a panel recently they had been considering killing Varric at the end of it... and yeah, that would not have gone over well with anyone.
I think the "rule of Laidlaw" needs to be emblazoned on some kind of banner in their writing room, as both a reminder and a warning.
Retour en haut
The result is just as adorable!
She looks like a real dwarf. Makes me want to make another dwarven woman.
Stone-met!
