Fascinatingly logical

Synopsis
NEW DRUID CAT AND BEAR FORMS

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That is pretty much self explanatory. I'll be one of many people making a post about. Hell I am not the first. I wanted however share my view on the implementation of it all.

The way it is implemented is as follows; The type of look you have depends on your hair color. Since Taurens don't have hair color they will be the only ones to go into a barbershop and change skin color. I think. Most likely it is restricted to Tauren druids, but could be something all Taurens will be able to do, or it might be that everyone will be able to do it.
But then again, it should stay Tauren only. They are currently the only ones not able to change haircolor while their whole body is covered with hair!
Bepending on that (for your faction) parameter your bearfrom and catform depend. They are linked and most likely not all combinations will be available.

I myself had thought of a couple of other ways it could be implemented. Have 2 extra item/form slots for each druid (bear and cat slot). If left empty you keep your current colors. If an item is placed in them you can get a different color. The item could be made by scribes, could be bought from vendors, be quest rewards, but the most awesome looking ones could drop from bosses.

The other was "aspect of the cat" or "aspect of the bear" where a druid would, quite like hunter's tame ability, assume the colors of the cat/bear selected. Target a polar bear and your bearform will be white. A white tiger and you will look like a tiger.

But those were not the case. Why not? I think I know the answer. "Lazy" programmers. being a programmer myself I know that the lazier we are the better. Never do more work then needed!

When someone gets in my range the server will submit my data to him/her. That data is a lot of things. Status (swimming, running, walking, sitting, casting, etc), what I am casting, which way I move etc. That is submitted to the player at the moment I am within range and I submit that information to the server. Those are the main part of all information submitted to players in my range.

Other things however that define the way I look work in exact the same way. Hair / skin color is also submitted to someone in my range. It can change just like everything else (when I change it in a barbershop). And upon change it is submitted to the server which on his turn submits that data to all players in range.

Next to gear, there is one more important thing that defines the way you look. Buffs. If I am hexed it doesn't tell the other player I look like a frog, it simply tells him I am hexed. The player will then render me as a frog. If I have baby spice the player will render me smaller since it also knows what effect baby spice has on someone.

Now to the part where this implementation becomes very logical.
If druids would get some extra thing that defines the way they look in catform / bearform it would mean a total change, or at least an addition to the data submitted. That could lead to bugs of all sorts. Now this part is completely avoided! It can work just like before. The only thing that has to be done is to change the way a druid with the buff "bearform" is rendered. No servers involved, just simple rendering.

Previously it was like this:
Catform -> getCatTexture() -> Display()

Now it will be like this:
Catform -> getCatTexture(Faction = Horde ? Skintype : Hairtype) -> Display()

Sorry for writing it in a sort of program style, but what it basically says is that instead of loading a default texture the texture now depends on a value already known. Which is really really really simple. Really!

"It is the only logical solution captain."