Honestly, the biggest issue as I see it is that the Invisible Pigeonholing Council has been working overtime to shove every automated tool (spellcheck, autocorrect, predictive text on your phone, etc) under the umbrella of 'AI' as the marketing wanketeers scream themselves hoarse about how >
genAI is Inevitable, as the C-suites continue to crowbar it into anything that the engineers bring them for approval, whether it would help or hinder (seriously, what the fuck good is an LLM going to do for my fridge, that a simple scan-and-catalogue thing wouldn't? And don't say make the >
shopping lists, if it's attached to the fridge, it can't see what's in the pantry, or the standalone freezer made in 2008. Consumer-facing genAI is A Bad Idea. Using ML tools to automate the most obnoxious bits of gamedev can speed things along nicely. WoW does it for their armors, now.
What is obnoxious about designing armor? If there’s a 3d modeler willing to do it as a job the only person that sees that as obnoxious is the dev who doesn’t want to pay for it.
How is making armor obnoxious? As someone working on an indie project, making the assets should be the fun part of making art. “Damn, I’m a painter, but i wish i could just skip the part where I have to sketch and paint.” Like, that’s where the magic happens.
I’m open to other opinions, but if you hate the creative aspect of art, I suspect that you just don’t like making art.
I doubt it's the making of armors as much as it is the process as a whole. I'd be surprised if WoW doesn't have a cosmetics option so that your look isn't affected by the armor stats, but making armors with stats to satisfy a fan base as big as WoW's has got to be a pain.