A new race

[Shay]

Alright alright alright I feel too many are pooping on the idea so how about instead we all post ideas on how it can be done without blowing up the storyline or the game. I'll go 1st....hmmmm how about maybe an "evil" race of our choosing, like an evil galka with the attributes of a tarutaru or maybe a mithra with the attributes of an Elvaan and just write a sad cast off story for them? Altana WAS going to have six but this race tried to kill the other fi- wait that isn't sad that's horrible but you get the idea.

[Blah]

how about just "no" and let the Devs put their efforts rather into the SoA expansion and content, I dont care for new races, I'd rather have new content then waste Dev time on that ¬.¬. As said, FFXI is a really old game and putting a new race into it is not as easy as in other MMOs, just by the fact how its built (just from the armor and weapon point of view etc).

And as I've said if all you're going to do is shoot it down there's no need to post, plenty of other people have done it already there's no need for more. I'd like positive posts and if you have none then by all means feel free to start an anti-race post if you want to go that far to step on the idea.

[Renaissance2K]

Adding new races makes sense in games whose characters are designed to be disposable, i.e. you roll pick one race and one class/job/profession/specialty/talent, level it to cap, get some gear and kill some squishies, and then repeat with a new character. The new race is a way to get overchurned players to pick the game up again when a new expansion is released. "See? We have PANDAS now! Don't you want to play the whole game again as a PANDA?"

With very few exceptions, your choice of race is only going to drastically affect how you play at very low levels, which itself has become a less and less relevant period of growth. Once you hit Level 99, all races accumulate stats from the same pieces of gear at the same rates. It wasn't even that big an issue in the pre-2010 capped era. If you change your race, the transformation is going to be mostly aesthetic.

Plus, as has been mentioned many times before in other threads, there are plenty of players - usually those that see FFXI as "just another MMO" - that simply don't give a hoot about the lore, and that's fine. There are also plenty of players that started playing this game specifically because it's a Final Fantasy title, and the lore is generally what makes gamers a fan of that particular franchise. When players suggest that developers should start disrespecting the lore, it's a bit like walking into Taco Bell and suggesting that they start serving burgers.

[L0IRE]

that lizard race from ffxii

[Demonjustin]

I wouldn't actually mind some form of crossover of the Bangaa from FFXII, assuming these are what you were talking about...

As for story reasoning, well, we have had crossovers from FFXIV and DQX I believe, its not entirely impossible for them to come up with some story to explain it, I mean, what if they said that a bunch of Bangaa came through a Void like monsters in VW or something to that extent? I think SE could make it work, the only question is is it viable and is it worth dev time and the answer is simply no, since the 5 races as they are now are hardly different from one another outside of aesthetics, especially with how high our stats are now that the gaps between most things besides HP are easily overlooked in the long run.

Besides that it would literally mean them redoing every piece of armor in the game with a .dat that would fit the new race, in this case, Bangaa, and they are very different than our current races with the most similar being Galka due to the large tail. I mean, I really do like the idea in theory, but it just wouldn't be good for the game with how much work would be involved and how little a difference it would make in the long run.

[Behemothx]

And as I've said if all you're going to do is shoot it down there's no need to post, plenty of other people have done it already there's no need for more. I'd like positive posts and if you have none then by all means feel free to start an anti-race post if you want to go that far to step on the idea.

If you wanna start a thread and can't handle criticism, then just don't do it. There are countless more important things to work on before wasting precious dev. time on something as trivial as a new race... It would bring nothing new to the game dynamics, it's simply aesthetics and like others have pointed out, it makes no sense in FFXI's story line. I don't know if you've played any other Final Fantasy titles, but story has always been the key element.

[Blah]

No, it's not that I can't handle criticism it's just that you all are so set and prepared to prattle off all the downsides ( it's too late, it'll be a waste of time, it's not part of the storyline) yet not one of you have yet to answer why they didn't account for it in the first place. And before ya jump on to say it doesn't matter think: Every other mmo that involves races ACCOUNT for either race change/ face change of some sort or a new race every once in a while. That way if fans ask for it they get it. If they all started not doing it you all would get mad as hell don't say you wouldn't. But in the ENTIRE ELEVEN YEARS we never get either a race, a race change or face change. That is the main reason I suggest one or at least a race change, because THEY decided way beforehand not to ACCOUNT for it and to fob us off with the old "it's not technically possible" if it ever actually did come up. Don't you all find that strange? To actually make it so technically hard to simply put one, ONE race in the game? To make it so technically hard to change your race? To even make it so hard to change your freaking hairstyles and hair color??? If they aren't accounting for something this simple then what else are they not accounting for? Wait I know, they aren't accounting for a LOT of the mistakes they've made with the jobs, yes? /cry

[Twille]

I think it's rather obvious at this point that the majority of the player base is fine without a new race being added to the game.
Assuming they did add a new race I'd assume there would be both genders available which would in turn mean that EVERY SINGLE piece of gear wearable would need to have a new .dat file created to accommodate said new race (TWICE, one for each gender).
That is a massive undertaking, MASSIVE. All for the sake of cosmetics, nothing more. Stat difference at max level is meaningless, and races get no inherent abilities, they simply look different.

That being said, I do believe SE should allow for face changes for characters that really want them. I'm fine without race/gender changes as I see how it can be an issue with RSE gear and even the gender specific gear in the 30's.

[Imakun]

They didn't account for it in the first place because they didn't want to do it when they lunched the game, they haven't done it in the past 11 years and they sure as hell will not do it in the future.
As far as we know, adding new races to XI has never ever been in the plans of the developers. Be it for logistic reasons, technical difficulties, game design, overall game world consistency, someone from the future coming back to the past to warn SE not to add new races to XI to avoid facing world destruction, whatever.

A race change/ character re-customization service is a completely different matter, and I guess they could pull it off if they really wanted to. But I think the dev's time would be better spent on other things.

[L0IRE]

I wouldn't actually mind some form of crossover of the Bangaa from FFXII, assuming these are what you were talking about...

As for story reasoning, well, we have had crossovers from FFXIV and DQX I believe, its not entirely impossible for them to come up with some story to explain it, I mean, what if they said that a bunch of Bangaa came through a Void like monsters in VW or something to that extent? I think SE could make it work, the only question is is it viable and is it worth dev time and the answer is simply no, since the 5 races as they are now are hardly different from one another outside of aesthetics, especially with how high our stats are now that the gaps between most things besides HP are easily overlooked in the long run.

Besides that it would literally mean them redoing every piece of armor in the game with a .dat that would fit the new race, in this case, Bangaa, and they are very different than our current races with the most similar being Galka due to the large tail. I mean, I really do like the idea in theory, but it just wouldn't be good for the game with how much work would be involved and how little a difference it would make in the long run.

yeah that was what i was talking about, and as far as a new race goes and dev time, how hard is it to change a few skins really? countless games have done it, Lineage 2, WoW, no reason square cant do it. As for story goes, they find no problem sneaking in new classes here and there that never existed, and just saying they are from this far off land just newly discovered, so to say developing a new race would hurt the story and take up too much time, I don't see how.