Hairstyles and Races

[Kjara]

I don't think I am the only one dreaming of a barber NPC in game...

It would be so cool to be able to change hair color, and see new hairstyles added update after update.

Of course most of people will put the "PS2 limits" answer but I think the major obstacle to this feature is that FFXI characters' faces and hairstyles are tied to each other (aka when you make a character and pick the hairstyle, face will change too. You can only change color with the same face and even there the pick is limited).

I'm happy to hear that at least FFXIV is not going to meet the same fate, but I wonder if anything could be changed for FFXI in the future regarding this?


Also on a side note I wonder, would it be too difficult graphic-wise to put an item to change race permanently as bonanza prize? Not necessarily a low rank item, of course.

[Anapingofness]

YES! I'm glad you have brought it up!
I think it would really spice things up if some new hair colors at least were added, if not new hair styles.

I realize people will say ps2 limitations and yet, something can be done with colors. Like giving Elvaan Females brown and black hair?

[Kjara]

yeah I'm a 1b elvaan female (like the avatar, but red-haired) and would love to have them black instead :/ would've picked the all-common long black-haired face but I didn't really like the stuck-up expression XD

but if I really could swap things I would like to use the elvaan male white long pony-tail on my elvaan female.
give females long hair!!!

[Juri_Licious]

They have to remove PS2 support before this can happen.

[Kailea_Nagisa]

yeap like most things people bring up "PS2 limitations" that said though, I would love more options/the ability to change with an NPC.

[Juri_Licious]

yeap like most things people bring up "PS2 limitations" that said though, I would love more options/the ability to change with an NPC.

Square-Enix said it themselves.

They aren't liars are they?

[Gennadi]

I want to see a mullet look for the Galka's
Much like this one here:
http://usera.ImageCave.com/nphulk/mullet.jpg

[Vivivivi]

New skin tones would be a nice addition as well, which I don't think would be limited by PS2 since it'd be just a texture swap/tint.

[Kailea_Nagisa]

New skin tones would be a nice addition as well, which I don't think would be limited by PS2 since it'd be just a texture swap/tint.

RAM issues on PS2, again PS2 limitations ;p same for inventory/moghouse space, and AH space, and a good number of other things.

[Kjara]

tarutaru with afros ftw

[Jamesruglia]

A hair stylist...

The idea sounds interesting, but the available styles in-game also affect your face itself, so it would have to be restricted to certain colors and minor tweaks. But if these changes were barber-specific(that is, not selectable at character creation) they wouldn't have to rework the character creation scenes or anything...

[Izzybella]

They give dyes to change a chocobo's color (temp) so why not ours? lol

[Cylla]

They just need to take FF14 graphics and more hairstyle/colors and put them in to FF11 and dump 14 altogether...

This will never and can not ever happen though :( Not with FF11 in terms of making it like 14 graphic wise and adding in more hairstyles and colors to pick from.

[Mirage]

This is the third or fourth time this topic has been brought up, and probably the third time I'm saying this:

The PS2 can't store extra hairstyles and colours in RAM, that's why we won't see new ones. Changing hair color or hair style to one that already exists is however no problem, technically.

Changing hairstyle does however have the problem that it would also change facial structures of most characters, which would be "strange" when you think about it.

"i changed my hair style and suddenly my nose got bigger, wtf?!"

That's why I'm not counting on changing hairstyles being implemented, but hair color should be no problem. If SE deems it worth implementing.

[Odintius]

Man they really should just discontinue support for ps2 holding stuff back is really getting annoying....

[Mirage]

New skin tones would be a nice addition as well, which I don't think would be limited by PS2 since it'd be just a texture swap/tint.

the PS2 (or the game engine itself) can just take an existing skin texture and apply a lower tint on it in real time, it would need to load a separate version of the character model which had the darker tint, which would require more RAM.

It would be the same as how implementing a texture-swapped enemy doesn't reuse the existing 3D model of the monster, but needs an entirely new model+texture combo.

If you have two identical mithra characters in a scene, except different skin tone, it would take up as much RAM as if you had a mithra and a galka in there.

[CrystalWeapon]

the PS2 (or the game engine itself) can just take an existing skin texture and apply a lower tint on it in real time, it would need to load a separate version of the character model which had the darker tint, which would require more RAM.

It would be the same as how implementing a texture-swapped enemy doesn't reuse the existing 3D model of the monster, but needs an entirely new model+texture combo.

If you have two identical mithra characters in a scene, except different skin tone, it would take up as much RAM as if you had a mithra and a galka in there.

I'm sure the game has exception handeling and if it didn't have the memory to load in a new model into memory that person wouldn't get displayed. Games have ways of handling these things it's not like it would have an "Oh Shi~" moment and explode. The same happens in crowded events such as beseiged where you have a ton of models to display of diff types, players, avatars, pets, monsters, all in the same area at once. When the burden starts to get high it cuts out some of the excess and displays what it can. To give you an idea of how little of a problem this would be would be to look at armor, each head equipment, body, etc is it's own model with a texture. If they couldn't add in new hairstyles then how could they add in new dats for armor? It would load in the same exact way as an armor peice would it has the same skeletal/texture data. If you had one character male hume (for example) and another the same exact model and build. One in full blm empyrean, and another in full pld empyrean, it's the same as having a hume male and elvaan female both in blm empyrean in terms of loading the models into ram.

The "Ps2 limitations" and "I don't want xi to become WoW" are the two most thrown around excuses everyone has as counter arguements on these forums x-x. SE never said they couldn't do a hairstylist, they said due to RSE it would be difficult to impliment race swapping, and even that issue I think has a solution. They just don't want people changing and then complaining their rse would be useless and or have glitches by changing someone race while they're still wearing the rse.

[Sinthetic]

I would 2 be able to change my Hairstyle now and then dont really care much about color skin tones
but yeah new hairstyle would be sweet !!!

[JagerForrester]

PS2 Limitations...

We know that. Thank you for your input, but that doesn't stop us from suggesting, no matter how old the topic is.

[Yenrii]

I think that, if possible, the addition of new hair colors and skin colors would appeal to a lot of players. The range we have to pick from now is really very limited, so if there is a way to create a color-change mechanism without destroying ps2's, SE should definitely look into it. Someone suggested a color-change NPC: if this strategy works, I would personally love to test it out. :)

[Miera]

Why can't my mithra have long pink flowing hair? ;___; It would look so good in my DNC AF3

[Penance]

I also would like a possibility to change looks, it was available on Aion as well, and there you could also give your gear different colours (which were one of the few things i liked about it, additional to being able to fly).

Though i can understand there are limitations to the game being on PS2, or issues with gear. Although the latter seems something that can be worked around.

[bishop]

I'm so tired of seeing my clones around.

[CrystalWeapon]

I'm so tired of seeing my clones around.

Same here, I have the same model as wolfgang so there's tons of me's all over the place. lol

Off topic, but you get a thumbs up for that sig. lol

[Gaspee]

I want to see a mullet look for the Galka's
Much like this one here:
http://usera.ImageCave.com/nphulk/mullet.jpg

Hysterical!! xD

[Kjara]

even just giving the hairstyles belonging to different races and genders would be a big step forward. there's many hume female hairstyles I would love on elvaans or mithras.