Letter from the Producer LXII

personally i want to say thank you to all the devs and staff that put it together and worked so hard your effort is beloved. also i want to offer a solution to the healer balancing issues you have i suggest majoring whm= as you have with large healing spells with hefty mp cost and mid sized regen with reasonable mp cost - for sch = add durability to their shielding as they are not large heal proficient and don't focus on damage equaling their healing their shielding should be on par with whm magnitude of heal - so one majors healing the other majors shielding = now for ast = since it does both its magnitude should be less then whm but more then sch for healing and less durable shields faster cast time - that will make it equal to both as a jack of all trades master of none - the next healer job could center around damage to heal =Example : lets say you name it sorcerer/sorceress = a rendition of the ffviii boss damage out would be converted to healing in by stance - this way in stance the healer can help by adding small damage and giving large heals and out of stance focus on dps - the healer would complement any of the 3 without overshadowing them as they would require the stance to heal others outside itself . Since you already have sorceress gear templates from ffviii im sure creating male ones wouldn't be as big a issue and you can simply re-purpose modified ffviii concepts to get a look for it . hopefully that helps and takes some of the stress off with developing and balancing the current - of course the particulars are under your per-view this is just a general direction idea .

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Originally Posted by Berethos

Even with it being around just 270 actual items (270 adjusted for Hrothgar, 270 adjusted for Viera), that's still quite a good number of items that fit the head slot.

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For sure, if it wasnt clear I was sincere that I meant thanks and 540 sounds huge. Although I didn't know what that translated to in terms of in game. Not sure if that's 540 split against both races and split against the multiple face types, but yeah I am happy to hear the news :).

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Originally Posted by Valkyrie_Lenneth

Puts to rest some of the stuff people have been complaining about, plus some goodies for us.

And people say the devs are lazy....

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Thank God and thank to Dev team and Director for this letter!

https://media.giphy.com/media/zBhZiVNNQjfTG/giphy.gif

This makes me so happy. I never thought one sec the devs were lazy or what, but the letter really puts the cherry on the cake. :)
Thank you Yoshi-P for all the explanations, and /salute to the devs team for modeling the accessories for Hrothgars and Vieras! I never put a helmet or whatnot on my characters, but I do enjoy the occasional flower in the hair, glasses or small, delicate accessories. Since I intended to go Viera, this really is a nice surprise!

That being said, that's a real nice Hrothgar... and one classy Viera!

Good read and thanks for your hard work. I'm eager to play through Shadowbringers in few months, holidays well deserved devs!

Ah, finally. The entitlement can settle down.

Thank you for your hard work devs! Please, have a long rest/vacation soon.

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Originally Posted by Cylestea

to be honest a lot more are pleased then un pleased. Give them time and they will work it out. Demanding they do it now will not fix it. I played both 11 and the original 1.0 i dont care about gender locked races. You can still be all the jobs. They cant pull an unknown gender of a race the original makers have not even made yet without consulting them and getting their consent. Till there are males in the ivalice worlds i wouldn't count on them.

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Matsuno, creator of the race, said he had nothing to do with genderlocking

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Originally Posted by zeylos

Matsuno, creator of the race, said he had nothing to do with genderlocking

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But Yoshi P did say they had no reference for male Viera to work with. And if they were to make it, they would still have to consult with Matsuno, since it's going to be an official design of male Viera.

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Originally Posted by Alucard135

But Yoshi P did say they had no reference for male Viera to work with. And if they were to make it, they would still have to consult with Matsuno, since it's going to be an official design of male Viera.

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Female viera were changed a lot too, and I don't really think SE cares about that kind of things. Also, au rain also didn't have any reference yet we have them. Same with hrotgar (arguably Ronson, but that's just one face)

I've had a rather large dislike for people using "yikes" these days. Then I read Morbolv's posts and it suddenly disappeared.

insert a "Ethics and Morals for XIV" picket sign here.

You know, I give up. Come back for a discussion if you learned proper spelling, grammar and punctuation. As you like science so much, that shouldn't be a problem.
Also, it derives the topic.

I'm just glad about small things like glasses being avaiabale. It's the little things.

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the character team took it upon themselves to use their spare moments to make it possible—without telling me. More than five hundred and forty such items were carefully modified by our designers so that all would display correctly with our new face models. /salute

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/salute indeed. Someone needs to send them a pile of cookies shaped like rabbits with fancy frosted hats.

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Originally Posted by zeylos

Female viera were changed a lot too, and I don't really think SE cares about that kind of things. Also, au rain also didn't have any reference yet we have them. Same with hrotgar (arguably Ronson, but that's just one face)

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How did female Viera change? They still resemble their XII appearance. As for Au ra, they don't need a reference since it's an XIV exclusive race. They can make it up however they wanted. In Hrothgar's case, there are those that still didn't like that they don't look like kimahri's body shape (because a reference existed and they didn't make them similar to it). Which brings us back to male Viera, since they're not XIV exclusive race, they need a reference for that (Yoshi P stated that).

The devs that secretly did the headgear for Hrothgar and Viera secretly in their own time are true MVPs.
I am no longer crying in 4-eyes :)

Huge applause for Yoshida and the devs who decided to develop headgear on their own, incredibly admirable on their part. I wouldn't be shocked if gender unlocking happened down the line but unsurprisingly it sounds like a massive amount of work. They know there's desire for it, best way to encourage the option at this point is to help with resources by putting money toward Shadowbringers. If they do it, it'll be in a reasonable amount of time with a reasonable amount of resources at their disposal. Not promising seems very fair too, but again just acknowledging the desire is a good thing imo.

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Originally Posted by Dustytome

/salute indeed. Someone needs to send them a pile of cookies shaped like rabbits with fancy frosted hats.

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I'm impressed with their independence, I've never led anything aaaaannnywhere near that scale (for me it was like 6 people tops lol) so it's not that good of a comparison but... some days it was like trying to help a thirsty horse find the water in front of their nose :D.

I can think of a few items for FFXIV that just came to be because of passion outside of what they were told to do, that's nice as it means it's not just a job to them it's something they care for! Happens in other companies too but it's a great thing to see, especially vs some soul devouring environment lol.

Good team :).

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As you play through Shadowbringers, you’ll learn that both male Viera and female Hrothgar exist. While you won’t meet any in person, if we developers can find a way to address the various problems which are preventing us from implementing them, then perhaps someday you’ll be able to see them for yourself. I want to be clear that this does not mean it will eventually happen, and that I cannot make any promises at this time. I hope you will understand and bear with us.

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Although this made me sad, because I had really hoped for a "we'll consider it" I feel like I can have some semblance of closure on this topic. I still hope they one day will implement them, but I understand their reasoning.

Man I had really hoped to be a bishounen male Viera warrior and go all vorpal bunny on my enemies, cause I've never been a fan of the hunched stance and markings on the male miqo'tes. I suppose I'll stick to my female Highlander, or test out the Viera females then.

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Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida

Ah, yes. As you may remember from the Tokyo Fan Festival keynote, I mentioned that due to the special design of the Hrothgar and Viera heads, equipped headgear would not display.

Glasses and so forth would not display either at first, but after seeing how many people called for us to do something, anything, to address this after the announcement, the character team took it upon themselves to use their spare moments to make it possible—without telling me. More than five hundred and forty such items were carefully modified by our designers so that all would display correctly with our new face models. /salute

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I know I'll probably get hate for this but this sounds like a result of lowering our expectations pretty low with the "Don't expect much in terms of headgear" on launch to make making around 1/3rd of gear seem praise worthy. I have no reason to praise this at all, shouldn't the completion of said race in terms of all its visual assets including the armor it'll wear not be expected as a standard? Especially from an MMO made by a AAA devteam? This is the part that is baffling me the most, to the point that I now question why they did not just hold off on either Hrothgar or Viera for one more expansion and just make the Male/Females of one if the "Headgear" was such an issue. They'd probably get more praise in that regard while still playing up that "possibly the last race" card.

As for the rest regarding the genderlocks I really can't say I'm surprised but given Yoshida's pattern of marketing and wording things he'll be saving this for the next expansion to generate more applause and praise out of something that people thought "wasn't possibly coming".

I'm already assuming many people will start to "Appeal to Authority" with their many rebuttals of "Where are your credentials" or "Modeling background" but think about this clearly. If this was the case for WoW or any other MMO that XIV competes with would you be praising them if they said "Oh we'll have a 1/3rd of some visual gear work for this new race by launch"? or would you logically question why a MMO standard isn't being met? Why is FFXIV given a free pass in this regard?

So it would probably be best to stop talking to Morbolv, at best they are just being a troll and as they say don't feed em. and thats the best case scenario.

Plus this thread will probably at best see a lot of posts disappearing when the mods finally see it. If not locked.

https://img.finalfantasyxiv.com/t/12...af3b71fd_0.png

My hype for the Hrothgar has increased. That guy looks so cool!

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Originally Posted by Emmanellain

Although this made me sad, because I had really hoped for a "we'll consider it" I feel like I can have some semblance of closure on this topic. I still hope they one day will implement them, but I understand their reasoning.

Man I had really hoped to be a bishounen male Viera warrior and go all vorpal bunny on my enemies, cause I've never been a fan of the hunched stance and markings on the male miqo'tes. I suppose I'll stick to my female Highlander, or test out the Viera females then.

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They didn't say they won't be ever playable. They just said it would take time(6.0 probs)

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Originally Posted by Noodle_Trinidad

I'm already assuming many people will start to "Appeal to Authority" with their many rebuttals of "Where are your credentials" or "Modeling background" but think about this clearly. If this was the case for WoW or any other MMO that XIV competes with would you be praising them if they said "Oh we'll have a 1/3rd of some visual gear work for this new race by launch"? or would you logically question why a MMO standard isn't being met? Why is FFXIV given a free pass in this regard?

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The appeal isnt th 1/3 headgear though. Its the extra effort they did in their own limited time and that without Yoshida knowing. In fact, it shows devs are still trying their best and try to push themselves. They're not a big team to begin with, so its not wrong giving them credit once in a while.

And now we really see it. Lalas are evil.


(well, some of them anyway)

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Originally Posted by HakaseNyan

After people spotted T'kebbe in Heavensward, we were given the opportunity to see another race's younger form (was only hyur children before). I believe many of us were happy with them including the younger modeled npcs, because it gives the world more variation and brings it further to life. However, some players then thought it'd be a great idea to be able to play as that younger type. I think there was also a request for a teenage size. Maybe players just want to be shorter, like female Au Ra's minimum height short?

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Shonen protagonists are usually in the 15-20 age range, so it doesn't surprise me that a sizable group wants cute bishounen teen-ish boys, I mean - look at bands like one direction and the overall obsession with cute guys in Japanese culture.
I don't blame the young ladies wanting to be a pretty-boy same as how the men like playing as a pretty girl, I mean the dudes can be Au Ra females, female Viera, female Midlander etc.
The girls have male Miqo'te and elezen, but they don't really fall in the traditionally attractive category, so I get why there is a demand and why some might be disappointed that the female player base won't get a male, version of the Viera. (I imagined they'd look like male models with bunny features, like the women but with a slider)

But with this statement I suppose those who find Alphinaud and Alisae amusing in the MSQ can rest easy that they won't be killed off! I guess because they don't want to show younger characters in pain that means Pipin, Alphinaud and Alisae now have plot armor! :P /jkjk

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Originally Posted by Noodle_Trinidad

I know I'll probably get hate for this but this sounds like a result of lowering our expectations pretty low with the "Don't expect much in terms of headgear" on launch to make making around 1/3rd of gear seem praise worthy. I have no reason to praise this at all, shouldn't the completion of said race in terms of all its visual assets including the armor it'll wear not be expected as a standard? Especially from an MMO made by a AAA devteam? This is the part that is baffling me the most, to the point that I now question why they did not just hold off on either Hrothgar or Viera for one more expansion and just make the Male/Females of one if the "Headgear" was such an issue. They'd probably get more praise in that regard while still playing up that "possibly the last race" card.

As for the rest regarding the genderlocks I really can't say I'm surprised but given Yoshida's pattern of marketing and wording things he'll be saving this for the next expansion to generate more applause and praise out of something that people thought "wasn't possibly coming".

I'm already assuming many people will start to "Appeal to Authority" with their many rebuttals of "Where are your credentials" or "Modeling background" but think about this clearly. If this was the case for WoW or any other MMO that XIV competes with would you be praising them if they said "Oh we'll have a 1/3rd of some visual gear work for this new race by launch"? or would you logically question why a MMO standard isn't being met? Why is FFXIV given a free pass in this regard?

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I dont think there is anything wrong with wanting, it's like easily half or more of my posts....lol super kettle if I did Haha but I would say the reason they get a pass / praise from me is because I believe them. In that I mean I believe they had this headgear issue and some people having been working hard/er/ to make it so and that they succeded, and further I believe they weren't all sitting in the office before that twirling sticks lol (was a push on top of the march).



So in that I'm excited / praise, of course that doesn't change I might have some desires later or think it's reasonable others want more headgear as is possible on top of whatever has been done. I suppose if they burnt the bridges of good will I have then maybe I would be more pessimistic but I'm not there.

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Originally Posted by xbahax92

The appeal isnt th 1/3 headgear though. Its the extra effort they did in their own limited time and that without Yoshida knowing. In fact, it shows devs are still trying their best and try to push themselves. They're not a big team to begin with, so its not wrong giving them credit once in a while.

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I'm sorry but I will have to heavily disagree with giving them praise in any regards if they can't even meet the bare minimum of the MMO standard. Were they owned by a Med Sized Developer or an actual Indie team that somehow is pushing out AAA quality on an MMO then yes I would praise them but the reality is that they're not. I will not praise subpar standards from a AAA dev.

I will not stop you from praising them as this is your view though, if you feel they deserve it then more power to you but I have made my stance clear.

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Originally Posted by Shougun

I dont think there is anything wrong with wanting, it's like easily half or more of my posts....lol super kettle if I did Haha but I would say the reason they get a pass / praise from me is because I believe them. In that I mean I believe they had this headgear issue and some people having been working hard/er/ to make it so and that they succeded, and further I believe they weren't all sitting in the office before that twirling sticks lol (was a push on top of the march).



So in that I'm excited / praise, of course that doesn't change I might have some desires later or think it's reasonable others want more headgear as is possible on top of whatever has been done. I suppose if they burnt the bridges of good will I have then maybe I would be more pessimistic but I'm not there.

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By all means keep your reasoning and continue supporting them if that is how you feel just in my own experience in games the way this Dev Team interacts with the community is subpar when compared to other Dev Teams and games I play. Still I will respect your position to praise them for it and believing in them even if I don't.

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Originally Posted by Noodle_Trinidad

I know I'll probably get hate for this but this sounds like a result of lowering our expectations pretty low with the "Don't expect much in terms of headgear" on launch to make making around 1/3rd of gear seem praise worthy. I have no reason to praise this at all, shouldn't the completion of said race in terms of all its visual assets including the armor it'll wear not be expected as a standard? Especially from an MMO made by a AAA devteam? This is the part that is baffling me the most, to the point that I now question why they did not just hold off on either Hrothgar or Viera for one more expansion and just make the Male/Females of one if the "Headgear" was such an issue. They'd probably get more praise in that regard while still playing up that "possibly the last race" card.

As for the rest regarding the genderlocks I really can't say I'm surprised but given Yoshida's pattern of marketing and wording things he'll be saving this for the next expansion to generate more applause and praise out of something that people thought "wasn't possibly coming".

I'm already assuming many people will start to "Appeal to Authority" with their many rebuttals of "Where are your credentials" or "Modeling background" but think about this clearly. If this was the case for WoW or any other MMO that XIV competes with would you be praising them if they said "Oh we'll have a 1/3rd of some visual gear work for this new race by launch"? or would you logically question why a MMO standard isn't being met? Why is FFXIV given a free pass in this regard?

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the real truth is, based on the race, they would probably have less head gear. dogs and cats dont wear clothes. People with beautiful hair are less likely to wear hats, and cant wear certain hats. A race of bunnies probably wont wear as many hats.


i think the real right answer is, races arent worth the effort. But they added some anyhow. This is why most games dont have seven races. Especially the higher the art quality. The truth is new races cost resources, not just up front, but on every gear you make. So adding races, usually decreases new gear, etc. added to the game. All that artist time could be used on new gears, customizations, enemies, etc. Is it worth it? probably depends on the player.


btw, appeal to authority is actually more valid than appeal to nothing.

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Originally Posted by Cylestea

i love they worked on doing the head glam secretly without telling him LOL

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I actually don't. It is nice to know that we'll be having headgear available for the new races, and I can only be thankful for their sacrifice.

But this was, indeed, a sacrifice. People using many extra hours from their free time, who knows if even paid, to please a bunch of players who have been calling them lazy in the most entitled ways (and from what I see, are STILL questioning the devs even now).

I don't think the community deserves this team.

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Originally Posted by Physic

the real truth is, based on the race, they would probably have less head gear. dogs and cats dont wear clothes. People with beautiful hair are less likely to wear hats, and cant wear certain hats. A race of bunnies probably wont wear as many hats.


i think the real right answer is, races arent worth the effort. But they added some anyhow. This is why most games dont have seven races. Especially the higher the art quality. The truth is new races cost resources, not just up front, but on every gear you make. So adding races, usually decreases new gear, etc. added to the game. All that artist time could be used on new gears, customizations, enemies, etc. Is it worth it? probably depends on the player.


btw, appeal to authority is actually more valid than appeal to nothing.

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You are correct in that regard in the sense of how much resources a new Race takes from a Dev Team but with that in mind you now need to question if its already a pain to make a new race for artists and modelers alike why did they decide to split it up into two new races instead of staggering one of the two out for 6.0 to ease their problems in 5.0? Would it have not made more sense to save these resources with assets they can reuse on both genders if they went All Hrothgar or All Viera? On top of that even the launch itself is still less than Heavensward which had a new Race and 3 Jobs instead of 2 Jobs and 2 Genderlocks. Baffling honestly.

And while an Appeal to Authority would be better than an Appeal to Nothing as you put it, the better argument to this would be introducing a logical reasoning as to why their actions were even good in regards to overall resource allocation, especially given they're sticking to the Safe and True formula? No one is saying the job isn't hard but to expect some consumers to accept subpar standards or unable to make a proper criticism would be foolish. I won't call the team lazy and open it up to such an easy appeal to authority but I will say their direction and overall prioritization of resources and idea is faulty at best.

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Originally Posted by Clover_Blake

I actually don't. It is nice to know that we'll be having headgear available for the new races, and I can only be thankful for their sacrifice.
But this was, indeed, a sacrifice. People using many extra hours from their free time, who knows if even paid, to please a bunch of players who have been calling them lazy in the most entitled ways.

I don't think the community deserves this team.

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That's why I think the asset team deserves a lot more praise than they're honestly being given. They're in the middle of crunch time for the new expansion and took it upon themselves to not only rectify an issue Yoshi-P had clarified as hard to get around before, but did it all secretly while working on their normal projects. Between the issues with crunch culture and the horrendous work hours many Japanese workers usually have to deal with on top of that I wonder if they even had time to get more than a few hours of sleep.

Between this gesture /and/ the panel at the Japanese fanfest where the asset team was excitedly showing their world building process we sincerely don't deserve them. And I hope they all got commended in real life with a raise or at least some paid time off to be cashed in once the expac goes live.

They also took a 5 month break after the release of heavensward (well, a 2 month break that delayed the patch to 5 months instead of the usual 3.5). If I remember right some of the dev team at the time hadn't had a vacation or time off since the start of the rebuild for 2.0. Several years of that. And people complained.... A lot... That a patch was delayed a month and a half....

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Originally Posted by Noodle_Trinidad

By all means keep your reasoning and continue supporting them if that is how you feel just in my own experience in games the way this Dev Team interacts with the community is subpar, in my own experience at least, when compared to other Dev Teams and games I play. Still I will respect your position to praise them for it and believing in them even if I don't.

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Fair response :) (Only responding to the part directed to me). I think part of the communication difference from what we may normally expect is the whole Japanese/English divide, but that said I do wish we could hear and interact more in some way. Maybe they need more devs that speak English comfortably enough to interface or give our CMs more power, not sure. While wonderful I can imagine whoever gets that job will also get loads of stress and flak though, as is the nature of the internet lol, so hope those that enter are prepared XD.

I do feel feedback is worth it though, I've seen a number of things go in that I feel are unlikely to have been purely coincidental (some could have been).

In other news, I may be finally using one of my ancient dusty fantasia (still have all my freebies lol). Will be quite something to get the benchmark and see how that goes.

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Originally Posted by Noodle_Trinidad

I'm sorry but I will have to heavily disagree with giving them praise in any regards if they can't even meet the bare minimum of the MMO standard. Were they owned by a Med Sized Developer or an actual Indie team that somehow is pushing out AAA quality on an MMO then yes I would praise them but the reality is that they're not. I will not praise subpar standards from a AAA dev.

I will not stop you from praising them as this is your view though, if you feel they deserve it then more power to you but I have made my stance clear.



By all means keep your reasoning and continue supporting them if that is how you feel just in my own experience in games the way this Dev Team interacts with the community is subpar when compared to other Dev Teams and games I play. Still I will respect your position to praise them for it and believing in them even if I don't.

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exactly what par are you comparing it to? most AAA games dont even have 6 races. Also Every decision has a cost, in time/money/effort the question is, is the effort of making more hats worth it in man hours, compared to whatever else you have to do?

as for budget, its not limitless, you will still have to make decisions based on the economy of creation.

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Originally Posted by Physic

I think the real right answer is, races arent worth the effort. But they added some anyhow. This is why most games dont have seven races. Especially the higher the art quality. The truth is new races cost resources, not just up front, but on every gear you make. So adding races, usually decreases new gear, etc. added to the game. All that artist time could be used on new gears, customizations, enemies, etc. Is it worth it? probably depends on the player.

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It's through your character you experience the entire game, there is a reason why people often start looking to the looks of the races when starting an MMO, if you bring in more variety, you get more happy customers.

Funny enough HW was made on a smaller budget compared to Stormblood, yet HW is still revered as the best expansion of the two we currently sit with and didn't have less armor despite bringing us a brand new race.
There is of course more variables to this, but new races =/= less armor sets. It ultimatively depends on their plans, I'd prefer more armor and filling the gaps of the new races to a ton of zones that will be empty after everyone goes through the MSQ anyhow.
I'd personally be happy with a handful of detailed zones, a ton of gear and two full new races if that meant cutting two zones or something, sadly it isn't that simple though.

We should just ignore MorbolvampireQueen6 and get back to discussing the actual game at this point.

A huge thank you to the dev team!
It makes me happy to see people so devoted to their game to secretly spend their free time on it.
I would've done the same, I'm just that kind of person, so it really brought a smile to my face.

Usually, very few people outside a dev team would thank anyone for working extra hard to make the impossible possible. As a developer, I know people who know absolutely nothing about code, or how dev works, think stuff can be done by just 'investing more money' or 'hiring better coders'. It couldn't be further from truth.

But they still go on about how more can be made when they absolutely got no clue how much time it takes to review thousands and thousands of items. Or even code new jobs, emotes, etc. While we still get regular free patches.

I know. I am grateful :)
Really, thank you team for your hard work!

They both look so good I can't wait to try a Viera and try all the lovely hair they have! They are damned if they do they are damned if they don't. I am happy and looking forward to the expansion it looks the best so far to me. I have played a long time and this game has come on in leaps and bounds and as a older gamer I can say that waaayy back in the day there where no fancy graphics just imagination so I am happy lol.

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Originally Posted by Noodle_Trinidad

You are correct in that regard in the sense of how much resources a new Race takes from a Dev Team but with that in mind you now need to question if its already a pain to make a new race for artists and modelers alike why did they decide to split it up into two new races instead of staggering one of the two out for 6.0 to ease their problems in 5.0? Would it have not made more sense to save these resources with assets they can reuse on both genders if they went All Hrothgar or All Viera? On top of that even the launch itself is still less than Heavensward which had a new Race and 3 Jobs instead of 2 Jobs and 2 Genderlocks. Baffling honestly.

And while an Appeal to Authority would be better than an Appeal to Nothing as you put it, the better argument to this would be introducing a logical reasoning as to why their actions were even good in regards to overall resource allocation, especially given they're sticking to the Safe and True formula? No one is saying the job isn't hard but to expect some consumers to accept subpar standards or unable to make a proper criticism would be foolish. I won't call the team lazy and open it up to such an easy appeal to authority but I will say their direction and overall prioritization of resources and idea is faulty at best.

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there is little cost benefit to making the same race male and female, unless the male and female of the race has the same models/rigging. work wise, doing male and female viera, and doing male hrothgar female viera is not drastically different.

Also, the reason they decided to split them is they have no intention of doing the male viera or female hrothgar later. Therefore, the question was, if we can only do two more racexgenders, which 2 gives the most value to the game.

they have already said heavensward was a mistake, they bit off more than they could chew. Its like you asking your friend to move that couch again, when last time he injured his back and couldnt leave bed for two weeks.

Also, the cost of races increases as content increases. In heavensward, they may have had 1000 garments per racexgender and in shadowbringers they may have 1500, due to all the gear/armor added. that means each race is 50% more cost in time/manhours etc. Not only that, but increases the cost of making new gear after. before whenever you make gear you have to make/check/debug armor for 12 different models, after you need to 14. that increases the cost per new clothing by 16% There are means of reducing that, but not to zero.


the thing is, an appeal to authority is as valid as your authority is. Evaluate the authority to get an idea if the appeal is valid. The simplified logic/reasoning has been presented in his post. I am sure they have more detailed data, such as man hours spent per race in ARR vs in Shadowbringers, but most people dont need/want the underlying data.


the interesting thing is, the easiest solution to giving people more races, is to have less visual clothes per race, Ie, some new race simply has less old clothes, and not all new clothes. but as per your complaint, thats probably less acceptable than races not existing at all.

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Originally Posted by griffinborn

That is one handsome ass motherflippin Hrothgar.

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Right? I was already going to switch but did think the hroths looked rather strange in the trailer, but with how good that boy looks my worries are squashed.

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Originally Posted by Emmanellain

It's through your character you experience the entire game, there is a reason why people often start looking to the looks of the races when starting an MMO, if you bring in more variety, you get more happy customers.

Funny enough HW was made on a smaller budget compared to Stormblood, yet HW is still revered as the best expansion of the two we currently sit with and didn't have less armor despite bringing us a brand new race.
There is of course more variables to this, but new races =/= less armor sets. It ultimatively depends on their plans, I'd prefer more armor and filling the gaps of the new races to a ton of zones that will be empty after everyone goes through the MSQ anyhow.
I'd personally be happy with a handful of detailed zones, a ton of gear and two full new races if that meant cutting two zones or something, sadly it isn't that simple though.

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new races does equal less armorsets, unless the races have the same model, posture, rigging. Or equals more cost per armor set. Even slightly altered models end up having bugs/clipping and need QA, some of which only show up with certain gear combinations.

charachter artists/animators are usually different than environmental artists, so basically you are choosing between charachter related stuff when you add races. this means, enemies, animations, armor, hairstyles etc.

anyhow, one zone may cost way less in manhourexpertise. its possible its like 1 hat vs 1 zone. and you might have to fire an environmental artist and hire a charachter artist to get it out in the same time frame.


to top that off, many people would disagree that a race was worth a large amount of content lost. How many man hours is a race vs a job i wonder...