Feedback: Please continue to develop Viera / Hrothgar Character Customization

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Iscah

Some options can't be implemented, especially for Hrothgar, because of how they've used the "fixed template" of character creator options in ways it wasn't intended to work.

They've taken the hairstyle setting (with its linked base colour + highlight colour settings) and used that to implement two-toned fur patterns. There absolutely should be more varieties of pattern available as compensation, but the option for picking individual hairstyles is gone. It does not exist for Hrothgar. There is something else filling that space.

It's also worth noting that already the "eight Hrothgar faces" are actually four faces, each with two hairstyle options (plus variants to make four per face). Any further faces/hairstyles are almost certainly going to replicate the same faces again and add another different hairstyle.

This unusual workaround may also mean that hats/helmets on Hrothgar are permanently impossible, as it's not programmed like normal hair and may not be able to 'vanish' so it doesn't clip through equipped headgear.


Viera have less reason to have the hairstyles restricted, and their current hairstyles aren't really designed with their ears in mind anyway, so I'm not sure what the holdup is there.

---

I think the ronkan fending/maiming helmet actually shows on hrothgar, I guess it could have been a roe I saw it on, but I swear he had a tail.. I think they are hesitant to add all of the hairstyles to viera because to them it's a logistical nightmare. With the size of viera ears, I think.. Okay they I'll get this out of the way first. Au Ra helmets aren't designed for au ra, their horns just clip directly through the sides. Maybe SE thinks it would be odd for the large viera ears to just clip directly through the top of many helmets, or rather, the position of the ears on their heads would clip in very jarring (not visually pleasing) ways with a lot of the hats as well. Miqo'te have many helmets designed specifically for them, and their ears are placed more around the sides of their heads and are much smaller, and manageable.

I have no doubt they could do it, I just think they don't want to commit the time and resources to do it. Hrothgar get the short end of the stick always, because that's something they probably actually cannot add regular hairs to with how they were designed. If they are having this much trouble with the current genders imagine the same issues, but on males. If they ever do intend to come out with the missing genders I don't think we will ever see these two races 'completed'.

Despite the limited options in terms of hair and headgear for the Hrothgar, I feel that players have done INCREDIBLE jobs customizing them. I have yet to see two Hrothgar that are identical. And despite having slightly more limited hair/face options, I find the Hrothgar have been more unique than the Viera. I played Viera for two weeks (always played male, wanted to try it, went back to Hrothgar) and I found more identical twins as a Viera than I did as a Hrothgar.

That being said, even if they didn't add more faces, having 2-3 more hairstyle options tied to those faces would be nice.

Just finished the Q/A with fan translations in the chat and from what I saw hairstyles / helmets were brought up regarding Viera / Hrothgar.

The answer was, gradually add more hair. I did not see any answer regarding helmets.

This could be an error in the translation or I might have misread, but when referring to Hrothgar and Viera they were referred to in acceptance as 'limited races,' and their limitations could not be helped. Also, it was referred that this was the last live letter to be streamed in Yoshi's office, assuming they will be moving.

So, here are a couple concerns I have here:

1. They've accepted Viera / Hrothgar as is and are not planning any large developmental adjustments (all helmets / hair) and only doing small touchup (a few hair but not all / no reference to helemts).

2. There is no hope of these races being looked into in the future due to a possible promotion / change with Yoshi - this is pure assumption on my part, but I was honestly astounded by the lack of quality in these new races when announced (not all helms working, no plans to make them all work, not all hair included, genderlocked). However, I had a suspicion that this expansion could be the last or close to last expansion for the game or Yoshi - all of the care for the community seemed to be focused more narrowly and conservatively than he had shown in the past. I'm worried Yoshi is moving on with his career (new game) in SE and these unfinished races is a sign that he's moving on.

I hope I'm wrong, but if you care at all about the quality of these races, I strongly suggest you very politely show your concerns to them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Iscah

Some options can't be implemented, especially for Hrothgar, because of how they've used the "fixed template" of character creator options in ways it wasn't intended to work.

They've taken the hairstyle setting (with its linked base colour + highlight colour settings) and used that to implement two-toned fur patterns. There absolutely should be more varieties of pattern available as compensation, but the option for picking individual hairstyles is gone. It does not exist for Hrothgar. There is something else filling that space.

It's also worth noting that already the "eight Hrothgar faces" are actually four faces, each with two hairstyle options (plus variants to make four per face). Any further faces/hairstyles are almost certainly going to replicate the same faces again and add another different hairstyle.

This unusual workaround may also mean that hats/helmets on Hrothgar are permanently impossible, as it's not programmed like normal hair and may not be able to 'vanish' so it doesn't clip through equipped headgear.


Viera have less reason to have the hairstyles restricted, and their current hairstyles aren't really designed with their ears in mind anyway, so I'm not sure what the holdup is there.

---

Just Chiming in to point out it might not be without hope. Fur Pattern and Hair selection are [most likely] stored as discrete values in the database. They could swap those values and do a [Fur Pattern + Face / Hair] pairing instead of a [Hair + Face / Fur Pattern] one. Also, as StormChurro pointed out post#41, some helmet can be shown. I know Edengate helmet of fending show just fine.