I've noticed several of the NPCs have cat-like features including long tails, but the tails always hang limply down. For future purposes, note that most creatures with long tails use them to express emotion and signal intent.
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I've noticed several of the NPCs have cat-like features including long tails, but the tails always hang limply down. For future purposes, note that most creatures with long tails use them to express emotion and signal intent.
There are a number of emote animations, for Miqo'te and Hrothgar at least, that utilize tail movement. E.g., one of the anger/upset animation on female miqo'te has the tail stand on end.
Some of the beast races also have this to a much more limited extent (kobolds/mords come to mind).
Male Mi'qote only have two standard emotes that involve their tail, and they don't suit the way cats use their tails.
The one that annoys me the most is /joy, which has us lashing our tail back and forth in a way that cats will only do when they're angry or at least seriously irritated. It makes that emote so confusing it's pretty much unusable.
The only other one is /furious, which has us raise our tail. That isn't cat-appropriate either, where a raised tail like that generally indicates friendliness and that the cat is feeling sociable. Maybe the person who designed it was thinking of the puffed out tail of a cat that's scared, but there's no puffing out of the fur involved, and in any case being scared and being furious are quite different emotions.
Of unlockable emotes, the only one I have which includes tail movement is the ball dance, where one step of the dance includes lifting the tail. That's pretty cool and I like it, but it's being used there as a dance move rather than an expression of emotion.
So I agree with the OP. We could do with a lot of improvement here, both fixing the places we do have tail movement and adding it to a lot of other emotes where we should, as well as giving tailed NPCs meaningful tail movement. (But this time, have it be designed by someone who's familiar with cats.)
And on a related note, either /angry or /furious (maybe both) should have us lay our ears back like an angry cat. There's a flick of the ears on the /joy emote, so they're clearly moveable and can be animated, but I don't think they're ever used to express emotion.
(I'm not sure if Viera ears are moveable or used in emotes, nor am I familiar enough with rabbits to know how/when they should be used. If they're as underutilized as Miqo'te ears, though, then it would be good to have someone familiar with rabbits look into adding some movement there as well. )