Customization limits - lore, dev workload, and future changes

With the major expansion to customization coming soon, as well as mixed reception to graphical changes, I wanted to explore the current state of the game with regards to limits on player choices, both from a story perspective and a project scaling one. Basically, everything we can't do right now with our WoLs and how that may or may not change. I welcome everyone's input and feedback, it's really why I'm making this thread. I want to encourage discussion and fill what I see as a gap in the discussion.

No beastmen
This one's pretty straightforward. With the major through line of man vs beastman, the story would need a pretty significant shift in approach. Resculpting armor to fit the various body shapes would also be a massive task. It's been pretty clearly established that we won't be getting any new races, but beastmen are doubly off the table.

No mixed race or clan options
Though you can technically tweak the options to resemble a mixed character, they're very limited and your in-game profile still lists you as one or the other. With the expanded color options coming up this will definitely become easier, especially with clan differences being distinguished by coloring. However, this will have to be on the player to create, as there is no in-game mixed race/clan mechanism. Lore wise, the taboo is acknowledged, with Hilda's heritage being a part of HW's story and side quests dealing with the topic (though there are also side quests that ignore it outright, and we've never gotten a real acknowledgement of F'lhaminn being a Keeper with a Seeker name within the story).
A mixed race WoL would probably not need major rewrites, as our race is barely acknowledged anyways. However this would be a very heavy character customization change. Face plates and horn shapes are still linked, so I personally do not believe the necessary toggles for mixed race customizations (horn/ear/tail toggles, iris shape/coloration, and height for instance) are in the near future. I'd love to be proven wrong though!

Eorzean only
Despite being able to choose from races that originate in other nations, our nationality remains Eorzean. We select an Eorzean patron deity, non-Eorzean clans aren't acknowledged in the character creator (with the exception of non-Eorzean races such as Au Ra), and within the story we are explicitly acknowledged as Eorzean (I believe Xaela are specifically called out for having their parents be from the Azim Steppe).

I won't pretend to know the complexity of how the character creation system is implemented, so I can't speak to how much of a workload this would be. But there are a few different changes that could be made. It could be a flavor-text only option, given the preestablished precedent of WoLs being children of immigrants. Othardian Roegadyn have differences in appearance, but with the new sliders this shouldn't be too much of an issue. Patron deities are also purely flavor text, so a "none" option (which some folks have already requested) is another flavor. (As a point of personal preference, I think it should be left ambiguous whether the WoL is a descendant of immigrants or an immigrant themselves.) This also ties into my next point.

No Garleans
We are in all likelihood never going to get Garlean as a playable race. The Garlean NPCs are cobbled together using a mix of Hyur and Elezen assets and do not exist on the dev side of things. Given that they canonically cannot use magic, the rewrites for a Garlean WoL aren't something I expect to see.

Gender
I already know I'm opening a can of worms with this one, but it would be disingenuous of me to make a post about limitations and not bring this up. A very common request has been the unlocking/toggle between feminine and masculine animations, and based on what is showcased RE action skins it seems possible that this may change. Additionally, outside of the character creator, gear is still arbitrarily given completely different sculpts based on characters' gender. Tycoon bottoms, for instance, are just gilded pants for masculine rather than the FFV cosplay garters of the feminine. Type B bottoms on the other hand retain their 2B cosplay appearance.
I do not believe that squenix would go through the trouble of backtracking and finding every instance of gendered language for rewrites and rerecorded lines. Unfortunately this is something that needs to have been in mind from the beginning of development. The WoL is still treated as male by default especially in supplemental material. To retroactively go through over a decade of writing is a heavy, time-consuming task and an investment that we probably will not see. Exploring within existing limitations, unlocking voices and pronouns between character models seems to be a possible compromise.

Miscellaneous
Voices are locked to races despite hearing a wide variety of voices from NPCs. Various racial features such as black-tipped ears, tattoos, horn shapes, jewelry are locked to faceplates or hairstyles. The height window is somewhat arbitrary and can be stifling. *sigh* butt slider.

I know it wouldn't really happen, but I still wish Hilda's ears was a toggle option for Hyurs.
As well as fang toggle for Miqo'tes.

Padjal horns are the same as having a Garleans third eye. For lore reasons you can't be them. NPCs would have to acknowledge that they are encountering a Padjal constantly in some way.
While Garleans can't use magic. Plus, outside of Cid most Garleans even defectors are still "unwelcome" to say it in the kindest way possible. So, a Garlean adventurer would have an almost impossible hill to climb.

Though it would still be great to have facewear of Padjal Horns, Third eye, ETC. Something outside the character creator one day.

We can dress as many beast tribes by ranking them up and buying their costumes, or doing some of the large-scale FATEs. There are also old seasonal reward costumes on the mog station.

Only thing a Garlean race would really need in my opinion is an eye thing to throw on the head. But you can just cover it up with hair or a helmet and pretend it's there.

The big one is skin colors, I don't like the total unlock they were teasing, I hope it's at least locked behind a quest so we don't have new players who don't know any better about what each races natural skin range is meant to be

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tuypo1

The big one is skin colors, I don't like the total unlock they were teasing, I hope it's at least locked behind a quest so we don't have new players who don't know any better about what each races natural skin range is meant to be

---

I saw someone propose using Baldur's Gate III's color system, which by default only shows canon-compliant "standard" cosmetic options. You have to manually uncheck the box to get more options. I'm not sure how exactly the color sliders will be added, whether it's just a full-on RBG palette or HSB sliders on the presets, but hopefully we see more in the next showcase. I think making it opt-in only is a good approach.