Dear FFXIV Devs, please consider this "Future Race" feedback :)

So, I'm absolutely ***LOVING*** FFXIV, but honestly? I don't like any of the existing races. Frankly, I *REALLY* don't want another "Cute" or "Pretty" race, especially one that is Human-looking to boot.

What I *REALLY* want is a cross between this:

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...BahemothXV.jpg

and this:

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs36/i/20...mischamilo.jpg

That's right. I want to play what is effectively a "humanoid Behemoth". Behemoths have always had some of the coolest-looking designs in the entire Final Fantasy franchise, and I feel like they would be the perfect source of inspiration for a new Playable Race.

If you were to create a race like that, I can guarantee, it would draw a lot of attention from a lot of gamers who, like me, might ordinarily be put-off by the traditionally "clean" visuals of FFXIV. The game looks amazing, but it lacks a truly masculine race that feels like it could stand toe-to-toe with, say, the Orcs of Warcraft or Uruk-kai of Lord of the Rings.

And honestly, who *WOULDN'T* love the idea of a tall, muscular, bestial, bipedal race? Particularly once you've decked him/her out in a suit of armor, or even some sinister-looking robes!

As for their culture, I'd go similar to the Ronso of FFX; a tribal, nomadic people, but after arrogantly seeking to summon and control a Primal, are forced to ally with other races, which they deem "weaker" than they themselves. They would traditionally fill the role of hunters, warriors, sell-swords, and occasionally dark and powerful sorcerers. Their cultural weaknesses would be their overly-serious dispositions, and not being particularly good traders or craftsmen (again; just in terms of Lore, NOT actual gameplay).

I know, this is all super-specific, but honestly, I know what I want, and I feel like it's something that could appeal to a lot of other gamers who might typically be put-off by the "pretty" and "cute" races that we currently have to choose from (even the Roegadyn have kind of a "John Goodman" sort of friendliness to them).

So... yeah. Hopefully this reaches the eyes of some of the FFXIV devs, because I ***REALLY* want a race like this!!! ^_^

no
/10char

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Originally Posted by Zoeila

no
/10char

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did? *YOU* "mean" to? say *NO!!!!!!*?

Also, here's maybe a better image of a Behemoth, to get an idea:

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...BahemothXV.jpg

Give give human-style hands and walk upright, and that's basically a done-deal, to me. Even the Behemoth's face there; I could easily imagine a huge variety of expressions from something like that. Like I said, just don't try to "humanize" it, because if you want to play a truly human-looking race, there are more than enough options.

Only real kicker is that you would need to address closed-face helms, but honestly, for a race that awesome, I'd happily turn my helmet-display off entirely ^_^

I'm not to keen on behemoth (hybrid or not) being some kind of playable race. Behemoths have always been an enemy of sorts, usually an extremely strong enemy through out FF history. I just don't see any lore supporting this specific type of hybrid in the FFXIV:ARR or any FF lore. Hybrids exist through out FF the series itself, but a behemoth? I can see a dragon type race being included at some point, I'm pretty sure Yoshi said he wanted to eventually go in that direction.

Just my personal opinion, I'm not sure it would effectively work well in Eorzea, plus it's just not that appealing.

Well, it certainly wouldn't be a Behemoth specifically, simply something kind of styled after one, more or less. To my knowledge, none of the existing races are actually native to Eorzea; perhaps this races could be the first, thus explaining their resemblance to the Behemoth? That, or just alter their appearance a bit more, so that nobody even makes the connection.

For me, it's not about the Behemoth specifically, just that I want that "type" of Race. Powerful, bestial, and intimidating; something a bit outside the norm. Behemoths already have a pretty interesting look to them, and particularly in that last image I linked, I could just see that so easily fitting a playable race, if they stood upright.

I'm also down with a dragon-themed race, I just don't think that it's going to be anything like what I'm looking for. Judging by Nugiri's appearance, it looks like it's basically going to be another Miqo'te, but with reptilian features instead of cat ones.

Well any race made to come to Eorzea, or we encounter in lands in later updates/expansions that are too bestial would probably end up being Beastmen. The way Hyadaelyn(world) seems to work so far with how "bestial" type races are treated. Though Yugiri's race might surprise us all, she even said (or Alphinaud I can't rmbr which atm.) that she hid her appearance from Eorzeans due to how they view beastmen tribes as a threat.

Personally I don't see much want for a more "beast" type playable race atm. I could be wrong, just my opinion.

I can see it as a beast tribe, but not a playable race. It needs to look more human than anything. Although didnt roegadynes in 11 have behemoth tails? Or was that concept art?

You realise why they are using the same body as pre-existing races?
Gear.

By keeping to a pre-existing shape they can re-use art assets without any redesigning. If they added a totally non humanoid race they would need to redesign every single piece of equipment in game and future ones to fit it. effectively increasing the work needed to produce new content exponentialy.

I'm totally not against new races, whether I like them or not (never liked Tarutaru in XI or Lolafell in XIV), more options are always good. Just got to think within limitations.

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Originally Posted by myahele

I can see it as a beast tribe, but not a playable race. It needs to look more human than anything. Although didnt roegadynes in 11 have behemoth tails? Or was that concept art?

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No they did not have "Behemoth" tails. They did simply have tails, but they basically looked exactly like a Roegadyn with longer arms and a tail. And no Hellsguard type Galka existed they all stayed within the Seawolves color/look theme. Plus no female Galkas existed either.

Though I admit, Galkas and Mithras both looked more "beastly" in XI than Miqo'tes and Roes look here. I miss how Mithras were. Thought I'd finally get to play a true "kitty boy" here, but nupe!

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2.../RSE1Galka.JPG http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20080501/ff28.jpg

Eh, the term "Beastmen" is a pretty loose term, I think. The only real distinction that I can see is that "Beastmen" don't really play nice with other races most of the time. As long as they're reasonably intelligent, though, and are willing to work together with other races for the greater good, I think it would be square. After all, there's a Goblin in the "Company of Heroes", right?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by myahele

I can see it as a beast tribe, but not a playable race. It needs to look more human than anything. Although didnt roegadynes in 11 have behemoth tails? Or was that concept art?

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Galkas, a different race than Ro in FFXIV. Just like Miqo'te aren't Mithra and Lolafells aren't Tarutaru. Irregardless that some XI players can't get over that XD

Eh. I personally tend towards the desire to see races that are aesthetically-pleasing added. They need to be different enough so as to seem exotic and not end up feeling boring, but monstrous/ugly = bleh...
Being a huge fan of PSO, I'd of course like some sort of 'synthetic' race a la the CASTs
http://i.imgur.com/a8dbGQR.jpg
However, that's probably a bit too out there for the current state of Hydaelyn, so a design more based off of Mammets, but made more humanoid could work.
Kind of like a cute, Robo-Taokaka or something.

Or something a bit more eerie in nature. As I've said before, I'd like something sort of etherial, spindly, and alien-looking. Maybe with sullen or 'missing' eyes, partially luminescent skin, etc.
And perhaps with long claws instead of fingers
(a la the succubi we've already seen
http://i.imgur.com/FqlHYL0.jpg
[or a less deformed version of Eve's hands from Parasite Eve]) and with incredibly long/lanky arms and legs.

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Originally Posted by Sapphic

You realise why they are using the same body as pre-existing races?
Gear.

By keeping to a pre-existing shape they can re-use art assets without any redesigning. If they added a totally non humanoid race they would need to redesign every single piece of equipment in game and future ones to fit it. effectively increasing the work needed to produce new content exponentialy.

I'm totally not against new races, whether I like them or not (never liked Tarutaru in XI or Lolafell in XIV), more options are always good. Just got to think within limitations.

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Only thing that would have to be customized, really, would be boots, and occasionally helmets. I don't think that's unreasonable, for a new Race that could potentially bring in a whole new market. Hell, they could even go the route of "only leg-armor is displayed, they don't get proper boots", and just focus on the occasional helmet.

Basically OP, you want this ?

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...FFXIII_Art.jpg

^ King Behemoth from FFXIII.

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Originally Posted by Terin

Only thing that would have to be customized, really, would be boots, and occasionally helmets. I don't think that's unreasonable, for a new Race that could potentially bring in a whole new market. Hell, they could even go the route of "only leg-armor is displayed, they don't get proper boots", and just focus on the occasional helmet.

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That's /slightly/ part of the issue. Creating separate 3D mesh variations for to suit would only be a portion of the issues they'd face.

On top of providing separate gear components to compensate for the leg structure, is the games skeleton.


Currently, every race in the game uses the same skeleton, featuring the same number of joints/bones for each animation, this makes it very easy and streamlined to "add in" new animations for pretty much anything.

Certain occasions such as the Lalafell Arcanist animations or Roegadyn Warrior/Dragoon animations are different as a result of their body shape, (but this is simply a specific animation they've decided to use for them, not a separate skeleton).

http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/plantigrade.jpg

As someone who's had to rig/weigh and animate these damned things in the past, digi-grade legs sometimes require more joints, this is where problems occur.

http://www.somastruct.com/wp-content...ntigrade11.jpg


As you can clearly see, the human joins simply rely on three main connection points; Hips, Knees, Ankles. (This is all that's needed for basic human leg animation).

As the profile view of the logs leg shows, it relies on four main connection points; Hips, Knees, and Two Ankle joints.


This creates a problem already. The original plantigrade skeleton will have let's say 42 bones in it, the digigrade one now has 44 bones.
The computer is now confused and can no-longer apply the weights or their influences to the correct joints on the skeleton as two new joints have been added.

(There are some ways around this, but as I said before, FFXIV has a huge focus on animation quality, therefore they'd be likely to fuss over such details)



In terms of animating characters, there are ways into tricking a normal planti-grade skeleton into the form of a digi-grade one with a little bit of trickery.

However in terms of the quality of animating FFXIV, and the attention to detail they like to go to, they'd essentially have to provide unique animations for this new race, simply based on the leg structure (hence why the new race screenshots have plantigrade legs instead of digigrade.




"Why does this matter?"

It matters because, they're going to sit down in their various teams involved in the creation of this new race, someone is going to say "How about Ronso".

Both the animators and the modelers are immediately going to go "But here's a list of issues that are going to be caused as a result of using that race"
"Do we have the time to compensate for that?" "Will we be able to find a solution?" "If not, whats the best course of action".

In the end, I couldn't really fault them for sticking with a race that'll suit and fit a human shape/skeleton, to reduce the effort and work-load of the various sub-set teams.

If there is any races I ever wanna see in a MMO would probably be these.

Birdman wouldn't need a flying mount just fly yourself
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...enIIClaude.png

Centaur Could give people rides on your back with this race like a chocobo.
http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__...GaidenApis.png

Wolfman human just like half esper shape shift into wolf different move set.
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...Duga_image.jpg

Half esper I am sure Terra had kids and they made kids and those kids had kids, have a morph ability to change into something stronger with a different move set.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KteAWElKwe...a_Branford.gif

I'd be 100% in support of a Ronso race, actually. And I usually don't like beastial characters.

Ronso, Burmecian, Bangaa, Viera

(maybe a draconic/demonic gria? one that still has a human face, but with horns)
('.')b

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Originally Posted by Dark-Saviour

Eh. I personally tend towards the desire to see races that are aesthetically-pleasing added. They need to be different enough so as to seem exotic and not end up feeling boring, but monstrous/ugly = bleh...
Being a huge fan of PSO, I'd of course like some sort of 'synthetic' race a la the CASTs
http://i.imgur.com/a8dbGQR.jpg
However, that's probably a bit too out there for the current state of Hydaelyn, so a design more based off of Mammets, but made more humanoid could work.
Kind of like a cute, Robo-Taokaka or something.

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Well, we do have the Allagans with all their high-tech gizmos, so never say never on that! Sure, even then it's probably a tad far-fetched, but it's not that they wouldn't have any sort of lore-based reason for it whatsoever.

allagan have clone, robot and whatever they have think... then an android life form is not that far.

A cyborg race would be cool.

Mm...now I wanna play Xenoblade Chronicles again.

OP - If you want the second picture you posted, check Bless Online. You will have your shapeshifter ;)

*Now in waiting mode >.<

Not sure in here if bringing a new race would really make a difference, content-wise and I would prefer they get their attention on fixing details such as player withdrawing from queues, PvE and PvP, the ridiculous crafting item drop from a last boss in instances (if only it was a Rare one.. perhaps demimateria?) etc..

Lots to fix here, just pointed out a few, before getting a new race, which we can assume will come in 2.4 (Yugiri) Hopefully.

I feel like it's a bit late for this discussion. As far as the new race goes, I'm sure they've already put a ton of time and work into creating the models and animations and stuff for whatever Yuguri is.

It's possible we'll get another new race after that, but it'll probably be a few years.

First off how a race request could possibly be considered "Future Race feedback" is beyond me.

Secondly, God no. This is terrible.

They have what you want in TERA, you can always go play that.

I don't think they will add some kind of Hybrid Behemoth race since that would be more like a beastmen. Probably the new race they are adding will be more to your liking since it seems to be related to dragons/reptiles of some sort.

I still don't get why they choose that instead of Viera. :(

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Originally Posted by RedAntares

They have what you want in TERA, you can always go play that.

I don't think they will add some kind of Hybrid Behemoth race since that would be more like a beastmen. Probably the new race they are adding will be more to your liking since it seems to be related to dragons/reptiles of some sort.

I still don't get why they choose that instead of Viera. :(

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[sarcasm] Because adding something that a large number of players would like, would be a horrible choice of course. [/sarcasm]

Eh, I think adding new Races is *WAY* more important than I think is getting credit for. New Races and Classes help broaden the scope of any MMO, and games that don't try to bring in new stuff tend to lose traction (just look at Guild Wars 2; great game, but without such content, it doesn't really draw any *new* players to the game).

As for whether every race needs a purely-human body, I just don't think so. It would certainly be a less effort, but like I said; if the "new" races just feel like carbon-copies of the old ones, then it's not really going to amount to much. If you trade a Miqo'te's cat-tail for a lizard-tail, I don't think they're going to make someone who isn't already playing the game suddenly say "Oh man, that's just the thing I wanted to see before buying the game".

Now, if you guys just flat-out don't like the idea of a "Ronso, with Behemoth-like features", well... We all want something different! :P I just figure, the game *REALLY* needs a "tough-looking race", because there's really no benefit to having yet another "pretty race".

And also... Yes, I know that Yugiri's race is probably nearly-finished and already planned to come into the game. Hence, a *future* Playable Race suggestion :P