Race uniqueness vs individual diversity

In this thread I would like to ask you this question:

Do you think that it is more important to preserve the race uniqueness in expense of character customization?

Would you consider the world less immersive if you could create Roegadyn as slender as Elezen? Miqo'te as bulky as Roes? Or female Au Ra as tall as male one?

Personally I find the diversity of body shapes quite a bit lacking, so I would like to hear your opinion on this matter.

Except for the Au Ra, such examples might exist in lore, but would be exceptionally rare; they would be halfbreeds (an example of which- though less extreme- features in the 3.0 storyline).

Would a larger female Au Ra be a mutant, or possibly a genetic throwback? Hmm...

ETA: Personally, I'd love to see the options thrown into the mix, but, lore aside, could the current cross-platform setup support it?

I think it'd be great. In the real world, we have people of many shapes and sizes. My guess is we can't have it ingame because of memory issues.

Character customization in general is fairly limited compared to other games of this type, so I'm sure it has to do with memory issues. Which is to say, yes, I'd be all for more character customization options including body type.

People keep wanting bunny people. I have yet to feel the diversity that Rabanastre (You are insane if you expect me to spell this half awake at 7 a.m. lol) from FFXII provides. I do not feel hoppity hops will help this. Ergo, we have enough races (Disclaimer: for now). S-E needs to add customization in not only personal appearance, but in how attire looks as well. ONLY for the purpose of glamor, I would be fine with a 1.0 system where you could make each individual part, AND dying each part (important bit) of an equipment piece before final assembly.

All of what you said would be really nice but what really bothers me are these things.

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Originally Posted by Archaell

female Au Ra as tall as male one?

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They make the females so short. They're about half of a male, feels so out of place imo. But would probs require a whole redesign of the gender as they would most likely look weird as they are now

I think some things would make the experience less immersive for me, like body shapes that would obviously have to be a mix of two different races, because I imagine those to be very rare within the world of this game so it would make no sense for players to be able to choose those traits. (I'm thinking miqo as large as a roe or female au ra as tall as the males, as an example.) But within reason, it would be nice to see taller female au ra, thinner male roes, etc. or characters that are somewhat more shapely than the current options give us.

Also, the variations of the hempen set from race to race... It would not break my immersion at all to see all of those designs made available to all races. I don't mind the starter sets being limited by race though, it's nice to have some race specific gear but then I don't use it a whole lot for glamour so others might not agree with me there. I just don't see the point of having race specific underwear.

I'd absolutely love this but for it to happen they would have to redesign (entire) character customisation.

So I say please please please make something like this happen - although I highly doubt it will.

It depends on what kind of diversity is expected. I wouldnt mind more liberal sliders in char creation, but I don't want this game to become a freak show with all the midget roe and supertall lalafels running around.

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Originally Posted by Archaell

Do you think that it is more important to preserve the race uniqueness in expense of character customization?

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Yes. If you're not going to limit the visual possibilities of each races, at a certain point you have to ask what are the point of races? If you could create a Roe as slim as an Elezen or a Hyur as Bulky as a Roe, why not get rid of races altogether and just let players make whatever they want?

Seeing as how that's not an option at this point, I would rather they keep doing what they're doing now with races. Sure, give us more options, but not too many options that we lose what makes each race special. Each race should still be easily identifiable with a quick glance.

I like it as it is personally.

I would like an official explanation as to why it's so rare to see halfbreeds since Eorzea seems so sexually open. With all the races speaking the same language and their bodies have small differences one can say it's logical. What's keeping the races from mixing their genetics? They live together, they speak the same language, they are sexually "open" what's that keeping them from "mixing"? This is mostly a lore thread but it came to me reading this.

Easiest explanation is that many of these races are just biologically incompatible. It might be that the equipment doesn't fit, could be genetics, some mix of the two (Lalafell female could literally die giving birth to a Half-Roe baby) or infertility (like when you cross-breed horses and donkeys for mules).

I don't see a problem in the races not mixing. I wouldn't mind more body types either, but it makes sense to me for something like sexual dimorphism to exist (hence different sizes). I would expect more females to be larger than the males though as that is the norm in most animals (humans being one of those exceptions).

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Originally Posted by Riardon

I would like an official explanation as to why it's so rare to see halfbreeds since Eorzea seems so sexually open. With all the races speaking the same language and their bodies have small differences one can say it's logical. What's keeping the races from mixing their genetics? They live together, they speak the same language, they are sexually "open" what's that keeping them from "mixing"? This is mostly a lore thread but it came to me reading this.

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Ferne answered this at fan fest. Check the lore casts, it's recorded there I believe.