Please implement long, more creative hairstyles and make Au'Ra females taller.

I'm pretty certain at some point this got already requested, or was part of a feedback. But I really hope it will finally be considered at some point.

I would love to see a larger variety in hairstyles, more creative ones and longer ones.

I can't believe the only new ones that came with SB for females were short...yet again. And you can't make your character look as great as some NPC's in the game.

Braided long hair would nullify the issue of looking weird when not moving. And you could implement some variety of lenghts, so people who prefer armor which would clip could just choose the shorter version. While others, like me, only have glamours which don't clip anyway.


The other issue are the Au'Ra females.

They are so wifey. Basically Miqo'tes - just with horns and scales? Why is there no option to make them taller? Why is there so little customisation for the scales and horns?
Don't get me wrong, I still love the race - all the armors look grand on them, they just have the right body shape.
But you should be able to create a more fierce, strong Au'ra lady. More equal to the male counterpart. And I've heard a lot of people complaining about that...so maybe it's time to finally listen and make some more changes.
Or implement a sub-race which would be true to your original concept art.


(And because some people got it wrong... no one wants to take the petite ladies away for those who want them. I just want to have the option to be not just half the size of a male Au ra and look half as badass.)


Attached an idea for more creative hairstyles:

http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/...or-caramel.jpg

Well, all genders of all races have very specific body types.

While I agree that they could do something with the horn/face aspect of au ra, the rest I don't really think they can do much about - you already have a height slider. It's just that female au ras are typically short.

It's the same for every race - much in the same way you can't make a tall, stronk au ra lady, I can't make a lalafell than can reach doorknobs.

NOTE: I'm all for more customization, though - face types, face pain, hairstyles, whatever. But as for the overall body type, though, the only thing that I could see being able to change this would be:
A) chubby slider (which I'm so ready for. My potato isn't round enough tbh)
B) Third clans for every race

I can't agree. The height slider is ridiculous. And yes, they are shorter than the males, but the maximum height doesn't have to be half the size of the males.

They origin from dragons, but they made the Au ra like the Mi'qote cute again.
It is a general MMO problem - there is no middle ground.

Same as with Elezen: Yes. They are meant to be tall. But they have a very strange body shape and look like Giraffes. I tried it - rarely any armor properly works on them.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Au ra, but I do think MMO developers have a lot of freedom with their creations and need to cater to a growing female playerbase who want to to be able to play fierce and still beautiful characters who are not human and not Roegadyn.

Hate to say it, but this will never happen. Why? The au'ra females were originally tall and fierce. SE then decided to change them into the dragon-waifu we have today. Why? Female miqo'te were popular, elezen and roegadyn females weren't. And they wanted female au'ra to be popular.

I personally hated the change. I feel the final au'ra character design doesn't match the male design at all. I think SE sacrificed creative integrity to pander to the masses, or what they believed the masses wanted. But it's so horribly mismatched. For reference, here is the original female au'ra concept art. I so wish they would have stuck with it.

http://cdn4.dualshockers.com/wp-cont...5-22_29_38.jpg

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Originally Posted by Xerek

Hate to say it, but this will never happen. Why? The au'ra females were originally tall and fierce. SE then decided to change them into the dragon-waifu we have today. Why? Female miqo'te were popular, elezen and roegadyn females weren't. And they wanted female au'ra to be popular.

I personally hated the change. I feel the final au'ra character design doesn't match the male design at all. I think SE sacrificed creative integrity to pander to the masses, or what they believed the masses wanted. But it's so horribly mismatched. For reference, here is the original female au'ra concept art. I so wish they would have stuck with it.

http://cdn4.dualshockers.com/wp-cont...5-22_29_38.jpg

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This is why I don’t like Au Ra and I don’t want to see what they would do to the poor Viera if they ever added them. I liked the original concept art too.

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Originally Posted by AmaSagahl

They origin from dragons.

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Either I didn't memorized the Lore of the Azim Steppe but ... where was this mentioned again? ^^

Also, I will say I absolutely hate the vast gender height difference. This was so obviously a last-minute change that was not thought-out. Yes, FF XIV requires a sense of disbelief, but I still have real trouble accepting that the male and female au'ra we have are the same race. It was like adding a Luchador (Greco) to Chrono Cross. Yes, that was awesome, but it really didn't make sense. XD

Well, I put it the wrong way....It is believed they origin and are progeny of dragons. You can find more online. Sadly, they did not put a lot of their origin lore ingame.

Man, I love that concept art!
And I agree a 100% with you. It does absolutely not match the male design, and even an in-between the original design and current design I would've been fine with - not the way it is now.
You are right, they made the change not because they were convinced it was the best choice in terms of creating a new race, they did it because everything is heading towards more kawaii and cute and that's what a huge part of the playerbase wants. Same with the glamours. I don't like that development. There should be more choices.
And I am certain that I am not the only one thinking so, there must be also a serious amount of gamers interested in more WoW like races and glamours.

But imo, the reason why Elezen and Roegadyn are not very popular, is the design. I find it really hard to make a Roegadyn look interesting and Elezen look like giraffes statue-wise. The male look better often than the females, but have very strange proportions still.

Hairstyles: Yes!

Taller female Au'Ra: NO!

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Originally Posted by ScarletDawn

Hairstyles: Yes!

Taller female Au'Ra: NO!

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...and this is why you won't see the au'ra changed. They've been in the game as-is for a couple years now. And while there are people that don't like the current design it would be completely unfair to take that away from the people that currently do. They were presented the au'ra as they are now as a new playable race and in good faith chose them.

So, while I think SE really should have gone with the original design and consider the genders horribly mismatched, it's far too late to change their design now. About the only way I could see them doing it would be to add a third au'ra clan to character creation, containing more the original design and smaller height difference, in a way similar to how highlander hyurs differ from midlanders. But the moment you do that, people are going to start yelling for the others races to get a third clan, too.

Yeah, despite the critical design, not necessarily a flaw, I rather prefer petite characters. It gave me something that characteristically meshed with me better than Midlanders or Miqo'te did.

A third clan would create more issues than solutions. Every race is set into how they appear and bringing third, vastly different form of each would be realm shattering.

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Originally Posted by ScarletDawn

Hairstyles: Yes!

Taller female Au'Ra: NO!

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Letting them be taller wouldn't hurt you.

Taller more like the original art concept would be nice for an option but allow people to keep the current style as is.

The hair is an ongoing battle of clipping vs looks, some people hate long hair because it clips, others love long hair and don't care about clipping. SE doesn't seem to be in a rush to fix the clipping and personally with the exception of a few hairstyles as it is now yugiri's style would be the only long style I want. Personally I think they should work on unlocking the hairstyles and outfits before they add new hairstyles to the game.

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Originally Posted by Naunet

Letting them be taller wouldn't hurt you.

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She plays a female Au Ra tho... she already prefers them the way they are.

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Originally Posted by ErryK

She plays a female Au Ra tho... she already prefers them the way they are.

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Letting them be taller does not change how her own character looks.

Guys, what at least a couple of you did not understand - it is not about taking away the current design. It is about giving the players more options to customise the character. It is fine if people want petite, but there is a solid playerbase who prefers more fierce and less fragile/cute looking characters.


It would not hurt anyone to give the options of making female Au ra a bit taller, more scales/horns/different kind of horns etc.

And that applies to every race. Give us better customising tools, more individuality. And I am speaking not just for me.


And regarding hairstyles: I am not just talking about super-long hair. I am talking about more creative, longish hair, longer ponytails like Hilda has; braided Hair etc. 70% of the hairstyles are spikey, tomboyish short hair which I barely know anyone who uses those.
I know the issue is clipping, but I personally go for armor and glamours which don't clip the hair that you can see in my profile picture.
Sucks, but there is no solution for that unless FF14 fixes the hair and clipping issue. Unlike GW2, they did not think of it in the beginning which is a bit strange and now it is hard fixing it.

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Originally Posted by Naunet

Letting them be taller does not change how her own character looks.

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... what? If she sees her character as being short... then that kind of makes your statement incorrect, don't you think?

I don't see my character being 2 feet tall, that's why I play a Roegadyn.

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Originally Posted by Xerek

Also, I will say I absolutely hate the vast gender height difference. This was so obviously a last-minute change that was not thought-out. Yes, FF XIV requires a sense of disbelief, but I still have real trouble accepting that the male and female au'ra we have are the same race. It was like adding a Luchador (Greco) to Chrono Cross. Yes, that was awesome, but it really didn't make sense. XD

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There really is no basis to believing that the petite Au Ra female is a last minute change. In fact the opposite has EVIDENCE because before any information on Au Ra was released to the public Yugiri was presented in game as a dainty petite female ninja type of an unfamiliar race. If anything the male disparity is the true disappointment... I was hoping for equally small and petite males.

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Originally Posted by ErryK

... what? If she sees her character as being short... then that kind of makes your statement incorrect, don't you think?

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Does adding more hairstyles suddenly change your character's hairstyle? No. Increasing height variability will not affect one's character.

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Originally Posted by Terrini

I was hoping for equally small and petite males.

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This would be completely acceptable as well! Perhaps even moreso.

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Originally Posted by Naunet

Does adding more hairstyles suddenly change your character's hairstyle? No. Increasing height variability will not affect one's character.

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Adding the option, yes. But your words the were giving me the impression you were saying change all of that specific race/gender combination's height.

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Originally Posted by ErryK

Adding the option, yes. But your words the were giving me the impression you were saying change all of that specific race/gender combination's height.

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That's not what I said at all, nor was it ever implied.

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Originally Posted by ErryK

... what? If she sees her character as being short... then that kind of makes your statement incorrect, don't you think?

I don't see my character being 2 feet tall, that's why I play a Roegadyn.

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I think she was saying to change the maximum height to be more in line with the male au ra height, while keeping the minimum height the same as it currently is. This would then mean that everyone gets a fair shot, lovers of both petite and tall au ra.

EDIT: Nevermind, you've already clarified to each other what you were trying to say and are all on the same page. Redundant post of mine is redundant.

I've always been for more options but I don't see a height change in the cards. It is definitely easier to design and implement hairs (especially short ones) than it is to redesign the physicalities of an existing and lore-established race. Sure they could, and I would not be mad if they did, I really like the original design too. I just don't think they will. It doesn't seem like something they would do. I mean, its pulling teeth to even get longer hairs. My female highlander has access to 3 "long" hairs, maybe a few more if you're forgiving of the term "long." So I will definitely /sign for those.

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Originally Posted by Terrini

There really is no basis to believing that the petite Au Ra female is a last minute change. In fact the opposite has EVIDENCE because before any information on Au Ra was released to the public Yugiri was presented in game as a dainty petite female ninja type of an unfamiliar race. If anything the male disparity is the true disappointment... I was hoping for equally small and petite males.

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Because the Au Ra character models were not ready even for demonstration until December 2014, while patch 2.2 was released some nine months prior, on a technical level the model used to represent Yugiri in her appearances in patches 2.2 and 2.4 is actually that of a heavily-modified female Miqo'te, utilizing a custom-built tail, gloves, tunic and headpiece. The headpiece ensures no facial expressions are obvious, but the general posture, idle, and talk animations for Yugiri utilize the standard Miqo'te animation skeleton.

The lore of female Au Ra's is written that they are MUCH smaller than the males. Personally, I love their design and find them to be anything but a Miqo'te with scales and horns. Female Au Ra's were the only other race that caught my interest, but I ended up going midlander because I don't like having a tail.

As for longer hairstyles, they need to deal with the clipping issues first, or you will see these gorgeous designs ruined the moment they wear a body piece with a collar. Clipping isn't the only issue though. Longer hair is also much more difficult to animate and get it to flow naturally. Even with today's technology and putting tons of money at it as with the big-time animation studios out there, it still isn't quite right. I do hope we get there though, but we might actually have to wait for the next FF mmo before we get the hair we truly want.

The original concept art doesn't imply that though. And tbh, I did not find the information online that you stated? Where is the lore coming from? I am honestly curious.

(Btw, even Roegadyn have one hairstyle that is longer than most available. But I get the clipping issue of course. And that animating long hair is time consuming and difficult. But for me, it is also just about a variety of interesting hairstyles, not necessarily just long.)

I'm fine with it, so long as I can have kawaii dainty poses for my femroe (I'm not joking!)

I was said to see the waifu that the fem Au ra turned into.

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Originally Posted by AmaSagahl

The original concept art doesn't imply that though. And tbh, I did not find the information online that you stated? Where is the lore coming from? I am honestly curious.

(Btw, even Roegadyn have one hairstyle that is longer than most available. But I get the clipping issue of course. And that animating long hair is time consuming and difficult. But for me, it is also just about a variety of interesting hairstyles, not necessarily just long.)

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I would really need to see original concept art that compares a female Au Ra's size to a male. The one provided in this thread could easily be a scaled version making them appear larger than they really are. As for the lore, iirc it's in the race description when you're creating your character. I believe consolegames wiki has the exact same description:

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"The curved horns and beautifully patterned scales that characterize the Au Ra oft give rise to speculation that this Hyur-like race native to the Far Eastern continent of Othard are, in fact, the progeny of dragons. This, however, has long been disputed, with scholars citing several distinct differences in the two races as evidence of decidedly dissimilar roots─the first and foremost being the enhanced hearing and spatial recognition granted by an Au Ra's cranial projections (traits not attributed to draconian horns), and the second being the gross disproportion in body mass between Auri males and females (again, a trait widely unseen in dragons)."

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I am definitely on board for more variety in hairstyles, short and long. Until some technological barriers are hurdled, we may have to stick with the shorter ones for now I'm afraid. More ponytails is an option. Many of us have been pining for the release of Hilda's hairstyle. We can tell her hair is crazy long, and her ponytail is very conveniently worn up and away from the neck area. I hope even they never release her hairstyle, they will still look into this design a bit more for future releases.

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Originally Posted by AmaSagahl

The original concept art doesn't imply that though. And tbh, I did not find the information online that you stated? Where is the lore coming from? I am honestly curious.

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The concept art was likely what they had originally then scrapped it in lieu to just base it off the Miqo'te instead to make it easier.

The source is from her Wiki page but since there's no source for the info, even tho I've heard that a dozen times in the past it might not be true.

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Originally Posted by ErryK

... what? If she sees her character as being short... then that kind of makes your statement incorrect, don't you think?

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No one is saying she can't keep her character exactly the way it is. They are just asking for the height slider to go up higher so that they can make their character taller.

It ain't gonna happen, of course, but I would certainly take a harder look at playing Au Ra if it did. I made an alt one time and barely got past the opening cut-scene before I saw that my max-height female Au Ra barely reached waist high on the male standing next to me. I noped right out of there and haven't logged on to her since.

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Originally Posted by Shouko

Because the Au Ra character models were not ready even for demonstration until December 2014, while patch 2.2 was released some nine months prior, on a technical level the model used to represent Yugiri in her appearances in patches 2.2 and 2.4 is actually that of a heavily-modified female Miqo'te, utilizing a custom-built tail, gloves, tunic and headpiece.

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But even so, the fact that Yugiri's body type was meant to be similar to Miqo'te was made canon long before any actual information was revealed. People used her shrouded silhouette to make guesses as to what the race was. My point is that the revelation of Yugiri proves that the bigger more dangerous concept art of the Au Ra female was considered and already scrapped before they brought this character into the story. They had already made the decision to make females of the race small and delicate.

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Originally Posted by Gemina

The lore of female Au Ra's is written that they are MUCH smaller than the males. Personally, I love their design and find them to be anything but a Miqo'te with scales and horns. Female Au Ra's were the only other race that caught my interest, but I ended up going midlander because I don't like having a tail.

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I also love the lore that came out in Stormblood on the race and it makes perfect sense as to why they are as they are. I would have enjoyed a midlander/highlander racial clan split where Raen are small and delicate and Xaela are big and fierce... but I love the story from the Azim Steppe quite a bit, and it would not have worked with that kind of clan racial difference.

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Originally Posted by Terrini

But even so, the fact that Yugiri's body type was meant to be similar to Miqo'te was made canon long before any actual information was revealed. People used her shrouded silhouette to make guesses as to what the race was. My point is that the revelation of Yugiri proves that the bigger more dangerous concept art of the Au Ra female was considered and already scrapped before they brought this character into the story. They had already made the decision to make females of the race small and delicate.

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It doesn't mean much since they use the models of other races for certain NPCs. Minfilia and Lyse are Highlanders yet they use the Midlander model. Nero is also another example as he is a Garlean but they use the Elezen model for him.

I wouldn't mind a little more freedom in height variances, but I'm also aware that they're set to the traits of the races, as established by lore. Miqo'te are generally smaller than Hyurs by a little. Lalafell need no explanation. Apparently, Elezens have the longest lifespan, but not by that much. (This is all from Encyclopedia Eorzea) The original Au Ra design is nice, yes, and I wouldn't mind seeing it still become a reality, much like how they implemented the Lupin race, even if not playable. As for the Viera, I do want to see them. I liked the "normal" design, and I really like the small design even more. That way we'd get 2 small races rather than a third "tall" race.

But that's just my weigh in on it.

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Originally Posted by Terrini

But even so, the fact that Yugiri's body type was meant to be similar to Miqo'te was made canon long before any actual information was revealed. People used her shrouded silhouette to make guesses as to what the race was. My point is that the revelation of Yugiri proves that the bigger more dangerous concept art of the Au Ra female was considered and already scrapped before they brought this character into the story. They had already made the decision to make females of the race small and delicate.

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That's the point I was making, I'm saying that the initial reason it was like that was because it was based off the Miqo'te. Personally I would rather have the concept art looking models, they just scream dragon-like race. They could have made the Xaela be the concept art style and the Raen be the ones we have now, think the highlanders and the midlanders for the Hyur, that way both worlds would be happy and it would be more fitting lore wise.

If they allow Au Ra to be taller and bulkier, I want the ability to make a thinner lalafel. ;_;

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Originally Posted by ScarletDawn

Hairstyles: Yes!

Taller female Au'Ra: NO!

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I agree with this comment.

I can only agree with the need for better hairstyles. I think the Au Ra are fine the way they are now and only need more customization options for other things than to be worrying about their bodies.

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Originally Posted by Kisagami

If they allow Au Ra to be taller and bulkier, I want the ability to make a thinner lalafel. ;_;

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or at least let the breast size actual go from no bust to **some** bust

i don't mind taller au ra as long as we still get to pick the height we get from the slider as it is now. more longer, more creative hairstyles are always welcome for me but they should fix the horrendous clipping on the player model first :(