Feature Request: Character Dominant Hand - Character Handedness

It appears that all FFXIV characters are right handed. It would be great to see the ability to set character handedness. I'd like to believe that the positioning of weapons, shields, tools, etc could be mirrored to the other side without too much of an undue burden on the development team.

why not but it will just require the team to do all the combat animations again

This proposal is way too much time and money for way too little benefit --
but that's not uncommon on these forums, is it?

That said, if FFXIV ever adds a new job (and therefore new animations), it might be interesting to make that job left-handed.

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Originally Posted by Silverbane

That said, if FFXIV ever adds a new job (and therefore new animations), it might be interesting to make that job left-handed.

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Indeed, it can be interesting to have a new job that will play as a left-handed player, but won't it be a little weird?

I like to think the Arcanist is lefty. Right hand is just holding the book while the left does most of the action.

AST holds the sphere in the left hand.

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Originally Posted by Silverbane

This proposal is way too much time and money for way too little benefit --
but that's not uncommon on these forums, is it?

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Yeah, wouldn't want to put too much pressure on the poor widdle indie devs of a multibillion dollar corporation that uses this game's revenue for other projects.

That being said, this request is kinda too minimal, imo. I can't really think of many mmos that let you swap hands and let you be lefthanded. Maybe if there's a new job, but it's unlikely. It's also something that you probably wouldn't even notice after a few minutes, so eh, can't say I really want this feature even for just slight RP favor.

But we did get adventure plates, which is a pretty useless feature that no one has really interacted with since its inception, so meh, I guess anything could technically be possible?

My understanding is that mirroring 3D animations is very simple. This game doesn't have hitboxes or any of that stuff to worry about so, probably very doable. Don't expect the devs to think of it though. I imagine the same can be expected of jobs like PLD, just mirror which model goes where.

But remember; rightoids rule Hydaelyn. Lefties better behave or else we'll be forced to show our dominance.

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Originally Posted by Padudu

Yeah, wouldn't want to put too much pressure on the poor widdle indie devs of a multibillion dollar corporation that uses this game's revenue for other projects.

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Those "poor widdle indie devs" aren't the ones making billions, nor do they have any influence whatsoever on said billion-dollar corporation's decisions. They are just like you and me, and just trying to make a living, and don't get anywhere near the appreciation they've earned.

If you're going to cast the iron cross, at least crucify the right people.
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As for OP, this would indeed put unnecessary pressure on them. I can only imagine the jaw drop reaction when the animation team who is already over-worked and underpaid, is told to reanimate all the models to accommodate the decision to allow players to switch their dominant hand.

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Originally Posted by Gemina

Those "poor widdle indie devs" aren't the ones making billions, nor do they have any influence whatsoever on said billion-dollar corporation's decisions. They are just like you and me, and just trying to make a living, and don't get anywhere near the appreciation they've earned.

If you're going to cast the iron cross, at least crucify the right people.
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You may want to look up the "little indie devs" meme - I'm not throwing shade at the devs, I'm throwing shade at SE lol. Before correcting me please read up on meme culture smh. It's pretty much akin to saying "SE is a little indie dev company pls understand".

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Originally Posted by Gemina

As for OP, this would indeed put unnecessary pressure on them. I can only imagine the jaw drop reaction when the animation team who is already over-worked and underpaid, is told to reanimate all the models to accommodate the decision to allow players to switch their dominant hand.

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They probably would just need to mirror the animations and tweak it some at most like another poster said, not really that hard but also totally unnecessary for something you're not gonna notice when you're 3mins into rouls.

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Originally Posted by Padudu

You may want to look up the "little indie devs" meme - I'm not throwing shade at the devs, I'm throwing shade at SE lol. Before correcting me please read up on meme culture smh.

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Even if we have a "meme culture", your message remains inappropriate. In the sense that it is normal to expect global improvements for a company that has decent revenues.

Less so to throw tantrums over minimal customizations. If we were to take into account all the minimal requests that appear on this forum, then even a company like SE would be unable to provide the work.

You also say the same thing in your post, showing that you are aware that your provocation was nothing more than that - provocation - and therefore it is quite hypocritical to be surprised that someone would pick up on your taunt.

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Originally Posted by Merrigan

Even if we have a "culture of the same", your message remains inappropriate. In the sense that it is normal to expect global improvements for a company that has decent revenues.

Less so to throw tantrums over minimal customizations. If we were to take into account all the minimal requests that appear on this forum, then even a company like SE would be unable to provide the work.

You also say the same thing in your post, showing that you are aware that your provocation was nothing more than that - provocation - and therefore it is quite hypocritical to be surprised that someone would pick up on your taunt.

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They are probably "provocating" because people are defending a company that puts a cash shop in a game that asks for a monthly fee. If you are going to get left handed animations I would not be shocked if they either say "lol, too costly" or "We are adding the option in the mogshop! Look forward to it!". It's not that hard to figure out, lol.

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Originally Posted by Merrigan

Even if we have a "culture of the same", your message remains inappropriate. In the sense that it is normal to expect global improvements for a company that has decent revenues.

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Cry more about it. :P Also, I have made plenty of detailed criticisms of certain elements of XIV over how SE has handled its content and their attitude towards their players. I mainly wanted to poke fun at Silverbane's comment.

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Originally Posted by Merrigan

Less so to throw tantrums over minimal customizations. If we were to take into account all the minimal requests that appear on this forum, then even a company like SE would be unable to provide the work.

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I love this for you because it shows that you didn't even read anything beyond that first sentence. Did I pick your nerve or something? I'll spoonfeed you my opinions on OP's request since you seem to have glossed over it to scold me or something.

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Originally Posted by Padudu

That being said, this request is kinda too minimal, imo. I can't really think of many mmos that let you swap hands and let you be lefthanded. Maybe if there's a new job, but it's unlikely. It's also something that you probably wouldn't even notice after a few minutes, so eh, can't say I really want this feature even for just slight RP favor.

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Originally Posted by Padudu

They probably would just need to mirror the animations and tweak it some at most like another poster said, not really that hard but also totally unnecessary for something you're not gonna notice when you're 3mins into rouls.

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Originally Posted by Merrigan

You also say the same thing in your post, showing that you are aware that your provocation was nothing more than that - provocation - and therefore it is quite hypocritical to be surprised that someone would pick up on your taunt.

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I mean, sure? I only said "little indie devs" and then gave my actual opinion on OP's request, which I said that it wasn't necessary and I, myself, didn't want it, but hey - we've gotten useless features rather recently! Silverbane's initial comment was a bit provocative in itself, IMO, because they called out the entire forum on an attitude of wanting unreasonable things.

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Originally Posted by Raoabolic

They are probably "provocating" because people are defending a company that puts a cash shop in a game that asks for a monthly fee. If you are going to get left handed animations I would not be shocked if they either say "lol, too costly" or "We are adding the option in the mogshop! Look forward to it!". It's not that hard to figure out, lol.

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I'm not even provoking anything or tried to lol, literally just matched Silverbane's energy with a comment. Did you guys even read the actual opinion I gave in regards to OP's request lmao. I don't even agree with adding left handed animations bcus it's something you wouldn't even notice after like a few minutes. Though if they added that feature to the mogstation that'd be lulzy. I personally want them to add instanced housing - but as a monthly fee like a retainer. :^)

Guys, instead of bickering about this could we instead purchase the Official FINAL FANTASY VII™ BRING ARTS™ Action Figure - CLOUD STRIFE Digital Plus Edition [ACTION FIGURE] as well as its NFT version to help out the struggling multibillion dollar company? Surely if we do that they'll start to reinvest into this game.

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Originally Posted by Padudu

I'm not even provoking anything or tried to lol, literally just matched Silverbane's energy with a comment. Did you guys even read the actual opinion I gave in regards to OP's request lmao. I don't even agree with adding left handed animations bcus it's something you wouldn't even notice after like a few minutes.

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Personally, I didn't think you were. I assumed you were having a giggle, lol. I was just answering their question. Besides, we all know SE is not a small indie studio. They are TWO small indie studios that got together one afternoon. :^)

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Originally Posted by Raoabolic

Personally, I didn't think you were. I assumed you were having a giggle, lol. I was just answering their question. Besides, we all know SE is not a small indie studio. They are TWO small indie studios that got together one afternoon. :^)

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Yeah sorry, I didn't mean to come off as harsh towards you. :^) I was definitely having a giggle and was still that way with Gemina's response towards it lul and this weird outrage for daring to poke fun at SE. I personally believe that SE is two small indie studios that started in their parent's garage as an arcade game developer. They were living off of coins before they got their big break, Alex Kidd.

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Originally Posted by Oizen

Guys, instead of bickering about this could we instead purchase the Official FINAL FANTASY VII™ BRING ARTS™ Action Figure - CLOUD STRIFE Digital Plus Edition [ACTION FIGURE] as well as its NFT version to help out the struggling multibillion dollar company? Surely if we do that they'll start to reinvest into this game.

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Only if it comes with one or two orchestrion rolls - otherwise it ain't worth it!

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Originally Posted by Padudu

Silverbane's initial comment was a bit provocative in itself, IMO, because they called out the entire forum on an attitude of wanting unreasonable things.

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I did no such thing, but that fact that you think I did is a tacit admission that you fear that this is how the English forums are commonly perceived. And not without cause -- it's not like this is the most unreasonable request we've seen recently, is it? Or like unreasonable requests are particularly rare.

Why you framed your response as an attack on the devs, on the other hand, I have no idea, but I doubt the motive is praiseworthy.

[[relevant to that, did you know that some languages don't have ironic/dramatic understatement?]]

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Originally Posted by Padudu

You may want to look up the "little indie devs" meme - I'm not throwing shade at the devs, I'm throwing shade at SE lol. Before correcting me please read up on meme culture smh. It's pretty much akin to saying "SE is a little indie dev company pls understand".

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Sure. Or you can be mindful of what you post fully understanding that not everyone lives in a meme culture, which isn't a culture. You might want to look up what a culture is. Also, "SE is a little indie dev company" isn't any less condescending than your previous comment. Actually worse. Before it was just a small group of people working within a greedy corporation. Now you expanded it to an entire region of people. And changing out the word "widdle" with the actual word little really doesn't help your case either.

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They probably would just need to mirror the animations and tweak it some at most like another poster said, not really that hard but also totally unnecessary for something you're not gonna notice when you're 3mins into rouls.

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I haven't coded in years, and never worked with animations. From the outside looking in a 'mirror' or inversion process isn't as simple as reflecting an image, or blocks of code. The testing alone after the work is done on just one model would take an enormous amount of time, and that's just to make sure everything is up to par.

It's also isn't really about the difficulty of making it happen so much as the time it would take. Time that can be spent towards far more beneficial and noticeable productivity.

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Originally Posted by Silverbane

I did no such thing, but that fact that you think I did is a tacit admission that you fear that this is how the English forums are commonly perceived. And not without cause -- it's not like this is the most unreasonable request we've seen recently, is it? Or like unreasonable requests are particularly rare.

Why you framed your response as an attack on the devs, on the other hand, I have no idea, but I doubt the motive is praiseworthy.

[[relevant to that, did you know that some languages don't have ironic/dramatic understatement?]]

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Originally Posted by Silverbane

This proposal is way too much time and money for way too little benefit --
but that's not uncommon on these forums, is it?

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Girrrl, this is you lmao. All I was trying to say was our comments can both be construed of being a bit provocative but - I'll take the blame for that one since I didn't really mesh out my thoughts on it rather clearly other than a quick quip. I mean, what else was that quote for if not to poke fun at the english forums? I mean, I'll wait to see you explain how that quote has good intentions and you definitely didn't mean to be a bit sarcastic with the OF. :P

Eh, yeah, unreasonable requests do pop up semi-frequently. I usually try to give the benefit of the doubt though in that some requests do have some merit to them - aka difficulty, housing, gendered sets, ect ect ect. This one - like I said again and again - is so minor that I don't even think it'd suit well for RP flavor.

Again, I was poking right back at you with your station. And we are on the English forums - sure irony is lost, but hey, like I said towards Rao -- I was just having a bit of fun and explained myself on it - rather poorly and a little meanly. Again, "little indie devs" is literally towards SE, not the devs themselves lmao.

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Originally Posted by Gemina

Sure. Or you can be mindful of what you post fully understanding that not everyone lives in a meme culture, which isn't a culture. You might want to look up what a culture is. Also, "SE is a little indie dev company" isn't any less condescending than your previous comment. Actually worse. Before it was just a small group of people working within a greedy corporation. Now you expanded it to an entire region of people. And changing out the word "widdle" with the actual word little really doesn't help your case either

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I mean, I still explained what I meant and that I wasn't blaming the devs, sorry you didn't get it. I understand I worded it somewhat poorly, but eh, for the comment I responded to I didn't figure it would matter so much. I assume you're just being pedantic or reading too much of literally a one sentence joke tbh. So sorry that I made a rude joke at big daddy SE - I'll never do it again. :(

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Originally Posted by Gemina

I haven't coded in years, and never worked with animations. From the outside looking in a 'mirror' or inversion process isn't as simple as reflecting an image, or blocks of code. The testing alone after the work is done on just one model would take an enormous amount of time, and that's just to make sure everything is up to par.

It's also isn't really about the difficulty of making it happen so much as the time it would take. Time that can be spent towards far more beneficial and noticeable productivity.

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Again, I have said myself it's completely unneeded and really minor for what the OP wants lol.

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Originally Posted by Gemina

Sure. Or you can be mindful of what you post fully understanding that not everyone lives in a meme culture, which isn't a culture.

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A bit culturally insensitive, aren't we? lol

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Originally Posted by Raoabolic

A bit culturally insensitive, aren't we? lol

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Be careful, you don't want to rattle the marginalized, oppressed group that is SE. :P

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Originally Posted by Padudu

Be careful, you don't want to rattle the marginalized, oppressed group that is SE. :P

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Careful: you're proving that it wasn't just a little joke.

More seriously: yes, I'm tired of this kind of "joke", hence the reaction. Use your common sense for a second: it's because SE is a big company that they can't do individual. It has little to do with the financial means allocated to the game; it has more to do with the impossibility of satisfying the personal expectations of several thousand players.

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Originally Posted by Merrigan

Careful: you're proving that it wasn't just a little joke.

More seriously: yes, I'm tired of this kind of "joke", hence the reaction. Use your common sense for a second: it's because SE is a big company that they can't do individual. It has little to do with the financial means allocated to the game; it has more to do with the impossibility of satisfying the personal expectations of several thousand players.

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Oh, then pls explain what it is lol. I'd love for you to explain my joke for me.

Also, this seems like a you problem tbh? If you're tired of it, then maybe it's time for you to uhh.. not visit the forums? Maybe just ignore the "little indie dev company" jokes? Send yourself back to r/FFXIV for funny memes and positivity? Idk, you do you fam. Don't take it out on me because you passionately want to defend SE and their shareholders. :( I also see you haven't learned to read anything of what I said before.

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Originally Posted by Padudu

Oh, then pls explain what it is lol. I'd love for you to explain my joke for me.

Also, this seems like a you problem tbh? If you're tired of it, then maybe it's time for you to uhh.. not visit the forums? Maybe just ignore the "little indie dev company" jokes? Send yourself back to r/FFXIV for funny memes and positivity? Idk, you do you fam. Don't take it out on me because you passionately want to defend SE and their shareholders. :( I also see you haven't learned to read anything of what I said before.

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I was kind of expecting the "fanboy/girl" response. You know full well that it's a tad silly to lump all posts that don't bury SE into that category.

... Isn't it?

As for the rest, I have read - and answered in my first post. If there is a need for more clarity, point out clearly what is not understandable.

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...D4WQAkqTWY.jpg

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Originally Posted by Merrigan

I was kind of expecting the "fanboy/girl" response. You know full well that it's a tad silly to lump all posts that don't bury SE into that category.

... Isn't it?

As for the rest, I have read - and answered in my first post. If there is a need for more clarity, point out clearly what is not understandable.

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No, you really didn't answer or have read it in your initial reply to me lmao. I already told you and everyone else here that I didn't want OP's request to be implemented and I even said that it's completely unnecessary/waste of resources and minor shit like this is pointless, but so are features like adventure plates yet it's still implemented while we have other issues to address with the game. I said this even BEFORE you or Gemina have commented on my wee joke. You decided to throw a hissy fit at me because you're tired of "small indie dev" jokes and then subsequently decide to go even further with quoting me making another joke while not acknowledging the novel I wrote out to you.

You know full well that it's a tad silly to be acting like I'm acting like SE has to implement every feature the OF has suggested so like, why are you lmao? Even when I already explained how silly this particular request is and I've agreed with every poster that it isn't needed? :^)

Responding to Merrigan:

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Originally Posted by Padudu

No, you really didn't answer

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I disagree, as a third party, I think Merrigan clearly did.
I think the problem may be that you dislike Merrigan's answer too much to accept it as an answer.
A pun about a river in Egypt comes to mind.

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Originally Posted by Silverbane

Responding to Merrigan:

I disagree, as a third party, I think Merrigan clearly did.
I think the problem may be that you dislike Merrigan's answer too much to accept it as an answer.
A pun about a river in Egypt comes to mind.

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I would love to see where she fully answered with acknowledgment to the statements I've already made beforehand. She, herself, doesn't and hasn't acknowledged my explanation or even the fact that what she said initially to me in my initial reply to Gemina was wrong to begin with. Which is cool, but don't go on and pretend that you or her have read anything I've said and with a smidge of thinking, have come to the notion that I was essentially shitposting with a meme-y sentence while actually posting my opinion beneath that.

It's not my fault that you and Merrigan do not like my tired, same old repeated joke at the end of the day. It's also not my fault that after like, two pages of me explaining it and having quoted myself right from the beginning about what I think about the OP, you guys do not understand and decide to reee at the fact that I made fun of SE. I think the problem may be is that you two don't accept my answers to actually accept it, and I'll take this as a concession towards that.

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Originally Posted by Padudu

I would love to see where she fully answered ...

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I think a lot of people would like for you to see it, too.
It's sad that you seem incapable of it.

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Originally Posted by Silverbane

I think a lot of people would like for you to see it, too.
It's sad that you seem incapable of it.

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Idk, the other posters that aren't you, Merrigan, and Gemina seem to have gotten it just fine. And hey - while I'm giving Gemina some shit for it, I don't particularly dislike what she said and I agreed with her too. :) I even said that I was mostly memeing with the meme culture/indie dev bit and just having a giggle, but I agreed with her that this request was just not needed.

I'm also still waiting that explanation for how your first comment in this thread wasn't at least a little provocative and how it wasn't a dig towards the OF, but hey, I know that reading comprehension is hard and that you or her can't show where exactly she acknowledged anything I said beyond "indie devs". I can't see it, so please and by all means, show me where she did. Obviously you'd be able to show me and not just keep making nonsensical jabs at me that show nothing other than the fact you have nothing to say to me while still feeling justified to make snide comments?

All I see is her throwing a fit over that particular line. If you can show me, fine bro, I'm okay with being wrong lmao. I've been wrong plenty of times on the OF, one more time won't hurt.

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Originally Posted by Gemina

Those "poor widdle indie devs" aren't the ones making billions, nor do they have any influence whatsoever on said billion-dollar corporation's decisions. They are just like you and me, and just trying to make a living, and don't get anywhere near the appreciation they've earned.

If you're going to cast the iron cross, at least crucify the right people.
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As for OP, this would indeed put unnecessary pressure on them. I can only imagine the jaw drop reaction when the animation team who is already over-worked and underpaid, is told to reanimate all the models to accommodate the decision to allow players to switch their dominant hand.

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Given Yoshida's your uncle and you gatekeep the suggestions on these boards for him, one would think that you'd know this wouldn't be a job for the animators :rolleyes:

It was confirmed in the past that FFXIV uses Havok for physics and most likely animations as well. Havok has had built in animation mirroring since version 5 some 15 years ago. However it's not something I've ever seen the game use, kind of surprising given that it's a good low effort way to somewhat obfuscate frequently recycled monster animations and postures. So there's going to be some underlying reason that it's not been done already at this point (assuming I've not simply missed a monster that uses it of course!), probably spaghetti code related but who knows for sure.

But yeah, it's 100% a code issue, not an animation thing.

Personally, I think it'd be neat thing to implement if it could be done without breaking things. It'd be a nice boost to FFXIV's character customisation.

I need an ice pack.

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Originally Posted by dspguy

It appears that all FFXIV characters are right handed. It would be great to see the ability to set character handedness. I'd like to believe that the positioning of weapons, shields, tools, etc could be mirrored to the other side without too much of an undue burden on the development team.

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as a left-handed in real life, i always wanted the option to choose left or right handed in the game, but meh lazy developers for a lazy indie company i guess /s

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Originally Posted by OperaMorgana

as a left-handed in real life, i always wanted the option to choose left or right handed in the game, but meh lazy developers for a lazy indie company i guess /s

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Originally Posted by A_Complainer_Tommorow

as a person with large hands but short fingers whose ring fingers are shorter than their index fingers in real life, I've also wanted the option to choose hand size and finger lengths in the game, but meh lazy developers for a lazy indie company i guess /s

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Originally Posted by A_Complainer_NextWeek

As a person who is 6' 7" tall but has a 30" inseam in real life, I've also wanted the option to choose shorter limbs relative to character height in the game, but meh lazy developers for a lazy indie company I guess /s

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And so on. Both examples are people I know in RL, BTW.

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Originally Posted by Silverbane

And so on. Both examples are people I know in RL, BTW.

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Left-handedness is slightly more common (and less detailed) than precise adjustments to body proportions.

That said, it would still be more data that needs to be stored and transmitted about our character to every other character, so it can't just be added without adding to the load of data transfer – so if they ever did add the option, it would be theoretically "instead" of something else they could do with the same data.

As much as I like having the option to pick handedness on characters (being left-handed myself) I would prefer to get things like more face customisation options or gear dye channels if they ever added more character data.

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Originally Posted by Silverbane

And so on. Both examples are people I know in RL, BTW.

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There's an important distinction here though.

As much as buttsliders are a meme, people have been asking for that and other character customisation pretty much since launch. We're not getting it likely because it's almost certainly going to require a full extra data array added to our characters, if SE were willing to do that, the data space would likely be far better off being used as a true glamour log. The current plate system suggests that they are not.

By comparison, left handedness is a simple binary switch and I'd be very surprised if there wasn't room to stuff it in an existing array.

By your logic SE shouldn't have added the Regalia because people would started complaining that it doesn't have realistic driving physics?

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Originally Posted by OperaMorgana

as a left-handed in real life, i always wanted the option to choose left or right handed in the game, but meh lazy developers for a lazy indie company i guess /s

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I'm sure it has much to do with pure laziness and SE not using their money correctly to fulfill your personal wishes, and not with the fact that wasting their funds on tons of insignificant, petty whims such as this one woudln't be very smart!

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Originally Posted by Clover_Blake

I'm sure it has much to do with pure laziness and SE not using their money correctly to fulfill your personal wishes, and not with the fact that wasting their funds on tons of insignificant, petty whims such as this one woudln't be very smart!

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so crypto is where they smartly spend their money?