NPC's bodies better than ours | Idea to solve | Half-Celestrials

(I originally posted this in another thread and have now revised the ideas a bit! Feel free to discuss and add your ideas to it.)

There is another general thing that bothers me about FF14 graphics!

Again & again we get NPC's that have different body types than we can have.
For example Ryne or Sphene. Both are technically Hyur. But both are much slimer & more elegant than actual female Hyr bodies.

Also we have not a single option to really play a small male and a little bit 'animelike' character. And now they threw Calyx in our faces! xD (awesome design btw!)

Female Aura is closest to 'animelike'. But their males have not such an option.
Aura were a good opportunity to make 2 really different subraces. But this opportunity was not seized.

At this point I just wish..., when they someday fixed the races that are already there, that they make some kind of half-celestrial race.
And that this one will finally get the option of really(!) handsome and/or cute more elegant males, that are not bodybuilders, that can be actual really small and slim (e.g. like female Aura), OR slim & bigger, and more like we see it in lots of eastern anime/fantasy series and games. And with elegant and/or cute proper emotes and fitting voices.

OR: Much more options for face, size, body type, voices, emotes/poses for the existing races. But this would maybe be more work, than implementing one more, that meets the criteria mentioned. D :

OR: If a lot of work would be fine, it could also be like: That every existing race gets the option to be a half-celestrial being, and so have new options for faces, bodytypes, voices, and so on.
Maybe there is a shard where such stuff happens! ^w^

Let's be real guys! Of course, in all games there are more players with female characters. But from what I've seen, FF14 has so much more female characters, especially because the female designs, types, emotes, etc. are all significantly better than their male counterparts. And that e.g. often makes glamour look better on females. I met a lot of people who wanted to play a male character, but don't do so, for the reasons mentioned.
I just say 1 thing: Why are shoes so much bigger on male feet? *always wondering* xD

(And yes the title is a little bit bait. When just talking about char creation additions nobody would come here. Please forgive me)

More ideas:

I could imagine maybe special celestrial eyes without a 'dark' pupil, but vibrant depht and options like glittering or shiny skin, or something like that. Huge differences in size, but always slim.
Please not that 1:1 sizeslider we do have now that scales like a vectorgraphic! Taller people are proportional not a 1:1 upscaled small person! :3

They could make some kind of wings as a collector edition 'plus' addition for the half-celestrial race, which is just 'pure beautiful white wings'.
So that when you choose the race, and have bought collector edition 'plus' of the expansion in which they release, you can get automatically the character addition: 'wings' which is also a mount.
(And of course there should be a normal collectors edition with a normal mount for everyone. 'Plus' would include both 'mounts'. But just people who want the 'my Wings' for the half-celestrials would need to buy it.)
Included without extra money would be of course great!

Most cool would be if it would be possible to 'not hide' the wings in cities (but not able to fly in the air and stuff). I have no clue if this would be technically possible.

Or if there would be an out of battle toggle on/off option, that the wings show when using sprint, that then the char is flying just above the ground instead of using his/her legs. And wings hide again when the char stops to run.
Daaaamn I love this idea! I needed bigger text size for it! xD

Definitely need more options added to the character creator… I’ve said for a while that they could just add an ears and a tail tab to all races, and then we could use that to be halflings of whatever.

Along the lines of what you’ve suggested, if all races had the same height slider that wasn’t limited to a predetermined range by race/clan, and if they gave the muscle/smooth slider that some races already have to all races, you could probably make most of what you’re looking for with the existing options. More sliders in general would be a good thing. I’d really like to make a shorter elf, with a shorter neck! lol or a “half-Elezen” Hyur like Hilda…

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Originally Posted by Khryseis_Astra

...and if they gave the muscle/smooth slider that some races already have to all races, you could probably make most of what you’re looking for with the existing options.

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Sadly the muscle slider does not do anything than adding shadow texture. :C
And there would be still too less body- and charactertypes for males. I tried them all. There is not a single good option if you want to play something handsome small and slim. Miqo as the smallest are not that slim, have too wide shoulders and are much too...uhm... 'non-elegant'! :, 3
For example their standing poses and emotes are far from elegant. They also usually stand with their legs very wide apart, which makes many more elegant glams look less good.
(Don't get me wrong! I like them! But they are not the type I am talking about here, that this game is missing.)

At least we would need more faces, bodytypes, voices, poses and emotes for everyone. : 3

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Originally Posted by Khryseis_Astra

I’d really like to make a shorter elf, with a shorter neck! lol or a “half-Elezen” Hyur like Hilda…

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That sounds very cool! :D
Isn't Aymeric a half-Elezen Hyur, too? P:

Oh wow!!! :D
I saw a video on YT about upcoming stuff! Guess we will see at least some celestrial stuff soon!!! <3

It's a spoiler, but if you want to see look out on YT for: The Phookas channel and the video: FFXIV | All 7.2 GLAM & How to Get them! (3:03). :)

I feel like the main appeal of NPC is their unique faces and outfits rather than actual bodies, as all player races share the same midlander base apart from the Lala, Roes, and Hroth in-game. Also, we already have different colored wings for fashion accessories. Like that certain new NPC we meet in 7.2 shares the same animations as a F Elezen but in a hyur body.

Honestly, the only thing I do want is for them to let use buy in-game NPC outfits and hairs sooner than expected since their clothes are the most unique parts.

But look for example at Ryne or Sphene. They have different bodytype models than the player female Hyurs. They are much slimer and seem to have longer legs.
The twins are also very slim. Padjal are very slim. Lot's of boss body types (when humanoid) are very slim. If you wear some of their attires your character even magically gets slimer! xD

And Calyx is some anime-like type that is not even close to be available for players.

But I agree that it would be cool if that stuff would release sooner. Sphenes new trousers look amazing! <3
Though I am not sure if they look so good without her body type, that isn't availabe for anyone. :X
Sphene looks so good because of her different body type. Also Sphene's dress looks so elegant and delicate because of her being very slim.
She e.g. also has narrower shoulders and waist than player female Hyur's.

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Originally Posted by Heavenchild

But look for example at Ryne or Sphene. They have different bodytype models than the player female Hyurs. They are much slimer and seem to have longer legs.
The twins are also very slim. Padjal are very slim. Lot's of boss body types (when humanoid) are very slim. If you wear some of their attires your character even magically gets slimer! xD

And Calyx is some anime-like type that is not even close to be available for players.

But I agree that it would be cool if that stuff would release sooner. Sphenes new trousers look amazing! <3
Though I am not sure if they look so good without her body type, that isn't availabe for anyone. :X
Sphene looks so good because of her different body type. Also Sphene's dress looks so elegant and delicate because of her being very slim.
She e.g. also has narrower shoulders and waist than player female Hyur's.

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Isn't the difference there that they are children

As far as I know they did not say any age yet for Sphene.

And in a fantasy game it's not uncommon to have optically youthfull characters, that aren't actual children. FF14 has them since ever (Padjal).
So why players are forced in one direction? Especially male character players. I wonder why we get sorrounded with all that youthfull slim looking characters while have no option to choose that style for our own characters.
That's the point.

And my suggestion is, to add such options, through some kind of 'half-celestrial' race or addition to existing races. We really have enough wider body types in FF14. Also male Viera e.g. have wide shoulders.
Would be cool to finally get some slim and youthfull or handsome types now. (That can be very small or tall) : D

They do have different scaling for the various midlander bodies like Sphene reminds me of a F aura since they're p petite but taller. I feel like if they ever release her Modern outfit with hairstyle, it would be close enough to them due to how FFXIV will swap the entire body for 1-piece outfits sometimes.

Also the Padjal are pretty unique for lore along the devs not wanting to add children as playable races. Also, the twins have unique heads have but they're technically hyur, so I guess the main appeal would be a shorter male hyur?

I tried to play male Hyur for while. But all about them is pain for me in the long run. Their emote voices are really not good. Their animations are very stiff or just appear artificial. Their whole body type is non-elegant. They are wider than for example Viera and have more 'compact' proportions.

I thought..., instead of adding options to extisting races, they also could think about making one more new, that just fills that gap. Atm, there is no race for males that fits: handsome and/or cute, small, slim and somehow elegant.
For me personally it also would be great if they would add more options to extisting races, of course. But I have a feeling that it's more complicated for them to add such stuff, than to add a whole new race, somehow.

I would like to have some kind of a male slightly different version of female auras, but with normal ears, without scales and no tail. And emotes, poses and stuff a little bit different.
Would technically be a 'Hyur', yes. But it's far away from the actual Hyurs that we have. xD


*Regarding to children as a playable race

I personally don't see Lalafell as children. But many people do. And SE knew that it would be like this.
Also is it common in fantasy games to also have youthful-looking characters who are old. I see no problem in here. We can play youthfull chars everywhere else. :')
Pelu Pelu are non playble, but another very small and slim race. Since DT they added lot's of that character type, aren't they? Just not for the players yet. Maybe soon?

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Originally Posted by Heavenchild

As far as I know they did not say any age yet for Sphene.

And in a fantasy game it's not uncommon to have optically youthfull characters, that aren't actual children. FF14 has them since ever (Padjal).
So why players are forced in one direction? Especially male character players. I wonder why we get sorrounded with all that youthfull slim looking characters while have no option to choose that style for our own characters.
That's the point.

And my suggestion is, to add such options, through some kind of 'half-celestrial' race or addition to existing races. We really have enough wider body types in FF14. Also male Viera e.g. have wide shoulders.
Would be cool to finally get some slim and youthfull or handsome types now. (That can be very small or tall) : D

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Sphene was/is 16. Not a child, but also not a full grown adult quite yet.

I could not find information about her age anywhere. So where do you found this information? But in the end, age is not the point anyway. : 3
The npc's that are activly arround us are not aging no matter how much time passes. Just the WoL is aging through the trailers. xD

We have the common concept of young genius, young looking, or young special people a lot in FF14. E.g. the Twins, Meteion, Padjal, Ryne, Gulool Ja, Neyuni (raidstory), Sphene, Calyx.
Especially in DT we got many child prodigies at once! And also a whole new small slim race, with the Pelu Pelu.

I'm neither for nor against this. But I think it would be better to make these character styles available to players as well. Especially for male chars, who have not a single option to come even close for that style.
I wonder why this seems to be an unusual idea for most of you who replied. We play very youthfull/slim chars in most asian games. But in FF14 we just look at them, and are the optically older person next to them? xd

I also don't worry what people maybe do with younger looking characters. I do not care, because they do so everywhere else. And they also do so right now in FF14, with mods. They will always do. No matter what character types are implemented vanilla into the game. And I really think, that e.g. a true male counterpart to our very anime-like looking female auras, would be a real enrichment for the game. I met many people who wish to play such a male, more anime-like character. Most of them play female because they see no other option. Or use mods. But for me personally mods are never a solution.

I am surprised of how different the opinion about this topic seems to be here in the forums, from so many people I met in the game. For the same reason I was also surprised of how less people in the forums were interested in looped face-expression emotes. Maybe this forum really is some kind of echo chamber. But I still hope that the devs might take a look here in these forums from time to time and take one or two ideas from the players for their future plans. <3

I honestly don't get people's obsession with celestial race, not that I think it's possible in ff14 anyway since ffxiv world doesn't have heaven(s). Maybe it can be alien race? But it will feel forced imo.

Considering how controversial lalafell can be, I don't think the devs want to do other child-like race. That's just an invite for more messy controversy and drama.

You're asking for more diverse body types-- but you ask for even tinier bodies when the vanilla bodies for most are already very skinny? Not even a mention for larger/more muscular/broader body types? Yikes.

Do you realize that NPC can have unique skeleton only because they are only wear one outfit and of then only show up in cutscene?
Even if they a have a model in the game environment they are often stationaary
You can’t gives unique skeleton to player because that means you need to scale all in game gear to that unique skeleton
You are pretty much ask to create a new race that FF14 do not need as we already have more than enough

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Originally Posted by Heavenchild

I could not find information about her age anywhere. So where do you found this information?

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Source (3rd line)

Pretty sure they already stated in an interview or a Q&A session that they would not add younger-looking body types for player characters for the reasons people have already mentioned, but I can't be bothered finding the source for that (iirc it was around Shadowbringers).

That being said, it is weird that important human/Hyur-looking NPCs, particularly the faces, have been drifting further and further apart from what is available to player characters (making you wonder who the main character is supposed to be). Garleans made sort of sense because they're a separate ethnic group which is not available to players, but Ryne, Gaia (especially when her older model is a default Hyur that looks nothing like her lol), Zero, Sphene... It would be nice to see some of those facial features put back into the character creator (as additional options). That was also something I was hoping would happen with the graphical update, since the character design direction has clearly evolved in 10 years.

The only thing I'd be interested in would be non-job locked gears that the NPC already has and I don't mind they have unique faces since they're NPC so they're used to promote new content or just like the Scions show up for Trusts.

I think people have been craving for more character customization which is like the bread and butter in any MMO and they just don't have the skill OR will to implement it.

What the point of more body customization since a lot of gears replace your character body with a generic one.
The actual bust slider is already almost useless.

And i don't see SE/CBU3 doing the enormous amount of work needed to change that.

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Originally Posted by Heavenchild

Sphene looks so good because of her different body type. Also Sphene's dress looks so elegant and delicate because of her being very slim.

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I noticed that too from the moment she was introduced. It looks underweight. I dislike this.

I know what half of this playerbase is like. Adding actual childlike frames to this game is a terrible idea.

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Originally Posted by yesnt

I noticed that too from the moment she was introduced. It looks underweight. I dislike this.

I know what half of this playerbase is like. Adding actual childlike frames to this game is a terrible idea.

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Her body being underweight actually tracks with how sick she was - the lightning aether sickness renders them immobile. We saw how bad off Milo was as well.

Sickly. Sphene's AI format is dainty, but we can see how thin and sickly the human that was the basis of her figure was when she's in the shorts.