Quote Originally Posted by Shougun View Post
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OKAY. No more technical nonsense!

Really love the ideas! Honestly voidsent au ra would prob be insanely popular given how the community has been lamenting the original designs, mammets/Vivi is a very fun and classic design, and honestly there might be room for some interesting lore complications with espers/primal-born. Had trouble seeing what you put for Yuke but going to go back and see if I can figure it out.

I do think it sounds a little bit like you're going more for third subtypes for a couple of options (mammets being a kind of offshoot for lalas, voidsent au ra being an offshoot of au ra) but tbh we do have room for that. After all Othardian Roegadyn like Gosetsu exist but aren't in the character creator.

Speaking as someone who aspires to reference the classic black mage/Vivi look, one thing I wonder at a little is whether there'd be enough customization options or whether it would be more efficient as a kind of gear you could don?

A Majora's Mask-style setup for beastman gear sounds brilliant. I seriously think that would go a long way to helping out folks who are interested in playing a beast race efficiently.

Tried brainstorming a little for Lunarian aesthetic, came out with this:



If you feel like it, I'd be happy to take suggestions and play with features (not just for Lunarian, could try esper/primal born a little too possibly) to see how things look. I tried to differentiate with a very flat face, droopy sanpaku eyes, and droopy ears along with some gravity-defying hair but I think this isn't weird enough and looks too similar to elezen.

Also, spent a few minutes going through options--besides Lunarians as a possible alien/star people sort of race, in terms of existing options there are variations off of Ancients, robots, and Gnomes I think? Some wound up being too normal (Selkies and Clavats) so not gonna throw them over here, and others were too animal-specific or had elements that looked like logistical problems. Orcs came up once, but I think Roegadyn filled that niche already.

Some ideas for how these might be implemented to FFXIV...



Lunarians have started descending to Hydaelyn following the fall of Dalamud. They have no idea what on earth is happening in Eorzea or its neighboring nations, people have adapted a bit since their arrival following the Calamity so we don't see the full culture shock, and their numbers are not significant to cause widespread panic. Kind of a weird twist on an invasion story, they're coming more to scout and gather information while offering aid as they get bound into the story of the world. Their lore might be possible to address if a quest with a + next to it is placed in adventurer's guilds at level one accessibility or around there. Additionally, them not having strong presence in any of the nations or much lore shown would be explainable because they are literally from the moon. Warrior of Light has basically descended as an explorer or scout. Alternatively, Lunarians could fall to earth or something like meteors occasionally and get raised by established races if people want to make up alternate backgrounds. Plenty of possibilities! Also aliens with a kind of mystic, otherworldly tone to them would stand out compared to other options. Visually I think there's room to really experiment hard with proportions too. They seem to have gray skin sometimes, which could be fun for gray alien type references. Could be made either tall and lean or could be very short (like between lalafell and miqo'te) and thin and I think that would work. Would lean toward flat faces.



Ancients, and variations off of the concept, feature in a bunch of final fantasy games. The Cetra was one notable example, but even easier--we have Allagans in FFXIV and no idea what they look like. They could be basically anything or some bizarro combination of features from various races or who knows what. They could look vaguely fetal even, implying they were the original humanoid race of Hydaelyn from which others evolved. Who knows. And if the Allagans themselves don't work, some remnant of them could work too. Just need a long lost civilization or a bunch of people in pods waking up and stumbling around.



Robots, or magitek robots, honestly could be addressed as either Allagan creations that have been waking up and wandering around with no one quite sure what they're about but needing to deal with them regardless, or they could be sentient escapees from Garlemald. I lean toward the first option because it addresses more cleanly why they don't appear in combat earlier, and there's room for their existence to be covered in a much later plot point. Quests with + added sometimes at varying levels can help address lore, and if the rewards are fun but not practically useful items like minions or level one glamours it would offer incentive without borking the leveling process. Aesthetic lore basically until it's brought in in-depth later. This would also allow a fair amount of versatility into weird facial features as well as dramatic variation between face options. The downside imo is frankly, what on earth is done with hair and earrings? Would something else need to be substituted for added customization if no hair options are present? Earrings are a bigger issue because they're gear. I think this could be done but would be a bit trickier.



Gnomes showed up in FFIII and by the sounds of it were smaller than Lalafells. I think this might be workable, they could just be an unbelievably secretive and reclusive race and if it's from fear/timidity it could contrast the warrior-Viera. I would lean away from previous designs for these personally and think it could be fun to make their ears positively MASSIVE while their faces and bodies go more ugly-cute to contrast Lalafells.