Yoshi-P considering feedback on the new races

[manickitty]

How is it gender locked when we'll be getting both genders?

Lore for Viera was always female only.

Props to SE for making a male only race as a compromise instead of breaking lore.

But LORE

And this makes as little sense as claiming it was for lore reasons. They obviously had the development resources to create 2 races of different gender, so it should follow they would've had enough to make 2 genders of one race. But they chose not to.

WHO CARES ABOUT LORE

Your disingenuity is showing.

[manickitty]

But I believed/heard the main issue with the Viera was that the designer of the race was against the male ones being added to the game, is this a myth or is it something he clearly stated ?

The designer has spoken out disproving this.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&sour...53622689607195

[Melichoir]

No not really. They decided to do the Hrothgar before the female Viera and even the models we have seen were just finished. So while it could've been possible that someone did a prototype male model at some point. The Viera were an afterthought and we only got the female one because we wanted them so much. That's why we have this, not fully pleasing anyone, compromise now.

From what Ive understood, they were developing viera before Hrothgar as far back as HW. That being said, even if Hrothgar were being made before Viera, this still isnt a compromise. The Hrothgar isnt generating the hype they wanted. A compromise would imply that there was equal interest in Ronso as there were Viera, but I think that is pretty much not the case. Same if the compromise was based on people wanting more races. Shafting one race in favor of a second one that wasnt really in demand is the isn't a compromise.

If it were, as I said, they wouldnt be asking what the players think so soon after fanfest. They were prompted to do so due to how much feedback they were seeing. Consider it this way: If there wasnt much feedback all together (i.e people were just meh), they wouldnt bother asking the question, and if the Hrothgar was extremely well received, they wouldnt ask the question then either. The only reason they would ask it is if it wasnt well received (which I dont believe it was considering audience reaction and threads/posts that have popped up since then).

Lastly, yeah, they actually probably do have baseline male Viera models. Most MMOs dont create new models from the ground up every time. They use a template that they then modify because it cuts down on development time (as a point, they probably modified the Roe model for Hrothgar). What is likely is they do have the baseline Viera Male Model. What they probably dont have is the more detailed things like facial features, as well as hairstyles and animations.

let me be clear. I'm not gainst male Viera, they exist ? Good, They don't ? Don't care.

But, there is reason to choice staff made, be it good or bad or at your taste or not.

I too think its a lame excuses, but it is what it is.

It is, but I dont think we as eh player base should hold that up as a good reason. What I mean is we shouldnt be defending it as a legitimate point because I hazard most people look at that reason and think "Hey, thats kind of stupid. This isnt FF Tactics." We should be criticizing it, rather than upholding the reasoning. Shrugging our shoulders and saying "Welp devs made that decision cause lore, guess thats it!" is silly. Particularly if the lore in of itself isnt particularly strong, nor does it really have any place in FFXIV contextually. The very same Lore reason can be disregarded by creating lore that creates exception. Meaning, for all the lore of why there isnt male viera (and in FFXIVs case it is extremely limited), it's fairly easy to write just as much lore for their now inclusion.

In any case, yeah, they should just make both sexes and settle the issue. People want male viera. And I bet you that people will eventually be asking for female hrothgar in time (if not already). Might as well just work towards that at some point.

[wereotter]

The author of the article either has added words into their mouths or race is going to suddenly become relevant?

Yoshida also said to GameSpot that, due in part to the high complexity and challenge of creating new races and balancing them, Hrothgar might be the final new race added to Final Fantasy XIV Online.

Since when have they had to considered balancing races against each other? At most you get 1-3 points of a main stat difference, but once you're at the 3000+ point range of main stat, 1-3 points makes no difference.

[Nariel]

Snip

I agree to most of it, I too think they can tweak lore as they need to implement thing if they can because its not the same game. Its even less work to make a male viera with existing female than creating a whole new race arguably even worse on a lore point of view (beastmen tribe and such aren't very welcomed in our country, especially early game). Its the total dismissal of the lore argument that I don't support, I just quoted you not much as a counter argument but it was the most fitting to mine :b.

[Shougun]

Since when have they had to considered balancing races against each other? At most you get 1-3 points of a main stat difference, but once you're at the 3000+ point range of main stat, 1-3 points makes no difference.

I wonder if it has something to do with adding more options to races in the game:

Q: Will the plump miqo'te in the trailer be playable? Will we be seeing plump versions of other races?

A: *laughs* There are many different body types in the world, and before, we couldn't represent all of them due to cost. But now, we're starting to look into different body types for races, starting with the plump miqo'te. You'll be seeing them in the MSQ, so please give us your honest feedback.

source: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...w_with_yoship/

Balance of choices rather than stats?

[DevilsDontFly]

The author of the article either has added words into their mouths or race is going to suddenly become relevant?

Since when have they had to considered balancing races against each other? At most you get 1-3 points of a main stat difference, but once you're at the 3000+ point range of main stat, 1-3 points makes no difference.

I believe it was just a misinterpretation.
The whole "balance" thing is probably just in terms of design, because you have to create balance within the races otherwise things get skewed.
Per example: All the races have X amount of unique hairstyles that can only be used by that said race. All the races have unique looking hempen gear that changes based on what race uses it. Different genders have items that change in design according to who is equiping it, etc.
So there is a sense of balance that has to be followed, and from a designer and developer point of view is extremely taxing to do.
Even if the Viera used a carbon copy body from the Midlanders, the simple fact they exist requires dedicated amounts of coding for the game to even recognize Viera as Viera, and not as another Midlander.
So think of balance as "consistency", rather than stat numbers or raw values.

[J-Reyno]

This is pretty much where I stand, with the addition that they really should have said that Viera dudes and Lady Hrothgar are coming later on. Even if it was an expansion further down the line, that's fine. I'm not blind to the general racial make-up of the playerbase so prioritizing what is most likely to get played makes sense. But to go backwards to the 1.0 genderlock schtick when it was panned as dumb is... dumb.

What's funny to me is that I'm not at all convinced that Hrothgar would be a more popular choice than Viera male.

They did the same thing with Miqo'te back in 1.0, genderlocking the race and instead giving us male-only Highlanders and Roegadyn. Now look at the playerbase, with Miqomales played far more than males of both previously male-only races.

If I were a betting man I'd throw my coin in with Viera male being the more popular pick every time.

[MrKimper]

What's funny to me is that I'm not at all convinced that Hrothgar would be a more popular choice than Viera male.

They did the same thing with Miqo'te back in 1.0, genderlocking the race and instead giving us male-only Highlanders and Roegadyn. Now look at the playerbase, with Miqomales played far more than males of both previously male-only races.

If I were a betting man I'd throw my coin in with Viera male being the more popular pick every time.

I mean obviously they wouldn't be, but it's plain that this was meant to give people a new option for a beastial race that we've never really had before, while at the same time kind of appeasing people that persistently asked for viera.

[Melichoir]

I mean obviously they wouldn't be, but it's plain that this was meant to give people a new option for a beastial race that we've never really had before, while at the same time kind of appeasing people that persistently asked for viera.

My thoughts are that even though Hrothgar are a 'bestial race' that they wont be all that popular overall. Just speaking from personal opinion, theyre just aesthetically...ugly. And I dont mean like the good kind of ugly where theyre rugged and mean. I mean the design of them looks terrible. I just dont see them as being super popular overall.

If they do end up implementing male viera, youll see a lot more popularity with those.