MrHappy interview with yoshida from tokyo

[shao32]

I think ppl is taking the MT and OT to literally, 2 tanks are not going to be worse MT just like that.
since we lack the terminology the best way to describe it is like MT/OT but what I think yoship means is:
Having 2 tanks in group A and the other 2 in group B, balance with eachother, tanks in group A would work perfectly with tanks in group B, but will see if both tanks in group A are present will be inefficient, same with tanks in group B but no-one will be worse in tanking overall or just become subtanks supporting the MT in the strick meaning of the word.

At least that's how I'm understand him, it will be infinitely better balance mighty WAR against GUN only for example compared to balance him against all, but nothing is secure yet.

[Labyxt]

I am VERY pleased with those answers. As someone that was deeply disappointed in regards to both male viera and a new healer job missing, this gave me hope again. For one I think it’s only a matter of time ‘till male vieras and female hrothgars will be properly addressed (I’m not expecting them to come with ShB of course, but at least announce for the future). For two, really happy about the incoming healer changes. Given a proper reason as to why we didn’t get a new one, and also that they’re working on the healer altogether. Looking forward to both massive changes to them, to a new system that is not strictly main and barrier healer and to them being finally balanced and able to receive a fourth job, maybe even just after ShB!

[Halivel]

After his answer about tanks I'm interested now how they will rework them and which position Gunbreaker will take. Still, any tank actually can be MT and any tank can be OT anyway, so I'm just curious about the main playstyle.

About healers I still feel sorry for them, but to be honest Yoshi-P is right: 4th one can make things only worse in current gameplay. Hopefully, they will add new one eventually.

As for genderlock - his answers are very accurate. I personally hope for implementing opposite genders a lot, but will be okay with any answer they will give even though I would be upset in case of "No". There is 8.000+ armor pieces for now, in the end of 6.0 it's going to be about 10.000 I think. It's huge amount of work and will take a lot of time. They look very tired and I hope they can at least rest after expansion release.

[Theodric]

Quite a few posters have expressed their desire for a more bestial playable race. It just so happens that many of the same posters complaining about the lack of Viera men are the very same posters who do everything possible to downplay and stamp out the suggestions for something that isn't more of the same. Personally I'd have preferred no new playable races at all in favour of more customisation options for the existing playable races.

[wereotter]

The issues regarding armor meshing on new character models is something I can sympathize with them, it's definitely a lot of work, and will continue to be more work as more armor sets are added, meaning every new race added is more work making sure they fit right (I have my own thoughts on just now much work they actually do in this regard considering how terribly pixelated many pieces appear on my character, but I can appreciate that it's a lot of work)

My wonder is if people would be satisfied if they based new races off existing skeletons to reduce that work load? If they had the same build, but different heads and maybe only minor other variations, it could theoretically reduce development time if the female Hrothgar has a frame closer to the female Roegadyn, or if the male Viera was close to the elezen, that could help with modeling. It might not be so exciting for players to see something already similar, but it would solve the issue....

Though it does make me less hopeful we will see the other sexes for quite a long time.

[Lambdafish]

The issues regarding armor meshing on new character models is something I can sympathize with them, it's definitely a lot of work, and will continue to be more work as more armor sets are added, meaning every new race added is more work making sure they fit right (I have my own thoughts on just now much work they actually do in this regard considering how terribly pixelated many pieces appear on my character, but I can appreciate that it's a lot of work)

My wonder is if people would be satisfied if they based new races off existing skeletons to reduce that work load? If they had the same build, but different heads and maybe only minor other variations, it could theoretically reduce development time if the female Hrothgar has a frame closer to the female Roegadyn, or if the male Viera was close to the elezen, that could help with modeling. It might not be so exciting for players to see something already similar, but it would solve the issue....

Though it does make me less hopeful we will see the other sexes for quite a long time.

It would have to be exact (which will never happen), it's not about the model, it's about the clipping, and you would have to have the exact same animations, and would be restricted when it comes to those unique heads.

Regardless of if that works or not, you are still adding another race that needs to at least be tested on each of the 10000 armour pieces, and would be one that would be so restricted in design that's it's not worth it

[MuseTraveller]

I feel bad for Yoshi P and the dev team ... they will be back from the Fanfest and there is an avalanche of complains about the genderlock races as if nothing else they showed for 5.0 matters.

[reivaxe]

the thing that I get is his mentions fans wanting a more animalistic/beast race, but in almost every MMO they make up a small minority of the playerbase (as low as 2% in some games) and that's with having them from release and not having to pay to race change or re-lvl and put yourself behind.

So from a game development standpoint it doesn't make sense unless they believe they can create a beast race that everyone and their mother is going to love and that will have more player then the potential for male Viera. ( know a lot of people who enjoyed the race in 12 and A2 who wanted to know what the males looked like, so it's chance not only to get those currently playing that are interested, but those who aren't)

This is not universally true.
GW2 for example. Though 40% of players play human characters the remaining 60% pretty much evenly play the non-human races ... including the Charr, huge, hunched over monster cat people with horns who run on all 4s. It really depends on the culture of the game. Males have shown a willingness to play body types that differ from the human norm so I could easily see a tall beastly race being between Roebros and Draggo Bois in popularity.

I personally don't think M Viera would be terribly popular but that's beside the point.

The races are sounding incredibly rushed to the point we don't even have headgear set for them

That's the wrong way of looking at it.

They're not rushed, they have been working on them since basically the start of the expansion. Problem is that they seek to given them a level of character customization unseen in this game so far and that requires a ton of work for the heads. And no head gear in this game was designed with either of their features in mind so they have to redesign things around it.

Given the Dance preview I'm sure AF gear is top of the list though.

[Shurrikhan]

Quite a few posters have expressed their desire for a more bestial playable race. It just so happens that many of the same posters complaining about the lack of Viera men are the very same posters who do everything possible to downplay and stamp out the suggestions for something that isn't more of the same. Personally I'd have preferred no new playable races at all in favour of more customisation options for the existing playable races.

As much as a male Viera in keeping with the concept art would have been exactly what I've been looking for (especially if, oddly enough, I could somehow hide the ears, or they at least weren't so large), if there were just even a single face I could stand and/or a taller, lean-but-well-muscled body type available to Midlander men, I'd be well satisfied with that.

[Wildsprite]

Roe's legs look shorter than they should for their body. I want Hrothgar to be proportioned right.

that would be because of the race they were modeled after, the Galka from FF XI. The biggest difference between Roe and Galka is that Galka have tails and no females