Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[Acesfool]

Most people in this thread aren't even threatening to quit though. Did you actually read it?

Most aren't, but some are, and that's who my comment was meant for. But if I worked for SE I'd come away from this thread feeling very unappreciated.

[Burningskull]

Should SE have slowed down or postponed the expansion to make the races complete? Meaning both female and male for each race. Would you accept the headgear problem a lot better if they were adding both male and female and said they would fix the headgear slowly?

Could SE have waited another year for the expansion and had a few more patches so SE could complete the races? Should SE release a expansion every 2 years or should they try to start slowing down a little and maybe release a expansion every 3 or 4 years? With more patches between of course.

[MrKimper]

Most aren't, but some are, and that's who my comment was meant for. But if I worked for SE I'd come away from this thread feeling very unappreciated.

SE and the devs are not your friends, they are professional working adults like anyone else, if you work in the entertainment industry this kind of thing is par for the course. It's nothing compared to the kind of stuff devs like anthem or even authors of book series or tv series get. Do not try to coerce a lack of appreciation with feeling discontent as a buyer, I can like someone all I want but if they try to sell me something I don't like I'm not obligated to purchase it.

I like the game and appreciate the devs work, I also understand that this game has a lot of issues people have quit over that weren't or are still not addressed, real legitimate issues like job balance, constant east cost server lag and other things. Those issues are just as real as this one for some and just because someone says they'll unsub because of that does not always mean they are maliciously calling the devs incompetent.

Though I will say that SE in my eyes is incompetent as a company for multiple other reasons *COUGHXVCOUGH* XIV not being one of them, and it still astounds me how little they invest back into this games dev team. They're obviously talented people that are passionate about this game enough to deal with it's mess of coding errors with little to no help.

[BillyKaplan]

Should SE release a expansion every 2 years or should they try to start slowing down a little and maybe release a expansion every 3 or 4 years?

I think that's the core issue here. Personally, looking at SB's MSQ, I felt like they could've easily added to the MSQ and expanded on it. Maybe thrown in some side-quests so there was less for the Tales of the Storm and more in-game (I mean other games release DLCs, but it means those things still make it into the game itself). 4.5's story ended abruptly and it felt like they had to rush it and throw everything away because ShB was coming out in a couple of months. And that sort of thing was felt all throughout because of how we were joggling effectively two storylines, one for Doma and one for Ala Mhigo, and most people will think that at least one of them was mistreated due to the split focus.
Some more time might've also let them fix DRK in SB itself and balance the healers so that ShB could've seen a new one released. Instead such tasks are now drawn into yet another expansion, which highlights and accents player discontent regarding such manners. It's different to receive changes and buffs and/or nerfs during an expansion, compared to having to wait for a new expansion for it - that's how people work, the "new" thing focuses us and strengthens responses for better or worse.

It would've at least given them more time to work on whatever they would've chosen to release eventually, as if nothing else, Yoshida admitted both fem!Viera and male!Hroth were released under intense time and resource constrictions. Would they have been able to give us all four options? I don't know. But chances are what they did give us would've looked better, at least.

[MrKimper]

Should SE have slowed down or postponed the expansion to make the races complete? Meaning both female and male for each race. Would you accept the headgear problem a lot better if they were adding both male and female and said they would fix the headgear slowly?

Could SE have waited another year for the expansion and had a few more patches so SE could complete the races? Should SE release a expansion every 2 years or should they try to start slowing down a little and maybe release a expansion every 3 or 4 years? With more patches between of course.

I'm not a fan of the 2 year expansion timeframe and I think they should get rid of it, the issues with stormblood's launch and how rushed a lot of content fills leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I'd rather they do 3 years instead of two. The devs should not be as rushed as they always are. It's not fair to them or their families.

[Bayarma]

Not going to join in on the discussion regarding timing of expansions or anything. Gonna add my two Gil directly in relation to male Viera instead.

I think the concept behind male Viera is extremely cool, and I understand why people are disappointed that they did not get this, even if it was not promised. I can appreciate that SE stuck to their corner citing lore and developmental issues, which I can largely get behind. Though one has to question the stringency of the lore with the upcoming expansion and the other worlds. It's a valid question, but one we will only get an answer to when the expansion is actually released. So that's that, for now!


If they did add male Viera to be playable, though, I think they should add options to the race in relation to face and whatnot, so you have a range of masculinity or possible age ranges. See: All other races in this game, most notably the Au Ra and Elezen face types.
If they went down this route, they would be able to make everyone happy. Those who want the more masculine traits will get them. The ones who want more elegance and effeminate, will also get what they want. Just like how they did with the other races.


That said, I'm not going to dish SE any bad criticism, as my expectations were relatively low. I was not pleased we did not get male Viera, but I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with both of the new races all the same. Perhaps in the future we will get male Viera as a character creation option, if the lore and development cycle permits. That would be great!

[Lauront]

I think that's the core issue here. Personally, looking at SB's MSQ, I felt like they could've easily added to the MSQ and expanded on it. Maybe thrown in some side-quests so there was less for the Tales of the Storm and more in-game (I mean other games release DLCs, but it means those things still make it into the game itself). 4.5's story ended abruptly and it felt like they had to rush it and throw everything away because ShB was coming out in a couple of months. And that sort of thing was felt all throughout because of how we were joggling effectively two storylines, one for Doma and one for Ala Mhigo, and most people will think that at least one of them was mistreated due to the split focus.
Some more time might've also let them fix DRK in SB itself and balance the healers so that ShB could've seen a new one released. Instead such tasks are now drawn into yet another expansion, which highlights and accents player discontent regarding such manners. It's different to receive changes and buffs and/or nerfs during an expansion, compared to having to wait for a new expansion for it - that's how people work, the "new" thing focuses us and strengthens responses for better or worse.

It would've at least given them more time to work on whatever they would've chosen to release eventually, as if nothing else, Yoshida admitted both fem!Viera and male!Hroth were released under intense time and resource constrictions. Would they have been able to give us all four options? I don't know. But chances are what they did give us would've looked better, at least.

I was seriously disappointed that there was a solo duty fight for one of my favourite frenemy antagonists, as opposed to a full on trial with an extreme mode... plus his portrayal, and also that of the other major plot point, suffered as a result. 4.5 part 1 ended on a pretty high note, but this felt very rushed by comparison. Perhaps moving to a 3 year cycle would work better, who knows. They certainly have their plate full, and I think Eureka has only piled more pressure on, even though it appears to be working out well for sub retention.

I believe part of the problem is that there's always the incentive to bundle big new features (such as character customisation or graphics upgrades) with the expansion, when they're already quite taxing in terms of new zones, quests, gear, etc.

[LeoRocha]

Well, I don't ike to play females, so I won't play it without a male

[SoloWingMetatron]

Just sounding off to show my support for male Viera! I want to fantasia my main character into a male Viera so badly!!!!

[Levy9]

Let's say a modder (mods are against the rules btw) wants to edit a gear piece they only have to edit one model (for the gender they want) for it to effect midlander, elezen, Aura, and Miqote (for males at least, fem highlander shares with fem midlanders) only Roe, Male highlander and Lalafell have their own gear models. Really they only have to work on helmets!

I would never mod, but the info is out there!

Wouldn't that be because the developers already programmed all of the existing gear sets to adapt/fit onto the existing character model variations? It sounds like you're describing making a cosmetic edit to a pre-programmed piece of gear that has already been set to scale with the games existing model variations. One character model can have subtle size variations that have to be accounted for when it comes to things like clipping issues. Adding more size variations to the same base character model would involve checking back through all of the old gear sets to ensure that the scaling process works with these new size variations. Where the scaling process doesn't work well (clipping) the developers would make the necessary edits.

The same vetting process would be done for animations and other areas where a character model interacts with itself or the environment. At least this is my understanding of it. For example, Omega M's model has a much thicker neck than the Elezen. I would imagine that some male Elezen gear sets would end up clipping into the Omega M model's thicker neck without some work done, whereas some may scale just fine.

Edit: Ultimately, I hope they are added eventually. The demand certainly seems to be there. I just don't think SE is yanking our chain about the development process. I'll sign the petition. And not just because they may or may not be fun to ̶h̶u̶n̶t̶ fight as a Hrothgar alt in PvP (think of the banter). :P