Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[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.

[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.

[Burningskull]

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.

One problem the Devs have is that when they do release something that even remotely works, Deep Dungeon, Eureka, umm... I'm sure there are other things. The Player base then expects that to become regular content every expansion. Which adds more and more work for the Devs each expansion, which they have kinda done to themselves. Giving them more time per expansion will eventually be necessary if they keep adding new content to the cycle.

[Lauront]

One problem the Devs have is that when they do release something that even remotely works, Deep Dungeon, Eureka, umm... I'm sure there are other things. The Player base then expects that to become regular content every expansion. Which adds more and more work for the Devs each expansion, which they have kinda done to themselves. Giving them more time per expansion will eventually be necessary if they keep adding new content to the cycle.

Agreed, and there is still further content expected, like another potential ultimate raid.

[Anarnee]

One problem the Devs have is that when they do release something that even remotely works, Deep Dungeon, Eureka, umm... I'm sure there are other things. The Player base then expects that to become regular content every expansion. Which adds more and more work for the Devs each expansion, which they have kinda done to themselves. Giving them more time per expansion will eventually be necessary if they keep adding new content to the cycle.

I'm kinda on the fence about how I feel about this. I do understand the work load gets bigger, but the budget has also grown by a lot and they're making more money because the player base has grown.

Sure they added more stuff, like Eureka and DD, but don't forget we lost dungeons for those. They cut content to put resources into the new stuff...

So where is all that extra money going, cause with how stretched thin SB felt to me, it sure hasn't felt like it's gone back into the game at times.

I want to have faith in the dev team but most of SB has felt like we're not quite getting as much as HW, so my frustrations started loooong before they decided to genderlock the races.

1500 out of how many active players tho... not rain on anyone's parade as I support unlocking the races but... that doesn't seem like a lot.

Things with less likes have gotten the devs attention before. 1500 is a lot for the forums. I've never seen a tread get this much attention and in that short amount of time.

[Crushnight]

snip

Quoting myself from another thread:


So we got this in HW:
18 dungeons
7 story trials
7 extreme trials
3 24m raids
12 story raids
12 savage raids
The Feast
Seal Rock
Shatter
LoV
1 instance zone(taken down and revamped at later date)
Hall of the Novice
Garo Crossover
Yokai Crossover
3 Beast tribes
3 jobs
PotD 200 floors
1 custom delievery npc
Anima questline
Aquapolis
Squadrons
Templeleves
Airships
Aertherial wheel
Orchestrian
Flying

In Sb we got:
15 dungeons
9 story trials
8 extreme trials
3 24m Raids
12 story raids
12 savage raids
2 ultimate raids
Astragalos
Hidden Gorge
Mahjong
2 GS gates
Fashion Report
MHW collab
FF15 collab
3 beast tribes
2 jobs
1 limited job
4 instance zones(BA is included with Hydatos so its here)
HoH 100 floors
Doman Reconstruction
3 custom deliveries
Canals of Uzanir
Hidden Canals of Uzanir
Squadron command missions
Submarines
Glamour Dresser
Swimming

So from HW to SB we gained(+) and we lost(-) was:
- 3 dungeons
+ 2 story trial
+ 1 extreme trial
+ 2 ultimate raids
- 1 PVP mode
+ 3 instance zones
- 1 full job
+ 1 limited job
- 100 PotD style floors
+ 2 custom delievery npcs
- 1 Relic questline
+ 2 map areas(we had 1 reskin and 2 additional afterwards)
- battleleves
+ 2 GS gates

Most everything else cancels each other out now these lists do not include every item/mount/minion/msq/sidequests just the bigger features of each expansion(if they were talked about at live letters/shown in trailers as features). As a whole SB has offered more content to players but it did take things away it is whether what was taken away was worth what we gained as a result and that is down to each individual themselves to assess but factually we got more content with SB than HW

TLDR: We got way more content in SB than HW even with the loss of certain types of content, its just down to individuals if what we lost was worth it

[Anarnee]

TLDR: We got way more content in SB than HW even with the loss of certain types of content, its just down to individuals if what we lost was worth it

That's a way to look at it, but a lot of the stuff we "gained" all take resources from the things we lost.

So we lost 3 dungeons, the maps and resources that would have gone into that went into the 3 instanced areas.

In interviews we've been told that Ultimate can happen because it takes very few resources. They don't have to make models etc. I am trying to look at it through the devs terms of how they explain things.

That is why I said "stretched thin"

They took the stuff, and maybe made "more" things, but it's all the same amount of stuff, staggered further apart.

I don't think the list is exactly encompassing what all goes into the content, cause you can't just look at the dungeon as say we lost a dungeon.

The dungeon is a team that worked on the map, music, mechanics for enemies which can be anything from trash to bosses.

Just looking at Eureka the map team was pulled from the dungeon to work on that, and the music Soken makes, and then whoever handled the mechs. Then we get to the next map, the same music was reused, so the music that would have been in the dungeon went to the new trial, etc etc. It's a lot to figure in, but I still feel like even though they're bringing in more money, SE is not putting back in as much as they could.

We also got a new race in HW, so we lost that, the resources to that went into some of that other things, whoever had to modify the gear etc.

Edit: I tried to make a list of items once for myself to calculate that part of stuff when I was first annoyed by it last year but it was really a lot so I gave up.

But I noticed a lot of things like when we got PotD, they gave us a hairstyle + the two we use to get every patch right out the gate.

This last expansion they've taken the hair that we usually get, and put it into content instead. Now I recall them saying that there is a separate team that makes the PVP stuff, so it does not interfere with the PVE. But a few patches ago, they took the hair and put it into PVP... So where did the resources for making the PVE the hair go, if PVP doesn't interfere with PVE? There are a lot of things like that that they've done that make it feel stretched.

[Kelryth]

That's a way to look at it, but a lot of the stuff we "gained" all take resources from the things we lost.

So we lost 3 dungeons, the maps and resources that would have gone into that went into the 3 instanced areas.

Whether they take resources from one place and put them somewhere else you are not loosing content. You may not be getting the content you specifically want but content you are getting nonetheless.