Hairstyle Concerns for The New Races

[reivaxe]

Honestly guessing that they will be working on the new races all the way until launch, they already had to delay the benchmark so chances are that they still just aren't finished and released what they /did/ have done for people to play around with.

I shouldn't be surprised by there being multiple threads already with people panicking/raging/disappointed I suppose.. but... *sighs*

People enjoy freaking out before actually seeing the finished product. Like with the Hrothgar reveal. The trailer didn't do them justice at all but what we see now looks so much better than even then. I have faith that SE will have far more options upon release, but even if they don't I'll still change. The new races are perfect in aesthetic, in my opinion.

Yeah, like I've been saying I assume that Hrothgar's Racial hair is tied to their face and when you go to the Hair guy he unlocks the shared hair styles. Mainly because hair is something they put a lot of importance on ... be it as a reward for content like events or HoH or RL contest (Cloud hair) or something you pay for. So telling someone who convert to these races* that they can't use any of the styles they unlocked or won would be hella strange. Even more so seeing how the shared hair styles are known for not fitting every race well so an afro hiding ears isn't new.

Hope someone ask them about this at some point before the release. I'm rolling both regardless, but completely confused on what we're gonna get if they don't add them to these races. Like what ... go to the hair style guy and he just allows you to change your fur pattern and color for Hrothgar and let Viera only change between 8 hairs and their bangs styles? Would they give Hrothgar a ton of Patterns and more racial hairs for both to make up for this? Will Hrothgar be able to change faces with the hair guy?

*I say races because Viera are also limited to 8 hair styles with a unique alt version. At this point after the head gear stuff I feel like they're treated as a packaged deal ... if we assume more will come for Viera we should assume the same here.

[Fredco191]

...

It’s either: They’ll be able to use the hairstyles when ShB launches, they’ll only be able to use Mog Station/event/reward hairstyles, or Hrothgars will be able to remake themselves entirely through the Aesthetician.

[Iscah]

My personal complaint with the hairstyles, as I mentioned in another thread, is that the Viera-exclusive styles don't seem to have taken their ear placement into account at all. Several designs have long centre-parted hair that passes straight under the ears instead of having to go around it. I would have expected to see more unique styles that are designed around the ears, but it seems like they haven't even been considered.

The only thing that makes me think the benchmark is just "the best of what they have at the moment" is how the Viera hairstyles are displayed. They were supposed to have a toggle to hide/show bangs, but currently each option is just shown as a separate style. The right-click/toggle doesn't seem to really do anything at the moment.

Where did they say it was going to work like that specifically? From what I saw of the Paris Fanfest, all they ever said was that they were designing versions of the hairstyles with and without bangs. Nothing about how they would be implemented.

A lot of the other races have multiple variations of a hairstyle listed as separate choices.

(Though what's the "right-click toggle" you're talking about? What else is it used for? I'm a PS4 player so I'm not familiar with mouse controls.)

It’s either: They’ll be able to use the hairstyles when ShB launches, they’ll only be able to use Mog Station/event/reward hairstyles, or Hrothgars will be able to remake themselves entirely through the Aesthetician.

Or what you see in the benchmark really is what we're getting. If hairstyles are tied to faces and the Hairstyle category has been replaced by fur patterns, then I don't see how other hairstyles are going to work into it. They'd naturally appear in the category that they no longer belong in. Does it become the "Fur Pattern or Hairstyle" category that adds patterns in some circumstances and changes their hair in others?

I think it's easier to assume that this is it, and the trade-off for designing a beast race that doesn't fit the normal head shape. They wouldn't tie the hairstyles to faces just for this - redesigning the models would be more work, not a time-saving measure.

They probably should have said something official about this, but - not for the first time - it just doesn't seem to be their approach to these sort of things even if they should be able to see the fandom rioting from a mile off. Is it a business tactic? Cultural difference? Regardless, they just seem to sit back and not explain "potential downsides" prior to people discovering them.

[Skivvy]

Where did they say it was going to work like that specifically? From what I saw of the Paris Fanfest, all they ever said was that they were designing versions of the hairstyles with and without bangs. Nothing about how they would be implemented.

A lot of the other races have multiple variations of a hairstyle listed as separate choices.

(Though what's the "right-click toggle" you're talking about? What else is it used for? I'm a PS4 player so I'm not familiar with mouse controls.)

At this time, the Viera hair options have a little icon on the bottom stating "Toggle Bangs On/Off" with the mouse button:


If you right-click on the styles, it puts that little marker on it, and then it also lets you click on the "Hide All Bangs" box up on top. But clicking the box just shows your marked hairstyles. It doesn't seem to do anything else.



As far as an official source on the fringe-toggle, I'd like to say this is something that had been mentioned back when they were talking about the expanded character creation for Viera, but at this point I'm struggling to find a source. My memory is quite horrible, so I'm not sure where I had heard it originally. If I find something, I'll post it It could very well be that they had just stated that styles would have the option of with or without bangs, and it morphed into it being an actual toggle. :3

[Iscah]

I'm noticing the palette on the left that usually maps to the hair color is instead mapped to the accents, while the less saturated colors on the right seem to be mapped to the main hair color:

That's how it's always laid out, though? The main hair colour palette (with more muted colours and stripes of 'grey') appears on the right side of the screen, then the highlights palette (with more bright colours) appears to the left.

From that screenshot they do have a more restricted range of "main" colours though. I assume it's different between the clans?

At this time, the Viera hair options have a little icon on the bottom stating "Toggle Bangs On/Off" with the mouse button:

If you right-click on the styles, it puts that little marker on it, and then it also lets you click on the "Hide All Bangs" box up on top. But clicking the box just shows your marked hairstyles. It doesn't seem to do anything else.

Ah, I didn't realise it was a new feature. That does sound like it's something they just haven't got fully coded yet.

That could also potentially explain the lack of normal hairstyles, if they've had to quickly "overwrite" some of the normal styles with duplicate ones?

It certainly sounds promising, and (if it's not making use of data that is used for other features in other races) it would be nice to see some of the shared styles get the same approach. Would be a great way to get more variety without them having to model entirely new hairstyles.

[Skivvy]

Ah, I didn't realise it was a new feature. That does sound like it's something they just haven't got fully coded yet.

That could also potentially explain the lack of normal hairstyles, if they've had to quickly "overwrite" some of the normal styles with duplicate ones?

It certainly sounds promising, and (if it's not making use of data that is used for other features in other races) it would be nice to see some of the shared styles get the same approach. Would be a great way to get more variety without them having to model entirely new hairstyles.

Well now I'm second guessing myself as I can't find anything, but then I'm struggling to find ANY conversation about the customization, and I know that existed at some point. D: Maybe someone else can come along and shed some light on this one. The internet does like to warp comments with time, so this could have been something that was misunderstood....but then those buttons DO exist. Tis a mystery for now :X

[Dalmacus]

It seems kinda illogical to create/implement hairstyles separately for hrothgar, viera and the rest of the races for each patch now. They are literally give themselves 3x the work whenever they introduce new hairstyles.

I mean if for some reason the 2 new races are limited to their own exclusive hairstyles then what's the point to even create new races if it can't be included together with the existing races. I think if for some reason we don't see them on release i would expect at least 5.1 if not i think we might have a problem.

[reivaxe]

Or what you see in the benchmark really is what we're getting. If hairstyles are tied to faces and the Hairstyle category has been replaced by fur patterns, then I don't see how other hairstyles are going to work into it. They'd naturally appear in the category that they no longer belong in. Does it become the "Fur Pattern or Hairstyle" category that adds patterns in some circumstances and changes their hair in others?

We really have no clue where this is going seeing how something like this is unprecedented.

As been pointed out hair styles are something you can win from real life contest and also pay real life money for and earn through in game events. Would be a huge over sight to tell everyone who has paid money for or won a hairstyle they can't use it if they become either Hrothgar or Viera. Like the Cloud hair ... "sorry people who won this hair, you can't use that as these 2 races".

So I agree with him, either they will release them all in ShB proper or they will only add the ones you win/ buy/ earn and not the normal shared ones or they allow people to change more things when visiting the Aesthetician to make up for both races having such limited hair styles.

Seems like something they can do ... I mean, being able to change faces and skin colors would kinda make up for it.

But I'm cool with Hrothgar regardless. Viera, however, will become boring AF if I only have 8 options and their bangs version.

[Penthea]

I'm noticing the palette on the left that usually maps to the hair color is instead mapped to the accents, while the less saturated colors on the right seem to be mapped to the main hair color:



I'm a little worried that even if we do get the hairstyles implemented later or even at launch, we won't be able to recreate the same hair colors as Viera and the other races

It's very subtle, but there are differences between the hair colours of the current races. The selection looks the same in the colour picker, but the displayed colour itself on the hair can sometimes be less or more vibrant than other races. That being said I agree that the colour palette selection is VERY different for hrothgar.

I suppose in the case of hrothgar it is different because their fur is their "skin" and some of the mane/hair colour is on the body so I guess it's treated kind of like skin, and as we know skin tones among the current races have distinct palettes from one race or tribe to another.

But none of this explains why hrothgar hair is tied to faces. This is a very strange decision. Surely it would make more sense to allow each face to have any hair their race can use? Like every other race?

We really have no clue where this is going seeing how something like this is unprecedented.

As been pointed out hair styles are something you can win from real life contest and also pay real life money for and earn through in game events. Would be a huge over sight to tell everyone who has paid money for or won a hairstyle they can't use it if they become either Hrothgar or Viera. Like the Cloud hair ... "sorry people who won this hair, you can't use that as these 2 races".

The viera could well be just unfinished due to how hair is chosen being an identical process to the current races. However for hrothgar it is definitely not. I feel like tying hair to faces is a strange decision considering you can buy hairstyles from the mog station, they're awarded for finishing content, they're prizes, etc. Being unable to use any of that hair would be a deal breaker for so many players.

Perhaps the hrothgar will be able to change their hair like everyone else in the 5.0 character creation...but this begs the question "why tie hairstyles to faces if this was not the intention in the first place?". Maybe it was a decision they decided to scrap. Or well at least I hope they will scrap it.

And also let me add how AWKWARD it is to choose hair for hrothgar. You have to constantly switch back and forth between faces and facial features to see all the variations of the hair.

[Nestama]

But none of this explains why hrothgar hair is tied to faces. This is a very strange decision. Surely it would make more sense to allow each face to have any hair their race can use? Like every other race?

Maybe one day SE will separate their manes from faces, but I have a feeling that they'd still have very limited mane options. Reason behind this is because of their ears and how every mane they have currently is designed around them.