Character Customization needs an update.

[Iscah]

What am I getting at? Welp, the Hrothgar have an unique customization option. Something that no other race has. They have the ability to change the color and pattern of parts of their arms/ torso/ legs. Given how this game works, that's a whole lot of stuff the game has to account for when looking at how gear interacts on them. Where does all that space and processing come at the cost of? The only character option that other races have that can be altered greatly and has tons of different looks and "patterns". Hair. Hair changes shape a lot and anytime you wear a hat most hair models change a good deal.

This is all speculation but I don't think it's to do with "space and processing power", I think it's to do with the character template options (as I was saying above re. Auri horns).

They wanted to give fur pattern options, something that hasn't existed for any other race, so they had to repurpose the hairstyle setting (and the linked base colour and highlight colour palettes). Instead of choosing a hairstyle with highlights, Hrothgar choose a fur pattern with stripes.

So fur patterns go in the hairstyle "slot" and the manes have to go in the face slot.

I also think the lack of hats is due to this - when a normal character wears a hat, it turns off part of the hairstyle. But that doesn't work for Hrothgar because the "setting in the hairstyle slot" isn't their hair, and hats aren't programmed to affect the face slot, so it can't turn it off and would clip through instead.

So that would explain why Hrothgar can wear a helmet that replaces the head model entirely (so there's no mane underneath to clip through), but not one that sits over it.

[reivaxe]

This is all speculation but I don't think it's to do with "space and processing power", I think it's to do with the character template options (as I was saying above re. Auri horns).

They wanted to give fur pattern options, something that hasn't existed for any other race, so they had to repurpose the hairstyle setting (and the linked base colour and highlight colour palettes). Instead of choosing a hairstyle with highlights, Hrothgar choose a fur pattern with stripes.

So fur patterns go in the hairstyle "slot" and the manes have to go in the face slot.

I also think the lack of hats is due to this - when a normal character wears a hat, it turns off part of the hairstyle. But that doesn't work for Hrothgar because the "setting in the hairstyle slot" isn't their hair, and hats aren't programmed to affect the face slot, so it can't turn it off and would clip through instead.

So that would explain why Hrothgar can wear a helmet that replaces the head model entirely (so there's no mane underneath to clip through), but not one that sits over it.

It's not an "either/ or" thing, they literally used memory as a reason in the PAX stream.
They did what they did with the slots to make their vision come to fruition. In order to make room for fur stuff to happen they had to leave out hair. I read this post as a "the chicken or the egg" problem, doesn't matter what you think the cause is when we can see that Fur took the place of hair and normal hair or heads that could wear hats and helms was never something YP wanted them to have.

[grinkdaboy]

This is all speculation but I don't think it's to do with "space and processing power", I think it's to do with the character template options (as I was saying above re. Auri horns).

They wanted to give fur pattern options, something that hasn't existed for any other race, so they had to repurpose the hairstyle setting (and the linked base colour and highlight colour palettes). Instead of choosing a hairstyle with highlights, Hrothgar choose a fur pattern with stripes.

So fur patterns go in the hairstyle "slot" and the manes have to go in the face slot.

I also think the lack of hats is due to this - when a normal character wears a hat, it turns off part of the hairstyle. But that doesn't work for Hrothgar because the "setting in the hairstyle slot" isn't their hair, and hats aren't programmed to affect the face slot, so it can't turn it off and would clip through instead.

So that would explain why Hrothgar can wear a helmet that replaces the head model entirely (so there's no mane underneath to clip through), but not one that sits over it.

am i taking crazy pills right now? who on earth on the dev team thought people would want to pay $10 to change your hairstyle/face in order to have customizable fur options? who asked for this???

WHY JAPANESE PEOPLE???

[Iscah]

am i taking crazy pills right now? who on earth on the dev team thought people would want to pay $10 to change your hairstyle/face in order to have customizable fur options? who asked for this???

WHY JAPANESE PEOPLE???

Perhaps they're not thinking of it in terms of people constantly changing hairstyles? Or they just decided that it was a necessary sacrifice to achieve their vision for the design, whether players would actually agree or not.

I can't know what the rest of the dev team think of altering their characters or not, but Yoshida's Lalafell character has always used the same hairstyle as far as I can recall, and doesn't even change her outfit.

And at a totally different level, for my own case, I rarely if ever change my characters' physical appearance. Their hairstyle is part of their appearance, and they look odd if it's different. If I had a Hrothgar character I wouldn't be remotely bothered by the lack of changeable hairstyles because I wouldn't feel the need to change it.

I guess it's more of the same mindset that goes into designing NPCs, or fixed player-characters in games that have them. Create a distinctive appearance and stick to it.

So perhaps they simply underestimated how strongly people feel about being able to change it regularly - or maybe the people that do that are a minority of players. I'd be interested to see a random poll of players about whether or how frequently they change their character's appearance.

[Allegor]

Perhaps they're not thinking of it in terms of people constantly changing hairstyles? Or they just decided that it was a necessary sacrifice to achieve their vision for the design, whether players would actually agree or not.

I can't know what the rest of the dev team think of altering their characters or not, but Yoshida's Lalafell character has always used the same hairstyle as far as I can recall, and doesn't even change her outfit.

And at a totally different level, for my own case, I rarely if ever change my characters' physical appearance. Their hairstyle is part of their appearance, and they look odd if it's different. If I had a Hrothgar character I wouldn't be remotely bothered by the lack of changeable hairstyles because I wouldn't feel the need to change it.

I guess it's more of the same mindset that goes into designing NPCs, or fixed player-characters in games that have them. Create a distinctive appearance and stick to it.

So perhaps they simply underestimated how strongly people feel about being able to change it regularly - or maybe the people that do that are a minority of players. I'd be interested to see a random poll of players about whether or how frequently they change their character's appearance.

I'm inclined to agree to an extent. I like my Hroth as is and wouldn't feel the need to change his hair even if I could. That said, the fact they have such a limited selection to begin with, in addition that they can't even cycle between the 2 hairstyles that share the same face is still troubling. There's a reason almost every Hroths chose face 2 - because both their hairstyles [and/or face itself] are the best of the 8.