New Races

[Ayuhra]

I'm not expecting male viera/female hrothgar. I could be wrong but it feels like the dev team can barely handle the races they have now, adding two more player character models with the same issues viera/hrothgar have just doesn't seem like it's in the cards for their current budget.

I'd like to see them added on principle. I would have much rather had both options for Viera OR Hrothgar instead of one gender for reach race. I wouldn't even care which of the two it was. I don't like gender locked races or classes as a concept, I was surprised they repeated this mistake after they went through the trouble to add male Miqo'te and female highlanders/roegadyn when 1.0 didn't have them.

I get why they did it, they wanted to add a beast race while also appeasing fan demands for viera, but instead of making both sides happy I feel they made another mess that they SHOULD have learned from already.

It seems like there's a bigger fan outcry for Viera.

They should have finished the Viera, let them use different hairstyles and hats and given them male and female options and not bothered with Hrothgar.

Then next expansion give us Hrothgar with optimized customization, separated hair and face options and a female.

I love Hrothgar, I want them in the game but I would have accepted waiting longer for something more complete. My biggest worry with the Hrothgar is SE seeing their lack of popularity and putting it down to "beast races aren't liked" instead of "people don't like needing fantasias to change hairstyles and want to be able to use the things they bought or earned in game"

[Shougun]

It seems like there's a bigger fan outcry for Viera.

They should have finished the Viera, let them use different hairstyles and hats and given them male and female options and not bothered with Hrothgar.

Then next expansion give us Hrothgar with optimized customization, separated hair and face options and a female.

I love Hrothgar, I want them in the game but I would have accepted waiting longer for something more complete. My biggest worry with the Hrothgar is SE seeing their lack of popularity and putting it down to "beast races aren't liked" instead of "people don't like needing fantasias to change hairstyles and want to be able to use the things they bought or earned in game"

I don't think Hrothgar was made to be parity of popularity to the other races. It was made to offer something the game didn't really offer.

If you've got 8 flavors of chocolate because it's popular that's nice but there is a unique value in offering NOT chocolate even if it'll be inherently less popular. As one option just spreads around the choices, and sure might add some nice phantasia money, but the other, new flavor, can actually fill a void not even utilized before.

If they sincerely can only add one race, I'm glad they did it this way.

Of course having it all would be nice, not going to say no to that lol, but if their system or budget desire is "we're only going to do this once" then I feel this was the best.

I get you were saying do each one properly and fully in order, but the fact they didn't makes me think they wont or can't without some extreme rebuilding of the core. Like issue with the character creator and Hrothgar's hair or Au Ra horns or some races getting ear sliders while others get muscle sliders, etc.

Alternatively, if it's not a core coding issue which I believe it is more likely, it could also be pretty ingenious if not a bit diabolical, lol, plan to secure a hook with the next expansion. Don't really need to require a purchase either but it'll garner attention assuredly. Since like I said I don't think hrothgar are here for the reason to be most popular they're here to be a new flavor, so separating out the races as a pure viera release and hrothgar would probably not be as financially assured / noise generating as splitting them and making something hot be part of both releases and also makes them look good (due to feedback we hear you *whispers under breath, this was our plan all along muahahahahaha*).

Of course a character creator update would be nice but it seems they're hyper hesitant on that, perhaps at the next dalamud or something xD. And again of course having it all, and all of it smoothly, would be nice lol, just saying if they were going to add two genders to the game via one race and 'that was that' then I prefer this route as it offers a fan demand but also an element that wasn't really present in game.

[MariaArvana]

It seems like there's a bigger fan outcry for Viera.

They should have finished the Viera, let them use different hairstyles and hats and given them male and female options and not bothered with Hrothgar.

Funnily enough, the intention was the opposite, based on what Yoshi-P has said. Hrothgar was initially what they were planning to do, until the decision was made to create the split since they knew about Viera popularity and knew it was likely the last time they'll be adding new races:

"After seeing the positive reception of the Lupin characters we introduced in Stormblood, we concluded that, for the long-term health of FFXIV, it was important to implement a greater variety of character types beyond the traditionally beautiful in a future expansion" ~ siliconera's interview with Naoki Yoshida on Viera & hrothgar gender lock. So if they hadn't gone the split, it would have been Male/Female Hrothgar, no Viera ever.

As far as the topic question, between all the other things he dev have to push out during their patch cycles, the realistic date you'll see any Viera/Hrothgar additions is 6.0. They could surprise us earlier than that, but 6.0 is the realistic time.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

It seems like there's a bigger fan outcry for Viera.

They should have finished the Viera, let them use different hairstyles and hats and given them male and female options and not bothered with Hrothgar.

Then next expansion give us Hrothgar with optimized customization, separated hair and face options and a female.

I love Hrothgar, I want them in the game but I would have accepted waiting longer for something more complete. My biggest worry with the Hrothgar is SE seeing their lack of popularity and putting it down to "beast races aren't liked" instead of "people don't like needing fantasias to change hairstyles and want to be able to use the things they bought or earned in game"

Remember, they were pretty clear that "This might be the Last chance we get to make a new race, because it takes Alot of resources to make them"
So if they just did Viera as a whole, then they likely wouldn't have the chance to make a Beast Race like they planned to. So they really couldn't Just make Viera now and do Hrothgar next expansion, because its very likely they wouldn't be able to.

[Ayuhra]

Remember, they were pretty clear that "This might be the Last chance we get to make a new race, because it takes Alot of resources to make them"
So if they just did Viera as a whole, then they likely wouldn't have the chance to make a Beast Race like they planned to. So they really couldn't Just make Viera now and do Hrothgar next expansion, because its very likely they wouldn't be able to.

I do remember them saying that but I still think fully developed Viera and Hrothgar would be doable if spaced apart.

And if not then good lord do they need to upgrade to a new engine and reevaluate the frankly baffling way they handle fitting gear to models.

[DynnDiablos]

It seems like there's a bigger fan outcry for Viera.

They should have finished the Viera, let them use different hairstyles and hats and given them male and female options and not bothered with Hrothgar.

Then next expansion give us Hrothgar with optimized customization, separated hair and face options and a female.

I love Hrothgar, I want them in the game but I would have accepted waiting longer for something more complete. My biggest worry with the Hrothgar is SE seeing their lack of popularity and putting it down to "beast races aren't liked" instead of "people don't like needing fantasias to change hairstyles and want to be able to use the things they bought or earned in game"

Sadly, Hrothgar populations are dwindling which sucks because I love them and my alt is one. I can understand why people are fed up and not wanting to play with them due to limitations, but abandoning the race won't give SE any incentive to update or provide more options.

[Ayuhra]

Sadly, Hrothgar populations are dwindling which sucks because I love them and my alt is one. I can understand why people are fed up and not wanting to play with them due to limitations, but abandoning the race won't give SE any incentive to update or provide more options.

It's definitely sad, especially since we know they watch player metrics.

I think if they could make fully customizable Viera and Hrothgar, make Viera use all unlockable hairstyles and make Hrothgar use variants of them (ESO does this with the Argonians) and give both races their missing sexes THEN we can probably call it quits on new races. Further options could be new tribes which wouldn't require new gear sets.