It’s 2021 now and we still do not have Race Restrictions REMOVED from Hempen Clothes

[Driavna]

It’s less about them looking good and more about how the sets don’t fit the aesthetic of one (or more) of the three physical ranged jobs. None of the physical ranged sets released have really suited Dancer’s aesthetic. Or Bard. The Neo-Ishgardian set is my favorite released, but it really only can aesthetically play into Machinist with its steampunk style.

I will say that's pretty much true for all classes. All role specific gear just fit a general theme.

[Hazama999]

It is what it is, unfortunately.

Personally, you'll never see me advocating for more race-specific gear unless there's a damn good reason for it. I think the concept of "you just can't wear this shirt because you're not X or Y race" is silly. This applies to poses/stances as well. Such restrictions are "funny" in a game in which the tiniest of lalafell can tank Titan just as well as the biggest roegadyn... Yet you can't stand a certain way because of racial difference.

Please.

I absolutely understand if this is the case due technical reason(s)... But people claiming racial "diversity" based on what you can wear or how you stand with your weapon drawn out is just silly.

[SigmaOZ]

It's only natural to be able to wear any design one chooses but that kind of logic doesn't work in this old fashioned game.


The Dev Team should unlock every race-specific glamour for all the respective genders, all the female clothing for all females regardless of race, all male clothing for all males and females regardless of race. I strongly believe females can easily wear males clothing but males should not wear female ones.


It's sad that players are still too selfish with their races demanding that their exclusive glamours remain locked to a single type of character, which is illogical.


At last I would also like the Dev Team to unlock all the standing and sitting positions as well as the running animations for all males and females respectively, the characters wouldn't lose anything but would gain in personality!.

[Gemina]

There is always more to diversity than just races and restricting cosmetics to certain races would ultimately be counter-intuitive to forwarding diversity because now you got a situation where a race itself is cosmetically conformist putting us in situations where we are stuck with fewer and less diverse groups than what we would have had with total freedom.

The "diversity" you talk about could have been perfectly achievable by just making an FC with a strict race/dress-code.

Ultimately culture, art and styles is something that should be shared and used for inspiration or it's just going to stagnate and die out.

There is more to it than just races, but in this particular case we are talking about diversity within the playable races of the game. There is no avoiding certain restrictions cosmetically when it comes to races, which brings us to the leading question: Should restrictions be imposed on players when it comes to gear sets based on the race they choose? Whether the answer is no or yes, I don't think either is right or wrong.

I say this is a slippery slope because now we are no longer talking about just the hempen sets. The conversation within the thread has now questioned all restrictions within the game, as I knew it would. "Freedom" is a strong word with a dual edge. One side of this argument can express that players would be happy with more freedom and less restrictions within the game, but shouldn't the devs also have the freedom to place restrictions however they see fit?

I can think of two things that restrictions do for the devs and the game. These don't necessarily benefit any individual player. The first is it reduces the workload for the design team. A hempen set for example only has to be fitted to one race and one gender instead of all of them. The second comes into play when it comes to gear that has stats. Restrictions is how the game prevents players from using gear with stats that are entirely redundant to their job's performance (no tanks with an INT build for example).

Complete and total freedom comes at a great price to the dev team, which will ultimately be paid by every sub in the game when playable content suffers as a result of exploring and rectifying cosmetic issues within the game.

[Vahlnir]

Complete and total freedom comes at a great price to the dev team, which will ultimately be paid by every sub in the game when playable content suffers as a result of exploring and rectifying cosmetic issues within the game.

This is already happening to some degree. There have been more than a few issues over the last couple of patches of Shadowbringers, some of them since it launched. And yet...they add to Gpose like there's no tomorrow. And Perform. Those are fluff content that have no bearing on the rest of the game. Their time could have, and should have, been spent rectifying actual problems...and yet, their priorities are so messed up. I definitely don't want it to get any worse, though sometimes I feel it couldn't already.

[BlitzAceRush]

Different teams, the G-pose people can't just go work on healers, or the preform team can't suddenly model hair for the new races, it's just the nature of development that some teams have more work than others, but you don't want one team just sitting around doing nothing, so if there work is more easily achievable and they finish, well then you set them another task.
They can't just drag in the UI guy who just made some stickers and tell him/her "Great! You're done. So... have you ever 3d modelled hair before...?" Just as they're not going to sit the Preform team down and ask them about healer balance.

[Vahlnir]

Different teams, the G-pose people can't just go work on healers, or the preform team can't suddenly model hair for the new races, it's just the nature of development that some teams have more work than others, but you don't want one team just sitting around doing nothing, so if there work is more easily achievable and they finish, well then you set them another task.
They can't just drag in the UI guy who just made some stickers and tell him/her "Great! You're done. So... have you ever 3d modelled hair before...?" Just as they're not going to sit the Preform team down and ask them about healer balance.

And yet they all have the same amount of resources and budget to work with.

[GrizzlyTank]

And yet they all have the same amount of resources and budget to work with.

Not to mention the entire covid thing breaking the workflow for well... everyone.

Complete and total freedom comes at a great price to the dev team, which will ultimately be paid by every sub in the game when playable content suffers as a result of exploring and rectifying cosmetic issues within the game.

Only if they haven't properly streamlined how they model outfits for character models. There shouldn't be a need to manually add each and every outfit to each and every race, since all the races have the same overall physique. So once something is done for the human model which seems to be the standard (as seen with oversized floating shoulderpads on smaller race/sex combos...) then there shouldn't be much more work than to just load it up on another races model since they should all be using the same skeleton with the same seams and whatever other terminology for 3d animated models are used.

[Vahlnir]

Not to mention the entire covid thing breaking the workflow for well... everyone.

Yeah, this is also a factor I'm sure. And I completely understand that! That is why I'm doing my best to be patient, but I still feel that there are things they could be focusing on that they simply are not.

[Avatre]

The Neo-Ishgardian set is my favorite released, but it really only can aesthetically play into Machinist with its steampunk style.

I find it works beautifully for DNC. Put the Thavnairian sleeves, bunny chief tights and shoes, and the quinterelle hat. That's what I used for my DNC.