Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[LisSquid]

There is likely a rather small amount of players who would fantasia back to female viera and male hrotgar combined in comparasion to those that would go for the brand new shiny toy, plus that would be like getting someone a new toy for christmas or polishing up the one they got two years ago, regardless, I think everything is quite unclear at this poitn and all we can do is wait for 2 (3 in my case) more days and we will hopefully get the awnsers

If it costs 2gil to pick 10 apples that sell for 4gil (giving fv and mh more hair), while it's 40gil to plant an orange tree that costs 2gil to pick 10 oranges that sell for 8gil (create mv and fh), and you have one weekend to make it to the farmers market this weekend? I think farmer Yoshi is going to keep to his apples when he has the rest of the stall to fill :P

They'd both break even but he might have to make the corn harvest (other content) a bit light.

Purely hypothetical metaphor here, since I personally believe creating another race would cost more.

[Yencat]

Purely hypothetical metaphor here, since I personally believe creating another race would cost more.

It almost certainly would.

A lot of people switched off Viera and Hrothgar specifically because of the limitations and the updates to the races in 'future patches' still hasn't happened, I imagine plenty of people would change back if they ever get the updates they need.

On the other hand a lot of people would probably also switch to male Viera and female Hrothgar, and plenty of them would switch off them too in the long run if they had the same limitations.

Either way though SE would be making money off the situation, but I imagine it's less resource intensive for them to give updates to Viera and Hrothgar currently in the game than making new models from scratch.

But almost everyone here is gonna vote for their own interests so we're not exactly good barometers for what should happen as everyone has their bias.

[zeylos]

If it costs 2gil to pick 10 apples that sell for 4gil (giving fv and mh more hair), while it's 40gil to plant an orange tree that costs 2gil to pick 10 oranges that sell for 8gil (create mv and fh), and you have one weekend to make it to the farmers market this weekend? I think farmer Yoshi is going to keep to his apples when he has the rest of the stall to fill :P

They'd both break even but he might have to make the corn harvest (other content) a bit light.

Purely hypothetical metaphor here, since I personally believe creating another race would cost more.

I understand the metaphor and you undenaiably have a point, but they could make 80 gil or, they could spend 30k gil on something that might turn to 15k or 100k gil, without any exact estimates. It really is a gamble to take wither choice, but with the missing genders as much as they are more work it would actually give them a chance at a ton of money and specially theres really never been a way as easy as this one to get good press and lock on the preorders. That being said, in things like 3 houses where ppl clamored for Claude and Dimitri and Sylvain and others to be romancable by Mbyleth which is incredibly easy to do and would egt them a ton of good will, at the very least in the west, they still didnt do it, so its all pretty much guessing until we get confirmation or denial

[Anvaire]

If it costs 2gil to pick 10 apples that sell for 4gil (giving fv and mh more hair), while it's 40gil to plant an orange tree that costs 2gil to pick 10 oranges that sell for 8gil (create mv and fh), and you have one weekend to make it to the farmers market this weekend? I think farmer Yoshi is going to keep to his apples when he has the rest of the stall to fill :P

They'd both break even but he might have to make the corn harvest (other content) a bit light.

Purely hypothetical metaphor here, since I personally believe creating another race would cost more.

You are treating both as being mutually exclusive when they arguably are not. The Hair issue for Female viera and Male Hrothgar are actually two separate issues, one is a design choice the other is an application choice. Adding new models for Male Viera and Female Hrothgar wouldn't address this, but then YP has said that not all hairstyles would be ported to these races.

For the Hat issue, it makes sense to me that they would not adjust the hat models if they were going to add the other 2, why would you go in to do something when you will need to do the same once again?

Male Hrothgar issue lies in the bones of how they were implemented, but i think, unless they completely recreate the graphics engine, or how the character models and customisation work, Im not sure there is an easy fix. Essentially the reason hair is attached to the head is that the fur and skin patterns sit where hair and Hair colour usually is - I assume they cannot just add another section else they would have done so - thus its a massive issue for them to resolve. Equally if they made it so face could be changed at the aesthetician for Hrogthgar only, that would have a large outcry. Essentially its a case of dammed if they do and dammed if they don't.... Ill wait for Friday to see what news they give.

[Theodric]

It's a bit silly that Viera and Hrothgar can't wear many pieces of headgear, though that's just their version of the limitations other races suffer. You can't have proper eyebrows as a Highlander male. You can't separate horns from faces as a Raen or Xaela. Sure, they could fix the problem for the newer, flashier races but it'd be more efficient to do it across the board or not at all. I know many people who would play a Highlander male if only they could design one with eyebrows and a better looking face. I guarantee, with the physique they have, they'd shoot up to one of the most popular playable races in a matter of months if that happened.

[SturmChurro]

It's a bit silly that Viera and Hrothgar can't wear many pieces of headgear, though that's just their version of the limitations other races suffer. You can't have proper eyebrows as a Highlander male. You can't separate horns from faces as a Raen or Xaela. Sure, they could fix the problem for the newer, flashier races but it'd be more efficient to do it across the board or not at all. I know many people who would play a Highlander male if only they could design one with eyebrows and a better looking face. I guarantee, with the physique they have, they'd shoot up to one of the most popular playable races in a matter of months if that happened.

I still fail to see how proper eyebrows even compares to viera/hrothgar not having any hats! It's simply not comparable. Having no eyebrows isn't even a limitation, it's an aesthetic design choice. Not comparable to hrothgar's unique heads either. It's literally eyebrows, the hair on the brows. It's ridiculous!

[Lauront]

It would give them more money from people fantasising back to f viera and buying more mogstation items for less effort than creating an entirely new race. Sure you'd get your fantasia from people swapping to male viera, but what's the time/cost of adding them comparable to that hypothetical gain?

That also depends on if it'd garner them new players. Partly why they added Hrothgar was to appeal to people who like bestial races. It's why it's billed as an expansion feature and why I imagine they added female Viera. More potential subs and higher sub retention if people can play a character they enjoy. In practice, we would struggle to quantify such aspects of it, but I'd expect that they have at least some measures of it and if they don't, they ought to.

With that said, I am pretty confident that the limitations on hairstyles and headgear did cost them with female Viera in particular, given the drop in the proportion who play them. It's still around a healthy 8% figure, but it started at 12%. Part of that will come down to factors like nostalgia for your previous character race etc. but that will happen with any new race and I don't think it goes the full way in explaining that drop.

[Theodric]

I still fail to see how proper eyebrows even compares to viera/hrothgar not having any hair! It's simply not comparable. Having no eyebrows isn't even a limitation, it's an aesthetic design choice. Not comparable to hrothgar's unique heads either. It's literally eyebrows, the hair on the brows. It's ridiculous!

People have been asking for the original races to be fixed for longer than Viera/Hrothgar have been around as playable options. It's also a questionable design choice given that Highlander women don't have the same limitations. Personally I wouldn't even be as bothered about the lack of Viera men if Highlander men were adjusted to have better looking faces...and eyebrows.

[SturmChurro]

People have been asking for the original races to be fixed for longer than Viera/Hrothgar have been around as playable options. It's also a questionable design choice given that Highlander women don't have the same limitations. Personally I wouldn't even be as bothered about the lack of Viera men if Highlander men were adjusted to have better looking faces...and eyebrows.

I'd rather see further midlander customization myself. I would agree our current races could definitely use some expanded options. I doubt they'd ever adjust highlanders to have better looking faces, maybe add a new one like you initially suggested - so they don't all look like proto-humans. I feel like if they were gonna add a new one, it'd probably follow the same aesthetic design choice they've chosen though. You probably wouldn't be happy.

Speaking of highlander women, a lot of the time the game doesn't even use actual highlander women to represent highlander women. But rather midlander women, with a tan.

[zeylos]

People have been asking for the original races to be fixed for longer than Viera/Hrothgar have been around as playable options. It's also a questionable design choice given that Highlander women don't have the same limitations. Personally I wouldn't even be as bothered about the lack of Viera men if Highlander men were adjusted to have better looking faces...and eyebrows.

Tbh I doubt they would make updates to CC considering that they did say current limitations impede them from doing so (unlike mviera or fhrot, it isnt like they cant do it just that it will be a ton of work) but if they are added it likely means they changed their code to allow for it which is a great thing