Viera hairstyles

[SturmChurro]

I'm of the opinion that they REALLY should've just held out on both of these races if they absolutely had to come together. I can only assume the reason we have Viera/Hrothgar as they are now is only due to marketing reasons. Introducing two new races as opposed to just a single race sounds like a more appealing hook for a new expansion. Which really leaves a sour taste in my mouth to have that in the back of my head along with the fact that any time the mention of playable races gets brought up we're always left with a vague non-answer concerning these two.

As far as I remember, it was their "last chance" to add any new races. So they did their beast race, and the fan favorite viera. The compromise was no male viera or female hrothgar - which would have been the equivalent of two new races if they had been added. They probably were just able to fit them in with their ShB budget.

[-JayJay-]

As far as I remember, it was their "last chance" to add any new races. So they did their beast race, and the fan favorite viera. The compromise was no male viera or female hrothgar - which would have been the equivalent of two new races if they had been added. They probably were just able to fit them in with their ShB budget.

But that's what gets me. We're not only sitting with both having no opposite genders but also sitting with some really lackluster customization options. And new hairstyles were promised at the very least. I genuinely don't understand why they couldn't have had the whole situation with their customization options mapped out at the very least so players wanting to use these two races wouldn't have to go patch after patch missing out on customization options that other races can use while these two can't.

[Penthea]

I genuinely don't understand why they couldn't have had the whole situation with their customization options mapped out at the very least so players wanting to use these two races wouldn't have to go patch after patch missing out on customization options that other races can use while these two can't.

I really would love to know how SE found the time to make seven new hairstyles for all the pre-ShB races, who don't all have the same shape head, while viera and hrothgar got nothing.

It just looks like intentional exclusion.

[Iscah]

I really would love to know how SE found the time to make seven new hairstyles for all the pre-ShB races, who don't all have the same shape head, while viera and hrothgar got nothing.

It just looks like intentional exclusion.

The other races all have much the same head shape, minus some squashing and stretching, and adding ears for Miqo'te.

For what it's worth, the Controlled Chaos style didn't even make any effort to adapt its shape for the non-human ear placement on Miqo'te. There was just a big empty space on the side of the head. They at least corrected that part, but the longer hair at the top is still tucked behind a non-existent ear. It's clear that it's not being custom-built for them, just the regular version with ears stuck on.

All this doesn't explain why Viera don't get access to it, but it certainly implies that for whatever reason they've done it this way, they can't rather than don't get new hairstyles alongside the other races. Otherwise they'd just receive it, and wouldn't even need adapting because the ears are a separate piece.

Whatever the blockage is, it's not just that they make hairstyles for the other races and stop short of making a Viera version every time.

I wish the devs were more open about exactly how the models work and why they made the decision.

[Lauront]

As far as I remember, it was their "last chance" to add any new races. So they did their beast race, and the fan favorite viera. The compromise was no male viera or female hrothgar - which would have been the equivalent of two new races if they had been added. They probably were just able to fit them in with their ShB budget.

That statement is made all the weirder by some of the timespan references they've given for the game lasting, be it 5 years or more. Maybe they recently got that greenlighted or something but if it's going to last well into the future, bit early for them to be saying "last chance". Though it could all hang together - invest in the graphics engine (I'm referring to this interview for anyone curious about it), and adding new races may become less of the huge hassle it currently is. We'll see if anything comes of it as it's all very early days, however the way he described the things they're looking at does sound like it'd ease the process of adding further races. At the very least for the missing genders, one would hope.

[Shougun]

As far as I remember, it was their "last chance" to add any new races. So they did their beast race, and the fan favorite viera. The compromise was no male viera or female hrothgar - which would have been the equivalent of two new races if they had been added. They probably were just able to fit them in with their ShB budget.

Under that situation I am happy they did split them. Of course having both races full would have been nice, but if this was the case- then as it happened is fine with me. Vast majority would be going the split as it was anyways, of course there might have been this amazing potential and it makes sense that some might miss that (I miss Au Ra's concept art) but as there have not been male Verias before and female 'ronso' were basically background art what makes sense is the split with the big if "this is the last push and we wanted to add as much as possible".

Naturally still getting both would be neat, but I have to think it goes back to the core technical systems being an issue (just like the challenges involved with housing, glamour, and other like systems, such as mogshop items having trouble being account bound sometimes). All that of course is why once the MSQ story is done (6.0), I'm kind of hoping for either MAJOR improvements to the core of FFXIV or hoping they're working on another mmo to be released. I mean look at how long it took to make chocobos not mess up DF lol. The game is very fun and a good mmo, and it is absolutely amazing given where they came from (the ARR crunch and all), but we very often hear the challenge to ideas is not their imagination but the game itself.