Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[Theodric]

Every race? That might be a little much to hope for. More likely long wait, and at best a handful of updates (and still no male viera).

Maybe. Though they're well aware of the disappointment in relation to the missing genders and the lack of hairstyle options for Hrothgar and Viera in their current form. It's weird that it's taken them so long to address the issue - but if and when they do, I'm sure they're aware that they'll just be opening a different can of worms.

After all, a handful of rival MMO's have done a lot in regards to the expansion of character customisation and graphical overhauls in recent years. Yet FFXIV is very much stuck in the past on that front. It's more noticeable on some race/gender combinations than others but at this point some of the gear sets have become far more detailed than the actual character models.

[SturmChurro]

Maybe. Though they're well aware of the disappointment in relation to the missing genders and the lack of hairstyle options for Hrothgar and Viera in their current form. It's weird that it's taken them so long to address the issue - but if and when they do, I'm sure they're aware that they'll just be opening a different can of worms.

After all, a handful of rival MMO's have done a lot in regards to the expansion of character customisation and graphical overhauls in recent years. Yet FFXIV is very much stuck in the past on that front. It's more noticeable on some race/gender combinations than others but at this point some of the gear sets have become far more detailed than the actual character models.

It is very weird. I think maybe they just forgot about hrothgar and viera with all the other ongoing issues going on since ShB release. It has been patches as usual with hair options for everyone else, etc. Like they had a set schedule, and didn't have viera/hrothgar planned ahead of time. If I recall correctly, Yoshida did say to look forward to fanfest or whatever in May in reply to a further character customization question - so yeah, maybe we really will see something there. I hope he wasn't just saying to "look forward", I think we've all been burned enough times..

SE's quality is all over the place, really. Still, you are right it has been a long time, and it would be logical for them to update the creator, or add options (if they could), to keep up with their competitors. I just tend to keep my expectations, or hopes, low now..

[Melichoir]

It is very weird. I think maybe they just forgot about hrothgar and viera with all the other ongoing issues going on since ShB release. It has been patches as usual with hair options for everyone else, etc. Like they had a set schedule, and didn't have viera/hrothgar planned ahead of time. If I recall correctly, Yoshida did say to look forward to fanfest or whatever in May in reply to a further character customization question - so yeah, maybe we really will see something there. I hope he wasn't just saying to "look forward", I think we've all been burned enough times..

SE's quality is all over the place, really. Still, you are right it has been a long time, and it would be logical for them to update the creator, or add options (if they could), to keep up with their competitors. I just tend to keep my expectations, or hopes, low now..

To remind people again, from a DEV standpoint, it would not make sense to keep 'fixing' something broken if you plan on completely overhauling it in the near relative future. The caveat being if its something completely game breakingly broken (like a class/skill issue).

This is what I suspect is the case. They pushed out Hrothgar and Viera on a tight schedule due to some internal back and forth issues. They then received backlash for them being sex locked - (Agree or not with it, when your audiance audibly groans during your press release, that is a real bad sign.) It is obvious to anyone that Viera and Hrothgar are only 'semi functional' from a character builder standpoint compared to all the other races. Then covid hits and causes even more problems. Along with this, you have more and more calls to revamp character creator.

You put all these factors together, the logical thing for SE to do is rebuild/heavily update the character creation engine. This would allow 3 things to happen:

1) More character customization, which is exactly what is being requested.
2) You can fix the Hrothgar/Viera limitations that exist due to the hang ups of the old engine.
3) You can implement the off sexes more effectively, as the whole process of going over every single armor and gear pieces - the primary limitation of adding new races/sexes - would be more streamlined in the back end.


So it is at least plausible that they decided at some point to just focus heavily on the engine and stop trying to fix the current Hrothgar/Viera issues as that would just be a bandage at best and a sizable resource drain. I think this is more likely simply because of how quiet theyve been about everything. It's not like people havent stopped complaining about the limitations so I doubt they just forgot or wrote it off as good enough. Particularly if these are the same devs that took it upon themselves to give us a handful of headgears by spending their own time doing it, despite YoshiP telling them it wasnt on the agenda.

[Lauront]

To remind people again, from a DEV standpoint, it would not make sense to keep 'fixing' something broken if you plan on completely overhauling it in the near relative future. The caveat being if its something completely game breakingly broken (like a class/skill issue).

This is what I suspect is the case. They pushed out Hrothgar and Viera on a tight schedule due to some internal back and forth issues. They then received backlash for them being sex locked - (Agree or not with it, when your audiance audibly groans during your press release, that is a real bad sign.) It is obvious to anyone that Viera and Hrothgar are only 'semi functional' from a character builder standpoint compared to all the other races. Then covid hits and causes even more problems. Along with this, you have more and more calls to revamp character creator.

You put all these factors together, the logical thing for SE to do is rebuild/heavily update the character creation engine. This would allow 3 things to happen:

1) More character customization, which is exactly what is being requested.
2) You can fix the Hrothgar/Viera limitations that exist due to the hang ups of the old engine.
3) You can implement the off sexes more effectively, as the whole process of going over every single armor and gear pieces - the primary limitation of adding new races/sexes - would be more streamlined in the back end.


So it is at least plausible that they decided at some point to just focus heavily on the engine and stop trying to fix the current Hrothgar/Viera issues as that would just be a bandage at best and a sizable resource drain. I think this is more likely simply because of how quiet theyve been about everything. It's not like people havent stopped complaining about the limitations so I doubt they just forgot or wrote it off as good enough. Particularly if these are the same devs that took it upon themselves to give us a handful of headgears by spending their own time doing it, despite YoshiP telling them it wasnt on the agenda.

Agreed on points 1-3, and I have always thought that would be the most logical approach to it. He's made murmurs in a recent interview, which make me think that, coupled with comments about how long they want the game to go on, they are now seriously looking at it as a project. Comments before SHB were more tentative, even if the intention was there.

[glitteringcosmos]

(Agree or not with it, when your audiance audibly groans during your press release, that is a real bad sign.)

I agree with this sentiment but I'm curious--did this happen at one of the keynote addresses? I can't find any video of this reaction.

[Melichoir]

I agree with this sentiment but I'm curious--did this happen at one of the keynote addresses? I can't find any video of this reaction.

IIRC when the Hrothgar was revealed, the initial crowd reaction was an audible groan with some half hearted applause. From a PR standpoint, they really shouldve inverted the reveals - Hrothgar first, and Viera second. Revealing Viera first set a soft expectation, particularly with all the leaks and what not. SE decided to let the speculation about male viera run a bit unchecked when they couldve nipped it in the bud so some people wouldnt have had their hopes dashed.

[Vahlnir]

IIRC when the Hrothgar was revealed, the initial crowd reaction was an audible groan with some half hearted applause. From a PR standpoint, they really shouldve inverted the reveals - Hrothgar first, and Viera second. Revealing Viera first set a soft expectation, particularly with all the leaks and what not. SE decided to let the speculation about male viera run a bit unchecked when they couldve nipped it in the bud so some people wouldnt have had their hopes dashed.

It was the same reaction with Dancer, really. People were happy to see it, then were very quick to voice their displeasure when they were told it was going to be a ranged dps. And that was coming from the JP audience, too, of all audiences. When you've made your core fan base audibly say "WTF?" then I think mistakes were made. lol

[Melichoir]

It was the same reaction with Dancer, really. People were happy to see it, then were very quick to voice their displeasure when they were told it was going to be a ranged dps. And that was coming from the JP audience, too, of all audiences. When you've made your core fan base audibly say "WTF?" then I think mistakes were made. lol

I dont quite remember the order in which the audience responded. Whether it was groan then ok, or ok then groan.

In any case, yeah, thats the big take away. People werent exactly thrilled. I think even YoshiP wasnt expecting that response.