New things from German interview with yoshida

[SturmChurro]

That's actually really too bad. I would rather have had mixed race(s), like Hilda (Elezen/Hyur) - which would probably have no limitations.. than viera in this state. That sort of mixed race would not only be popular, but I also doubt they'd be limited. They'd get hairs and hats just like everyone else, plus look cool. A proper elf race. What could have been..

It was common enough feedback over the years, too - but for whatever reason the development team decided to add not one but two new playable races at the same. Not only did they do as much, they ended up having to add the missing genders in addition because naturally when people only get half of something, a lot of them want the full thing.

The situation would probably bother me less if it weren't for the fact that at least two rival MMO's have completely revamped their character customisation fairly recently and there's a couple of upcoming MMO's on the horizon that allow me to design a character more to my personal taste.

They add viera/hrothgar, then it feels like they completely forget about them. No updates, limited. Then they add in male viera - who will be just as limited, and then they are going to add another beast race gender - that probably won't be able to change their single hair without fantasia. While I like viera, I really question if it was actually worth the resources spent and will ultimately be spent on maintaining this race.

For example: Now instead of just creating hairs that everyone can use, they are making hairs that everyone else can use. On top of that - eventually - hairs that only viera can use, then, supposedly, new heads that male hroth can use (have to fantasia) as a substitute for hairs, then, again, heads that only female hroth can use!

[Lanadra]

The situation would probably bother me less if it weren't for the fact that at least two rival MMO's have completely revamped their character customisation fairly recently and there's a couple of upcoming MMO's on the horizon that allow me to design a character more to my personal taste.

Out of curiosity, which two MMO's would those be? I may very well have to go take a looksie if it's one I've played in the past.

That's actually really too bad. I would rather have had mixed race(s), like Hilda (Elezen/Hyur) - which would probably have no limitations.. than viera in this state. That sort of mixed race would not only be popular, but I also doubt they'd be limited. They'd get hairs and hats just like everyone else, plus look cool. A proper elf race. What could have been..

That's the real pain for me as someone who would normally play an elf in any MMO that has them on offer. I'd love to have something like Hilda. Clearly elvish yet a lot less jarring than the Elezen and their strange, off putting (to me) proportions.

[Theodric]

Out of curiosity, which two MMO's would those be? I may very well have to go take a looksie if it's one I've played in the past.

World of Warcraft and Phantasy Star Online 2. The former already updated its character models once before in the past, though opted to do so again more recently and to a more significant degree. PS02, meanwhile, completed overhauled its graphics across the board in a manner similar to the 1.0 to 2.0 transition.

Now, I have no intention of playing either as they're not to my tastes - but I still keep track of what options exist on the market and it bothers me quite a bit that FFXIV is beginning to lag behind on such fronts.

[SturmChurro]

That's the real pain for me as someone who would normally play an elf in any MMO that has them on offer. I'd love to have something like Hilda. Clearly elvish yet a lot less jarring than the Elezen and their strange, off putting (to me) proportions.

I typically play elves as well. That and humans. I've actually always preferred midlander in this game, but I don't like their run animation. A custom player elezen/hyur really would have been nice.. I assume they'd have been way easier to implement and maintain than viera.

As an aside, hrothgar would have probably still been added regardless, as they fill that 'beast race' niche, but perhaps if it would have been a mixed race instead of viera, more resources would have been freed to do them justice. Yes, I admit to being biased. I would have also always preferred to have an elezen/hyur Hilda race. Probably even over a more properly done viera. Pretty sure I've stated so before as well.

[Sathona]

Thank god. I have been worried they would change the core fundamental systems of this game to fit people that was to roll alts for the sake of a different look or whatever. Glad they are not wavering from this.

Honestly i cant even be mad at that answer, its not even greedy, and ure right, fundamentally the game is anti-alt friendly, people forget FFXIV is still a bussiness but /shrug
sometimes i wonder if people are mad because they really are mad or because they FEEL like they should be

[Eldevern]

The real reason is probably both the engine and the standard meshes are still the ones from the 1.0 with better shades. They probably think the extra work that compatibility needs doesn't worth it unless they update both the meshes and the engine. If they plan to make the game runs ten years more (at least) as some other editors, they will do an update, but most likely not before the 7.0 or 8.0... Unless they plan a new generation MMO to replace both FFXI and FFXIV and to make it cross platform.

...

The short reply is : in order to avoid too much clipping and make the game runs faster, you delete as many subsurfaces as you can. The more your bones and meshes are standardized, the less works it requires to update hairs, weapons and other gears.

If a new character is not compatible with the standard, you need to make specific mesh. They added new races only because many players asked them.

That's why you have many MMOs with job lock, gender lock, race lock.

[Missbone]

These answer are not surprising because its all about money. It wouldnt be hard to make purchases account wide or implement an option that you can skip msq on a new char for example. But that would make them lose a lot of profit, for buisness its better if people just suck it up and buy stuff 2, 3 or more times, also if new chars could skip through everything that could maybe affect dungeon ques for new players and of course they dont want to change the fantasia addiction its a big money generator for them, i know people who buy fantasia 3-4 times each weak and look complete different each time.

At the end of the day Yoshi and Square are just another business company that want you to spent as much money as possible on them and not your friends.

[Wind-Krysvein]

Q: You announced that Male Viera will be added in 6.0. A lot of players are still waiting for additional hairstyles or the option to wear hats on Viera or Hrothgar, are these being worked on and potentially introduced with the addition of Male Viera?
Short A: Not yet
Long A: First off, the reason why Viera and Hrothgar can't wear hats right now is the following. We have very standardized specifications when it comes to head gear and the unique design with the long ears on Viera doesn't always meet these specifications. If we allowed every head gear piece, it would lead to clipping or other errors. The unique design of Viera and Hrothgar just prevents us from allowing these pieces, if we want to follow our specifications
Nevertheless, we are aware of player feedback and we are definitely not the kind of dev team that ignores their players feedback.
There were a few things we said would be impossible to do, but we worked hard on it and made it possible in the end... I hope to have some good news soon.

Is it just the translation, or did he just completely politiciandodge the hairstyle issue by focusing entirely on the hat thing?

I don't mean to sound ungrateful, because the fact that they're addressing these issues at all is good, but it sure would be nice if we got dev responses for both questions asked.

[Mahamon]

I’m hoping for them to give more info on sage. Seems like they just devoted a lot of time to explaining Reaper and all we got for sage was “augments self attacks and shields”

Us, healer, is a third-class citizen. We don't even get our special mount like a tank. ¯\(°_o)/¯
There's no new healer for 2 expansions straight. And now that it's coming they don't even get mentioned.
This feels almost like being a middle child. You only exist when you fail. XD

[GeminiReed]

Mostly, this an interview given in Japanese, translated to German, then translated again into English by Reddit.

There really is no guarantee that the subtext you find "ignorant" is a fair translation of Yoshi's words. After all, do you really ever expect Yoshi to say "Short answer: No?" In fact, if you run the article through google translate, it doesn't even say that, This is more like Reddit inserting shit.

What he says, according to google translate is:



Completely different to what Reddit said.

What I said was: "breathtakingly greedy (or ignorant)". The parenthetical was me being charitable. While Google Translate's version is phrased much less aggressively it skews far more towards "greedy".

These answer are not surprising because its all about money. ... But that would make them lose a lot of profit, for buisness its better if people just suck it up and buy stuff 2, 3 or more times, ...

Businesses would love to squeeze as much revenue from customers as possible but amazingly customers aren't so agreeable. Consumers have this very bad habit of taking their money elsewhere when the value you provide isn't worth the payment you demand. The even have the temerity to give their money to your competitors when they feel they get a better deal or even feel that you've disrespected them.

tl;dr: Remedial Business Basics says: Sacrificing long term customer relations for short term profits is a fantastic way to not have long term customers.