New things from German interview with yoshida

[RyuDragnier]

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”

It may also be because they're trying to figure it out currently themselves. Remember, they haven't had to take a good long hard look at balancing healers since HW. For them, this may be the time they're actually learning how the healers actually currently play in content, and it may lead to an actual well balanced healer state like with the tanks.

[Iscah]

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 all the constant talk about hairstyles and hats (or gender locks for that matter) it doesn't completely define the race unless people insist on it. The character models are there and you can create a range of characters even if there aren't as many choices as for other races. Though I agree that I hope they can keep up with what they've started - given that Yoshida said they couldn't afford the resources and people just kept pushing and demanding it. (I am personally glad they're coming but I wish it didn't come with such an uneasy edge to the reasons and the consequences.)

As for hairstyles, naturally the people speaking loudest about the issue are the people who do want to regularly change their hair, but I would love to know what actual percentage of the playerbase this adds up to. How many people alter their characters and how many pick a hairstyle at the character creation stage and never touch it again?

Most of my characters still have the same hairstyle they started with. I very occasionally change it because I can, but I wouldn't miss the ability if it wasn't available.

[KizuyaKatogami]

From what I recall (meaning don't take this as gospel truth, I'm going off what I think I remember), originally they were just going to do Hrothgar but for whatever reason decided to do Viera as well, leading to the current situation.

I had heard the opposite. Hrothgar we’re going to be made first specifically because Yoshi P wanted a beast race.(I only remember this because it upset me how we got them because he advocated for it but he doesn’t even play the race he wanted so bad lmao).

[Nanchi]

I suspect that Yoshi P does not speak fluent German, so there would be a translator present.

Japanese -> translated into German -> translated (sort of) into English -> summarized (with biases intact)

Im aware. But I'm sure these people hired professional translators. I have yet to see yoship give one line answers regarding the Viera and hrothgar situation. Just don't want people to minimize what he actually said.

[linayar]

I had heard the opposite. Hrothgar we’re going to be made first specifically because Yoshi P wanted a beast race.

What do you mean you heard the opposite? You just basically repeated what RyuDragnier said.

[KizuyaKatogami]

What do you mean you heard the opposite? You just basically repeated what RyuDragnier said.

Whoops my bad i was half asleep

[SturmChurro]

For all the constant talk about hairstyles and hats (or gender locks for that matter) it doesn't completely define the race unless people insist on it. The character models are there and you can create a range of characters even if there aren't as many choices as for other races. Though I agree that I hope they can keep up with what they've started - given that Yoshida said they couldn't afford the resources and people just kept pushing and demanding it. (I am personally glad they're coming but I wish it didn't come with such an uneasy edge to the reasons and the consequences.)

As for hairstyles, naturally the people speaking loudest about the issue are the people who do want to regularly change their hair, but I would love to know what actual percentage of the playerbase this adds up to. How many people alter their characters and how many pick a hairstyle at the character creation stage and never touch it again?

Most of my characters still have the same hairstyle they started with. I very occasionally change it because I can, but I wouldn't miss the ability if it wasn't available.

Then maybe they shouldn't release hairstyles at all, and focus those development resources elsewhere? As in, nothing for any other race too, as it can't be that many players who change something as minuscule as a hair? Perhaps we could have seen better looking relic weapons or more tangible rewards like mounts. Frankly, mounts would be more useful to collect for a viera/hrothgar player - they can actually use them.

It's not the devs fault if a hrothgar player wants to change to their other hairstyle: there are fantasias available on the mogstation! Same with viera. If a viera player wants to change their look: there are fantasias available on the mogstation! There are a plethora of other player races available in FFXIV, if someone just has to change their hair. Working as intended, I'd say.

[linayar]

Then maybe they shouldn't release hairstyles at all

I don't know about that, but I do think maybe they should just apply all hairstyles to all accounts rather than having to unlock them and add new hairstyles directly to the character creator/editor. Then give a free fantasia every major patch as people who want to change more often than every major patch would still buy them.

[Iscah]

Then maybe they shouldn't release hairstyles at all, and focus those development resources elsewhere? As in, nothing for any other race too, as it can't be that many players who change something as minuscule as a hair? Perhaps we could have seen better looking relic weapons or more tangible rewards like mounts. Frankly, mounts would be more useful to collect for a viera/hrothgar player - they can actually use them.

You say that with sarcasm, but I honestly wouldn't be fussed.

And I'm pretty sure they didn't sit down and scheme to force Hrothgar to pay for Fantasias. They had a character design in mind; producing that design required repurposing the hairstyle selection for fur patterns. Presumably they thought people wouldn't mind that.

[SturmChurro]

I don't know about that, but I do think maybe they should just apply all hairstyles to all accounts rather than having to unlock them and add new hairstyles directly to the character creator/editor. Then give a free fantasia every major patch as people who want to change more often than every major patch would still buy them.

A free fantasia? Not in our dimension. That'd cut into the profits. probably.

Just like "fixing" viera hrothgar would cut into the profits. Right now, short term, they have a race that they seem to not even bother to work on. So they are now after two years having meetings on how they could balance a hairstyle release for viera along with everything else? Viera sure are very flashy when they get released during an expac. I wonder why female hrothgar was left out?

You say that with sarcasm, but I honestly wouldn't be fussed.

And I'm pretty sure they didn't sit down and scheme to force Hrothgar to pay for Fantasias. They had a character design in mind; producing that design required repurposing the hairstyle selection for fur patterns. Presumably they thought people wouldn't mind that.

Yeah, you'd think that. But did you see the first question and answer in this thread? Perhaps.. it was quite intended to release a couple limited races? "Viera unique" styles means the playerbase can get a new flashy race, and they don't ever have to fit any hairs or hats to them. One less model to work with. They'll get hairs, sure. Maybe a couple in half a decade.