At the VERY least, viera should be able to use mogstation hairstyles

[Evergrey]

Editing as I continue to look, but found a clip where Zepla shows a clip from the post-launch Q&A where it is stated again that there will be race specific styles added.

https://youtu.be/hr6Fzn4jlUk?t=67

The translation on the Letter from the Producer LIVE on the forum has a slightly different answer.

Q: I used fantasia to change to Viera and I'm enjoying it. As they're a special race and it may not be possible, but feel like the number of hairstyles available for Viera and Hrothgar is quite limited. Do you have plans to add more in the future?
A: We certainly plan on adding more, so please wait for future patches. However, it will still be race-specific, so there won’t be as many selections when compared to other races.

There they specifically say that there won't be as many selections when compared to other races.
So the lack of choices do feel more in line then.
They did however translate that they are certainly planning on adding more for future patches.
But none can say when those future patches is. Could've been months later or years.
But if I'm not mistaken I think they were gonna add more for Viera and Hrothgar in 6.1 or something?

[LisSquid]

The reason I picked that quote up, that gave the same answer as you quoted in your post, by the way, is that they have flipflopped entirely on their original plan.

Announcement: No hats, no modern aesthetics. Race specific hair and customization for these limitations.

Before SHB launch: Some headwear, but no modern aesthetics. We will be creating race specific hair in the future.

EW Launch: 6 modern aesthetics.

There's been no communication, no clarity of intent, so I am wary to take them at their word on the subject entirely. I will keep reminding people of what they have promised in the past, however.

[Iscah]

I am and it's been hell trying to track down the clip of where they talked about Viera, Hrothgar, their limitations and goals with the races. I remember it very well being hit hard with the "There will be no hats or modern aesthetics", but then they swung back with the promise of more customization options to compensate.

From memory it was Fan Fest, probably immediately afternoon the reveal of Hrothgar.

And as I recall it, they never said "more" customisation, just unique customisation – which is true, particularly in the case of Hrothgar where the choice of hairstyle was replaced with fur pattern. (And arguably still getting some degree of hairstyle choice on top of that, limited though it is.) And Viera ears seem to be built quite differently to Miqo'te where they're all the one shape and the fur is part of the hairstyle.

Q: I used fantasia to change to Viera and I'm enjoying it. As they're a special race and it may not be possible, but feel like the number of hairstyles available for Viera and Hrothgar is quite limited. Do you have plans to add more in the future?
A: We certainly plan on adding more, so please wait for future patches. However, it will still be race-specific, so there won’t be as many selections when compared to other races.

I have to wonder in hindsight if "race-specific" is lost in translation somewhat – or perhaps lost in the original statement too. If they have to build race-specific reworks of the existing styles to allow Viera to use them, as suggested by the fact that they've released a small few unlockable styles for Viera now, then those could potentially still be described as race-specific in terms of having to be constructed specially for that race despite the designs themselves are not unique for Viera.

[reivaxe]

But it's weird... The advertised appeal of Viera and Hroth before they were released wasn't the actual amount of customization options making up for the lack of hats?

Or I'm remembering things completely wrong and this wasn't mentioned...

No?

They were advertised on "HEY! This is what you asked for! (Viera) HEY! Here's a cool beastmen race for da boys!".

Once interviewers started asking about wtf was going on with their heads, that's when we found out that they're limited races ... way before ShB came out.

Editing as I continue to look, but found a clip where Zepla shows a clip from the post-launch Q&A where it is stated again that there will be race specific styles added.

https://youtu.be/hr6Fzn4jlUk?t=67

Edit 2:

She also continues to the explanation about why they decided on no hats. They wanted to go "all out" with the customization on these races, but it seems these statements were made before the team, presumably, hit against spaghetti code and gave Viera and Hrothgar standard customization options. IE: special feature style (ears/tails) and length. Not anything special or unique or "all out". Also all these limitations were about face parts, and not sure how that looks internally.

This is what I'm talking about when I say it seems people don't get what he's talking about, so he's being more blunt now.

First off, yeah, he did say that Viera would get "only unique hair" for much of ShB news. But before that, he said at first that Viera would get shared hair that worked for them (Would never have the vast selection that other races have, but they would get hair that worked for them) and that HROTHGAR would get unique hair and new faces. Fast-forward to Dec 2021, and it seems like they decided to go the shared hair route ... this could be because they decided to add MV and FH around 6 months after ShB came out, and it would be even more work making new unique HQ hairstyles for both sexes so "Fk it, lets just make it so that they can use reg hair. It's what people keep asking for anyway". And yes, people have been asking for shared hair throughout all of ShB.

As for going "all out" ... this is it.

The logical way to make a fully functional Bunny Girl race in this game would be to take the Miqote hair, scale up the ears (zero customization in the ears. So no 4 types of ears and no changing how long they are) and give them 4 "bunny tails" to pick from because there needs to be SOME kinda customization of their racial features and ... there ya have it. That's not what Viera are in the games. So them making them look like Viera and giving them customization with the ears is them throwing everything away to make traditional "Viera" a Player race. Seems small but it's not.

Hrothgar, they went "all out" by making each Hrothgar head a whole different breed of Cat/ Cat like thing. Each head has its own unique shape and they get the stupid fur patterns and manly fur patches to lean into the furry cat theme. This came at the cost of hair, as they made each head too different to easily use/ port over the same hair around.

Many of us took this to mean "MORE customization" when it really just meant different/ uniquely limited.

[LisSquid]

I have to wonder in hindsight if "race-specific" is lost in translation somewhat – or perhaps lost in the original statement too.

I still believe in plans changing, resources being choked, and the general covid situation. The topic of race specific hair hasn't been brought up in a long time, and it seems like it's a project they have abandoned without a word, but that's just sort of the course with V/H. Silence until something happens.

This is what I'm talking about when I say it seems people don't get what he's talking about, so he's being more blunt now.

First off, yeah, he did say that Viera would get "only unique hair" for much of ShB news. But before that, he said at first that Viera would get shared hair that worked for them (Would never have the vast selection that other races have, but they would get hair that worked for them) and that HROTHGAR would get unique hair and new faces. Fast-forward to Dec 2021, and it seems like they decided to go the shared hair route ... this could be because they decided to add MV and FH around 6 months after ShB came out, and it would be even more work making new unique HQ hairstyles for both sexes so "Fk it, lets just make it so that they can use reg hair. It's what people keep asking for anyway". And yes, people have been asking for shared hair throughout all of ShB.

I'm glad we're on the same page with them moving directions with these races from announcement to announcement.

Many of us took this to mean "MORE customization" when it really just meant different/ uniquely limited.

By "more customization", it was expected more control over options, not anything crazy like adding tails or making Viera anything other than Viera. Like how you can't actually have a Viera diadem without choosing one specific hairstyle, or control ear spots (like how the Viera in XII have points without "highlights" in their hair). Hell, even a selection of tattoos uncoupled from face type would have made me go, "Wow, that is different and an extra!"

We both often bicker about semantics, but gender locked? Yes, at launch. Hatless? Understandable given the head shapes. None of these things scream Limited Race, but given in the bin of all else that we just don't have? Well, I'd really like to see an official statement on SE's intent being to make limited races when all likelihood points to development being pushed way back due to... all that going on and a bag of chips.

[reivaxe]

I'm glad we're on the same page with them moving directions with these races from announcement to announcement.

I kinda like Iscah's idea that it's a mix up in translation and what they mean on the tech side doesn't line up with what we think, but who knows.

Furthermore, I will say that this game is an MMO ... it's pretty much a "living game", subject to changes. I think it would be strange for the devs to ignore the 2 years of crying about not getting shared hair, regardless of what they planned to do or how many SAY they would be OK with more racial hair. Looking at Viera/ Hrothgar reception should teach them to go with common sense over hoping for understanding when it comes to the player base. Common sense = Viera players will keep whining about not getting shared hair for as long as you add shared hair to other races, regardless of if you give them new race hairs. Also, common sense = if you make too many Viera race hairs people who don't play Viera will whine about them getting tons of HQ hair (most shared hair looked pretty shat before Form-n-Function came out).
Best solution? Make w/e changes you have to to allow them to use shared hair. Ultimately, less work and it pleases more people.

By "more customization", it was expected more control over options, not anything crazy like adding tails or making Viera anything other than Viera. Like how you can't actually have a Viera diadem without choosing one specific hairstyle, or control ear spots (like how the Viera in XII have points without "highlights" in their hair). Hell, even a selection of tattoos uncoupled from face type would have made me go, "Wow, that is different and an extra!"

We both often bicker about semantics, but gender locked? Yes, at launch. Hatless? Understandable given the head shapes. None of these things scream Limited Race, but given in the bin of all else that we just don't have? Well, I'd really like to see an official statement on SE's intent being to make limited races when all likelihood points to development being pushed way back due to... all that going on and a bag of chips.

I don't think they said "More" anything, just "unique". Viera changing their giant animal ears is like Au Ra or Miqote changing their ears/ horns. It's unique, comes with a massive cost though.

They've been clear about the head limits since before ShB came out, people just didn't accept it ... partly because it's never been done before.

"Since Hrothgar have hairstyles tied to their character creation options rather than being separately selectable, you will not be able to apply unlockable hairstyles, but they might implement more face types after 5.0. As for Viera, there's some legacy haristyles they'll able to eventually implement, but not all of them. Some of unlockable hairstyles should be supported, others may not be."

That was a Fan translated summary of a e3 2019 interview. They may have thought about changing that at some point, but clearly it's how Viera is being treated now that they have shared hair. Hrothgar? They seem to be doing something different with them now, and we'll see wut that is in late Feb.

[LisSquid]

You know, both of you may very well be right about the translation error. A lot of this (and so much back and forth in these threads) could be cut down with more communication on the subject; at least clarification of it. As I have come to accept now, nothing is true until it comes out.

That was a Fan translated summary of a e3 2019 interview. They may have thought about changing that at some point, but clearly it's how Viera is being treated now that they have shared hair. Hrothgar? They seem to be doing something different with them now, and we'll see wut that is in late Feb.

And we await with baited breath. Honestly hoping it's at least an unlock on their barber to just let Hrothgar swap faces for 2kg. Seems like the easiest solution.

[Evergrey]

And we await with baited breath. Honestly hoping it's at least an unlock on their barber to just let Hrothgar swap faces for 2kg. Seems like the easiest solution.

That would probably be the easiest solution.
But it just wouldn't work when people already ask for said option but for all races.
So if 1 race suddenly would be able to there would be an outrage that every race can't.

[Averax]

I remain hopeful that they'll add more of the previous ones as time goes by. They made a point of saying that it would be easier for them to add hairstyles to male viera because of the improved technology used in making them.

[Iscah]

That would probably be the easiest solution.
But it just wouldn't work when people already ask for said option but for all races.
So if 1 race suddenly would be able to there would be an outrage that every race can't.

Really, I think allowing just faces to be switched for all races – the actual choice of face, not any of the individual elements of the face – wouldn't eat into Fantasia sales that much. How many people are going to want to change the character's overall face (without control over the details) rather than either adjusting the details of the face they have or switching to a different race entirely?