New hrothgar hairstyles are really bad.

[aveyond-dreams]

As a male Viera player I'm pretty happy with what we got despite having wanted a few other unlockable hairstyles. It beats having not having the option to play as one at all, I am ok with having received them in the state we got given that we are seeing regular (albeit minor) updates to Viera hairs each patch, it seems. That being said, what in the world is going on with Hrothgar? The situation is just strange at this point.

[Jason_Ashford]

As a male Viera player I'm pretty happy with what we got despite having wanted a few other unlockable hairstyles. It beats having not having the option to play as one at all, I am ok with having received them in the state we got given that we are seeing regular (albeit minor) updates to Viera hairs each patch, it seems. That being said, what in the world is going on with Hrothgar? The situation is just strange at this point.

the situation is the result of a mixture of shoddy workmanship and an unwillingness to fix their mistakes.

they made Hrothgar by taking the framework of the Male Roegadyn and manipulated it until they had the Hrothgar. This is the underlying cause of most of the limitations faced by the race because they have to force any changes to the framework to adhere to the new shape, and some things, like hairstyles, just don't want to fit because they were made for a human body, and the decidedly inhuman appearance of the Hrothgar causes a lot of problems. Most of the human hairstyles simply aren't going to work well with the framework of the Hrothgar and they should have spent their time adding maybe 1-2 unique Hrothgar hairstyles and working on detaching what 8 hairstyles we currently have from the faces and giving us free access to those via the Aesthetician .

There are a handful of hairstyles like the Windcaller, or Pulse hairstyles that fit, but the majority are rather awkward and don't sit very well on the head.

[Midareyukki]

As a male Viera player I'm pretty happy with what we got despite having wanted a few other unlockable hairstyles. It beats having not having the option to play as one at all, I am ok with having received them in the state we got given that we are seeing regular (albeit minor) updates to Viera hairs each patch, it seems. That being said, what in the world is going on with Hrothgar? The situation is just strange at this point.

Well, I stand corrected. And it's good that you have been getting updates because I'd personally rather see you have the choice to play Male Viera as complete as possible. But no word's been given on Hrothgars since that one time devs worked behind Yoshida's back before Shadowbringers until now. And this is what we end up getting.

they made Hrothgar by taking the framework of the Male Roegadyn and manipulated it until they had the Hrothgar. This is the underlying cause of most of the limitations faced by the race because they have to force any changes to the framework to adhere to the new shape, and some things, like hairstyles, just don't want to fit because they were made for a human body, and the decidedly inhuman appearance of the Hrothgar causes a lot of problems. Most of the human hairstyles simply aren't going to work well with the framework of the Hrothgar and they should have spent their time adding maybe 1-2 unique Hrothgar hairstyles and working on detaching what 8 hairstyles we currently have from the faces and giving us free access to those via the Aesthetician .

Basically this. Because not only are our new options bad save for Pulse, we also can't change hairs without paying for a Fantasia. And nothing's been said about this bit, though I do hope that come 6.1 that'll be done away with to accomodate the new ""hairstyles"".

[Jason_Ashford]

Well, I stand corrected. And it's good that you have been getting updates because I'd personally rather see you have the choice to play Male Viera as complete as possible. But no word's been given on Hrothgars since that one time devs worked behind Yoshida's back before Shadowbringers until now. And this is what we end up getting.



Basically this. Because not only are our new options bad save for Pulse, we also can't change hairs without paying for a Fantasia. And nothing's been said about this bit, though I do hope that come 6.1 that'll be done away with to accomodate the new ""hairstyles"".

the fact they failed to mention it at all leads me to believe they still didn't fix it. i mean they essentially copy/pasted these hairstyles from the Roegadyn frame onto Hrothgar. You can even see that the hair fits really awkwardly because the head shape of a Hrothgar is so different from a Roegadyn. Im going into this fully expecting them to have not fixed anything. Hell i wouldn't be surprised if we lost total access to the 8 Hairstyles attached to the 4 faces if we use the Aesthetician to change our hair, and have to fork over a Fantasia to get it back.

Or worse, they remove the ears from the 8 hairstyles we already have and we're stuck looking like earless freaks

[Gullis]

Or worse, they remove the ears from the 8 hairstyles we already have and we're stuck looking like earless freaks

oh god.....they wouldn't that now....would they?

[Jason_Ashford]

oh god.....they wouldn't that now....would they?

given their excuse about how "this is how it has to be because something, something, limitations." i wouldn't rule it out

[Raskbuck]

I think what worries me the most about how they have implemented Hrothgar (and arguably Viera), is how much it pales and lacks when compared to some of FFXIV's biggest competitors: WoW, ESO and GW2. I made each example a clickable link, in order to avoid crowding the thread with pictures.

World of Warcraft has several playable beast races that can display hats without making up any excuses. (Exhibit A; Exhibit B)

Elder Scrolls Online can also display hats for their Argonians and Khajiits, as well as offering unique race-specific hairstyles and headgear. (Exhibit C)

Guild Wars 2 also has unique customization options for their playable beast race. These are some of the Charr-specific hairstyles unique to them. I picked the ones that are bordering on the goofy side, but display how unique they can get. (Exhibit D; Exhibit E; Exhibit F). Not only that, but they can also wear hats and have cape physics. (Exhibit G)

I find it a bit concerning, and irritating, that SE has claimed no expenses will be spared when it comes to FFXIV. Is this the kind of quality we should expect from them moving forward?

I understand there are a myriad of reasons why these things cannot be fixed overnight, but the fact that it took them 3 years to come up with this solution is very disappointing, to say the least.

Yoshida was right when he said people are very attached to their WoLs when introducing the Adventurer Plates. I'm personally awfully attached to my characters, and I want to see them at their best. Seeing Hrothgar get treated like a fourth-class citizen is just frustrating to see.

As a side note, all the pictures used for my examples are of my characters in those games. I apologize for the lack of variety in them.

[Rathmir]

Guild Wars 2 also has unique customization options for their playable beast race. These are some of the Charr-specific hairstyles unique to them. I picked the ones that are bordering on the goofy side, but display how unique they can get. (Exhibit D; Exhibit E; Exhibit F). Not only that, but they can also wear hats and have cape physics. (Exhibit G)

GW2 is a good example how much variety you get even with limiting yourself to a few faces, hair styles and extras. It's almost impossible to create the same Charr, except on purpose. And that with a semi-antique character creation. Maybe the options of overall fur patterns (*hint hint nudge*) also give a huge impact, but the statement keeps valid.
Link: Few examples

For the helmets, it's a wild mix of clip through, cut everything off, and even 100 and 10 % uniquely modelled.
Here it gets complicated with what option both sides would be fine with. Option 1 and 2 are for quicker results, while option 3 eats up development time. By guess, Sqex would most likely provide option 2, as the few full helmets that can be worn actually remove everything and turn us into hunched Roes, and even cut and/or deform the snouts.

So maybe that wish is one of the several times mentioned "monkey paw" issues lurking around here.

Link GW2 helmets: And the helmets
Link 14 comparison: More helmet stuff (Look for that at MB to self check in preview)

I understand there are a myriad of reasons why these things cannot be fixed overnight, but the fact that it took them 3 years to come up with this solution is very disappointing, to say the least.

To be fair, rewriting a whole or just a small part of an integral system isn't the smallest task to set upon someone. It even took Blizzard a while, not only to revamp old meshes, but also to turn those new ones into separate customizable parts. Don't really want to know how long at all, but the results are more than fine for that game.

Still no excuse why Sqex went such an... "extravagant" way with the Hroth, causing so many troubles after all. And that's only mostly the hairs, and not whole body... somehow... maybe.