New hrothgar hairstyles are really bad.

[Anana2]

This is seriously a knife in the side, and I genuinely feel awful for the fluffy folk for this crap. It feels like a close friend of mine just got horrible news, head in their hands and grieving while all I can really do is pat their shoulder.

Every time I run a dungeon that has hrothguys in it, they're nicely glammed and look badass. The amount of 'meme-ing' they get stuck with is plain dumb compared to how many frog/rabbit/elephant mascot head lalafell or naked leather daddy roes or the weird looking combinations I see viera/miqo'te make with 2b stockings I see PLENTY more of.

And the whole 'pretend the ears are under the hair' is plain stupid. Try that with miqo'te or viera and they'll raise enough hell to bring the fifth coming of Bahamut down on Squeenix. Hrothguys accept their word that they're 'working on it, be patient please' and be patient for years, only to be chuckled at while showcased in hairstyles that make them look.. well.. awful. That's what they wanna do to their 'fierce bestial race' that they wanted in the game?

Ya'll really deserve better.

[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.

[Zomkei]

aaaaa, stop reminding me about how screwed au ra got...

[Lystik]

I'm normally not one to post on the forums when I'm upset, but this one really hit different.

I really appreciate how much care and passion the FFXIV team put into their work. When I hear that a feature or change I am excited about will take a lot of work, I feel reassured that the team is going to put their best effort into their work. This is probably the first time that level of trust has felt betrayed. We've been receiving reassurances of new customization options for 3 years now, and I was content to wait patiently. Coding takes time, and the unique way hrothgar are implemented was sure to be difficult to get around.

But this does not feel like feel like 3 years of effort. This feels like 3 years of sitting on someone's "to-do" list, and when the clock finally ran out they asked for an extension for 6.1. Even then, they went through the motions on a project they weren't passionate about, just to check it off and clock out at the end of the day.

Does nobody on the FFXIV team play hrothgar? If these issues were to arise with Mi'qo or Au'ra unique head styles, I'm sure there would be passion from within the team to make sure it was done right. Heck, there was probably more careful consideration in their initial coding so that these problems never arose.

I know my comments are a drop in the bucket of the feedback they're getting over this, but if anyone from the team reads this I just want one thing: Find some passion for Horthgars on the FFXIV team, please. Maybe ask people to switch to hroth for a few days to try it out, so they can feel our problems first hand. Maybe solicit community members that have done so so so much work. However you do it, just find the passion for this race somewhere. The team's passion for the universe gushes from almost every other corner of the game, don't let this exist as some weird blemish.

[Punslinger]

But this does not feel like feel like 3 years of effort. This feels like 3 years of sitting on someone's "to-do" list, and when the clock finally ran out they asked for an extension for 6.1. Even then, they went through the motions on a project they weren't passionate about, just to check it off and clock out at the end of the day.

Does nobody on the FFXIV team play hrothgar? If these issues were to arise with Mi'qo or Au'ra unique head styles, I'm sure there would be passion from within the team to make sure it was done right.

Healer mains: "First time?"

Between the absolute joke of Square's Hrothgar update for 6.1, and YoshiderP admitting he kicked the healer out of his playtesting group for being "too good," I think we have a clear picture of how the dev team operates: if nobody on the dev team personally cares about an issue, it doesn't exist.

At most, they'll occasionally listen to feedback from the JP players only, and pretend that NA and EU don't exist (despite making up a majority of the playerbase).

[RyuDragnier]

Between the absolute joke of Square's Hrothgar update for 6.1, and YoshiderP admitting he kicked the healer out of his playtesting group for being "too good," I think we have a clear picture of how the dev team operates: if nobody on the dev team personally cares about an issue, it doesn't exist.

The healer thing though makes sense, you have to balance around lower skilled players for normal dungeon content, not the top skilled. His healer was essentially Savage raider level, but he needed a Duty Finder "questionable healer" level.

[KizuyaKatogami]

The healer thing though makes sense, you have to balance around lower skilled players for normal dungeon content, not the top skilled. His healer was essentially Savage raider level, but he needed a Duty Finder "questionable healer" level.

But it’s okay for him, an orange parsing black mage to be a part of the testing team? Makes sense makes sense, just your typical double standard of healers vs dps. Either way though, it just shows SE is slowly getting lazier and lazier. 3 years and hrothgar players get this. 6+ years and healer players are still getting nothing. The fame got to their head it seems.

[SacraAnima]

and then there is me, a Hrothgar Healer main

[Eraden]

Is it possible that those new hairstyles were actually an April Fool's joke? I mean, they are so horribly bad that they couldn't possibly be real, right? RIGHT?

[Gullis]

Is it possible that those new hairstyles were actually an April Fool's joke? I mean, they are so horribly bad that they couldn't possibly be real, right? RIGHT?

I mean, that was most peopls first reaction hehehe

I feel they would have said so, if it were, but at the same time, there should be no way they would look at that and be like "yeah they will love this!" riiight? this whole situation is so wierd honestly. I just can't grasp how they thought this was fine.