New hrothgar hairstyles are really bad.

[Zhexos]

Greetings, everyone.

As there have been a lot of feedback surrounding Hrothgar and their hairstyles, we wanted to share a recent update from Yoshida during the recent patch notes reading. On the stream he discussed the specifications of Hrothgar and the difficulties regarding adding hairstyles for them.

Since we’re talking about adding Hrothgar hairstyles, I’d like to take this opportunity to once again explain the specifications of Hrothgar.

The head shape we use for Hrothgar is designed completely exclusively for the race. It’s precisely because of this fact that we’re able to create their facial appearances, and their current quality is only possible because the faces and hair are created together as a set.

Originally, I had announced at the outset that we would be unable to add more hairstyles for them. However, we continued to receive comments asking for more Hrothgar hairstyles to be added somehow. In order to address this feedback, we went with a plan where we would maintain the shape of the head and have the ears “hidden” in the hair, which would allow us to implement new hairstyles in due time.

But as we’ve seen, there have indeed been many comments questioning the lack of ears…

This is something I’m currently torn over. If we were to maintain the style we went with in this update, we would still have to adjust hairstyles to match the shape of Hrothgar heads…

But if every hairstyle update is going to be met with large communities of players saying, “That’s not what we want,” then perhaps we can reconsider. Though it would mean new hairstyles would be added far less frequently, perhaps we could somehow create hairstyles dedicated to those head shapes. But I think that would lower the number of hairstyles we can implement…

It’s difficult to address, since Hrothgar was only made possible because we drew a clear line about this point back then. Honestly speaking, it’s very difficult to create hair in-game, as you might expect. As such, I’m torn over how we should proceed.

Having said that, I understand that players are asking for us to do something about it quickly, but it’s something that will take a long time to address. To this end, I’d very much appreciate it if you could share your feedback with us on the official forums. I’ll have the Community teams compile your feedback and provide a report.

But I’d like to reiterate, the current implementation of Hrothgar heads is only possible because we’re using some very unorthodox methods. Hrothgar are the way they are because we’d like for our fans of beast-like characters to enjoy them, but I would also like to emphasize that they are made in a completely unique way compared to the other races.

We’d like to continue doing our best to address your feedback, so please continue to let us know what you think.

[Vahlnir]

Greetings, everyone.

As there have been a lot of feedback surrounding Hrothgar and their hairstyles, we wanted to share a recent update from Yoshida during the recent patch notes reading. On the stream he discussed the specifications of Hrothgar and the difficulties regarding adding hairstyles for them.

The response to this thread is most appreciated. Truly. However, our problem is largely with the contents of your posted summary. We know what he said. We just don't buy it.

[Fukuro]

The response to this thread is most appreciated. Truly. However, our problem is largely with the contents of your posted summary. We know what he said. We just don't buy it.

Vahlnir you are officially the MVP. I love your posts man!

[Soge01]

Greetings, everyone.

As there have been a lot of feedback surrounding Hrothgar and their hairstyles, we wanted to share a recent update from Yoshida during the recent patch notes reading. On the stream he discussed the specifications of Hrothgar and the difficulties regarding adding hairstyles for them.

But if every hairstyle update is going to be met with large communities of players saying, “That’s not what we want,” then perhaps we can reconsider. Though it would mean new hairstyles would be added far less frequently, perhaps we could somehow create hairstyles dedicated to those head shapes. But I think that would lower the number of hairstyles we can implement…

This would be the best way to go about it. I'd rather see Hrothgar take longer to get a new hairstyle that perfectly fits their head structure if it means the quality of the hairstyle for them is far better.

Please do not rush yourselves in implementing things like this, Yoshi-P and FFXIV team. Take the time that is neccessary to give the playerbase what they desire.

[Vahlnir]

This would be the best way to go about it. I'd rather see Hrothgar take longer to get a new hairstyle that perfectly fits their head structure if it means the quality of the hairstyle for them is far better.

Please do not rush yourselves in implementing things like this, Yoshi-P and FFXIV team. Take the time that is neccessary to give the playerbase what they desire.

They've had 3+ years. The time for patience and waiting is over. We shouldn't just sit here and take it.

[SturmChurro]

This would be the best way to go about it. I'd rather see Hrothgar take longer to get a new hairstyle that perfectly fits their head structure if it means the quality of the hairstyle for them is far better.

Please do not rush yourselves in implementing things like this, Yoshi-P and FFXIV team. Take the time that is neccessary to give the playerbase what they desire.

"Far less frequently"? I guess you all can expect the next hairs to drop in 6 years.

[Denji]

"Far less frequently"? I guess you all can expect the next hairs to drop in 6 years.

Don't make Yoshi-P turn this car around and send us back to 1.0.

[Denji]

Greetings, everyone.

*snip*

while i appreciate the transcript for those who may not have it, isn't this what we were discussing? no offense but a solid chunk of what he said has been more or less been completely disproven within hours of the game coming back up.

[Budimir]

Greetings, everyone.

As there have been a lot of feedback surrounding Hrothgar and their hairstyles, we wanted to share a recent update from Yoshida during the recent patch notes reading. On the stream he discussed the specifications of Hrothgar and the difficulties regarding adding hairstyles for them.

Thank you very much for your response. I genuinely appreciate the intent to fix the situation. Still, I must admit that it is very disheartening to know that it will take a long time to address the problem when it has already taken years to add the poorly received hairstyles we got today. Nevertheless, I am happy that the developers are aware of the issue and willing to investigate it.

While I cannot speak for everyone, one thing that I feel would have been very beneficial throughout this implementation of Hrothgar hair is more developer transparency. As I've mentioned in a previous post, the developers did not give much information besides saying that they were adding more hair options for Hrothgar. In fact, anytime Hrothgar hair was brought up (such as during live letters), it got incredibly brief mentions, with no pictures or meaningful updates on how things were going. I feel that if the developers used the live letters to show some work in progress images of the upcoming Hrothgar hairstyles or even spoke a little more in-depth about what they had planned, they could have saved time and effort. They would have found out sooner that this was not the direction a lot of players were looking for in new Hrothgar hair and changed course. It would also have likely made much of the community feel better about the situation as they would feel listened to and, as a result, would be more willing to wait for changes.

Also, to add my overall feedback on what I am looking for in more Hrothgar hair, I would rather see hairstyles that fit Hrothgar and do not remove the ears over hairstyles that remove the ears and look out of place on the Hrothgar character model. In particular, the default hairstyles launched with Hrothgar are an excellent example of well-done hairpieces that fit the race, and it would be nice to get more like them that all of the Hrothgar face options can use. It would also be nice to have the options currently tied to certain Hrothgar face choices be made universal and selectable by all Hrothgar players regardless of their starting face style.

[Minali]

Greetings, everyone.

As there have been a lot of feedback surrounding Hrothgar and their hairstyles, we wanted to share a recent update from Yoshida during the recent patch notes reading. On the stream he discussed the specifications of Hrothgar and the difficulties regarding adding hairstyles for them.

Thank you for taking the time to give us an "official" translation of everything he said. That makes it easier.

When it comes to the content however, one of the problems is that we hear, that it is extremely difficult and time consuming - but at the same time also see modders delivering something that looks very well and seems to solve the problem, in their free time. Now, I worked in QA, I know that solutions and problems seem simple from the outside might have some unknown side effects. Not to mention that mods only have to work on a single client, not for the whole game. Nevertheless it is really hard to believe that these troubles are so incredibly hard to overcome and we, as players, can only judge by what we see and hear. And what we hear (Yoshida-san's message) and what we see (the mods who make them look really well) is contradicting. Even infuriating for some players, considering that there was no progress shown or talked about since the release. Additionally we also got "clipping" as the reason why the devs decided against showing the ears - although basically every race has hairstyles, gear and minions that heavily clip into each other without raising any concerns. So it makes it really hard to believe that the reasons we are given are actually the reasons - or that it was thoroughly looked into making it possible.

I can imagine that you can't just directly contact the people who create the mods with mods themselves being technically prohibited. But if the devs really can't think of a solution, can't you simply get a laptop, install the game, and install one of the mods, and look further how they did it? How they can show ears on hairstyles, how they can get hats?

Also, I implore you to have a look at all the beautiful suggestions in this thread. There are parts of mods but also concept art from players and the like. And many people name existing hairstyles that would work well with the bestial visual style of Hrothgars:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...est-MEGATHREAD

When it cames to ears or no ears: Giving us two hairstyles instead of six prolongs the process but in my opinion as Hrothgar player it would definitely be worth it, if we can keep the ears, especially if the hairstyles involved are not the very human-like ones but a few "wilder" ones.
Also, please detach the existing original hairstyles and features from the heads, so that every Hrothgar head can use every Hrothgar hairstyle. Currently every "head" is limited to two options. These options wouldn't even have to deal with ears or no ears, the hairstyles are already made with Hrothgars in mind.