VIERA AND HROTHGAR COMPLAINT MEGATHREAD

[LathyrusLoon]

Tbh I'm a little worried that they seem to rather not make head items at all than making something Hroths and Viera can wear.... though I may just be reading too much into it.

the latest mog station outfit has a hat. but they were fine with not letting Hrothgar or Viera wearing the hat. even at such a high price point. They clearly do not give a fuck about making something hroths/viera can wear.

[Caro178]

the latest mog station outfit has a hat. but they were fine with not letting Hrothgar or Viera wearing the hat. even at such a high price point. They clearly do not give a fuck about making something hroths/viera can wear.

Realistically speaking if there is ever an update for headgear compatibility it's going to come as part of a massive overhaul rather than something implemented on a hat-by-hat basis. I do expect we'll see some big changes one day (7.0?), but they've lost plenty of fan favour over the years and it's frankly going to be impossible to win it all back at this point. It's clearly an ongoing process and it's perfectly justifiable to be upset about the current state of things.

[VerdeLuck]

Realistically speaking if there is ever an update for headgear compatibility it's going to come as part of a massive overhaul rather than something implemented on a hat-by-hat basis. I do expect we'll see some big changes one day (7.0?), but they've lost plenty of fan favour over the years and it's frankly going to be impossible to win it all back at this point. It's clearly an ongoing process and it's perfectly justifiable to be upset about the current state of things.

I don't have much faith in the 7.0 update, SE's MO recently has been to release something, get backlash on it, claim they didn't know there was such support for x feature, say they'll do better next time, then repeat it over again. Chances are they're going to just update all the ARR-Stormblood races and areas, and leave Viera and Hroths untouched. In a Live Letter, Yoshi-p will say "We're shocked to hear that Viera players are disappointed in the graphics update not updating their models or headgear, we can try to do something after 8.0" and it'll push the issue back another 2 years. They already said they would make new gear compatible going forward from Endwalker, but now it's shifted to being after the 7.0 graphical rework.

[Caro178]

I don't have much faith in the 7.0 update, SE's MO recently has been to release something, get backlash on it, claim they didn't know there was such support for x feature, say they'll do better next time, then repeat it over again. Chances are they're going to just update all the ARR-Stormblood races and areas, and leave Viera and Hroths untouched. In a Live Letter, Yoshi-p will say "We're shocked to hear that Viera players are disappointed in the graphics update not updating their models or headgear, we can try to do something after 8.0" and it'll push the issue back another 2 years. They already said they would make new gear compatible going forward from Endwalker, but now it's shifted to being after the 7.0 graphical rework.

I dunno, I've watched this game change so much since I started that I have no reason to live in the land of "they'll never fix anything and everything is terrible". My observation is that they are trying, it's just not possible to please everybody. They never made any such massive promises and never gave any particular time when things would be implemented outside of hairstyle updates which have been plentiful since Endwalker launched.

There is absolutely zero picture evidence that Elezen and Au'ra are part of the texture update either, and yet nobody doubts that they will be. Wait and see on that one. I know it's easy to be cynical and expect nothing, but we really don't know what will happen yet.

[Midareyukki]

I dunno, I've watched this game change so much since I started that I have no reason to live in the land of "they'll never fix anything and everything is terrible". My observation is that they are trying, it's just not possible to please everybody. They never made any such massive promises and never gave any particular time when things would be implemented outside of hairstyle updates which have been plentiful since Endwalker launched.

There is absolutely zero picture evidence that Elezen and Au'ra are part of the texture update either, and yet nobody doubts that they will be. Wait and see on that one. I know it's easy to be cynical and expect nothing, but we really don't know what will happen yet.

Well, they did say they'd do the base races first, so Elezen are for sure there. But Au Ra likely won't be. Things can change.

And the issue isn't that the game's changed. Honestly, that's quite disingenuous because quite often you sound like just because stuff worked out fine before, they'll work out fine since... which isn't the case and it definitely hasn't been for these races. Especially not lately, as Square Enix's fuck-up count has been saturated in the past year. However, the same can be said toward me saying this because it might just mean bias and you accuse me of being a negative nancy. So in the end, no one wins there...

Ultimately the reason people are so dour toward future implementations has been less "because the game has changed" and more because of the way things have been dealt with recently. Square Enix's responses have been super tone deaf and haven't painted them in a good light. Whatever goodwill they have established prior, it needs to be maintained. It's fine for it to fluctuate, it's normal and they're not machines, but to have it drop this low with such low-effort responses is bad.

The game has indeed changed. Some aspects for the better, others for the worse. Some because the devs were listening (Diadem being repurposed, Eureka being changed in every iteration, raid design shifting since Gordias...) and some because the devs were trying something in their own right (Blue Mage being the most striking for me, a piece of content that was and still is divisive).
But that's a given on the sheer aspect of it being an online game with prospects for the future. If it didn't change at all, it'd either be abandoned after a while or it would just be a solo experience. I don't really commend "it changed" on that virtue, but I do at least commend Square Enix for working on stuff fans asked for. Stuff WE KNOW they said they didn't have any plans whatsoever for, such as Reaper... or as I mentioned before, Male Viera (at least not so soon).

The issue comes with this one project. Disregarding all their recent failings, from Endwalker's release to the Housing Fiasco of 2022, Viera and Hrothgar are for sure a hotly debated topic. Missing features, shoddy writing and lore, patchy implementation of game assets, delayed releases, lack of fixes, poor choices and really bad responses to fan outcry. And all that I can just catch under the umbrella of "poor decisions", which I'll get to soon.

That is why people are so negative about this topic. Because it's been over 3 years now. The only implementation until early this year had been done behind their backs, a decision that people have started to question over whether it was a publicity stunt to garner goodwill in what was a hot decision. No fixes since then. Then, Male Viera are implemented with no fixes being applied, so they get to suffer as much as Female Viera do. And then, after so long of updates FOR Viera, the one update Hrothgars have that gave them more stuff not only was questionable, it also removed their ears. And they stoked the fires by giving the response "We weren't expecting this reaction, but it's hard".
It may be more tricky than other races. But it isn't hard whatsoever. And a quick analysis of the way these races are laid out in comparison to other races shows it was done on purpose to be hard.

Now, regardless of potential fixes or getting mad at Square Enix, the sentiment overall is simple. Square needs to work better on its priorities and work on that good will. Because, to me, that's the issue. Their priorities suck, and they keep making weird choices that look like they're procrastinating. None of it was done, Hrothgars are rarely ever mentioned by Yoshida if at all unless it specifically concerns them, and when the topic concerns Vieras also, the attention is poured primarily on Viera. So communication is at an all-time low, prospects for the future are concerning. And the bare minimum, restoring Hrothgar ears, was done to appease Hrothgar players... but it was still a shit job and they have a weird texture mesh around the ears.

Yes, the game changed. But lately we've been seeing changes being done on a monkey's paw. And that's not good to foster a positive outlook. So, naturally, you see people feel this way regardless of all the prior good the devs have done for the game. We could cut them some slack... but dude, why would we when they themselves don't do the bare minimum effort of keeping communication healthy? Other topics have had better responses than we have! Freaking Black Mage needed a justification on the Official Posts as to why it was being buffed in PvP, all while Hrothgars were still missing ears!

It's not on us to feel positive. The devs need to give us a good reason for it. And one thing is to look at the whole game and see growth... another is seeing our own corner where it's barren and the devs constantly ignoring it.

[Pip_Chick]

It's not on us to feel positive. The devs need to give us a good reason for it. And one thing is to look at the whole game and see growth... another is seeing our own corner where it's barren and the devs constantly ignoring it.

This, 100% this!

It is very hard for some of us to believe in them or to be excited about anything new when they showed us that they either couldn't or didn't want to put in the effort. It took an entire patch to get our ears back all the while a minor bug in the ultimate was given Nr. #1 priority (the dragoon zoomies). It is very disheartening when all we get is a lazily put-together "update". Yoshi P's face says that even he was surprised by the earless bs that he couldn't do anything but laugh. Thankfully that ordeal has been resolved, but it took an entire patch with no one addressing the problem and a massive player outrage.

The best thing that they might do, in my opinion, is to hire some supervisors, each to look after a certain race and ensure quality. As it stands right now, the Lalafells get the majority of the care from the dev team, that being because Yoshi plays as one so he would immediately notice if something is wrong, but if we had a person for every race this might be the case for all races.

And yes I am still angry that Lalafells have not one but 2 areas that only they can access.

[SturmChurro]

the latest mog station outfit has a hat. but they were fine with not letting Hrothgar or Viera wearing the hat. even at such a high price point. (...)

Yeah, it is a bit annoying. In my opinion, the mogstation should be the exception, if anything, for making things useable for viera/hrothgar. We are literally paying a premium. I am of the opinion that if there is a cash shop in a game, the items in it should have a certain level of quality.

[Pip_Chick]

Happy new year!!! May this new year be bountiful of Female Hrothgar queens, hats and hairstyles for us all! May thy parse be great and thy enjoyment of the game be plentiful!

We might not always agree on everything and find faults with the devs sometimes, but that is born out of love for this game!

Happy new year everyone!