Humanoid Avian Race?

[Ayuhra]

SE chose to implement player character skeletons and skins along with gear models and meshes to maximize movement and minimize clipping, one thing that they are clear on, the reason for the disappearing curves is gear modeling. As such, I'm certain this would present them great difficulty when it comes to more beast-like player character races.

Well I'll give them this much: The clipping issues certainly exist in this game but they're much less severe than World of "My everything clips through my shield" Warcraft which does use anchor points. If beast shapes are a problem then I can settle for a human body type, I just want to see beastly heads and tails. It might make some helmets not work on some races but I can live with that.

And I need to stress that I actually really like the current playable races! More variety in a MMO is just always nice.

[Roegadyn_Bear]

Maybe I am sheltered or ignorant but in my decade of playing WoW most people I know who favor beast races do so because they're something different. Furries are no doubt a thing but enjoying a beast race because it's cool and more visually interesting than human-like character X does not a furry make.

People seem to cry "Furry!" whenever anyone mentions beast races anywhere. (And even if someone IS a Furry goodness who cares? Let them keep on keeping on they're not hurting anyone)

Which is why I said...

Not everyone who plays a Pandaren, Tauren, or Worgen are part of that, of course...

Didn't mean to strike a nerve there, though.

[Tayolynn]

I've been saving my free fantasia for this reason only. Depending how they make the new avian race, I'd change my male hyur, kept the same since official ffxiv:arr launch, to a male avian race the second it comes out.

[Vurtney]

And besides that, this is FFXIV, I don't know or care what happens in WoW.

Humanoid races are always the most played races, that's a fact but implying there would be no demograph for non-human races is nonsense. You can feel what you want about Warcraft but it's a good example of race variety and its player base playing them for years now.

http://www.warcraftrealms.com/census.php

When it comes to rigging new models, texture mapping, weighting new gear models on characters and what have you, i'm sure they (SE) can handle a less traditional race than what we have now.

[Kosmos992k]

Humanoid races are always the most played races, that's a fact but implying there would be no demograph for non-human races is nonsense.

I quite clearly did not say that there would be no players using such a race, I said that the race would be extremely niche oriented and would not justify the investment. Suggesting otherwise is nonsense.

[Terrini]

While an avian race would be really awesome, some restrictions to keep in mind:
1) The race will be mainly humanoid, so no you won't get bird legs or taloned feet for simplicity in adjusting gear between races.
2) The race would NOT have large wings, these would be hard to model around and would indicate actual ability to fly - not something that they'd want to insinuate because flying is high level zones only and mount-based. Even if the new race COULD fly, they'd be restricted to Aether currents though and there would be irritation that the new race can fly without a mount and they'd want to too.

That being said, there are options to be more avian while being mainly human that would be unique and interesting, such as:

Feathered Eyelashes:


Feathered Ears:

Feathered accents on wrists or ankles:


MAYBE Small feathered wings and/or tail:

[Nektulos-Tuor]

While an avian race would be really awesome, some restrictions to keep in mind:
1) The race will be mainly humanoid, so no you won't get bird legs or taloned feet for simplicity in adjusting gear between races.
2) The race would NOT have large wings, these would be hard to model around and would indicate actual ability to fly - not something that they'd want to insinuate because flying is high level zones only and mount-based. Even if the new race COULD fly, they'd be restricted to Aether currents though and there would be irritation that the new race can fly without a mount and they'd want to too.

That being said, there are options to be more avian while being mainly human that would be unique and interesting, such as:

Feathered Eyelashes:


Feathered Ears:

Feathered accents on wrists or ankles:


MAYBE Small feathered wings and/or tail:

Why not? I mean I don't see an issue with that. It could be a high level quest, maybe the race doesn't learn to fly until they are more experienced? PLENTY of things you can do.

I would not actually play the race myself, I am sticking to Miqo'te, however if they got a special ability to fly and I didn't? WHO CARES?! That is cool! Why would I care if I didn't get that? Maybe you can give every race something unique and cool "non-combat".

Give the game "True Night" and give Keepers/Dark Elezen/Dark Lalafell Night Vision.

They would still need to learn the Aether currents like everyone else, or they couldn't fly anyways!

This is why this game will never be anything other then just a game, player limitations set by players themselves.

Instead of a Chocobo, when they learn to ride one they can float on the ground and fly a little above ground, which would be cool!

Ahriman can already "fly" above ground and is a ground mount. That can work for this race too, then when they are more experienced (higher level zones.) they can fly in them when they learn the aether currents.

EDIT: I apologize, and replied to your entire post. I can say though whilst your ideas are COOL, and I would love to see all them because they are... Wings are a must, because that would be super unique and it is NOT hard to do in an MMO. The developers have more space to work with now.

[Terrini]

EDIT: I apologize, and replied to your entire post. I can say though whilst your ideas are COOL, and I would love to see all them because they are... Wings are a must, because that would be super unique and it is NOT hard to do in an MMO. The developers have more space to work with now.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

Oh I can see what you mean, but I doubt they'd be large enough to be functional, unless the race is really small. If they do have the race be winged, it'd be like the Windians in Breath of Fire, they'd have wings but they no longer have the ability to actually fly. If they did fly or hovered (like moogles or Sylph) it'd be rather odd for them to NEVER land, and having big flapping wings all the time would be pretty ridiculous next to other races.

[Ayuhra]

Oh I can see what you mean, but I doubt they'd be large enough to be functional, unless the race is really small. If they do have the race be winged, it'd be like the Windians in Breath of Fire, they'd have wings but they no longer have the ability to actually fly. If they did fly or hovered (like moogles or Sylph) it'd be rather odd for them to NEVER land, and having big flapping wings all the time would be pretty ridiculous next to other races.

They could make the wings like the wings from FFVII where they are only visible when unfurled. (How? JENOV-er-MAGIC)

[Ayuhra]

No, I know you said that I just get twitchy when people bring it up. I play beast races a lot because they're cool to me not because I think they're attractive but if people ARE attracted to 'em? That's fine.

What gets me is on the WoW forums and Internet in general whenever anyone asks for a playable beast race (The Arakkoa for example) everyone cries "Furry" as if that were an inherently bad thing to be and then the conversation just sinks and devolves from there. Every time.

It's like it's own version of Godwin's Law.

I'm not offended by it I'm just tired of it.