Humanoid Avian Race?

[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.

[Ultimatecalibur]

Every other major MMO has gotten beast races to work in terms of armor. Armor is done with textures and anchor points, it's not a complete remodeling of every piece of gear.

Most MMOs have a bunch of gear textures that go over a fairly small number of simpler gear models. FFXIV has a larger number of more complex gear models.

[Ayuhra]

Most MMOs have a bunch of gear textures that go over a fairly small number of simpler gear models. FFXIV has a larger number of more complex gear models.

Intricate armor is still fitted with anchor points. But let's pretend that the intricate models really do mean we can never, ever, ever have a beast race shaped like a beast. They could still go the Elder Scrolls Online route and have beast races with humanoid body shapes but non-human heads and tails.

[Roegadyn_Bear]

after TBC the horde wasnt the horde anymore....it was "blood elves" and company

I know it was the only (and easiest) way Blizzard could think of to save the Horde, but it doesn't make me any less resentful of what they did to the faction. It also didn't help that Blood Elves made over 50% of the population for two expansions.

I still play WoW sometimes and I know that people were drawn to Blood Elves for their lore and the fact that they looked more human than the humans did (the men, anyway).

You're delusional if you truly believe the Horde being over 50% Blood Elves for both The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King had anything to do with their story, though.

I don't see as many Goblins or Pandaren but I see a few Worgen here and there and a lot of Tauren and Trolls.

I don't think I need to explain why there is a substantial amount of Worgen and Tauren (most of them male, by the way).

Especially when you take into consideration the demographic that tends to play those two races.

Heck the female Draenei are very popular. They're like a somewhat more visually interesting Au Ra. I'd settle for something like them, they're very pretty but still beast-like.

They're humanoid enough and designed in such a manner that a large amount of people do find them sexy despite their bestial features.

This, however, seems to apply only to their females though.

Blizzard has ALWAYS gone out of their way to make sure the females of their races had some sex appeal. Reason they got roadblocked with Ogres for Cataclysm, because even their notorious ability of making female characters have some sex appeal did not work for them at the time, so they went over to the less challenging Goblins.

[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)

[Ultimatecalibur]

Intricate armor is still fitted with anchor points. But let's pretend that the intricate models really do mean we can never, ever, ever have a beast race shaped like a beast. They could still go the Elder Scrolls Online route and have beast races with humanoid body shapes but non-human heads and tails.

Truly non-human muzzled heads require the creation of different helmet models. Far more work than the minor model alterations done currently for Miqo'te, Elezen and Au'Ra.

ESO gets around this by making all the helmets in game simple buckets.

[Reinha]

I don't think I need to explain why there is a substantial amount of Worgen and Tauren (most of them male, by the way).

Especially when you take into consideration the demographic that tends to play those two races.

Please explain. All I can think of is that Worgens look badass and Taurens look goofy and are a great inspiration for bad puns. Somehow I don't think that's what you meant.

I had two Worgens back when I played WoW. Both were male because a dog face and sex appeal just doesn't work together as the female worgen showed. I like the race because they look menacing, have funny animations (backflipping wolves are epic), can shapeshift into humans, sprint and run on all four (racial "mount" spell). They are also super tall and weapons look big on them.

Heh, all this talk is making me miss the racial differences in WoW. Like how my Nelf could slip into shadows, my Draenei could heal and how my Pandaren could roll. I wish we had that here even if it was just cosmetic like wings for flying, Sprint on all fours, an out-of-combat transformation or a racial emote. If everyone has something there wouldn't be a reason for petty jealousy. I feel it would add to the identity of races.

There are enough helms that could work with a muzzle in FFXIV (hoods, head bands, crowns, certain types of masks, goggles and glasses etc). Full face plate might not work but that is true of any MMO with muzzled races. Honestly I would accept a muzzle even knowing that face plate would never not look goofy as hell.

They could just squish the muzzle into the plate helmet like it was never there, kind of like how half of femroe boobs get chopped off / sent into another dimension in certain tops. Not bitter at all.

[Ayuhra]

Truly non-human muzzled heads require the creation of different helmet models. Far more work than the minor model alterations done currently for Miqo'te, Elezen and Au'Ra.

ESO gets around this by making all the helmets in game simple buckets.

There are enough helms that could work with a muzzle in FFXIV (hoods, head bands, crowns, certain types of masks, goggles and glasses etc). Full face plate might not work but that is true of any MMO with muzzled races. Honestly I would accept a muzzle even knowing that face plate would never not look goofy as hell.

[Nestama]

That's more or less how it went. Shame, early Au-ra designs were much more interesting.

Even if we did get, say Viera, it wouldn't be this:

[Picture]

But more like this:

[Picture]

Not entirely. Change their feet to be more like a Lalafells (or {other race}) and then you'd have an accurate vision of the XIV Viera. They'll only have rabbit ears and everything else that made Viera 'unique' will not be present (so less than what the Au Ra have).