Hello, My Name is Human

[LineageRazor]

With the rumor/hopeful mill abuzz with the potential addition of Viera as a playable race one would think that I would be more excited. I mean, I like women and I like bunnies so combining them should be an all around win-win right? I'm not against them being playable, but it got me thinking about why we can't have a distinct non-humanoid race. If you're gonna pick a race from Ivalice to use then why not the Bangaa or even the goofy looking Nu mou or moogles?

This question comes up in the forums regularly, and there's pretty much three big reasons why an "inhuman" race is unlikely to happen:
1. Redesigning all of the existing gear in the game to fit a model with a radically different shape would be very expensive and time-consuming. Adding a race that's pretty much a variation on human is much easier, both for modifying existing gear and creating future gear.
2. The storyline for this game has the conflict between humans and beastmen as one of the central themes. The storyline would need some significant changes to make room for what is, essentially, a playable beastman race.
3. Once you've done both of the above, was it worthwhile? How many people will actually play the new race? Most likely, the playerbase that would choose to play it would be pretty niche. That means it's a lot of effort to satisfy very few people. Part of the reason Au Ra worked out was that it provided an additional option for two existing popular character types: huge, imposing men (competition for Roes and Highlander Hyur) and small, cute women (competition for Miqo'te and Midlander Hyur).

If we do get an additional race (and yes, Viera seems like a strong candidate), it will almost certainly be humanlike. If we were to get Viera, in fact, they would likely be even more humanlike than their original designs - just look at what they did to Roegadyn and Miqo'te when they imported them from FFXI's Galka and Mithra!

[NessaWyvern]

I would totally play a Tonberry. Sadly, in the lore they cannot manipulate aether like adventurers can.

I just hope they don't make Vierra too cutesy. I would switch from miqo'te if it wasn't cutesy (Au ra was also too cutesy for me :<)

[Bonbori]

While it might have been possible early in... pre-production of 1.0, I suspect that we are way beyond the point where converting all the existing armours to a non-human body is within the realms of possibility anymore. Currently, every time SE releases a new set of armour, they have to make at least 5 variants: Hyur Midlander Male, Hyur Midlander Female (these two are also shared by Miqo'te, Elezen and Au Ra + Female Roe and Highlander) Hyur Highlander Male, Roegadyn Male and Lalafell Male. Some outfits additionally have Lalafell Female (otherwise they use the male models). Occasionally there are armours with Au Ra-specific models but they are very very rare. Miqo'te helmets being the biggest exception.

Anyways, my point is, while a lot of the existing armours have flexible skeleton scaling that allows the Midlander model to be reused across different races, it clearly has limitations necessitating separate models for non-standard bodytypes (Lala and bulky males). Adding any new race that isn't Midlander-shaped would roughly add 20% more meshes (more if there's significant dimorphism) that need to go into every new and existing armour set (which is a lot, hundreds if not thousands).

Viera (if the rumours aren't just wishful thinking, they could be) would at most require extra helmet and footwear variants which isn't quite as much work as a more exotic-shaped race would be.

[Antonio_Xul]

The ears would still clip through any hats, cowls and helmets. Unless they made it where they could only equip head gear like glasses, circlets and masks.

This actually might be a reason why Viera might not be made a playable race since they would need to modify old gear for ears, feet, tail, etc. and apparently they don't want to modify old gear again.

[Joven]

2. The storyline for this game has the conflict between humans and beastmen as one of the central themes. The storyline would need some significant changes to make room for what is, essentially, a playable beastman race.

It's already established as part of the lore that there are rogue sects of the beastman tribes that want peace.

I didn't really mean that the race has to be entirely non-human, just something more than "human with horns/scaley bits" and "human with cat ears/tail" to distiguish race. I only used Bangaa as an example because they're from Ivalice and a new race for the game too.

[CainCrimson]

I also like women.

more women please.

However the race I want is Lupin.

[Brightshadow]

I wouldn't mind Viera, but for god sake atleast give males some chest hair/fur to make them a bit different. I'm sure the engine could handle some chest hair we don't all like being hairless lol ;3

[Joven]

I wouldn't mind Viera, but for god sake atleast give males some chest hair/fur to make them a bit different. I'm sure the engine could handle some chest hair we don't all like being hairless lol ;3

Sadly I think we're all doomed to a smooth existence for eternity

[Sigma-Astra]

We need a race of playable otters. It can even just be the otter model used by the minion and HoH. It doesn't even need customization options, just that single otter model. The Otter of Light will break the servers.

Omg, Odder Otters for all! Basically, I imagine them being like those otter creatures from Tales Of Legendia....which may have been the ONLY redeemable quality aside from the OST that that game even had.

[Joven]

Lalafell and Elezen both get modified cowls and helmets with 'pockets' that cover their ears.

I always thought that the ear pockets look incredibly stupid. If their ears are so rigid that they can't just slide under a helmet then make openings in the sides instead.