Why do you dislike longer hairstyles and race un-locked hairstyles so much, Square?

[LastLevel]

I just dont understand why, really. You’re taking ages to release Lyse’s hairstyle, and I guess the reason is because it’s long.

Is there a way to possibly bring this to the attention of an upcoming live letter? It’s like this question is constantly avoided like the plague by Square.

Can’t be because of clipping. They obviously don’t seem concerned about that, considering existing hairstyles clip through a lot of armor pieces.

.....

As for race restricted hairstyles...



http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-on-hairstyles

I don’t really need to say anymore haha.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

A lot of them need to be slightly modified to fit the racial skeletons for the different heads, and in the case of miqote, the ears.

All new hairstyles for a while have been race neutral, but it would be a lot of work for them to go back and unlock every style.

[Kalise]

As far as long hair goes:

I believe it's something to do with the bones used for physics (Or, an approximation of physics based on original 1.0 spaghetti code for character creation) that make it more work than shorter hairstyles.

As far as race-limited hairstyles:

Due to the aforementioned 1.0 spaghetti code, they have to essentially manually create each hairstyle from scratch for each race. Which is a lot of work which could be spent putting new hairstyles in.

Essentially, it comes down to the fact that, as they're reluctant to completely rewrite the code for character creation from the ground up with sensible 2.0+ versions of code (For reasons such as the manpower it would require, as well as the fact that they likely wouldn't be able to recreate characters with 100% accuracy (Thus would receive complaints) and also would have to completely re-build every unique character in the game) that basically anything revolving around character creation is really annoying to try and do, with it mostly revolving creating new models to add as separate options for each specific race/gender (Thus the inability to say, flip which side a parting is on. As it would require a completely "New" hairstyle option that is the flipped parting...)

Basically, because 1.0 devs had bad code and because Papa SE diverts most of XIV's money to other titles, it's not particularly efficient to work on these things sadly...

(Though, I'm sort of hoping that if ShB performs well that maybe after VII remaster is done XIV's team might get some more resources...)

Really, if we could get them to 2.0 code characters it would make adding hairstyles and customization options a lot easier (You know, like, butts) it's just ridiculously unlikely

[Theodric]

Never mind Lyse's hairstyle...

Where's Hien's?

They should add both, though it'd be unfair if they were to add Lyse's after failing to add Hien's.

[Vahlnir]

I think the better question is, why do they love gear that clips with hair, tails, horns and soon to be long ears so much?

[Jaywalker]

I agree in the sense that more options would be awesome, but I also want to take a moment since we're talking about hair to quietly leave this here for perspective. :P

Thank you SE for providing deliverance from that aesthetic hell.

[Theodric]

I have something of an allergy to inelegance, so that article was rather alarming...

[Jaywalker]

I have something of an allergy to inelegance, so that article was rather alarming...

XD Ikr?

Seriously though the hair is that bad. Everything is either bald or greasy looking, and this is the game that gets touted as having one of the best character creators in western RPGs. People mod sometimes but if you don't have mods it is a struggle.

SE shouldn't throw their hands up and be like WE BEAT THE COMPETITION WE'RE DONE, more long hair options would be awesome. But good lord we are lucky not to be stuck with six flavors of bald.

[Gemina]

As far as long hair goes:

I believe it's something to do with the bones used for physics (Or, an approximation of physics based on original 1.0 spaghetti code for character creation) that make it more work than shorter hairstyles.

As far as race-limited hairstyles:

Due to the aforementioned 1.0 spaghetti code, they have to essentially manually create each hairstyle from scratch for each race. Which is a lot of work which could be spent putting new hairstyles in.

Essentially, it comes down to the fact that, as they're reluctant to completely rewrite the code for character creation from the ground up with sensible 2.0+ versions of code (For reasons such as the manpower it would require, as well as the fact that they likely wouldn't be able to recreate characters with 100% accuracy (Thus would receive complaints) and also would have to completely re-build every unique character in the game) that basically anything revolving around character creation is really annoying to try and do, with it mostly revolving creating new models to add as separate options for each specific race/gender (Thus the inability to say, flip which side a parting is on. As it would require a completely "New" hairstyle option that is the flipped parting...)

Basically, because 1.0 devs had bad code and because Papa SE diverts most of XIV's money to other titles, it's not particularly efficient to work on these things sadly...

(Though, I'm sort of hoping that if ShB performs well that maybe after VII remaster is done XIV's team might get some more resources...)

Really, if we could get them to 2.0 code characters it would make adding hairstyles and customization options a lot easier (You know, like, butts) it's just ridiculously unlikely

I don't disagree with any of this. I think if SE was asked directly, the response would be something similar to your post. However, I will say that I think SE continues to not acknowledge just how much value we place on our character's appearance. They know of it, but not the extent of it. When I think about resources and money being allocated to projects like the FFVII remake, it only infuriates me. There has been so many reiterations/spin-offs/prequels etc. of VII all in the name of fan service to provide a dolled up version of the story we all already know, and for a game that isn't even available to play.

FFXIV is here and now and probably still hasn't reached the summit of its popularity. I believe if SE continues to neglect revamping the customization options, FFXIV will eventually fall behind the times far enough that I fear players will start bowing out to go to other mmos with better options.

[Hakuro89]

I recently saw a mod someone make that attempted to do this, and illustrated why it hasn't happened yet. It was supposed to take the 3rd female Au Ra hairstyle and give it to Miqo'tes, but there was about a 1 cm gap between the ears & the hair.

So yeah, there's reworking that would need to be done. They give us new hairstyles all the time though, so I don't imagine it would be a ton of work for them. They probably just won't want to do it in favor of other work.