Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[Veritas-Ancora]

I think I have read somewhere that there is also a mod now that enables all hats for Viera too? Would be great if people were allowed to use such mods without the fear of bans.

I really don't understand why they don't just allow some gear to clip through. If I want to wear my hard-earned Eurekan Elementa +1 helmet and my ears are sticking through, just let them!

Pretend I cut a hole through the gear. It's not fair to just ignore it completely.

[Awha]

From a client side application it is a relatively simple task sure will take time but nothing too crazy in the grand scheme. Things probably get murky when you add the server side storage and communication. Which makes me think if there is any chance for them to be added it will be when or if they do a engine swap.

Would be easier to just do it all from that point instead of trying to work within the amount of technical debt they have to currently deal with.

[Fukuro]

I really don't understand why they don't just allow some gear to clip through. If I want to wear my hard-earned Eurekan Elementa +1 helmet and my ears are sticking through, just let them!

Pretend I cut a hole through the gear. It's not fair to just ignore it completely.

Id at least love if they put in extra work for the AF gears for viera/hrothgar... IMO the headgear shows off most of the jobs identity in a AF set - it looks just incomplete without it.

[WhiteArchmage]

New interview with Yoshi-P

Q: The Final Fantasy series has been known to have many races/cultures with new ones being introduced with each title. What process does the team go through when creating new races and introducing ones from previous games into Final Fantasy XIV?

Naoki Yoshida: [...] As a result, when considering the addition of new playable races, we have to factor in the how the workload will multiply. As such, this only happens on an extremely limited basis and the deliberations about implementing or not would start only after I place a request and the costs are calculated. We’re already approaching the limits in terms of maintaining a healthy balance between the operational costs and quality of the gameplay experience and so it could be said that adding any more playable races would be quite a challenge. (Of course, I do understand the benefits of expanding the options available to players and their scope for roleplay…)

On the other hand, the addition of NPC races is, compared to playable races, a somewhat enjoyable process for the development team. This is thanks to factors such as the characters’ gear being fixed and the developers benefitting from a degree of control over the emotes. (But again, it’s only enjoyable in comparison) Typically we’ll brainstorm for ideas alongside our efforts in formulating the story when working on a new expansion, by considering questions such as “which regions will we focus on?” and “what unknown cultures await therein?” Since I also participate, the scenario team and I will consolidate the basic ideas and consult the graphics team after that.

As for the final steps such as the design and emote motions etc., in the case of races that have appeared in the FF series before, we’ll thoroughly do our research before deciding on the race’s physique and preparing several samples of their movement, all the while considering their standing in the lore. From there on, we enter the stage of incorporating all the fine details. As one example, when we were implementing the Viera from FFXII we checked their prerequisites in advance and also had their creator Mr. Yasumi Matsuno kindly provide his support in this regard. After deciding on the physique and lifestyle of this race we then determined their movements. Simply put, the process started from formulating the basic identity of the Viera as an athletic race of hunters.

Note: The question wasn't even about the missing genders, but Yoshi-P once again mentioned the difficulty in adding further playable races while not closing the door on it (bolded part). He could have even dodged that point or omitted it entirely.

I'm not tin-foil-hatting and saying that they're absolutely coming. Just commenting that it's nice Yoshi-P is still acknowledging the requests somewhat positively.

[Amnmaat]

New interview with Yoshi-P



Note: The question wasn't even about the missing genders, but Yoshi-P once again mentioned the difficulty in adding further playable races while not closing the door on it (bolded part). He could have even dodged that point or omitted it entirely.

I'm not tin-foil-hatting and saying that they're absolutely coming. Just commenting that it's nice Yoshi-P is still acknowledging the requests somewhat positively.

Thank you for that new interview; you see it as glass half-full, I personally have to see it as glass half-empty. This sounds very similar to the "I am a contrarian" when asked about adding male Viera during the february 2018 fanfest. The "we're already approaching the limits" line is a big negative, it matches what he said about male Viera in the past. This new interviews put that 1% chance of them being added to 0.5% now in my book. They're skipping the hell out of male Viera, the tone says it all. Before adding female Viera he would always say something like "the marketing team would kill me if I commented on Viera, please wait for more information," or "I can't comment on that now." His replies were never presented with excuses as to why adding female Viera is a challenge.

You just have to read the tone behind his replies and it's easy to analyze what will happen. Reminds me of the "male rabbits are weird" opinion that he had in 2015.

[Neoyoshi]

I don't feel like it's outside the realm of possibilities at this point, if Yoshi P and his team are as committed to this game for years to come as he said in the Live Keynote, then the possibility is always there.

They're opinions of how they see the game and what does/doesn't belong or have a place in the world can change with age, as well as technologies making things easier.

Just stay optimistic.

[Fukuro]

Sounds to me they‘ll probably add them along with a reworked engine. if we are VERY optimistic, i‘d say 7.0 - but as yoshida said before, they don‘t have a strict time schedule for engine updates and do work on them when they have the time to do so. so with my guessing probably around 8.0 the earliest. id love to be surprised, but at this point better keep expectations below zero

[MsQi]

I think I have read somewhere that there is also a mod now that enables all hats for Viera too? Would be great if people were allowed to use such mods without the fear of bans.

I think they should hire some of these modders.

[Ultaniku]

While the interview does say they are reaching the limit of what they can do in regards to new races it didn’t fully cement the door shut. At least from the phrasing he used. So I don’t expect a brand new playable race ever again, but I do think that maybe we’ll get the genders down the line to complete them, hopefully. If we don’t I’ll deal, but at least his word choices are sort of keeping my hope alive.

[Bright-Flower]

While the interview does say they are reaching the limit of what they can do in regards to new races it didn’t fully cement the door shut. At least from the phrasing he used. So I don’t expect a brand new playable race ever again, but I do think that maybe we’ll get the genders down the line to complete them, hopefully. If we don’t I’ll deal, but at least his word choices are sort of keeping my hope alive.

I wouldn't say it's impossible, but filling in the two missiong options would equal the work of one full new race. (Two new player models they have to fit gear onto going forward.)

So I'm really not expecting it to happen. Even though I'd like it to and wish they'd picked viera OR hrothgar instead of giving us one gender of each.