Letter from the Producer LXII

[Emmanellain]

I think the real right answer is, races arent worth the effort. But they added some anyhow. This is why most games dont have seven races. Especially the higher the art quality. The truth is new races cost resources, not just up front, but on every gear you make. So adding races, usually decreases new gear, etc. added to the game. All that artist time could be used on new gears, customizations, enemies, etc. Is it worth it? probably depends on the player.

It's through your character you experience the entire game, there is a reason why people often start looking to the looks of the races when starting an MMO, if you bring in more variety, you get more happy customers.

Funny enough HW was made on a smaller budget compared to Stormblood, yet HW is still revered as the best expansion of the two we currently sit with and didn't have less armor despite bringing us a brand new race.
There is of course more variables to this, but new races =/= less armor sets. It ultimatively depends on their plans, I'd prefer more armor and filling the gaps of the new races to a ton of zones that will be empty after everyone goes through the MSQ anyhow.
I'd personally be happy with a handful of detailed zones, a ton of gear and two full new races if that meant cutting two zones or something, sadly it isn't that simple though.

[Physic]

It's through your character you experience the entire game, there is a reason why people often start looking to the looks of the races when starting an MMO, if you bring in more variety, you get more happy customers.

Funny enough HW was made on a smaller budget compared to Stormblood, yet HW is still revered as the best expansion of the two we currently sit with and didn't have less armor despite bringing us a brand new race.
There is of course more variables to this, but new races =/= less armor sets. It ultimatively depends on their plans, I'd prefer more armor and filling the gaps of the new races to a ton of zones that will be empty after everyone goes through the MSQ anyhow.
I'd personally be happy with a handful of detailed zones, a ton of gear and two full new races if that meant cutting two zones or something, sadly it isn't that simple though.

new races does equal less armorsets, unless the races have the same model, posture, rigging. Or equals more cost per armor set. Even slightly altered models end up having bugs/clipping and need QA, some of which only show up with certain gear combinations.

charachter artists/animators are usually different than environmental artists, so basically you are choosing between charachter related stuff when you add races. this means, enemies, animations, armor, hairstyles etc.

anyhow, one zone may cost way less in manhourexpertise. its possible its like 1 hat vs 1 zone. and you might have to fire an environmental artist and hire a charachter artist to get it out in the same time frame.


to top that off, many people would disagree that a race was worth a large amount of content lost. How many man hours is a race vs a job i wonder...

[FoxyAreku]

new races does equal less armorsets, unless the races have the same model, posture, rigging. Or equals more cost per armor set. Even slightly altered models end up having bugs/clipping and need QA, some of which only show up with certain gear combinations.

charachter artists/animators are usually different than environmental artists, so basically you are choosing between charachter related stuff when you add races. this means, enemies, animations, armor, hairstyles etc.

anyhow, one zone may cost way less in manhourexpertise. its possible its like 1 hat vs 1 zone. and you might have to fire an environmental artist and hire a charachter artist to get it out in the same time frame.


to top that off, many people would disagree that a race was worth a large amount of content lost. How many man hours is a race vs a job i wonder...

Considering how all races share animations in this game aside from like, emotes, I'd say jobs take more. Especially if you factor in actually balancing them. That job is neverending.

[savageink]

I'm already assuming many people will start to "Appeal to Authority" with their many rebuttals of "Where are your credentials" or "Modeling background" but think about this clearly. If this was the case for WoW or any other MMO that XIV competes with would you be praising them if they said "Oh we'll have a 1/3rd of some visual gear work for this new race by launch"? or would you logically question why a MMO standard isn't being met? Why is FFXIV given a free pass in this regard?

They get a free pass because they told people in advance. End of explanation.

[Dualblade]

So it would probably be best to stop talking to Morbolv, at best they are just being a troll and as they say don't feed em. and thats the best case scenario.

Plus this thread will probably at best see a lot of posts disappearing when the mods finally see it. If not locked.

[zeylos]

Although this made me sad, because I had really hoped for a "we'll consider it" I feel like I can have some semblance of closure on this topic. I still hope they one day will implement them, but I understand their reasoning.

Man I had really hoped to be a bishounen male Viera warrior and go all vorpal bunny on my enemies, cause I've never been a fan of the hunched stance and markings on the male miqo'tes. I suppose I'll stick to my female Highlander, or test out the Viera females then.

They didn't say they won't be ever playable. They just said it would take time(6.0 probs)

[Neri]

And now we really see it. Lalas are evil.


(well, some of them anyway)

[Alucard135]

And now we really see it. Lalas are evil.


(well, some of them anyway)

They just got nuked lol.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

They also took a 5 month break after the release of heavensward (well, a 2 month break that delayed the patch to 5 months instead of the usual 3.5). If I remember right some of the dev team at the time hadn't had a vacation or time off since the start of the rebuild for 2.0. Several years of that. And people complained.... A lot... That a patch was delayed a month and a half....