Letter from the Producer LXII

[Destati]

To be honest reading the letter made my lingering frustration with the whole matter flare up again... I don't want to sound entitled, and I feel really awful knowing the amount of workload the devs have been put through in the time leading up to ShB (especially since some of them went out of their way to model headgear for Hrothgar and Viera), but I guess I was hoping for a solid "we will implement male Viera/female Hrothgar eventually". I suppose it was better from a business standpoint to neither confirm nor deny anything but it still kinda hurts.
So I guess I'm just going to make a Viera and try to pass them off as male. The Hrothgar appear to be coming along really nicely judging by that picture (weren't they given claws though? I didn't see any there...?) But either way, keep up the good work devs.

[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.

[Physic]

A huge thank you to the dev team!
It makes me happy to see people so devoted to their game to secretly spend their free time on it.
I would've done the same, I'm just that kind of person, so it really brought a smile to my face.

Usually, very few people outside a dev team would thank anyone for working extra hard to make the impossible possible. As a developer, I know people who know absolutely nothing about code, or how dev works, think stuff can be done by just 'investing more money' or 'hiring better coders'. It couldn't be further from truth.

But they still go on about how more can be made when they absolutely got no clue how much time it takes to review thousands and thousands of items. Or even code new jobs, emotes, etc. While we still get regular free patches.

I know. I am grateful
Really, thank you team for your hard work!

it aint free, there is a monthly fee. I generally agree with you other wise. That said i am not that comfortable with people doing unpaid work or overworking for corporations profits even if its for my benefit. I hope that they can pay people for their time, and encourage a decent work life balance for dedicated employees in the future.

[Physic]

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.

true, but job balance cost is effected by genius/design, ie they may find/have some devs who can do it more effeciently, where something like art correction/qa is mostly a flat time sink.

sharing animations, still is costly because different models are visually effected differently i remember in another game, a human charachter created a hole between it belly/waist, but only during certain animations with certain gear. Other races didnt have the same problem. QA costs time even when you dont find anything as well.


that said, id guess jobs are still pretty costly, as you said the future costs are great, you have to keep adding skills and balancing every level cap.

[manamoppet]

That Hrothgar and Viera indeed looks like the strongest, and very dapper both of them! On a sidenote, the Hrothgar reminded me a lot of Klaus V. Reinherz from Kekkai Sensen.

[PharisHanasaki]

it aint free, there is a monthly fee. I generally agree with you other wise.

Ah, yes. I debated on wether or not I should say 'free'. There's always someone who gets jumpy about this. Remember there are other resourcea to pay for. Like infraestructre, and what not. There's also the fact that this is a business, so money has to be made.

And regarding that, it would be nice to get compensated, but not required. Because your boss didn't ask you to do it. If I had done it, I wouldn't have expected anything in return, because as I said, I' m just that kind of person. I'm sure they didn't do it for money either. They just wanted to please the community.

Work/life balance is currently hard to achieve in Japan. Let's hope that in the future that changes.

[Physic]

Ah, yes. I debated on wether or not I should say 'free'. There's always someone who gets jumpy about this.

And regarding that, it would be nice to get compensated, but not required. Because your boss didn't ask you to do it. If I had done it, I wouldn't have expected anything in return, because as I said, I' m just that kind of person. I'm sure they didn't do it for money either. They just wanted to please the community.

Work/life balance is currently hard to achieve in Japan. Let's hope that in the future that changes.

its a little more complicated though, because you may do it out of goodwill, but then other employees feel its the new bar. Also, its great you want to benefit the community, but the company also benefits/profits.

its definitely a very prickly issue, and it probably needs a case by case judgement call. As well, maybe there are bonuses, time off etc i have no knowledge of. Still, while appreciated, i hope the devs set up the workflow/goals so its unecessary in the future.

[Emmanellain]

To be honest reading the letter made my lingering frustration with the whole matter flare up again... I don't want to sound entitled, and I feel really awful knowing the amount of workload the devs have been put through in the time leading up to ShB (especially since some of them went out of their way to model headgear for Hrothgar and Viera), but I guess I was hoping for a solid "we will implement male Viera/female Hrothgar eventually". I suppose it was better from a business standpoint to neither confirm nor deny anything but it still kinda hurts.
So I guess I'm just going to make a Viera and try to pass them off as male. The Hrothgar appear to be coming along really nicely judging by that picture (weren't they given claws though? I didn't see any there...?) But either way, keep up the good work devs.

That's actually a good idea, I think i'll do that as well.

[PharisHanasaki]

Still, while appreciated, i hope the devs set up the workflow/goals so its unecessary in the future.

I agree with your first paragraph. As for the second, it's not an issue with goals exactly, or is it?

Yoshi P said it wouldn't be done, at least for now, because he knew it was irrational to ask for that. The team decided to work on that by themselves. How can SQEX be blamed, when it was already deemed impossible. Not really trying to rebute your arguments, but I feel you keep trying to somehow put the blame on the corporation. I doubt any dev not putting their heart onto their project would ever do this.

[Sathona]

That Hopeful Viera guy is probably shaking right now~

Anyhow Viera and Hrothgar looking good!
That Earring placement on Viera tho oof here i come emperor earrings