Bring WOWs allied race mechanic to XIV

[SturmChurro]

I get that some of you are bitter about the latest new race additions, but it doesn't mean that we still can them to do more of them the RIGHT way in the future.

Yeah, it does. It's not even about how viera/hrothgar came out. Yoshida has said time and time again that doing new races - even just one - is a very costly effort.

Reference:

I'll post this here since I happened to notice it posted in the Male Viera Thread as well:

TR: Shadowbringers saw the introduction of two new races, are there any plans in Endwalker to introduce anything new or even additional gender options for the Warrior of the Light and the introduction of armour which isn’t locked to certain gender/races?

Yoshida: “That’s another very direct question you have here… regarding the addition of new playable races, I have explained previously but the development cost is so monstrous that it is probably hard for players to imagine. As such, please understand that there’s no easy way to answer your question with a ‘yes’. As for the remaining elements that you’ll find in Endwalker, be sure to look out for announcements at the Fan Festival in May.”

Source: https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/...to-ps5-4123752

Got another interview from Yoshi-P. The topic of "races" were mentioned once again. Saw this posted in the Male Viera thread and thought I'd go on ahead and drop it here too:

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.

Source of full interview here.

It won't ever happen. At best we could hope for a 'completion' of the races hrothgar and viera in regards to missing genders.

[Infindox]

I'd rather they focus on making Endwalker be the best it can be. I'd love to have a Vath or a Mamool Ja alt but I'll settle for the Vath outfit.

[SilverObi]

So if I'm understanding this right, you want races that have to be unlocked through some means. Races that are gated by progression in the game that people lose their minds if there's a clothing item or hairstyle or literally ANYTHING locked behind content/race/gender/msq progress.

You yourself have been an advocate for removing the artificial gates or restrictions currently present in the game and now you want character races to not be available from the start as they've always been. Maybe it's too early in the morning but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how such a bad idea as this could be proposed as if it's a reasonable one. Maybe in WoW or other MMOs this makes sense when they already restrict classes and other features to specific races or something but keep it out of XIV as much as possible, thanks.

[Yencat]

I get that some of you are bitter about the latest new race additions, but it doesn't mean that we still can them to do more of them the RIGHT way in the future.

It's not a matter of "We messed up the previous 2 races, let's do it right next time". Most of the races you mentioned have completely unworkable bodies, postures and heads with the way they fit gear in XIV.

If adding anything to just Viera and Hrothgar heads is apparently already this problematic for them you'd be lucky if some of the races you mentioned could wear bracelets and rings.

[Bright-Flower]

New races that have new models are out of the question. However, I could see them maybe expanding the options on existing models instead. This wouldn't have the same issue of having to fit gear onto them or making new animations for extra models in the future.

That's part of why WoW has so many allied races in the first place. Sure, there are exceptions to the rule like Kul'tiran humans, but most of the allied races were made by using the assets of existing races. Blood elf > void elf for example. SUre they're not all 1 to 1 on the model but very close.

Ultimately though I see no reason to do the allied race approach where they have to be unlocked. If SE decides down the line to add more races after filling in the missing genders on viera/hrothgar (and i doubt even THAT will happen) there's no reason not to just add them as new races. Making allied races unlockables was just annoying in WoW, and considering FFXIV has a very clearly defined singular warrior of light, it would make things even more muddled than the unlocking process for allied races in WOW.

[SavishSalacious]

I don’t want wow features in this game, if I wanted to play a game where the devs don’t listen to its player base, I’d play wow. But alas I play the greatest game next to guild wars 1, of all time.

[Vahlnir]

We were told about the viera/hrothgar head gear/hair restrictions before the races were added. I have no idea how people still bring this up as a point of contention.

Because they said that Hrothgar and Viera would both receive hairstyles as time went on. They have yet to deliver. I have no idea how you don't understand this by now.

[Shougun]

I think the concept could be interesting if the task didn't take an insane amount of resources, if we assume what Yoshida has told us is true then each race would be like a big OOF to the budget lol. However if assume they can figure it out with some smart new system, then it could be neat if some people were able to be some of the more obscure races given a sort of challenge quest (which keeps those races feeling obscure as well). Also of course that they give players a free transformation, which is what you listed- otherwise I think the system would fly in the face of the whole 'do it all on one character' concept (FFXIV isn't an "alt" focused game, unlike say WoW with it's heirloom and only one class per character designs).

I assume them being allied like mechanic (in that you unlock them) is to prevent as much frustration with the likely limited portion of the designs (more limited than Hroth and Viera) which is where it might work well, you're basically unlocking a body glamour (that may have some variations). If they were going to be full featured- better than Hrothgar and Viera even, well then we want those two to also be that first, but then maybe it might be just as well not to have to put them behind a gate (meaning no unlock mechanic).

I've also thought if when they go back to update the character creation they could perhaps add a new clan to races, which might make the budget a lot smaller (many similar animations and armor fittings)- then you might get a chance to see lala have a Vivi / Yuke clan, Au Ra a clan more closely similar to their art work, more lupin inspired Hrothgar - maybe more upright like the primal boss (I like my lion appearance, but some people wanted wolf), peach fuzzy miqote, etc.

On the costume idea, long ago I had suggested perhaps using the accessories as a place to glamour unique appearances (like you might apply dragon scales to your Au Ra), so maybe that could be part of it? I do like the idea of a general item that changes you- that's neat too but if it's an item you use like a potion then I feel you'd have to recast it a bunch lol. If you could bind it to your item as a glamour then you can set it and forget it. Of course assuming whatever transformations can fit the game logic and also don't kill massive amounts of content to do (I normally don't like mentioning money but we've an explicit quote form Yoshida that says races are massively expensive to add, so adding some random goof items that cost insane amount of money is a little worrying--- but if we assume they can do it without that cost then it sounds fun and 'why not, more options could be nice').

On the no hats thing, actually doesn't bother me- I'm happier the race exists over the race doesn't exist because of hat issues. That said you know what's better than having the race and hat issues? Having the race and no hat issues :P. Just wanted to say in the list of if and than's I'm glad at least the Viera and Hroth did show up, and I'm happier they exist than if they hadn't, but don't want to say fixing the issue is a bad thing or wouldn't make people happier.. just "I'm glad that they do at least exist".

[Roda]

Instead of locking players to a nearly uncustomizable half of a half of a half of a race, why not just add more beastman costumes like the vundu costume, namazu head, or moogle outfits, and just wear them on a race that more closely matches the race's body type.

It's far from perfect or adding new races, but it's far more likely to happen since SE REALLY doesn't want to sell us new races.

[SnowVix]

If we had our own allied race mechanic, think of the cool races that we could play. I love the idea of unlockable races, because it makes them cool, more difficult, and a player accomplishment to earn.

My ideas for such races in this game would be:

- Lupin
- Burmecians
- Baanga
- Ivalician Moogles
- Seeq
- Nu Mou

Also upon completion you would get a free one time fantasia for the first time completion of that races unlock quest, but it would ONLY work for that race change, and for one use. If you changed back after making the choice, you would still have to buy a fantasia, or make a separate character.

No I do think Female Hrothgar and Male Viera should be in an allied races content feature. Female Viera and Male Hrothgar are already pickable races. Let's not make it more difficult just to unlock an opposite gender. This group of races would be entirely separate and optional.

Allied Races are literally one of the worst things about WoW, why would you want this game to clone that game's mistakes?