Current state of Viera and Hrothgar

[LinaAkayomi]

First off, let me start this post by acknowledging the obvious: This post won't fix anything, or won't even be noticed by anyone from SE.

With that out of the way, I can at least start my ramblings.
What is the exact excuse they're using for the lackluster implementation of Hrothgar and Viera, on current day patch?
It's not that we're drowning in content, either. Patches come out more and more spread apart, and with less and less content, so that's clearly not it.
Moreover, the teams responsible for implementing gear, and the ones designing other parts of the patches, are clearly different.

Now, you may add that "They're busy with the new gear!" and you'd probably be at least partially correct. But I doubt professionals would be as swamped as they pretend to be, when amateur modders can have hats out and ready at the gates with mere DAYS of work. And we're talking about passionate, but still hobbyist individuals here, as opposed to professionals hired by a multi billion company.

Not to mention the entire fiasco about the hat's toggles being just one metadata edit away, since just tinkering with the game files by clicking checkboxes in 3rd party software has allowed people to force hats into Viera/Hrothgar. There's evidence of this.

Even if you try to justify it with "Oh but they don't wanna do that because it'd clip or look bad". Have you SEEN 95% of the game's gear and hairstyle interactions? EVERYTHING in this game clips to hell and back. So clearly, that cannot be it.

Is it laziness? Lack of care? Utter disregard for this admittedly small portion of the playerbase?

And then there's the issue of hairs.
Female hrothgar released with 5 hairs. Five. You could literally count them on the fingers of one hand. Even worse, we STILL have hairs locked to certain faces, for whatever reason.

The current state of these races is unacceptable, maddening, and fills me with genuine anguish and dread.
It is impossible to be excited about anything this dev team does, because there's always a catch. There's always some hidden, covert monkey-paw situation. And I'm tired of it.

At least implement the cash shop/exclusive hats (Matoya, etc) that cost REAL LIFE MONEY on top of the ACTIVE COST OF THE MONTHLY SUB AND Expansion releases.

Fix your game, Naoki Yoshida. You can't be satisfied with the lazy implementation your team is providing for these races. I implore you, fix this dumpster fire.

[KurororoIrororo]

i would like to see the cute big cat ladies in hats, please

[AbramsMain]

The hairs are the most shocking thing to me. Endwalker spent a lot of time fixing that issue for male Hrothgars, and male Viera benefitted immediately from work done to female Viera during the expansion, but for whatever reason they started from scratch on female Hrothgars when they should've at least had access to the hairs given to male Hroths off the bat. Love female Hroths, love their emotes, they should have more options.

[CVXIV]

Honestly the most I would be willing to give is anything pre-shadowbringers being off the table, with some exceptions like anything story related the player has to wear. I believe in stormblood you have to disguise yourself at some point in the story, and the fact you can't wear the helmet kind of ruins the mood the game is trying to set.

The cash shop, and everything shadowbringers and beyond? They know these races exist, they have to be more accomodating for them.
Hrothgar have it worse with their character creator, and how restrictive it can be with the lack of hair options.
I also wish the horn (and a broken variant) was universal, so more people could be ronso but that's just me

I'm also a bit salty still about the loporrit ear wiggle emote and how it works on viera

[Jeeqbit]

What is the exact excuse they're using

They have to adjust the gear for each race individually. This is a very taxing process. According to a development panel, they have an automated system that mostly adjusts it automatically, but still requires some changes. Meanwhile, I saw around the same time that WoW solves the same problem with AI.

Most likely the issue is to do with adjusting for the ears that, for some head gear, would flat out require redesigns to work around the ears logically, but there could be other concerns to do with animations and bones.

It's not that we're drowning in content, either. Patches come out more and more spread apart, and with less and less content, so that's clearly not it.

The time between patches is not increasing (measurably hasn't increased at all compared to Endwalker and this is easy to prove by looking). And the increase was announced when it happened in Endwalker.

The content is also increasing over time as compared to other expansions - it's just a lot of people think it's "one and done" content or content that they personally ignore.

teams responsible for implementing gear, and the ones designing other parts of the patches, are clearly different

Yes, it would not make too much sense to compare content teams to those working on gear or hair.

I doubt professionals would be as swamped as they pretend to be, when amateur modders can have hats out and ready at the gates with mere DAYS of work

You're right that an individual model doesn't necessarily take that long to make, but they are making lots of models and their animations, for various purposes. They could be making chairs, jackets, bosses, weapons, food, tables and they may have to animate them. For gear in particular, they have to adjust for all the races.

Not to mention the entire fiasco about the hat's toggles

Well of course, they can toggle the hats on. My guess is they just aren't happy with the quality of them when they are toggled on.

EVERYTHING in this game clips to hell and back

I do agree they should just consider enabling them anyway and letting them clip. It's surely easier this way.

It is impossible to be excited about anything this dev team does, because there's always a catch.

True, this sort of situation seems to happen a lot. I get that in real life, things are often harder than we assume they will be - you know, like "that will take 5 minutes" but then it takes all day somehow. But the specific situations they say are a problem are things I feel confident wouldn't be a problem this long if I was doing it. Where there's a will, there's a way.

[Boblawblah]

You know who this is?



Not me.

[Destati]

My guess with the hat issue is that they need to essentially make two versions of each hairstyle, the standard one and the modified version for hats. Not defending them here because I don't think as a multi-million dollar company they have any excuses. At the very least just turn the metadata on for hats with the disclaimer that hair may clip through so people will have something. Then they can fix things as they go.

I'm still baffled by the time they finally started giving male Hrothgar hair... only to hide their ears and make it look like a wig. Like... why did they think people would be okay with that? Why do they have such an aversion to showing ears? Just let things clip through. I know there are the tufts of fur around the ears they need to add but are they really that necessary? Overall they need to rethink their system.

[Roda]

I would prefer for them to no longer release any new hairstyles until they complete all the compressed hairstyles for the viera/hrothgar default hairs if that's what it takes to get hats.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

It will be repackaged and sold as ‘new feature’ for later patches/expansions. Please look forward to it. /s

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Fr though, either do it proper or not at all. Half assing is about the worst option they could be doing. Imagine playing a discounted race but still pay the same $$ as if you’re playing the ‘better races’.

Quit cutting corner, SE/CBU3.

[LinaAkayomi]

i would like to see the cute big cat ladies in hats, please

Same...

The hairs are the most shocking thing to me. Endwalker spent a lot of time fixing that issue for male Hrothgars, and male Viera benefitted immediately from work done to female Viera during the expansion, but for whatever reason they started from scratch on female Hrothgars when they should've at least had access to the hairs given to male Hroths off the bat. Love female Hroths, love their emotes, they should have more options.

I was baffled. During Benchmark I was trying to cope by thinking "Oh those are just for the benchmark, they're adding the rest to the base game, I'm sure".
Well, I fanta'd to Hrothgar the milisecond DT was up, and let me assure you it was NOT the case. 5 hairs total, facial hairs locked to faces for WHATEVER REASON. So if I think Face 2's are cute, but I prefer the ponytail Face 4 gets? Tough luck, suck it up.
Also, none of the FemHroth hairs have highlights, which is a MAJOR offense in my opinon, and just shows the overall lack of care for the race and its players.

Honestly the most I would be willing to give is anything pre-shadowbringers being off the table, with some exceptions like anything story related the player has to wear. I believe in stormblood you have to disguise yourself at some point in the story, and the fact you can't wear the helmet kind of ruins the mood the game is trying to set.

The cash shop, and everything shadowbringers and beyond? They know these races exist, they have to be more accomodating for them.
Hrothgar have it worse with their character creator, and how restrictive it can be with the lack of hair options.

I have nothing to add, I fully agree with this. I'm especially annoyed because I own a Matoya Hat, and my only option to wear it is to fanta off Hrothgar. It's stupid, annoying and disheartening.

Well of course, they can toggle the hats on. My guess is they just aren't happy with the quality of them when they are toggled on.
I do agree they should just consider enabling them anyway and letting them clip. It's surely easier this way.

Wish they did this anyway. Even if they hid the ears, I wouldn't mind. It's not like all other races have perfectly implemented hats, either