Zyrusticae

Get your hands on some metallic silver dye if you're gonna wear the Wolfram set. Gods, I love shining metal armor. And I love those kinds of sharply inclined breastplate designs. Wish the game had more of these.

T'rahnu's parents were both former adventurers, so that helps quite a bit. She's also quite talented, with an extremely high 'physical intelligence' and an aptitude for manipulating her own personal aether. This, in combination with her numbness to physical hardship, makes her extremely good at pretty much any form of melee combat once she's got some training in. And then there's the Echo on top of it. She can see actions occurring a scant few seconds into the future, allowing her to react accordingly... which, frankly, is just a ridiculously OP power to have. However, due to her relatively passive nature, this generally just makes her really hard to kill, rather than giving her the ability to slay someone on a whim. Why does she have it? Well, why does anyone have the Echo? I can't answer that, because no one else really can. We know that both those blessed by Hydaelyn and those chosen by Zodiark (the Ascians) can possess it, yet the Blessing of Light and Dark are both orthogonal to the Echo, as the Warrior of Light stand-in still possesses the latter despite having the former stripped from him by you-know-who. So that's just one of those things I handwave, at least until we have more concrete lore on the ability.

I gave T'rahnu her prodigal combat skills because I'm fascinated by the idea of the lone travelling warrior who shows up, beats up the bad guys, and then leaves as quietly as she came, with few even knowing of her existence. I also like the dichotomy between someone who possesses great power but also is not terribly inclined to use it, as well as how someone with that kind of power deals with the expectations that come along with it. That, and I just like the visual of someone who can switch between all kinds of weapons on a whim and still remain a threat. That's just fun, you know? And of course, as a fan of completely, overwhelmingly over-the-top action sequences, the idea of not being able to participate in that kind of thing (in a Final Fantasy game, at that) is pretty much anathema to my predilections. So pretty straightforward, all in all.

T'rahnu thinks the question is stupid and asks if you're going to drink that, though she doesn't wait for an answer before drinking it herself and taunts anyone who objects. Unless she's just not thirsty, in which case she'll let someone else have it.

Reading things like this makes me glad I made this thread. :lol: Good answer!

Okay, guys. Serious thought exercise here. How does an Au Ra deal with those bloody horns? You can forget about kissing. Like, seriously, just forget about it, it's too much of a pain to get two Au Ra's lips to connect without them horns making unfavorable contact with the other's face. You must be mindful of your facing at all times. Trip in the wrong way and BAM! FATALITY!! Or even just tripping and getting them stuck in the ground, or worse, shattering upon contact with the ground. They also provide very convenient handlebars for the opponent to use during a fist fight (something also true of long hairstyles, mind you, and one reason I very rarely play any characters with long hair who aren't also casters). Also, you have to clean them. Not a huge deal, but still a consideration. And don't forget about them getting caught on doorways or hanging objects, or doing something as simple as putting on a shirt. How many shirts do you think an Au Ra goes through in a typical week? They probably have to make them out of durable materials... which is not convenient during the summertime, heh. All of this just to say, yeah, no, thanks but no thanks. The horns alone are reason enough for me never to roll an Au Ra, unless I made her entire character centered around those damn horns, because, seriously, I cannot get over those things. How can you get over something so appallingly impractical and potentially lethal?

More little known outside of East Asia would be Blade & Soul's soundtrack as well as Aion's, both of which have some really standout tracks within them. Have some samples:

Well, your feelings are formed on some kind of basis, so it's only fair that we question why you feel the way you do when we, ourselves, cannot find any rational basis for that particular feeling.

Friggin' LOL'd. Holy crap. Here's mine: Works for me, honestly. She's got no wrinkles, after all. I'm actually surprised it isn't lower considering how much of a babyface she's got going on. (For the record, she's 28 ICly)

Well, for one, even referencing other posters indirectly in a negative fashion is still against the rules, and secondly, I think a lot of folks are trusting in the moderation to do whatever needs to be done if they think you or I or anyone else will actually be a long-term problem. I'm fairly certain at this point that, should the moderation take action against me, it will most likely be for something I did wrong. (For the record, shockingly enough, I have only received a single digit number of warnings over this account's entire lifetime. I, too, thought I would be/was a bigger problem than that.) I particularly appreciate that the moderation is going to be putting a proactive effort towards keeping things from getting out of hand in the first place, rather than cleaning things up after the fact. On the other hand, it won't be easy. Especially when a lot of the aggression and misplaced anger comes from places outside of the forums themselves (because, yes, our real lives leak into our online personas all the time, and those stressors can dramatically affect how we decide to interact with others on the Internet). To really fix some of these issues before they arise, mods may have to play a bit of armchair psychologist, which has the potential to go awry should they not know what they're doing. But I'm also sure they've discussed exactly this already, so I'll let the chips fall where they may. You folks have all my support, regardless. I'll just hope for the best.

This video put a smile on my face. Maybe it will do so for you too. [video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8iW2uQ0Lek

I think the way twitter is handling it is very interesting: The user can't proceed without deleting the tweet, and seeing the tweet in their face forces the user to confront what they did wrong. I know that it's all too easy to see the warning message and then just scroll past and continue on business as usual. It's impossible to do that if your account is locked until you face the music. I don't know how difficult this would be to implement, however, and I understand that the moderation doesn't want posts to be deleted anymore either. Perhaps a pop-up showing the post in a window that requires the user to click on a link in the middle of the page could serve the same purpose.

What am I about to do? Besides shrug, I mean. And go take a nap. Mmm, nap time... :sleepy: Pretty much, yeah. It'll be nice to at least see some more variety. I still venture that cannibalizing Miqo'te players was totally unnecessary, but, well, it's not the worst thing ever.

I should note that I am not one of the people who complained about Miqo'te being popular. It's just something I noticed, and I know there will be plenty of mentions of Au Ra come Heavensward's release. If anything, I'm kind of looking forward to suddenly being part of the 18% instead of the 42% (lol). It does affect RP, however. ICly folks will have to acknowledge the sudden shift, and that will be a thing, for sure. Eorzea is a place of change...

What's terrifying is the sudden influx of total homogeneity as no less than half the existing player base fantasias to the new race. I mean, what did you expect? People already complain about Miqo'te being too common as it is...

The sample size is actually pretty significant. To get a confidence level of 95(+/-2)% from a population of 1 million only requires 2,395 participants. But it's definitely a biased poll, yes. Newer prospective players are highly unlikely to see the poll. And the only way to get around that would be to do something like put it on the official site, which ain't gonna happen, heh.

It was also on the official forums (which is where I saw it), in a thread with slightly over 4,000 views. Don't know how many of them voted but even so... I know a lot of these folks will probably fantasia back out after some time, but even half of those Au Ra staying as such makes them another Miqo'te in terms of popularity. Also worth noting is that 39.6% of respondents are changing from another race. 50.6% are rolling Au Ra. That makes nearly 80% of respondents fantasia-ing to Au Ra. Cannibalizing existing races, indeed.

Reddit Post Link to Survey Link to Results These results are doubtlessly not highly accurate, but they're still pretty terrifying. Au Ra, the new Miqo'te 2.0?

That makes sense. If someone has a list of things they want FFXIV to have fixed that are very pressing and gameplay-related, of course someone complaining about character creation seems petty in comparison. But on the flipside, the people complaining about character creation are likely content with the state of and direction of the game already, so the character creation jumps up to the top of their queue (people like myself, naturally). Or maybe the character creation has always been at the top of that person's queue but never gets addressed. And thank the gods at Squeenix for fixing that. I actually quit the game over it. Temporarily, as it turns out. Phew! Dodged a bullet there.

Well, I stand corrected. I would be curious to know just how much the change reduces their actual workload. If it's really that substantial a difference, then... well, I guess it's sort of justified? They have been cranking out a lot of gear models, after all.

And this, in a nutshell, is why we need body sliders. Or at least more sliders than just boobs. And just for the record, they didn't actually change the body models, just the poses, which naturally affects how the body is presented (Miqo'te's idle stance in particular is very straight).

I see that you don't understand at all. Of course you don't, as your position is fundamentally different from my own. Let me put it this way: I play video games to help me escape from the reality where I would be ridiculed and put down were I to ever attempt to express myself in any way outside of what is expected of me (note: I live in Texas). Telling me that trying to do this in a video game is the wrong thing to do is akin to telling me that I am not allowed to exist in any form outside of what is given to me. For loads of people, genderqueer folk don't even exist. Every day I am reminded of that fact, especially when I try to make characters like me. It all adds up. It gets tiresome. That is why I am so passionate about this to begin with. See above. This is an emotionally charged issue for me. I want to exist, I don't want to kill my individual self in order to conform. If you think there is nothing malicious in refusing my right to express myself in virtual worlds, we are approaching this from fundamentally different positions. And that's okay, but you have to understand why I feel the way I do. And for the record, I did cry. It was helpful and cathartic. I should probably do it more often instead of raging.

Fine, I will stop trying to assert my existence in the virtual worlds I use for excapism and accept the fact that I will forever be marginalized and treated as a third-rate customer if I am accepted at all. (edit: you are being very mean right now, and I think I am going to cry. seriously cry. I am not even joking. good job, you're really something.)