Zyrusticae

If there's a skin tone option that completely matches the scale color, I may be able to make this race work for me. Maybe. Possibly. Gotta wait 'til Monday I guess...

NOPE. At least from these screens, the scale color is tied entirely to the subrace, with no option for changing it to something else. Which is a serious problem for me, because I cannot stand how out-of-place those scales look. If I could give them the same color as the skin maybe they wouldn't look so bleh...

WHAT THIS IS HUGE THIS CHANGES EVERYTHIIING!! Unless by 'they have a plan' they mean they're going to just consolidate skills or something, in which case nothing really changes and we'll still be locked into mostly static rotations. I hope not. I hope there's some element of choice and options in here. Maybe even stance skills that change the properties of your skills or something. That would be ace.

I thought the scales looked bad before, but seeing the dark scales on light skin just makes it even more conspicuous. They don't look like a part of their bodies at all; instead, they look like glued-on cosplay accessories. Blech! Not my thing at all. If they had an option for scales that actually looked like they were properly grown out of flesh or something... but it seems like you can't even recolor them at all! That's just weak. The only thing I like are their eye color options, as they appear to have more than any other race. But that's about it. And that is hardly a reason for me to get excited on its own.

Oddly enough, it's those new skills that have me most interested. The warrior one in particular looked really nice...

IRL I am a pale yellowish southeast Asian. This is what my characters look like:

Well, I personally unsubbed for now just because there's SO MANY GAMES out that I want to play right now and I haven't been regularly logging in for the better part of the past month anyway, so tomestones have absolutely nothing to do with that. I don't know why I'm mentioning this here, other than it being related to all this talk of going on hiatus for one reason or another.

Eh. I say it works perfectly fine, because those exceptions only work because they are just that - exceptions. The grand majority of the time servants are depicted as being far above ordinary humans, and usually the exceptions either have some kind of plan or tool (or both) to use to even the playing field. In scripted RP this is perfectly acceptable, because some level of planning and familiarity is likely to be present, but in random encounters? 9 times out of ten the mage is going to get his or her ass kicked, end of story. FFXIV's story doesn't lend itself too well to random macguffins and happenstance changing the course of entire battles. For the most part, the WoL succeeds because he and his friends are just that good, with a little bit of pushing from the Mother Crystal (and now, probably, Midgardsormyr). If we ever see a random mook take down a major character in open combat, I'll probably change my stance on this, but until then...

Hmmmm. But if, for example, the baseline were that 'everything in the wild is as dangerous as a Morbol', you'd still class all the characters at a much, MUCH higher general 'power level' than RL humans simply by virtue of being able to survive in that kind of environment. Right? Or, to put it another way... if the humans in that kind of world fought back against the monsters and actually came out on top, they would be at a much higher level than the ones who scurry around like rats trying not to get eaten. Even given wildly differing parameters, we can still use RL as a reference and understand that 'these guys are superhuman' even when the standard is that everything is at that same level.

Well, it would certainly help if you didn't quote the entire thing. But I disagree. I think it is entirely relevant to the thread given that characters of differing power levels will regularly interact with one another in-game. Why else would you even care what other player characters' power levels are, outside of idle curiosity? This is besides the fact that I keep getting this undercurrent of animosity towards my choices because they seem so 'special snowflakey' (keeping in mind that she's really no more 'special' than the Derplander and his comrades), and I feel the need to address that. I appreciate that you feel I don't need to defend my choices, but not everyone on here feels that way.

See, I've always thought of T'rahnu as the type of person who can, with a bit of help and the right motivation, solo an entire castrum (note: the plan involves stealing a magitek walker or three)... so I guess somewhere between #2 and 3? Now, getting her to actually attempt that is a bit of a challenge... Her own estimation of her abilities is actually considerably below what she is fully capable of. As such, she retreats from situations where she would actually come out on top just to be safe. Even if she can do it, with lots of planning and some minor assistance, she'd just as well not try in the first place because, seriously, it sounds like suicide, and it very well could be if things don't go her way. To answer an assertion made in the locked thread (rather rudely, but hey, I don't like leaving things hanging like that), my issue with RP-PvP with a character like this is the obvious fact that having someone at a much lower level - say, around #4 or 5 - beat her up... just doesn't make a lot of sense most of the time. It's like (Fate Stay/Night reference) a regular mage beating up a Heroic Servant. That takes extraordinary circumstances and at least some luck, as well as the element of surprise, and how often does that happen? This isn't RL, after all, and the differences between those who have the power and those who don't are enormous, far greater than even the already-wide gulfs you see today between practitioners of martial arts and regular Joes. Even David vs Goliath doesn't accurately describe the kind of chasm we're seeing here. You can reference RL combat all you like, but no RL person can leap fifty yalms into the air, immediately change direction and rocket down into their target while simultaneously surviving the fall and taking no damage themselves. Or wield an enormous axe made entirely out of heavy metal and swing it with enough force to send a man flying 20 yalms behind them. So, you know, don't take it personally if I'd rather not gimp my OP character to accommodate characters at a lower power level. If I can't find an out, in the form of my character simply not taking the fight seriously or having motivation to throw it entirely, I just won't participate. And that's most of the time, really. I have a specific vision in mind for my character so I'm not going to sacrifice that for the sake of others. Just not how I play. Fortunately, 99% of RP involves no physical violence whatsoever, so it really never comes up anyways. That's a good thing, isn't it?

All of this, plus the Wardrobe/Closet system from GW2 & Blade & Soul (could just expand the Armoire to all gear + let you withdraw and store gear anywhere in the world). Glamour system can stay as-is but I really need a dedicated storage space for all this glamour gear. But yeah, that and body sliders... gods, I really want that musculature and fat/thin slider in FFXIV. So good. Too bad about the rest of the game, but really, you can't fault APB's customization (aside from the boob slider being really weak, anyways).

Everyone's the MC of their own stories. However, the grand majority of the time no one is fighting anything, and no one is actively participating in any grand story. Such is the nature of public roleplaying. As such, the grand majority of time this entire thread is completely moot. It's only those rare one-off situations where someone is actually fighting someone else that this even matters. (Note that this sort of quibbling is why I don't participate in events like the Grindstone, and avoid RP-PVP entirely if I can at all help it.) But when the gloves come off, I prefer it if everyone is on the same playing field, otherwise we do get the situations where someone who's playing at MC-levels is facing off against someone playing at side-character levels and things just don't work out for anyone involved. It IS possible to have an ensemble cast of major protagonists and have it work, and I think that's the preferable way to go about things, rather than trying to mix everyone in without a baseline to go off of. However, that is simply my 'perfect world' version of events. Obviously, the reality is that we have a huge variety of PCs doing a huge variety of things at very different levels of competency, and that's just something we have to deal with. And my way of dealing with it is by placing 'weaker' characters at a lower level. Is that nice? No, but then again, neither is ignoring their existence entirely, which is something I see bandied about as a solution around here so often. They're background characters, which is fine, because the NPCs aren't alive enough to serve that role sufficiently, but I'm not going to bring myself down to their level just so that nobody butts heads or stands out from the crowd. AND THE THING IS - if nobody is OP, then nobody is OP. There's no point trying to homogenize everyone to fight against... heh... homogenization due to power creep or any such thing, especially when we already have a decent baseline to go off of. In the end, power levels are meaningless outside of the context in which they are used to further a story, and the constant quibbling over how OP one is allowed to be are just comical in the face of how little they matter in the grand scheme of things. The game clearly renders out these kinds of superheroics to be possible on a very regular basis now, so why are some so adamant about simply not allowing it? It's weird. I don't get it. If folks want to play NPCs, they can play NPCs. Just don't freakin' whine when I treat you like an NPC, nor join you in the effort, capiche?

Because I treat them like NPCs.

Splitting hairs at this point, but I said that they exist, not that ALL NPCs are not special snowflakes. The point is that saying that 'everyone is OP' just because a large number of PCs are OP does not make that statement true. The lower-tier NPCs still exist, and ostensibly, in-universe, outnumber the PCs dramatically. The fact that the game reflects this poorly is immaterial to that.

There are people who aren't special snowflakes. They're called NPCs.

Well... yeah. That's the idea. Every class & job has something OP about them. That's just the nature of Final Fantasy as it is today. Ideally, there shouldn't be too many one-on-one situations to begin with, especially not PvP situations (which I do my best to avoid for very obvious reasons). I mean, if you really have a crippling fear of dragoons jumping on your character's face... bring a shield? It's only fair, after all! Gods be good. It's even in the name. "Limit breaks". Surely none are so daft as to ignore that factor?

Physically, she's a lot like me. Skinny to the point of having higher-than-normal muscle definition (but she's bulkier than me, for very obvious reasons). Same skin tone, hair color, and eye color. Some SEA features, especially her eyes. She is quite a bit shorter than I am, however. Also more feminine (but still genderqueer), though that's more a limitation of the character creator than anything else (yes, that goes for RL too - oh, how I would love to be able to create my own body...) Mentally, however, she's the opposite in many ways. She's FAR more social, despite being about as introverted as I am. She has considerably more confidence, possesses great martial skill where I have none, has very little shame where my own embarrassment tends to be crippling, and is far more likely to provoke people intentionally, often for the fun of it. To be honest... she's a lot of what I would like to be, though naturally there are some qualities that I would leave given the option. Oh, she's also a lot less empathetic than I am. I'm a regular bleeding heart. She's more (much more) likely to turn the other cheek than aid someone in need. Part of it is undoubtedly due to exposure - she sees a lot more terrible shit on a regular basis up-close-and-personal than I do, after all, and so much exposure to that sort of thing inevitably produces desensitization unless you have unlimited resources and the ability to fix problems at the root (which she does not). Qualities we share? Well... our views on sex, and our views on property are pretty much the same. That's probably not a good thing to admit given the kinds of things she gets up to, but that's how it is. There's not much beyond that that I can really think of. Quite a wide gulf between our personalities, I would say.

Well, you are already limited by the game itself simply because the character creation (and thus, your in-game representation of any given character) is also limited, so I would question a premise like that right off the bat simply for lack of tools with which to do so. But yes, obviously there is a sliding scale for this sort of thing. The more outrageous you go, the harder it is to get anyone to buy in to the premise. In this case, however, your hyperbole does you little credit as obviously no one would ever even attempt that in the first place. I see your point but it will never happen, and anyone in their late teens (the much more common scenario) is, quite frankly, enough of an adult that I can see it happening even if it is rather unlikely. At any rate, you might change your mind if you actually read such an amazing story with a series of events crafted in such a way that you cannot help but accept that the way things turned out are the way they should have been - could have been, even. The fact that you reject the idea simply means that this has yet to happen. A shame, but I'll not lose any sleep over it (more because I'm not the one who needs to please you more than anything).

Honestly, all of that just comes back to the execution part of the equation. It's entirely up to the player(s) to come up with reasons why they're not part of Ishgard's honor guard and to sell that reasoning properly to other players. Which is a challenge, to be sure, and part of why I do not attempt to claim ownership of a job that is heavily lore-restricted in any such regard. That being said, the abilities at hand are what I'm more concerned with, and frankly I am unconvinced that said jumping abilities are something that must be restricted entirely to Ishgardian dragoons. You would certainly have some explaining to do to justify having those abilities, but no more than any other player already has to justify theirs. The world of Hydaelyn is a very big place, filled with all sorts of people. It makes no sense to limit yourself strictly to what is known.

T'rahnu Ihka. Vagabond mercenary/"problem solver" by trade. Spends more time out in the wilderness than in civilized company. Was a prodigy in martial arts which got her in trouble with her (very jealous) twin sister, leading to her leaving her little tribe which ultimately saves her life when The Calamity wipes out the location of their home. She feels (undeserved) guilt over her inability to prevent the disaster and now wanders the land aimlessly, focusing largely on building up her martial prowess and having fun because nothing else really matters to her anymore. Despite her penchant for retreating early and often when the situation goes south, she finds her skills in high demand as she is one of the few people skilled enough to reliably complete difficult tasks. The fact that she's skilled in use of the bow, daggers, lance, and even axe only contributes to that. She's wise-cracking, largely jovial (a facade, but most people won't be able to tell), and almost excessively easygoing. Also far wealthier than her lifestyle would imply. Has a chocobo named T'supahto who she loves dearly and is probably the only living creature that is actually emotionally close to her. Naturally, he's very heavily armed and armored. Don't piss him off.

Ageism in full effect in this thread... :lol: Just gonna say, I really, really do not give two craps about what ages people give their characters (and this I say as someone playing a warrior who's approaching middle age). There are all kinds of issues you run into when you're so concerned with what's 'plausible' and what isn't in the context of a fictional universe. Some things are reasonable - the laws of physics and how aether works and whatnot are all requred to keep things working and everyone running on the same playing field. On the other hand, if someone wants to play a young prodigy I see little to gain from preventing them from doing so outside of satisfying your own (ageist) snobbery. Like I keep saying, it's all about execution: someone who is such a genius in martial arts would undoubtedly have other issues - including issues from other, older peers who exhibit behavior towards them that is undoubtedly similar to some of the attitudes you see on here towards younger, hyper-competent characters. Ultimately, I think throwing things out based on premise is a really poor practice that needs to stop sooner than later. You miss out on a lot of cool stuff if you ignore things just because the premise sounds boring or overwrought or outrageous to you. You never know when you're going to be surprised. This is especially important because there is only a limited palette to draw from to create any particular premise, hence it all comes down to execution in the end. We draw from the same sources to recreate the same stories over and over again, but the way those stories are told can change dramatically between tellings, and one telling can resonate with one person far better than it does another.

Well, I think this should go without saying, but I treat the various classes and jobs as gameplay concessions and the like rather than hard-and-fast rules for how people handle martial professions in Eorzea. For example, there's no reason in-universe someone can't freely switch between a spear, a bow, and daggers in combat aside from the obvious problem of where you put it all. By the same token, armor classes are there more for gameplay reasons than anything else (yes, even the glamour system being restricted is there to encourage you to level up more classes so you can wear the stuff). I believe it is entirely fair for someone to mix and match in ways that the game doesn't allow, with the caveat that few things can be considered straight upgrades and most combinations have some kind of downside (especially if you move too far into jack-of-all-trades territory). All that said is just to drive home the point that I believe players should be free to come up with unique ways to manipulate aether. With the variety of classes present in the game, they basically give players free reign to imagine anything is possible. Just make sure you THAT SAID, obviously "common sense" prevails here. No one should be trying to be playing at Louisoux power levels, unless it's an extremely situational, highly temporary power boost at the climax of an arc or somesuch. If I were to make a comparison, Final Fantasy heroes are pretty much at the level of legendary heroes of old, rather than demigods. Only the Primals can move towards the latter (though they could arguably be considered actual gods, despite their power being limited compared to what gods are usually depicted as being capable of). Superhuman feats should be the norm for player characters - with the assumption that player characters are usually the extraordinary individuals of the realm, and NOT ordinary people. To elaborate, my 'ground truth', as it were, is that any player character is supposed to be an extraordinary individual in their own right, and that the NPCs that populate the world are supposed to be the more ordinary ones (obvious big players aside). The only problem with this is when the world is very small and it feels like PCs outnumber the NPCs 10:1, which obviously is not supposed to be the case in-universe. I consider that more of a game development issue and prefer NOT to allow that to dictate the reality of what we're allowed to RP. If the community collectively decided that we were only allowed to play NPC-level characters I'd just fully quit, no questions asked. That's not to deride those who decide to play such characters of their own volition. I just feel like there's a difference between that and a demand that anyone who stands out be hammered down for it. Annnyway, to answer the thread premise, here is what I imagine the various physical jobs to be capable of: Warriors: Self-explanatory. See the intro with the WoL knocking and throwing enemies around with wild abandon. He has absolutely no trouble throwing a fully armored (with chain!) grown man some 20 yalms away with a swing of his axe. Their "inner beast" works more as a state of mind that allows them to fully devote the aether of their body towards these incredible and devastating attacks while also shrugging off blows. Paladins: Equally self-explanatory. That intro is very useful, isn't it? They should be able to take considerably more damage than you would think a human capable of. Stopping a blow by Behemoth, for example, should not be outside of their ability. I'm not too keen on their lore, however, because I never leveled the job to cap (unlike literally every other DoW class). They have some interesting potential due to their combination of martial prowess with a smidgen of magic. Dragoons: They certainly do seem to have some pretty crazy and precise air control. In addition, they seem to have some way of directing all the force of their blow into their enemy and preventing any of it from damaging themselves on the landing. No matter how you look at it, they're a force to be reckoned with. They seem to be devoted specifically to using their aether in very short and explosive bursts of action - first in the acceleration (both into the air and downwards into the target), second in the impact in which they must doubly damage their foe while protecting themselves. Monks: The only of the original five physical jobs that is not depicted in a CG trailer yet. Easiest reference: Tifa from Advent Children. Crazy fast and powerful combinations augmented by their "chakra" (re: moar aether). Blows that can send people flying, quite literally. While this is not canon, I would not think it outside of the realm of possibility for them to 'charge' their aether for ever more devastating blows, at the cost of depleting their stamina (re: TP) faster. But mostly, they're just LIGHTNING FAST. Hence, Greased Lightning. That gap-closer they use where they practically teleport to the target? Yeah, that kind of speed. Bards: Gods, that accuracy. And the speed at which they can let arrows fly? Absurd. That's not even considering their bardsong in the equation. That plus acrobatics makes for a powerful and slippery foe. Naturally, all of their arrows are charged with aether, allowing them to fly further and hit harder than they otherwise normally would. The best arrows, I imagine, are the ones with natural aether-conductive properties that allow a particularly skilled archer to pierce even the toughest opponents. Also, the Ironworks bow is a freakin' railgun! Ninjas: Do I need to? Everyone knows what they're capable of. They're probably the most straightforward of all the jobs thanks to their lore being so to-the-point on this. The combination of speed, precision, stealth, and the elemental techniques granted by mudra make them very dangerous and super-effective as scouts. That being said... while Naruto ninjas may make sense as a reference, the emphasis in FFXIV is largely on their physical abilities, not their mudra, and as such I would highly advise against attempting to RP the more outrageous abilities. (I was going to say 'stuff like chidori is ok' but then I don't know how having lightning coming out of your hand would work in FFXIV so...) Dark Knights: I probably shouldn't include the expac classes here but I will anyway because I can. From what I've seen so far, dark knights are the more offensively-oriented mirror image of paladins, and as such you can expect their combination of martial prowess and DARRRKNESSS to be similarly inclined. Much of how they function will depend on how their use of darkness actually works. Expect laz0rz. (Not really, that's just kind of my blind hope, because I'm not very interested in them otherwise.) Machinists: The most unique of the physical DPS classes, and the ones with probably/most likely the weakest actual physical abilities. I fully expect them to be completely dependent on their technology to overcome their lack of aether-based feats of martial prowess. Fortunately, they use guns, and not just any guns, but aether-powered guns with special attachments, and as we all know, guns hit hard and are extremely lethal. Guns in Eorzea in particular are based on the Rule of Cool and, as such, ignore ammunition limitations and the like. I suspect that they work more like black mages in-universe than any of the other, more martial classes.

Right, exactly. The contention was never whether or not an "average person" could match up to them. That's just silly, and to make such an assertion would be to imply an extremely flat power curve where training, luck, and skill matter for very little, so I don't even know why one would bring it up. Furthermore, there is absolutely nothing that implies that RPers are required to play said ordinary farmer or whatever, something I thought we already established long ago. There's nothing particularly prestigious or impressive or morally superior about limiting oneself in such a fashion. It's all in the execution, as I like to stress time and time again. My biggest bone was with the argument that the WoL and his companions were so clearly above and beyond everyone else and that even implying my character could be on their level makes me a "special snowflake", which is why the trailer and Raubahn vs Ilberd are so gratifying to me. No, I don't feel any particular guilt over not making my character an "average Jane", and I don't see any reason why I should limit myself in such a fashion, thank you very much. I would be grateful not to hear any such arguments levied my way in the future.

Seeing all those scenes of dragoons flying every which-way and dropping from mid-air onto their targets pleases me so greatly. First because it answers the question of how efficacious dragoon jump can actually be in battle (re: extremely), secondly because it shows that the crazy acrobatics and supernatural powers are most definitely not even close to being limited to Midlander and his WoL companions (though granted, Raubhan's fight against Ilbern itself already proved this). Thus I will smugly sit right here and say "I told you so" a million times, because seriously it was so silly that anyone was even questioning this in the first place. It's Final Fantasy, man! That's just how things work 'round these parts.