Au Ra Character Creation Screens discussion!

[Kismet]

....am I the only one disturbed that the MAX HEIGHT for females is only 5'2? Like.. 5'2? Thats the average height for a 14 year old in my country.

 

Is this for real? Miqo'te females are even taller than that! I thought they were going to at least be hyur sized.

 

Max height for Miqo'te females is around 5'3"~5'3.8". A difference of approximately one to two inches isn't that big of a deal.

[Blythe]

I'm slightly peeved over the height, now that one of the screens shows it for the females (since I prefer slightly taller characters), but it's nothing I can't work with. It's not like it's going to change any character concept I have for it. 

 

Plus side on height: now I won't feel like a giant with Miqo'tes (despite being a Midlander). : P

[Dravus]

At this point I'm more interested in the idea of seeing additional character customisation options added for the original races. I do hope we see more variety as the game moves forward and not just in terms of new hairstyles either.

[Flickering Ember]

....am I the only one disturbed that the MAX HEIGHT for females is only 5'2? Like.. 5'2? Thats the average height for a 14 year old in my country.

 

Is this for real? Miqo'te females are even taller than that! I thought they were going to at least be hyur sized.

 

Max height for Miqo'te females is around 5'3"~5'3.8". A difference of approximately one to two inches isn't that big of a deal.

 

It might not matter for you but it matters to me. 5'2 at the tallest is pretty short. Miqo'te I already considered shorter than what I'd be willing to roll. So the knowledge they are even shorter than them is definitely a deal breaker for me. That is basically what I was getting at.

 

I'm frustrated because I keep trying to hold onto the idea of being optimistic that there will be something I like about the Au Ra. I definitely love the scales, horns, and reptilian themes. All that would be great if the Au Ra ladies looked like women and not like children. 

 

I know that female roegadyn and highlanders aren't popular. I guess I was just hoping for a traditionally feminine lady (since that is what everyone wants) who actually looks like a woman. It's not that being 5'2" makes someone childlike. I personally am 5'2" irl. It's the sexual dimorphism combined with their obviously moe looks that make them child like. 

 

It's not for me even though I wanted it to be. The very idea of Au Ra is super cool and really jives with me. The max height being 5'2" is just the final nail in the coffin since I guess I was holding out for more customization choices like SE promised? ("highly customizable" quote)

 

I will eagerly await the next race then, hoping they will try something different next time. And enjoy Au Ra through the hard work of other roleplayers.

[ArmachiA]

Can we please stop saying the Au Ra women look like children because they're short? Yall...

 

My sister is 5 Foot. My mom is 5'1". My best friend is 5'2". They are all over 30 and they do not look like children.

[Zyrusticae]

No one said they look like children because they're short.

 

The comment that started off this thread of conversation merely compared the height to teenagers (not children) in their own country, and noted that because it was the MAXIMUM height, which they found striking. Words could definitely have been chosen better, but it was not to imply that they look like children.

 

On the other hand, Ember has a point - the extremely high levels of neoteny found in the females of the Au Ra DO make them look more childlike, and it is that in combination with the height that makes them look extremely young. I personally find this to be irritating because we already have a race that fills that particular niche (Miqo'te) and I still don't really see what niche the Au Ra fill that was not already filled. Well, the guys at least are more distinct... which only makes the failure of the females to be more interesting all the more conspicuous.

 

Unless I find something amazing through the character creation, it seems I will not stop being critical of the Au Ra and Squeenix's designs any time soon.

[ArmachiA]

They don't look like children. Like, at all. They don't even resemble children. You may have a case for them looking like they are in their early 20's, and if you want to make an older Au Ra you'd be shit out of luck (Miqo'te are the same way) but they don't look like children. It's an extreme argument to make a point. Trying to say super feminine features look like children isn't going anywhere.

 

Are you sad about super feminine features (Or what's considered stereotypically feminine)? Cool. That's fine. That doesn't make them look like kids.

[Flickering Ember]

Can we please stop saying the Au Ra women look like children because they're short? Yall...

 

My sister is 5 Foot. My mom is 5'1". My best friend is 5'2". They are all over 30 and they do not look like children.

 

Hey Arma, I think you may have misread my post. I suppose that is understandable since it was longish. However, if you go back and reread it you will find that I mentioned that I too am a short woman of 5'2". I simply was trying to clarify that I find them to appear childish due to their moe looks (eyes, facial expression, animations, etc.) in combination with the large height difference between the men of their race. 

 

That's not new information, certainly, but the exact range on the height slider is. I was hoping to close the gap a little bit.

[ArmachiA]

....am I the only one disturbed that the MAX HEIGHT for females is only 5'2? Like.. 5'2? Thats the average height for a 14 year old in my country.

 

Is this for real? Miqo'te females are even taller than that! I thought they were going to at least be hyur sized.

 

Max height for Miqo'te females is around 5'3"~5'3.8". A difference of approximately one to two inches isn't that big of a deal.

 

It might not matter for you but it matters to me. 5'2 at the tallest is pretty short. Miqo'te I already considered shorter than what I'd be willing to roll. So the knowledge they are even shorter than them is definitely a deal breaker for me. That is basically what I was getting at.

 

I'm frustrated because I keep trying to hold onto the idea of being optimistic that there will be something I like about the Au Ra. I definitely love the scales, horns, and reptilian themes. All that would be great if the Au Ra ladies looked like women and not like children. 

 

This two things together made it sound like you were saying it was the height, if you weren't I apologize.

[Ritual]

A child in England is legally defined as someone under the age of 18, however our age of consent is 16 and even further below that it says that anyone under the age of 13 cannot under any circumstances legally give consent, so for arguments sake I'll stick to 13 and below being the definition for a child or a childlike appearance should resemble that age range. 

 

 

Meh, all this talk of it being 'disturbing', not necessarily in this thread or these forums but I've seen it thrown around awhile now, that the males are big and the females are smaller is something I really don't get, I don't get the idea they look childlike in any way either innocent yes I'll say that but childlike?

 

They just look rather feminine, I like how the Au Ra are actually looking, though I won't go full SUPER SAIYAN like I've seen some of the males do, nor will I do any excessive customization but I do like how they are looking. Wish I could play around with the benchmark but I highly doubt my PC could run it and there's nothing for the PS4 that I know of but I can wait.

[ArmachiA]

^ I agree.

 

I think there's a case to be made here about what is stereotypically female and whether or not those stereotypes are something we, when playing females, want, but saying they are children ruin the argument since people will focus on that aspect.

 

Women are expected to look very, very female. That usually means short, big eyes, small noses, dewy features, and puckers lips. The Au Ra look pretty much exactly the way Japan sees ideal female beauty. Just look at their idols (Girls who are supposed to represent ideal Japanese beauty):

 

 

 

Mayu Watanabe (21) of AKB48

 

 

 

Sayumi Michishige (25) of Morning Musume

 

These girls are beautifully small faced and youthful, and very popular in Japan. Au Ra females pretty much look like Japanese idols.

 

The problem comes that we, as players, fall for it. Because we find those features attractive as well. Look at how popular Miqo'te and Midlander Hyur's ARE. Half of the server is pretty much Miqo'te on it's own, add Midlander Hyurs to the mix and finding an Elezen, Roe, Lalafell, and Highlander can actually be difficult. The truth is, this race was designed on what would sell and WE AS PLAYERS have made it clear what we like.

 

Do I think it's an issue overall? Of course. We shouldn't be afraid to play the Roe's and the Highlanders, and it's a problem that they are seen as somehow less feminine than their Moqote counterparts.

 

We should also talk about the Male Au Ra, too, who are basically designed like Fujoshi-bait anime boys to be slender, tall, and attractive. But less heat seems to be hitting the males even though the males absolutely 100% look like Japanese male idols to me.

 

 

 

What up, Yamapi?

[Seriphyn]

Yeah that DBZ hair is nonsense.

 

The lack of excessive anime aesthetic on the other races (with exception) is laudable. However, this is a teenage high school girl villain taken straight-up from your worst anime.

 

IDK, I'm just looking at these screens and thinking "Wow, this is as shit as I'd imagined". Remove the horns and they're terribad generic anime people. I'm sure people can make compelling characters who are decidedly hornless.

[Sophia_Grave]

I don't think anyone with a brain thinks that looking like a Japanese idol is inherently bad. What does rub me the wrong way is that those of us who want something different are simply left sitting here, twiddling our thumbs.

 

What I personally like about the game is that there are options. If I don't feel like raiding, I can still progress. If I don't feel like progression, I can decorate my house, craft, do Saucer stuff, or anything else, and that doesn't even include RP, which takes up most of my playtime. Every one of us are looking forward to Heavensward. But when it comes to the Au Ra, I'm left scratching my head as to why they'd not only cater to a specific taste, but fail to even throw anyone else a bone. Personally, I love reptillian races; always have. If Bangaa were a playable race, I'd literally drop both my RP characters and Fantasia into one without a second thought. I was psyched about Au Ra, naturally: scales? Woo! But I feel like the race was saddled with a bunch of stuff simply to make it appeal to the majority.

 

Why don't the races have the diverse options that Hyur do? Midlanders and Highlander may as well be completely different races, if one considers how much variety both have. The whole point of racial choice in fantasy is diversity but currently, each race's appearance options are paltry by comparison to Hyur. Lalafell tribe choice is hardly anything more than which eye type you like better. Miqo'te are a warm palette with cat eyes, or a cold palette with cat teeth. Roegadyn and Elezen are both simply warm vs. cold palette swaps. Are other races simply not as diverse in appearance as Hyur are? Why?

 

I simply don't like the idea that Au Ra is synonymous with this heavy anime aesthetic. Reptilian/demon-like is already unique enough compared to what we have, so it is just baffling that they'd go a step further and say "how about scales, but only if you like shonen anime!"

[Aaron]

The males have some serious anime hair syndrome going on. That's not unexpected in the slightest of course, but it still makes me laugh.

 

 

Dude must spend five hours a day just soaking his head in roofing sealant or polymer cement, I swear.

 

Somewhat unrelated, but I don't see enough female characters wearing the dreadlocks hairstyle. I almost like it as much as the ponytail.

[ArmachiA]

I don't think anyone with a brain thinks that looking like a Japanese idol is inherently bad. What does rub me the wrong way is that those of us who want something different are simply left sitting here, twiddling our thumbs.

 

I never said that, I'm explaining the aesthetic. In fact reading on, I go on to say the Aesthetic is what needs to be talked about, wrong or right, not the fact they look like children. Those stereotypes are wrong, where certain things look Feminine and certain things look Masculine. But let's talk about them from the same place SE is coming from: Japanese culture, instead of "Short and cute = kids".

 

Quotin myself:

Do I think it's an issue overall? Of course. We shouldn't be afraid to play the Roe's and the Highlanders, and it's a problem that they are seen as somehow less feminine than their Moqote counterparts.

[Sophia_Grave]

My post wasn't "aimed" at you, Arma or anyone else. I used your Idol description because its succinct and helps make my point.

[ArmachiA]

That's fine. I'm just making sure my point is clear. It's just really easy to get a point confused around here so I'm easily on the defensive. :thumbsup:

[Sophia_Grave]

That's fine. I'm just making sure my point is clear. It's just really easy to get a point confused around here so I'm easily on the defensive. :thumbsup:

Fair enough! Yea, I was giving my piece on the general mood of the Au Ra discussion around here. I feel like there's this sort of weird vibe that says "I would like it this way, and it should only be this and everything else is bad" when we should actually be wondering why such style options aren't just available to everyone, you know?

 

I pretty much agree with your more critical points

[ArmachiA]

For me, it's just makes me confused on what SE wants the Au Ra to be. I'm fine with the aesthetic choice generally, but if the Au Ra are supposed to be a battle hardened, warring Tribe kinda thing that the lore is implying... the aesthetic of Japanese idols isn't making much sense and it kind effs up my immersion on them.

 

I dunno maybe I'm wrong and they'll be less war-y then implied, but the aesthetic should match the lore and so far, at least for the Xaela females, it's not really so much. We'll see. Like, I said, I think the females look fine on their own, it's just gonna be weird if their look doesn't match the lore.

[Wymsical]

At this point in the thread, I'm just going to say that I personally am happy with the Au Ra females so far, barring me somehow not making anything I like in the benchmark. 

But there are some that definitely don't and I think we can all agree the scales and horns have some odd choices. Would it have been great if they had clans with actual physical differences instead of just coloring? Absolutely.

 

Ultimately, I think the people who do like Au Ra are getting weary of all the negativity in most of the threads about them but the people who are dissatisfied with the design are expressing their disappointment and feedback. And, after all, Square Enix should be aware of all the varying tastes in the game so they can take these opinions under consideration too.

 

Me, it's a little disheartening to be excited about Au Ra and run across very harsh judgments of the race and sometimes implications about the reasons for their design. But I also want super neat more mature looking ladies for the others too! 

 

So, uh... I guess I don't have any good advice besides maybe some threads about ideas for new races and feedback about old concept art on the official and these forums to bring awareness to SE would be awesome?

[Nero]

It's also interesting to note the bestial aesthetic of the original concept art, particularly regarding the FemRa:

 

 

l

 

The concept art has the FemRa looking voluptuous with much more prominent, savage features. The one on the left also has some kind of scaled growth obscuring the top of their face as if to highlight the unnatural nature of their less humanoid aspects. This design is interesting for me, mostly because it seems like a concept artist drew this up, showed this to the producers, who then went "Hey, this looks good. Let's take this as far in the opposite direction as possible."

 

Concept art for the ManRa runs a similar route. I can only dream of what kind of nightmarish clipping issues would have arosen from the in-game model borne of this design.

 

 

 

 

 

I may have gripes with the blandness of the design, but ultimately Square would rather create something bland and commonly played than something unique that has only niche appeal. I don't agree with their aesthetic choices, but I do understand them.

[Sophia_Grave]

snip

Hnng. I want that. See, why can't we have these as the Highlander Au Ra to the what we currently have as the Midlander-esque Au Ra? Yea, yea, I know; gotta keep costs down on animations and modelling and whatever. ;-;

 

I'm sort of hoping that after tomorrow, they'll be some outcry and consequent tweaking. Not to take away anyone's options of course, but to add more.

[Michikyou]

It's also interesting to note the bestial aesthetic of the original concept art, particularly regarding the FemRa:

 

 

l

 

 

 

 

Whoa whoa whoa whoa!

 

This looks absolutely amazeballs!

[Wymsical]

I'm sort of hoping that after tomorrow, they'll be some outcry and consequent tweaking. Not to take away anyone's options of course, but to add more.

 

Adding more most likely won't happen - because it probably can't. Time and time again, when we ask for new options for old races they say that 'Character Data Limits' prevent it. I believe the last time this was brought up, it was when people were asking for new Highlander male beards and they quoted this as the reason why they couldn't. I'm not certain but it sounds like PS3 support limitations.

 

It'd be neat if they tweaked the textures so the scales blend more with the skin or changed one of the faces to look older, though.

[Michikyou]

I'd just be happier if the height cap was raised from 5'2 to something like 5'6?