New race in Stormblood? - Speculation and Discussion

[Altitis Acquired]

I don’t know if there will be a new race, but if there were, what would you like for it to be like?

I personally would love the Viera. A male Viera would be my main. But only if they are like the tall and sexy Ivalice Viera, and not some small cutesy bunny race which was shown as concept art for Heavensward.

 

https://67.media.tumblr.com/6c0b436291010a98b1bb8723f01397e5/tumblr_inline_of24xzKydf1smbiof_1280.jpg[/img]

 

However, I’ve been thinking… since people get FFX stuff from attending the Fanfests, then maybe there will be a FFX race appearing in Stormblood. I am not sure what though… considering we already have a cat-like race in the Miqo’te, so the Ronso would be unlikely… though I know some who would love to be a big bara kitty. :3

 

https://67.media.tumblr.com/4c2bbab5f95b49a74a64c22e68e222c6/tumblr_inline_of2547rOwR1smbiof_1280.jpg[/img]

 

Maybe a Werewolf kind of race? Or maybe something completely different…

 

https://66.media.tumblr.com/bfc1873dfe70d2ef0cb7996d9c172d5b/tumblr_inline_of25cgVQsC1smbiof_400.png[/img]

 

… Let’s hope not. D:

 

What would you like to see?

[Nero]

Not sure I'd like to see a new race, because invariably it will end up being something like "Hyur with rubber foreheads" (see: Au Ra being Hyur with horns and scales).

 

I'd rather they just improve the animations for existing races.

 

For non-playable races though, I'd love to see Bangaa or Nu Mou.

[Caspar]

Badass bug ppl plz. (It'll never happen...)

 

I would like a legitimately non-human looking race. However it would be difficult to redesign gear to work with its abnormal posture, etc.

[Leih]

I want Viera... so badly... Pleeeeaaaaseeeee Square!

 

[Seriphyn]

Perhaps they won't have a new playable race? FFXIV is a very lore-driven game and saturating the world with different races might not fit their vision. Consider how poorly Au Ra were implemented storywise (i.e. they weren't)

[Delilah Scythewood]

https://67.media.tumblr.com/4c2bbab5f95b49a74a64c22e68e222c6/tumblr_inline_of2547rOwR1smbiof_1280.jpg[/img]

 

^^^^^ This is a FF10 and FF10-2 race called the Ronso. Most of them were wiped out in FF10 by Seymour Guado. I doubt we'd see them.

 

Viera and Bangaa seem more likely to me. They're such a noteworthy race we see in most FF titles that it'd make sense to place them in, especially after they gave us a custom race the first time around.

 

I want to say that the Bangaa seem most likely given the region considering how Viera were always forest dwellers or hinted at being more woodland-y.

[Shoshopu]

Viera and Bangaa seem more likely to me. They're such a noteworthy race we see in most FF titles

 

Sorry if this comes off as rude, but most FF titles? Bangaa and Nu Mou weren't a thing until Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, then they were in XII and the Ivalice spinoff games.

 

I mean I'd love to see bangaa and nu mou, too (especially nu mou) but they're hardly some iconic, staple Final Fantasy character like moogles, chocobos and cactuars. They're a race from one universe.

 

The aevis enemies were pretty much ripped from FFXII (and who knows how much else that I'm unaware of because I didn't play FFXII), so it's possible that we could see some more Ivalice influenced stuff. I kinda get the feeling that FFXIV, while it borrows a lot from many FF games, is an aesthetic mashup of Vana'diel and Ivalice.

[Kilieit]

I, too, am in the camp of "I want revamped character customisation for existing races before we get a new one". Separate my horns from my face already god damn I mean what.

 

IDK if we're gonna get either with Stormblood, though - it seems like something they would have announced along with the existence of new jobs, even if the exact race itself hadn't been.

[Zhavi]

I, too, am in the camp of "I want revamped character customisation for existing races before we get a new one". Separate my horns from my face already god damn I mean what.

 

IDK if we're gonna get either with Stormblood, though - it seems like something they would have announced along with the existence of new jobs, even if the exact race itself hadn't been.

 

Sign me up for more customization. How about more faces that look older than 14? I'd dig that.

 

....also tattoos. Yum.

[Shoshopu]

What I'd really like, more than anything, are alternative body types (like variations in shoulder and hip width, or to be able to actually have a chubby character, as opposed to just one with no muscle definition). That's the one thing I miss the most from GW2, to be honest.

[Madda]

Don't you taunt me with that Viera stuff.

 

I would happily murder most of you for them to be put in the game as a playable race.

[Kilieit]

What I'd really like, more than anything, are alternative body types (like variations in shoulder and hip width, or to be able to actually have a chubby character, as opposed to just one with no muscle definition). That's the one thing I miss the most from GW2, to be honest.

 

I'd adore that. I don't actually have a defined body type headcanon for A, because I have so many conflicting ideas that seem equally fitting, and I always forget what I used last time. I think having an actual customisable setting in-game would help me make a decision and stick to it. (I mean, SE gave us the Horo and then no build slider? C'mon.)

[AlionLucada]

Hoping for no new race, personally.

[Kismet]

I never want this game to get Viera or any variation of them. They're just really tall rabbit Miqo'te with weird feet and bigger tits. Gee whiz. And I don't care if SE was actually considering them once upon a time. They just really get on my nerves for some reason. Almost as much as Lalafell. Almost.

 

If this game were to get a new race, I don't think it would happen until 5.0, honestly. But, if it does happen one way or the other... I think seeing some variation of either the Yukes (Crystal Chronicles versions, not the tiny ones), the Nu Mou, or the Burmecians would be unique to see. If there had to be another distinctly humanoid race, perhaps something inspired by the Guado could be made interesting.

[Zyrusticae]

I'd want them to add new character creation options in lieu of another race as well, but considering the chances of them adding any body variety options this late in the game are pretty much nil, I'm not really that enthused over the idea.

 

Still, now that they're dropping PS3 support they have no excuse for not separating horns from face types, and they really should give every race a muscle slider (yes, including Lalafell, for laughs). And, y'know what? I'd love a skin specularity/shininess slider like we have in Blade & Soul. I don't care if it doesn't make sense, having glowing skin just looks freakin' badass.

 

I'm very, very curious what changes will actually happen as a result of them dropping PS3 support. Waiting with bated breath.

[AlionLucada]

A lot of people seem to think that as soon as they cut off PS3 support the game will drastically improve overnight and every feature people imagine wasn't added because of PS3 players will suddenly appear. More likely is that we may see some nicer QoL changes like larger inventory and more housing.. but not much else.

 

S-E still has to worry about lower end PCs or they risk losing a big chunk of players, so they're not gonna suddenly ramp things up to 11 like some people believe.

[LiadansWhisper]

A lot of people seem to think that as soon as they cut off PS3 support the game will drastically improve overnight and every feature people imagine wasn't added because of PS3 players will suddenly appear. More likely is that we may see some nicer QoL changes like larger inventory and more housing.. but not much else.

 

S-E still has to worry about lower end PCs or they risk losing a big chunk of players, so they're not gonna suddenly ramp things up to 11 like some people believe.

 

It's more the loading screens. We have so many because of PS3 support.

[Caspar]

I think it'd be better to go for something radically different now or nothing at all as far as a new race goes. I feel like they were able to squeeze by with the au ra because it was the first expac and they look pretty in many eyes. However a third similar race of tailed, pretty humanoid might be less successful at drawing in new players. It depends on how redundant it would be, but frankly if they are unable to make a new race outside this template, they may be better off spending resources and time elsewhere.

[Steel Wolf]

With all of the new gear available now, the gear arrving in 3.5+ and all that arrives in Stormblood, I have a very hard time thinking a new race will be announced, hard-working though the devs may be.

 

Speaking as a pipe dream scenario? Yukes get my nod, with the Viera being a distant second.

[Valence]

Before Heavensward came out, lots of new gear for 3.0, and lots of new tier gear for 2.4-2.5 and so on... How is that different?

[Zyrusticae]

A lot of people seem to think that as soon as they cut off PS3 support the game will drastically improve overnight and every feature people imagine wasn't added because of PS3 players will suddenly appear. More likely is that we may see some nicer QoL changes like larger inventory and more housing.. but not much else.

 

S-E still has to worry about lower end PCs or they risk losing a big chunk of players, so they're not gonna suddenly ramp things up to 11 like some people believe.

Stuff like the ridiculous limitations on character creation are directly attributable to having to support the PS3 and its pathetic 512MB of RAM (technically 256MB system + 256MB video). Nowadays they can reasonably expect even low-end machines to have 4GB of RAM (plus whatever video memory's on the discrete cards). That alone makes a huge difference in what they can put into the game compared to when they had to support what is now ten-year-old hardware.

 

I'm not expecting them to suddenly throw in encounters against a hundred enemies at once or anything, just to fix some of the glaring issues that only existed because of having to support ancient hardware. Maybe one day we'll even get the cities consolidated into a single zone. Wouldn't that be nice?

[Valence]

Problem is not the RAM. RAM is almost irrelevant as long as you can launch the game without exploding your physical memory and not go over using the system swap.

 

Problem will always be video memory, which directly contains graphical 2D and 3D drawcall assets. And on low end machines, its... well. Low. Maybe not that low though, which is an improvement. All depends how far they are ready to go with graphic memory usage.

[Martiallais]

Yeah I'd honestly expect things to change gradually rather than SURPRISE BRAND NEW GAME as soon as we load up Stormblood. Now maybe that means we'll start to see things changing between now and then (which would be kind of cool but who knows).

 

Back on topic, I'm in the 'plz no new race' department. Give us more ways to customize the ones we have, more options and looks and such not just another 'hyur with pasted on accessories' like the Au Ra. I know they said it wasn't likely but something that looked more like the concept art Au Ra would be nice though from an RP standpoint having to deal with another two or three dozen "I was secretly xyz race all along!" is something I could go without.

 

But whatever's fun for folks, I suppose. I think making a Captain Bucky O'Hare or Usagi Yojimbo homaging Viera would be cool but then it's a debate on if they allow male Viera or if we have another situation like in 1.0 where one part of a race is 'reclusive and never seen'. Considering they promptly dropped that in 2.0s relaunch and you currently can't /wave without hitting 3 Miqo'te, I'd be surprised if they went that route.

[Zyrusticae]

Problem is not the RAM. RAM is almost irrelevant as long as you can launch the game without exploding your physical memory and not go over using the system swap.

 

Problem will always be video memory, which directly contains graphical 2D and 3D drawcall assets. And on low end machines, its... well. Low. Maybe not that low though, which is an improvement. All depends how far they are ready to go with graphic memory usage.

Well, I mean, at 256MB system and video you're practically guaranteed to go over-budget unless you take drastic measures to prevent that scenario (and, y'know, this is a modern MMORPG, so I'd bet the PS3 did so on a regular basis). Those measures are (thankfully) no longer necessary. Even integrated graphics these days have a much, much better memory budget even as they pull from system memory to do so.

 

Operating on the assumption of gigabytes being available as opposed to a few hundred megabytes is obviously going to give them some more room to breathe. You would expect that, at least.

 

At any rate, I refuse to be less optimistic about this scenario. I'm freakin' happy they dropped support for that ancient hardware and absolutely no one can convince that that isn't a very good thing for the game.

[Kismet]

I just agree that I'd love to see greater range in height and/or types of body builds in the races we already have before we got any new ones.