Thoughts on the Au Ra?

[Oli!]

Haven't seen a discussion thread on this yet, so here we go.

 

I dunno guys, personally I'm pretty disappointed. Looks like more of the same to me. I'll probably make one anyway because HEEEEEY New Race Why Not, but I don't know if I'm really feeling them, design-wise. Maybe their lore will make up for it, maybe it won't.

 

I know, I know. I shouldn't have come to Final Fantasy expecting playable beastly-looking beast races. But still, I'd be lying if I said that I didn't want a dragon race to look a little more menacing and dragon-y. What I'm seeing right now just seem to be miqo'te women and Elezen males with horns instead of weird ears.

 

Mmmmeh.

 

lalafellmasterrace

 

Post your thoughts.

[Perth]

I will admit, when I very first saw the female Au Ra I was also disappointed in how similar to the female hyurs looked, but I reminded myself that they have a dragon theme tied into them; From what I heard via rumours, they were the result of mating/merging/goodness knows what with dragons, so I understand I suppose. (Perhaps that counts as the lore making up for it to me, if the rumours are true?) Really, the only reason it'd've disappointed me is because I keep one of every race on my playable roster and I don't like having duplicates. :B

 

But I do believe that the males look a bit different than the elezen males, if only because I find the elezen race to be anatomically lanky and a bit awkward. As someone who studies realistic art, hrrngh their heads and proportions... shoving the thought into the back of my mind as, "Shush A'toli, it's a fantasy race, they're not humans" helps. Back on track to the male Au Ra, wow. I'm pretty pumped to see their character creation, same goes for the females (but perhaps a tweensy bit less so).

 

Edited to chop up a run-on sentence, holy cow.

[g0ne]

And scales, and a tail (you forgot these bits, Oli :bouncy: )

 

The females seem so dainty and delicate, and then there's the males who are big and huge. None of the races we've had so far have had the two genders with such distinctive sexual dimorphism. So, that's a plus point to me. 

 

Furthermore, I have a feeling the Au Ra will cause a decline in the number of Miqo'te running around, I especially see this true for females. But, anywho, that's what I think.

 

But, I'm certainly not disappointed. I'm happy. :3 

 

We got a new race!! That's good enough for now! Yay!

[Oli!]

And scales, and a tail (you forgot these bits, Oli :bouncy: )

 

 

SAMURAI FOOOOOOOOOOL

 

Miqo'te have tails too, that's totally why I didn't mention that!

 

Also, scales

 

more like

 

stupid

[g0ne]

And scales, and a tail (you forgot these bits, Oli :bouncy: )

 

 

SAMURAI FOOOOOOOOOOL

 

Miqo'te have tails too, that's totally why I didn't mention that!

 

Also, scales

 

more like

 

stupid

 

Elezen don't have tails! :surprise:

 

Also...

 

Scaly tails!

[Aya]

I'm really not a fan of sexual dimorphism when it seems to mainly exist to avoid making an "unattractive" female version, and I feel like that's what we're looking at here.  I also am not inspired by the idea of the race itself.  So, overall, I'll give a resounding "meh".  Don't think I'll ever make one :-]

[Delilah Scythewood]

I'm pretty excited to see them

 

A lot of people are disappointed from what I heard, but I think it's pretty awesome that they made a race specifically for the game and not a knock off from another FF (though I'd be lying if I said I didn't want bangaa or our bunbungirls. Hnnngh).

[g0ne]

I'm really not a fan of sexual dimorphism when it seems to mainly exist to avoid making an "unattractive" female version, and I feel like that's what we're looking at here.  I also am not inspired by the idea of the race itself.  So, overall, I'll give a resounding "meh".  Don't think I'll ever make one :-]

 

*looks at own post, goes to a corner and cries*

 

I have caused Aya's 'meh'...

 

 

Someone kill me... Please...

[BumblingSeaBiscuit]

Love, love, love, love, love, love, LOVE them. Ahhh yesssss.

[Austratus]

Probably might make an Au Ra alternate. I do like me some dragonpeople.

[Edda]

They are scaly miqo'te.

 

Only the dudes are taller.

[Knight Kat]

Trying to think of the last time I RPed with a Roegadyn character...

 

Trying to think of the last time I RPed with a Lalafell character...

 

I RP with Hyur, Elezen and Miqo'te characters all the time. This is not because I, or my character dislike Roes and Lalas. The Roegadyns are a beautiful race in their own right. They have rich lore, and the Seawolves have a dictionary for their own language! The Lalafell are just unique (kinda). I love them.

 

People don't tend to play them that often as characters. I am sure people have their reasons, but I think SE looks at the races and number of characters, and thought "What would a new race that appeals to the majority look like?".

 

They have plenty of pretty races, so I think maybe they should have made a beastly/alien type one. However, would such a new race bring people back to the game, or new people in?

 

I don't know, but what I do know is that I think they are actually neat-looking. Yes, I can understand why some are irked at the sexual dimorphism. SE loves their sexually dimorphic armor sets, emotes, races and trinkets. I can understand why people were hoping for something more unique. I am mostly just glad they will likely reduce the Miqo'te character population.

 

Yes, my main is a Miqo'te, but GDI there are too many of us around!

[Havoc Snow]

I could not be more excited for the Au Ra unless they were coming out today. I love dragonkin type races, or dragons in general, so to see a race like this getting added is pretty much a Twelvesend. I am name/race changing the moment they release the expac, I'll likely just make Ashren into an alt instead.

 

As far as a beast or alien race, one thing you really have to consider is how much work that requires. It's not as simple as just making the new race and throwing it into the game, if they have a different body type or head shape than the other races then they now have to go through and edit every single piece of gear in the game to fit that new shape, as well as make sure that every new piece of gear they design has two versions that can fit all the other races, and that race.

 

Because of that I can say with relative certainty to never expect a new race to come out that doesn't fit the Human+ mold.

[Aya]

I like that people seem so excited about them :-]

 

That's a big plus at least!

[Artigan]

Emo race, the males look cool, I wonder if they'll have some nice facial hair options, or if they'll just be another pretty boy/ dainty girl type? The horns are cool though. I'll roll a character called the Iron Dragon in homage to Iron Bull.

[Clover]

I LOVE the new race. When I saw it yesterday, I became so obsessed with them. It's one of those times that you see a character or a setting and suddenly inspiration hits you with sheer force.

 

I'm personally very glad that SE decided to make such a beautiful race instead of monsters or furries; I wouldn't play those, and as Kat said, most people wouldn't either. At least not past the initial hype for new shiny things.

 

So yes, the waiting is going to be painful for me, as I already know my character's personality and what she needs. I see a lot of potential in this race and the whole Ishgard setting.

[Havoc Snow]

Emo race, the males look cool, I wonder if they'll have some nice facial hair options, or if they'll just be another pretty boy/ dainty girl type? The horns are cool though. I'll roll a character called the Iron Dragon in homage to Iron Bull.

Doesn't seem like they are going to have facial hair, instead it looks more like they will have facial scales.

 

Edit: Also wanted to point out that SE hasn't released any lore details on them yet, so anything you see or read at this point is entirely speculation and fan theorycrafting. Them being the children of Shiva and Dragons isn't canon yet, and seems a bit farfetched. The only thing they have said is that they are from Ilsabard. While it is possible that they could be the children of Dragons and Shiva (or just the children of Dragons and Hyur perhaps) that were exiled or fled from Eorzea initially, I think it's far more likely they are just another race that exists in another part of the world that come to Eorzea with the rest of the Doma refugees (like Yugiri) to escape the Empire.

[Oli!]

As far as a beast or alien race, one thing you really have to consider is how much work that requires. It's not as simple as just making the new race and throwing it into the game, if they have a different body type or head shape than the other races then they now have to go through and edit every single piece of gear in the game to fit that new shape, as well as make sure that every new piece of gear they design has two versions that can fit all the other races, and that race.

 

Because of that I can say with relative certainty to never expect a new race to come out that doesn't fit the Human+ mold.

 

 

Yeah, I thought about that side of it, but generally when it comes to that sort of thing, the counter-argument would be pointing to all the games that buckle down and do that anyway. Which are quite numerous, really. Add into that fact that there are increasing numbers of dev-tools that are capable of reformatting geometry based on character models (yes, those exist), and the technical limitations shrink as well.

 

I think it's more of an aesthetic choice as opposed to a technical design one.

[Havoc Snow]

As far as a beast or alien race, one thing you really have to consider is how much work that requires. It's not as simple as just making the new race and throwing it into the game, if they have a different body type or head shape than the other races then they now have to go through and edit every single piece of gear in the game to fit that new shape, as well as make sure that every new piece of gear they design has two versions that can fit all the other races, and that race.

 

Because of that I can say with relative certainty to never expect a new race to come out that doesn't fit the Human+ mold.

 

 

Yeah, I thought about that side of it, but generally when it comes to that sort of thing, the counter-argument would be pointing to all the games that buckle down and do that anyway. Which are quite numerous, really. Add into that fact that there are increasing numbers of dev-tools that are capable of reformatting geometry based on character models (yes, those exist), and the technical limitations shrink as well.

 

I think it's more of an aesthetic choice as opposed to a technical design one.

No game comes to mind that had beast races that didn't have them from the start. TESO for example had the Khajit and Argonian from the start, EQ same deal, WoW as well. All of these games had the luxury of starting development for armor with the idea that they needed to develop different sets of gear for different body types and what have you. It is a lot different when you take a game where all races use the same exact models and then add in a race that now uses an entirely different model, because you have to then spend extra man hours to redesign old gear sets.

 

While it's likely part of the decision is aesthetics like you said, I think the root of the decision and ultimately the main reason is technology and time required.

 

Edit: Side note, I've noticed from the artwork and renders that they don't really have any visible ears. I'm wondering how they'll have earrings displayed, like if their have earrings somehow attached to their horns or something.

[Oli!]

As far as a beast or alien race, one thing you really have to consider is how much work that requires. It's not as simple as just making the new race and throwing it into the game, if they have a different body type or head shape than the other races then they now have to go through and edit every single piece of gear in the game to fit that new shape, as well as make sure that every new piece of gear they design has two versions that can fit all the other races, and that race.

 

Because of that I can say with relative certainty to never expect a new race to come out that doesn't fit the Human+ mold.

 

 

Yeah, I thought about that side of it, but generally when it comes to that sort of thing, the counter-argument would be pointing to all the games that buckle down and do that anyway. Which are quite numerous, really. Add into that fact that there are increasing numbers of dev-tools that are capable of reformatting geometry based on character models (yes, those exist), and the technical limitations shrink as well.

 

I think it's more of an aesthetic choice as opposed to a technical design one.

No game comes to mind that had beast races that didn't have them from the start. TESO for example had the Khajit and Argonian from the start, EQ same deal, WoW as well. All of these games had the luxury of starting development for armor with the idea that they needed to develop different sets of gear for different body types and what have you. It is a lot different when you take a game where all races use the same exact models and then add in a race that now uses an entirely different model, because you have to then spend extra man hours to redesign old gear sets.

 

While it's likely part of the decision is aesthetics like you said, I think the root of the decision and ultimately the main reason is technology and time required.

 

 

WoW's Worgen had body structures that were vastly different from anything else that was playable / wore a lot of armor at the time. That definitely counts as something that was added since the start of the game, and a similar argument could be made for the Pandaren. In a similar vein, EQ had the Froglok, which despite existing earlier on, only became playable (and thus required lots of armor to be made and reformatted for them) after a patch later on in the game's life.

 

Although one could still make the argument that these games had the general idea that there might be more beast races, I think that that pre-planning is easily balanced by the fact that a lot of the tools that could be used to smooth the process along did not exist, and everything had to be done manually anyway.

[Havoc Snow]

As far as a beast or alien race, one thing you really have to consider is how much work that requires. It's not as simple as just making the new race and throwing it into the game, if they have a different body type or head shape than the other races then they now have to go through and edit every single piece of gear in the game to fit that new shape, as well as make sure that every new piece of gear they design has two versions that can fit all the other races, and that race.

 

Because of that I can say with relative certainty to never expect a new race to come out that doesn't fit the Human+ mold.

 

 

Yeah, I thought about that side of it, but generally when it comes to that sort of thing, the counter-argument would be pointing to all the games that buckle down and do that anyway. Which are quite numerous, really. Add into that fact that there are increasing numbers of dev-tools that are capable of reformatting geometry based on character models (yes, those exist), and the technical limitations shrink as well.

 

I think it's more of an aesthetic choice as opposed to a technical design one.

No game comes to mind that had beast races that didn't have them from the start. TESO for example had the Khajit and Argonian from the start, EQ same deal, WoW as well. All of these games had the luxury of starting development for armor with the idea that they needed to develop different sets of gear for different body types and what have you. It is a lot different when you take a game where all races use the same exact models and then add in a race that now uses an entirely different model, because you have to then spend extra man hours to redesign old gear sets.

 

While it's likely part of the decision is aesthetics like you said, I think the root of the decision and ultimately the main reason is technology and time required.

 

 

WoW's Worgen had body structures that were vastly different from anything else that was playable / wore a lot of armor at the time. That definitely counts as something that was added since the start of the game, and a similar argument could be made for the Pandaren. In a similar vein, EQ had the Froglok, which despite existing earlier on, only became playable (and thus required lots of armor to be made and reformatted for them) after a patch later on in the game's life.

 

Although one could still make the argument that these games had the general idea that there might be more beast races, I think that that pre-planning is easily balanced by the fact that a lot of the tools that could be used to smooth the process along did not exist, and everything had to be done manually anyway.

While I agree that Worgen are very different body type than the other races in the game, if you go look at any Worgen wearing armor you will notice that WoW pretty much just didn't design armor for the body parts that were different, essentially making it so Worgen never wear visible boots because they don't want to design paw shaped versions, and most of the helmets are just stretched over their head in the same way they do it for the Tauren. Same thing goes for the Draenei.

[TheWizard]

I LOVE the new race. When I saw it yesterday, I became so obsessed with them. It's one of those times that you see a character or a setting and suddenly inspiration hits you with sheer force.

 

I'm personally very glad that SE decided to make such a beautiful race instead of monsters or furries; I wouldn't play those, and as Kat said, most people wouldn't either. At least not past the initial hype for new shiny things.

 

So yes, the waiting is going to be painful for me, as I already know my character's personality and what she needs. I see a lot of potential in this race and the whole Ishgard setting.

 

That's pretty much how I feel. I got all sorts of ideas and plans cooking in my mind. The males in their starting gear kinda remind me of Oni while the females are just cute as all heck. Sorta remind me of Castanics in a way.

[Oli!]

As far as a beast or alien race, one thing you really have to consider is how much work that requires. It's not as simple as just making the new race and throwing it into the game, if they have a different body type or head shape than the other races then they now have to go through and edit every single piece of gear in the game to fit that new shape, as well as make sure that every new piece of gear they design has two versions that can fit all the other races, and that race.

 

Because of that I can say with relative certainty to never expect a new race to come out that doesn't fit the Human+ mold.

 

 

Yeah, I thought about that side of it, but generally when it comes to that sort of thing, the counter-argument would be pointing to all the games that buckle down and do that anyway. Which are quite numerous, really. Add into that fact that there are increasing numbers of dev-tools that are capable of reformatting geometry based on character models (yes, those exist), and the technical limitations shrink as well.

 

I think it's more of an aesthetic choice as opposed to a technical design one.

No game comes to mind that had beast races that didn't have them from the start. TESO for example had the Khajit and Argonian from the start, EQ same deal, WoW as well. All of these games had the luxury of starting development for armor with the idea that they needed to develop different sets of gear for different body types and what have you. It is a lot different when you take a game where all races use the same exact models and then add in a race that now uses an entirely different model, because you have to then spend extra man hours to redesign old gear sets.

 

While it's likely part of the decision is aesthetics like you said, I think the root of the decision and ultimately the main reason is technology and time required.

 

 

WoW's Worgen had body structures that were vastly different from anything else that was playable / wore a lot of armor at the time. That definitely counts as something that was added since the start of the game, and a similar argument could be made for the Pandaren. In a similar vein, EQ had the Froglok, which despite existing earlier on, only became playable (and thus required lots of armor to be made and reformatted for them) after a patch later on in the game's life.

 

Although one could still make the argument that these games had the general idea that there might be more beast races, I think that that pre-planning is easily balanced by the fact that a lot of the tools that could be used to smooth the process along did not exist, and everything had to be done manually anyway.

While I agree that Worgen are very different body type than the other races in the game, if you go look at any Worgen wearing armor you will notice that WoW pretty much just didn't design armor for the body parts that were different, essentially making it so Worgen never wear visible boots because they don't want to design paw shaped versions, and most of the helmets are just stretched over their head in the same way they do it for the Tauren. Same thing goes for the Draenei.

 

 

That's the sort of armor detailing I'd expect for any beast race, really. Helmets are stretched over the head because, well, you've got to cover the head. GW2 does the same thing with the Charr. If you've got a long head, you're gonna have a long helmet.

 

Also, most boots actually are visible, they're just designed as open-foot variants. Boots with prominent cuffs or flairs will still have those design elements present. Covered paws would look silly anyway.

 

Like doggie booties.

[CalebAgron]

Overall I'm excited about them and will for sure make one when they are released, I'm glad they made it a "dragon/hyur" mix instead of another "fluffy cutesy" race. But if I'm going to be nit picky I do see others point on how the men look too much like Elezen and the females miqo'te. They should have given the males less of a "elezen long neck" and more of a muscular and or "cardassian" kind of neck. But we will see, still excited regardless!

[Kismet]

That's pretty much how I feel. I got all sorts of ideas and plans cooking in my mind. The males in their starting gear kinda remind me of Oni while the females are just cute as all heck. Sorta remind me of Castanics in a way.

 

I was reminded of them a bit, too! (But the Au'ra are less, uh... sensual, to put it as nicely as possible.) I've already got a concept brewing in my head for one. Waiting's gonna be absolute torture!