Chance of Tengu playable race in the new expansion?

I see several reasons why a new Tengu playable race would be fitting for the new expansion:

• The Dominion of the Winds has been this walled-off area that can't even be visited for way too long now. They ought to have had plans to add something there which I hope they're finally working on now.
• The Dominion is right in the center of Tyria (the continent), close to other starting areas, and there's enough space for one city and one level 0-20 map. (See e.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/b3d17j/gw2_dominion_of_winds_a_concept_for_a_tengu/ for one possible layout, although this one is awkward with Claw Island. There's enough space for different layouts too: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/4/46/Tyria_map_%28clean%29.jpg )
• There was a whole new class with the first xpac, plus elites. With the second xpac there was a new set of elites, and mounts. For the new xpac they need something fresh, and they never did a new playable race before. If yet another elite is added to every existing class, that will make balancing all the more difficult, whereas a new race brings no issues to competitive gameplay at all.
• Adding a new playable race will add replay value to the starter areas. The Dominion being close to other starting areas means that old players will mingle with new players, which is good for the community and new players.
• Tengu come from Cantha and are part of the far-eastern theme, which has been mostly absent from GW2 until now. We know pretty much for sure that the new xpac will take us to Cantha, so Tengu are a natural fit.

The last point alone makes me 90% sure that the new xpac will feature the Tengu in some way, though not necessarily as a playable race.

Sadly, as noted often before, there are also important reasons why it's a big challenge, but I don't think any of them are a show-stopper:

• Lots of new 3D design needed for all the existing gear, animations, and outfits: yes, it's a big task, but it's really just work work work. A number of people who know how to work with whatever tools Anet uses to fit gear/outfit models to character models just need to sit down and do it. It might take weeks, maybe even months if they don't want to employ too many people, but there's nothing really difficult about it and I don't think the amount of work needed is that ridiculously high? Someone with more 3D knowledge might be better suited to comment on this. Animations might be more difficult especially if they use motion capture but you also need new animations for new skills which come with the elite specs and that obviously didn't hold Anet back from adding those in the last xpacs.
• Integrating the new race to the original story + HoT + PoF: now this IMO is a real challenge. The Pact was formed by the coming together of the 5 playable races, and adding another would mean redoing significant parts of the story. In LW S2 we had this whole meeting in the Grove where the 5 races came together, and the Tengu were nowhere to be seen. I see two possibilities in how this situation could be handled:
  1. Masterfully "slip in" a Tengu playable character into the old story parts with just a little new dialogue and small tweaks here and there where the player character is made out to be a rather unique Tengu who decided to get involved even though the Dominion strictly refuses to get involved. This might allow for a convincing lore explanation of why the Tengu race is nowhere to be seen in the original story even though the PC is a Tengu.
  2. Completely split off the personal story of the Tengu race from the others and make it begin with the new xpac. New players would have to pick one of the other races if they want to go through the original story. You could maybe use a Tengu character to replay old LW missions but the game would treat it like an "outside of lore" situation that's only made possible as a gameplay mechanic, or they might simply disable you from replaying old LW stories when on a Tengu character.

Does anyone see any really deal-breaking issues with adding Tengu as a new playable race? I think none of the issues typically raised are impossible to overcome or would require much more work than an xpac typically entails.

Please no. Keep in mind, that introducing new playable race would require a lot of work on fitting already existing armors to tengu, and even more of work on voice acting for already existing personal stories. Maybe they could introduce new race in other way so no need for second thing i mentioned, but still imo its to much work for cosmetic update to the game, while the same resources could be put into making another parts of gameplay.But im almost sure we will see some tengus soon, as new saga episode will bring tengu weapons

The problem with a new playable race is not only the model work it would require, and the story as you mention, but also voiceacting and changes in the already excisting world that perhaps does not directly involve story. Everywhere else in the world you can see all 5 races represented in one way or another and it would feel disconnected if f.x. Tengu was the only one not present.A work around could be to do the same as they did with Factions and simply funnel them in to the story of the expansion and nothing else. (As far as I recall, you could have a character from Tyria that would enter from one direction and a character from Cantha entering another place) - but that would feel disconnected too.

I highly doubt a new playable race will happen.

Have you tried the forums search feature? There are several threads on this topic already.

I’d prefer that they spend any resources that would have gone to adding them as a playable race on something else instead.

Adding them as a playable race doesn’t really add any value beyond RP purposes. This doesn’t mean that they cannot include them in the expansion as NPCs and then delve more into their lore through the story.

Cool, our daily Tengu-thread...

you get the charr, the panthers and the tengus, the aves.

it's like Leo in the Western Zodiac and Rooster in the Chinese Zodiac in a game.

Yet another Tengu thread.....

~sighs~

LMAO I've seen a Tengu thread maybe 1-2 times and that was before the xpac announcement and never seemed to have any in-depth discussions so I thought it would be a good idea to create this thread. I see many people are tired of it. I guess I'm not on the forum nearly as often as some others.

Personally I don't see it because they'd have to redo every single piece of armor/outift again to make the model and animations that would be required for Tengu. It would be fun but It's a bit too unrealistic imo.If any race was to be introduced my guess would be Largos since they're somewhat around for the fight against Zaithan so They could be woven into the story more easily, They're humanoid in shape so require no redos in animations or armors. and lastly Their Voices are distorted by the Masks so a simple effect could be used on preexisting voice lines.

Or in a perfect world, we get both :lol:

@"Solanum.6983" said:Or in a perfect world, we get both :lol:

In a perfect world these goddamn "make xxx a playable race"-Threads would cease at some point...I'd personally prefer if they started working on better themed Legendary Weapons or essentially anything that people can work towards. Adding a new race will only result in more discussions about what other races people wanna play...

While it would be cool if they added Tengu as a playable race, I'm inclined to believe they won't be. Will probably get to interact with them more and probably have masteries to unlock involving them in the next expansion but beyond that, I don't see them being added as a playable race.

@lokh.2695 said:Cool, our daily Tengu-thread...

When they fix the rollback, I am expecting 3 more - one for each day rolled back ?

Isn't Tengu just charr with a different head?

@"Taylan.2187" said:LMAO I've seen a Tengu thread maybe 1-2 times and that was before the xpac announcement and never seemed to have any in-depth discussions so I thought it would be a good idea to create this thread. I see many people are tired of it. I guess I'm not on the forum nearly as often as some others.

It only took me a few moments with the search feature to find these. Not sure of your definition of in-depth discussion...

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/105085/playable-tengu-ideahttps://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/100184/cantha-and-the-tengu/p1https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/101886/if-tengu-becomes-playablehttps://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/100478/a-smart-way-to-let-tengu-play-main-story-and-other-thingshttps://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/100184/cantha-and-the-tengu

While I support the idea of new races (I mean, they're really cool and change completely the way you see the game), I've got serious doubts Anet has the resources to make it happen. Tengu are a nice race (as Kodan and others are) but if you see how every race is developed in GW2 and you think about it in detail, there's a lot of work behind them that involves from voice acting, central lore, racial maps, racial cities, animations, armor... I mean, the amount of work would be huge. Not to mention that you have to create the story of these new races to make sense in a world that went on ahead without them.

I rather having them focusing those resources in other modes of the game (PvP, WvW, Raids, Fractals, Graphics...) and -if possible- new professions and elite specs, for the next expansion; instead of new races.

of all the races in GW2, the tengu is really low on my list, as in really REALLY low.

@nichoo.9246 said:While I support the idea of new races (I mean, they're really cool and change completely the way you see the game), I've got serious doubts Anet has the resources to make it happen. Tengu are a nice race (as Kodan and others are) but if you see how every race is developed in GW2 and you think about it in detail, there's a lot of work behind them that involves from voice acting, central lore, racial maps, racial cities, animations, armor... I mean, the amount of work would be huge. Not to mention that you have to create the story of these new races to make sense in a world that went on ahead without them.

I rather having them focusing those resources in other modes of the game (PvP, WvW, Raids, Fractals, Graphics...) and -if possible- new professions and elite specs, for the next expansion; instead of new races.

Don’t forget tengu are already in the base game files as a playable race. Character model and all they’re in game. Chances are most of the outfits in game are already fit for the tengu models in the game files.

Anet once said they’d never return to cantha but it’s going to happen.

Since most of the tengu that exist in central Tyrian are from cantha the chances are high that the dominion of winds will be coming along with tengu in the coming months.

In fairness, if they ever release a new playable race... it's gonna be the skritt :)

@sorudo.9054 said:of all the races in GW2, the tengu is really low on my list, as in really REALLY low.

I wanna see your list.

@dodgerrule.8739 said:Don’t forget tengu are already in the base game files as a playable race.

Holy moly! More reason they'd finally add it then.

@Endless Soul.5178 said:Yet another Tengu thread.....

~sighs~

another Tengu thread with different ideas...no?

I'm for Tengu and Largos!! Just slap on Char and Norn armor on them, respectively. I won't mind some of the animation armor clipping. It's a minor thing. They can easily pick up with where the game is at, or they can have their own personal story that's fitting to them, like every other race. I'm looking forward to it.

I really hope so because I concepted my tengu characters and their backstories years ago but I doubt it will come. Hoever If Anet announces it I'll cry omg

I want the Tengu with the maguuma tengu skeleton rig, not the charr kiten rig. I'm fine without voice acting(and seems Anet can delivere content without it as the next saga chapter) but what I need is a unique running animation: charrs have the four legs running, Tengu can have the ninja run(naruto run with the arms back) as I remember they run in gw1. There is already official art from Tengu different becks, feather patherns and different birds feathers and heads. They can be pretty cool and I think they can be the first MMO with such playable race.

I'm really in for tengu playables and I'm convince that if not with the next xpac in a distant future it will be a reality.

@VocalThought.9835 said:I'm for Tengu and Largos!! Just slap on Char and Norn armor on them, respectively. I won't mind some of the animation armor clipping. It's a minor thing. They can easily pick up with where the game is at, or they can have their own personal story that's fitting to them, like every other race. I'm looking forward to it.

I don't have big hopes for Largos. We know pretty much nothing about them and making them a playable race out of nowhere would be weird. They would first need to be fleshed out as a race with its own full lore. Their racial city would also have to be underwater, which... Would be quite crazy. :D

Since apparently Tengu are already kind of in the game files as a playable race, and we go to Cantha in the new xpac, I just don't see why they wouldn't finally make them playable. Retconning them into the original story might be a little weird with the lack of Dominion presence in many parts of the story, but I don't see it being a show stopper kind of problem. It would be quite a bit like how you can be a Revenant from the beginning if you have HoT even though Rytlock invented the class later.

I do wonder though what exactly they will do with the Commander/Champion lore-wise in the future. If we were just one of a big team and not in that central of a position, then future lore could just write off our character as the member of a group of heroes. But the Commander is Aurene's Champion, and that's really big. We're too significant to not be mentioned in detail in future lore. So what will they do with the fact that we can be of any race and class?

Wait, don't the Mists supposedly contain parallel universes or something? I guess there's a parallel-universe Tyria for every race/class and other choices you can make in character creation LOL.