Odd that gw2 hasnt added new races.

[Fit.9405]

With the release of Soto and seeing all the dwarves it really makes me want to make a dwarf. Even if the model is a mini norn i still think they look amazing.  Also with going back and recently playing gw1 the tengu model is a lot better in gw1 i think. With that what other races would you like added to the game and why havent we seen any new races yet? Do you think they will ever add more ?

[DanAlcedo.3281]

Imagine the poor soul that has to retroactively make all armor/outfits skins fit a new race model. 

And if old story content is playable, recording a bajillion voice lines in multiple languages. 

Also the extra work that needs to be done for everything in the future. Skins, animation, voice lines etc. 

Add the fact that if Anet gives us one extra race, they set a new standard and people won't shut up about wanting more. 

Anyway, tengu when? 

Edited April 30 by DanAlcedo.3281

[kiroho.4738]

1 hour ago, Fit.9405 said:

With the release of Soto and seeing all the dwarves it really makes me want to make a dwarf. Even if the model is a mini norn i still think they look amazing.  Also with going back and recently playing gw1 the tengu model is a lot better in gw1 i think. With that what other races would you like added to the game and why havent we seen any new races yet? Do you think they will ever add more ?

Anet answered questions about new races years ago, but I think the points are still valid.

A new race simply wouldn't add enough value to justify all the work. For a new race they had to do a lot of work such as adding new models, faces, hairs, adding new personal story chapters, adjust all skins, add two new voices for all existing voice lines and much more.
All this work would lead to only effectively having a new personal story chapter (that people play maybe 1 or 2 times) and maybe a new town (while there already are more than enough).
The joy of having something new (the race itself) would be there at the beginning, but fade out pretty quickly.

[Morvran.8265]

"Too much effort" - Anet anytime it's not a gemstore request they can outsource

[DanAlcedo.3281]

17 minutes ago, Morvran.8265 said:

"Too much effort" - Anet anytime it's not a gemstore request they can outsource

"Will doing X be profitable?" 

Yes? Do it. 

No? Don't do it. 

But I bet you know better than people who's job it is to make such decisions. 

Your business must be booming. I'm sure. 

[Crono.4197]

While I do understand why it's hard to implement a new race due to the game being fully voice acted and all the outfits, indeed at times I do wish there were more races added to the game.

Most MMOs that I played in the past added at least 1-2 new races at one point, along with new classes. There are ways to implement new races without going back and adding all the old outfits. It could work the same way death knight worked in Wrath of the Lich King. After you reach max level, you can create a level 60 new race or class and you start directly from Claw Island. "We heard you are a famous adventurer that belongs to X order, we suspect there will be a Risen attack on Claw Island, we would like your assistance". And with that, at least a big chunk of the vanilla game would be skipped.

Small chance a new race will happen at this point in the game's life cycle, but it's a pity. It's something I've always wanted.

[Remus Darkblight.1673]

At this stage, the best I think those wanting new races can hope for is more combat tonics, or head gear (like the recent dragon one).

[Player.2475]

6 hours ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

Imagine the poor soul that has to retroactively make all armor/outfits skins fit a new race model.

This. They don't bother doing it even for new gemstore exclusive faces, lol. If you'll check the Charr or Asura ones you'll see that half of their features either clip through most helmets or make hairstyles disappear entirely to make them fit.

That said, I don't think they will ever offer more races, because races in GW2 do not offer any meaningful gameplay elements so as to not disrupt game balance. There's certain unique cosmetic options and some may argue that size gives you an advantage in PvP or jumping puzzles. Besides aesthetics, the only meaningful difference in my mind is in home instances, where human and asura nodes look like they're carefully planned to be as optimal as possible, and all the others have been haphazardly thrown around in randomized locations. Also, there's no gemstore exclusives for different races, even if some skins (like the elf ears) offer completely different looks to different races.

[Inssengrimm.7924]

People asking for new races always amazes me.
Not only we got arguably the best beast and elf races in any MMORPG. And we also have Rat Abortions.

Any other race in-universe is there for it's lore, and for us to be amazed. Adding one of those, like Tengu or Largos which are usually the ones asked for would just ruin a ton of world building, not to mention the inmense work of re-estructuring the game to add them. No thank you, sincerely it would be one massive waste of resources to do such thing.

[Vavume.8065]

10 hours ago, Fit.9405 said:

With the release of Soto and seeing all the dwarves it really makes me want to make a dwarf. 

Same.

[DanAlcedo.3281]

3 minutes ago, Vavume.8065 said:

Same.

Luckly. Dwarfs are just down scaled Norn. 

So armor skins and animations are not an issue. 

Making them an actual contender to be added. 

[jokke.6239]

11 hours ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

Imagine the poor soul that has to retroactively make all armor/outfits skins fit a new race model. 

And if old story content is playable, recording a bajillion voice lines in multiple languages. 

Also the extra work that needs to be done for everything in the future. Skins, animation, voice lines etc. 

Add the fact that if Anet gives us one extra race, they set a new standard and people won't shut up about wanting more. 

Anyway, tengu when? 

They could just make the new races unable to wear the old armor sets

But first of all, that would already be a big downside to the new races and they would still have to make additional armor when they release new ones

[jokke.6239]

Also, with no way of changing race, it would be new characters for me that would lack the character bound QoL I have on my mains

If everything was account bound (like bag slots, equipment templates) I would be more open to it

But I guess that could be a motivation for implementing it

Additional sale of bag slots, equipment templates and character slots

But I doubt it would bring in a lot compared to what would require to mainatin an additional race (voice acting, skins)

Edited April 30 by jokke.6239

[Sobx.1758]

I don't think it's odd at all, I think it would be a low value addition.

[RedNuii.5680]

10 hours ago, kiroho.4738 said:

A new race simply wouldn't add enough value to justify all the work. For a new race they had to do a lot of work such as adding new models, faces, hairs, adding new personal story chapters, adjust all skins, add two new voices for all existing voice lines and much more.

Well keep in mind it's 2 new voices only in ENGLISH. The game is voiced in French and German too. So it would be more like 6 new voices.

[kharmin.7683]

3 hours ago, jokke.6239 said:

They could just make the new races unable to wear the old armor sets

 

Yeah, because that would go over so well with the player base.

[jokke.6239]

2 minutes ago, kharmin.7683 said:

Yeah, because that would go over so well with the player base.

It's not like I was promoting it as a good idea lol

[Astralporing.1957]

8 hours ago, Player.2475 said:

That said, I don't think they will ever offer more races, because races in GW2 do not offer any meaningful gameplay elements so as to not disrupt game balance.

In FF XIV they offer even less of those (there's like one racial callback in the whole game, and it's somewhat out of the way), and yet SqEnix was adding them with expansions (alhough the newest expansion will likely be last time they'll do that).

Now, of course, FF XIV protagonist is not voiced, and races having no impact whatsoever on both game and the story (even when it would make sense) means you don't have to consider this aspect at all. Which eliminates two-thirds of the issues you'd need to spend resources to deal with compared to GW2.

[Gerry.7964]

As much as I want stuff like playable Tengu it's never going to happen with the amount of limited resources Anet has. If you look at Anet's history with the last few expansions its a miracle we even got them. 

[Randulf.7614]

It’s odd no one has ever mentioned it before

[Manpag.6421]

It's not just a technical limitation though, it's narrative too. Imo, ANet really painted themselves into a corner with the personal story, with individual racial storylines converging into the main Zhaitan one, and then all releases following the same characters in one continuous timeline.

A new race isn't just a new race; they still have to be the Pact Commander, so have to fit into the personal story somehow. A personal story that now has to either include more races, or explain why this lone tengu or whatever is so far from home. NPCs would realistically react with surprise and awe at seeing a dwarf, wherever you went. Although racial dialogue options aren't that numerous in the story, they are there and they'd need to be stepped up a notch because people wouldn't be blasé about working alongside exotic races, let alone being led by one.

A hill I'm willing to die on is that the GW1 model was a much more versatile way of storytelling, because each game was a standalone campaign that you either played through from the very beginning with characters that were native, or joined the story part way through with an existing character. Each expansion's story would need to be much more self-contained to be able to just slot in new races.

[kharmin.7683]

I'm not sure Anet painted themselves into that corner.  The races that they implemented on release were by design and it was possibly decided that those would be all that were necessary for the game/story. 

[Bladestrom.6425]

There's other reasons new races are not worth the investment over other types of content. First, they only appeal to existing players who ALT and are also interested in the new race/class, and secondly, new classes are unlikely to generate an influx of new players who will join as a result of the new class.

Edited April 30 by Bladestrom.6425

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Do you mean race?  Because a new race does not mean a new profession.

[Randin.5701]

4 hours ago, RedNuii.5680 said:

Well keep in mind it's 2 new voices only in ENGLISH. The game is voiced in French and German too. So it would be more like 6 new voices.

Honestly, when it comes to voices, I would say that the solution would be to not use new voices at all; use the old ones. Take, I don't know, the Asura VO, alter the pitch a little, layer on some bird sounds, and bam, you've got Tengu. You'd still need to record some new lines (the race-specific parts of the Personal Story, a few other voice lines in the story that are race-specific, probably some new combat barks), but it would bring it into the realm of a doable project.

Of course, that still leaves the issue of getting armor pieces working on a new race (although they have done a little of that with the Tengu).