Enough with the "New Race"

[Martimus.6027]

I would like a new race, and I am honestly quite surprised there hasn't already been one introduced. But I bet if they do make one, it will be on the Gem Shop, for like 6000 gems or some ridiculous amount, 4000 on sale for like a day.

Many of us don't like any of the races except human and plant-pod-people-audrey-II race. Charr's heads are just too big and i hate how humpbacked they are. Asura's heads are also way too big and they are hideous, like a cross between a grey alien and a sphinx hairless cat, with some deep human voice for some reason.

Norn have some sort of weird genetic disorder that makes their upper torso warped and super bizarre looking.

I would like a dwarf race or an insectoid or reptilian race. Just NO ELVES!

[Plautze.6290]

Playable quaggan... just imagine them outrunning a centaur!

Que sera, sera. Whatever is going to happen, is going to happen without us having only the slightest impact upon it.Hopefully, it will be good.

[Lorienys.5407]

Stuff like voice acting and armor and starter maps and whatever are the smallest things when it comes to adding a new race to GW2. But the story is, I agree, a MAJOR barrier.

One way to avoid any confusions and conflict would be to make the race expansion exclusive, and lock characters of the new race out of every pact commander related story (so basically all of it) while letting them have an unique story, which in turn is inaccessible to all of the original races. It'd double Anet's workload, though, with the amount of story they'd have to create.

But then there's also the pact commander mastery track. Would the new race have to be locked out of that track because they never become the pact commander? So that even if they have invested mastery points into that track already, it won't take effect on the character of the new race?

Now, if they were to add a new race to Central Tyria aka shape their personal story so that they do become the pact commander and defeat Zhaitan/Mordremoth/Balthazar, there would still be a bunch of issues, all depending on the race itself. Can't do that with the widely requested Tengu, for example: they're supposed to be wary of other races of Tyria, and were never meant to interact with them on such a large scale. They don't even let other races into their city. Anet isn't suddenly going to change years old lore so that people could make Tengu commanders. I don't know any other desired playable races (Kodan? Largos? Exalted?) but I think it's safe to say any race's existing lore/involvement in current world events would still majorly get in the way.

An entirely NEW, never seen before race would have to be introduced to avoid lore conflict, and everyone would have to just pretend that individuals of that race were always around, from the start. But even then, there would be issues. Anet would have to somehow integrate the new race's lore into the existing lore and general world history, and have it MAKE SENSE. With the amount of current lore, and with the existence of GW1, that could be incredibly hard: much harder than any other part of implementing the race.

Just my two cents really; feel free to counter anything I said. I'm not super smart or anything, so I might have forgotten/not realized some things.

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

Here’s what O’Brien said

GW2 meet and greet

I asked whether they have even considered adding a new race for PoF. Mike said that no and then added that new races in GW2 are "not impossible but very unlikely" to appear in the future. Implementing them would require a lot of resources that can be spent better on creating new content relevant for all players.

So, not impossible but a new race is very unlikely as the resources are better spent elsewhere.

[Endless Soul.5178]

@"Just a flesh wound.3589" said:Here’s what O’Brien said

GW2 meet and greet

I asked whether they have even considered adding a new race for PoF. Mike said that no and then added that new races in GW2 are "not impossible but very unlikely" to appear in the future. Implementing them would require a lot of resources that can be spent better on creating new content relevant for all players.

So, not impossible but a new race is very unlikely as the resources are better spent elsewhere.

Thank you JAFW, I remember this statement floating around somewhere. Of course, there will be those that analyze every letter in that statement and argue that that wasn't what Mike meant.

Case closed as far as I'm concerned.

[Martimus.6027]

@Plautze.6290 said:Playable quaggan... just imagine them outrunning a centaur!

Que sera, sera. Whatever is going to happen, is going to happen without us having only the slightest impact upon it.Hopefully, it will be good.

Not gonna lie. I would LOVE to be a healing water elementalist quaggan. That sounds like the most adorable thing ever. With, like a little bubble wand staff LOL...and also a giant racing snail mount

[derd.6413]

@"Lorienys.5407" said:Stuff like voice acting and armor and starter maps and whatever are the smallest things when it comes to adding a new race to GW2. But the story is, I agree, a MAJOR barrier.

One way to avoid any confusions and conflict would be to make the race expansion exclusive, and lock characters of the new race out of every pact commander related story (so basically all of it) while letting them have an unique story, which in turn is inaccessible to all of the original races. It'd double Anet's workload, though, with the amount of story they'd have to create.

or make a "new race" story where the earlier part is race specific story (why do they join the battle now etc.) and the later half is us becoming the commander of dragon's watch t is also about an event that can happen at any time but ends with us restoring the status quo (like an inquest experiment on zhaitans corps or something) ending with a cinematic or something that shows us going into the xpac story (and all previous events where done without the commander, which wouldn't be as much of a stretch as having 2 million commanders running around. yey, alternate timelines)

But then there's also the pact commander mastery track. Would the new race have to be locked out of that track because they never become the pact commander? So that even if they have invested mastery points into that track already, it won't take effect on the character of the new race?

they can rename it or something.

Just my two cents really; feel free to counter anything I said. I'm not super smart or anything, so I might have forgotten/not realized some things.

it'd still be alot of work and won't happen anytime soon but it can be solved

[Grim West.3194]

"You ran from Skritt!"

/thread

[Biff.5312]

I'm sure it won't, and personally I don't care about having a new race. However, it would be easy to do lore-wise. Just have the person's toon 'magically transform' into Tengu or whatever in a storyline only accessible at lvl 80. Problem solved.

[Martimus.6027]

Probably not the place for it, but I demand playable Quaggan race:

My take on a quaggan water elementalist heals.. something I drew up real fast at work between patients:

https://ibb.co/m8U0p7

[Atmaweapon.7345]

Who says the Pact Commander has to perfectly represent their race? They're not ordinary Tengu or whatever, they can have their own reasons for traveling outside their homeland. They can have a unique Personal story that goes into the Orders like any other race with whatever exception you need to explain how one person of an entire race goes off and does their own thing.

[Tachenon.5270]

@"Atmaweapon.7345" said:Who says the Pact Commander has to perfectly represent their race? They're not ordinary Tengu or whatever, they can have their own reasons for traveling outside their homeland. They can have a unique Personal story that goes into the Orders like any other race with whatever exception you need to explain how one person of an entire race goes off and does their own thing.

"I was but a child when some terrible event or other happened, and I was abandoned and left for dead. Then a kindly family took me in and raised me as their own. I may have talons and a beak because I was born with them, but at heart, I'm all quaggan. Coo."

[InvaGir.9158]

Anet could make a community project out of it. Get a variety of many talented people to contribute in creating new models/animations, voice acting, concepts and whatever you can come up with.Then people can stop whining about it and Anet wont reject this idea because more races means a more colorful game and they can also continue working on their own projects.

Also a new race doesn't mean it must be involved in the main story or the expansions it can have its own story and it can also be short, something like bonus content.

[Leo G.4501]

@Endless Soul.5178 said:

@"Just a flesh wound.3589" said:Here’s what O’Brien said

GW2 meet and greet

I asked whether they have even considered adding a new race for PoF. Mike said that no and then added that new races in GW2 are "not impossible but very unlikely" to appear in the future. Implementing them would require a lot of resources that can be spent better on creating new content relevant for all players.

So, not impossible but a new race is very unlikely as the resources are better spent elsewhere.

Thank you JAFW, I remember this statement floating around somewhere. Of course, there will be those that analyze every letter in that statement and argue that that wasn't what Mike meant.

Case closed as far as I'm concerned.

You say it's analyzing every letter, and I'm saying it's just context. The quote asked about new races for PoF. Of course we already knew that they were using resources toward the content relevent to PoF so none of that quote is particularly surprising.

If you're of the perspective that alterations to facilitate more custom options for player characters as non-relevent for all players, then yes, case closed. I'm not of that opinion, however, and feel that it can certainly be relevent to all players....or are the devs still chasing after e-sports? If so, then yeah, new races/content would be irrelevent to e-sports lol.

[Dantert.1803]

@Rikimaru.7890Oh I didn't know you were an Anet developer... oh wait you are not... so , sorry but not sorry, you are wrong.People were so sure that Anet would never add mounts to GW2 and they never did! Right??? RIGHT????Also what is wrong with people hoping to have their favourite race as a playable race? Even if you Sir don't think it will be possible(with no facts to back up your thesis), why even bothering ranting about people thinking something different than yourself? What do you hope to get from it? Are you happier because some people, by trusting your misinformed thoughts, will feel sad because their race will never be done?

Bad Rikimaru! BAD!

[Plautze.6290]

@Martimus.6027 said:

@Plautze.6290 said:Playable quaggan... just imagine them outrunning a centaur!

Que sera, sera. Whatever is going to happen, is going to happen without us having only the slightest impact upon it.Hopefully, it will be good.

Not gonna lie. I would LOVE to be a healing water elementalist quaggan. That sounds like the most adorable thing ever. With, like a little bubble wand staff LOL...and also a giant racing snail mount

That does indeed sound adorable =) I'm more in for quaggan warrior using 100B or imagine them doing a headbutt on a norn :#

[Sarie.1630]

@"Rauderi.8706" said:We could start by having a Tengu join Dragon's Watch. Gets us familiar with having one around, and at least integrates them into the story before releasing them as playable. And it's not like the story cared when Revenants were released.

I'd see any new race story kind of integrating with where the current story is at. Back in Guild Wars 1 if you went back to Ascalon as a Canthan character, for example, you would get the message "You are about to relive events as they occurred prior to your arrival in Tyria." when beginning missions. This would be quite adequate for a player of a sixth race playing through the existing Personal Story.

I think you can easily dispose of the first two story chapters and construct a way for the sixth race to join an order early in their story, and after that, direct them to the beginning of the third core personal story chapter if they wish to play through the historical events. If a player decided to level up traditionally (that is: not using tomes or level boosts) would a player of a new race have to level completely in order to continue the story with Fate's Raz... err... Dragon's Watch?

[TheGrimm.5624]

Regardless of whether I would like a new race, ANet has said a number of times that if people don't keep asking things would never happen. Not to mention if I was them I would be using requests and ideas posted here as target marks for GW3. Example, I would plan for base races with GW3 but then make sure I had infrastructure to intro additional new races in expansions. Same way they have done with addressing peoples interest in new classes via the elite mechanism. Again, its up to the players to state requests so that ANet can measure demand and ROI. But if we ask players to stop requesting them that demand is unknown. Forum goers remain the minority of the player base but requests can be used as directional information. Also another thing to consider, if the SAB peeps had stopped each time they heard no, they wouldn't be playing SAB right now. Again feel free to say prefer those resources spent elsewhere, but don't ask people not to ask, you limit the future that way.

[Azure The Heartless.3261]

I'd enjoy seeing some Tengu running around. As long as the lore gets tweaked to explain it.

[derd.6413]

@"Azure The Heartless.3261" said:I'd enjoy seeing some Tengu running around. As long as the lore gets tweaked to explain it.

that's not hard:

1. big destroyer shows up and ** the dominion of winds
2. tengu say "maybe we need to help with the dragon killing stuff the other races have been banging on about"
3. profit

[Einlanzer.1627]

So I think we should see the following new races with their own new story:

TenguElonian HumansCanthan HumansKodanDwarvesSkrittChoyaQuagganLargos

In all seriousness, it wouldn't need to be as hard as it seems. They would just craft a new story around a new set of races in a new region. I actually think it's something the game needs.

[coso.9173]

Enough with people telling others what to say or what to no say. Let people ask for what they want, and the devs will decide what to do. It's not your job.

[Ashen.2907]

@coso.9173 said:Enough with people telling others what to say or what to no say. Let people ask for what they want, and the devs will decide what to do. It's not your job.

Pretty much this.

Companies often spend significant resources trying to find out what their customers want. These forums allow Anet at least a small insight into their customers' desires. Arguing to deprive the company of this resource does no one any good.

[Ban Sidhe.9637]

I don't think it's a problem of "they can't do it", or it costing too much.. I mean they release new voiced content every story patch. There are many ways of avoiding continuity problems.. but people above have gone into that already, I don't have much to add to it.

I wouldn't mind seeing a new race at some point, but if I'm honest there are other things I'd much rather see.

• better engine / DX11/12.This game driving all 4 cores of my i5 to 100% and still only achieving an FPS between 10 and 60 fps depending how crowded an area is, is ridiculous. Not getting much more than 60 fps is not my problem with it.. it's the framerate drops when there are large fights, and also the hogging of system resources, that bother me. Especially the last 8 months I've noticed that opening up a website on my second screen while GW2 is running can be incredibly slow. Close GW2 and everything is normal. Start GW2 again and all CPU cores are busy doing.. what exactly?A new engine would be a thing I don't see happening any time soon, if at all. Improving that will probably mean rewriting a lot or most of the game.

• new professions.I think they might run out of options for diversifying current professions. Most of all Warrior, as they already use so many weapons. What's next, another melee fighter with a Staff? Adding a second bow option? Or go with the caster weapons.. Or they'd have to come up with a new weapon class, like a pole arm perhaps.. I'd rather just see a whole new profession to be honest. Sue me I'm an altoholic. I had nearly all classes at max level in WoW, tried to play most classes in LotRO (never got to end game), and in GW1 I had everything at lvl 20.. Just give me more :lol:

• build templates.The easiest thing they could do is adding Quality of Life stuff like a build template, someone mentioned that above here. But that would be as simple as redoing the gathering tools and introducing glyphs.. I'm guessing templates wouldn't be much more than a minor patch. It could happen next month for instance.

[Torolan.5816]

I won´t even argue about the arguments against a new race, they are all true. Anet backed themselves right in the corner from the get go in that question with their custom face to face talk videos instead of just having all happening in the instance itself.

To avoid exploding costs for such stuff in general, I personally would have just hired a common voice actor not the supposed stars people here like so much. Just one person for the male voice, and one person for the female voice. Pick a celebrity imitator if you so direly insist on having the norn female differ in talking style from the asura, these people can modulate thier voices high and low.

To avoid story issues, just block the new race from any stories.

To avoid continuity problems, that ship has long ago sailed anway with frozen maps and the introduction of revenants.