Are we going to get a new playable race with the Canthan expension?

[LightofConduct.1693]

What is the new Canthan Race Option going to be?

[Raknar.4735]

I honestly don't think new races are going to be added. Retroactively adjusting all of the gearparts to them would be a huge undertaking. It would also increase the work of introducing any new skins.

(Yes, I'm aware that Tengu for example could use the Charr gear, as they're already using the Charr skeleton, but there would most likely still be a lot of clipping issues. Same goes for Largos and their wings)

 

If they do add a race however, i'd like to see either Largos, Naga or Warden.

 

Edited July 17, 2021 by Raknar.4735
Added preferred race-additions

[kharmin.7683]

Maybe use the forums search feature to find all of the other threads that already exist on this topic before creating yet another poll?

 

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/search/?q=playable&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=11&search_in=titles

[Poormany.4507]

If there is a new race, I think it would need to be heavily restricted in earlier stories (no VA, skipped entirely, etc.), to the point I am doubtful we would get one as it would act as a cosmetic. If we did happen to get one somehow, I feel like Tengu would be the most likely due to the massive player demand and marketability.

[Aodlop.1907]

Not to mention how it wouldn't make sense for them to go through the original Living world and Personal story missions.

What then? Do we rewrite the story and include those races in the fight against Zhaitan? Or do we lock those races entirely from ever engaging in the Living world story missions?

[The Fear.3865]

Why would you include Tengu in the original story, they are supposed to be lockdown in the empire of the winds / cantha. 

[Ashantara.8731]

Further details on the EoD expansion will be revealed on the 27th, if I am not mistaken.

 

Until then, speculations are a bit pointless.

[Quench.7091]

I think they might go for the tengu, due to popular demand. They teased us with tengu during the icebrood saga. Wooden Potatoes made a point that there's a male and female voice actor announced for EoD who each have an individual character role that they can't tell us about, which is interesting for a voice actor in this game. Can't help but think they'll put tengu into the expansion.

[Fueki.4753]

I don't think there'll ever be any new playable races.

 

And if they were to add a new race, I'd rather have it be Grawl or Ogres instead of those deep-sea moths or birdmen.

 

Edited July 18, 2021 by Fueki.4753

[Aodlop.1907]

32 minutes ago, The Fear.3865 said:

Why would you include Tengu in the original story,

Because if you don't, you lock the race from content otherwise accessible to everybody else.

[The Fear.3865]

Revenant Norn can't even bear, so... 

Edited July 18, 2021 by The Fear.3865

[Jijimuge.4675]

I very much doubt that we'll get a new race option for our PCs to be Tengu as I don't think the amount of work involved (e.g. adding voice acting for all living story steps - would be very costly and labour intensive IMO) would be justified by the amount of revenue it would earn the franchise.

 

However, what is pretty likely IMO as a way of "scratching the itch" of having Tengu PCs is maybe some story step or the like in which we get to play as Tengu NPCs for a while;  it certainly wouldn't satisfy everyone calling for a new race, but it may be a more cost-effective approach.

[Dawdler.8521]

Anyone who thinks Anet is going to remake 3000+ or so skins for a new race has lost their marbles. Even if the skeleton is the same as an existing race, the body shape would not be so the skins would not be compatible. And if its so similar they are... well theres not really any point, is there?

 

They would be far, far more efficient by expanding current cosmetic options on existing races, ie new faces/hairstyles etc (not to mention regular new skins).

[Omega.6801]

I'd rather have ANet spend resources on something else.

[Nico.9361]

44 minutes ago, The Fear.3865 said:

they are supposed to be lockdown in the empire of the winds / cantha. 

Uhm, actually Dominion of Winds. It currently houses most of Tengu (to the best of our knowledge).

[LucianDK.8615]

I have to agree about no new race. Just too many artassets to rework.

But a new profession, now that is far more realistic.

[particlepinata.9865]

Tengu and maybe another second race as a optional expansion race? Why not. They are not part of the personal story, so why would that need to be retrofit, you can already do that with five other races. Just give them a own tight personal story together with a beginners map (like gw 1 faction did with its begin island and story). Also good for the many new players to jump into the expac and not be totally unprepared. No need to retrofit all the armors also. Give them unique expansion themed armors, and retrofit the most important earlier armors over time. If we want nice new things, compromises have to be made, no problem, better than a stale uninspired expansion without anything unique or refreshing with it. Dont like that? The other five races are not going away and you are not left out because you were not interested in it in the first place.This expac needs a selling point to get people interested, like the mounts from Pof, a new race (or 2) would certainly be of big value in my opinion.

Edited July 18, 2021 by particlepinata.9865

[Quench.7091]

Sometimes I do think it's too much work to add the tengu, but then I remember that sometimes the devs are crazy. Super Adventure Box being just an April Fools joke that disappeared until popular demand. Interactable chairs, just because they're cool. A hidden mount that remained hidden until people got their hands on PoF. Who does these things? Crazy people. Can we really reason that crazy people won't do crazy things?

[Randin.5701]

A new race is a long shot, but if we do get one in EoD, it'll be the Tengu. Narrative ties to Cantha along with the whole 'planned to be playable in early development of the game' thing makes them too likely of a candidate.

[Seth Moonshadow.2710]

While I hope we get Tengu as a playable race and that dominion of Winds is opened as the races city and the area west of LA and south to island below claw island is the starting area and SteamSpur Mountains between Sparkfly & Timberland is the 15-25 area. I am doubtful we will get a new playable race. even though Tengu REALLY should be the final playable race if no more will be added.

[Ashantara.8731]

6 minutes ago, Seth Moonshadow.2710 said:

While I hope we get Tengu as a playable race and that dominion of Winds is opened as the races city and the area west of LA and south to island below claw island is the starting area and SteamSpur Mountains between Sparkfly & Timberland is the 15-25 area. I am doubtful we will get a new playable race. even though Tengu REALLY should be the final playable race if no more will be added.

 

I doubt the time they have had to develop EoD would allow for huge alterations of already existing maps or the addition of a new racial personal story. That seems rather unlikely to me.

 

As mentioned earlier, having them start straight at level 80 in Cantha would make the most sense.

 

But we'll see.

[Cronospere.8143]

12 hours ago, Aodlop.1907 said:

Not to mention how it wouldn't make sense for them to go through the original Living world and Personal story missions.

What then? Do we rewrite the story and include those races in the fight against Zhaitan? Or do we lock those races entirely from ever engaging in the Living world story missions?

 

They would first have a private story in which they learn about what happened the last years. Then pick up the story of all other races from the expansion and forward. 

 

Also they could lock the possibility to unlock Tengu only if you finished certain parts of the story, so new players wont be spoiled with content they didnt play. 

 

7 hours ago, Dawdler.8521 said:

Anyone who thinks Anet is going to remake 3000+ or so skins for a new race has lost their marbles. Even if the skeleton is the same as an existing race, the body shape would not be so the skins would not be compatible. And if its so similar they are... well theres not really any point, is there?

 

They would be far, far more efficient by expanding current cosmetic options on existing races, ie new faces/hairstyles etc (not to mention regular new skins).

 

But should they redo all the skins? 

If they gonna bring it out they will do a selection. Just like the cultural armors they can lock the tengu out of a lot of skins. Which i am fine with. 

[Dawdler.8521]

10 hours ago, Cronospere.8143 said:

But should they redo all the skins? 

If they gonna bring it out they will do a selection. Just like the cultural armors they can lock the tengu out of a lot of skins. Which i am fine with. 

Which would be little difference from a transformation. Maybe they should focus on finally fixing the basic functionality of that instead like it staying through mounts.

[Quench.7091]

On the subject of armor, there might be some shortcuts for the tengu. If the tengu do use the same skeletal mesh as the charr, just with different animations assigned to them, the armor might be able to maintain the coordinates in relation to their bodies. The charr also have a few other similarities that tengu can exploit, such as fur on their elbows that disappear while equipping armor, which would be useful for the feathery tengu. These things could act as shortcuts towards development.

Hurdles would include things such as the tengu only have 4 fingers/toes, while the charr have 5, as well as differences in the heads. I don't know if the big details will get in the way of the tengu. It's the finer things that really seem to be a problem. They might only need to focus heavily on the gloves, boots, and head armor. I'm not too certain if they would need to focus on every armor piece, as they could probably get away with the legs, chest, shoulders, back, and weapon slots.

 

All this said, it might actually be easier to make the dwarves. They seem to have experimented with shrinking norn down, then enlarging certain parts of their body. You can see this in the Thunderhead Peaks dragon response mission! The dwarves even have pale skin in their portraits and use the Stoneskin infusion effect to mask that fact. If it's possible to shrink down a norn, while keeping everything intact, it might be possible to make a lower effort dwarf. They do this with children and baby animal NPCs quite convincingly. Would be neat if they could pull something like that off.

[Dante.1763]

12 minutes ago, Quench.7091 said:

On the subject of armor, there might be some shortcuts for the tengu. If the tengu do use the same skeletal mesh as the charr, just with different animations assigned to them, the armor might be able to maintain the coordinates in relation to their bodies. The charr also have a few other similarities that tengu can exploit, such as fur on their elbows that disappear while equipping armor, which would be useful for the feathery tengu. These things could act as shortcuts towards development.

Hurdles would include things such as the tengu only have 4 fingers/toes, while the charr have 5, as well as differences in the heads. I don't know if the big details will get in the way of the tengu. It's the finer things that really seem to be a problem. They might only need to focus heavily on the gloves, boots, and head armor. I'm not too certain if they would need to focus on every armor piece, as they could probably get away with the legs, chest, shoulders, back, and weapon slots.

 

All this said, it might actually be easier to make the dwarves. They seem to have experimented with shrinking norn down, then enlarging certain parts of their body. You can see this in the Thunderhead Peaks dragon response mission! The dwarves even have pale skin in their portraits and use the Stoneskin infusion effect to mask that fact. If it's possible to shrink down a norn, while keeping everything intact, it might be possible to make a lower effort dwarf. They do this with children and baby animal NPCs quite convincingly. Would be neat if they could pull something like that off.

I doubt they will do dwarfs, they wanted to avoid using them so much they turned the race to stone.

 

If they do add one it will be tengu more thab likely. They are the only other race that made it as far into development as they did. It came down to a choice between Charr and Tengu in the end as the final race. Which is why they have a whole city zone blocked off for them next to lions arch.

 

Granted, as much as i want tengu i doubt we will get them. Anet could blow me away though and add them.