Guild Wars 2

So with mounts looming on the inevitable Horizon I Felt its time to make a thread about Races and why specifically the Tengu are the best candidate, and why they should be implemented.

They are Aesthetically the most developed out of the races we can’t play, and have some of the best models in game. They are a unique race with interesting color schemes, and rich lore to explore as well were INTENDED for the launch of the game. The art book confirms it and we originally had the dev’s talking about the addition of the Tengu in HoT but they chose the Rev was more important, and they did not want a crap ton of tengu Rev’s.

We have three human races in a sense, Sylvari/Norn/Human. However we only have two beast races, which arguably are almost always the most interesting in fantasy settings. The Charr have a culture similar to african tribes, as well rome in some retro-specs. While Asurans are harder to place they do hold some cultural ties to many different races. The Tengu would offer the asian feel, as well give us just a bit of Cantha to sate the desire to return slightly.

A way around the story with Zaithan and Mordy is simple, they were not present they just skip that junk. The start out at level 70 in their city, beginning with the scarlet event in lions arch and from there go into a short story mode explaining what was going on for them during HoT. Only then do they Leave the DoW, and get recruited into dragons watch. They are given full exotic gear, and are level 80 once they step out into the rest of the game. In the plot in the new expansion the generic commander character who recruited us, dies and tells us to take their place for we are the only level headed on in the group. Reeling from this revelation and the group not taking well to it, we try to do what our predecessor can not and unite Dragons watch. While on the other side if you’re not a tengu you simply recruit one into your guild, and he is just present from then on similarly to the others. With 80 boosts being given out for HoT I don’t see the issue with making a tengu already basically be there, and be ready to leap into the content. Potentially make it so you need one Level 80 who has beaten the original story on the account to get access to the tengu?

With mounts coming and the work that would be required to make mounts work in this game, as it was designed originally around not need them. The undertaking is astronomically Larger than putting in a new race, especially one who is in my eyes ready. Armors would not take as long as making models,meshes,textures,animations and combat capabilities for mounts. As well pulling back the waypoints in the zones, and the removal of the speed increases each class has access too. True mounts are money makers, you can monetize new skins on the TP like nobodies business. But you could do the very same with Race packs, which would be ten to fifteen dollars a piece. This makes it optional for players to go buy the “Tengu” race pack, while also offering you a clear depiction on how well the pack does. In my eyes Races> Mounts, as the tengu race was supposed to be in launch, as well HoT. To me it’s just another broken promise along with the non-existent abbadon fractal. I started this game with GW Factions, and the tengu were just beasts. Talon Silverwing always will have a special place in my heart, and the tengu accords. The winds of change, as well the other interludes in guild wars beyond basically set the tengu up to be a playable race.
In conclusion with mounts entering the game, there is not any real rhyme or reason as to why a new race cant as well. Yes some people are against beast races, but there is a vast majority of us tired of elves and humans. Which is effectively what this game seems to focus on, the sylvari are Tree elves/Ents. And norn are just big humans devoid of everything that made them cool in GW1, We need another beast race to even things out. The kodan would be a good runner up but like all the other races, they are not developed enough Aesthetically or Lore wise. HoT gave The Tengu their own model, and their own voice actor… So in my eyes they are just begging to be implemented.

“Mounts” are already in the game, via gliding and (in a simplistic and not-entirely-satisfying way) via lava tubes and oakheart reach and bloodstone fen skills. These impact how you move and what skills are (or are not) available to you and your appearance. There are also siege golems and a variety of tonics and other minor mount-like mechanics.

Creating a new race involves much more than slapping on a skin and some skills (difficult though that might be). You need lots and lots of animation, for each profession and for some particular skills. Existing armors and weapons and back items need to be altered to fit the new race.

And then, because ANet never does anything content-related by half-measures, there’s going to be a new starting instance and town, a new personal story, and new voice actors (at least 10, for the male + female voices of the four EU/NA supported languages plus Chinese).

Does that really seem like a good use of ANet’s limited resources, given all the other things we’d love to see in the game (and all the things that ANet already has planned)?

They actually said way back that stuff like Charr clipping/visual issues wouldn’t be addressed because Charr were the least played class and therefor not worth their time (unless that philosophy has changed since).

I see that as making it very unlikely they’ll add a whole new race, which would have to have every armor in the game adjusted to fit or redesigned, plus every outfit.
Regardless of the animations and voice actors and etc etc, this is already more work than they’re willing put in.

ScribeTheMad.7614:

this is already more work than they’re willing put in.

I’m not sure I would phrase it as “willing to put in”, it’s more that they have all sorts of other things that they think are more important. If I’m spending the 25th at work instead of playing LS3.6, it doesn’t mean I don’t want to find out what’s going on at the finale, it just means I have something else I need to be doing, too.

I admit the difference hardly matters to folks like the OP, who really want to see more races in the game. (And, incidentally, I’d also love to see the tengu become playbable.) We humans want what we want and practical considerations don’t always temper our passions.

For better or worse, ANet has to run as a business, so they have to moderate their goals with questions about finances and resources and total games sold and gem sales and so on. They can’t always deliver what we want; we just have to count on them to know how to deliver what we need.

Swap out Tengu for Quaggan and I’m all for it.

I feel that it would require too much work for little gain. Anet would have to re-work all armor sets and costumes to work with that race. There’s the issue about the personal story and living story and it’d be ridiculous to just retcon them in.

So then put the game on maintenance and make a new game, because shoehorning mounts into this game in another content patch worthy expansion is not the way to go. You guys keep making excuses as to why it cant happen, but it can and they could do it if they wanted too. Its a matter of what is acceptable in the market, and the laziness allowed within gaming as a whole is disgusting.

Id rather a new race than kittening mounts, because literally mounts will do nothing for this game once so ever. I was not even a big fan of gliding, I thought “Cool what else are you going to take from archeage?” looks like their mount system is next. Tengu were supposed to be here at the launch of the game, then again in HoT’s. I dont care if they don’t have voice acting, and cant play the base story-line or even wear any armor outside of the content they come out with and any coming out after them. I want a real new race, not a tonic. They are a unique race and few games have something that has the kind of interesting flair they have, we need a third beast race to balance out the human/beast divide.

And if quaggans ever became playable id probably quit so fast XD I cant take them seriously.

So you want a new race, but only if it’s the one you want. And you don’t want ANet to consider costs or income, because new races are (for you) expansion-worthy, but other features are not.

You also don’t want ANet to do the new race well (with voice acting and stories and armor), you just want what you want.

That is, of course fine — we’re all human and we all have our passions; none of us can tell you what you think should or shouldn’t be important. At the same time, I hope you also recognize that others don’t share identical passions and that, since ANet is a business, it does have to consider costs and benefits.

Thornwolf.9721:

So then put the game on maintenance and make a new game, because shoehorning mounts into this game in another content patch worthy expansion is not the way to go. You guys keep making excuses as to why it cant happen, but it can and they could do it if they wanted too. Its a matter of what is acceptable in the market, and the laziness allowed within gaming as a whole is disgusting.

Id rather a new race than kittening mounts, because literally mounts will do nothing for this game once so ever. I was not even a big fan of gliding, I thought “Cool what else are you going to take from archeage?” looks like their mount system is next. Tengu were supposed to be here at the launch of the game, then again in HoT’s. I dont care if they don’t have voice acting, and cant play the base story-line or even wear any armor outside of the content they come out with and any coming out after them. I want a real new race, not a tonic. They are a unique race and few games have something that has the kind of interesting flair they have, we need a third beast race to balance out the human/beast divide.

And if quaggans ever became playable id probably quit so fast XD I cant take them seriously.

A new race won’t really add anything either. Story elements that could have gotten from this could be added elsewhere. This has nothing to do with being lazy.

I don’t think it’s laziness. I mean, yeah I would love a new playable race, and I don’t think it’s little gain either. There’s a whole lot you can do with a new playable race as well. But it IS ALOT of work. It’s basically the amount of content that is close to a whole new guild wars release.

Because, the way story is set up would mean the new race or races would need to gain their whole own personal story, as well as that other races would not get access to that story as it would be incompatible. Which means everyone would need another character slot in order to enjoy that storyline. Or they would need at least remake parts of the original personal storyline as well as making the new storyline part be fitted to be uniquely to a new race as well as the older races.

In Guild Wars 1 it was entirely possible too. So I don’t see why it wouldn’t be possible here. (new classes instead of new races though.)

But yeah, the modularity of GW2 armor system is so severly lacking that any addition to the game that involves armour skins or maybe even weapon skins is alot of work.

Another Tengu topic?

All im saying is based off of the race that is the most developed, quaggan and the rest REALLY would need some overhauls both Aesthetically and lore wise to even be considered. Plus their animations would be a bit harder to do, Where as the tengu are kind of between humans and charr so their animations could borrow from both previously existing races.

And what im getting at is they put themselves in this kittening position, you put mounts in then by proxy there is NO excuse for not doing this. Because this game was built in such a way that mounts would never be needed, they would never have a place. But according to the “Leaks” they are bringing them non-the less because the loudest vocal minority got their way, Once again. Im tired of people underestimating the team behind this game, they could do any of the above and make it work.

I would not mind if all the races became playable but as long as it made sense within the context, and they made them look less out of place. Quaggan and Kodan suffer from the need of more animations, and kodan need a new model. This is chalked up to what are they going to steal from what game next? The vision of what this game was intended to be is all but non-existent and the reason im so passionate and so hard on these dev’s is because I know what they are capable of. I’ve seen it, and I know they can do better than what they have done.

But see with Tengu this comes down to Broken promises much like the abbadon fractal and many other things. This race was to be one of the races we played at launch, but were removed to be added later. HoT rolls around and they choose the rev because its a better “Test” the waters option, which I agreed with. But now we come to this expansion, some elite specs? A handful of maps? A year or more wait for the living story afterwords with some fancy masteries to unlock un-needed mounts so they can monetize the hell out of them on the TP?

Your gonna need more than what essentially is a major content patch, to pull off another expansion. Again I loved HoT’s but alot of people did not and it got them to quit whether thats because it was too hard or its not enough content is dependent on the person. Regardless this expansion is gonna either make or break it, we will either see a resurgence of players for this game OR this game will just diminish further. I cant convince people I know to get a expansion for a game, when the expansion is not worth 60+ dollars. HoT was not worth the money they asked for, despite what it brought long after its launch. And to justify the price based on “Well it includes the base game too” is ludicrous in my eyes, especially when I already owned the vanilla game. It essentially was worth at launch ((without raids and many of the other features it added down the line)) was worth maybe half its initial price.

Most expansions contain Vast content additions((lands to explore.)), A new class or race, Armor, weapons ect ect. In HoT we did not get that many new appearances in the game without the TP interference. We Got a new class, so thumbs up to that but now its all Elite specs rather than class’s, specs are not in my eyes a good counter to new classes. And we are gonna get a handful ((maybe three or so)) new maps, so again…a new race could add into the overall benefit and justify some people in their mind of the purchase as it is a good bit of new content.

Mounts and a new race are completely different.

You say “broken promises” but can you prove any of those were actually a promise?

The art book that came with the games release says The tengu were done but pulled because their city was not populated with npc’s when the game was being pushed to launch.

and mounts and a new race are not different, they have equivalent needs in work and resources. Mounts need models,masteries, they need to make the game work with them and since APPARENTLY we are supposed to be able to fight on them combat animations.

The game was built for the sake of NOT having mounts added, so the other maps will need work to fit them in because you know like gliding it will be brought to the other areas of the game. And with Mounts gliding and the other masteries fill the traversing through tyria well enough for mounts to not even be needed so it as a whole is a waste of resources. While a new race opens up the door for story development, bigger plot thresh-hold as well a new flavor to the already existing races which could be cool to see.

Thornwolf.9721:

The art book that came with the games release says The tengu were done but pulled because their city was not populated with npc’s when the game was being pushed to launch.

and mounts and a new race are not different, they have equivalent needs in work and resources. Mounts need models,masteries, they need to make the game work with them and since APPARENTLY we are supposed to be able to fight on them combat animations.

The game was built for the sake of NOT having mounts added, so the other maps will need work to fit them in because you know like gliding it will be brought to the other areas of the game. And with Mounts gliding and the other masteries fill the traversing through tyria well enough for mounts to not even be needed so it as a whole is a waste of resources. While a new race opens up the door for story development, bigger plot thresh-hold as well a new flavor to the already existing races which could be cool to see.

So adding mounts requires the same amount of work as re-doing all of the armor skins for a new race?

Just because the new maps may have mounts doesn’t mean that they will be available in core Tyria or HoT.

You can get story development, bigger plot threshold, and so on without needing a new race.

You don’t even need to re-do all the armor skins on the new races, arguably there are not as many as you think and most are simply rehashes of other skins. Again make them only applicable for the content going forward disregard the rest, its not hard. Your making it more complicated than it needs to be, you don’t need all the armor as long as the armor you did get looks good. So focus on that and screw the rest, if its really that big of a deal thats what patches are for.

Honestly all the need to do is make three sets of cultural armor for them, make ascended armor look good and then focus on the armor from the expansion. Screw the rest of the armor 95% of it is ugly anyway so who cares? Oh and legendary armor I guess even though its a transmog waiting to happen.

When did they say the Tengu would be a playable race?

Thornwolf.9721:

Screw the rest of the armor 95% of it is ugly anyway so who cares?

When you attempt to make a case for your argument, then state something like this: what semblance of conviction you had evaporates.

Thornwolf.9721:

You don’t even need to re-do all the armor skins on the new races, arguably there are not as many as you think and most are simply rehashes of other skins. Again make them only applicable for the content going forward disregard the rest, its not hard. Your making it more complicated than it needs to be, you don’t need all the armor as long as the armor you did get looks good. So focus on that and screw the rest, if its really that big of a deal thats what patches are for.

Honestly all the need to do is make three sets of cultural armor for them, make ascended armor look good and then focus on the armor from the expansion. Screw the rest of the armor 95% of it is ugly anyway so who cares? Oh and legendary armor I guess even though its a transmog waiting to happen.

Whether they’re a re-hash or not doesn’t matter as you have to make sure that it fit the model. It would likely not be to the extent of designing entire new armor but tweaking would most likely need to be done. You also need to remember that not all skins will appeal to all players. I, for example, have no issues with trench coats but there’s obviously many players that do.

I’m pretty sure players wouldn’t want to play as a Tengu and then immediately be limited on armor skin choices compared to the other races. Same goes for other content. Kitten previous content will not work, sorry.

Well Then redo the armors, either way its do-able but there are ways around that with it simply not being there with their initial inception but will come later. This could split the work load among patches, However again your acting like this is backbreaking work when in reality in two years it could be done since alot of the focus would be geared toward that.

The estimation that the armor we will get in this expansion on a fair analysis will be like two or three new variants as was with HoT. The tengu have a more human model than the charr, you merely adopt that onto that model and it works fine. Their model, animations and ect are DONE and have been for some time. The charr make this so much easier because they and the Tengu (as an example) would be close enough, that with some tweaking it will work.

Again however there are ways around this and as I Stated the dev’s have pushed themselves into this corner, Im tired of people trying to defend the simple answer. They dont want to do it because they dont see the green in it, but its one of the things people ask for the most. If you give your customers something they want then they should come back and be willing to trust in you as a developer more, Mounts are just that. But in my eyes Mounts as a whole are a complete waste as that void was filled by gliding and the other ways of traversing the maps.

As for the armor, yeah in this game a good amount of it is ugly as sin and only applicable on a female model. (unless your charr or asuran) I don’t see what the stigma is about adding another race to the table, either we get some new kitten that is not just “Well here because we can charge twenty or so dollars for mount skins later”.

IMO, Anet has already devised a way to keep evolving their game mechanic and story-wise, through the elite specs and the 3-monthly chapters.

Eventually, however, mechanics and story will not be enough to keep people interested. They will need to make changes to the game technology and aesthetics.

Then will eventually have to choose how to re-impulse their bussiness: use resources to do a whole new game, or use the resources to create big aesthetic changes to GW2.

Only then the new playable races would become a valuable investment. Until then…

I don’t remember seeing any tengu in the desert in Prophecies’ Crystal Desert or Nightfall’s Desolation, so can’t see how they fit with what everyone’s assuming will be the setting.

Regardless of that… well, nevermind, I have no desire to rehash all the endless reasons why we won’t see a new race added.

But good luck with your (unrealistic) expectations.

It’s closer than you think, HoT hurt us despite its quality. You can tell me that the player-base is fine, that everything is fine all you want but maps are empty alot. Cities are empty ALOT, lion’s arch compared to how it was post HoT is nothing like it was.

Guilds became more pointless when compared to their role in GW1, its just a mess in general at this point. This expansion is going to save or sink this ship, and Im worried that if we went into this tomorrow and the leak was ALL we would be getting at launch it wont be enough. I love this franchise and this game and I dont want it to end like that, I dont want them to crash and burn like that.

You do realize that if Tengu (or any race) is to be included in the upcoming expansion (PoF?), that decision would’ve had to be made long ago, right? That no amount of asking at this point would make it happen? Right?

Thornwolf.9721:

It’s closer than you think, HoT hurt us despite its quality. You can tell me that the player-base is fine, that everything is fine all you want but maps are empty alot. Cities are empty ALOT, lion’s arch compared to how it was post HoT is nothing like it was.

Guilds became more pointless when compared to their role in GW1, its just a mess in general at this point. This expansion is going to save or sink this ship, and Im worried that if we went into this tomorrow and the leak was ALL we would be getting at launch it wont be enough. I love this franchise and this game and I dont want it to end like that, I dont want them to crash and burn like that.

And a new race is the solution to it all?

But if not now then maybe the one after that yes? Why not let them know that its something we actually want, and that the next expansion should there be one could contain it. Or do it in a living story patch where you explore their culture, their city and their people and then at the very beginning of the expansion they are dropped in.

Ayrilana.1396:

Just because the new maps may have mounts doesn’t mean that they will be available in core Tyria or HoT.

Of course mounts will be available in central Tyria eventually. As soon as people who bought a rainbow-unicorn mount skin for 20$ start whining that they can’t show off there steed in Lions Arch Anet will make mounts world-wide.

Ider.1276:

Ayrilana.1396:

Just because the new maps may have mounts doesn’t mean that they will be available in core Tyria or HoT.

Of course mounts will be available in central Tyria eventually. As soon as people who bought a rainbow-unicorn mount skin for 20$ start whining that they can’t show off there steed in Lions Arch Anet will make mounts world-wide.

That remains to be seen.

I think that Tengu would be cool but I am not sure about mounts. Every MMO out there has mounts and unless they did away with 95% of the way points I dont see the need.

I am more interested in engaging story and content from the Xpac. If previous iterations are a baseline standard then I am in for a disappointment.

Well, I for one would like to play the Skritt race. Imagine that – a Skritt hero! I already roleplay one by the name of Rikatickatickatock, ‘’master of Grabbielootie’’.

Stormcrow.7513:

I think that Tengu would be cool but I am not sure about mounts. Every MMO out there has mounts and unless they did away with 95% of the way points I dont see the need.

I am more interested in engaging story and content from the Xpac. If previous iterations are a baseline standard then I am in for a disappointment.

Waypoints won’t be useless in my opinion, i’d rather travel around the maps on a mount and save 1-3 silvers but Waypoints will still be useful on a map to map basis

Still Though We dont “need” mounts and they are not anything “new” enough to constitute expansion content worthy.

Tengu are nice, but maybe just implement Land Largos?

No because there as far as we know is no such thing as land largos, and unless they went into a HUUUUGE lore thing explaining what they are. Where they have been and why NO one has ever seen them, it would feel shoe horned. Largos would be a good race to add when we go fight bubbles

Thornwolf.9721:

Still Though We dont “need” mounts and they are not anything “new” enough to constitute expansion content worthy.

Just like we don’t “need” a new race.

We do need a new race, because its something completely new that did not have systems put in place to make it un-needed and not remotely worth the time to make it. We have gliding and all sorts of other ways to traverse a map and some of us are bored of the current races, alot of people would come back to see the race. Like wise it would bring alot of new people .

I’m confused with the possible story. Suddenly, we are not the Commander anymore, some NPC is, and if we are Tengu, we have 4 different NPCs, none of which are Tengu. But, if we are not Tengu, there is a Tengu NPC that is part of the Guild.

So, this NPC is the ‘star’ of the the Guild, instead of the Player Character? The one that saves the day each time? Unless the PC is Tengu, and then the PC is the ‘star’? Seems like that would make it feel like one would only choose to be of the Tengu race when playing through the Story, and I’m not sure the Devs would want to intend that, or that it would go over well with the playerbase.

Thornwolf.9721:

We do need a new race, because its something completely new that did not have systems put in place to make it un-needed and not remotely worth the time to make it. We have gliding and all sorts of other ways to traverse a map and some of us are bored of the current races, alot of people would come back to see the race. Like wise it would bring alot of new people .

Just as (found in the super-large Mounts thread) there is the argument that ‘alot of people would come back to see’ Mounts and ‘likewise it would bring a lot of new people’.

Of course, ANet is still a business, so before deciding on what features to add to an expansion, they need to consider costs and benefits, risks and rewards, and the entire community of current & potential players.

The OP is under no such obligation.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I’m confused with the possible story. Suddenly, we are not the Commander anymore, some NPC is, and if we are Tengu, we have 4 different NPCs, none of which are Tengu. But, if we are not Tengu, there is a Tengu NPC that is part of the Guild.

So, this NPC is the ‘star’ of the the Guild, instead of the Player Character? The one that saves the day each time? Unless the PC is Tengu, and then the PC is the ‘star’? Seems like that would make it feel like one would only choose to be of the Tengu race when playing through the Story, and I’m not sure the Devs would want to intend that, or that it would go over well with the playerbase.

No the point was if you are a tengu you take the place of the generic commander ((a bs one they make who did do the things we did)). They then die in a conflict and you take their place, as is their instruction potentially because out of everyone your the most level headed.

If you were playing your current PC, you would simply end up recruiting a Tengu into the current guild so its just one spot that it branches off. Your current PC does not die, its only if the PC is a tengu so that this way the Tengu still ends up being the commander regardless of having not been there for the previous two “wars”.

So, two different stories. Either the Tengu PC is the ‘star’, or the Tengu NPC takes the lines of some other NPC. In essence, there would be 6 members of the Guild, only some players get one story (with one set of NPCs), and some players get a different story (with a different set of NPCs).

The problem is, that the interchangeable NPC can never have any pertinent dialogue or do anything in the story that will matter.

If they were going to implement a new low-level story, it seems unlikely that it would be based in Central Tyria, rather than in the Expansion Area. And most likely it would just vary in the first 40-50 levels, and then sync up with the vanilla personal story.

Thornwolf.9721:

So with mounts looming on the inevitable Horizon I Felt its time to make a thread about Races and why specifically the Tengu are the best candidate, and why they should be implemented.

So it wasn’t time in 2013? https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Tengu-as-a-playable-race
2015? https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Tengu-are-great-but-what-about/first#post4715349 (which references other previous Tengu threads)
2016? https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/I-want-Tengu-as-the-next-playable-race/first#post5975084 and https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/New-Race-Tengu
Last month? https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Tengu-can-still-make-it-as-playable-race

Pretty much all your points (and the support for and counters to them) have been made in many previous threads. It’s not suddenly time now.

Though you do differ in one regard, you now state that if they can implement mounts (which may have been leaked but may not turn out to be what MMO players think of as mounts per se), then they can do the — in your eyes — much easier task of implementing a new race.

I don’t agree with every design choice from the ANet team. But I never base my opposition on presumptions that I have any idea what is easy and what is hard for them to do. (The only time I did something along those lines, I huffed and puffed and pontificated at my fellow players that they could not give us core map gliding due to the amount of world redesign required. I was so wrong).

As to Tengu, I’d gleefully play one and set up tons of RP background and plots for him/her. But the arguments against adding a race that I’ve seen in the forums have convinced me otherwise. Not the clipping and such, pshaw to that says I, but the essentially cosmetic nature of it with the requirement of creating new starter zones and figuring out PS integration, yeah, those tell me I’d rather see the resources going to other types of new things. I could be wrong, it could be something ANet is striving to attain, but I thiiiiink there was an ANet comment as to the impracticality of committing resources to a new race.

I just want to see more about the Tengu. And open that giant sealed area attached to LA. We prevented their dominion from being overun by zombies, the least they can do is let us peak inside.

Squee.7829:

I just want to see more about the Tengu. And open that giant sealed area attached to LA. We prevented their dominion from being overun by zombies, the least they can do is let us peak inside.

Yeah. I’d rather they focus any resources towards that, so we get more Tengu content, rather than less because they’re trying to make it work as a playable race too. Any story content can be done separate from a playable race so the only thing that a playable race would provide is for RP and cosmetic purposes.

Squee.7829:

I just want to see more about the Tengu. And open that giant sealed area attached to LA. We prevented their dominion from being overun by zombies, the least they can do is let us peak inside.

Yeah, this sounds both more interesting to me as a player and more manageable. It requires “only” NPCs and stories (no small feat, of course); it doesn’t require all the overhead needed for a playable race.

Thornwolf.9721:

So with mounts looming on the inevitable Horizon I Felt its time to make a thread about Races and why specifically the Tengu are the best candidate, and why they should be implemented.

I think you are vastly overexpecting what this mount announcement means.

No worries, in aproximately 4-5 weeks we will have clarity on how arenanet exactly intends to add mounts into the game. Suffice to say, I highly doubt it will be mounts everywhere and at all times.

Most data suggests mounts in the next expansion will work like masteries from HoT meaning they will be added movement abilities with limited use and only at select points.

As far as a new race. What most people said holds true and while I’m sure everyone would love to see a new race get added. The customisation required especially in the armor department makes this a highly unlikely addition to the game, ever.

Squee.7829:

I just want to see more about the Tengu. And open that giant sealed area attached to LA. We prevented their dominion from being overun by zombies, the least they can do is let us peak inside.

We’ve had airships for years. Why can’t we get a look?

just stopping by to say that Tengu were never INTENDED to be playable, they were just possible candidates along with other races.

John.8507:

When did they say the Tengu would be a playable race?

It has been hinted numerous times that tegu were heading towards being a playable race. The most commonly quoted one being that they were meant to be playable in early drafts of the game, but weren’t due to time constraints. if you saw the more recent models of tengu they are fairly different in their idle animations and combat animations so there is some reason to believe that tengu are heading towards playability. Just not an official statement outside of one dev saying that for HoT they had a choice between a new race and a new profession.