I'm not sure weight Tzenkethi weigh but just looking at their design, in terms of Raw Bulk they must weigh vastly more than the other species encountered in the game. Feet are very specialized features that aid in the mechanical function of an animal's locomotion. Tzenkethi feet are similar in form and design to an Elephant's feet which are specifically designed for great weiht bearing.
“The uniquely designed limbs of the African elephant, Loxodonta africana, support the weight of the largest terrestrial animal. Besides other morphological peculiarities, the feet are equipped with large subcutaneous cushions which play an important role in distributing forces during weight bearing and in storing or absorbing mechanical forces…In both the forelimb and the hindlimb a 6th ray, the prepollex or prehallux, is present. These cartilaginous rods support the metacarpal or metatarsal compartment of the cushions. None of the rays touches the ground directly. The cushions consist of sheets or strands of fibrous connective tissue forming larger metacarpal/metatarsal and digital compartments and smaller chambers which were filled with adipose tissue. The compartments are situated between tarsal, metatarsal, metacarpal bones, proximal phalanges or other structures of the locomotor apparatus covering the bones palmarly/plantarly and the thick sole skin. Within the cushions, collagen, reticulin and elastic fibres are found…Besides their important mechanical properties, foot cushions in elephants seem to be very sensitive structures.”
You're not going to get them playable though. It's been brought up and there are technical reasons why.
I am going to say that isn't true just because we actually have a mission (Renegades Regret) where we play a Tzenkethi for the entire mission and it works quite well. Does that mean they will be playable eventually? Of course not.. but it's obviously very possible since it's actually already in the game.
in addition to what other have stated about the gear there's also the matter that animation set from Tzenkethi is actually quite limited (for the mission you more or less use only animations already avaible for the hostile NPCs) while a playble race would need to be able to do all "emote" animations and even Boffs have to much, much more then simple NPCs.
Essentially the animations works in the playble portion because they're the parts that would have work anyway and not we're shown anything else, since showing things outside of the abilities the mobs have is not relevant for the mission.
Renegades regret is very limited in what we do with the kethi, they can drop onto hands and knees to shoot flap an arm about and thats about it. The basic gun is a predator shoulder mounted pea shooter and the player didn't get any of the fun toys to play with.
They do have a tendency to kneel or brace heavily for the volley firing of an energy weapon and thats with the chunky arms not the fappy hands so the physical strength could be more about simply being able to move about which is why they adopted the battle harness over other options like pockets.
Renegades regret is very limited in what we do with the kethi, they can drop onto hands and knees to shoot flap an arm about and thats about it. The basic gun is a predator shoulder mounted pea shooter and the player didn't get any of the fun toys to play with.
we should also remember that animation rig for the Tzenkethi doesn't have to deal with variations in body portions the regular player animation rig has to. Other the females being a tad slimmer I don't think there's any variation in the Tzenkethi model (apart from size which would just simple scaling no differences in the animation rig).
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“The uniquely designed limbs of the African elephant, Loxodonta africana, support the weight of the largest terrestrial animal. Besides other morphological peculiarities, the feet are equipped with large subcutaneous cushions which play an important role in distributing forces during weight bearing and in storing or absorbing mechanical forces…In both the forelimb and the hindlimb a 6th ray, the prepollex or prehallux, is present. These cartilaginous rods support the metacarpal or metatarsal compartment of the cushions. None of the rays touches the ground directly. The cushions consist of sheets or strands of fibrous connective tissue forming larger metacarpal/metatarsal and digital compartments and smaller chambers which were filled with adipose tissue. The compartments are situated between tarsal, metatarsal, metacarpal bones, proximal phalanges or other structures of the locomotor apparatus covering the bones palmarly/plantarly and the thick sole skin. Within the cushions, collagen, reticulin and elastic fibres are found…Besides their important mechanical properties, foot cushions in elephants seem to be very sensitive structures.”
in addition to what other have stated about the gear there's also the matter that animation set from Tzenkethi is actually quite limited (for the mission you more or less use only animations already avaible for the hostile NPCs) while a playble race would need to be able to do all "emote" animations and even Boffs have to much, much more then simple NPCs.
Essentially the animations works in the playble portion because they're the parts that would have work anyway and not we're shown anything else, since showing things outside of the abilities the mobs have is not relevant for the mission.
They do have a tendency to kneel or brace heavily for the volley firing of an energy weapon and thats with the chunky arms not the fappy hands so the physical strength could be more about simply being able to move about which is why they adopted the battle harness over other options like pockets.