One Concern about Expanded Character Customization in 8.0

So I want to preface this by saying that I am very excited for expanded character customization and love that people have the freedom to make their characters look how they like, even in ways that may break lore. However, I am concerned specifically that, if the unlimited color picker for skintone is the default or only option available, some races and clans will lose part of their unique identity, particularly those like au ra, duskwights and keepers, roegadyn, and veena who have inhuman skintones. Of course, we have not seen any details on how the new options will be implemented, so it is too early to offer any concrete feedback, but I hope that, if any character can really be any color at all (like the green hyur seen in the preview), the expanded skintone options will at least be implemented in a way that keeps lore-accurate colors as the default options with the full color picker being behind some sort of toggle - I am thinking in particular of how Baldur's Gate 3 implemented this sort of thing, where lore accurate skin and eye colors were shown by default, but you could optionally choose to pick from the full palette for all races if you wanted. Again, I think that more freedom in character creator is great for creativity, but I just would be sad to see it come at the expense of what little clan/race distinction we do have - I really hope that the character creator continues to guide players into creating a character who fits into the world of Eorzea.

(Also, as an aside and another reason why I think a color picker within existing skintone ranges would be a good default, picking normal skintones from a full color picker is actually pretty hard to do, and keeping the limiters on by default would make it a lot harder to accidentally make a character who is just a bit too uncomfortably pink once you get out into the open world lighting.)

That being said, I am actually very excited about the expansion of character customization, especially the promise of more customization for eyes and mouths, and will probably also be tweaking my own character's skintone and eye color slightly with the color picker. I am not trying to be negative here, and am looking forward to the proposed changes, but simply wanted to voice one small concern with its potential implementation.

I understand, at best for duskies we will have a greater range of our existing tones. I kind of expect to see the weirdest displays.

I already dread the amount of "haha so funny" intentional abominations.

I get wanting more character customization, especially when it comes to hair and eye colours, but neon green hyur should simply not exist.

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Originally Posted by Absurdity

I already dread the amount of "haha so funny" intentional abominations.

I get wanting more character customization, especially when it comes to hair and eye colours, but neon green hyur should simply not exist.

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A lot of people already do this with elephant/chicken/animal suits and bikini tank glams. It barely gets any worse.

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Originally Posted by Absurdity

I already dread the amount of "haha so funny" intentional abominations.

I get wanting more character customization, especially when it comes to hair and eye colours, but neon green hyur should simply not exist.

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Hey, at least the roe population will double if not triple due to all the unfunny Shrek cosplayers

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Originally Posted by Kelg

A lot of people already do this with elephant/chicken/animal suits and bikini tank glams. It barely gets any worse.

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Just because a child can get a gun on their own does not mean that you should be giving children guns.
The color wheel skin color is one of the few things I did not like about the keynote.
The skin color selection should be expanded, sure, but not like this

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Originally Posted by Kelg

A lot of people already do this with elephant/chicken/animal suits and bikini tank glams. It barely gets any worse.

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Exactly my point, people already make unfunny meme characters or straight up painful colour combinations with the very limited options to do so. Right now it's actually pretty difficult to make an eyesore, it won't be with the expanded options.

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Originally Posted by DeltaDawn37

So I want to preface this by saying that I am very excited for expanded character customization and love that people have the freedom to make their characters look how they like, even in ways that may break lore. However, I am concerned specifically that, if the unlimited color picker for skintone is the default or only option available, some races and clans will lose part of their unique identity, particularly those like au ra, duskwights and keepers, roegadyn, and veena who have inhuman skintones. Of course, we have not seen any details on how the new options will be implemented, so it is too early to offer any concrete feedback, but I hope that, if any character can really be any color at all (like the green hyur seen in the preview), the expanded skintone options will at least be implemented in a way that keeps lore-accurate colors as the default options with the full color picker being behind some sort of toggle - I am thinking in particular of how Baldur's Gate 3 implemented this sort of thing, where lore accurate skin and eye colors were shown by default, but you could optionally choose to pick from the full palette for all races if you wanted.

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That's how I'm hoping its implemented, where if someone wants to pick from a limited palette the options are still there like right now, and if someone wants to go off the rails, the door can be opened wide for them.

More than anything I'm concerned that new players won't know any different and won't realize they are picking unfitting tones, they should lock it behind a level 20 quest or something

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Originally Posted by Absurdity

I already dread the amount of "haha so funny" intentional abominations.

I get wanting more character customization, especially when it comes to hair and eye colours, but neon green hyur should simply not exist.

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As much as I abhor the idea visually, it does technically support the concept of mixed races, like, one of their parents was a Roe and the other a Hyur, hence "green skinned hyur" (same could be said with other colors, like how Au ra can already be Tiefling red if they want to, and Hroths can have Pink Panther fur)

I'm glad people will have more options to represent themselves. I'm also glad blocking people vanishes them out of existence so I can yeetus deletus the hideous ones. The green hyur is a bit much for me tbh. But I don't think my dislike of it should mean it can't happen either.

I still vote we get a checkbox setting that sets other character models to some sort of default. Would be handy for keeping important story beats immersive.