Character graphical changes are NOT in an acceptable state, please make it optional

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Originally Posted by slippdipp

She got dimples, otherwise she looks the same? The lips, again, are universally a problem, but she genuinely looks the same. I say this as an artist too. Please, step away and take a few days break because you and a lot of people in this thread are very obviously overanalyzing the littlest differences and blowing them up in your mind.

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And I'm telling you, as someone who has worked with her pics for 2.5 years almost every day: her lips are diametrically opposed to what they are now. The model is made poorly. There is no texture on the upper lip. Both lips are flat and have no volume. A dent that extends horizontally through the lips and affects part of the adjacent area is a serious modeling error.
Are you sure you're an artist? And I'm not going anywhere. I'm trying to get this fixed. And I have every right to do so. Don't give me unnecessary advice. When I consider it necessary to touch the grass, I will touch it without consulting you on this matter, thank you.

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Originally Posted by twobear

They are similar. I'll go one further, they are very similar.

Are they identical? Well no, the face on the right to me looks a little rounder, the hair is a different, greyer hue, the eyes are a little more widely spaced.

I hope they can tweak those things for you, but to insist they don't look similar is wild.

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The upper part of the face suits me completely. Oval face too. The problem is in the lips. But thanks for your opinion.

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Originally Posted by Tethan

The changes around the mouth are very startling, there is also a huge gap between your face and the hair on lower right pic. It really is rough.

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Thank you very much for your support! Yes, her mouth looks absolutely terrible. And even despite the almost identical upper part of the face, it is the mouth that makes she now unrecognizable.

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Originally Posted by Somnolence

What is with gap in the head showing sky under??

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Yes, I noticed this hole too. But I don't give it much importance now because she will have a different hairstyle anyway and in general it's not as important as her mouth.

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Originally Posted by slippdipp

The environment got the "priority" because there's a bigger volume of things to rehaul texture-wise, and also because yes, you are looking at the environment more than your character. Rarely will you be as zoomed in when in-game as you are in the character creator. An updated, "4k" character in an non-updated world is more jarring than the opposite, especially in XIV's case where the environment lagged behind the general quality of the character models.

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I know your intentions are good, but, again, this argument feels subjective and dismissive.

They reassured people that characters would be changed as little as possible because they knew that's what people would be most worried about. People don't get scared about how updates affect terrain or gear.

I understand that some folk may appear dramatic in your eyes, but with such a character-focused, cutscene-driven, and long-running game, I ask that you forgive some--myself included--for being emotional.

Square doesn't communicate with us regularly like they did in ARR and HW, and fixes for some egregious matters (like giving Hrothgar their ears back) had come out slowly without any hint they were working on it. That took three-four months. I still remember the male Viera naming thread asking for a simple acknowledgement or updates, and we heard nothing for three and a half months until the names were suddenly there.

Not showing us the state of our characters heads-on like this--when they're not only looking different, but also very, very buggy--until only about 2 months before early access is...questionable, at best.

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Originally Posted by AirisRay

I also want to say one thing. I hear a lot of opinions that this is not the final version, that our characters can still be corrected/repaired. I certainly sincerely hope so. But are our characters really such an insignificant thing that needs to be finalized in the last 2 months? Is it true?

I'm reading opinions that fixes may continue after 7.0 is released. And I really hope for this too. But the question is the same. Our characters are so unimportant that they need to be improved after the release of 7.0? Maybe it would be better to make them really neat and beautiful so that we could all be happy? Make this a priority. And to refine and correct not our characters, but the environment. Some unimportant flowers, trees, stones.

Maybe I'm wrong, of course. And the stone that is lying somewhere in Il Mheg is more important than my character. May be. Maybe NPC models that I only see during the main story are more important than my character that I see every day. Anything is possible. The question is about priorities. They have their own priorities, and now I have mine too.

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But this is very much the point: you never will make everyone happy because everyone has a very different idea of what they want. Just the texture of the skin for example. Some like the new skin textures. Some say it's too plastic-like, fake looking, doll-like. Alternatively, some are saying the complete opposite, arguing that it's too textured for what they want. Whatever change they make, someone is going to be unhappy.

I would agree that, ideally, a preview of these changes should have been released much earlier than this, giving more time for adjustments as necessary. But perhaps there were behind-scene reasons that this wasn't the case. I very much doubt it was done out of malice or disregard for our characters and to suggest that this is actually the case is both irrational and disrespectful.

I'm an artist too and I do think these changes make the characters look different so I don't know how helpful these appeals to our perceived creative authority* are.

A person that has spent lots of time with their own char can still understand their visual make up better due to extensive familiarity despite not necessarily being able to draw/paint/sculpt (and I don't even know if Airis isn't an artist themselves).

As a matter of fact, changing features like a mouth's shape can already lead to a very different appearance and characterisation. That's why you can change a person's holistically perceived appeal and appearance just by doing their lips differently with makeup (overlining them vs gradient for example). They might legit feel like different features as a result.

The change of my own char's lip shape alone has completely altered her whole vibe for me. She now looks like a doll even though the eyes and nose are relatively similar/the same. A small feature change can recontextualise the whole face and change our perception of the other features (or the "sum" of a face they create).

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*(Small clarification: I don't mean this in a way of "you're not actually a good artist" just in case it comes across that way. I'm very sorry if it does (genuinely).
Rather I mean that, only because we have acquired a certain skill, we are obviously not all-knowing and even within a group artists can profoundly disagree. I just don't think being an artist trumps the experience of someone who has looked at their char for several years and is very familiar with them only because they might not have studied colour theory.)

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Originally Posted by LianaThorne

Usually gaps mean the hair model isn't fit properly to whatever head model they're using.

Which is kind of a head scratcher for me, because if no shape alterations were made to models...why are there gaps now when there weren't before...? Should just kinda snap back on since face texture/lighting changes shouldn't physically alter the shape of the head or break models.

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It's just hair from a model of another race (Hyur, I'm guessing) that's been pulled over a Miqote's head. Yes, everything is so careless :)

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Originally Posted by slippdipp

Similar or not, the benchmark is a WIP, and changes will be addressed since the JP community is working overtime, so don't lose your minds. The game is continually updated, so if they're not addressed by 7.0, they'll be addressed by 7.05 or 7.1. Take a breather, and just relax. Don't get grey hairs over a videogame!

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ok Boomer...

No jokes aside. There will be almost certainly no changes until release. This should be impossible because of how close the release is. Every Dev will tell you that. Our expierence with older releases show the same. For possible changes the Benchmark would have released on the first or second month of the year.
Next is, we pay for it. If you take it without issues. Cool bro but why do you police me and my expactations that are justified? Even if not justified, who are you to do that?
Lastly no we give feedback on many things almost none of them are adressed: crafting, healers, tanks, gear, IS, relict weapon.... this list is long so stop here.
Eureka had some good points but instead using these and cutting the "fat" we got the same... over and over. Healers are a problem now for 3 Addons but still none of the issues are adressed instead weird changes are made. Some ok but many simply out of touch and bad design.
Glamour and housing is talked about in such lengths but still this system is the same jank. As if waiting for SE is NOT HELPING. AT ALL.
Youre points are interesting but have no grounds to stand on. So thanks for youre input but no thanks to wait and see.

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Originally Posted by SpiritMuse

Would like to point out here that the new lashes are also a problem that needs to be fixed. The way they're much darker and thicker now is not only responsible for the "yassified" fake lash/ extra mascara look for many female characters, but it also affects the visible eye shape for many others, making eyes look more closed and narrow, which is a big factor in why so many characters have lost their original personality and look much angrier and more "evil" in the new version.

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This is one of the issues that struck me the heaviest in terms of "altering" a face.

If they do decide to do something I at least hope they don't withold the update from everyone. Seeing how my character looked with the changes is the first thing that's actually gotten me excited for Dawntrail.

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Originally Posted by AirisRay

Please, try to tell me that they are similar.

https://i.imgur.com/FqYorRK.png

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Others have pointed out the difference so I'm just gonna say, everytime I see a Miqo'te comparison I shake my head. 'Cause literally months ago they were showing us one of these:
https://i.gyazo.com/54981ef6b9819ad8...28cd704416.jpg

An exaggeration? Perhaps... but point still stands, where did all the quality gone to...

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Originally Posted by AirisRay

It's just hair from a model of another race (Hyur, I'm guessing) that's been pulled over a Miqote's head. Yes, everything is so careless :)

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Sorry, to momentarily "take advantage" of that careless feeling, I want to actually use that Miqo'te image I posted earlier for its intended use.

https://i.imgur.com/L5H5TZs.png
It's slight and maybe difficult to figure out on faces that don't have markings, but I've also noticed that Facial Features (both from the selectable tab and what's baked in) seem to be placed a little haphazardly on the new models.

It's not bad in my Seeker's case, but I even feel like this messes with impression a little bit. The large one is less rough-looking, while the chin one is outright larger, although I don't personally dislike the latter.

They also look...faker to me? It felt like scars, gems, etc, are a little rushed-feeling with their new textures and placements. I remember seeing a Highlander man with a bunch natural-looking scars on his face in live, who then suddenly had his scars nearly clipping into one another in the benchmark.

And, obviously, not only are eyebrows mysteriously changing thickness and color for many folk, but many of them are straight up placed higher or lower than their original iterations. The change is most egregious with anyone using the eyebrow Facepaint option. And now hairs that didn't have gaps, do... It really does all feel careless...

https://i.imgur.com/DoIGSeF.png
While feeling this way, I also double-checked my Elezen's face option. And while this is a particular change I don't care about, even her earclasps are placed differently. On the plus side, the mole's new placement appears better, at least, since it looks like it works in consideration of Face 4's tattoo now. I hope to see all changes feel like they were changed with consideration like that, instead.