Some character creator feedback from the Dawntrail benchmark (Hrothgar and Roegadyn)!
The benchmark is really good, and overall I'm quite happy with how a lot of things turned out (the lighting especially), but there are a few things I'd love to see improved with regards to how our characters look.
First and foremost, Hrothgar women are lacking in customization. I'm not sure if this is still true for Hrothgar men, but the cat ladies could definitely use some more options. I'm sure the team is hard at work getting more hairstyles ready for Hrothgar women, so I won't dwell on that much.
My biggest issue is the lack of hair color options, and the fact that hair color is directly tied to the color of the fur on the body. This really limits how unique your character can be and your ability to express yourself, and makes me wonder why Jandelaine (the Aesthetician) doesn't use half of his dye palette for Hrothgar girls. The complete lack of hair highlights in favor of customizing the shoulder/back fur patterns is especially disappointing to me. Your character's back and shoulders are likely to be covered up most of the time, and you don't even have the option to cover up the hair in most cases, so I'm a little bit sad that such an emphasis was put on the former potentially at the cost of the latter. That said, I do really love the variety in the fur and tail patterns, and if I do make the change in Dawntrail, I'll be doing my best to show off those broad shoulders!
I currently play a female Sea Wolf Roegadyn, and she makes the transition to the updated graphics really nicely. My one gripe is that her eyes, currently a very defining feature of hers, don't stand out as much. They're less vivid and striking, which I suppose is more realistic, but does negatively affect my specific character. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I suspect it has something to do with the improved eye textures making her irises look smaller, and the distinctive dark green that I've grown so attached to being less visible as a result.
Many of my friends, on the other hand, play female Hellsguard Roegadyn, and we're all pretty disappointed to see how faint the nose smudges have become. It looks less like an intentional mark and more like an awkward shadow, or like they've become impressively precise, messy eaters.
I know the team must be incredibly busy leading up to Dawntrail's release, and it's unrealistic to expect every one of these things to be 100% perfect by the end of June. That said, they won't know what we want improved if we don't speak up!
Edit: I forgot to mention the complete lack of scar options on Hrothgar women. I don't know if Hrothgar men share this problem, but having one or two scar options for each face type would go a long way.