7.0 Graphics update feedback: Please give us more customization options!

TLDR: The developers should be giving us more customization options instead of arbitrarily changing current customization options.

In terms of character customization, everyone that’s seen the 7.0 benchmark can point out something new that they like, & that they hate. Now, peoples’ opinions on whether something looks good or bad are subjective, but a lot of complaints (& praise) about our WOLs’ updated looks boil down to “[feature] has changed in a way that makes them look fundamentally different.”

To list a few:

Au Ra limbal ring changes (solid & bold in the current version of the game VS subtler in the benchmark)
https://i.imgur.com/43AtdXz.png

Lip colour changes (glossy VS matte effect & more vibrant colour) & shape changes in some models
https://i.imgur.com/sNZEzO6.png

Changes in the highlights on certain hair
Link to thread
https://i.imgur.com/fns7co3.png

Why have these changes been made in the first place? Other than it being arbitrary changes made from subjective stylistic preferences, who's to say!

I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with giving players matte lip colours, different kinds of hair highlights for one hair model, etc. However, I think that replacing existing character customization options with new ones, instead of simply giving us more customization options to choose from, is a huge misstep on the developers’ part.

If you've already changed a customization option so drastically, why wouldn’t you add it as an option alongside the original version? This is a “one step forward, two steps back” kind of situation with respect to character customization, & this game already has enough issues with that to begin with.

Speaking of… let me list a few of these issues that haven’t been changed with the 7.0 benchmark graphics update:

Male Viera eyebrow paint (which applies under the brow, rather than on it like with other races & genders)
https://i.imgur.com/7qRoqej.png

Horns on certain Au Ra race-locked hair, which don’t change colour regardless if your character is Xaela or Raen
https://i.imgur.com/ZgR8Ypm.png

& a general lack of variety when it comes to certain features: ie. each race & gender is locked to one body type, face models with makeup you can’t toggle off, lots of stuff is still gender-locked, only two hairstyles for highly-textured hair (I'm referring to the afro & the dreadlocks), Au Ra horn & Hrothgar ear type being tied to their face, features like beauty marks, scars, face bandages, (Viera nose fuzz for Viera...) etc. not being universal on-off toggleable.
… & face 1 Male Viera only having very small eyebrows & not giving us the option to elongate & thicken them
https://i.imgur.com/XFclD2a.png

Updates we need:

Wearing more than 1 face paint (having more equipable face paint slots)
Lipstick with optional gloss
Gloss with no lipstick
Highlander eyebrows
Darker eyebrows (many eyebrows have lightened or disappeared due to upscaling, so if possible- without taking anything away, improve the eyebrow situation by darkening it)
Having eyebrow color separate from Hair color
Darker shading/ contouring for features that have disappeared.

Agreed. There's been plenty of threads in the past asking for the character creator to be updated with way more options. I compiled some of them at the bottom of the OP in a previous thread. Hopefully they're taking notes and making plans to change it around 8.0 or earlier.

I believe we're in dire need for way more facial hair options for the males of all races. For instance, I would love to see how the stubble of the male miqo'te face 1 would look if it extended along the entire jawline, in a similar way to Claude in Fire Emblem Three Houses.

i think they said they would look into more options after the graphic update.... so maybe in 8.0

A game I played recently, (was it BG3?) has a shininess slider for makeup and such.

I see quite a few eye shapes drastically changed.

100% agreed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GalahGriff

Au Ra limbal ring changes (solid & bold in the current version of the game VS subtler in the benchmark)

---

I think what they ended up doing is a weird compromise between what they showed us at the London Fanfest and player feedback, so technically the lightest colors will glow, the darkest ones won't, and anything in between is "welp, you better hope it's what you wanted". Back in October people were already discussing a simple toggle or dark/light option for limbal rings (like lip color and face paint), which would satisfy everyone.

In this thread I'm also discussing the very limited range of the current color palette, and how expanding the color options available (particularly in the blue/green area) would fix a lot of problems people have with limbal rings at the moment (the people who seem to be satisfied with theirs seem to be using white, yellow, orange or red, coincidentally enough).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GalahGriff

I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with giving players matte lip colours, different kinds of hair highlights for one hair model, etc. However, I think that replacing existing character customization options with new ones, instead of simply giving us more customization options to choose from, is a huge misstep on the developers’ part.

---

Absolutely, I think this is what a lot of "people are being overdramatic" defenders don't understand. I'm all for the changes in the environment (well. I have some minor issues but I'll live through it I think) but when you're working with a character creator with already very limited options, you don't want to see the selection of settings you picked be completely taken out of your hands to make something else. It's like, idk, going to an ice cream shop and you can pick between vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, you order 2 scoops of chocolate, and you get served with lemon and coconut. Thanks, but... that's not what I asked? What if I don't like these flavors? Just add lemon and coconut as options and give me my 2 scoops of chocolate :I

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GalahGriff

If you've already changed a customization option so drastically, why wouldn’t you add it as an option alongside the original version? This is a “one step forward, two steps back” kind of situation with respect to character customization, & this game already has enough issues with that to begin with.

---

It's not something entirely unheard of either, Phantasy Star Online 2 allows this option so players of the original game could safely transfer their character data from one title to another (and we're talking about 2 separate games with a much more pronounced change in visuals, also with a 10 year gap).


What bothers me is that modders are going to have a field day with this if nothing is improved, and I was quite satisfied with having a character made within the limits of the game that I was perfectly happy with (which is not the case anymore). I don't want to use mods, but if SE forces my hand I guess I might have to become a mod user in Dawntrail... And then console players get the shortest end of the stick since they can't even look at that option to get their characters back.

Piggybacking on this to say that the extra makeup added to some faces (female midlander 5, for example) should also be a toggle in facial features instead of being the default. Having more options is great; adding extra stuff to the default faces is not fair to the people who like how they look now, though.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SchwarzwaelderTorte

What bothers me is that modders are going to have a field day with this if nothing is improved, and I was quite satisfied with having a character made within the limits of the game that I was perfectly happy with (which is not the case anymore). I don't want to use mods, but if SE forces my hand I guess I might have to become a mod user in Dawntrail... And then console players get the shortest end of the stick since they can't even look at that option to get their characters back.

---

If the developers won’t bother with fixing issues or limitations in their character creator, it’s only natural that people are going to look for mods to solve their problems. Especially if they don’t listen to feedback with the 7.0 benchmark… I’m foreseeing a huge influx of mods & mod users come 7.0 if that’s the case.

The existence of a lot of cosmetic mods out there that satiate players’ desires to have their WOLs appearance, that the player has imagined, shown in the game itself reflects poorly on FFXIV. I mean this in the sense that mods really show how FFXIV is lacking in character customization options. I’ve seen stuff like basic makeup, beauty marks, & scar additions, (properly sized) hats for Viera & Hrothgar, & height + body size changes floating around online.

If FFXIV players can make & use these kinds of mods, why can’t the developers recognize the demand for these kinds of changes & add similar features to the game?

I’m way too lazy & not nitpicky enough about my characters’ appearances to bother with mods… & adding customization options should be the developers’ jobs, not the players’.

I have a great need for eyebrows that is not being satiated…

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GalahGriff

If FFXIV players can make & use these kinds of mods, why can’t the developers recognize the demand for these kinds of changes & add similar features to the game?

---

Honestly such a valid statement ,especially considering how many other gameplay features that were originally mods were just snatched and put into the game as new features. Something thats pretty common among the genre. With these new face tinkerings it really does beg the question why they haven't just expanded the character creator but choose to scrap things people were already content with and adding things in their place that are just not everyone's cup of tea and sparking this entire debacle. :(

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GalahGriff

Speaking of… let me list a few of these issues that haven’t been changed with the 7.0 benchmark graphics update:

Male Viera eyebrow paint (which applies under the brow, rather than on it like with other races & genders)
https://i.imgur.com/7qRoqej.png

---

Facepaint is a universal image applied exactly in the center of the face regardless of race and gender. The "problem" is not the facepaint itself, it is that Viera faces have a whole different bone structure. For the same reason some hairstyles look absolutely terrible on them as it gives them a huge forehead. I would like to know why they decided to do this at all tbh... as they don't even care to adjust the hairstyles manually to their model.

It would be great if we'd get different types of eyebrows to choose from, yeah.