Please consider adding additional character creation options in response to feedback

Recognizing that reverting the changes to character faces would be unrealistic after the launch of Dawntrail and the graphics update, particularly considering that there are players who are very happy with the changes and that the free fantasias have already been given out to make needed changes, I'd like to please ask the dev team to consider adding additional character creation options that better reflect the missing qualities brought up by players to address the feedback a lot of us have been giving ever since the initial benchmark release. My specific feedback is apart of the other numerous threads already on the forum which are better sources to seek out what changes are being asked for (such as this one among many others), I'd just like to use this thread to ask for what I think is a reasonable means to address the very strong feelings a lot of us have expressed.

FFXIV recently celebrated it's 10 year anniversary which means some of our characters have been with us for just as long and in the case of some 1.0 players and races, even longer, and so suddenly experiencing a disconnect, a dislike of our characters or looking at them and seeing someone unfamiliar is pretty impactful and disheartening, especially when you feel like you'll just have to live with it now. I'd ask that the dev team consider the weight of that when deciding if and how they might address the feedback that's been given thus far.

Personally the impact of the graphics update and the disconnect of the personal attachment I had to my character have made me completely lose interest in playing Dawntrail and hoping for anything to be done now that the expansion has launched feels like a long shot, but Yoshi P once said something to the effect of "if the players are complaining, it means they still care" which I hope is what the amount of feedback regarding the updated character appearances is received with.

Couldn't agree more. Character creation as it is has already felt outdated for a long time now, but even just additional options in the current format would go a long way. Not to mention how unevenly the options we do have are currently distributed across the races (compare the number of male midlander face templates to any other race, or count the number of facial customization options on viera and hrothgar compared to everyone else).

Good idea, this could please most players.
They butchered my Viera, I had to give her up and do some changes to my old au ra, witch I like very much now. But I know au ra changes isn’t to the like of everyone, so, adding old mouths and eyes back with the current options could be a perfect solution.

My Au Ra (face 2) is barely recognisable - round face shape gone, eyes look dead, mouth choices are pursed lips or look inflated. Overall it looks like they had an allergic reaction, I don't know why they changed it so much unnecessarily, especially since I've played this character for years. With re-editing, I could make her look a bit better, but she's not at all the same character I loved before.

I’m very in support of this, and I think anyone should be. I expect the usual contrarians to come in here and troll but this really is something everyone should be wanting. The recent graphics update was a clear effort to update the game and improve its longevity 10 years later. Improving the character creator with more variety makes sense when then original was sparse and limited for an MMO even back then. This game still has makeup permanently baked in to many of its faces instead of being a selection.

I feel like providing everyone with a fantasia, while generous, never made sense as a solution since those who are upset that their characters look different wont have that resolved by going back into the limited character creator. I myself still have my free fantasia from back when I first started playing. I loved my character too much to ever use it. There are so few options anyway, and all of them vary only slightly from each other. For an actual solution, that needs to change.

And if there’s technical or hardware limitations preventing the team from expanding the character creator with more control, please find a way regardless. I’m sure all the changes we’ve seen in Dawntrail might have been considered unthinkable and impossible previously but I believe the devs can find a way like they’ve done for everything else so far. I really just want my face to regain some of its original feel, but I’d like an expanded CC too so everyone can be happy and have a character they enjoy.

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Originally Posted by Cai

Personally the impact of the graphics update and the disconnect of the personal attachment I had to my character have made me completely lose interest in playing Dawntrail and hoping for anything to be done now that the expansion has launched feels like a long shot, but Yoshi P once said something to the effect of "if the players are complaining, it means they still care" which I hope is what the amount of feedback regarding the updated character appearances is received with.

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I also have lost my enthusiasm to play now that the main character of my story looks like a different person to me who has been looking at the face for years. I’ve considered seeking a refund for Dawntrail but I don’t want to accept that I’m no longer enjoying the game I’ve put so much time into for so long. I’ve given it an honest try, I’ve told myself I can get used to some of the new facial features, but I didn’t even feel motivated to do any MSQ the whole weekend. I realized that my attachment to my character was the main driving force behind me enjoying the game and feeling like a part of the story. FFXIV has been a game I would spend hours in just enjoying being in the world. I feel I’ve lost that sense of connection, so I don’t see it as a game I’m likely to pay monthly for any longer once I’m through Dawntrail. I don’t want that to be the case but I don’t really have a say in how I feel. I hope we see more changes. I wish this graphical update had gone better.

We need a huge expansion of the character creator by 8.0.

8.0 is apparently the Class identity and Job Gameplay Focus expansion so i guess it would be more 9.0 ^^°

I feel we're going to need something like at least 3 nose/mouth/eyebrow/jaw/eye shape options per face option (I would treat more than 3 as a bonus). One of my characters has a bigger nose than I'd like, but only because it's in a better position than the other options, the others being too far up or down. Eye option 3 tends to be the serious/exotic/fierce eye option out of the usual 6 available and I am quite fond of it- so personally I'd like to see more eye options in the vein of 3 (I would also like to see the 'majority' of any new eye options be bigger than the original offerings- One of the female Au Ra faces has an eye style that I like, probably number 3 again- but they're just a bit too small). On Jaws, a lot of existing choices tend to be A, B, or A+B being the 3rd option.

Obviously we're going to need a large increase of hair colour options, with primary colours being an important focus- a lot of vibrant colours are only in the highlights section, I know it's not an accident/it's an intended design choice within the game's world to naturalise the overall appearance of the player population, but it's still an artificial restriction that is sitting silently as one of many 'final straw' issues that will combine with others in the years ahead and contribute to players leaving. The deeper/darker/richer part of the colour spectrum is where we are coming up short, so being able to have our character's primary hair in handfuls of rich dark greens, blues, purples, browns, oranges and blondes etc would be great.

While more sets of character voices and battle grunts would be nice, some may find new ones jarring and it should perhaps be a lower priority consideration than other aspects of character creation. That one male viera's battle grunts are hilarious, but maybe not if you were hearing variations of it in every duty. Perhaps the devs selecting/taking 4-6 of the voice sets from each race (I know there's already some overlap) and making them available for other races would be a time/cost effective way to add a little more customisation (probably wouldn't work for Hrothgar and Lalafell though as they are too unique).

As fantasia is probably a large money spinner for the game, it is also in their interests to upgrade character creation capabilities. Surely it will come.

I'm always on board with more options. Personally, I would welcome if they just added the option to give Elezen ears to Midlanders/Highlanders because that would effectively let the RP crowd have half-Elezen like Hilda.

We should have so many more options for things in customizations available at this point. Now no more races are coming they need to improve current ones, fem hrothgar clip into their own arms in blm vpose for instance... fix issues, improve choices etc.

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Originally Posted by Cheapshot

I’m very in support of this, and I think anyone should be. I expect the usual contrarians to come in here and troll but this really is something everyone should be wanting. The recent graphics update was a clear effort to update the game and improve its longevity 10 years later. Improving the character creator with more variety makes sense when then original was sparse and limited for an MMO even back then. This game still has makeup permanently baked in to many of its faces instead of being a selection.

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Completely agree. And I'm sorry you've lost your enthusiasm for the game too, it's a really bad feeling after all this time.