Letter from the Producer LXII

[HyoMinPark]

Yeah, I figured that would be teh solution, but my point is that comes with a similar drawback - Your character model wont shift in height when it logically should when you put on shoes. At that point, though, its a matter of how game breaking that immersion gets. Which then gets into similar arguments, like clipping. If one aspect is potentially immersion breaking but acted upon, why not more? Why not have long hair styles even if they clip armor/bodies/geometry. Im not arguing that Yoshi is right or wrong, but that the issue isnt so black and white I guess and theres more to these problems than the initial issue.

It already doesn’t shift in character height. If you have a female character, try on Y’shtola’s HW attire boots. Despite having a platform heel, your character remains the same height because the footwear replaces the feet (and sometimes the leg) model entirely. This also applies to every other piece of gear: look at the Word of the Mother dress. Even if your character is at the lower end of the bust slider spectrum, when you put it on, it automatically gives you her breast size. Because it replaces your character’s body model with that of hers. Some pieces do better jobs at reflecting different bust sizes, but others have fairly static models that make you look either larger than you are or flatter than you are.

As for clipping, look at characters like Lyse and Yotsuyu in their respective, tailor made hair and outfits. They still clip. Everything clips, and the devs have said that they can’t do anything about it and don’t care to.

[Melichoir]

It already doesn’t shift in character height. If you have a female character, try on Y’shtola’s HW attire boots. Despite having a platform heel, your character remains the same height because the footwear replaces the feet (and sometimes the leg) model entirely. As for clipping, look at characters like Lyse and Yotsuyu in their respective, tailor made hair and outfits. They still clip. Everything clips, and the devs have said that they can’t do anything about it and don’t care to.

Stating exceptions is not the same as making it the rule. I could point to the Werewolf feet and how those dont make sense either if you think about it to long. Or how while hairstyles do clip, itd be a completely different thing if clipping was super extreme and popping through all sorts of things insanely.

Again, Im only pointing out that even simple things dont necessarily have clean cut answers.

[ForteNightshade]

Stating exceptions is not the same as making it the rule. I could point to the Werewolf feet and how those dont make sense either if you think about it to long. Or how while hairstyles do clip, itd be a completely different thing if clipping was super extreme and popping through all sorts of things insanely.

Again, Im only pointing out that even simple things dont necessarily have clean cut answers.

It isn't an exception our height isn't shifted when wearing heeled boots like Y'shtola's. They simply don't adjust height whatsoever but instead replace your entire foot/leg. As for clipping... try riding a mount with long robes. The whole point being made here is they don't have any issues whatsoever with clipping, so why does floating suddenly cause a problem when our character already floats? Adding to that, modders have proven you wouldn't even float more than normally given how they designed the foot mod.

[Melichoir]

It isn't an exception our height isn't shifted when wearing heeled boots like Y'shtola's. They simply don't adjust height whatsoever but instead replace your entire foot/leg. As for clipping... try riding a mount with long robes. The whole point being made here is they don't have any issues whatsoever with clipping, so why does floating suddenly cause a problem when our character already floats? Adding to that, modders have proven you wouldn't even float more than normally given how they designed the foot mod.

Youre missing the overall point Im illustrating. There's nuance to all these issues and typically there is no perfect solution, but there are ranges of acceptability. As a point, the devs know clipping occurs. However, just because it occurs doesnt meant that they just want to say "Screw it, clipping doesnt matter". Theyve made design decisions regarding some inconsistencies, and theyre not always great. But the issue is, as Im trying to point out, not a clean cut easy peasy answer.

And you know what, if the player base adamantly wants bare feet all the time, Im sure the devs could do something about it. But the way I see it, the demand to justify it isnt there. This would be like saying "Man, I wish All of the major cities were one continuous map instead of sectioned". I would hazard it's possible for them to do it, but not enough people are asking for that to justify the cost of doing it.

[ForteNightshade]

Youre missing the overall point Im illustrating. There's nuance to all these issues and typically there is no perfect solution, but there are ranges of acceptability. As a point, the devs know clipping occurs. However, just because it occurs doesnt meant that they just want to say "Screw it, clipping doesnt matter". Theyve made design decisions regarding some inconsistencies, and theyre not always great. But the issue is, as Im trying to point out, not a clean cut easy peasy answer.

And you know what, if the player base adamantly wants bare feet all the time, Im sure the devs could do something about it. But the way I see it, the demand to justify it isnt there. This would be like saying "Man, I wish All of the major cities were one continuous map instead of sectioned". I would hazard it's possible for them to do it, but not enough people are asking for that to justify the cost of doing it.

This thread begs to differ just a little bit on how much they care about... shall we all them inconsistencies?

And your comparison... makes absolutely no sense. You're comparing a texture re-design to an entire city overhaul. The whole contention people have is if modders can do it, then the devs can should they choose to do so. Why? Because modders are limited to the existing models, and can only do so much. Furthermore, people have brought up barefeet, clipping issues plenty of times. Every single time the devs have made excuses like "your character would float!" Which rings a little hollow for the reasons we've already discussed.

[Melichoir]

This thread begs to differ just a little bit on how much they care about... shall we all them inconsistencies?

And your comparison... makes absolutely no sense. You're comparing a texture re-design to an entire city overhaul. The whole contention people have is if modders can do it, then the devs can should they choose to do so. Why? Because modders are limited to the existing models, and can only do so much. Furthermore, people have brought up barefeet, clipping issues plenty of times. Every single time the devs have made excuses like "your character would float!" Which rings a little hollow for the reasons we've already discussed.

Its a matter of scale. It's the same concept, but its not feasible more clearly for time/resource constraints, as well as other considerations.

There are issues with the game. In fact, the issue you point to in that thread is a more egregious error and deserves more attention than bare feet. And even then, I can point to that and say that the likely hood thats an issue is oversight + time constraints and not so much that the devs are lazy. The simple solution is to disable certain emotes on the mount which would work, but that too has drawbacks and considerations.

Im not arguing that the game is perfect, nor that the answers they provide are great. Im saying that the idea you can just quick fix it in 5 seconds cause modders do it and the devs are what-lazy, stupid, dont care, pick your excuse, is an oversimplification that really isnt justified. That there are other considerations. Nor is the position of "Well I noticed this, therefore they dont care." As in, you notice glitching in some instances, therefore the devs have no problem with it. There's gonna be a point where they wont focus on something because its not worth fixing. And when I point out this being outliers, consider how many assets are in game. How many animations we have. How much interaction and collision there is. In the grande scope of things, issues like this are not the norm, theyre the exception. It doesnt mean that they shouldnt be fixed, its just a matter of how much time/effort should be invested. Fixing model distortions? Thats more pressing than fixing if we can have barefeet (which is purely cosmetic at that point)

Oh, and you can thank modders btw for probably for not getting certain aspects of the game addressed. If youre a dev, and you got more pressing matters, and modders are doing some of the things for you behind the scenes, youre going to bump those issues down the list of importance (if its even registered at all). They may not endorse it officially, but they dont have to enforce their ToS either unless the mods can potentially damage the image of the game.