We need to compromise as a player base

[decomposer]

I'm not in the camp of "roll back everything the way that it was" because I think that's unfeasible and also disregards some genuine, much-needed improvements.

That being said, some of the "technical advances" seem more like mistakes or crunched corner-cutting, especially where the character models are concerned. For instance, applying one clan's skin textures to the entire race, or every race now sharing the same UV map (great for modders who wish to make cross-race makeup options, but not necessarily great for facial definition in base game.) Not to mention the literal bugs I've seen with hair textures, neck seams, etc.

One of the biggest "mistakes" (using quotes here, because I don't know if it's an actual mistake) is that it seems like the subsurface scattering (SSS) was not mapped properly, and instead extends to the entire head. This is why characters are looking waxen, self-lit even in low light, and why skin tones are changing per environments (ie. characters looking green in the La Noscea character creator portion, because the skin translucency is cranked up and is drinking up green environs instead of reflecting light properly.) I think this would also explain why for the female raen, horn colors are changing depending on skin tone, why dark hair changes 5 shades lighter depending on hairstyle, and why viera ears are turning into glowsticks.

There was a really good thread on this here.

A lot of people are saying "it's just lighting," and one, that is an issue in itself but two, a glimpse around the forums shows that features themselves have changed. Sometimes drastically. A lot of the times poorly.

I made a graph about lighting and skintone. But I also made one about features. And this is just my one, singular elf.



I think myself and most others would be happy to compromise. I would even tolerate the jank candle-effect on the skin if I could just have my character's lips, nose, chin, and eyes back. It's okay if he looks fine or better to others! But that's not (my) character who I've played, gposed, drawn, written, and commissioned for years ):