Moon Miqo'te Face 4 feedback

[Cheapshot]

All of these look better, stop trying to look for stuff to complain about

Hey did you read anything I wrote and miss the entire point of this feedback? "Better" isn't what matters. Better is subjective. What is important to us is preserving how our characters look and feel. This isn't barbies for me. I don't need thicker lashes and more makeup or a straighter nose. I need the character I love to continue on. I don't welcome rudeness in here.

These are amazing observations...I wonder if we should combine our stuff and try to make a post on the Japanese Forums using a translator? I'm not sure if the translation would be well but I honestly feel that maybe our voices might be heard over there than here.

The nose shape changed more than I expected now that you drew a line near it, I knew something 'felt off' but it wasn't just the straightening of the bridge, the tip also changed. I still feel bothered by how the cupid bow is so harsh looking as well.

They both flattened the tip and pushed back the bridge. It's much shallower and closer to the eye if you look. I forgot to draw a line expressing that but you can see the distance from the eye to the edge of the bridge is much shorter in the 7.0 clip. This means a straighter nose with less character, as well as less deep set eyes. Both pretty significant changes.

[Rueby]

They both flattened the tip and pushed back the bridge. It's much shallower and closer to the eye if you look. I forgot to draw a line expressing that but you can see the distance from the eye to the edge of the bridge is much shorter in the 7.0 clip. This means a straighter nose with less character, as well as less deep set eyes. Both pretty significant changes.

Huh...that does make sense though I'd love to see it if you wouldn't mind drawing it. I tried drawing lines over my character but I'm not skilled enough at anatomy to communicate how I feel. I'm going to try and fight with photoshop, my hand is really unsteady and I struggle to make straight lines along faces without them turning into a sketchy disaster

[Idolon]

I do not like the new, gigantic eyelashes. The rest of the changes are pretty subtle, but the eyes look jarringly different, and not just because of the lighting. (Face 4, eye 3)

Before:


After:


Eye and upper eyelash shapes traced (kinda poorly; drawing with a mouse is hard) over those images:

[Rueby]

Eye and upper eyelash shapes traced (kinda poorly; drawing with a mouse is hard) over those images:

It's so odd, eyes 2 also have this exact same issue. (My hand are really shaky so my lines are pretty much a mess.)
I guess it feels like there's no uniqueness between the eyes, we all got hit by the fake lashes + heavy eyeliner

[HeyMcFly]

All of these look better, stop trying to look for stuff to complain about

There's alot that does look better, so you are right- but with some of the updates, has been an erasure of details that made the faces unique or presets stand out originally- and those unique features could absolutely still be added with small texture updates in the future, which the xiv dev team has stated on their website that there will still be more improvements to come. That the benchmark isn't a set in stone, one and done thing.
The shiny, translucent skin texture is odd and overtuned and the natural nose contouring that had been there, isn't as prominent or now gone giving most features a more round, bulbous or semi-bloated appearance and there's the possible over tuning of skin reflections. It can almost resemble rubber.
While it likely is due to a clean-up of polygons, there are some actual face features now gone in the benchmark.

I do think however the xiv team can build up from this- and I don't want reversals or regression, but options and better character creator. My miqo still looks like the same, but some nice details that were originally there, are gone. Like the lip gap in face #4- it was a really cute feature that we're bummed is gone in the benchmark.
Anyways, here's the thread about skin textures for anyone curious! It goes into better detail.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...y-is-overtuned

[HeyMcFly]

It's so odd, eyes 2 also have this exact same issue. (My hand are really shaky so my lines are pretty much a mess.)
I guess it feels like there's no uniqueness between the eyes, we all got hit by the fake lashes + heavy eyeliner

While I'd like to keep the dark eyelashes as an option- the fact that the under part of the top eyelid is now completely hidden helps remove what was before, obvious unique eye shape. I think the eyes should have more diverse eyelash shapes and the eyeliner toned down to an extent. It lowkey resembles eyelashes growing out from under the eyelid or a fake eyelash- and realistically speaking, you'd see a little bit of eyelid from under the eyelashes, even fake ones unless they droop down and are super thick. (or the eyelid is lined in with eyeliner)

So TL;DR, thick eyelashes and lined eyelids should be optional.

[Rueby]

So TL;DR, thick eyelashes and lined eyelids should be optional.

I think it could be moved to uhm what's the option called? Features? I'm sorry I don't have CC currently open but it's where some races get races get access to thicker eyebrows etc. I can see a feature being 'hey I want thicker lashes/eyeliner'.

[Absurdity]

it's bc of the lack of lighting it appears that way; I always thought the random highlight was odd

Last time I checked the random highlight is also affected by the character lighting option, having it on adds a noticeable highlight around the outline of your body.

[Cheapshot]

Huh...that does make sense though I'd love to see it if you wouldn't mind drawing it. I tried drawing lines over my character but I'm not skilled enough at anatomy to communicate how I feel. I'm going to try and fight with photoshop, my hand is really unsteady and I struggle to make straight lines along faces without them turning into a sketchy disaster

Sure I'll give it a try. Hopefully this works?

You can see the nostrils are lower, the nose is overall straighter, the tip is flatter and the bridge is more shallow, closer in toward the eyes. They seem like minor changes but stuff like this adds up when everything on the face gets this much change.

There's alot that does look better, so you are right- but with some of the updates, has been an erasure of details that made the faces unique or presets stand out originally- and those unique features could absolutely still be added with small texture updates in the future

[...]

My miqo still looks like the same, but some nice details that were originally there, are gone. Like the lip gap in face #4- it was a really cute feature that we're bummed is gone in the benchmark.
Anyways, here's the thread about skin textures for anyone curious! It goes into better detail.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...y-is-overtuned

This is absolutely the crux of my concern. Details that made the faces feel unique have been lost and I would really really really really love if they were restored. Out of all the things I highlighted in my breakdown graphic, the wispy and darker brows, the thinner more natural eyelashes, and lip gap are the major things that my face lost which make me feel like my character has lost their specialness. If those three things were still there I would not feel as bad about the rest of the features looking slightly different. That's the opposite of what the dev team said they wanted. It feels like many of these changes were in service of making the character look more feminine rather than simply higher quality. I don't want that sort of change forced on me. If I wanted that, I would have chosen any of the 3 other faces, or 4 from the other subrace that look more feminine.

I think it's unlikely that I get those things back but I'm going to make noise anyway because it's very important to me and my enjoyment of the game and it doesn't hurt anyone for me to do so.

[Cocopuffcereal]

I love the changes they made to this face and I hope they never change it. Please SE, DON'T CHANGE IT. I like how alive the eyes are and the less obvious fangs and above all, I love the new shape of the lips!