Character graphical changes are NOT in an acceptable state, please make it optional

[Thrawn21]

I really like the new look on my Raen. Though there seems to be a strange difference in texture on the horns vs the scales.

[CidHeiral]

I personally do think these questions are portrayed a little black and white, when the situation is far more grey...

The situation is very grey, I agree. That's what we're discussing.

if anything I think the situation up to this point has been discussed very black and white. Most of the posts in this thread are black and white "my character is ruined" "no it isn't." Repeat forever.

I would like to share this with you.

For context, I've been playing this game since January 2014 and I have 18k hours of playtime so yeah I've been staring at my character the whole time and I was really affected when I saw it in the benchmark. To me, she looked too different and I was really disappointed.

However, I've somehow managed to make a character I like and I hope my advice can help some of you.

This is a great post!

[Mouthbone]

I personally do think these questions are portrayed a little black and white, when the situation is far more grey...

For example, since so many people think others are being dramatic and see very little changes, and simply enjoy the upgrade--do you really think they would feel any different about it if the upgrade was done more precisely to have the facial features and makeup look like the current models'?

I don't think it's fair to paint people that like the updated looks as indifferent to change.
I like the update (mostly) and I would rather them keep it as is (with minor changes to the face markings and mooncat fangs).
I don't want the devs to go back and do a 1 to 1 port, because it can look weird/bad for one reason or another.
I trust the developers and the character designers to know what they are doing.

I've also heard concerns among friends over the idea that the devs might roll back changes in order to please the people complaining on the forums.
In my experience, the reaction to the update is majorly positive, however, people happy with their update have fewer reasons to go on the forums and voice their opinion.
This does not invalidate their opinion at all.
Do the opinions of people that frequent the forums hold more weight?
I don't know, but I hope the devs aren't only taking into account the opinions of the people complaining.

[Thrawn21]

I would like to share this with you.

For context, I've been playing this game since January 2014 and I have 18k hours of playtime so yeah I've been staring at my character the whole time and I was really affected when I saw it in the benchmark. To me, she looked too different and I was really disappointed.

However, I've somehow managed to make a character I like and I hope my advice can help some of you.


The 1st piece of advice I can give you is to check the system configuration and your current character lighting setting.

For comparison, it seems that the character lighting is at 0 in EW benchmark and at 100 (or maybe 50, I don't know) in DT benchmark




This is how my character looks in game, with 0,50 and 100 character lighting and 2 different light source.
as you can see, lighting has a strong impact on your look.





The 2nd tip is to use your current game settings in benchmark. This can help, especially when your chin and neck seem to blend together at max settings. I tried it and the jawline was more visible.

My final tip is to import your character's current hairstyle if it's not available in the benchmark, and try to change small details like eye or skin color.
In my case, when I saw my character with her usual hairstyle during the cutscenes I was like "ok I recognize my wol but the skin is too dark and the eye color doesn't look natural"



I used a free fantasia I had on an alt that has access to the aesthetician, switched to midlander and changed the eye and skin color, then I bought the hairstyle at the MB (I lost 2 million gils but it was worth it tbh)

here is how it turned out :





it's not really "same and better" but rather "very similar and pretty cool".
I hope it's helpful for anyone ♥

And please let's be nice to each other
(+ I'm sorry english is not my native language so there may be some mistakes)

This is great information! Thanks for taking the time and effort to put it together and share it.

[Doopliss]

The situation is very grey, I agree. That's what we're discussing.

if anything I think the situation up to this point has been discussed very black and white. Most of the posts in this thread are black and white "my character is ruined" "no it isn't." Repeat forever.

Huh? I mean, that's not really what I was trying to discuss in that specific reply, but, uh...yeah.

I want to be empathetic here, I really do, but I feel like those who keep saying that people keep posting that their character has been ruined has been like, posted more than the people actually saying that, if you catch my drift.

Well, more so, it's been like, the same select few people saying it, arguing with another group of repeated visitors. Many of those who dislike the changes and post calmer thoughts on why they dislike the changes get ignored or either a few attempts at some bad faith questions before coming to an agreement, at worst.

I understand that the people you are talking about have used extreme, aggressive language, and I know that can be upsetting to see. I suppose I just see it as mostly inoffensive since it's solely their own character they're insulting, even if exaggerated. Then again, I just don't tend to take people who're clearly acting on emotions 100% literally...

But I think I need to follow my own advice and back off from asking questions like these. See you all, and, again, I hope you keep voicing your concerns and that SE takes care.

EDIT: Literally just noticed two posts above that there's a reply written toward my last post answering with the assumption that I implied way more extreme measures than I actually did. That has now happened twice from the same group of people presenting these arguments. Yeah, I'm sorry if I come across as rude at this point, but I super gotta take my own advice.

[OgruMogru]

I actually completely agree. This is why I'm clinging so hard to the tiny bit of edge that's offered in face 4, haha. Because now even this pathetic hint of severity is gone.



Please infiltrate SE and become their new character artist. I would love more harsh looks for fem au ras. ;0;

I really hope this isn't overstepping any boundaries and I absolutely would never dictate to someone else how they should make their character but curiosity got the better of me and I made a very rough version of your face 4 Aura girl because I was curious how smaller irises and altered makeup could work to make the brow appear angrier. It means no cute star facepaint tho sadly! These are obviously in conjunction with emotes and animations but now I'm convinced we need some kind of setting for a permanent facial expression emote because the difference the brow makes even in the first 2 frames of an emote makes a huge difference! Again I'm so sorry if this is weird I just wanted to share how much of a difference even a slight tweak to the brow angle can make ^^ /grovel

[4clubbedace]

I don't think it's fair to paint people that like the updated looks as indifferent to change.
I like the update (mostly) and I would rather them keep it as is (with minor changes to the face markings and mooncat fangs).
I don't want the devs to go back and do a 1 to 1 port, because it can look weird/bad for one reason or another.
I trust the developers and the character designers to know what they are doing.

I've also heard concerns among friends over the idea that the devs might roll back changes in order to please the people complaining on the forums.
In my experience, the reaction to the update is majorly positive, however, people happy with their update have fewer reasons to go on the forums and voice their opinion.
This does not invalidate their opinion at all.
Do the opinions of people that frequent the forums hold more weight?
I don't know, but I hope the devs aren't only taking into account the opinions of the people complaining.

people come to forums specifically to complain, the most negative emotive are the loudest.

[Evergrey]

... now I'm convinced we need some kind of setting for a permanent facial expression emote...

ESO have a nice costumization feature where one can equip a Personality.
Some do more than others, but many of them alters the way a character either stands, walks, runs and idle animations & facial expressions.
This could solve a lot of things and add a whole new way of people to express their characters personality.

However, I can already see that some might be locked behind raids/pvp/achivements and people will complain as to "why lock something behind something only x% of people play" reactions.

[CuteBucket]

I'm really tired of hearing people say to adjust the lighting and gamma. I have. Many of us have. We've tried edits, angles, lights, settings, anything to make our characters look like themselves again, but nothing works. I made the settings the same and took identical screenshots in multiple lighting conditions in the current game and benchmark that are in the Au Ra changes thread to show that this is not a lighting issue. Changing the environment and and gamma setting doesn't do anything to fix the fundamental changes they made to my character's facial structure. Hyur players made it through relatively intact, judging by looking through all these threads. Many other races did not. Like these lips are just not even remotely close to each other.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

I'm really tired of hearing people say to adjust the lighting and gamma. I have. Many of us have. We've tried edits, angles, lights, settings, anything to make our characters look like themselves again, but nothing works. I made the settings the same and took identical screenshots in multiple lighting conditions in the current game and benchmark that are in the Au Ra changes thread to show that this is not a lighting issue. Changing the environment and and gamma setting doesn't do anything to fix the fundamental changes they made to my character's facial structure. Hyur players made it through relatively intact, judging by looking through all these threads. Many other races did not. Like these lips are just not even remotely close to each other.

My male middie had it bad. Real bad >.> Here :cry: