Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Mr_Gucky]

This took me a few days to put together. I want to be super super super clear, this isn't some big long post saying that I demand all this stuff be restored. That would be absurd. I don't expect that. I probably don't even want that. I'll make an effort at the end to detail a small wish list of suggestions that I think would help restore the original feel of the face.

This is just me doing my best to document everything that changed with my characters face in a useful and organized manner. My hope is it can be used as a general reference for people who don't fully know what changed about their Miqo'te Face 4 characters. With any luck maybe by the developers as well. I was a professional illustrator for years and I also have a 30 gig FFXIV screenshot folder of my character so obviously my eye is going to notice changes that others wont. Please understand that I KNOW this is a lot. Just try not to jump down my throat about it without reading my intentions.








Hopefully these images scale.

So with all that documented and out of the way, I'll make a shortlist of suggestions down below. I feel much less attachment to the game now that my character of years looks so uncanny to me. I don't like how doll-like and unfocused she looks now. I very much dislike the new face and I've not had the desire to play anymore so I'm hoping I can influence some change.



A few things I think seem like problems that need to be fixed rather than intentional design:
- Solving the current "cloudy" greyness issue of the eyes, and making sure eye shine isn't dulled by shadows
- Removing the gloss from the lips when "none" is selected under lip colour as it was before and removing or reducing the drawn on lip shadow
- Toning down the shadows cast by the upper eyelids

And here is the list of what I would love to be changed specific to my characters features that might bring back her original feel better:
-Raise the corners of the eyes back up and switch back to the original lashes
-Restore the rounded shape of the nose tip
-Remove the recessed and down-turned mouth corners
-Reduce the shine on the nose to just the nose tip instead of the whole bridge

Great feedback! It seems that the problem of the glossy lips is not only present with Au Ra.

[Cheapshot]

The changes may seem small, but they have a big impact on the character's appearance. To cut a long story short: she looks like she's had plastic surgery. This destroys her original look, which is supposed to be cool and tomboyish. Now she looks like a doll.

Exactly where I’m at with my cat. Why wont they let us stay tom-boys? Not every face needs to be super feminine and delicate! Hurts my heart.

[Xeltoris]

I think Midlanders were hit super hard and deserve another go at it from the devs because the result doesn't look good in my opinion.

I will say, I do like some of the new combinations for Midlanders (this character being an example), but my original Midlander look from when I started (and before I started changing races) looked kinda awful after the update.

[noumen0nn]

I will say, I do like some of the new combinations for Midlanders (this character being an example), but my original Midlander look from when I started (and before I started changing races) looked kinda awful after the update.

I think it comes down to like, pre-update, fem Midlander faces could be tweaked to have a very wide array of expressions and impressions, so many different combinations of options looked good and any given Midlander had her own "vibe". Post-update, I feel like there's only one kind of vibe/impression no matter what you do: small-but-wide eyes, puffy nose, pouty lips; kind of dopey/cutesy. So if that's what you were going for with your looks, you came out ok, but if not you came out looking NOTHING like your old self.

[Aurumis]

I really hope they see this but many things were already in the benchmark and people asked them to fix and...they didn't. Also the promise of the characters lookint the same but they didn't deliver it at all...

[Turnintino]

I'm just really dissapointed with what they did with the male miqo'te face 4 eyes 3... it's horrible how much expression of the eyes they erased to become dead inside. I want them to fix it so badly...

Agreed. You can see a clear difference in the proportions in one of my previous posts, especially in the gifs.

[Aurumis]

Agreed. You can see a clear difference in the proportions in one of my previous posts, especially in the gifs.

Please use your post and submit a bug repport with the /supportdesk too in the game and add the link of the official forum and your post, I did it with mine. (Other people, pls do the same not only in the forum!!)

[Gredunza]

Fantastic, well-constructed feedback. I'm planning on collecting my observations about Midlander face 1 into one big list like this, and I'll absolutely be using your post as a model.

Please! I used face 1 as well and have been heartbroken with what it has become; but I'm simply not skilled enough to collate the data to a useful level.
I can also recommend looking at page 15 of the JP thread, there's an excellent break down of face 1 there.

[noumen0nn]

Please! I used face 1 as well and have been heartbroken with what it has become; but I'm simply not skilled enough to collate the data to a useful level.
I can also recommend looking at page 15 of the JP thread, there's an excellent break down of face 1 there.

Thanks, I'll take a look! I've already made 2 posts in this thread going over some specific changes to face 1, so feel free to use the info there for your own feedback purposes if you want. My next steps are collecting more photo comparisons for the nose and mouth, as well as errors in our new facial animations, and then I'll consolidate everything and make a post on the JP thread myself.

I wanted to point out the dramatic change to the overall face impression of Midlander Hyur face 1, using my character as an example.




I'm not the world's best artist, but here is a sketch I made to emphasize the difference in features. I used photoshop to morph my initial pencil sketch to be as accurate to the in-game images as possible.

Hello, I believe I've identified one of the primary culprits in Hyur Midlanders looking "off", which is that the shading at the top of our eyes cast by our upper eyelids has been significantly toned down, to the point where it looks functionally absent.

[Turnintino]

I'd also like to take a moment to appreciate just how terribly my catboy's portrait translated in the new lighting lol.

Behold:



And still, you can see the way his face has changed, from his jawline, to the shape and curve of his lips, to the shape of his nose (it lost the smooth feline slope it had previously), to the thickness and position of his eyebrows... Small things, individually, that combine to create a different face altogether.