Why do solution 9 NPCs get more character creation options? (Raid quest spoilers)

[Bright-Flower]

NPCs have always had options not available to players. This is nothing new.

Yeah. Like Hilda's half elf ears.

[Keumjo]

Yeah. Like Hilda's half elf ears.

And Hilda's hair.

[AnimaAnimus]

Yeah. Like Hilda's half elf ears.

And Hilda's hair.

And Cid's beard. Or Midas's beard.

But I am not unlocking this neon nightmare raid tier, so what customization are we speaking of?

[EdwinChucklenuts]

And Cid's beard. Or Midas's beard.

But I am not unlocking this neon nightmare raid tier, so what customization are we speaking of?

You're very cool.

[AnimaAnimus]

You're very cool.

Not being edgy. I just have sensory issues and the bright neon messes with me so I am opting not to do it.

And my dude 1/10 on the troll. I hope you have fun in middle school this year!

[Iscah]

This IS new as these aren't custom NPCs, but rather utilizing the character creation system. Check Garland tools, none of them are unique models with unique features.

https://garlandtools.org/db/#npc/1049789

"Yaana: Face (custom) #8..."

This is presumably the source of the glowing pupils.

The super-bright hair doesn't require custom faces, because instead it seems that the devs have access to several more rows of hair colours that players can't see. (In the profile linked above, note that her highlights colour is "row 26" when we only have 24.) This is nothing new – the devs have been using it since ARR or probably even 1.0 to assign skin colours not naturally available to a character, particularly for Roegadyn, like Moenbryda's more human colour and Curious Gorge being a Sea Wolf recoloured to look like a Hellsguard.

[DreadCrow]

And Cid's beard. Or Midas's beard.

But I am not unlocking this neon nightmare raid tier, so what customization are we speaking of?

Shame. You're missing top tier battle content.

[AnimaAnimus]

Shame. You're missing top tier battle content.

I would like to play it, but all that pastel and neon lights are bad enough, have them moving at face paces messes with me and throws me into a fit of vertigo. The moment they showed the arena at the fanfest I knew I couldn't participate. They already go overboard and are getting increasingly worse by the expansion, imo, with boss animations that cannot be toned down. Add into that flying neons and I'm done lol. Older content is much easier simply due to the palet being darker, but someone on the design team has had a huge thing for really bright colors for a long time and that is a problem for a fair amount of ppl.