Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Cheapshot]

It's disheartening, but, again, they do have a history of fixing/updating things months later while being completely silent about it the whole way through. I don't know why they do that, and I wish they didn't, but they do. The Hrothgar missing ears incident comes to mind, which was another issue that seemed outside of their usual quality control. It took 4 months to get fixed while fans were left to rot with speculation on whether or not they were even listening.

They were also completely silent about a way simpler issue, like male Viera naming conventions, for 3-4 months--which was a completely unprecedented wait for that kind of update--while people were constantly asking for a simple acknowledgement on whether or not we were even getting them. They never acknowledged that; we just finally got the names one day.

Still, unlike those incidents, we did get any note of them confirming they'll continue to make adjustments, as small as it was. My hope is that they at least acknowledge it in the 7.1 live letter...

I guess it’s that this situation is a little different in that unlike something missing or a bug, most of this is stuff they intentionally did. I don’t feel it lives up to their usual standard and it certainly let me down, but they might not see it that way? When it’s just a bug or something missing I can keep playing and not worry much about it because I figure it should get taken care of someday. It also doesn’t usually affect my enjoyment of the game overly much unlike the complete lack of desire to play I’m now experiencing. But since these were intentional decisions they made, and with them completely silent on this, there’s that anxious uncertainty. “Do they ever intend to fix/improve this? Am I waiting for something that will never happen?” I think that’s what makes this hit different.

The frustration of finally winning a house after trying at every opportunity since 2019, but it happened on, and I’m not kidding, the actual day I had planned to be my last day in the game until I had my character back again. Any day prior to having my spirits crushed by the changes in the benchmark and I would have been ecstatic to finally get my house. Now I can’t even enjoy it as I should. This game is too expensive for me, especially in Canada where my entry sub costs me 18$ a month. I was planning to vote with my wallet instead of paying for something I’m not enjoying anymore. But now I have to decide if I should keep forking over that money to keep hold of my house, waiting without any idea if more character adjustments are even being considered. I know I probably wont ever win the lotto again on my homeworld. I can’t believe it was on my last day. It almost feels like too much of a coincidence, farcical. Like what even??

[Doopliss]

[Snipped for post limit]

I understand where you're coming from and again I can't blame you at all. I'm really, really sorry for the situation this put you in. I only bring this up for the possibility of offering a little hope, because they do stuff like this all the time and, admittedly, a month isn't enough time for them to fix most things. Each adjustment between benchmarks was small and only on what select faces they could manage, after all.

In case it's difficult to remember, the Hrothgar missing ear thing was intentional. They laughed about it during the live letter and said something like "they're just hiding their ears under their hair!" like that made sense.

All in all, they probably think that little aggravating footnote is enough for now, and don't want to upset other players who are unbothered by the update by giving it a full announcement. Reading comprehension in FFXIV can be...wanting, and a lot of people tend to think "adjusting some shapes so they look more in-line with how the option appeared before" = "a call to downgrade the graphics". This is at least my guess from whatever bizarre pipeline and business perspective they have in this case, and considering some past events, like needing to dedicate basically two hours to explaining what a number squish in an MMO was so that players wouldn't misunderstand and get upset...

Again, though, I 100% understand where you're coming from. This is on a way larger and more disastrous scale than anything they've done before...but that is also the reason I believe they can't continue to ignore it forever. I hope people keep talking about it.

[Cheapshot]

Reading comprehension in FFXIV can be...wanting, and a lot of people tend to think "adjusting some shapes so they look more in-line with how the option appeared before" = "a call to downgrade the graphics".

Ugh yes, I’ve experienced a fair amount of pushback from people like that.

[DynnDiablos]

Ugh yes, I’ve experienced a fair amount of pushback from people like that.

The issue is you now have a large portion of the population who adore their characters and the new updates and looks. To revert it, or change shapes of things now would require not only a free fantasia for people to once again have to readjust their characters, but then you have people who will be furious because they've known grown used to new their characters as is. It's simply too late. I expect they will make minor adjustments over things in future patches, but I wouldn't expect them to make big enough changes where a fantasia would once again need to be required.

[Turnintino]

The issue is you now have a large portion of the population who adore their characters and the new updates and looks. To revert it, or change shapes of things now would require not only a free fantasia for people to once again have to readjust their characters, but then you have people who will be furious because they've known grown used to new their characters as is. It's simply too late. I expect they will make minor adjustments over things in future patches, but I wouldn't expect them to make big enough changes where a fantasia would once again need to be required.

It's only been a month, and the fact that they showed no hesitation when making these changes the first time suggests to me they wouldn't care a second time. Making some adjustments as requested here would at least be a return to something more familiar. But in a perfect world (and many here have requested as much), we would have access to all these options, old and new, in an expanded character creator. But you tell me which you think is more likely to happen.

[Doopliss]

The issue is you now have a large portion of the population who adore their characters and the new updates and looks. To revert it, or change shapes of things now would require not only a free fantasia for people to once again have to readjust their characters, but then you have people who will be furious because they've known grown used to new their characters as is. It's simply too late. I expect they will make minor adjustments over things in future patches, but I wouldn't expect them to make big enough changes where a fantasia would once again need to be required.

You keep making these arguments and it's exactly what I mean. Making the upturned eye option actually upturned again, or the nose option that's supposed to have a little bump on it have a little bump again, or just making all the lip changes not...objectively worse (I straight up have not seen anybody like the new lips better. And no, I don't mean the new lip colors) aren't huge sweeping changes. It's a return to an option that was lost and homogenized.

Also, why do the hundreds of customers--who have been happy with their characters for literal years--who are furious now matter less? This argument doesn't make sense. Like Turnintino said, it's only been a month. It is absolutely not too late.

It is also not unheard of for MMOs that had model graphic updates to make adjustments months after. They can offer a free fantasia again if they think any adjustments actually are large enough.

I can't seem to find the footnote anywhere though, so would you mind telling me where it is? Sorry in advance if I don't reply afterward, as my subscription will likely have expired by then.

Sorry for seeing this so late, night shift scheduling's turned my whole sleep pattern into a mess. It should be in this link, at the bottom:
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...ecd574ad0d397a

Here's a screenshot of the note, if that helps, too:

It's not great, but it's...something. And if you compare all the benchmarks to official release, you can see adjustments were made to some faces within the two months they had at the time.

I hope if the day you return comes, your character looks like herself again.

[Cheapshot]

The issue is you now have a large portion of the population who adore their characters and the new updates and looks. To revert it, or change shapes of things now would require not only a free fantasia for people to once again have to readjust their characters, but then you have people who will be furious because they've known grown used to new their characters as is. It's simply too late. I expect they will make minor adjustments over things in future patches, but I wouldn't expect them to make big enough changes where a fantasia would once again need to be required.

I realize that a number of people have already responded to you but since you were replying to me I’ll answer. I feel this view is perhaps misguided for a number of reasons.

Firstly it’s anecdotal in nature. We don’t know the size of the player base who prefer the new features, and we don’t know what people are actually responding positively to in many cases. There’s very very little, if any, specific feedback highlighting what people like better. It’s very possible much of the positive reaction is driven by higher resolution skin and hair textures as well as more complex lighting with higher resolution shadows. The number of people highlighting specific changes they like such as “I like the new lashes better” is even smaller than the amount leaving negative feedback so I don’t think we can confidently make assumptions either way. It’s just as likely that people would be equally happy if the facial features were adjusted more to their original shapes, since it would still look “improved” due to the higher resolution textures and lighting.

Secondly the fantasia was provided as an effort to accommodate those unhappy with the changes, not those who aren’t. It was a nice gesture but I don’t think it ever really helped with this particular issue. People who want their original looks back have nothing to fantasia to. So I don’t know that it should be much of a factor. If they added my original feature shapes as additional CC options I would happily pay for a fantasia if I didn’t still have both the new free one and the original from ARR. And they can always give away another free fanta. In don't think they’d need to, it would be an unnecessary loss, but there is no reason they couldn’t.

Thirdly. It is strange to make the argument that it’s “too late” and we shouldn’t make changes that might upset players who have grown attached to facial features they’ve had for a month, while simultaneously telling players attached to the facial features they've had for up to ten years to cope. It just doesn’t make sense. How could one weight the latter group not more, not even equally, but less? That’s backwards. I think it makes much more sense to modify the face options to look more like their original shapes and add new CC options for those who like the new ones they’ve obtained recently. That makes more sense, but I would honestly happily settle for being the one who has to fantasia if I could have my character looking like I remember them but HD.

[KhujaRela]

I'm really sad that Yoshida said they would adress and keep working on it after first patches but still no words... (it doesn't matter that much because I can't play ayway with the motion sickness isue tho...)

[EdwinChucklenuts]

"..Firstly it’s anecdotal in nature. We don’t know the size of the player base who prefer the new features"

No one's coming to the forums with positive feedback. The truth is the vast majority of people seem to enjoy the update (tune in to any random vod/stream of someone playing right after the update). The people who enjoy the graphics, enjoy the game don't need to come into the forum. This place is purely to grumble and complain lol.
The new textures/lighting/character updates are *chef's kiss*
Change is scary but eventually you'll come to accept your character in glorious high definition!

[Einnecy]

No one's coming to the forums with positive feedback. The truth is the vast majority of people seem to enjoy the update (tune in to any random vod/stream of someone playing right after the update). The people who enjoy the graphics, enjoy the game don't need to come into the forum. This place is purely to grumble and complain lol.
The new textures/lighting/character updates are *chef's kiss*
Change is scary but eventually you'll come to accept your character in glorious high definition!

If you had read even a single page of this thread instead of cherry-picking what you wanted to read you would come to the conclusion that people here are giving feedback and you would be aware of why they are giving feedback. Following your logic, I can also pull a statement out of my ass and say that a vast majority of people seem to dislike the update. I know of a dozen people who aren't posting on the forums, so surely those people I follow on social media and my friends speak for everyone, eh?