Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[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?

[Daralii]

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?

The same mantra shows up for every discussion area for every piece of media, but I don't know if there's a term for it or how often it's bait. "Only unhappy people make posts, and everyone I know loves it, so everything is perfect" is something I've kept seeing for maybe 15 years at this point.

[Doopliss]

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!

This again... You do know people who aren't happy are also just as likely to stay silent and hope things get fixed, right? People on the regular hate confrontation when they feel they can avoid it. And, again, I can't blame them. This place sucks.

But I take it if you've actually looked at the reports in both JP and ENG forums of all the feature changes, outright missing features, and bugs, it'd seem a little less "chef's kiss".

Feature changes were not done for the better and barely even offer a new option in the first place--unless it was making a base face look completely different like ♀ Au Ra Face 2--because most of them just ended up getting sanded down and homogenized to look like some other, already available option.

We're still missing ♂ Duskwights' clan-specific face textures, and Hellsguards' defining feature is still barely visible. ♀ Roegadyn are still missing normal maps. Most lips lost detail and became straight lines. There's texture errors everywhere; most high altitude areas are still covered in fog; shadows freak out and make strange, patterned lines over characters in a ton of areas. Emotes are constantly making your face twitch and look less natural across the board... Some races now look horrible with dark skin tones for no reason, other than they clearly didn't test it.

You know, I am personally cool with my Elezen having better normals. That's great. I don't actually want to go back to the old one. Most other things, though, just feel like a mess. I remember when I could take screenshots without backlight making my hair light up like an LED...

EDIT: Woops. I didn't realize there'd be two other replies in the time I took to write this. Well. Uh. My bad. You get the point.