Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[faiarrow]

You've been incredibly transparent and forward with the information around the update, It's been great to see.

Also, a note to people in this thread. The Graphics Update was always advertised as a rolling update over the 7.X patches. Areas/environments, gear, and NPCs in particular were always stated to be addressed over patches, so if an object or an environment or an NPC isn't updated yet, it's not an issue with the Graphics Update or the Devs being 'Lazy'.

I'd like to note that they have actually not been transparent regarding the update. The whole reason there has been such an outcry from veteran and new players alike stating that there hasn't been proper care for the developer intention with the character update issued THIRCE by the development team re: working hard to keep the same impression prior to the first benchmark and here within is because they saw their characters changed or outright butchered for the sake of polygon unification. Even on the JP forums there have been posts with multiple interviews and videos linked with timestamps about what had actually been discussed and just how many months there were between updates, and the actual information we got prior to the bench was truly spartan.

It also didn't help that they only showed the primary 'first face' that would load for each race in a single clan for most of the update shots, complete with mismatched lighting that masked a lot of problems we then found out with the benches and now the live game.

(Hellsguard and Duskwight shaking hands right now for feeling utterly miserable we didn't get to really see our 'updates' until the bench..)

I'm glad there are definitely people out there who did win and got a glow up, but as someone who lost my character heading for 10 years of playtime since I began my journey with her as a hellsguard femroe, who has seen what feels like the complete loss of racial uniqueness and traits due to the changes, it's hard to have faith that things were actually done with care. I try to believe and have faith it was not the design and art team's intention, but after providing months of feedback (since October 2023! When I first saw the eyes were being made what they are now) to have nothing done regarding it and seeing more popular races "fixed" (barely) or adjusted when just as valid feedback was given from our player base was soul crushing.

The development team are only human, yes, but they're also working for one of the most financially successful MMOs and companies in the industry right now. The fact that there was less open transparency about this update and questions to the playerbase than the downgrade 1.0 > ARR had is honestly wild.