Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[noumen0nn]

Closing Thoughts

Overall, Midlanders in general are suffering from what I feel is too strong of a focus on “realism”, with aspects such as the intense shadows of the eye bags and tear tracks, or the deep-set philtrum. Not only is this an issue in that these features distract from what should be the standout facial features, like the eyes, but also in that this “realism” looks wildly out of place when standing next to the more stylized faces of other races, like Miqo’te and Au Ra.

This is not the “cumulative” post I was originally planning for, because everything else has already been covered earlier in this thread and I wanted to focus on things that hadn’t been shown as much. But aside from the individual details, it is the overall feeling of Midlander face 1 that has changed.



This was my Warrior of Light. Confident, strong, and adventurous.



So who on earth is this? (Not a fair comparison, but a necessary one)

Some of the changes, like the smaller eyes, I can attribute to error. Others, like the philtrum, lips, and cheek/jaw shape, seem like they were done intentionally out of artistic preference for a more “feminine” face. I can’t say for sure that this is true, but in any case, the fact is that we were promised that the look of our characters would change as little as possible, and I would like any further changes to stick to that promise.

All that said, thank you again for listening and responding to our feedback, and I look forward to your upcoming announcement.

(4/4)

[Adamantini]

(...)

Sorry for not seeing your first post, I haven't been following this topic very often. But from what I noticed in your post, the expression has indeed been altered. I didn't use this expression much for screenshots, so unfortunately, I have nothing to compare it to, but I really don't remember this expression being like this on my character. To me, it seems like the character is forcing a smile while thinking 'please kill me.' And what's worse is that it's not just limited to the big grin, but to any emote where he smiles showing his teeth.

[what-_-]

I definitely felt that the quality has improved since the graphic patch came in this time.

Some races have become beautiful and others have been complemented, but I think the biggest problem is (worst patch) female mikote.

In the case of male mikote, if you don't choose the color of your lips, you can still see the color of your skin. By the way, a woman's micote graphic lips have basic transparent lip gloss. The sparkle of the lips stands out.

I think this is part of misogyny.

There is a big difference between complementing and adding new features.
Some women want lipstick on their faces, while others don't.
If the color selection cannot be further diversified, could you change it back to the previous one?

In addition, the face of the third type of female Mikote has become different. Are women's facial expressions determined by their laughter? I'm scared that the area around my mouth, which wasn't like that at all, is dented and makes me smile.
The third type of face had rougher skin and freckles, but now it has smooth skin and looks more like a doll than a living person.

I feel that this is a patch that treats women like dolls.

It is natural for a person's face to harmonize its shortcomings and strengths. In this patch, my face became unnatural because I tried to leave only the benefits. Please stop making the female character's face look like a doll.
The face enlarged by the in-game examine button is even more strange. The color of your face is too uniform. Obviously it has to be added.

I don't know exactly, but the shape of the nose shadow has changed and the shape looks different.
As the shape and length of the eyelashes become constant, the characteristics disappear, lips become thin, lip lines form, and the area around the mouth is dug deep, and the bottom of the nose is not the patch we wanted.
The user would have welcomed the patch by adding the type, but not this time. It's a shame that the patch was applied that I couldn't even go back to.

The scenery, the light source of the building and the map, and the water-soaked expression are beautiful, but the changes in the character graphics are hard to accept.
I know that even if I expect them to put it back, they won't put anything back. Expectations that users' opinions will be accepted have disappeared without returning the much-criticized PVP content. It's very disappointing to see a one-sided patch that doesn't take user needs into account.

Why don't you combine both the company's and the user's opinions to get better? I also don't want to express my regret for the hard work of the employees.

What is the purpose of the patch?

[MagicMush00]

Closing Thoughts

Overall, Midlanders in general are suffering from what I feel is too strong of a focus on “realism”, with aspects such as the intense shadows of the eye bags and tear tracks, or the deep-set philtrum. Not only is this an issue in that these features distract from what should be the standout facial features, like the eyes, but also in that this “realism” looks wildly out of place when standing next to the more stylized faces of other races, like Miqo’te and Au Ra.

This is not the “cumulative” post I was originally planning for, because everything else has already been covered earlier in this thread and I wanted to focus on things that hadn’t been shown as much. But aside from the individual details, it is the overall feeling of Midlander face 1 that has changed.



This was my Warrior of Light. Confident, strong, and adventurous.



So who on earth is this? (Not a fair comparison, but a necessary one)

Some of the changes, like the smaller eyes, I can attribute to error. Others, like the philtrum, lips, and cheek/jaw shape, seem like they were done intentionally out of artistic preference for a more “feminine” face. I can’t say for sure that this is true, but in any case, the fact is that we were promised that the look of our characters would change as little as possible, and I would like any further changes to stick to that promise.

All that said, thank you again for listening and responding to our feedback, and I look forward to your upcoming announcement.

(4/4)

Thanks for the super complete summary of the issues, i too agree on all you've said, and i think the sad part is how all of this just ends up taking away all the character/personality that the older model had, i also wanna add how much the "shrunk" upper lip affects the overall expression of the face making it look pretty weird, especially when there are lights shining on the character's face from above, which is another problem the pre dt model didn't have.

[Khryseis_Astra]

This is not the “cumulative” post I was originally planning for, because everything else has already been covered earlier in this thread and I wanted to focus on things that hadn’t been shown as much. But aside from the individual details, it is the overall feeling of Midlander face 1 that has changed.

This was my Warrior of Light. Confident, strong, and adventurous.

So who on earth is this? (Not a fair comparison, but a necessary one)

Some of the changes, like the smaller eyes, I can attribute to error. Others, like the philtrum, lips, and cheek/jaw shape, seem like they were done intentionally out of artistic preference for a more “feminine” face. I can’t say for sure that this is true, but in any case, the fact is that we were promised that the look of our characters would change as little as possible, and I would like any further changes to stick to that promise.

Thank you for your detailed post with all the illustrations… you articulated all the issues much better than I could, and hopefully they will take this feedback into account. Both my Midlander and Highlander are suffering from these issues.

[Kaziek]

snip

Thank you for this post noumen0nn, between you and other detailed posts from face 1 players I think pretty much everything to be said has been. We'll just have to wait and see if any action will be taken based off of our feedback.

[CidHeiral]

Philtrum

The issues with Midlander philtrums has been well-established in this thread already, so instead I want to show how it compares to discrepancies in other races between the old and new graphics.

I've noticed this on Face 1 Fem Highlander as well. The philtrum is very prominent and it looks quite odd when the light catches it, like a cartoon caricature or something. I'm not sure what the fix would be here though. Perhaps making it more shallow or the raised bits on either side less raised?

[Louhikko]

Personally I do like the new teeth. One of my biggest petpeeves before was how pronounced the teeth were but I quess it's a matter of taste.

[Rueby]

I'm going to post links to a few threads that I think are worth looking into. They might be off topic in terms of 'character graphics' however it's in line with the graphical update. If it improves the visibility for some issues (and hopefully fixes them/addresses them), the game will likely return to how it was once before. Please consider it.

Eyestrain Thread - Here
Environment Thread - Here
Benchmark Compendium [Might be slightly outdated but there were alot of feedback regarding character faces/changes that were never altered in the current release] - Here

It's a shame to see that all this feedback might be buried. I tried my best to organize it as I could, I'd continue updating it if someone has some loose threads.
Please consider it! Alot of effort went into the feedback and it's unfortunate that we didn't have it all in one place.

Anyway, sorry if this breaks the 'on topic'. I felt like these were worth mentioning....

[Khryseis_Astra]

I've noticed this on Face 1 Fem Highlander as well. The philtrum is very prominent and it looks quite odd when the light catches it, like a cartoon caricature or something. I'm not sure what the fix would be here though. Perhaps making it more shallow or the raised bits on either side less raised?

Looking at it here, it almost looks like they forced the lip shapes of all three of these to fit the new overly exaggerated philtrums, instead of redoing the lips first and making the philtrum suit them. It’s so noticeable here.