Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Iscah]

For one, the Hyurification comments were not confrontational/diminishing of what's happened to hyurs too, but a descriptor of races ending up looking more hyuran.

I had no intention of that even being an argument. I just think it's a mistake to portray the problem as "the races look more Hyuran" because I don't think that's the problem – and because I think phrasing it that way makes it sound like characters who are already Hyuran are therefore fine when they really aren't.

To be clear, I've been brewing thoughts on this for a while and this is not meant to be arguing back.

As I said previously, the actual problem seems to be that they are moving all characters towards one generic human face, or perhaps just did a poor job of moulding that face to match the individual face shapes, which is a problem for all character faces because it moves that character away from the character's individual (rather than racial) identity.

For some races like Roegadyn the individual and racial identities are linked because the only thing that defines Roegadyn as a race (besides their colour) is that they are humans with a particular subset of human features and moving towards the generic face moves them away from the features that define them.

For other races that's not the same problem. My Miqo'te and Au Ra haven't lost the non-human features that indicate their race, but they have lost the specific face shapes that defined them as individual people.

I just feel like it's really important to be clear on the problem, and not risk them interpreting it as "Hyurs are fine, only the other races have identity issues".

[Sui-Kune]

I had no intention of that even being an argument. I just think it's a mistake to portray the problem as "the races look more Hyuran" because I don't think that's the problem – and because I think phrasing it that way makes it sound like characters who are already Hyuran are therefore fine when they really aren't.

To be clear, I've been brewing thoughts on this for a while and this is not meant to be arguing back.

As I said previously, the actual problem seems to be that they are moving all characters towards one generic human face, or perhaps just did a poor job of moulding that face to match the individual face shapes, which is a problem for all character faces because it moves that character away from the character's individual (rather than racial) identity.

For some races like Roegadyn the individual and racial identities are linked because the only thing that defines Roegadyn as a race (besides their colour) is that they are humans with a particular subset of human features and moving towards the generic face moves them away from the features that define them.

For other races that's not the same problem. My Miqo'te and Au Ra haven't lost the non-human features that indicate their race, but they have lost the specific face shapes that defined them as individual people.

I just feel like it's really important to be clear on the problem, and not risk them interpreting it as "Hyurs are fine, only the other races have identity issues".

Aye, I get it. I do apologize for snapping, @faiarrow got really upset because they've already been hurting so much and it hit a nerve, so I was a lot more curt than I needed to be.

That does make sense what you're saying, and I do want you to understand as well what we meant by 'hyurification', and how we genuinely didn't intend for it to sound like hyurs didn't get major issues as well. That generic face however is, for all intents and purposes, meant to be human or something human-adjacent (like hyur, even if the result is hyur also got major issues), so would it be alright to then settle on 'humanification' for this phenomenon? Or something using the word 'generic', since like you said, miqo'te and au ra didn't so much lose the non-human features that set them apart but rather their face types in general. Would that be sufficient to clear the air so to speak, and avoid more unintentional arguing?

[lunartears]

[...]
For other races that's not the same problem. My Miqo'te and Au Ra haven't lost the non-human features that indicate their race, but they have lost the specific face shapes that defined them as individual people.

I hope this doesn't come across as dismissive because I understand where you are coming from and I have enjoyed reading your feedback (as with all) but I respectfully disagree about Au Ra.
I feel like my Au Ra lost her racial traits which to me were the small pupils, sharp nose and smaller mouth.
Though some would probably say those features (aside from the pupil size change) don't count as a defining racial feature and are more likely related to the update as a whole, so it's just my own interpretation after spending 3-ish years with this character.

Also, I apologise if my usage of "hyurification" has upset you. I have only used it in the way I would "humanificiation'" as Hyur is basically "human" in this game. Hyur is one of the races where I can most easily identify the changes so I don't think they are unscathed at all.