Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[noumen0nn]

1. Please lighten the tops of our eyes so that the tops of our pupils never blend directly into our irises. It's really bad in light-colored eyes, much worse than even my green-eyed pic above.

Sorry, but I have to contest you here. Prior to 7.0, Hyur midlanders had an extremely dark shadow cast on their eyes by the upper eyelid, and losing it was one of the worst and most impactful impression changes that we got. Lightening the tops of our eyes any further would only make this problem worse. It is absolutely critical for our face impression that this shadow be restored.

Hello, I believe I've identified one of the primary culprits in Hyur Midlanders looking "off", which is that the shading at the top of our eyes cast by our upper eyelids has been significantly toned down, to the point where it looks functionally absent.



I believe this shadow is a critical aspect of Hyur's visual impression. From any distance besides very close up, it creates somewhat of an illusion of the eye being shut slightly, creating a relaxed and confident expression. Without it, Hyur look somewhat wide-eyed, as if maintaining an expression of high alertness or anxiety.

Hyur Midlander eyes are looking very dead after the update. Would prefer if they'd add some life into them by editing the catchlights to be more obvious while bringing back some of the old shading at the inner upper eye area.

Something like this:

[Tsumdere]

I'm well aware and I still think it was an improvement even if it was unintended. At least let it be an option for once of the face types. I don't want to be all soft and squishy looking like Face 3 but also not a prune like Face 4. y'know?

I'm sorry that you lost something you enjoyed for 3 months so that people with Duskwights for nearly a decade could have their old look returned. Luckily, you can replicate the exact look you are missing by swapping to Wildwood since that is where the textures came from!

My bitchiness aside - dark circle face paint is something that all races could use. SE needs to consider a character creation update sooner rather than later.

[Hyperia]

Miq female face 1 eyes are too narrow when smiling. They used to be more open with a higher arched and rounded upper eye lid. The higher arch allowed more of the eyes to show and offered more expression.

[ohmRICE]

I'm sorry that you lost something you enjoyed for 3 months so that people with Duskwights for nearly a decade could have their old look returned. Luckily, you can replicate the exact look you are missing by swapping to Wildwood since that is where the textures came from!

My bitchiness aside - dark circle face paint is something that all races could use. SE needs to consider a character creation update sooner rather than later.

Girliepop, I've been playing duskwight since 2.0 as well. Don't act like I'm a tourist because I liked...my character looking slightly older? (also wildwood are wack miss me with that)
But yes, I agree the creation system needs an upgrade. It's really sad I can get more options out of a 20 year old Korean MMO sometimes lol

[Tahli]

I made a new bug report on this issue with updated images, and noting that this is an ongoing error. I try to keep bug reports as objective as I can, but I also wanted to add on some opinions and suggestions regarding it here.

Face 2 and 4 of female Miqo'te have always had fuller, more detailed eyebrows than faces 1 and 3. For some reason only face 2 had this changed, but I still believe this is a bug rather than intentional, based on how inconsistent the change was between the old model, benchmark 1, and benchmark 1.1. The brow used to be full, showing fine details of the hairs and gently tapering off at the tail. It looked like a real eyebrow, rather than something drawn or glued on.



This level of detail was present in benchmark 1, and I see no reason for it to have intentionally changed after that. I saw a few other face 2 users critiquing how the tail of that brow was too sharply upturned, but saw no one asking for a condensed, thinner shape that kept this new sharply angular upturn. Not that it would warrant such a drastic change from the original design even if anyone had.
What we have right now is too thin, having been pinched at the base, and too dense also as a result of this compression. The fine details have been lost, and the soft taper at the tail has been changed to something angular, and appearing weirdly thicker (more dense) than the base. It loses the original impression, and becomes comical looking.

While there are some other things I'd like updated/fixed, I do think the eyebrows are the top #1 feature in need of fixing for my face, and it's personally the only changed feature that I just cannot get used to.

If even only for a temporary fix, I would so much prefer the eyebrows of benchmark 1, if that were possible to easily revert to. For final adjustments, they really would only need to soften the angle of the tail of that version's eyebrows for it to closely match the shape it had before 7.0. What we have now in 7.1 would require a lot more work to meet that goal.

[I made a rough edit to show how putting the Benchmark 1 eyebrows on the current model, and lightly curving the tail downwards can bring it a lot closer to its original shape, at least for Eyebrow 2.]



I do also wish we could know which features are being worked on and planned for future updates, even if it was only a matter of moving the relevant Accepted Bug reports to Confirmed/Planning to address.

[FateweaverAlpha]

Yes this is what my male duskwight also has (face 2). The dark raccoon circles looked awful and I'm glad they are gone. Those wrinkles that were kept seem like an unnecessary waste of development time because they just make my character look like he is in his 30s instead of early 20s. I don't think the goal of this graphical update was to age our characters, so...

I still see all the differences between his old form and the new form. The old eye color can't be replicated, the mouth has been fully replaced, some face shape details seem to have changed and the skin color looks like it has a tint of green now. I'd rather have the old version back (and roll back the entire graphical update tbh) but I guess I can get used to this easier than my female duskwight which remains unplayable.

I'd give anything to be able to get used to new Luc honestly but he's so uncanny to me now. Literally an entirely different character. A friend of mine who also plays Duskwight and chose only a few differences to mine had his character come out fine, escaping even the super shiny skin and eye bags. They just never showed up on his model which confused us both.

This image has been posted here a few times now but in reference old vs new Lucien.


Two very different characters with all those changes. -_-

[MsQi]

More critically, all the changes I will list can be made optional, which should hurt exactly no one.

Unfortunately adding additional options seem to be in the "someday file".

[Serenitey]

But all the miqo eyes are buggy huge now where there were actual eyes before. The graphics are still awful and I do not think it is their priority to fix it, sadly.

[programcanaan]

EW First. DT Second. The lighting is obviously very different despite being the same environment

7.1 and they've still done nothing to restore forcefully changed Face 4 Viera Female.
the changes being:
- removal of cupid's bow mouth shape
- makeup more blotchy shape (especially the underliner), less eylashes, and outer eye corners are rounded and less pronounced
- eye fold is much less relaxed making her eyelids mostly nonapparent

Frankly I feel like they just edited various lighting fixtures just to see if that was going to magically fix some people's issues (which is environment team related thing). I don't think the character team legitimately did anything to address the glaring issues that they intentionally caused.

Nobody asked for an Update DOWNGRADE. Should a Graphical Update really be so... subjective? Higher resolution for less style is what I see.

I'm almost convinced this redundant graphical update happened just to shirk Viera and Hrothgar obligations.

Restore people beloved characters ASAP. We also want to see progress and comparisons instead of a "wE ChAngED StUfF" blanket statement and flinging another fantasia at us.

[Loggos]

Here are the ones I can see the most, in order or priority, with feasibility included as part of priority:

Just wanted to add: They also altered the shape of many face and jaw options.
It would be great if they could bring back the old ones as additional options in the CC.