Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[HawkeScream]

"Maybe we'll fix your character next patch!" is CS3's new carrot on a stick.

Fool me once as they say. Carrot looking kinda dry and unappealing at this point though.

Does anyone know if it's better if we keep it up in this thread or if it would be better to start a new megathread for 7.2?

[DynnDiablos]

I think folks need to expect just the slightest of tweaks moving forward. They seem more focused on lighting, gear updates and environmental updates. Anything character-related will most likely be highly selective and minor. They can't do this forever and keep giving out fantasia every patch indefinitely. Folks expecting every minor nuance to be addressed at this point (and I know for many something minor seems major cuz it is personal and your character) are setting up for disappointment.

[SchwarzwaelderTorte]

"Maybe we'll fix your character next patch!" is CS3's new carrot on a stick.

Except the infamous Lodestone post only covered the plans for 7.1 and 7.2. And given how more and more reluctant they are to express themselves on this subject (not a single extra comment in the patch notes reading session stream yesterday), there's very little reason to believe they'll spend any more time or resources on this issue, unless they resort to silently change things from now on. Still I think there's no reason to have any expectations at all for 7.3 and beyond, except if after 6 months of silence we get another official announcement about the graphical update (extremely unlikely).

So I guess it's up to the players to decide what to do from now on: accept the current state of things despite a year's worth of feedback, start breaking ToS, or stop p(l)aying entirely.
Feels great :^)

[HawkeScream]

I think folks need to expect just the slightest of tweaks moving forward. They seem more focused on lighting, gear updates and environmental updates. Anything character-related will most likely be highly selective and minor. They can't do this forever and keep giving out fantasia every patch indefinitely. Folks expecting every minor nuance to be addressed at this point (and I know for many something minor seems major cuz it is personal and your character) are setting up for disappointment.

Absolutely not. They said they were addressing issues RAISED BY US. People were unhappy enough that we got a whole announcement about it. They said to expect adjustments in 7.1, and those were minor but people could see a little difference in some characters. Some would be pushed back to 7.2, which I think everyone was understanding about, it takes time to go over things and fix, people raised a lot of issues, no problem. Or well, still a problem, but willing to wait it out. People seeing nothing touched AT ALL this time around is absolutely unacceptable and I'm not going to lower my expectations and roll over about it.

[lunartears]

I retract my previous statement about my character's face getting changed in 7.1, when I was comparing today's update I noticed that her face was emoting from the Attention emote. I mistakenly believed the face had been made sterner in 7.1, this is not the case in fact the very opposite is the case, nothing has changed since 7.0 and the same goes for today.

I don't have a comparison photo to share today as I overlayed the face onto 7.0 and none of the features whatsoever are different. Again, this is what I continue to grieve and what I have to look at instead.



I was surprised to see the Au Ra scales aren't suffering from those horrid edges anymore, that's something good at least - but I think they still look worse than the old scales. The shape is really messy.



I'm really disappointed, I've written a lot of feedback about female Face 1 (as far back as Benchmark 1 in April last year) but I'm disappointed for all Au Ra players, regardless of face type. I especially feel bad for those using female Face 2, with your lip shape changing so drastically. Also, I still don't get why the pupil size has been enlarged on us, it's really gross looking - please just revert it back.

I do not know what the best course of action is at this point as a player, it feels that the development team was just trying to save grace by saying they were acknowledging the player feedback to the update rather than actually rectifying the problem. I don't doubt that some people have gotten something good from these updates, but considering how little has changed in these patches I feel like it has to be a small minority of players actually benefiting from it. The best outcome for this problem is adding legacy face shapes to the character creator, but with how Viera / Hrothgar hats have been left on the backburner and how the development team likely doesn't see the loss of character identity as a major problem - it can be considered an out of reach dream.

[Argantaelle]

So I guess it's up to the players to decide what to do from now on: accept the current state of things despite a year's worth of feedback, start breaking ToS, or stop p(l)aying entirely.
Feels great :^)

I thought about my choices. I'm still playing because I enjoy PvE and doing stuff with my friends. It's Mists of Pandaria all over again, when I was only raid-logging for the whole expansion. So I'm going to log only for raids now, at least for the current savage tier, as I've already promised. The world has lost its charm; my character is dead; there is nothing left for me anymore (and I very much dislike being lied to my face). Maybe it's time to try new types of team PvE.

I think I'll make one more post (or more like a series of posts, haha) about female characters smiles, and that's all.

[potatsdevourer]

Alright. Here is my character from 7.1 and 7.2


Let's play a game! Can you spot the difference?
That's right, it is:
1.) Eyebrows
...

And that's it! That's what takes them so long patching from 7.1 to 7.2!
(SE, please just give us slider/customizeable character creation. You will thank us for the only upfront headache, really)

[Liamont]

When I logged in, I thought something looked different with my character (elezen male), and that he looked more similar to what he used to before DT. A friend even said out of the blue that they thought my character looked more gaunt. But when I went into the inn to take comparison shots, it looks exactly the same as 7.1. Now I'm very confused at what exactly was changed, because it doesn't seem like anything was changed at all. Except he does look different somehow when not in the inn. I have no idea what's going on.

Also checked my Au Ra male and he looks just as bad as 7.1. Is it so difficult to ask for a list detailing exactly what changes happened, instead of us players needing to cross-examine our characters' faces to spot the difference?

[Loggos]

Alright. Here is my character from 7.1 and 7.2


Let's play a game! Can you spot the difference?
That's right, it is:
1.) Eyebrows
...

And that's it! That's what takes them so long patching from 7.1 to 7.2!
(SE, please just give us slider/customizeable character creation. You will thank us for the only upfront headache, really)

I also think they changed the lighting again?
Your features look the same in shape (minus the eyebrows) but they appear different to me in the sense that they have more depth and nuance in their shadows and colours. There's a stronger gradient from shadow to light in 7.2 I think. That's not to take away at all from your frustration about the sculpt changes. The lighting itself just feels a bit more realistic now and makes "everything" it lights a tad more "well-rounded" if that makes sense.
Still wish they'd actually fix the faces of course.

[Keiizah]

Despite all the complaints, very little changes has been done to miqo'te face 4. It is better than what we had at launch, but it's still has big glaring issues. Particularly with the eyes. The highlights are way too high, so you never see them on certain eye shapes and it makes character look dead inside.
Miqo'te face 4, no highlights are seen
Miqo'te face 1, looks fine, highlights are seen like they should be

Old problem's such as changed eye and lip shape (tho it did got better, but can't we really get rid of curved up lip corners??), making the expression look tired. it also conflicts with existing facial expressions, making them either too overly expressive 9sam problem was noted with m!aura face 1) and because mouth is still smiling, looks confusing with negative emotions like furrow (makes it look like he's smiling while being grumpy which doesn't make sense), there is no neutral emote anymore. Keeper's eye slight was also almost removed, it doesn't look as sharp and defined as it was pre-dt. New dawntrail eye textures also make colours look darker and it's not always fixable with fantasia

After an update skin looks grainy, it is especially noticeable on darker skin. It's also only present on the face, and ends around neck seam. It looks like what we had at last dt becnhmark, with sub-surface scattering looking weird, and giving character's slightly wax-like look