Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[CCheshire]

Honestly, I never noticed how beige the Veena skin tones were until I was working on new alts, when my world had been unlocked like they have rows upon rows of p much the same pink, white, light tan, and light yellow colors. Also, I wouldn't mind then like adding more diverse colors or even unnatural colors like gray, blue, green, or red colors to some sub-clans if we're no longer getting new future faces too.

FWIW: I've always been a former moon catboy to Rava Bun now so I've tried alot of brown, dark brown, gray, and darker skin tones since if you go 100% pale it will be super washed out in my past exp using the CC along with everyone else is trying to be the most pale in town already too esp for F Auras.

[Sunhwapark]

I would appreciate if they had a little better care adding in some of the hairstyles across some of the races, some of them look like a wig they threw in the air, ran underneath it and called it a day before shipping it in a patch.

I'd also want gender unlocked animations as a toggle option within each race

+1 This would be pretty nice too, Weapon Idles and such as well.

[Doopliss]

• Hairstyle implementation is much, MUCH, MUCH faster, with each large patch including at least four new options, not including online store purchases.

It's depressing to see somebody have to suggest this within this kind of list when this is how they used to release hairstyles (we would literally get four per patch in HW). And they just went into the character creation automatically instead of having to do random, unthematic content to grab them.

This isn't me putting any fault or disregard to MoonNoire for suggesting this also; I just think this shows how ridiculous their current pace for free hairstyles is when they were easily able to release more in a technically less profitable version of the game.

[Aco505]

I would appreciate if they had a little better care adding in some of the hairstyles across some of the races, some of them look like a wig they threw in the air, ran underneath it and called it a day before shipping it in a patch.

It's been especially obvious after the graphics update. Also, the quality of the older haircuts is much lower than the newer ones. I wish they improved them.

[RedLolly]

The brand new one for the Fantasian tie-in with the heart buns is very wig like with how tall the crown of the head is compared to wear most headgear is designed to sit.

I know one thing that would happen if the devs unlocked racial details; every Miqo'te would have fangs. Everyone would choose it. And I feel more players would turn face stripes off over adding body stripes to match. But, I'd love body stripes.

[lunartears]

I'm in the minority as I prefer the limitations. The racial differences are charming to me and even if some races tend to get a lot of "samey" characters (Miqo'te having commonly used hairstyles or popular Au Ra face options for example) I like the diversity you can see loading into a duty.

I think I'd prefer if they'd expand the CC to allow EW facial traits since that's my main concern but I have no issue if they allowed everyone access to non racial traits like face scars or bushy eyebrows (so just universal features, not things like limbral rings or those head gems on Lalafell). Colour palette I feel mixed on because an RGB slider is a recipe for bright neon disaster and the differences between each race while frustrating for basically everyone reads as racial diversity to me but all my nitpicking aside I don't see an issue if they expanded the palette in the regard of offering more shades from other races. Idle animations I think they should just add 3 or so more options to each race and gender combo instead of allowing you to pick racial animation sets but I would like to see generic gendered emotes allow you to pick between both options.
I'll say no more because I'll just end up sounding like an old man complaining with how I like games having limitations and looking old blah blah blah. I'll tolerate the development team to do anything with the CC as long as it doesn't steer into modbeast territory.

Ultimately, I feel defensive of the races and their differences but for modernization and objective reasons they are most likely going to make many of these changes in 8.0+.

[Tahli]

Generic toggleable options like moles, scars, and eye makeup (I'd especially love that for Miqo'te) would be nice, and additional options to choose from for eyes, lips, brows, even face presets would be welcome too.

But I do agree that making currently unique physical traits available between clans would just hurt individuality. People pick favorites, and we'd just see a whole lot of people picking and choosing the more "popular" traits that they couldn't access before.

Moon Keepers, for example, have hardly any representation in the game. Most Miqo npcs in the story are Seekers, and there's been no exploration of Keeper culture or settlements (Coeurlclaws are an anomaly if you know their lore so I wouldn't count them). If fangs were accessible to the more popular Seekers, it'd be taking away pretty much the one benefit we have: Our unique features. And there'd be less reason to pick less popular clans.

[Aco505]

But I do agree that making currently unique physical traits available between clans would just hurt individuality. People pick favorites, and we'd just see a whole lot of people picking and choosing the more "popular" traits that they couldn't access before.

Moon Keepers, for example, have hardly any representation in the game. Most Miqo npcs in the story are Seekers, and there's been no exploration of Keeper culture or settlements (Coeurlclaws are an anomaly if you know their lore so I wouldn't count them). If fangs were accessible to the more popular Seekers, it'd be taking away pretty much the one benefit we have: Our unique features. And there'd be less reason to pick less popular clans.

The problem here is twofold.

First, Keepers have less representation because the developers essentially forgot about them. How come there are none of them in Norvrandt or Tural? Why is it that none of those tribes are even surprised at the existence of Keepers or Seekers from another world or continent? The son of the Hhetsarro chief talks about our scent in the DT MSQ but says nothing special for miqo'te of either clan. One thing is for Keepers to be less common and another is for them to be forgotten. We have seen way more viera than Keepers for several expansions now and they are also supposed to be rare. The role quests presented us with people from several remote villages in Tural and none of them were Keepers. This is a writing and world building issue.

Secondly, what are the defining physical traits of a Seeker? Only the eyes. Every other trait described for them is shared by others, including heterochromia. There is more information describing their behavioral characteristics than their appearance.

On the other hand, Keepers are described with more physical traits but with many of them absent from the game. For instance, the fluffier ears or tails options that they are meant to have are nowhere to be seen.

Therefore, the main difference between miqo'te clans right now is the pupil shape, which is meant to represent their diurnal and nocturnal habits. There is also the different racial face paint options and the different skin tones: Seekers' are different shades of brown where Keepers focus on blue and gray tones but still have access to some brown ones. Finally, Keepers also have fangs.

I personally think Seekers should be allowed to have fangs because offspring of mixed heritage will exist in a world like this one. However, mixed traits are often milder compared to those of their parents so I believe that Keepers should be able to choose the size and shape of their fangs as a result but not Seekers, who would have a single type of fang (essentially what exists now for Keepers) if that option was chosen. On another note, the fact that miqo'te children have fangs but only the Seeker ones lose it as they age always felt like a weird trait to me, as if all miqo'te had fangs initially and Keepers were designed second and given the trait after.

Additionally, I would expand the physical traits of both clans. I don't know what specific things could be given to Seekers but I do know that Keepers at least should get their intended fluffier ears and tails options. We do have a fluffy tail choice but the ears are essentially the same for everyone, with some slight changes based on haircut. Decoupling ear shape and size from haircuts and making them standalone options (with Keepers having specific ones for them as stated) would be a good addition to the race as a whole, in my opinion.

[Daralii]

Additionally, I would expand the physical traits of both clans. I don't know what specific things could be given to Seekers but I do know that Keepers at least should get their intended fluffier ears and tails options. We do have a fluffy tail choice but the ears are essentially the same for everyone, with some slight changes based on haircut. Decoupling ear shape and size from haircuts and making them standalone options (with Keepers having specific ones for them as stated) would be a good addition to the race as a whole, in my opinion.

While I agree, you can easily see how that can go wrong with viera. Their ears in general mesh horribly with hair, especially the non-racial hairstyles, especially after 7.0.

[sintea]

I'd be willing to lax on things like eyebrows and other facial feature options but for skin at certain point of range (Where you can tell who is in what) I would like to keep the clans separate. I also would like if they added to the range of darker skin tones to choose for Rava as currently the most "drow" option is still rather light all things considered.

Via dodgy means I mean more of something like this, with the rightmost a bit larger picture being closer to what I see Sintea ICly to have outside of current In game palette. She still has the race tattoo/face paint combo too in it.