Why do we waste character data on tattoos?

[Hiruke]

Seriously, why? We have character data for "Tattoos" and for "Tattoo Color". Plus you can have multiple tattoos, which I assume increases the possible character data, and yet we can't have multiple "Face Paints", which is something people actually use and may even make sense to use more of (eyeshadow AND freckles? oh my). I feel like this character data "slot" could be better used on almost anything else. I mean, we only have 4-5 faces for each race/gender combination (many of them re-used), and Au Ra and Miqo'te have their horn/facial mark pattern tied explicitly to a face type. You can't even pick your face type separately, so everyone with their horns a certain way also have the exact same face, which isn't exactly what I envisioned when it was said that Au Ra would have "so many options" for character customization, "more than any other race so far".

Seriously, every race needs x2 or x3 the current number of faces, and a general increase in customization beyond just hair, so not everyone looks exactly the same everywhere you go. It's especially bad for the more popular races like miqo'te and hyur.

[GenJoe]

Tattoos are static, I imagine for each type, there's probably 4 bytes, or 8 bytes max. AABBCCDD EEFFGGHH
Where AA is the type, BB is the color, CC is whether or not the tattoo is reversed.. and probably DD for whether the tattoo is active or not. Point being, that's not a lot of data and it is a static value until you visit a hairdresser, so if SE decided to save some character data by getting rid of tattoos, that's probably equal to being able to give us maybe 4 extra inventory slots.. Not a lot


Point being, since we don't have direct control over the exact location of the tattoo, I don't think the tattoos take up that much character data to begin with. Just because each hairstyle has thousands if not millions of threads of hair (maybe not million in this game..) Does not mean that all that's included in your character data, your character data just says which style, color, and highlights. Reserving character data for each strand of hair would be a horrible way to program. Same goes for tattoos.

[Callinon]

Logic and Reason

SE refused to save inventory data server side because of the disk space it'd take up.

Item ID: 0 - ~4.2bn (unsigned int, 4 bytes)
Item Loc: 0 - 824 (accounts for 4 retainers and player inventory) (short, 2 bytes)
Item Data: This is maybe 3 independent values depending on how they want to segment the data for dyes, aetherial affixes, spiritbond and condition levels. Could probably do this in 8 more bytes or so total

So while what you're saying makes complete and total sense, my guess is no.

[Niwashi]

Tattoos are static, I imagine for each type, there's probably 4 bytes, or 8 bytes max. AABBCCDD EEFFGGHH
Where AA is the type, BB is the color, CC is whether or not the tattoo is reversed.. and probably DD for whether the tattoo is active or not. Point being, that's not a lot of data and it is a static value until you visit a hairdresser, so if SE decided to save some character data by getting rid of tattoos, that's probably equal to being able to give us maybe 4 extra inventory slots.. Not a lot


Point being, since we don't have direct control over the exact location of the tattoo, I don't think the tattoos take up that much character data to begin with. Just because each hairstyle has thousands if not millions of threads of hair (maybe not million in this game..) Does not mean that all that's included in your character data, your character data just says which style, color, and highlights. Reserving character data for each strand of hair would be a horrible way to program. Same goes for tattoos.

The things the OP wants instead take even less room. Things like separating out face styles from horn styles or just offering more face styles is adding one more style id or defining a few more possible values for another (already present) id. Both are simpler than the tattoos that have an id, a color, and a reversed setting. Additional face styles, in particular, wouldn't take any additional room at all on the server or in communication between server and client, since a face id is already part of the character's appearance data. The only place it would be adding to is the art resources downloaded to our PC/Console clients as part of the game's software, so our own local systems know how to display the new faces.

Also, inventory isn't a very good comparison anyway. Inventory has to be maintained on the server and communicated between the server and *ONE* specific player. Character appearance data has to be maintained and communicated to *EVERY* player in the area, so their system can display everyone around them.