[DEV REQUEST] Balancing Character Customization

[Vejjiegirl]

Even though the PS3 had nothing to do with not having more options. They've said in several live letters that its server stress keeping things out, not PS3.

Adding 2 new hairstyles every patch and the servers are ok, but heaven forbid they add new Jaw Options to every race with only 3 jaws the servers would explode!

[stanrir]

yeah we really need more customization for everyone like 6 faces for all!!!!!

[Laerune]

I find it odd, whenever someone asks for more face options, options to have horns on different faces or muscle slider for all males, the general response is "Because of server memory limitations, we can not add these options". Yet, every big patch they add more hairstyles. How come hairstyles bypass the server memory limitation and faces, facial hairstyle, horns and muscle sldier does not?

I wish someone of SE would answer this question.

[Jin-]

Most tails are the same, but with red color

[Selli]

Most tails are the same, but with red color

Even if you exclude the tails that take hair highlight colors into consideration, Miqo'te have 5 tails. Which is still more than Au Ra.

[Eul]

Eyebrows:
Hyur Highlander

Eyebrows? more like forehead style than eyebrows...

[BunnyChain]

To bring this into a, imo, better perspective:

Amount of option combinations for each race/subrace:

• Midlander m / f: 699.840 / 350.000
• Highlander m / f: 299.520 / 1.267.200
• Elezen m / f: 1.520.640 / 7.488.000
• Lalafell m / f: 1.589.760 / 2.995.200
• Miqo'te m / f: 2.419.200 / 14.976.000
• Roegadyn m / f: 201.600 / 792.000
• Au Ra m / f: 1.451.520 / 2.520.000

Winners are Miqo'te female: 14.976.000
Losers - Roegadyn male: 201.600

By a factor of ~74,3.

Numbers were calculated using data above taken from the Heavensward Benchmark, excluding those that are the same for each race/subrace in the lower part.
Muscle, tail length, etc. were taken as factor 5 (0, 25, 50, 75, 100) with the exception of lalafell's bust size being 2. (sorry but it's either nothing or barely nothing :b)

[Valleo]

To bring this into a, imo, better perspective:

Amount of option combinations for each race/subrace:

• Midlander m / f: 699.840 / 350000
• Highlander m / f: 299.520 / 1.267.200
• Elezen m / f: 1.520.640 / 7.488.000
• Lalafell m / f: 1.589.760 / 2.995.200
• Miqo'te m / f: 1.814.400 / 11.232.000
• Roegadyn m / f: 201.600 / 792.000
• Au Ra m / f: 1.451.520 / 2.520.000

Winners are Miqo'te female: 11.232.000
Losers - Roegadyn male: 201.600

By a factor of 55,7.

Numbers were calculated using data above taken from the Heavensward Benchmark, excluding those that are the same for each race/subrace in the lower part.
Muscle, tail length, etc. were taken as factor 5 (0, 25, 50, 75, 100) with the exception of lalafell's bust size being 2. (sorry but it's either nothing or barely nothing :b)

I was a Roe male, from ARR launch, but got really bored with the lack of options and how stupid I looked in a lot of gear.Finally got fed up and burned my CE fantasia on switching to Au Ra female.

[Vejjiegirl]

To bring this into a, imo, better perspective:

Amount of option combinations for each race/subrace:

• Midlander m / f: 699.840 / 350000
• Highlander m / f: 299.520 / 1.267.200
• Elezen m / f: 1.520.640 / 7.488.000
• Lalafell m / f: 1.589.760 / 2.995.200
• Miqo'te m / f: 1.814.400 / 11.232.000
• Roegadyn m / f: 201.600 / 792.000
• Au Ra m / f: 1.451.520 / 2.520.000

Winners are Miqo'te female: 11.232.000
Losers - Roegadyn male: 201.600

By a factor of 55,7.

Numbers were calculated using data above taken from the Heavensward Benchmark, excluding those that are the same for each race/subrace in the lower part.
Muscle, tail length, etc. were taken as factor 5 (0, 25, 50, 75, 100) with the exception of lalafell's bust size being 2. (sorry but it's either nothing or barely nothing :b)

This is really interesting information!
I always thought female Au ra had the least customization but if you factor Tail Shape and Size as two things instead of one it gives them a tiny bit of an extra push.
I did notice when going through all the male customization that Male Roegadyn had the worst >_< I really hope they decided in the future to give Roegadyn more face shape options,
You never see enough Roe Love at all, its mostly Miqo'te, Hell Roegadyn's new sit animation wasn't even previewed.
Anyways, i'm going off topic. . .

You are correct... I found this out yesterday actually looking at the source code to a 1.0 server someone made. Face info is sent as a single 32bit integer to the client. In 1.0 the characteristics, the characteristic color, mouth, nose, features, ears, eyes, and iris all into 32 bits using a bitfield.

Characteristics were 5 bits. (31 options) <- This is probably as flags rather than a number though, so actually 6 options
Characteristic Color was 3 bits. (7 options)
Face type was 6 bits. (63 options) <- This is probably as flags rather than a number though, so actually 7 options
Ears was 2 bits. (3 options)
Mouth was 2 bits. (3 options)
Features was 2 bits. (3 options)
Nose was 3 bits. (7 options)
Eye shape 3 bits. (7 options)
Iris size 1 bit. (2 options)
Eyebrows 3 bits. (7 options)
With 2 bits remaining that the author didn't know or were unused. (3 options)

(Add up the bits and you get 32, or 4 bytes)


Look very similar to the caps we have now. Assuming SE still uses that in 2.0, those are the hard caps until they change the data size. I'd assume that SE would've restructured how the info was stored but I guess due to time constraints, worked with what they got since this setup is probably referenced all over the game.

Do you know what the 1.0 Cap for Hairstyles was?

[BunnyChain]

This is really interesting information!
I always thought female Au ra had the least customization but if you factor Tail Shape and Size as two things instead of one it gives them a tiny bit of an extra push.
I did notice when going through all the male customization that Male Roegadyn had the worst >_< I really hope they decided in the future to give Roegadyn more face shape options,
You never see enough Roe Love at all, its mostly Miqo'te, Hell Roegadyn's new sit animation wasn't even previewed.
Anyways, i'm going off topic. . .

Fixed a couple mistakes and the number of Miqo'te tail options...

New Miqo'te numbers m / f: 2.419.200 / 14.976.000.

Ratio of Miqo vs Roe ~74,3x more combinations for the former.