The sad state of customization

[JunseiKei]

~snip~

You forgot that the game was built from the ashes of 1.0, a 2010 game. It wouldn't surprise me if there are still tons of limitations that they are trying to remove, but unsure how or may be dangerous to change. It's probably harder to retroactively add more customization options on a system that was not built for it. These other games that were mentioned all had the customization already built into the system.

Unsure about BnS in final release. I know when I played it, it had about as much customization as TERA (which really wasn't that much IMO). BDO is really pretty, but that's about all there is to the game. Prettiness- there's no meat to it. IMO, no game has ever been as customizable as Perfect World International (2005). Speaking of TERA, their solution to hair clipping was simply forcing the hair up into a bun or pony tail. I absolutely loved my long haired elf constantly wearing it up because of my armor. Always made me wonder why I was given a long hair option to begin with.

Yeah, I'll take SE's limited options for content that I actually enjoy, which I can't say was ever really the case in the other games I've played that offered more customization. The stuff I actually enjoy at the end of the game I can find in FFXIV, so I play FFXIV.

[Razor]

Unsure about BnS in final release. I know when I played it, it had about as much customization as TERA (which really wasn't that much IMO). BDO is really pretty, but that's about all there is to the game. Prettiness- there's no meat to it. IMO, no game has ever been as customizable as Perfect World International (2005). Speaking of TERA, their solution to hair clipping was simply forcing the hair up into a bun or pony tail. I absolutely loved my long haired elf constantly wearing it up because of my armor. Always made me wonder why I was given a long hair option to begin with.

I really want to echo this because this is the thing that always just irks the shit out of me when people talk about the lack of customization in this game. As someone who was hyped to the moon for BDO and actually dropped quite a bit of cash on it, I can completely second this comment. I also tried out ESO and had a similar experience.

First and for most, no other game has graphics like XIV. Sure you can argue that BDO has an incredible character creator that can make beautiful faces (and it does), but if you ever played the game you would know that the beauty of the game really grinds to a halt past the character creation screen. BDO can't even render hair color right. ESO, again, lots of customization in the character screen but what do you get when you actually log into the game? Bad polygon counts with mediocre textures smeared everywhere. It shows in the UI of both of those games. Standard boring fonts that are easy to render, basic gradients for HP/MP bars that could be drawn on MS Paint, the list goes on.

Second of all, look at the sheer number of gear items that are in game. Both ESO and BDO especially suffer incredibly in terms of gear customization. Sure you get a pretty face and maybe a weight slider, but in BDO there's literally only about 5 different gear models (excluding the cash shop.) World of Warcraft is the only game to my knowledge that even comes close to FFXIV in customization where it matters, in-game. And guess what? Up until some short while ago when WoW got an engine upgrade, it also had lackluster character creation options.

WoW chose the push the envelope of what an MMO could do because they deliberately chose to (initially) use low polygon counts and easy to render graphics. 15 years later they are still doing the same because it works. Almost all F2P models copy this recipe. With FFXIV, you get premium graphics and UI that no other MMO can compete with, but it comes at a cost. It's easy to sit here and think "Oh whatever it's just servers SE has the money." when no one here actually has a clue how many millions of dollars may already be invested in the best hardware.

[Niraves]

Server limitations. Because server limitations is the go to all time favorite line of bullshit that SE loves to resort to despite this game being a multi-million dollar revenue source for them. I swear, I hope someone punches the next developer to use that line as their excuse as to why we can't have something..

[Annah]

Server limitations. Because server limitations is the go to all time favorite line of bullshit that SE loves to resort to despite this game being a multi-million dollar revenue source for them. I swear, I hope someone punches the next developer to use that line as their excuse as to why we can't have something..

[Pori_Dessu]

What's the point of posting on a forum if you're not open to understand any good argument against your point? Both the OP, and some others in this thread are refusing to understand the basic problem with the request: This game does not have the engine to add more customization options, other than some more presets in options we have (Face, hairs, facial features and such), and even those require investment, that the team would have to take off other things, and they clearly have their reasons not to. Yes, this kind of thing is usually built into a game from start, but the start of the engine this game uses was a messy excuse of a MMORPG engine, and to change that would need more than simply tweaking and patching. There's no problem in requesting more of the things we can have (More preset options and such), but if you request it while simply complaining and comparing this game to games that are built to have better customization, you're being immature. I'd love more presets (Elezens presets are kinda "meh"), but asking them to add those simply cause "other games have better customization so this game should too" is not a sound argument if you can't understand the technical limitations this game have.

[Riardon]

Because XIV is build upon a crap code and an even more crappy engine from 1.0 with some tweaks. The job also had to be done within 2 years or so while maintaining and patching 1.0 at the same time. It is an industry miracle which happens for first time in this category. They never expected this success. They took a desperate measure to save what they could and they needed to do it fast. ARR was created. It carried some crap code from 1.0 thus the limitations. Basically some things CAN BE done but they choose to let them aside because they will need more work force and time and they can't sacrifice development time and resources from the patches and the playable content.
I just wish to see the game go forward and the graphic engine to be enhanced and improved. It's really silly we have almost NO character customization in 2017. 4 faces really? Like it's a game from 2004 or so.
It definitely needs improvement.

[Ametrine]

Midlanders have 5 faces.

Adding a couple new details to each race in a future patch verses falling back on hairstyle would be a much more appreciated alternative even if we'd need a fantasia to toy around.

ESPECIALLY a new face for everyone, but other unique race exclusive details, too, like a new tail options or different ears. Freaking body tattoos and more jewelry.

I can't see how one or two extra layers of details on a character creation level would be more strenuous on the servers than a new race entirely.

[usalia]

So all the people that make excuses for se know how game development and servers even work?
In 2.x we take it as its was a new game that se wanted to see if it work at all.2.x is over.
3.x was first expansion so we take it in a more inderstanding way. The new race helped as well.3.x is over.
In 4.0 we got nothing for customization and there was not more content that in 3.0.
So what is stoping them add more customization?
To lazy?
All the funda go in to kh3 / ff7?

[Vidu]

So what is stoping them add more customization?
To lazy?
All the funda go in to kh3 / ff7?

They might simply just dont have the people to do it - and thats not only a question about funding, its also about finding qualified, talented people to join their team. I recall them stating that they had issues hiring because they couldnt find anyone to take the job - those might be resolved by now, not sure, but it was definitly an issue.
Its not only about the company having the money here but also about finding someone to give it to :P

So, no, we're not defending them - we said aswell that we'd like more options. We are merely explaining (or echoing the explantions that were given) why this cant happen at the moment.
Explantion is basically: not enough resscources (wether thats money, time or lack of people to work on the game) and other priorities.
Personally, I'll take a new dungeon over a new face-option any day.
...and sometimes I'm not sure if people who imply that the team is just "lazy" are actually aware what it is they're requesting and how much time and effort it would cost.

[Theodric]

An update to the character creation for the existing playable races should be a priority for 5.0. I do not want to see any new playable races added to the game until we get a wider variety of options for what exists already.

We get new hairstyles with each major content patch and also with the occasional seasonal event. That's pretty great - but we should be getting other things such as new facial hair options for men and make up options for women. Many NPC's now have unique facial features that look brilliant - but we risk seeing the same problem as with in WoW where major NPC's end up looking a lot better than player characters. Hopefully it's something that is on their radar now and will be addressed in the future.