Character Creation Has A Race Problem

[uvuvwevwevweonyetenyevweugwemu]

Actually, from how I understand it works, keeping them split is exactly why it gives us more options in the first place.

Yes it is due to height range differences. Midlander is grouped together with Au ra and Miqo te in some gears models (maybe all, cant tell atm), while Highlander is grouped with Elezen and Roegadyn, per gender.

[Iscah]

Aside from having ways to alter your nose and mouth, it would be nice to be able to construct your chin or cheekbones? I do get WHY we have pre-determined faces to make it easier for them to code/design the character creation, but not everyone will have the same style of chin or cheeks.

The 'jaw' setting changes that somewhat, I think? Also I remember someone saying a while back (in another topic) that they'd used the makeup settings to make their Elezen's cheekbones less pronounced, so perhaps you can get that to work in reverse.

Yes it is due to height range differences. Midlander is grouped together with Au ra and Miqo te in some gears models (maybe all, cant tell atm), while Highlander is grouped with Elezen and Roegadyn, per gender.

What are you meaning with that? Design-wise, as far as I'm aware everyone of the same gender gets the same gear design (other than race-specific items of course), but model-wise I'm quite sure Elezen and Roegadyn are going to need separate versions of everything. Female Roegadyn and Highlanders *might* be the same proportions, and Midlander/Miqo'te/Au Ra most probably, but Elezen, male Roegadyn and male Au Ra are more unique shapes even if they're similar heights.

I don't know for sure but I assumed the gear appearance data is stored separately for each race, they just might be able to copy-and-paste when making the models if the characters are the same size.

[uvuvwevwevweonyetenyevweugwemu]

What are you meaning with that?

To put it this way, the things you set in character creation is overwritten or hidden under/by the gear models. This include helms or glasses/visors, meaning the height also scales the head size. The gear models is grouped by both height range (vertical axis) and waist size (horizontal axis):

1) male hyur/miqote
2) male elezen/roegadyn/aura
3) female highlander/elezen/roegadyn
4) female midlander/aura/miqote,
and last 5) lalafell both genders.

It's the first things they get rid off from 1.0, too many models loaded. They are grouped so instead of loading 12 models of same gear, game only need 5 models. The female Hyurs are separated because different breasts range (I think) but it's also why we can't have butt slider because each group need to have body, head and pants/feet attached to each other. The tldr version when you're getting a new helm, you're essentially getting a new head. Same with body piece that is part of a set, the breasts for body piece in same group is same size/overwritten no matter what you set in character creation. This make sures glasses/visors stay attached to the head, not floating on the neck or not matching the head size, for example.

[Iscah]

To put it this way, the things you set in character creation is overwritten or hidden under/by the gear models. This include helms or glasses/visors, meaning the height also scales the head size. The gear models is grouped by both height range (vertical axis) and waist size (horizontal axis):

1) male hyur/miqote
2) male elezen/roegadyn/aura
3) female highlander/elezen/roegadyn
4) female midlander/aura/miqote,
and last 5) lalafell both genders.

Interesting. Where's this information from? (Not saying it's wrong, just wondering.)

Although having gone to the character creator to have a better look at the different models, your list of the 'groups of each model' may not be quite right.

To look at different characters in the same outfit, I went through the character creation process up to the "select job" screen, set it to show the character wearing their job clothes, selected Monk since it's a fairly form-fitting tunic, and then backtracked to the "select race/gender" screen, which leaves all the characters wearing that costume as I scroll around the list.

While I was doing this, I noticed that there are some differences in the designs, but they don't match up with your list.

Specifically, there are three variations of the black section around the neck under the yellow tunic:
1. A high-collared black undershirt - male Midlander, Highlander, Lalafell, Miqo'te and Au Ra
2. Collar only (like a choker) - male Elezen and Roegadyn
3. Collar and covered shoulders - all female models

Obviously it's divided beyond those three categories, but I would assume that characters wearing different styles aren't grouped together.

I think male Au Ra might need to have their own category since they're a unique shape - beyond just changing the height and width, they also have a narrow waist compared to their shoulders.

Also male and female Lalafells still get costume variations by gender (eg. female Lalafell bard has no undershirt and dragoon gets the 'stab me here' armour gaps).

Also also, there's headgear, particularly helmets, which needs to be shaped differently for Hyuran vs Miqo'te and Elezen vs not-pointy-eared people. (I'm not sure how HW/SB gear handles Au Ra horns, but ARR relic gear clearly doesn't care - it just clips straight through.)

So if they do use one model for multiple characters, perhaps different types of gear are divided up on a piece-by-piece basis rather than grouped the same way every time.

Same with body piece that is part of a set, the breasts for body piece in same group is same size/overwritten no matter what you set in character creation.

I've seen people bring this up a few times (usually that everything except the race-specific starter gear ignores the slider setting) but I don't believe it to be the case. Characters can have noticably different bust sizes with the same gear equipped - and by equipping job gear in the character creator and backtracking to the body settings, it's clear that the clothing shape changes as you adjust the slider.

If anything, this is why they won't implement a 'butt slider' - not because it wouldn't do anything, but because to make it do anything they would have to go back and remodel every single 'leg equipment' item in the entire game to add new adjustable parts to the shape. (And most likely need to check that it won’t clip through shirts or coats.)