Problematic Skin Tones: Character Creator vs. In-Game (Always Seem Off)

[DynnDiablos]

I am sure I am not the only one who has experienced this, but this game has a really big problem with inaccurate skin tone representation in the character creator vs. in-game. It seems no matter how many times I test it in on all environment lighting situations in the creator, the shade is always slightly different once I get into the actual game itself.

It seems lighter tans can skew to the yellowish hue side, darker tans go orange/reddish and too dark and you are looking like you took a mud bath and are preparing for a wrestling match.

Now, I know I know. The game lighting always changes how you look slightly depending on what location you are in, and inside inn rooms at night or places with that lovely golden light, orange is the new black.

I just don't get why they always look off. I have spent WAY MORE $$$ in Fantasia simply for skin tone adjustments than I care to admit. I finally gave up with my Hrothgar because I realized getting a flesh tan tone was futile within the browns/tans available.

I wish SE would make skin tone a part of the cosmetician along with hair color adjustments. However, I guess they know they will get suckers like me who will pay $50 in fantasias to try to fix it D:

I will say the Viera (Rava) seem to have the only REAL tans that translate into the game as tan without the yellow/orange/red effect.

[MikkoAkure]

That’s why whenever I know I’m going to fantasia, I make an alt and run around as them and do quests for a couple of hours to know that it’s what I want. Combat sounds too are important to test. I liked viera voice 5 from the benchmark but her fight noises sound like violent retching.

[Whelp]

Yeah, it's pretty frustrating as a brown PoC in real life to have such a hard time matching my own skin to the provided swatches. Viera seem to be the only ones that don't have overwhelming and unnatural undertones of grey or orange for even the lightest tans. There have been many times that this simple but horrible obstacle has made me want to give up. It was hard to play a game where just matching my own real flesh color was so difficult, it made me feel like no one making these swatches could be inconvenienced enough to even look at pictures of Black/brown PoC to give our flesh tones the realism the lighter ones have.

[DynnDiablos]

That’s why whenever I know I’m going to fantasia, I make an alt and run around as them and do quests for a couple of hours to know that it’s what I want. Combat sounds too are important to test. I liked viera voice 5 from the benchmark but her fight noises sound like violent retching.

You know....I never thought about doing the alt thing. $100 in Fantasias in the whole as I scream at my TV screen because one little thing is off this would have solved all my problems. Doing this today because I am still not totally happy. May be abandoning the tan color scheme and going Lost and snow white. They can't mess WHITE up.

[Aladire]

Yeah, I do the alt thing all the time. I tried that with the new races and I could not get something I like. So, I just delete all those character configurations and then stuck with my current look.

[NorthernLadMSP]

Agreed, especially with certain races like Rava Viera, Sun cats and even some Lala skin. The best thing you can do is to create a new character and run around in game. All you really have to do is unlock the starting quest or two to be able to run around the starting area and see how different light affects your skin color. I've found Ul'dah is the quickest. Then you can also quickly run to the MB and try on various gear pieces/glamours and see how it looks with the new look.

The only frustration lately is Aether has been completely locked, so I've been having to go to the European data centers just to be able to do this. Luckily, I think that has now subsided.

[Gula]

Yeah, it's pretty frustrating as a brown PoC in real life to have such a hard time matching my own skin to the provided swatches. Viera seem to be the only ones that don't have overwhelming and unnatural undertones of grey or orange for even the lightest tans. There have been many times that this simple but horrible obstacle has made me want to give up. It was hard to play a game where just matching my own real flesh color was so difficult, it made me feel like no one making these swatches could be inconvenienced enough to even look at pictures of Black/brown PoC to give our flesh tones the realism the lighter ones have.

It's just the engine and options. What you're describing sounds like a very, very personal problem (inb4 racist, I'm as black as Hershey's chocolate). Something that can be solved with the option of an environment with no shade cluttering the sunlight. Like Coerthas or the Steppes. Very bright, and more what you'll be seeing over trees, trees, trees.

[GrizzlyTank]

Basically, they should make it so that we can customize everything from the aesthetician save for race and gender...

[Renato]

The struggle is real.

What I find myself doing is switching the background in the character creator to Ul'Dah in the day time and turning my character to where he's facing the sunlight. This give a good idea of what his/her skin tone will look like under certain lighting.

[Averax]

That's why they give you a bunch of different backdrops and a day/night option in the character creator. So you can test it against different forms of lighting.