At the VERY least, could we get the option to use the "default" Midlander w/ beard?

[Alleluia]

It's still an NPC though, so they can add the custom face to it just like they can for any other NPC face that players don't have access to. And IIRC it was deliberate that the character resembled but wasn't Ardbert so it was sort of a meta joke, I guess.

They seem to be using custom faces for minor NPCs a lot here, and recycling assets where they can. Like, I don't think Moren is supposed to have anything to do with Asahi but it's definitely that same custom face.

But, what's the difference between using an NPC face and a player face? Its not like we have face sliders or something. His face should be able to rig for as much emotion as a player character than it did when it was used by Ardbert. What's holding it up from being used? The facial hair?

EDIT: I don't necessarily expect you personally to have an answer, Iscah. Just thinking out loud, mostly.

[Iscah]

But, what's the difference between using an NPC face and a player face? Its not like we have face sliders or something. His face should be able to rig for as much emotion as a player character than it did when it was used by Ardbert. What's holding it up from being used? The facial hair?

EDIT: I don't necessarily expect you personally to have an answer, Iscah. Just thinking out loud, mostly.

It just seems to be a thing that the developers have a power to do with NPCs when they're setting them up - there's some kind of back-end system that lets them apply a custom face to an NPC that replaces the default model applied in the character settings. Players can't do that and there's no option in the character creator to do so.

Any NPC with a unique face will still have default face settings listed in their character data, but they often don't match up with the character's actual appearance at all.

This is just from observation and seeing which characters are tagged as "custom face" in Garland Tools, but it's clear that it's something that can be done but not by players. A lot of them seem to be derived from existing player-accessible faces - eg. all the Scions are actually custom faces, probably to add their Archon tattoos - but I'm guessing it must be exported and converted into a separate model stored somewhere else, and probably applied as a single piece.

Maybe they can't add it into the character creator as it exists; maybe they just don't want to give us access to those specific faces for recognisable characters.

[Driavna]

But, what's the difference between using an NPC face and a player face? Its not like we have face sliders or something. His face should be able to rig for as much emotion as a player character than it did when it was used by Ardbert. What's holding it up from being used? The facial hair?

EDIT: I don't necessarily expect you personally to have an answer, Iscah. Just thinking out loud, mostly.

I think It's simple: most likely current character customization is hardcoded to only accept/show a certain amount of options for each category. When they say it's difficult they probably mean the whole thing needs to be revamped.