Concern over Reaper Avatar appearance

[NairaTelauriel]

So I have a small gripe, and since there doesn't seem to be a proper feedback channel, I'm just going to leave this here.

So, I'm pretty sure we all can agree that the reaper looks awesome, and its avatar possession mechanic is pretty cool. I recall in a live letter it being said that, even in the avatar possession state, our individual character features would still be reflected. And yet, after combing through pretty much all available footage, from official trailers to media-tour test gameplay, I have noted one critical flaw which has bothered me to no end.

Miqot'e and Au'Ra ears, horns, and tails disappear when in the avatar possession state. Its a small nitpick, and even if the form only lasts 30 seconds for gameplay purposes, heavens know that people are going to be gposing like heck in avatar form. And I would love it if these important, defining details of the character were reflected. Especially considering a lot of armor in the game already compensates for this. It helps that the Miqot'e/Au'Ra playerbase makes up the highest concentration of played races.

Am I alone in this or am I being too critical?

[aveyond-dreams]

Nope. I agree with you in that it sucks especially with how at one point it was said that each race would look unique in their possessed form. Except in reality each race loses their main defining characteristics and end up in the same outfit. Just why.

[Drkdays]

I expected to disagree with whatever gripe you had because Reaper is my spirit animal, but that's a good point. Unfortunately, if they struggle with Veira ears I doubt they'll be able to adjust the class for all the races.

Call it your temporary equivalent exchange to the void: ears for a cloak.

[xxmiamorecadenza]

I just looked it up and can see how immersion-breaking it could be visually. Hopefully it's mended - but I'll admit despite me not playing a tail'd race I'm a lil bit disappointed they chopped off ya'lls tails and ears.

[MercuryD]

I expected to disagree with whatever gripe you had because Reaper is my spirit animal, but that's a good point. Unfortunately, if they struggle with Veira ears I doubt they'll be able to adjust the class for all the races.

Call it your temporary equivalent exchange to the void: ears for a cloak.

That's the weird part though... Viera ears just clip through the hood, or at least they did during media tour. Zepla showed it off in one of her videos.

[NairaTelauriel]

Glad to see I'm not entirely alone in this. That said, given how hoods work, I can't imagine it to be that hard to make the dozen or so individual hood models for every race. Looking back to ARR, Miqo, Lala, and Elezen all have distinct little ear-pockets on their hoods, so its clearly an easily achievable feat. Tails shouldn't be that hard either, given my experience in 3D modeling, just pinning your character's tail in the proper place on the new model. The only thing that might make it tricky would be how the game handle's character models, given that the avatar is likely shared among all races. Still, its a bother, and I can only hope that it's addressed some time in the future.

[NairaTelauriel]

That's the weird part though... Viera ears just clip through the hood, or at least they did during media tour. Zepla showed it off in one of her videos.

If I had to guess, it would probably just be how Viera ears work. While Miqo ears are a static part of their model, Viera ears, being modular and thus, likely, not completely affixed to the head model itself, allows them to peak through on certain headgear that obscures the main head. But that's just my modeling brain talking, I don't actually know how XIV handles them.

[MercuryD]

If I had to guess, it would probably just be how Viera ears work. While Miqo ears are a static part of their model, Viera ears, being modular and thus, likely, not completely affixed to the head model itself, allows them to peak through on certain headgear that obscures the main head. But that's just my modeling brain talking, I don't actually know how XIV handles them.

That's true, I guess I'm just so used to viera's ears being the reason for not having hats/hair so the hood working surprised me when compared to miqote and au'ra who have had their ears/horns built into hats/hair etc

[Destati]

Nope. I agree with you in that it sucks especially with how at one point it was said that each race would look unique in their possessed form. Except in reality each race loses their main defining characteristics and end up in the same outfit. Just why.

I was looking forward to maybe seeing some cool looking Void-horns or something on my Au Ra. Maybe they ran out of time to implement unique models like that? Man, not that it's a deal-breaker because I'm still very much looking forward to playing Reaper, but I would rather my horns and tail clip through than have them be taken away entirely.

[SturmChurro]

Anyone have further screenshots of this? I've looked at the reveal trailer, and yeah her horns and tail are gone. It is definitely jarring, maybe there is a lore explanation for this? I admit, I haven't really been following any news for EW too closely.