Character graphical changes are NOT in an acceptable state, please make it optional

[Mosha]

...... hold on a second. The issue (well, AN issue) with that face (face 3) is that it went from being relatively slim to a little bit plumper. Not a lot, but enough to notice.

I have been complaining about how my cats face (face 2) went from being relatively plump to a little bit slimmer.

Did they just... mix up the base models of the faces somehow? Did someone save a reference model as the wrong name at some point, and the updated version got built using the wrong model as reference? That seems like a huge oversight, and probably not the case, but it seems curious that two faces right next to each other in the editor received the exact opposite changes of each other.

Check it in the bench load your wol in and swap the face.

[AirisRay]

...... hold on a second. The issue (well, AN issue) with that face (face 3) is that it went from being relatively slim to a little bit plumper. Not a lot, but enough to notice.

I have been complaining about how my cats face (face 2) went from being relatively plump to a little bit slimmer.

Did they just... mix up the base models of the faces somehow? Did someone save a reference model as the wrong name at some point, and the updated version got built using the wrong model as reference? That seems like a huge oversight, and probably not the case, but it seems curious that two faces right next to each other in the editor received the exact opposite changes of each other.

Oh, that's a really interesting observation! I only noticed a slightly shortened chin, but overall I had no complaints about the shape of her face. Yesterday I tried to put pics on top of each other and it didn’t seem to me that her cheeks had changed much. But if we assume that they mixed up hairstyle models for different races (which is why there was a hole in the hair through which the sky can be seen), then your guess is probably possible.
But I’m really not sure that her face shape has changed, I can’t say that I see it for sure. Maybe it's all because of the mouth and that look of the puppet that still takes all my attention

[Scintilla]

I think a lot of this has to do with hindsight. In hindsight, yes I can immediately spot the alluded dimples in the official picture. But that's because I now recognise it due to the much clearer example from the player's benchmark screenshot.

The dimples here are so weird that they make the lower jaw almost seem like a marionette's jaw. Now that I know about it I can perceive it in the official picture too but the angle and - ha -the lighting in this picture seem so optimal and staged that it was easy to overlook without any knowledge or idea what it would possibly look like ingame most of the time.

You know the 'L' word is forbidden here, right?

The lighting definitely seems different between the example image and the player's one. As I said, the shadows and contrast on the player's image seem somewhat stronger, emphasizing these particular features which they dislike. Whether this shadow difference is entirely down to lighting or not, I'm not sure. The lighting in the CC is terrible anyway, so comparison images using anything taken there needs to taken with a grain of salt. I think it's safe to presume that by this point the player has already run the benchmark and found they still dislike how it appears in there too. And the lighting there would be different, so there may be some other factor at play. Though exactly what (graphics settings, selected features/face shape) we don't really know.

Also, please also keep in mind this is a different face option. (I don't know if it matters but it's the base used for Y'shtola too, so who knows, perhaps they were extra careful here to preserve her character.)
We know that some options are more affected than others. This face preset looking good does not negate all the examples where it went south.

For example some of the au ra may not look as mangled and marionette-like as the miqo in those screenshots but their faces still does look different.

I would agree that it could simply be down to differences between the player's choices of features and those used in the example. What might have looked very flattering on one model might not appear the same on another. Again, I mentioned this:

One thing I would say is that the shadows are deeper on your benchmark than on the examples, leading to a greater contrast at those dimpled areas making them appear very slightly more pronounced. But this is shadow - not structural. That could be any number of reasons: positioning? lighting? settings? an unfortunate consequence of your own choice of lip shape compared to that of the example?

[cutestfox]

Absolutely disgusting
Permanent lemon-sucking, joker we-live-in-a-society, :I face in every lighting angle and a busted marionette puppet jaw

This is not how this face is meant to look. It's destroyed
It's been sculpted into a literal freak. I can't even look at it, I don't even want to see other people running around with this face ingame

[AirisRay]

Absolutely digusting
Permanent lemon-sucking, joker we-live-in-a-society, :I face in every lighting angle and a busted marionette puppet jaw

This is not how this face is meant to look. It's destroyed
It's been sculpted into a literal freak. I can't even look at it, I don't even want to see other people running around with this face ingame

Unfortunately this is all true

[Derio]

All of these changes and they didnt add a single new face or beard options

[lalin]

idk if it's the lighting or me , but i think faces now look the same ? specially with female miqo'te .. the uniqueness races had before are now gone that if you try to make a character from a specific race it won't matter what face u choose because they all look kinda the same to me .

[SongOfTheWind]

I'm rather jealous of the JP forums where everyone is providing feedback in an orderly and respectful manner. Meanwhile here we go full pvp and spend all our time arguing whether or not there is an issue, and if there is, if anything should be done about it. If you don't have a horse in this race, that is fine, but please, get off the tracks before you cause an accident.

So much this. It’s baffling how people get to defend their feedback from other players, explaining it over and over, drawing over things again and again, as if those players are devs deciding if this is a valid concern or not, if they are somehow holding a dismiss or approve power. It’s a waste of time and energy on both sides. This is supposed to be a player feedback for devs, it’s for them to see and decide, not players who see no issue. It’s already so disorganised and spread out to so many threads that it has very little hope to be considered. My hope goes only to jp forums personally, in that regard. But I wish this side could still be a place where people would not be attacked and laughed at.
And all the “try a different lighting setup” comments remind me of “try to switch it off and on again” suggestions. It is not that helpful as you think it is.

[twobear]

Absolutely digusting
Permanent lemon-sucking, joker we-live-in-a-society, :I face in every lighting angle and a busted marionette puppet jaw

This is not how this face is meant to look. It's destroyed
It's been sculpted into a literal freak. I can't even look at it, I don't even want to see other people running around with this face ingame

Jeez well let's hope nobody reading the thread actually has dimples like that in real life :-)

[Ceetee]

Check it in the bench load your wol in and swap the face.

Top/Bottom left: the character as they appear in EW.
Top Right: the character as they appear in the Benchmark, no changes.
Bottom Left: the character with their face changed from Face 2 to Face 3. (and also lips changed from Dark to Light)

Hard to say for sure. The mouth/eyes/nose options are all completely different, and obviously the marks are completely different.
But the overall shape does seem closer to me than the unchanged version. Its certainly got that 'plumper' look that I was going for when originally making her. Sad to lose her markings, and still annoyed at the thicker eyelashes, but overall I dont... completely hate it. It sure as hell feels like a compromise and like I am still losing my old character though.