Graphical Update: Female Hrothgar feedback

[PortalScience]

On the same topic, but a different issue:

Body structure is very limited for Hrothgar females compared to older races. Mentally, I compare them to a Roegadyn, in terms of the buff women asthetic.

Hroth have:
Height range 72.6-78.5 (8% larger than minimum)
Bust range of A-B cup
flat muscle texture with no customization

Roes have:
Height range 75.6-87.7 (16% larger than minimum)
Bust range A-D cup
Muscle slider which ranges from basically nothing to chiseled features

[Laerune]

The nails should be default part of the Hrothgal or add them as a option in the character creator.

[Roda]

I do wish the hairstyles and heads could be decoupled. I really thought we were trying to get away from that mistake since the females seem to have way more humanoid heads than the males

I will say that while I'm a bit sad the females aren't even close to the cartoony thick-slab-of-meat physique as the males, I'm not all too surprised since femroe also follow that trend :T
But!
Despite that!
I do enjoy their figure and frame in a vacuum! I love their broad shoulders, thick arms, fuzzy six packs, and just over all solid figures!♥ And I genuinely enjoy how bulky armor looks on them! It does kind of help balance out a bit between the bulk of the males vs females, allowing them to look more like the same species.

[Minali]

Something I forgot: None of the Hrothgar exclusive hairstyles (guys and gals both) have highlights. Only the derplander one has them because that's the same for everyone.
I suppose they did this because hair colour and fur colour are linked and the "highlights" colour is used for patterns, but this also means compared to the rest of the Hrothgar the exclusive (and so far only) hair will always look a bit bland. The best would be to detach hair colour from fur colour alltogether, but if this isn't going to be possible for whatever technical reason, maybe consider including highlights for the hair regardless? At least as an option?

[Goodman_Grey]

So I really, really love how the Female Hrothgar have turned out. Firstly, thanks to Square for making them!

That said, as many have stated in this thread there is room for improvement. So I wanted to send my support for a few things Square's way in hopes they can make some changes.

Hairstyles being tied to particular faces would be the first thing I would want to be changed. I would also like to see shared skin color options between The Lost and Helions. I would love to be able to make a brown-colored Lost FemRoth, but they mostly have whites, blues, and greens. So it would be great if both clans shared a few skin colors. I particularly want to send support for the claws being part of the base model to Square (or a toggle for those who want normal hands). I get that gloves generally replace a character's whole hand model, but it would be nice if I choose to hide gloves via the Emperor gear the claws would show instead of having to use the racial gloves for everything. Also, I am not sure if Face 3's dark fangs are an oversight or were intended to be much darker than the other fangs, but a toggle for dark fangs would be great.

Probably haven't said anything new in this post that other people haven't already mentioned. Just hoping another comment might help get Square's attention .

[Qurho]

I would also like to see shared skin color options between The Lost and Helions. I would love to be able to make a brown-colored Lost FemRoth, but they mostly have whites, blues, and greens.

I particularly want to send support for the claws being part of the base model to Square (or a toggle for those who want normal hands).

Also, I am not sure if Face 3's dark fangs are an oversight or were intended to be much darker than the other fangs, but a toggle for dark fangs would be great.

Unfortunately, these have been present for the men since release, so I don't see these aspects likely to change. The dark fangs are a unique trait of the coeurl-styled face for both sexes.

Hairstyles being tied to particular faces would be the first thing I would want to be changed.

This is an especially frustrating note though: considering that they've been adding hairstyle options for the men this past expansion, but for whatever reason the race-specific hairdos are still bound only to certain faces for them. I have no idea why the women are continuing this trend.

[Airias]

Something I forgot: None of the Hrothgar exclusive hairstyles (guys and gals both) have highlights. Only the derplander one has them because that's the same for everyone.
I suppose they did this because hair colour and fur colour are linked and the "highlights" colour is used for patterns, but this also means compared to the rest of the Hrothgar the exclusive (and so far only) hair will always look a bit bland. The best would be to detach hair colour from fur colour alltogether, but if this isn't going to be possible for whatever technical reason, maybe consider including highlights for the hair regardless? At least as an option?

No highlights makes it even worse that the fur colours are so limited. I assumed it's just because they haven't come around to adding them yet. Lots about the Hrothgals (and the graphical update in general) is clearly still in a beta phase. I do hope highlights are added or can at least be used with the hair styles already in the game once those are available for Hrothgals. The highlight colour being used for the fur patterns also shouldn't be a reason against using them for the highlights since that would look the most natural anyway. And those fur patterns need to be revisited anyway, right now the fur reflects like scar tissue and the pattern looks painted on. You're gonna need hair shaders to make that fur look good and why not share the pattern with the highlights then.

[Atticon]

I am very much averse to the prospect of existing hairstyles being dripfed over multiple YEARS just like the males.

[JinxieCraven]

I agree with pretty much everything said here so just chipping in to add to the numbers of input. My first post in the forums but wanted to support the opinions here.

1. Face and body colours being different needs correcting and matching up.
2. It would be nice for hairstyles to have highlights. Possibly could attach base hair colour to fur and highlights to fur pattern?
3. Hairstyles being locked to faces... Doesn't seem like there's a good reason to do that? No other race does that as far as I'm aware? It's really sad and restricting. Like with aura horns.
4. Personally I'm happy with the shorter snouts. Although having at least 1 face with a long snout would be nice for those who want it. (Please not face 4 she's so perfect please don't change her shape xD !imo!)
5. Adding a muscle slider, yes! Feels weird that they don't have it?
6. Having the big nails/claws really shouldn't be a gear specific thing. Would be better to add it as a race feature maybe?
7. I kinda hoped they'd be taller? Not the biggest issue but just something I wanted to mention. Having the option to make them more towards femroe height seems appropraite.

Lastly, something I haven't seen mentioned (might not be the place since it's not a graphics thing specifically so apologies.)
8. The walk animation... It's like a combo of fem highlander and male aura... For me, some of the worst walks in the game xD It's got that rigid jerkiness of the male aura would be nice if it was a bit smoother.

[KisaiTenshi]

Hairstyles locked to faces is still a genuinely frustrating thing. I wish I knew why this was a thing.

On the same topic, but a different issue:

Body structure is very limited for Hrothgar females compared to older races. Mentally, I compare them to a Roegadyn, in terms of the buff women asthetic.

Hroth have:
Height range 72.6-78.5 (8% larger than minimum)
Bust range of A-B cup
flat muscle texture with no customization

Roes have:
Height range 75.6-87.7 (16% larger than minimum)
Bust range A-D cup
Muscle slider which ranges from basically nothing to chiseled features

I do wish the hairstyles and heads could be decoupled. I really thought we were trying to get away from that mistake since the females seem to have way more humanoid heads than the males

I will say that while I'm a bit sad the females aren't even close to the cartoony thick-slab-of-meat physique as the males, I'm not all too surprised since femroe also follow that trend :T
But!
Despite that!
I do enjoy their figure and frame in a vacuum! I love their broad shoulders, thick arms, fuzzy six packs, and just over all solid figures!♥ And I genuinely enjoy how bulky armor looks on them! It does kind of help balance out a bit between the bulk of the males vs females, allowing them to look more like the same species.

I am very much averse to the prospect of existing hairstyles being dripfed over multiple YEARS just like the males.

The general problem with FFXIV (and some other games that basically cut the model at the neck) is that in doing so they limit the hair directly above the seam. This is why you don't see hair down to players butts or ankles. In order for a NPC to have longer hair, it has to be a special model. So all models pretty much can only have hair styles that end slightly below the shoulders because that limits the clipping. Look at costumes with capes for a good example why. Looks okay until you get on a mount. Looks okay on any character without a tail.

As for the bust/chest size issues, this has been held over from 1.0, where the bust shape was initially tied to the face shape. So when they gave all the races into just three body shapes, they essentially normalized these from the base model. A model can't be "bigger" because the costumes all assume that scale. This is why other games (usually based on UE3/4) all have the same body shapes, because the game engine lets you tweak the magnets where the gear goes, but if you decide to go ham on it, like having a lalafell with a DD, the gear would clip into the chest.

At any rate, the benchmark is representative of the game's final state, but not necessarily the final costume state. I hope all the textures got overhauls, but if I see another low quality Hein NPC gear, we will know they haven't. We're past the PS3 era, please, there is no reason for low-quality textures anywhere.