[Character Graphics Update]: Second Benchmark Worries

[Plushy]

Prioritizing the players that currently player au ra and like their smaller pupils is the correct decision.

However, an even better decision is to allow the OPTION to have bigger pupils if we want to have them. If the devs decide to make the bigger pupils default and have no option to make them smaller, the people upset with this would be well within their right to be upset as the image of the character has clearly been altered from the original. Not everyone wants to make their au ra a cute doll character and so the change is jarring. Further, because the pupil is so big, less of the umbral rings colour can be seen.

I'm glad you like the look, but the priority should always be to please the current playerbase who play that race. The same is true for the lighter eyebrows/eyelashes etc.

I hope they revert those changes at the very least, but the best case scenario is that they make it an option and have it default to small pupils as that was the only option before.

Sorry for the misunderstanding.
But just for clarity. My main is a au ra female, one of them anyway but its basically my actual main and my girlfriend she's au ra majority of her playtime, she just has a fantasia addiction and swaps between viera and au ra many times, but she's mainly an au ra player. Sorry for the confusion to you and others saying they should please current au ra players as I am one and her as well basically.

[CecMiller]

Sorry for the misunderstanding.
But just for clarity. My main is a au ra female, one of them anyway but its basically my actual main and my girlfriend she's au ra majority of her playtime, she just has a fantasia addiction and swaps between viera and au ra many times, but she's mainly an au ra player. Sorry for the confusion to you and others saying they should please current au ra players as I am one and her as well basically.

Thats fair and I hope they're able to make both areas of the playerbase happy. I still think that the pupil size should closely match what is currently the default of EW (where bigger pupils are not at option). Forcing au ra players to be bigger pupils when they may have designed their characters look over a specific eye setup/eye stare is not ideal given that they want to make sure characters look as close as possible.

But for sure, my ideal world is we get to choose so we can all be happy with our choices. I just don't think it was a good idea to change the pupil size with seemingly no input from the playerbase as it does not match the current au ra look, though I do appreciate that many find the look ideal and will want to use the bigger pupil option.

[SongOfTheWind]

Thats fair and I hope they're able to make both areas of the playerbase happy. I still think that the pupil size should closely match what is currently the default of EW (where bigger pupils are not at option). Forcing au ra players to be bigger pupils when they may have designed their characters look over a specific eye setup/eye stare is not ideal given that they want to make sure characters look as close as possible.

The issue with the bigger pupils is also that they are making 2 colour option kinda nonexistent. I think devs made the pupils redesign when they were going to get rid of the limbal rings, but then based on feedback returned the rings, while also didn’t rethink the effect. As a result limbal rings plus enlarged pupils are covering “base” colour almost entirely.

[Plushy]

The issue with the bigger pupils is also that they are making 2 colour option kinda nonexistent. I think devs made the pupils redesign when they were going to get rid of the limbal rings, but then based on feedback returned the rings, while also didn’t rethink the effect. As a result limbal rings plus enlarged pupils are covering “base” colour almost entirely.

I have to respectfully disagree when it comes to not being able to see the eyes well.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...ew_au_ra_eyes/
I think it really depends on the color of your eyes I believe and also the lighting which I hope serves well in the update.

Sorry if you feel like you’re being dog piled here, but I have to agree with everyone else in here so far. I understand where you’re coming from though, I really do. You’re happy about the changes. Your character looks better to you now. That is great! I truly want that for you. Understand though that while these changes have made you happy, the same changes have made a lot of people very sad. When you have some people that are happy and some that are upset, and both sides feelings are valid, it becomes a matter of priorities and intent. The developers have to weigh the options and decide which group to satisfy (I’m assuming they can’t just add more facial options and make us both happy. The CC limitations probably need their own huge effort to update)

So on one hand you have players who have gone from content to upset. The face they grew attached to changed too much and looks like a stranger to them now. Many of them will have carried the same character through the whole games story. (The changes aren’t limited to what’s caused by lighting as many detailed comparisons of the character mesh have been made both here and on the JP forums.)

On the other hand you have players who have gone from content to even more content. They were already using the faces as they were, or they like the new look of a face and want to switch to it. They weren’t as attached or invested in their characters previous appearance as the other group. They also don’t have years of attachment to these new features like the other group has to the old ones. They are upset by the idea of not getting the new features but were not upset prior, and would not have been upset if the new features remained the same but higher quality.

It makes more sense to prioritize the first group here. You can aim to keep things in a place where everyone was mostly content, or enter a new place where some people are really happy but others are really sad. But if that’s not as clear cut a choice to you, then you have to consider what the developers intent has been through this process:

It’s pretty clear what the intent of the dev team was, and that further adds weight to prioritizing the first group. We’ll see what happens, and I would love more than anything to just get an expanded CC with both closer matches to old features and new prettier features for those that want that. Realistically unlikely though.

I’m of course biased because I’m of the group who is unhappy with what happened to my characters features, but I’ve tried to explore this as objectively as I can and I feel the conclusion is pretty obvious. I don’t have any more control over the situation than you and I doubt I have any influence on it either. This is more a general appeal to other players. While I want you to have new facial features you like more than the existing ones, all things considered it just makes more sense for those to come further down the line with a proper CC update.

No worries I understand people are upset so I can understand seeing people happy with the changes can make people not happy.

[Mecia]

Im not at all worried as my Elezen came out just fine the first time so she should be even better next time.

[Khryseis_Astra]

I’d definitely like to see more options added. The more customization the better! For my part, the only thing that really concerned me was the lips/mouth on my Lala, which sounds like one of the issues they’re going to address. But I actually liked the lips/mouth for my Hyur characters better in the benchmark. If those were also part of the same error, I guess it’ll just revert to more or less what I had originally, so I’m not upset either way. I just think more character customization options are long overdue, and if it helps people feel better about the graphics update, even better.

[Alice9]

More options would always be welcome, however if the goal of the developers is to make sure characters still retain the same feel/look from prior, then that is absolutely what they should prioritize. Especially since it is very clear that this goal has not been attained yet. As such, they really should not keep any radical changes just because new people (especially people without existing characters of that race) like the changes.

Ideally, new options, sliders, and toggles would probably please the vast majority of people- but if they have to prioritize one thing or the other, keeping their original vision and being true to their words should be it.

[AnnRam]

I'm not worried because we're getting a second benchmark. I'm actually just worried from the feedback they might add.

I made a post 2 days ago highlighting there are quite a lot of people happy with the character update.
But reading some people's feedback, specifically about female au ra had me worried SE might use their feedback to revert changes.(I'm not referring to bugs mind you)

For example; Me and my girlfriend are a huge fan of female au ra larger pupil changes.
It makes a already cute doll like race even more cute.
Writing this part on behalf of myself and my girlfriend because she's in love with the new look of the female au ra, the new look makes her excited to change race to au ra and play it (and me as well as one of my main is a female au ra) but the thought of that going away come either full release or the new benchmark makes her quite unsettled and myself.
I think in order to please as much people as possible I think major visual changes such as the eyes/pupils. I believe making it a select-able option is the best possible solution to make everybody happy if SE is planning to make huge changes like that.
That way the people that prefer the new update can enjoy their new look and the people that like the smaller tiny pupil can be happy.

I also like the lighter eyebrows as well and on the fourms I know that also haven't been popular.
Here is my other post that showcased some popular posts from other social media: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...itive-Feedback

Are their any worries you have SE might add to the new benchmark due to feedback? are you worried as well they might revert too many changes?

And as always.
Thank you FFXIV Development Team for all your hardwork and swift communication about the benchmark and showing everybody you care.
Take care of yourselves!

Well if you're unhappy with the current direction of the game you can always unsub as GCBTW and Yoshida says.

[Glenfiddich]

Well if you're unhappy with the current direction of the game you can always unsub as GCBTW and Yoshida says.

It baffles me every time I read these statements.
What are you trying to accomplish with such stupid statements? Applause?
I'd prefer that mean People like you would unsub.

[EstelleCere]

Being worried for it is normal, but I feel like they probably are going to mainly try to fix the lighting issues and facial structure issues like they stated. Most people were upset with the mouth and some other things. For the eyes, I feel like they'll most likely change the lighting, because how eyes work now is they look dead because lighting is not updated in the benchmark to adjust to the new character models, so I think once they adjust that, the eyes will just end up looking not dead. Though that's what I am speculating on, I really don't feel like some things with eyes will be changed. I hope they fix the muting of colours, because it even happens with skin tone and hair colour, also hoping they fix the mouths to look similar to the ones we already have but just updated graphics, like how they showed in the previews in live letters.