Updated benchmark

[purincchi]

And the 0.01% matters to people. Again, this is a feedback thread. People are giving their feedback, even if you think it's pointless.

for real lol I'm genuinely so confused as to why so many people are waltzing into these feedback threads and going "well I think my character looks perfect/the changes don't matter/I hit randomize features when I made my character and only look at them on the login screen so why are YOU complaining". the devs are literally asking for feedback and people are providing it; this isn't about you.

[Soxforrow]

At risk of feeding trolls, I would just like to say that some of us care. Some of us have spent years and thousands of hours and looking at our characters and some of these changes, while they may not seem like a lot to someone who hasn't spent all that time with a specific character model, to those of us who have (and who care) some of the differences (just small changes to the lines) completely change how the character looks. And those tiny changes make it feel like a completely different character.

There are some models I think look really nice now, but I don't play them and I know that those who do, are going to see all the things that were changed. I'm not going to go around telling them that they are wrong and that they should just deal with it. If you can't see the difference, that's fine, but don't complain that others are pointing out the changes that make their characters look and feel different.

I ran into this exact same issue! So many of my own friends even trying to gaslight me that I was wrong about changes to my characters face.

First it was It does not exist! That's how it has always looked to It is intended! Get used to it and now it's Well it's not as bad as you say it is, you should've just accepted it.

Well guess what? My feedback got accepted as a defect on the Japanese forums! They asked for feedback and we are supplying it. I don't know why so many people are doing the thing where they defend everything about FFXIV when the developers have explicitly asked for feedback.

[Doozer]

for real lol I'm genuinely so confused as to why so many people are waltzing into these feedback threads and going "well I think my character looks perfect/the changes don't matter/I hit randomize features when I made my character and only look at them on the login screen so why are YOU complaining". the devs are literally asking for feedback and people are providing it; this isn't about you.

It's never even in an attempt to reassure people, either. Just "wow you people are never satisfied huh" or "there's literally no difference between the two versions" like it's going to do anything constructive. What's the point.

[Reinha]

I went over some of my alts and retainers, and this is them in the new benchmark:




They have been greatly improved and I have much less to say about them than my main because their resemblance to their current forms is so much higher. On the Vieras I changed the eye color and skin tone to better match the colors in the live game. I also lightened the Elezen's eyes and added light gray eye shadow to try and mask the dark eye bag texture that wasn't there before, and those additions made him look like the same character again. The Femroe and Hroth didn't need any kind of tweaks at all.

[Thrawn21]

The changes are a huge improvement! Love that the eyes are softened and reflect light better. I also appreciate that they reduced the eyeliner on male midlanders from the initial benchmark. The skin tone has a much better look due to the improved lighting. Some of the changes seem subtle, but it's amazing how much of a difference they can make to the overall feel of your character. Very happy with the adjustments overall.

[lolicon09]

Personally, everything looked better in the first examples they released, before devs started to change things based on feedback

[Gyson]

I like going through this thread and playing spot the difference games with people's pictures only to conclude they're 99.99% the exact same image.

That's not a particularly fair take. Usually it's a combination of small issues that, combined, creates an outcome that is frustrating the people who have created these characters.

Let's dive into something that is related - many people do not like the way they look in photographs. That is because people are used to seeing themselves in the mirror and when they see themselves as others see them they can often be a bit bothered or repulsed by what they're seeing as their look is somewhat familiar yet somehow "off". They see themselves in a photo and their brain is telling them something is wrong; it doesn't match what they see every day when they're greeted by their reflections in the mirror. Meanwhile, everyone else looking at the photo just sees you the way they've always seen you and isn't noticing the flaws that you do.

The point here being that people have grown attached to the way their characters look, and small deviations may not be noticeable to everyone else but you can be certain they are easy to spot and disturbing to the people who own those characters and see them on a daily basis.

[programcanaan]

It's so weird but across the races Face 4's seem to have taken the most dramatic changes. I can see it really clearly here on your au'ra that the whole head/face is squashed vertically by like 5%. My miqo has the same problem. T____T

It's probably because they got to the face 4 types last... I do hope they polish them up to standard. Some of the 3s are affected as well.

[CidHeiral]

Maybe all we have to do is to get used to those parts that seem different.

The human brain is wired to react negatively to change. In the field I work in, when we push out an update half the users always kneejerk hate it, then 2-3 weeks later nobody cares. Plus some people will never be happy until the updated models are a 1:1 exact duplication of the old ones, which is impossible with an upgrade like this. That's why we're all getting a free fantasia. All of that isn't to say that there aren't some legitimate issues however.

Regarding your suggested alterations, I would personally prefer if they didn't touch the face any further. I think it looks fine as is even with those small differences and other differences you didn't mention but I noticed. Every pass of tweaks is another opportunity for the devs to make the face worse. I thought my 1.0 benchmark face was perfect besides a weird lip issue, but then I lost a very cool looking eye makeup detail because other people can't handle a single pixel being different than the original. Now I'm nervous about what else they'll "fix" in the future.

And before anyone jumps down my throat, I'm not saying your feedback is wrong or you shouldn't give it. I use some of the same options you do, so because this particular feedback effects me directly, I am giving my opposing feedback.

[MeraHarch]

Hyurgoth face 1, black hair and eyebrows
I simply don't recognise my character anymore...



The difference is really disturbing..


Don't get me wrong the character is pretty, the lights and textures are definitely better.
But the general look is completely different.

The dark hair and eyebrows colors seem to be washed out by the lighting compared to before. The black hair doesn't show as dark, more like dark grey or dark blue, which is a common issue in video games that I always struggle with as I always put black hair on my characters, but this was never an issue with FFXIV before... And it can really mess up the eyebrows as well, and thus the expression of the character.

Eyebrows are less full (even if you add the stronger eyebrows facial feature they still have holes like the regular eyebrows, the facial feature that you can toggle was specifically supposed to fix that by giving you strong eyebrows but now even with this feature activated the eyebrows are still not full...)



The eye shape was modified, Eye 3 is supposed to be the only "fox" type eyes for all races, that's the reason why they're my favorite eye shape and why I pick those eyes for all of my WoL, but now the shape isn't as "foxy" anymore as the tip of the eyes now falls downward like all other eye shapes of the game...

The 2nd facial feature that is a sort of liner/black eyeshadow is almost completely useless now, there's barely any difference when you toggle it. The fact that we lost some of the strength of the black/dark shades makes the eyelashes more discreet and thus makes the eyes feel smaller. Even if you activate this facial feature that is supposed to make the eyelashes and eyes pop up a bit more doesn't help at all as the difference is absurdly small. It could've been a solution to this "smaller eyes" feelings but no, it doesn't change anything...

BUT my biggest issue is still the mouth/lips.
They're completely different from before.
I don't mind the new texture at all but the way they changed the line/shape and completely removed the lip corners shades is a big issue to me. The lips suddenly feel fake and doll-like, definitely less realistic than before so for me this is the only real downgrade so far. They also give a more "pokerface" expression to the character while the expression was more neutral and natural before, now she feels a bit haughty...



The face looks more round and young generally speaking, the chin's shape was definitely smoothed for all races, that's not a big issue to me but if you add it to the rest it really makes my character feel like a complete different character...