Updated benchmark

[azaleai]

I'm going to be totally honest. I HIGHLY doubt they're going to change characters in the middle of the expansion. (This on top of there are lots of bugs and weighting issues they have to fix)
Everybody that liked the changes will be the in the same boat as you, people that have warmed up to their new characters will be upset and then on top of that, assuming they did make more changes. Its possible the changes they made won't even please you and others that wanted changes so now everybody is stuck with a character they're not happy with, everybody is upset.
They just can't make big changes at this stage as its too risky and just a overall bad move, the only thing they can do is add more character options in 8.0 or 9.0.

I understand where you're coming from and I do agree, if they were to reverse some of the more aesthetic decisions (slightly altered eye shape, altered clan marks and colours, etc) there would be some people disappointed. That's why I personally will make my peace with my darkened pupils and lightened nose smudge if that never gets fixed... I don't really agree with the choice, but I know it probably appeals to someone out there.

But I need you to understand, the parts I want them to make an announcement about intending to fix are the bugs, the glaring issues with the models and textures, the holes and seams.

Here's what I mean by femroe face 2 lip textures not matching up:



The normal map for the lips (the faux 3D texture) is completely straight across, while the diffuse (the colour texture) has a defined upper lip shape. The philtrum doesn't really make sense with either texture, to be honest.

My complaint with the eyebrow creases is rather difficult to illustrate without datamining the textures from the benchmark or some such, but imagine if they took the normal map for the lips and just straight up deleted it, leaving only the diffuse map. When the rest of the face has detailed normals, that looks incredibly odd and uncanny valley. When the current 6.58 face has those normals it feels like a step backwards.

Here's some of the holes between the head and the hair:



Which is caused by the alterations being made to the shape of the head model, but no tweaks being made to the hair model. Either the hair models need to be altered as well, or the head model should have retained the same basic shape.

Somewhat less glaring, but here's an example of the texture seams:



This is just straight up a problem with how the textures have been baked.

These aren't aesthetic choices; these are mistakes. I can't fathom anybody preferring it this way.

But compound that with the aesthetic differences, the lips being completely different shapes, the changing of colours, the fading of clan marks? It's just. a big mess.

[Plushy]

snip

Ahh if its just bugs then I agree (more reason why adjusting characters again is a bad idea because it would just add more character model bugs) but they already said they would fix issues in the update benchmark so they don't really need to make another PSA.
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...ecd574ad0d397a
As always, we will remain open to feedback even after the updated benchmark update and Dawntrail have been released, and will also continue to address any issues or necessary adjustments in future patches!

The people telling them how to achieve their previously stated aspiration of keeping the characters looking the same as they were before.

This is just simply selfish. There is no seniority system, they don't have to listen to you or the people pointing out slight changes.
If I were to post my links again it would seem more people are overwhelmingly liking the changes than against it. Because I don't see any posts with over 5k likes that were criticizing the new looks. The highest I seen was like 1k and that was someone upset their male midlander looked different and it was from a popular streamer/youtuber shinpei or something (so you could argue it was people liking it just for the sake of it since it was from a popular streamer.)
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...ecd574ad0d397a
---->Even so, we imagine the subtle differences in nuance will inevitably cause some characters to look ever so slightly different compared to before.<----- Should that be the case, a phial of Fantasia will be obtainable from a new quest that will be added with the release of Patch 7.0, which will allow you to fine-tune your character's appearance.

[Aco505]

---->Even so, we imagine the subtle differences in nuance will inevitably cause some characters to look ever so slightly different compared to before.<----- Should that be the case, a phial of Fantasia will be obtainable from a new quest that will be added with the release of Patch 7.0, which will allow you to fine-tune your character's appearance.

The main issue is that the amount of options in the character creator is too limited to fine-tune many of the changes. The JP have also shared this sentiment in their own feedback thread.

If we did have, for instance, five more lip options per face type, then players would be able to adjust more (even though some wouldn't be happy regardless), but it's sadly not the case.

The graphical update on characters should have been accompanied with a character creator overhaul. I hope we can at least get it in 8.0.