Thancred's new face

[SKAshe]

Honestly I think it would be important to give Thancred's face another look over and edit/recreate as well. Thancred's a very important main cast member so would definitely be worth the time and effort spent looking over his face and making the necessary adjustments, time consuming though they may be to tweak the vertices, facial skeleton, rigging weights, normal maps, and textures. His face does really stand out against that of the other npcs, whose faces otherwise look really close to their pre-dawntrail appearance.

Really though it's those lips, mainly, I think, just like the other heads/face models that didn't do so well in the update. My characters lip corners look a bit different post-dawntrail. I wonder if it's something topological or what but it's interesting how many face models were done extremely well considering the changes made to the mesh, textures, and facial rig, and how some face models have eye shapes and lips that look completely different... Like Thancred.

The most minute lip differences can make someone look completely different so it's important for square enix to pay extra close attention to mouths, I think.

[Gaddes]

Really though it's those lips, mainly, I think, just like the other heads/face models that didn't do so well in the update. My characters lip corners look a bit different post-dawntrail. I wonder if it's something topological or what but it's interesting how many face models were done extremely well considering the changes made to the mesh, textures, and facial rig, and how some face models have eye shapes and lips that look completely different... Like Thancred.

The most minute lip differences can make someone look completely different so it's important for square enix to pay extra close attention to mouths, I think.

If there's one thing the devs definitely refuse to touch, it's the lips. No one's concerns about lip shapes have ever been listened to.... if there's even the slightest of changes it's usually to something with textures or eye pupils or more minor stuff that doesn't directly affect meshes. I dunno what we can do to make them re-evaluate mouths, but the DT mouth changes are all awful across the board.

[LathyrusLoon]

This is really disappointing, I loved Thancred 's face. His sharp eyes and little smirk. And especially his bumpy nose!

[Turethir]

The thing is, since Thancred is an NPC and not a player character, you would think it wouldn't be too much of an issue. I can understand, to an extent, the hesitancy around changing player's faces (as some people will like it and some won't) but Thancred's a one-off and won't affect any other players - assuming they give him his custom face back!

[moodud]

I recently start 7.0 msq and it’s been very long since I saw Thancred face and when he first appeared, my first thought is ‘Is this Thancred?’.
Ul’dah is my starting city, I’ve known Thancred for the longest time, and now he looks very different . Other npcs are fine, it’s very weird. I wish they do something about it.

Regarding the bug reports, I’d say they cannot really be trusted. I had a case of Accepted > Fixed , without fixing anything. Then when I reported again it became Working as intended. And guess what? They actually fix them in the end, silently. Took over a year.

I don’t want everybody to give up. Keep bringing up the issue, be loud enough and they won’t be able to ignore any longer. I will go raise my voice in the JP side too.

[Turethir]

I recently start 7.0 msq and it’s been very long since I saw Thancred face and when he first appeared, my first thought is ‘Is this Thancred?’.
Ul’dah is my starting city, I’ve known Thancred for the longest time, and now he looks very different . Other npcs are fine, it’s very weird. I wish they do something about it.

Regarding the bug reports, I’d say they cannot really be trusted. I had a case of Accepted > Fixed , without fixing anything. Then when I reported again it became Working as intended. And guess what? They actually fix them in the end, silently. Took over a year.

I don’t want everybody to give up. Keep bringing up the issue, be loud enough and they won’t be able to ignore any longer. I will go raise my voice in the JP side too.

Thank you, moodud! I admired your persistence in getting the fix you wanted for your character. Really appreciate you fighting for our cause as well, that means a lot!

[Turethir]

I'm feeling encouraged by a few people to keep pushing this, so my next steps are going to be:

1) To contact Customer Support
2) To log a new bug report clearly stating why we do not believe this should be marked as 'Working as Intended'.

I'd really appreciate some input from everyone as to what reasons I can list, as I intend to make this very comprehensive.

My thoughts are:

• Thancred should not be treated any differently from the other NPCs.
• This does not align with the aims of the graphical update as Thancred looks very different from his pre-DT self.
• There are several pieces of in-game media, for example stills on quest previews, which are now out of sync with how Thancred currently looks in-game.
• The mobile version of XIV uses the original Thancred model, and the two should be consistent with his original look.
• We are not requesting a change to the player models, but instead for Thancred to have his own custom face textures back. This is not something which should be controversial among players as a whole.
• This is not just one person requesting this - the numbers of likes and shares across all sites has numbered in the thousands. Almost every Thancred fan I know dislikes the change and I know several people for whom this has caused significant upset.

Does anyone have anything else I can add?

[Crafoutis]

Oh man, I didn't realize it had changed.

[Turethir]

I just want to give a huge shout out to SE's support team - I reached out to them about the move to "Working as Intended" and they clarified that this was done because it was considered feedback and not a bug report, and to ensure this is reflected more accurately, the thread has now been moved to the "Not a Bug Report" forum instead.

They also said that they had contacted the team in charge of player feedback and confirmed that this will be "raised for consideration", and reassured me that our concerns were not dismissed.

They were super helpful, very quick to respond and really made me feel like I was being listened to - thank you support team

I know this is not a guarantee of a fix, but it makes me feel a great deal better to know that Thancred's face was not considered "Working as Intended", and that this is being reviewed internally. Let's keep this thread from disappearing into the ether in the meantime, and hope that in the future, we get to see Thancred's original face again!

[Keumjo]

I just want to give a huge shout out to SE's support team - I reached out to them about the move to "Working as Intended" and they clarified that this was done because it was considered feedback and not a bug report, and to ensure this is reflected more accurately, the thread has now been moved to the "Not a Bug Report" forum instead.

They also said that they had contacted the team in charge of player feedback and confirmed that this will be "raised for consideration", and reassured me that our concerns were not dismissed.

They were super helpful, very quick to respond and really made me feel like I was being listened to - thank you support team

I know this is not a guarantee of a fix, but it makes me feel a great deal better to know that Thancred's face was not considered "Working as Intended", and that this is being reviewed internally. Let's keep this thread from disappearing into the ether in the meantime, and hope that in the future, we get to see Thancred's original face again!

Shout out to you as well for fighting so hard for this!