Naunet

What. Not... so. Which was kind of one of the points of people who dislike FFXIV's character creation; most other games allow much more. You also presume that because one game does something bad, that necessarily means that all other games must sacrifice quality as well. This is an incorrect assumption. @Meena: It's been explained several times that character customization is in NO WAY an RPer-only thing. It's not even something enjoyed primarily by roleplayers. Almost everyone appreciates high levels of character customization.

And the like? Just hairstyles. A couple facepaints. It wouldn't kill them to add to face options, to remove face restrictions on special features, or to increase eye/jaw/nose/mouth options. Harder would be body types, but I know that is also doable, too (have seen an MMO add them after the fact). Yes, FFXIV CAN do better.

Ignoring the sports car analogy because arguing on the internet in analogies is quite possibly my least favorite thing ever. A product doesn't just fix a bunch of bad stuff and then deem itself, "Eh, good enough! No more needs doing." There's not a whole lot in FFXIV that needs actual fixing except for its customization (both in character creation and in-game in the form of wardrobes, dyes, and costumes - these are actually some of the biggest reasons I no longer maintain a subscription to this game). Consumers have an obligation to continue to press for improvements. A product is never perfect.

Even if it wasn't sliders, having some greater variations in the nose/eyes/jawline options would be nice and would definitely help to create more distinct characters. Precisely the point I made in my post. :3

It's stunning to you that something that has been a problem since day one, has gotten people complaining about it since day one, and has yet to see any improvement... stirs consternation?? I know what stuns me in this thread, and it's certainly not SE's lacking customization options. >_> The fact of the matter is, players love to customize their characters. More tools to do so are always going to be a win in a lot of players' books. There's a reason MMO character creation has taken off so much since the WoW days (not a good MMO to point to as an excuse for FFXIV... that game is over a decade old): devs realized that players want to make their character their own. Now in FFXIV, maybe sliders are too much given the limitations on certain consoles. But I don't think it's anywhere remotely out of touch to expect more than four face options, or more than four almost indiscernible adjustments to nose/jaw/mouth shapes, or for extra customization features that aren't restricted to certain face types, or for a muscle slider for all the dang races. Body type presets instead of body sliders. It is completely possible to work within the design laid out by FFXIV's current character creation tools and simply expand on them to have a set-up that's pretty respectable even though it doesn't have much in the way of sliders. That said, there's no "adjusting armor models" argument that is valid when it comes to face sliders. I presume they would cry "memory limitations" as they tend to.

I don't think those exceptions are quite so few as you seem to believe. One of the hottest topics in any beta forum for an MMO is character creation, and it's almost always people asking for more options, more customization. Hardly any of those people are roleplayers. There are tons of games out there with far more advanced character creation than FFXIV, and those games didn't develop that with RPers in mind I can guarantee you. People, regardless of whether or not they roleplay, like to be able to customize their in-game avatar to fit whatever image they want.

I come bearing more.

This thread wasn't made for people to post their Au Ra screenshots. It was originally made to discuss the benchmark "screenshots" that were taken last week during a demonstration of it. So, no thread merge necessary IMO. A clarification in thread titles would probably help.

The reason is quite obvious. Yoshi even outright stated that they designed the Au Ra (at least the females, I guess) based on how much people loved female miqo'te. Restating it a million times isn't going to change my opinion on the matter though. I still disagree with it. I still think there was a better way to go about it (split the design so that one clan appeals to one sense, the other appeals to another sense).

There's a reason the standard paradigm for character design involves developing races that each have unique, identifiable silhouettes. I'm not sure what changed that made people suddenly afraid of investing in some variety. Variety is good. SE doesn't need you defending their choices, especially not financial-related stuff. Games would be so much better if there was less justifying done by playerbases.

I disagree with the notion that wanting SE to provide some variety in character models is asking them to design for RPers.

I'm never gonna be okay with that justification. [edit] Why even make highlanders/roegadyn in the first place. Let's just throw the standard design paradigm of recognizable, unique silhouettes right out the window. Everyone* wants to play the same thing, so the same thing they will get! *for specific definitions of "everyone" that only include people who like a single aesthetic

K'piru will probably be very wary for some time. On the other hand, she may find some sense of connection in being a cultural outsider to a "new" world. Hard to tell.

This is the crux of it, right here. SE's character creation is pretty poor. You don't even have to dislike it to acknowledge the fact that it's extremely limited in scope. Though even then, they should have at least gone the midlander/highlander route. Let the civilized and open Raen be the petite, cute ones (the males, too!), while the nomadic warrior Xaela can have a much more aggressive silhouette and options. Makes lore sense and lets both "sides" get what they want.

There is, as in all things, a happy medium. WildStar uses body type presets and a slew of face sliders; it works quite well.

My own complaints aside, I'm a sucker for character creation tools of any kind. Though I have no active sub anymore, doesn't hurt to have a little fun making concept characters. I'll stick the screenshots under spoilers because, uhm, there's a lot.

You'd have an argument there if WoW still had its Vanilla-through-BC textures. It's had high resolution armor designs for a long while now, though. Right, I hope that both Au Ra supporters and detractors can come together and agree the male Au Ra hair is actual shit. Oh definitely. The male hair is ridiculous, and not in any good way.

I think they'll look a lot better. They're currently using a Surface Pro for the benchmark images there. And with it being DirectX11 I think we'll see more details. FFXIV doesn't have hi-resolution textures, which is probably what you're seeing. Boy do I wish it did. The game looks fine from a distance, but it's very obvious up close. >_< Honestly, the horribleness of the scales/armor and the extremely limited customization (pretty much expected but still) are my biggest beefs with the Au Ra. I could actually be okay with them if their horns weren't tied to face types, if they had more than four horn options, if the scales/armor were better blended to their skin at the edges so they looked like a part of their body instead of poorly done cosplay...

I'm not fond of this particular design. How does a perpetually covered face communicate character? Is sacrificing all that detail hidden beneath really worth it when they could just make a helmet with the same aesthetic instead? Bah I don't care. I think it looks awesome. If they went with that more vicious design, surely that'd just be one face option anyway.

I ADORE the one with the armor-covered face. And those claws. The vicious tail. That combined with an athletic body would have been glorious. *sigh*

If the females had the same super intense angular eyes (and features in general) of the males, that'd help a lot.

Not only that, but it seems the horns are tied to the face options. It is really looking like the japanese on top there says 'Kao no taipu' which would basically be 'face type'. I AM STILL STUPIDLY EXCITED ABOUT AU RA but... I. Wish they would have like.. separated the horns and the faces, at least. Yeeaaaah... that's pretty bad. Not quite as bad as if they were tied to hairstyles. But still really bad.

Doesn't surprise me that they only get 4 horn options. I think SE's definition of highly customizable is rather odd. Still think the scales and horns look like a pasted on cosplay. It's really strange. The scales would look a LOT better if they actually blended along the edges into the skin.

Wat.

Some headshots I did today... Illira Carceri Aeriyn Ashley And for fun, though they're not FFXIV related (most of my stuff isn't ), here are the other two headshots - one of my Lavellan and DA:I rp character and the other of my husband's DA:I character: I actually intend to color ALL of these, but some vital markers ran out of ink today. >_< Urgh.