trying so hard not to be too woke about the rework or whatever, but like... with the rise of fascism and making everything look the same, how that affects fashion, the obsession with making art "pretty" (think of the art era fascists obsess over), it kinda feels that deep.
making all female presets look so dainty and baby faced, and the male ones like something from a chad meme, yet still so Perfect and smooth, and almost completely getting rid of any non white face presets... we went from having almost 60 face presets to 10, and the ones we're left with overall just have way too similar facial features. its also pretty much impossible to make an "ugly" character too. not everyone wants to play as a conventionally attractive instagram model :/
and like even if it wasn't intentional, we are still subconsciously affected by the world around us. this rework had to go through idk how many people. at no point did someone in charge pause and be like, hm we're actively taking away options with this. not to mention while the expansion of skin tones is great, I feel like people of color have talked about how important it to actually be able to represent things like facial features and hair (black hair styles did receive much need overhaul tho). but ive already seen a lot of people frustrated over their ethnicity no longer being represented in the options available.
like sure, add in the dainty elf presets for those who want it i guess. but why can't everyone else just be allowed to make a character that looks human lol. it just feels so weird to fully take shit away, and give us less options with even less variation? i don't care if they look "better", i think they look uncanny and lout of place.
and since they pretty much completely remade the character creator, I really don't understand why we couldn't have gotten a more expanded one, instead of two face blends again. like yay I can change my eyebrows, but why am I forced to have a button nose unless I pick one of the chad presets? they're using a morph system for the face blends anyway, that can be extended to let us have control over specific area. at minimum thing like mouth, eyes, nose, jaw and chin shape.
i feel like everyone who loves the rework were either lucky enough to have their old head carry over, or don't mind their drifter looking like an anime girl. everyone i've seen who used the same head as me pre rework has complained, because there is nothing that's even close to that one :/ rip visage 009. like yeah maybe the old face presets were kinda ugly or whatever, but at least they all looked unique. but drifter just looks so out of place now, like why do they look like someones overmodded skyrim character. i scroll through people sharing their new looks, and it's all the same dainty anime girl or a ken doll with different haircuts. boring.
it just feels so half-assed, and they didn't even bother to fix cosmetics. paid hairs have been changed beyond recognition, paid armor has had so many changes, like previously flat chested armor now having bolted on tits, facial accessories aren't fitted to the heads so floating instead. and the main issue with the modular outfits is tints+materials not matching up so you can barely mix and match them, as well as clipping, which haven't improved much. and then they release a new outfit, and put the fucking metal channel on the 3rd slot, as if everyone haven't complained about the few cosmetics that don't have metal set to the 1st slot, because it makes it impossible to match with other parts now! fuuuuck
