Ear Today, Gone Tomorrow - Update Ears or I'll Keep on Playing Anyway!

[Attache]

Maybe I was an otolaryngologist in a previous life but I've been semi-passionate about the way ears are dealt with in this game going back to Live and I felt and feel like I'm alone in the wilderness. Just seeing if anyone else cares or agrees with me would be lovely at this point and would do wonders for my self-esteem. My job is ending in April and I need a boost of confidence to go sell my tired, old surly ass in a succession of job interviews.

Pet Peeve. I really NEVER liked the perfect little vacuum-sealed ear shape you get when using the Full or Standard mask options. See example:
 

I know that since our masks are a simple recoloring of certain parts of the face with no real texture and that adding texture is probably nearly impossible given the game's age and graphic limitations. This is why I think taking the covered ear look from Spectrum or Ninja or Bonehead and adding a colorable Covered option to Ears would go a long way towards selling our masks as an actual piece of cloth pulled over our heads. Forgive the rough photoshop example:

 

So much better and since a full graphics upgrade is something out-of-reach for the game, this goes a long way towards updating the look.

That all being said, inexplicably exposed ears also have a rich tradition in comics so there should be a Skin sub-option on the Human ear. Since we have skin options for the other Ear types, I'm assuming this is doable with having to reinvent the wheel. Again, forgive my hasty photoshopping.

 

Am I a huge fan of this look? No, not really but I can see it working with many of the mask options very well. Again, it is something that that gives a boost to the character design without tearing everything down to rebuild it. A patch, yes, but a doable one.

((My other thoughts are probably more controversial so maybe I will do a Part 2 but let's start here and get some feedback. We can talk later about how the various Animal Ears should really be in Detail 1, about  how there should also be a None option for Ears so that people wanting to use the various head-mounted Animal Ears as their actual ears shouldn't require them to pick a face without ears or pick a hairstyle that covers them. And I'm sure I'll hear from someone who thinks clipping their Imp ears through their Ear Muffs is the best thing ever but I believe you get more cool design choices moving all ear-covering pieces into Ears than you do keeping a character from having both Eye and Ear pieces at the same time. ))

 

Edited February 2, 2022 by Attache

[Rudra]

Oh! Ohohoh! While we're asking about ears, can we not still have human ears when we select animal ears for our characters too? It's pretty weird making a character with 4 ears....

[Attache]

41 minutes ago, Rudra said:

Oh! Ohohoh! While we're asking about ears, can we not still have human ears when we select animal ears for our characters too? It's pretty weird making a character with 4 ears....

I touched upon that in the bottom portion but if you are going to keep animal ears with ears, there may be some folks who want both. I have a huge muscle-bound character who dons what are supposed to be plastic bunny ears from time to time so it makes sense that he would still have regular ears too.

I'm sure it would make people unhappy but considering their location and with limited attachment points, they fit better in Detail 1.

Edited February 2, 2022 by Attache

[Zepp]

1 hour ago, Rudra said:

Oh! Ohohoh! While we're asking about ears, can we not still have human ears when we select animal ears for our characters too? It's pretty weird making a character with 4 ears....

That's some anti-Gundark sentiment there!

[srmalloy]

1 hour ago, Rudra said:

Oh! Ohohoh! While we're asking about ears, can we not still have human ears when we select animal ears for our characters too? It's pretty weird making a character with 4 ears....

The original devs cheaped out, and only paid for the same transformation technology that the Salusians from the comic Ninja High School use to transform themselves into humans...

[Bill Z Bubba]

8 hours ago, Attache said:

Pet Peeve.

 

But you'll happily force one of the greatest songs ever into my headpsace.

 

Yea, I'm ok with that.