#this is gonna get updated when Dawntrail comes out

[candycryptids]

Full name: The one written in Tataru’s logs says “Tangy Tangeroos-Qesh” with the Qesh being added in a different hand that struggled greatly to fit the size and legibility of the rest of it.

Nickname: N/A (but she’s not opposed)

Jobs: Monk (self-styled), Paladin (HW), Warrior (Dawntrail)

Gender: No matter her outward appearance, ‘Girl’ (She/Her)

Echo: Insists she doesn’t have one, but seems to have the blessing of light regardless. Remarkable constitution.

Race: Miqo’te -> Hrothgar [Through external influence and mishap]

Age: 20

Origin: Gyr Abania

Religion: Rhalgr

Relationships: Grey Aro/Ace, Part of the Scions. Feelings for Minfilia (unacted upon; wasn’t sure what to do with them then, and really isn’t sure now that she’s gone) Adopted by Velivet post-calamity, but has since left. Still sends him and his kids money.

Unique Physical Traits: small scar on cheek, striped fur/markings, brown paw pads…

Likes: Food (noodles especially)🤤🥰, All of the Scions, training/sparring with others, the smell of leather, Lily of the valley, carnations, the color pink, group hugs, meals together, kids, painting (by no means some kinda master at the craft; it’s very simple-hobby levels. Makes an attempt to paint Minfilia from memory once. Doesn’t go great.)

Dislikes: Ascians. Math (especially under pressure), Ul’Dahn Syndicate, Garlemald (opinion shifts somewhat during EW), Sharlay (…. Opinion does NOT shift.), when a friend is sad and there’s nothing she can punch to fix it.

Can Often Be Found: during ARR; in the Waking Sands. Afterwards; Rising Stones, or trailing after Tataru like a guard dog when she travels. Stays in Revenants Toll when Tataru makes the business move to Sharlay

Character Tags: #ffxiv Tangy #Tangy Tangeroos

Playlist: [Inside an Orange Cats Head] [Orange Jams]

[emcapi-gaming]

Spent the evening fiddling with my mods for Ardwin to try and get her to a body type that actually comes across as, like, healthy, instead of running on nothing but stress. I partly wanted to do this because I wasn't happy with my current mod setup, but also as a character development thing for her.

Her personal timeline for MSQ, from ARR through the end of 6.0, was something along the lines of 2 years. She has not had a chance to actually, properly rest. Post-Endwalker, heading into Dawntrail, is really the first time she gets to relax for more than 5 minutes. And also deal with the unholy amount of emotional baggage she has been repressing in order to function this entire time, especially through ShB/EW, which resulted in at least 3 distinct mental breakdowns between the end of 6.0 through 6.1 (one of which was The Entire Dark Knight Questline). 6.2 onwards has very much been about recovery for her, which I think is gonna be a process that continues forward into summer vacation in Tural.

Without further ado, I give you:

Before...

...and after.

(mod list for "after" pic under cut)

Base textures: Bibo+ ("buff & smooth" texture)

Body: rue+ (buff small chest, small skullcrusher legs)

Scaling tweaks: DIY set of Customize+ scalers - if anyone's interested in a copy, let me know and I'll figure out how to export them

Smallclothes: Yet Another Sporty+

Skin details: All-Gen Body Freckles, Rough Travels (scars)

Compatibility: Atramentum Luminis

Face details: Proper Freckles (medium), Hair Defined, Everyone Bites, Eyeworks (looking forward to the graphics update when hopefully I won't need as many of these lol)

[xivrefsheets]

Dawntrail Updates!

Figured I may as well toss a post to the void with DT rapidly approaching. Ahem. Hello! First of all...

Wow... thanks a bunch! I'm happy this little project has proven to be so helpful for so many folks out there! I figured once I stopped updating that this blog was gonna fizzle out into obscurity but I'm still getting quite a bit of interaction despite the inactivity (I really do miss Tumblr sometimes...)

Anyway, wanted to put an update out here on things going forward after DT drops and knowing how rambly and Autistic™ I tend to get, I'll just put that in a cut.

So as I've mentioned in passing in the tags of a random ask, I'm sort of considering opening comms for ref sheets again due to really Really Spicy money-related happenings in my personal life. However, there's a few steps along the way before I make this a reality and this isn't even a full guarantee it'll happen as I'll also be opening art commissions in the near future and those will take more time and priority over ref sheets PLUS there's the factors that led me to closing in the first place.

I'm trying to steer away from using Anamnesis going forward for a number of reasons (some borderline petty, I admit) but I've been introduced to some nifty new plugins that are slowly taking the program's place that make posing infinitely easier and also fix the primary issue I had with Ana which was.... not allowing unique NPC faces to show in gpose anymore. (Yes I'm aware that they still worked for carbuncles and the like but that was just enough of a hassle for my posing needs that it made the sheets Not worth making anymore since I was already dealing with other stress on the side at the time as well). I'm still learning how to effectively utilize said plugins and once I've gotten better and mastered them that'll be the end of step 1.

Step 2 is gonna be... well... waiting for DT to drop. As we all know, a massive graphics overhaul is coming, so there's very little point in opening requests for new characters now when the models are about to be more detailed and will very likely be tweaked along the way if player feedback affects NPCs down the line.

Step 3... that I dread... revamping my studio yet again. Mostly just gonna be taking out some of the extra light sources since those tend to get in the way when the model is really tall and also researching more setups. May also see about utilizing chromakey as well. Idk idk. I doubt I'll have the energy to make the sheets super pretty like some folks do, but taking transparent shots will cut out a lot of distracting factors and make the finished sheets look a bit better I think.

Then after that, I'll probably do some practice rounds and re-work sheets for popular characters as well as fixing the old, shitty sheets from when I first started that were Way Too Yellow that I've been meaning to fix for literal years now (so sorry to all my fellow color-picking artists friends out there I'm sorry that's so annoying... TTATT) and from there I'll see if it's something I still want to pursue and open comms for.

I'll shoot for maybeeeee mid-August or so for the next update. Obviously, I still have a job and I'll be enjoying DT with the rest of you guys so it'll be some time before I even think of doing ref sheets again, but I at least wanted to throw out there that this is still something I think about, but a number of factors made me stop to begin with. One factor being...

...pricing! If/when I open again, it'll likely be a proper commission post on ko-fi and I'm thinking of starting at $10 with tipping enabled. In the beginning, I was allowing requests for the barest minimum of a donation and the constant $3 for characters with a ton of details to cover was getting a bit demotivating after a while, so I'm sorry if this puts off past and future clients, but I am doing all of this in my free time, so... ;w;

ANYWAY! If anyone read all this... thank you! I know it's a Lot and I'm sorry. Been a minute since I've had to do some sort of official addressing like this... haha.

Feel free to follow my ko-fi for updates regarding ref sheet commissions, art commissions, and whatever new art I post (if you're into that) and maybe toss a dollar or two my way since, yanno, I'm Quite broke rn and have an unpaid vacation coming up... 👉👈 or if you just wanna support a fellow queer this June.

and if y'all don't hear from me in a few months just assume I lied LOL!

[zwierzodudle]

i finished dawntrail last night so i'm gonna release some thoughts out of me

overall i would still say i enjoyed myself. admittedly i mostly went in with the plan to just enjoy watching my lizard in the cutscenes, so. not the highest of standards.*

the first half aka the main scenario you expect to happen was honestly perfectly fine. nothing special, but light and enjoyable. you go around helping your new pal with various tasks, shenanigans happen,and there were a lot of sweet moments between various characters. like i don't really have a lot of complaints for that part, it's about what i expected.

the only things that i found kinda meh at that point is that at times the writing felt like they were writing for a kids cartoon instead (but it was easy to ignore for this part), and zoraal ja's motivation was just kinda silly? and maybe a few weird moments where they didn't seem to decide if they want the tone to be serious or comedic.

post-coronation when shit hits the fan tho. they had this really good existential horror setup (and they clearly knew about it, what with the dramatic camera angles and all) but then they kept pulling it back in a weird way?

in the same dialogue the same character just a few sentences apart says this:

and from then on it's like they couldn't let any characters call the soul devices anything negative without also adding something along the lines of 'but it's their culture'. it's genuinely bizzare. it get's incredibly tiring with just how often everyone says it too. culture has nothing to do with this? the characters are allowed to think the delete-the-memories-of-your-loved-ones-and-use-their-souls-as-a-currency machine is scary without a disclaimer every time? i'm not sure if it was meant to help humanize alexandrians or something but it really wasn't necessary? that kinda infantilizing writing really ddidn't mesh with the subject at hand here and felt a little condescending to the players.

this part really suffers for it beause there's a lot of interesting ideas they introduce and then just push to the side in order to show you how alexandrians live. by the time they're done with that the last few quests just rush by. the last zone gets turned into rubble after a few dialogues, krile gets barely any time to get her quest's resolution, no time for questioning anyone about the shard travel.

sphene is an interesting villain but even with her right at the end they throw another 'well i know you have your own beliefs-'. my brother in hydaelyn she's forced by her programming to kill people for souls to power an unsustainable artificial afterlife. just let that go okay.

so. yeah.

i still had fun with various character moments (i know people hate on wuk lamat but i had no problem with her), the new dungeons and trials are fun, the new areas are honestly gorgeous. it's just kinda disappointing how many times they fumble the writing itself.

*that one post-endwalker update where you go into a garlean bunker because their officer doesnt want their feral robots killed? and you find out they've been taking stuff that was meant for their citizens for themselves and yet it never comes up again? or how the refinery guys who hated garleans who enslaved them clap and smile at the officer who now will totally be better because he was almost killed by the feral robots? the way they wrote everyone in it made me stop playing ffxiv for like half a year. so i kinda expected bullshit and tbh nothing in dawntrail was as bad as that.

[sealrock]

benchmark shenanigans

my pc didn't explode!! 3 hours well spent I must say

putting everything under the cut because it got long but I'm actually really looking forward to dawntrail now;

main roster:

(andromache is missing for obvious reasons)

ok I will say the CC did not inspire confidence in me when I first loaded in my ocs, especially paris. I used the lominsa location for better lighting but the wet sheen seemed to taint my first opinion of the graphics update. the updated eye and hair textures are well done, however

for paris, the lip shine, tweezed eyebrows, and eyelashes (and subtle makeup it looks like) are kind of jarring on them. they need to look crusty!! not moisturized!!!

achille looks.. rough. the eyes on face 4 looks fine currently, but here he looks zooted out of his goddamn mind. and I've been using dark eyebrows for all my ocs for a while now, seeing him with blond eyebrows is a shock to the system

hector (and patroclus) look so good though I think I hauve covid. like face 6 got the biggest upgrade to me, they actually have good-looking noses, eyebrows, and lips!!!

tauvane looks good, not as crusty anymore! the lips are better than what's in-game currently. she kinda matches achille in looking high as hell but it's less severe

npcs:

the tatlonghari brothers are also safe. I'm obsessed with how face 1 looks, evander also got a better nose and they kept his acne marks which made me tear up with joy. his face looks a lot more round than his current model so I may end up changing it once dawntrail comes out

patroclus is back to his old face template from now on, and actually looks like he has a 10-step skincare routine now, it's great. like hector, he looks very good

I also did kirke for a bit and she looks decent!! the limbal rings look nice to me, though her lips are gonna have to grow on me

benchmark looks:

crying and screaming and throwing up at how paris looks outside of the cc, overall they look great! I may end up using my fantasia to tweak their face a bit but otherwise I don't think I'll have any issues playing them throughout the msq

achille still looks goofy asf, but that's just me unable to make face 4 look nice with this combination of colors. I actually may end up giving him a different face entirely because he doesn't look like how I imagine him. I try not to give two of my ocs the same face template but I wanna try face 1 on him to try and get him closer to his parents in appearance

oh my god hector makes me wanna bite my desk. he got the best glowup, and the new hair looks great on him!! 10/10, face card cleared, no notes

my girl tauvane looks a lot better rendered in the benchmark than cc. I also noticed her hair color is a touch darker than current, it's a nice touch!

bonus shots:

evander and patroclus look amazing with the new lighting like whaddahell. they wouldn't actually be melee dps so watching them be a viper was kinda funny

I wanted to test kirke real quick as well with limbral rings, she looked cool throughout the entire thing. and I may be wrong but it looks like they gave this hair extra bones because the bangs move with the wind, really neat!

I ran yves' elezen model through the benchmark as well since his face is custom. as I don't play elezen his skin tone looks decent to me, it's not as ashy like his in-game model

[bladeshowers]

I did update my rules. It's something I meant to put in awhile ago back when all the shared verses were going around/were popular before the fandom died down with the content lull. No one's really done it yet, as far as I'm aware, I'm just putting it there just in case and for the inevitable revival when Dawntrail releases.

Since I'm coming back I also wanted to put a feeler out for plots/new threads. It's been months and while I'm trying to get through all my drafts I realize other people might not be interested in them anymore. So feel free to poke me on this post, via im's, or via discord if you have it if you'd like to start new things!

I also am gonna have verses for 16 & baldur's gate available once I finish those games. I do have vague ideas for amara & evan for 16 so feel free to inquire about those since they're partially written up already. I just wanted to see the ending to verify something before I actually publish them & link them on their character bios.

[kesakeshi]

Okay, lets talk Dawntrail

Gonna get this out the way..don't care for the "new" race, moving on:

A lot of... Neo city/cyberpunk themes in this expansion. Actually, it seems to be a trend in gaming recently. I don't care too much for this aesthetic and fail to see how this will fit with FF14, but we'll see..

(I know Garlemald was sorta similar but this is just straight up futuristic)

(blurry quality sorr) But I LOVE the MCH outfit. I'm a sucker for ties/suits on women and I know my cat girl will look lovely in this top. I wonder what the new traits/actions are gonna be...?

sigh, this graphical update makes me want to change to one of these male races when 7.0 comes out. They just look so damn PRETTY. Imagine what G'raha Tia's, Estinien's, and Aymeric's new models are gonna look like ❤❤❤ AH I'm so excited!

Krile fighting with us aside (she's okay, I don't care much),

PICTOMANCER!!!

This looks like a super fun job that I'm excited to play when it comes out. I've tried Magical-Ranged DPS before and didn't care for it, but the artsy/disney aesthetic is super cute to me. It's giving Astrologian in terms of quirkiness and I'm all here for it.

NEW CAT BOY?! G'RAHA HAS COMPETITION????

I doubt it, but :) Out of every new character announced (so far) cat boy here peaks my interest the most. Excited to see what he'll bring to the table.

Speaking of catboy,

This'll never get old. G'raha eating taco will forever be burned into my mind, my heart. I just really love this guy.

also love that he's such a foodie I find that very adorable.

Lastly, Alphinaud:

Is it just me, or did he seem to look...different? I think this is the same for Alisaie too, their faces seem less baby then their Endwalker CGI models...hm...I think they're finally growing up y'all 🥺

Anyway I need to hurry up and finish the recent patches before the new one comes out-

[linelpisffxiv]

So, my official Keynote thoughts

I am... cautiously optimistic about this expac. Of the three big options, it's the least bad for me.

Like, I have no doubt that the people groups introduced in a Decolonization/Southern Ilsabard expac would be done well, but the writers always fail to get me to see what they are trying to when it comes to the Empire and that would just be a drag to me.

I have severe doubts on how well they'll handle the claimed diversity of Tural, but I'll take an expac that borrows from a myth created by conquistadors out of greed over the above.

That said, of the three big options, I have minimal interest in any of them being told. Like I said, least bad. And so far, it looks like there's an attempt at doing the mesoamerican/south american indigenous peoples right. Doubt it's more than that, but yeah.

I like the name Dawntrail.

I like how happy Meteor looks in the trailer.

I like the theme is "Discovery"/"Adventure",

More interested in the system updates, tho.

Basically, this is an expac that seems like it can be better than the idea has any right to be, but I'm keeping my concerns close as well, because there's a lot that can go wrong too.

Either way, I think it's gonna be the last one I play on release.