Terran Cadet Character race-swapped?

[vvvvvvvv]

No it doesn't bring that "implication". There's no reason...

It does. Sorry.

You might not see it this way, but it absolutely does bring this implication. That's why people react to such changes. If it didn't bring this implication, they wouldn't react.

Skin color is tied to the race, and both race and ethnicity is a touchy issue, because our world has plenty of atrocities committed due to racial and ethnic discrimination. So when there's an established character gets race swapped from Race A to Race B, the knee-jerk reaction of plenty of people would be "someone decided it is wrong to be Race A, that's why they changed it", and it doesn't really matter which way the change went. The reason why such reaction exists, is because there are companies trying to preach instead of simply being a service provider. Like certain razor manufacturer.

And also consider this: what sort of reaction do you think there would be, if terran wingman got quietly race-swapped to caucasian in an update? Same deal.

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I'll also point out that you missed later comment. The "4.0" is not an actual 4.0, but whatever is available in beta branch labeled 4.0. In the next comment I linked to a stream of the game, from 2 years ago, and it has different model. Meaning the model was changed, and the change was retroactively pushed into "4.0". So, yes, there was a swap. Additionally on other forums, people also tried to write this off as "imagination" and "lighting issue".

[Caedes91]

The character macro for the Terran Cadet player character hasn't changed since it was added in 4.0/CoH development (on the 10th of February 2021, to be precise), though the lighting in certain cutscenes - which has changed over time - may make skin tones appear lighter or darker depending on the circumstances, just like in real life.

Edit: if you want to confirm for yourself, you can lower your graphics settings (especially shadows), backup your saves, roll back to version 4.0 (X4 -> Properties -> Betas), and check the Hatikvah cutscene. Then update to the newest version and check again, with the same graphics settings. And if you're feeling really adventurous, check out the character_macros.xml file itself in the Cradle of Humanity folder and compare it between versions.

Ok, I will take your word of an actual dev for it and acknowledge, that you did not went out of your way to secretly change the model. Given, what I have seen from you here and on other forums, I perceive you as a dev, who is passionately working on improving the game.

However, this still is an immense screw-up of the engine if some lighting setting can cause a black guy to appear white. This is such a stark contrast and I also with the previous poster, that the models look different. And therefore this is very misleading, almost like false advertising. I am not accusing anybody of that, just comparing.

Most importantly, it does not change the end result. He was/appeared white before, but is now visibly African American. This is not about who is better or whatever like some hysterics try to paint this thread as. Certain people have different preferences. Nothing more and with the evidence brought forward already, any more gaslighting is pointless.

To move forward, can you add a character choice for the gamestarts and a way to customise the character in existing games? This topic aside, I beliece that more customisation options in general, be it for characters, gameplay, stations or ships would still be received well by the playerbase.

[vvvvvvvv]

Ok, I will take your word of an actual dev for it and acknowledge, that you did not went out of your way to secretly change the model. Given, what I have seen from you here and on other forums, I perceive you as a dev, who is passionately working on improving the game.

Another possible scenario is that character appearance is based on multiple files, and while the "character macro" did not change, the underlying skin it refers to did. Because to make him white you'd need to blindingly bright washed out scene, and it clearly does not look this way in the screenshot/recording. As eyebrows are still visible, for example. The recorded stream (and its previous part) also has multiple places where people with different skin tone appear, and they never look anything like the protagonist. But this explanation is a wild guess, though.

Models certainly did change over time, one example of that is that... Menika Giorno. (see: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 2961208995 ) which has unique haircut not used by anyone else. Which probably was more common at some point.

[Caedes91]

Ok, I will take your word of an actual dev for it and acknowledge, that you did not went out of your way to secretly change the model. Given, what I have seen from you here and on other forums, I perceive you as a dev, who is passionately working on improving the game.

Another possible scenario is that character appearance is based on multiple files, and while the "character macro" did not change, the underlying skin it refers to did. Because to make him white you'd need to blindingly bright washed out scene, and it clearly does not look this way in the screenshot/recording. As eyebrows are still visible, for example. The recorded stream (and its previous part) also has multiple places where people with different skin tone appear, and they never look anything like the protagonist. But this explanation is a wild guess, though.

Models certainly did change over time, one example of that is that... Menika Giorno. (see: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 2961208995 ) which has unique haircut not used by anyone else. Which probably was more common at some point.

You do point out an important fact. If this was solely a "lighting" issue, every other character then must have been a literal Albino. I remember clearly, that I also had Dal Busta in the Science room at that point and he appeared completely normal. Other residents on other stations were alse as "intended". Or take the Hatikvah cutscene for example. Reen Omara's skin was the same as now.

[havanajoe]

Why is this even a topic of discussion? If you're this concerned about it, don't play the game. There is zero evidence that Egosoft went out there way to make a white guy a black guy just cause of some perceived injustice.

[CBJ]

Since this has now been answered definitively by a developer, there is zero purpose in further conspiracy theorising or the attendant accusations and counter-accusations. The subject matter is now closed.