Lana Beniko was first introduced in the "Shadow of Revan" expansion. From what I could find online, her looks were poorly received by the community. During KOTFE's development, Lana went through a major overhaul but ended up being changed alongside Senya when KOTET hit the shelves. And just recently they added yet another overhaul (this time optional) to her character.

 

I'm just curious as to why this was the case. You can compare them down below:

 

https://i.imgur.com/VgLNRrP.jpg

To be fair I don't think the fourth one, which is horrible IMHO, was a deliberate overhaul of her character model. The Lana that appears in the game trailers and by default in cut scenes the game is still #3. It wasn't an "overhaul" but the devs being lazy and not bothering to make the dressable model exactly the same as the character depicted in the game.

 

They pulled the same thing with Senya and Koth; their dressable models don't look the same as the characters are seen in the game if you pull the customization from them.

Edited March 11, 2019 by IoNonSoEVero

Likely because the body model wasn't customizable so they made another one.

I liked SoR Lana the best. Pity we can't have that one as a customization or something.

 

But yeah, I agree that the last change was likely due to needing to have another model so she could be customized. The other two look like they just tried to improve on her looks. Many people didn't like SoR Lana, and at least I think #3 is a huge improvement to #2.

Edited March 11, 2019 by Seireeni

They all look about the same to me, except #2. Could it be lighting/shadow?

They all look about the same to me, except #2. Could it be lighting/shadow?

 

You know if you took 4 photos of your own face taken over a span of a few years, then lined the pictures up side by side you might look fairly different in each one too.

 

I agree with Rion_Starhealer. I think you guys are being too hard on poor Lana, she can't help that she has aged and her face has changed. Let's just chalk it up to poor lighting, shall we?

3 is my favorite. I think they nailed the eyes when that was the main complaint from 1 iirc. But I hate the giant hulking armor she wears. So it's either keep her with that green trash bag or put her in something cooler but get a helmet or hooded armor to minimize looking at that hairstyle, which is my main problem with 4.

I don't recall a new face being added between KOTFE and KOTET, but it's possible someone went in and touched up the textures a bit and I've just forgotten. As others have mentioned, the transition from the first to the second was to show the passage of time - Lana is the first character you see when you're pulled out of carbonite, so having her very visibly different helps to convey that a lot has happened.

 

As for the final face, y'all already know it's to make her customizable, but I'll give a bit more detail there: KOTFE/KOTET Lana wasn't constructed the way our Player characters and most NPCs are made. She was a totally custom model like Arcann, Vaylin, Valkorion, etc. Customizable characters have different technical requirements and limitations, so in order to make her customizable, a new version of her head had to be made; those technical differences are the main reasons she looks a bit different in that version.

 

Thanks for explaining things, Charles. I always appreciate when you give us reasons as to why the changes were made!

last one is still the best.that one is tied to customization.

I suspected what Charles said would be the reason. It's fairly clear that KotFE-era Lana has a different body-type compared to the four standard female body-types. Naturally her whole body and clothing would be a single model, rather than broken up into connected sub-models, so it wouldn't be easy to make the face of her customizable version look exactly like her non-customizable version's face. At least, it makes complete sense to me, but then I remember that the majority of players probably don't fool around with the models from Bioware's more moddable games (like Neverwinter Nights and KotOR) and thus don't get the chance to experience first-hand the challenges of modifying a small part of what's meant to be a single skin-and-bones model structure for the whole body-and-clothes of a character. To people who don't have that experience and mightn't be inclined to believe Charles's explanation, as a modder just let me assure them that it's not about being "lazy." Some tasks are just naturally not doable in a way that doesn't compromise anything. Edited March 11, 2019 by Estelindis

I actually like #4 the best.

The only thing i don't really like with that face is that she's pale and has an awfull orange make-up. And that's the one that's the closest to her SoR model, but better.

 

I really hate the haircut on the default KOTFEET model.

 

A slight thought though, if her model is unique on the default one, why not make some customisations like Arcann's LS and DS ones for people who like the KOTFEET model but don't like or simply want to change her outfit ?

Giving some more to Senya, Koth and Arcann as well could be nice too.

 

Another face customisation for Theron with the new face and hair colour but with the old haircut would be lovely too:)

You know if you took 4 photos of your own face taken over a span of a few years, then lined the pictures up side by side you might look fairly different in each one too.

 

I agree with Rion_Starhealer. I think you guys are being too hard on poor Lana, she can't help that she has aged and her face has changed. Let's just chalk it up to poor lighting, shall we?

 

And clearly OP has never heard of makeup, roight?

Yeh, that's why Lana is broken on wine/linux. Her right side of face is always black. Like half white-half black when you done with KOTFe. Can you revise/fix it plz? A bit..strange

 

 

This happens usually when indexes of triangles are wrong counted, DX tends to ignore that, but on wine/linux order of vertexes is important.

 

Upd: tried to paste picture, but no luck....on fleet she has black from back side of head till almost noise, while eyes and bottom part is white. Maybe it's something about shadows, i.e. shadowed part gets black.

Edited March 11, 2019 by alexzk

I don't recall a new face being added between KOTFE and KOTET, but it's possible someone went in and touched up the textures a bit and I've just forgotten. As others have mentioned, the transition from the first to the second was to show the passage of time - Lana is the first character you see when you're pulled out of carbonite, so having her very visibly different helps to convey that a lot has happened.

 

As for the final face, y'all already know it's to make her customizable, but I'll give a bit more detail there: KOTFE/KOTET Lana wasn't constructed the way our Player characters and most NPCs are made. She was a totally custom model like Arcann, Vaylin, Valkorion, etc. Customizable characters have different technical requirements and limitations, so in order to make her customizable, a new version of her head had to be made; those technical differences are the main reasons she looks a bit different in that version.

 

You could be honest and say that lana's initial textures were half baked and horrible. There wasn't one person in 2014, in my guild, that said she had nice eyebrows or eyelashes....

 

Apparently only lana ages, all the other companions, apart from nadia's haircut, remained the same.

I don't recall a new face being added between KOTFE and KOTET, but it's possible someone went in and touched up the textures a bit and I've just forgotten. As others have mentioned, the transition from the first to the second was to show the passage of time - Lana is the first character you see when you're pulled out of carbonite, so having her very visibly different helps to convey that a lot has happened.

 

As for the final face, y'all already know it's to make her customizable, but I'll give a bit more detail there: KOTFE/KOTET Lana wasn't constructed the way our Player characters and most NPCs are made. She was a totally custom model like Arcann, Vaylin, Valkorion, etc. Customizable characters have different technical requirements and limitations, so in order to make her customizable, a new version of her head had to be made; those technical differences are the main reasons she looks a bit different in that version.

 

I appreciate the input, Charles. Is it possible that they will ever fix Lana's dressable model to actually resemble her? I feel like it's not fair that Theron looks just like himself and Arcann has the clothes customizations to still look like himself with his custom body type, but Lana's model is so different and I intensely dislike that. She looks so thin, 20 years younger and with hair that doesn't look like her game hair. I want to be able to dress a Lana that looks like Lana just like Theron and Arcann's fans can dress their favorites.

Edited March 12, 2019 by IoNonSoEVero

ITo people who don't have that experience and mightn't be inclined to believe Charles's explanation, as a modder just let me assure them that it's not about being "lazy." Some tasks are just naturally not doable in a way that doesn't compromise anything.

 

I think it's lazy because they made a point of keeping Theron the same even with his new hair, and they went to the trouble of giving Arcann custom clothes so his body type and face would be preserved, but with Lana they didn't bother even giving her the same hair and makeup, but just made her look like a different person. Even if they'd just brought back her SoR model it would have been nicer than that IMHO.

 

They could have made her different costume customizations the way they did with Arcann.

Edited March 12, 2019 by IoNonSoEVero

I think it's lazy because they made a point of keeping Theron the same even with his new hair, and they went to the trouble of giving Arcann custom clothes so his body type and face would be preserved, but with Lana they didn't bother even giving her the same hair and makeup, but just made her look like a different person. Even if they'd just brought back her SoR model it would have been nicer than that IMHO.

 

They could have made her different costume customizations the way they did with Arcann.

Not sure what you mean, you can't customize arcaan with clothes, you can put a comp customization from the dark vs light vendor, which all it is, is the same clothes (but in the darkside vendor the clothes are black) but with his mask from kotfe

Not sure what you mean, you can't customize arcaan with clothes, you can put a comp customization from the dark vs light vendor, which all it is, is the same clothes (but in the darkside vendor the clothes are black) but with his mask from kotfe

 

That is what I mean. You cannot change his clothes the way you can with the other companions but you do have those options for different outfit/mask from the vendors. I wish they'd done that with Lana instead of changing her so much.

The Kotet face was different in that it was applied retroactively. You can't see the old Lana and Senya Kotfe faces in the game anymore. So I guess they count that as just a graphical upgrade.

I appreciate the input, Charles. Is it possible that they will ever fix Lana's dressable model to actually resemble her? I feel like it's not fair that Theron looks just like himself and Arcann has the clothes customizations to still look like himself with his custom body type, but Lana's model is so different and I intensely dislike that. She looks so thin, 20 years younger and with hair that doesn't look like her game hair. I want to be able to dress a Lana that looks like Lana just like Theron and Arcann's fans can dress their favorites.

As i like the dressable model better, i'd rather they keep the dressable model as it is and give more customisations to Lana with more outfits, they could even have some kind of poll where people could choose the outfits / customisation they want for her.

 

Or maybe just make a "head customisation", like they did for Theron and Nadia, this way if you like the dressable model better you keep that face, and if you like the customisation better you get the customisation face, but you can dress her however you like. That would probably be the best option actually.

 

Some more customisation for Senya and Koth would be great too.

Edited March 12, 2019 by Goreshaga

I don't recall a new face being added between KOTFE and KOTET, but it's possible someone went in and touched up the textures a bit and I've just forgotten. As others have mentioned, the transition from the first to the second was to show the passage of time - Lana is the first character you see when you're pulled out of carbonite, so having her very visibly different helps to convey that a lot has happened.

 

As for the final face, y'all already know it's to make her customizable, but I'll give a bit more detail there: KOTFE/KOTET Lana wasn't constructed the way our Player characters and most NPCs are made. She was a totally custom model like Arcann, Vaylin, Valkorion, etc. Customizable characters have different technical requirements and limitations, so in order to make her customizable, a new version of her head had to be made; those technical differences are the main reasons she looks a bit different in that version.

If it was to show the passage of time, why was Lana the only character who's face changed from one era to the next? Theron was still wearing the same outfit for 5 years even and characters we haven't seen for 7 years like Doc, Nadia (though at least her hair changed) and Jaessa haven't aged a day.

 

Seeing Lana's face look different never showed the passage of time to me, I never would have guessed that was the reason. She doesn't look older, she looks like she had a different face model. All these years I've legitimately thought they were trying to perfect her looks and make her the ideal level of prettiness.

If it was to show the passage of time, why was Lana the only character who's face changed from one era to the next? Theron was still wearing the same outfit for 5 years even and characters we haven't seen for 7 years like Doc, Nadia (though at least her hair changed) and Jaessa haven't aged a day.

 

Seeing Lana's face look different never showed the passage of time to me, I never would have guessed that was the reason. She doesn't look older, she looks like she had a different face model. All these years I've legitimately thought they were trying to perfect her looks and make her the ideal level of prettiness.

 

I would agree with that. As an explanation the "passage of time" thing doesn't really feel legitimate to me given that (1) Lana doesn't look older, or at least she doesn't in my opinion, and (2) she's the only character who they supposedly aged. I suspect they were trying to make her what some might consider prettier, but don't want to say that for fear of how it would sound.

 

EDIT: I also agree with Lhancelot below--make more customizations available for Lana, Theron, & Arcann how they do for vanilla companions. I'm just not sure it will happen, particularly with Arcann as he has a unique body type. My characters who keep him alive are usually light side so I'm sick of seeing him in that white outfit.

Edited March 12, 2019 by sauceemynx

I think they should just add a bunch of different faces/skin tones so people can use the one they like best like all the classic companions. Also, her clothing ought to be fully customizable just as the classic comps are.

I think it's lazy because they made a point of keeping Theron the same even with his new hair, and they went to the trouble of giving Arcann custom clothes so his body type and face would be preserved, but with Lana they didn't bother even giving her the same hair and makeup, but just made her look like a different person. Even if they'd just brought back her SoR model it would have been nicer than that IMHO.

 

They could have made her different costume customizations the way they did with Arcann.

Theron's situation is more comparable to SoR Lana. In SoR, Theron and Lana both use standard human body type 2. You may notice that the cartel armor sets corresponding to their SoR appearances are exact matches for their SoR appearances. Then KotFE happened. In KotFE, Theron's appearance stayed the same as SoR. That allowed easier accurate customization when customization was added to the new companions. (And his new hair is just hair. The shape of his face or body didn't change at all, so why would that make any difference to body customization issues?)

 

"Lazy" is something I do not want to ever call the devs. I do not believe it is accurate, and I don't think it's a fair thing to say without working a day at the desk beside them. But if I did want to call an implementation lazy (which, again, I absolutely don't), the one where nothing changed would seem like the one to pick! By contrast, extra work was done for Lana. Her outfit, body-type, and face were all changed. A bunch of custom work was done for her that wasn't done for Theron. In fact, as I hope you will now see, what they did for Lana wasn't lazy at all.

 

There are varying benefits and drawbacks to 1) making a character that uses the full custom body system that lets them wear any armor, or 2) making a character's appearance one single model that incorporates their clothing, face, and body-type. The first offers more flexibility. The second allows a look that is simultaneously more unique and more unified. Consider Vaylin's KotFE model that let her hair flow to the front of her hood without clipping. As one can see from the version of Vaylin's outfit that made it to the cartel market, which wasn't the same as her whole-body look, under the SWTOR system smooth unity simply can't be achieved in a custom outfit as it won't cooperate with all possible hairstyles and other armour pieces without clipping. Similarly, the cartel version of Lana's KotFE armor is different from her full-body KotFE look because it creates a sort of female body-type 2.5 that doesn't exist in the custom system. And, of course, Arcann as a companion cannot wear custom armor at all, because each of his appearances needs to respect his cybernetic arm.

 

Ultimately neither choice - a customizable or a unified whole-body look - is lazy. It's simply picking one set of benefits and accepting the accompanying drawbacks because in each particular instance a dev thinks the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

 

Doing my best to look at this fairly, Lana has received more customization attention than any companion. At this point in the story, she has an equal number of cartel outfits to Theron. (I don't think any other companion has the same amount as them? I believe that Koth and Senya's outfits that they wear in their custom versions each represents one cartel outfit, and of course in a sense Arcann's is another, even if not quite, so Arcann, Koth, and Senya have one each. Various other returning companions come back in mish-mashes of cartel outfits that don't seem at all to have been designed with them in mind or inspired by them.) However, as pointed out in the topic title, there have been four versions of Lana's face: more versions than of any companion. Not everyone likes each one of her looks, and that's fine. I don't think anyone says you have to like them all. You don't even have to be satisfied by any of them. Your taste is entirely your business and your prerogative. However, when more versions of Lana's face have been provided than any other companion, I believe 1) that an accusation of laziness isn't fair, and 2) four is enough.

 

If you want Lana's SoR look back (as one of the four, not a theoretical fifth), I'd say: make a case for that. Ask Bioware for that as an additional customization. Considering that her SoR look uses body type two, I think that would be easier than what they actually did for her custom model. They might be happy to do it for fans who woud appreciate it.

 

If something comparable to Arcann's customization situation is desired for Lana, that confuses me a bit. Really, apart from Arcann not wearing his mask and changing his cybernetic arm in his standard KotET companion look, his LS/DS vendor customization appearances are just the same as his original look except for a black outfit instead of white in one case (the brief work for which could've been taken mostly from Thexan's outfit). I don't see how what Arcann has is somehow more than what Lana has. Both have a full-body look. If there are small variations in Arcann's case, it's because of events in his story. It's not like Lana had a corresponding event that would lead her to have a robotic arm or wear a mask. Additionally Lana has the option for full outfit customization, which he doesn't have... and that means that actually, if someone did want to make her wear a mask or give her a cybernetic arm, they have that full capacity via cartel outfits. And that's because Bioware did the work to adapt her very different full-body model to a custom system that uses body type 2.

Edited March 12, 2019 by Estelindis