Since I made him, I've always used the alternate appearance for my halfling. Today I noticed he'd reverted to the regular one. I tried to switch him back from the character select screen and it said "submitting alternate appearance" and flashed the alternate appearance up, then said "refreshing character list" and put him back to the base appearance. I was all set to file a bug when I remembered there were some checkboxes under options. I went in there (from another char) and found it unchecked, and when I switched back to my halfling he was fixed. Now I *know* I didn't go in and change that checkbox myself, because I'd forgotten all about it, and hadn't been into the options for anything recently. So it looks to me like the game's database lost a bit on its own. Since it's fixed I don't have a question or a problem, just the observation, unless somebody has some related experience to add.
I've always had issues with my settings for the alternate appearances spontaneously changing themselves. The "hide illusion form" check box also has issues...it simply WILL NOT stay UNCHECKED. /sigh
