Thanks, DE!



The mods I added last week changed everyone’s face a little. Abiene and Darnand don’t need any adjustments, but Lildereth and Jerric are still in low-light condition.

Abiene

Lildereth

Darnand

Jerric

Wow, Grits! Everyone looks so good! Beautiful work and I'm so glad to see you happily working with some mods now!

I love the slight flush in Jerric's face - as if he's just finished a flagon of ale. Abiene's complexion looks as creamily flawless as I would imagine, and the angle on Lil's arched eyebrows is perfect for her. Darnand does look a tad younger than I would imagine but perhaps the lack of worry lines on his forehead explains some of his occasionally ill-advised choices.

Their skin does look a lot smoother (which is to say, no more vanilla texture blotchiness) now. They do all look younger too thanks to that. Abiene seems the most different. Did you change her slider settings? Her face looks longer than before, though it still has that heart-shape. Maybe it is just the angle.

Thanks folks!

Lol, Acadian. Darnand does look like he might need a babysitter.

Abiene is completely the same apart from the new skin, so I’m guessing it’s the angle. I gave her a long nose and narrower face after her first look. She looked too robust at first, and with the new-character scowl she looked like she was always about to punch someone. I gave the other three new eye colors but their sliders are all the same (for now). Funnily enough no one wanted new hair!

I played around with Kjestrid’s face and it was a disaster. Ugh. She may get a completely new face.

Lildereth looks stunning! Darnand does look younger, and handsome. I nearly choked when I read "Darnand needs a babysitter" though, lol.

Have to agree with Acadian on this, Jerric looks like a few steins of ale have passed right before taking the screenshot, lol.

Abiene looks mostly the same to me, but better textures? Really nice, what mod is it?

Great shots, all !!!

Thanks, mALX! It’s High Resolution Faces for Roberts Male and Female plus Elaborate Eyes Merged With Coolsims Hair. (Though we won’t see the fancy hairdos until someone has a party. ) Abiene still has her vanilla brown eyes. The Elaborate dark brown ones looked like little pits of hell in her face. Not very Abiene.

I the one that is most noticeably different is Jerric. (to me)

Darnand may look a tad younger.

He's the most different to me too, KC. The old lumpy skin gave him much rounder cheeks and jaw.


Here's one in honor of Buffy, who is an inspiration in so many ways. Some of those inspirations work out better than others.

Jerric crashes the wine market.

Ooh.

Oooooh.

Aww, thanks, Grits! That shot of Jerric in the grape vat is fabulous! With his big boats, he'll no doubt make quick work of it!

Jerric leaping for grapes is hilarious! Feets don't fail me now!

I think I'll take woodelf produced wine over nord!

The “Hey y’all, watch this” has been strong in Jerric lately. Maybe it’s the summer.

KC, you and Darnand are in agreement. Though it’s doubtful there will be anything left inside the vat by the time the Nord gets tired, Darnand will still be ordering ale.

ROFL!! I'd say not. You can' mess with perfection, Abiene's whole image might change with hellfire eyes, lol.

I LOVED Jerric leaping in the grapes! BWAAHAA!

That can't be the vanilla body on him, is that Roberts?

Awesome shot!

Yep, Roberts for everyone. They’re all quite pleased, even though Darnand won’t admit he’s noticed a difference. Thanks, mALX!

I would have expected Jerric to not want to admit to enhancements, lol. Looks great!

Jerric wanted me to get him a dremora boner just for kicks, but I declined. That’s what happens when you let the Nord ride along while you download a horse mod. There’s been a lot of this:

Jerric:

Grits: *sigh* Yes, very nice.

Jerric:

Grits: Still not going to take a picture. Now could you please put it away? Let’s—

Jerric:

Grits:

Jerric: Ha! All right, what’s next?

"Grits the Polar Bear" is exactly the pose I pictured you striking, lol.

Lildereth tried out our new time scale (I forget what it is. Maybe 15? But we like it.) on a walk to Cheydinhal. It was a gorgeous day. She likes to go over the hills and then pick up the road before it gets steep.

I mentioned in Buffy’s Potpourri that we’re looking for a way to help her out with some of the new critters. SubRosa, your Witchcraft mod was the first one I searched but sadly I don’t have Shivering Isles (yet).

She doesn’t want a constant companion, but she can’t summon daedra (RP restriction) and prefers not to summon undead.

Funnily enough she seems to like our first solution, at least so far. Here are her new friends at dusk.

They are vampire bats. I imagine that they’re intended as companions for evil or vampiric characters. Lil thinks they’re cute. Of course she won’t call them to her during the day, but they might be just the thing for those difficult dungeon incidents we’ve been having.

Oh, is that the same ones you suggested for Ghastley's mod? They are bigger than I thought they would be, can they fight to defend the player? Awesome screen, I like the way Lil is looking up at it!

Lildereth looks so at peace and like she belongs in that tall grass overlooking the IC! I'm guessing that is one of Maigrets' bats? She makes fabulous critter companion mods but, as you know, you have to find a place to tell them to wait, can summon them to you but can't unsummon them.

As you surmise, SubRosa's Witchcraft mod might be superb if you had the SI. Her summonables are available (once you learn the spells) for custom spellmaking at the altar. If you get the chance, SI is a great addition all on its own just for the wonderful exploration and change of pace from Cyrodiil.

Another possibility for a basic summon that is neither Daedra nor undead would be summon black bear. The effect is already in the game (for spriggans). It can be made available to players from a variety of mods (can't recall any specifically) and also via the Spell Tomes DLC.

At any rate, thanks for those fabulous shots of our sister mystic archer!

That is a gorgeous day! I love the greenery, and I do believe Lil borrowed Aela's outfit!

Too bad about SI. You should get it. It must be dirt cheap these days. I did a quick search on Amazon.com, and found the Oblivion 5th Anniversary for $9. I saw some used GOTY editions for $14. If you have a 64-bit version of Windows you will problems with installing the DLC though. There are solutions here under the Secure Loader or Aladdin HASP error section. I simply installed the dlcs on my XP computer and copied the files over to my Windows 7 box. I have the GOTY edition and as I recall Shivering Isles and KOTN installed just fine though. I believe it was only the 'little' dlcs that had that issue on my Windows 7 computer. It is because they do not come as loose files, but are bundled inside an executable that copies them to your Oblivion folder. For some reason that .exe chokes on 64-bit systems.

I got the magic effects for my Witchcraft summonings from SI, so I would not have to remove anything from the original game (sadly, unlike in Skyrim you cannot create brand new magic effects in Oblivion) .

Love that bat too! Is that one of Mr. Siika's? I would name it Bruce.

Gorgeous day is gorgeous. A good view of the Imperial City and a wonderful day! I am really digging the bat companion here! I agree it could help in those dark caves! I love the young faces of Jerric, Lildereth, Darnand and of course Abiene! Lildereth has those wide eyes that spook me. Abiene looks as sweet as a dove. I'm really digging Jerric's look. He appears your typical Nord with blond hair and eyes but with wonderfully highlighted attributes. Darnand looks great and has that "wise" mage quality about him. Love it.

mALX, yes they fight to defend Lil while she runs away. She only summons them underground when she’s really getting hurt or occasionally on a nice night so she can enjoy their company. They’re pretty awesome.

Acadian, you guess correctly, those are Maigret’s vampire bats. They are the only ones of her critters that I’ve tried that do unsummon themselves after a short time (60 seconds) like a traditional spell rather than a companion. That’s a big part of why they are such a good fit for Lil. Plus to me they have a real tropical rainforest vibe (biologists love bats, lol), and that’s also very Lildereth. I expect eventually she’ll summon spriggans thanks to Rosa’s fabulous Witchcraft mod. Thank you for the encouragement that finally got me to grab up SI!

SubRosa, those are indeed Mr. Siika’s bats via Maigret’s mod. There are three of the little (big if you’re a Bosmer) sweeties. I’m sure there’s a story percolating in my brain about how Lil goes batty, but it’s not ready yet. I did get SI for your Witchcraft mod, thank you for the encouragement. I think Kanet will be the first to venture into the Isles, but I got it so that they all could meet Morcant.

Thanks, DE! The bats are adorable. They make cute bat noises and use some kind of spell with a red effect in their attacks. Lil loves them, especially with some of the new monster surprises we've had lately.

It's been an interesting couple of days in Skyrim. Jerric headed north again. Here's a picture from Riverwood: link. Hopefully he looks the same as always, because that's what I was aiming for.

And here's Valdi, the girl from Hrotanda Vale. She's grown up a little but still carries her Ma's axe.

Valdi is so cute, what mods are you using to get pretty in Skyrim?

Jerric is definitely looking like Jerric. I like the Skyrim version of him much better. The beard really puts it over. But so does the whole more mature look. The Oblivion pics are like his high school yearbook. The Skyrim ones his grown-up shots.

It's good to see Valdi! Are you actually playing her, or did you just create her to take pics? (I do that a lot for characters from my fics). Her hair looks modded, and I am wondering if the muscles on her arms are from the UNP Fitness Body?

mALX, it’s hard for me to say what comes from where, since some things are overwritten by others and I suspect that some files that I installed over previous ones are actually the same files used in a different mod. But here’s the general list:

ApachiiSkyhair: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/10168

No More Blocky Faces: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/30 (which is largely overwritten but still works on the men)

Natural Eyes: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/3589

Coverwomen (Look #4): http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/3563

Eyebrows Match Hair (1.1): http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/627

DIMONIZED UNP female body (just search on Nexus, the link gives you two beavers right in the face so I didn’t want to post it ). I used the Main base but like with Coverwomen I’m not really sure exactly which files are left in Valdi. I used different normal maps and skin textures for my characters. From…

Mature skin texture and body for UNP CBBE ADEC, again the link is boobilicious so just search for it. I used the 'clean with moles, no scars' version.

I think that’s everything but I’ll dig around a little later and make sure. Thank, mALX!



Rosa, I loved the UNP fitness body but Valdi’s arm muscles (I think) are from the Mature Skin and Body normal maps in the above mod. Of course I could be talking utter nonsense, but the arms changed a lot when I swapped out the files. I started with the Mature skin texture over UNP Fitness body and they looked too smooth for me. Awesome abs, though. Wow. Hair by Apachii.

We are in complete agreement about Oblivion and Skyrim Jerrics. The beard mods for Oblivion just don't work for me, though. I think of OB Jerric as the teen version. Like fifteen, lol.

I am playing Valdi. Funnily enough I started out making an avatar of ME in Skyrim (I am not actually a tree), but then it turned into Valdi instead. And now she wants to play! That was supposed to be MY curly hair (but blonde)! Pfft. Nords.

It can be really tough to keep track of what comes from where. You have to crack open the .rar files of each individual mod and compare which ones have the same names, and be sure to install them in the right order so that the ones you want overwrite the files of the others. For example, Coverwomen installs femalehead.dds, femalehead_msn.dds, and femalehead_s.dds. Women of Skyrim installs femalehead_msn.dds. So you have to install it after Coverwomen, or it does nothing at all. I have a long, convoluted list in the Skyrim Pics thread of how I went about that. I suspect that No More Blocky Faces is being completely overwritten by Coverwomen. But since you are not using anything for men, it still works there. You might look at Better Males for them, its a newer mod and does a lot more.



I love those abs in the Fitness Body too. I wish we could use mods IRL!

I thought Rowan was your tree character?

Maybe we should start a topic just for what body and face mods we use, and it what order? It might actually prove useful for people trying to figure out what they want to use, and what order.

Great stuff, Grits. Be at ease, my friend - Jerric still looks 100% like he should! I love both your OB and SKY Jerric.

** copying above conversations for easy reference!





Thank you, both Grits and SubRosa! SubRosa - that explanation made it a lot clearer in my mind on how/what/why to juggle them - like a lightbulb went on!

Grits - Jerric was fifteen in Oblivion? GAAAAAH! No way, not from everything he did there, lol.

SubRosa thank you, the new thread is a great idea. I’ll head over there before I forget what I’ve just done.

Thank you so much, Acadian! I’m sweating the details a little too much, lol. Of course the Nord himself is not overly concerned.


LOL, Jerric turns thirty during the Oblivion crises in his story. I was just saying that his Oblivion game look more represents his mid-teen years (at the time of his Sandrine mishap in Kvatch), while his Skyrim look is much closer to his appearance (and age) in the story.

I liked his looks in Oblivion, lol. He looked like Jerric, exactly as you have described his personality would look, ROFL !!!

Not sure if this has always been on the complexion slider and I never got past the wrinkle setting or if it's a setting added by a mod. Freckles.

I finally found a mod (I think) that lets you summon spectral animals. And so finally, Skyrim Lil.

I remember that girl had freckles in the story - I like them, nice mod!

Yay for Skyrim Lil, and her golden eyes! Looks like the Roadstokers Outfit migrated north with her.

Yay for Valdi too! Those freckles were always there, past the *yikes I'm really old* option. There is even a mod for freckles out there too. I think Xenius did it.

I wish they had more options for the age sliders, like they did in Oblivion. It seems in Skyrim everyone is either 20 or 60, with no room in between.

Valdi and Lil are gorgeous!

Very happy to see Lil there. I remember you saying you had some trouble bringing her to Skyrim a while back. What changed?

Thanks, mALX! Valdi has a lot of spirit.

SubRosa, the Roadstroker’s outfit was one of Lil’s requirements, lol. I couldn’t find a UNP conversion so there’s a bad seam at the neck, but now she has a necklace that at least distracts the eye. I’m resisting the snowball effect that happens when you decide to change one small thing. My first solution was a craftable leather collar that hit exactly the right spot, but when she put it on I discovered that it was as advertised a dog collar. D’oh!! Late night downloading is a mistake. I just love Natural Eyes. Jerric has squinty eyes, so he doesn’t show them off very well. Eyes were another Lil requirement.

I agree about the wrinkles. That’s why I jumped through hoops with the male Nord face. It’s not easy to hit a weathered age 40. I guess I never saw the freckles even after so many characters because if the first two sliders are “decrepit” and “ancient,” then I figured the last two must be “diseased” and “draugr.”

Thanks, Elisabeth! I had a very specific look in mind for Lildereth, and so far it’s definitely her. She looks somewhat angry and unapproachable in the game, lol. I made her the same height as Breton women, so she kind of glares up at everyone. (Head tracking mod, yay.)

KC, thanks! It’s been quite a journey for Lildereth. Waaay back in the early unpatched disaster era I brought Lil in as one of my first characters. She made it as far as Riverwood and literally quit right in front of my eyes. The height for Bosmer women was very messed up, and standing next to Alvor she looked like a towering, scrawny stick insect. She was taller than the Nord men! Plus she hated her clumpy “Nord hair,” and the vanilla Bosmer eyes… Well, it would be quicker to say that everything was wrong. Mods made the difference. I’m going to try the spectral animal summonings for her as soon as she gets to that level (around 2016, lol). She won’t survive in Skyrim without some backup, and she was not going to start summoning daedra. Oh, remember when I said I was sick as a dog after playing on the laptop for the first time? Unofficial patch solved the problem. As far as I can tell it was a mouse issue. All better now.

You can fix the item name very easily with the Creation Kit. It is just one field where you can type in anything you want. Like "Darnand's sexy bitch's collar", or whatever you feel is more appropriate. Or just go the other route, ditch the Roadstroker outfit, and kit her out with some hot bdsm gear

Edit: I tried the Sky version of the Roadstroker outfit. I see what you mean about the neck. That is not a seam, its a crack! I wound up deleting it. Not because of that though. It was the way there are twenty different versions of the outfit all with the same name, and no real explanation of what the difference is between them. I would have to do a lot of modding to put in the basic things like descriptions that it should have come with to begin with. I just don't have the patience to do that with something that is broken as well.

btw. I just uploaded an updated version of Skyrim Nature Summoning, that makes the potent and guardian animals more powerful, and changes the potent bear to have a snow bear skin.

Wait, are you saying that is Lildereth? GAAAAAH!!!! I didn't know that, didn't make the connection! She is stunning!

Yes, that's Lildereth. Thanks, mALX!

Here's a picture of Jerric's new armor. It's a lot like his Running Wolf uniform from the story, only it's weathered iron instead of shiny steel.


SubRosa, I grabbed your Nature Summoning for Lil. Very exciting!! She's not in Whiterun yet, but she'll really need it. I was rolling over "Darnand's Sexy Bitch" collar. I'm keeping the files in case I can figure out (and am allowed) to turn it into a black ribbon instead of a vinyl dog collar. Otherwise, yikes. Luckily it wan't Abiene who made that discovery. She might have had me looking for a harness to go with it.

Jerric's new armor looks very practical and well-worn. I like the mail sleeves.

Lildreth might be willing to try Scout Armor in lieu of the neck-cracking Roadstroker outfit. I cannot remember if there was a green version in the original, but this retexture is black and green, and practical for woodsy-wear. I downloaded it a long time ago, and have been keeping it around for just the right character.

I love the armor, just have trouble envisioning this as Jerric, lol. This must be when he is over 58 or something, lol.

Jerric's armor does look great. It really fits the environment.

Thanks, folks! I still adore that armor.

Lil found something else to wear, so I got rid of the Roadstroker outfit and the jewelry that she needed to go with it. What a relief, now the forge has about 200 fewer items.

Here's the latest of the crew to make the trip north: Skyrim Abiene.

She's beautiful!

Abiene looks sad. Maybe because she lost her braid?

So what is Lildreth's new replacement outfit? Does it have things that strap on? Inquiring minds want to know!

Thanks, KC! She's a keeper. Darnand still needs some work.

SubRosa, lol! I got this armor for her to try, and it's really beautiful on her. The issue is that she's a non-armor girl, so while she'll maybe wear it in a dungeon it was a no-go for woods wear.

When we were checking the forge to enjoy the empty menus she saw some light armor from Immersive Armors. She's wearing that now! It's mostly hide with a few plates, but what a change for Lil.

Abiene is pissed about her hair. She is supposed to have Apachii's really curly hair style, but Valdi and Skyrim Grits (I forget what I named her, Selka maybe?) already have it. There was a style with a braid across the front that I really liked, but no. Well, maybe. I'm sure that every time I load her game I'm going to have to change her hairstyle.

Wonderful to see Abiene has joined her Nord of the North! Can't wait to see how Darnand holds up after he makes the trip.

And new rangerish armor for Lil! Did you say she might have to change armors sometimes? Pshawww! 24 outfits ought to easily cover a full day of adventuring. What good is that big lug Jerric if he can't haul around a couple dozen size 2 elven outfits?