I actually like Vanilla's models a lot, that I don't even need to change them. I still have, however, because I like my bodies naked! In Oblivion, they had toes. In Fallout 3, they didn't. I was surprised to see webbed feet again in Skyrim 0_0.

That needed to change.

Bless the feet mods!

For a number of reasons, in no particular order:
1. Because I'm an advlt male and I don't see why I should be dictated to about how my characters' bodies look.
2. For immersion and RP purposes.
3. Because the characters should be fully realised and therefore should have all the relevant bits and pieces - (see 2).
4. because some of the body mods out there are really good and provide my characters with a better shape, etc that is more in keeping with what they should look like.
5. Because I specifically want the characters to look dirty and greasy and unwashed and like they have not shaved for 3 or 4 weeks - the world my characters inhabit is a dirty mucky world of filth and blood and body mods help me realise that. - ([EDIT] - obviously to each his own but I just can't see why you would want to make the characters cleaner...?)

This is an interesting discussion; some MODs purpose is to alter the look of the game to the player liking; there's no contest in this.

I don't oppose body MODs and, as a matter of fact I use one of them; one that doesn't make every female look like a pinup or centerfold girls.

What I really like to know why there's a dearth of MODs that aims at making the body less perfect, more lifelike.

-No fat body MOD.
-No hunched body... I want my old wizard to look as age and years of exploiting his body took a toll on him!
-No muscular, masculine females. I want my Reguard to look like Grace Jones.

Imho people investing their skills into creating body mods have a very limited, mainstream opinion of beauty or reality. That's... a bit disappointing.

I agree.
I play a female character and I absolutely do not want her prancing about Skyrim like she's going between hairdressing appointments.
Actually there are mods out there - (I use a couple) - that make females look more muscular and more "real" in the context of their environment. Obviously I can't actually link them here but I can give you the nexus links if you PM me...

I really hope VORB makes it to Skyrim soon. A must for a realism player IMO. As for body mods, I don't use them, I go for the cleaner textures. Plenty of Skyrim is civilized enough that they must bathe. As I play first person, I never look at my character, so it is all about what I see, and vanilla looks fine to me, except everyone being dirty, and all having the same underwear. I get where some are coming from expecting a nvde body if they strip it but I mostly take armor and leave their underwear, as underwear is not worth looting, especially considering the state of vanilla hygine

I myself would choose to use the vanilla female body type more often than not mainly due to the fact that Bethesda have gotten what I believe is the believable female form for the setting.

Otherwise, I'm using UNP mainly because its close enough (still a bit too curvy) and also for the fact that a lot of good armor/clothing mods are being made for CBBE/UNP and not the vanilla body type.

I too like the vanilla bodies. I think Bethesda did a fine job on them this time around. My problem is that, as I said earlier, bathing in one's underwear looks incredibly stupid. Unfortunately, we aren't given a choice in the vanilla game to unequip underwear. So for roleplaying reasons I am forced to use mods.

Just for balance - I am also using body replacers for the male NPCs as well - as I am definitely a believer in equality of bits 'n' pieces!

ITT: bodies bodies bodies bodies textures bodies roleplaying bodies textures bodies bodies


no one has gotten any of the good mods? the ones that change the the game entirely? like IMPS or frostfall or combat mods or magic overhauls?

What has that got to do with this thread? This thread is ABOUT body mods.
WTF are you on about?

"Good" is in the eye of the beholder.

I love to have a washed character. The vanilla persons are to dirty, I can nearly smell them wehen I am playing. And I am using bodyreplacer because of esthetic reasons. And I am waiting for a body Mod which makes skimpy male bodies, because I want to have a skimpy wizard.

See, different viewpoint - I don't think they are dirty enough, which is one of the reasons I use texture replacers.

I can't stand lousy vanilla bodies with the low-res textures and stumpy feet. Crappy-looking characters ruin immersion. I use both UNP and Beautiful Males mods.

I agree. I actually love the "dirtyness" of the characters. They can't get dirty enough for my taste. I think the dirt adds character to the game. It's little touches like this that distinguish Skyrim from most other games (including Oblivion) which feature unrealistically perfect characters. I particularly dislike games (and mods) that make characters (male and female) look like waxed, manicured, meticulously coifed supermodels.

But I think you and I are in the minority on this issue, PhonAntiPhon.

I think so too. It give you the feeling that is is a more realistic world considering the harsh landscape and for the time.
I like them a bit dirty, Oblivion was just rediculous.

I'm actually with you on this too. I feel that preserving the artistic feel of the game is important. This is another reason why I'll use a mod that makes the game higher res, but not one that uses a totally different texture or a different feel from the original. The exception to this of course is if the artistic feel isn't really present enough (like it was with a lot of Oblivion).

I like the dirt and stuff on the characters. These are hard working people. They fight, adventure, travel, sell wares, harvest plants, raise horses, etc. They get their hands dirty! They're different from our culture that stays indoors for the most part. So I think it's good that it shows.

My main other issue with body mods though is that it makes the game drastically less...real. I don't think men and women who are hard workers like that are going to have proportions like the ones that are used in most of the suggested body mods. Round curvaceous body, and large briasts on a woman who runs a lumber mill? Or is out adventuring all the time? Runs a farm on her own? Is a bandit?

My friend also said a pretty funny anology about this a while back about Oblivion:



His quote had me thinking about this too, that maybe we are going about things the wrong way? Like for example, I really like what Prometheus did by making an alternate body
but uses the vanilla textures as its base. That sort of thing could be adopted and adjusted to vanilla stuff, to make things more unique. But when everything is made to conform to
some specific body mod and texture set that doesn't go with vanilla, then I think it creates a huge rift, and then everyone is fighting over compatibility, realism, and everything else.

But that's just my two cents.

Also, is there any mod out there that keeps vanilla textures...but just fixes the bad feet? That's something I can totally agree with fixing, because THAT'S not realistic at all. lol

Okay, I did as someone suggested, and got Prometheus's Natural Females and Robert's Male. And I've got to say, it looks great. Feels good not running about and swimming in that stupid loincloth. That thing looked dumb anyway.
Thanks, whoever told of those. They look natural too, and that's a plus. Now to strip all the ladies with console commands.

Nah, kidding. But thanks.

Without turning this into a massive "You're So Right Bro" thing, I do have to say that I completely agree with everything you've said.

I used Robert's male for Oblivion, and HGEC for the female meshes.
I looked at Prometheus but tbh I much prefer Dimonized UNP - the skinny one - just suits Niamh better...

Kind of for females - search for FemFeet on the Nexus. It includes textures based on the vanilla ones.
For males, I had to use a replacer.

And generally, agreeing with Pseron Wyrd. Even with basic hygiene, people are bound to be dirty in Skyrim. Well, probably not always, but usually when you run into them in the daytime, when they're at work. Until now, there's no mod changing body textures depending on how long they've been planting cabbage and mining iron that day, so you've got to make some compromises.

I actually like the vanilla bodies this time, though I do use an, errm, underwear remover. Unfortunately, as there's no mod changing only male feet, and for anatomical reasons, I had to resort to a replacer for males (Better Males). For females, I'm still at vanilla and will hopefully stay there.

Regarding the wish for bodies like a hunched wizard: Unfortunately, all races use the same body model. If you want your character to be like that, you'll get every NPC in the game using that.

Meshes:
To date I am sticking with vanilla. The female body mods are IMHO too top heavy (D and up). The vanilla men are OK and the women are less top heavy although still a good deal bigger than average. I would prefer to use a detailed nvde mod for both male and female but the computer is in the family room and I don't need my 12 year old daughter walking by . Given the limitations (one mesh for all men and women) my preference for a body form is healthy but average. Vanilla is the closest to that.

Skins:
My preference for skin is a little bit of dirt but not filthy. I use younger skin mods because IMHO everybody in vanilla looked 40+. The mod that I use allows for reasonably young looking characters without taking it too far. Older NPCs still look older. I absolutely do not like the "glam" mods that make people look like air brushed fashion models - absolute no to anime mods. I understand that the are very popular and more power to those who like them, but they are not to my taste.

So in the end I am not that far from vanilla. Not that it couldn't be done better but I have not seen yet where it has been - at least as far as my tastes go.

@PhonAntiPhon : looked at the Dimonized body replacer and it looks pretty good. Will give that one a go.

Uh, yeah. But what does that have to do with body mods which is what this thread is about?

For me, it's basically the same reason that I use texture packs, vegetation packs, water surface replacers, armor replacers, glacier replacers, weapon packs, economy upgrades, combat upgrades, and so on...

While the base game has a good design, there are some aspects where I feel that replacing the core game makes for a better experience.

And, for example, in the base game: feet are so unnatural looking that I blur my eyes when I look at them, and hands are not much better. (Of course, wearing proper armor can mostly avoid me having to face this issue, but I seem to almost compulsively want to restart and create new characters, so I spend a lot of play time in the early game where my characters are not properly outfitted.)

I have a question for most of the people who mentioned feet:

If a mod was created for the vanilla body that replaced the blocky feet with proper feet (and I guess better looking underwear), but no other body adjustments were made, would you guys use that mod over your current body mods?