SORRY FOR TWO TOPICS IN ONE DAY BUT I NEED YOUR HELP

I'm a character creation addict. I play Skyrim every day after work, and I make a new character (not exaggerating) probably ten to fifteen times a day. I design a good looking character, get throught the initial dragon attack thing, and get my hands unbound. As soon as this happens, I can go into third person, and as soon as I do THAT, its time to reload. My character always looks different from the creator.

I wish I could just make a decent looking character and get on with the game, but I rarely ever make it to a major city before I start over.

"His nose isn't perfect. It's too high."
"This guy looks like a neandrethal."
"I forgot to remove the eyeliner, Dova-emo."
"This hair color skin color combo isn't right."
"His eyes are too femanine and small."
"I messed the weight up, he looks way too skinny in this leather armor."
"Maybe I should add a scar?"
"This scar looks dumb."

Theirs literally NOTHING I can do. I like to go into third person every now and then to look at my character. Sneaking thriugh a fort. Overlooking Blackreach from the top of the waterfall. I just can't get any satisfaction from those moments if my character looks like a mongaloid and seems to weigh ten pounds. I've tried the truancy factory famous sliders, but even those characters look like they didn't get enough oxygen at birth.
I wish I could just throw together a character and enjoy the game, but I can't. My Dad walks in and he's always like, "Are you ever gonna play this game? JUST MAKE HIM LOOK LIKE WHATEVER WHO CARES?!" I try to explain how it effects immersion but you can't explain immersion to someone who primarily plays TF2.

Has anyone else ever been stuck like I am? What should I do? I don't want to "just wear a helmet all the time," I want to be able to look at my character and say, hey, thats a decent lookin' warrior/ranger/etc.

If you use a computer you could try mods.

I'm on the PS3. If I were on the PC I could endlessly change my apperance on the fly, but I'm stuck reloading over and over.

Well Dawnguards going to allow you to change your guys apperance after you've started him.

Maybe Dawnguard will include new apperance features?

You also may want to try RPing somone ugly, you won't be so critical about his apperance because he's supposed to be ugly.

I'll try that. I might try creating some sort of backstory, too. If the character has substance then maybe I won't scrutinize every little detail and instead see him as a character.

Huh, all I can really say is to either stop worrying about it, or pay more attention to the character creation process. Remember where you left the sliders for your last character. Try working your way through the tabs in a different order (which helps me). Also, for character weight, you can always quickly switch your race for a quick reference.

Some people try to recreate there own faces.

Gix often exagerates his nose for humor.

I can sympathise, I've done the same thing before, although not to the same extent. My advice is NOT to look at your character in that room where you first get your bounds cut, the lighting is weird and gives your character's face a strange appearance. Just get outside the dungeon then look at your character in the light of day, it'll look much better. If you try to create the 'perfect' face you'll never be able to enjoy the game, just make one you like in the character creation screen then go with it.

Do you keep a save from immediately after leaving character creation, or do you start from scratch each time? I always save as soon as I'm done with the character, that way it's much easier to go back and change the eyes or hairstyle or whatever I want to improve.

I also make sure to take photos of the sliders before leaving character creation (yeah, I'm on PS3 too, so no screenshots available).

And light up the screen as much as possible, otherwise it's like half the face is covered by shadows (just change back to your normal setting before choosing skincolor).

And one last thing: add things like scars, beard, hairstyle and warpaint last.

Yea i did that too. The face ALWAYS looked different from the one in the character creation screen.

Buy the game for pc.
Run through the dungeon till you get to the light of day.
Sit in the editor and make a check list.

Move all sliders to the left. Count how many times the slider is moved to the right. If somthing is wrong when you leave the dungeon the look at your check list see what you feel needs editing x out the number you had then remake.

It bothers me as well that they look slightly different then character creation...its not just because different lighting either, my characters always look slightly more badass as a prisoner then once they have a name.

This is some strange bug that bugs me

I find a slight difference in the face depending on armour. It could be the roughspun tunic that's causing it.

I start my character with no facial hair and either very short hair or none at all. I go into my settings and brighten up the screen, saveing skin tone for last so I can darken the screen to what I will be playing at. Take pictures of your slider's, that way if one thing isn't the way you want you can put everything else back to the slider settings that they were at. Remember which preset you started with. Move the face around! And remember Moving "this" slider will change more than one thing. So don't just shorten the nose and go back out....look at them again and make sure the jaw still looks right!

The thing that helps me the most is leaving the room for awhile. I will go outside and smoke a cig or put laundry in the washer/dryer...fold dry cloths etc.... anything to get me out of the room for a while. It's a big help and you tend to notice the small bothersome things easier. I know I have gotten better at getting what I want.

I only have this problem with Elves really. Not because I dislike their general appearance, but because they can look awesome from one angle, and freakish from another. For example I do not think that elven females have a single decent hair option, they just don't fit in with their facial structure in my opinion, they are too 'bushy' or 'large', which goes against the rough, angular look of the elves.

That's what I did. One handsome Dovakiin if I do say so myself!

dude , your cheacter isint supposed to be a gorgeous super model , in OB everybody had like , ripped bodies or bikini beach babes , it just didnt feel real , in skyrmi people are what people actually look like in real life, skyrim is cold and hard , and it reflects on the aprreances of its people . seriously , your supposed to love oyur character whatever they look like

I'm usually satisfied enough that I can continue the game. There was only one time I restarted because I decided she had a pig-face and I didn't want to keep going with a pig-face. If you save just before they ask your name, you can create, run through a bit of the tutorial and check out your character to be sure you're satisfied. Don't be so strict that you can't enjoy the game though...it's such an amazing game. I hope you find your character. I'm thinking about playing with the creator today for my new character, Abigail Whistler, who will be a Dawnguard. Then I'll set the file aside until it's time to play and develop her skills.