[WIP]Skyrim High Fantasy Overhaul

[Goatlord]

Hi guys!

I have started to work on a high fantasy cosmetic overhaul for Skyrim. I really liked the realistic look of vanilla skyrim but I get kinda dull after a while, don’t u think?

Anyways what I am aiming to do is to replace all vanilla armor/clothes/weapons/races and give them a little bit more of a high fantasy look. There has been a lot of really nice ports and custom made models and textures that would work perfectly with my goal.

 

 

Dont really care about bouncing boobs or jiggly butts but I am aiming for a high fantasy look so if the ladys do look ridiculously good, thats perfect.  

 

Anyways I have started working on the races. Right now i feel like there isnt that big difference between them, cosmeticly that is... You can hardly tell a breton from an imperial. And those that stand out look horrible. I understand that when the first Elderscrolls game came out it might have sounded like a good idea to make High Elves yellow and Dark Elves look like hiv-positive chainsmokers. But thats not how I want them to look like... This is my vision:

 

Breton - You guys remember the Gothic Breton race made to Oblivion? Something like this is what i want them to look like, darkhaired, pale skinned and well, i guess i little emo  Petite women and not that muscular males. Wristcutting spellcasters is the keyword.

 

Dark elf - Drowlike. Dont think i need to say anything more than this. 

 

High elves - Well they dont gonna be yellow thats for sure. I am thinking tall, pale skin, skinny and well... High elves ffs.  

 

Imperial - I kinda like the vanilla concept of this. I am imagining them as southern european.

 

Khajiit - I like the vanilla version, perhaps asking mr lenski for permission to include coverkhajiits in my pack. They look amazing. 

 

Nord - Have you guys seen the bodybuilder version from Better Males by Chris57? This. Ofcourse the women should look like you want to get raped by them. 

 

Orc - HATE the vanilla version. I want big, mean ugly orcs standing tall on the battlefield. Probably gonna have to make a total revamp of their head mesh. Not sure about the concept though... Warhammer or Uruk-hai... that the question. Also using the biggest baddest bodybuilder version avaliable and atleast gonna stand a head taller than the Nord. I am talking f*cking monsters here. And no, their women shouldnt be beautiful either. Atleast not to a sane person.

 

Redguard - Like the vanilla version. Well ofcourse they need some spice. 

 

Woodelf - Not sure about this one... They are the Imperials of the Elves, in the looks department that is. Nothing special. Just an elf. Probably in green clothing and wielding a bow....

 

Argonians - Probably going to be the hardest to make. The conceptart i am working out of can be seen here:

http://www.shoppartytime.com/21169-thickbox/adult-lizard-man-mask.jpg

 

 

As for more racial diversity i am thinking about asking Nume to use his ears for the elves , or even making my own if he denies me or i cant get in contact him/her, preferbly three sets, loppy for the wood elves, high and pointy for the high elves and short and sharp for the dark elves. Also I am gonna make a big change to height and weight. Where the dark elves are very short, orc huge (as stated ) and the nords atleast and head higher than the redguard, imperial etc...

 

Ofcourse I am going to ask for permissions of the authors as I really respect the hard work they have done. But it really helps that alot of modders (chris57 who made the male tex overhaul for one) has given permission to edit their work and use it as you want. It really saves alot of time. 

 

I am quite familiar with the CK and have also done some work with PS and 3dsmax so I do believe that I have the skills necessary to accomplish my goals, and most important I have TIME and WILL. No job + TES nerd = awesomeness. I did something similiar to Oblivion but never realesed as some authors was cranky.

                                

Anyways what do you guys think about my plans? Any suggestions and feedback would be really appreciated.

[lordofthedread]

At first you might consider a full environment overhaul like Tropical Skyrim for example.

 

Also the body by itself can easily be changed so I dont see any valid reason to use only one body for the whole project, you can also use Unique everything allowing you to have a different body set by race like UNP body for elves, CBBE for nords and UNPBB for Bretons plus almost every race you posted comes with its own body or choice of bodies

 

Looking forward if it goes somewhere tho, overhauls are never bad

[Mordyn]

At first you might consider a full environment overhaul like Tropical Skyrim for example.

 

Also the body by itself can easily be changed so I dont see any valid reason to use only one body for the whole project, you can also use Unique everything allowing you to have a different body set by race like UNP body for elves, CBBE for nords and UNPBB for Bretons plus almost every race you posted comes with its own body or choice of bodies

 

Good idea but how do you manage clothes diversity in that case?

[Goatlord]

At first you might consider a full environment overhaul like Tropical Skyrim for example.

 

Also the body by itself can easily be changed so I dont see any valid reason to use only one body for the whole project, you can also use Unique everything allowing you to have a different body set by race like UNP body for elves, CBBE for nords and UNPBB for Bretons plus almost every race you posted comes with its own body or choice of bodies

 

Looking forward if it goes somewhere tho, overhauls are never bad

 

Yes I was thinking about the environment, Skyrims "feeling" is kinda gray and dull, not the fantasy feeling I want to have, but this could be corrected with just using the right enb or a nice preset for imaginator.

 

About the bodytype, the main reason why I would like to stick to just one is because of armor and clothing compability, to be honest I have never tried to use a mismatched bodytype and armor. What is the consequense of this? Bodymesh clipping trough armor/clothing mesh or just discoloration? But I do belive that if it would be possible to use Unique everything that would be really amazing. Petite elves and amazon-nords are exactly what I expect from a fantasy game

[lordofthedread]

You can be quite sure anyone will use his/her favorite armor models anyway and change the body shape to suit his/her tastes unless ... you go for something else and use a mod like Unique Everything,

 

Of course you will have to edit all NPC clothing by race if you want them to keep something that 'fits' them.

 

Remember also that when you wear an armor you also wear the body that comes with it so that will cause neck seams and face discoloration at worst but it wont cause CTD or things like.

 

I think Skyrim really lacks variety in the bodies for NPC, body weight is not enough to see every single woman using the same vanilla / UNP / CBBE body and it is even worse with males.

 

There is also another mod  to generate random bodies, as far as I know it is not working great just now but it might be the solution and worth looking into  .

 

I really wanted to try it with different bodies made from bodyslide to see how I could get truely different body types into my Skyrim, downside is we dont have a bodyslide for males yet.

 

Here is the link btw : http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/23311 think this mod truely desserves more attention.

 

There is another one that plays around only with textures / character weight / height here : http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/34637

[Goatlord]

I have been doing some thinking, and your idea of using Unique everything is brilliant, it would really help bringing up the diversity from a real fantasy world. 

 

I am however pondering the thought that i perhaps should make the elven armors one usable by elves and vice versa with the human and beastfolk.

Perhaps even gender specific. It would actually be kinda immersive, how could you loot that skimpy elven metal bra and magicly turning it into a fullplate suiting a nord, simply by equiping it?

Not sure however that it is possible to attach scripts to armors and clothes that would make it impossible to equip them if you dont have the correct race/gender.

I guess it could be done using an enchantment scripts but that would mean that every armor and clothing would have to be enchanted, and that would suck

 

Also i am aware that i will have to edit each and every one of the NPC:s by hand in the CK and equiping them with correct equipment, but i have already gotten used to that thought, i did it in oblivion and also in skyrim. It is tedious work but not impossible.  

[lordofthedread]

There are some items that show up as enchanted and  where you can put new enchants (dragon crossbow from crossbow package on Nexus), the display is messed up but it is working, I have no idea how to make a piece of armor gender specific, I never tried myself to put a skimpy armor female only model on a male but I doubt that it will do something besides mess up the textures...

[RPGX_Omega]

When I think fantasy. I think Cherry Blossoms and Rainbows. Maybe some fall trees also.

 

Also maybe flowers and more >bigger< castles.

 

That would be my ideal anyway. Maybe a non race change option cause it may cause conflict with SkyRe or other mods?

[Goatlord]

When I think fantasy. I think Cherry Blossoms and Rainbows. Maybe some fall trees also.

 

Also maybe flowers and more >bigger< castles.

 

That would be my ideal anyway. Maybe a non race change option cause it may cause conflict with SkyRe or other mods?

 

I think thats more fairytail than fantasy My vision is more like ad&d, warhammer and such, not so much Game of Thrones as Skyrim is....

 

 

Anyways I have started work and using Unique Everything as a concept is working great. Only problem so far is that i cant seem to find a way to edit the headmesh.nif in 3ds max with good results. If anyone know anything about this, please read my thread here this:

 

 

Well so i am trying to edit a headmesh (malehead.nif) in 3ds max by manipulating verticies. No problem there.

Exporting and using niftools to apply the correct settings. No problem here either

 

Only problem is when i actually putting my slightly tweaked headmesh in game.

Textures get scrambled up. And it gets a lot worse when entering showracemenu. First i figured that well, I made the ear a little bit pointy, perhaps this is stretching the textures and maked them look all f:ed up.

 

But then i remember that I once tried out numenume:s ear mod that comes with only a head.nif replacer, no textures, and works great ingame, no messed up textures there. What gives?

 

I tried to just importing and exporting malehead.nif from 3ds to niftools without making any changes at all. Worked fine, no scrambled textures so it is no problem with my settings in niftools.

 

Also i wondering if you can add verticies in 3ds without screwing something up? Would be great to have some more polys to work with.

 

Anyways some help would be deeply appriciated, as i am stunted right now. Adjusting textures and normal maps is tedious and nothing I really feel like going through in vain.

 

 

 

I have also got used to the thought of limiting clothing and armor to specific races. Elves, humans, orc, and beastraces will all have their own sets. This is mainly because of the elven ears that will clip through helmets, the beast tails clips with armor, and disabling them is even worse. The orcs will also need new armors cause of their huge muscles.

 

About compability, I dont really care, I rather have 1 person loving it and 9 hating it than 10 thinking its "just ok". I do however realize that this will be a huge undertaking and problably going to destroy the rest of my year. Good thing that i am unemployed and bored as hell. Wellfare ftw!

 

Will post a pic of the concept i have been doing so far soon.

[Guest]

This is exactly what Skyrim needs. A faclift to make it more vibrant and fantasy-like. I have felt the grayness of the gameworld more and more lately so I installed a summer mod just to give it happier atmosphere.