Must Males always have bulging muscles and six packs?

[Sneaksmile]

In an intense manual labor world, and where walking, and other forms of physical effort are quite common and necessary, how would one become overweight? They live in a world where potions and prayers can cure diseases, and Obesity may as well be one of them too. I know I'd use them on myself if they were available in Real Life.  I'd rather be muscular and fit. if I can't be that way, at least my player characters can be. So, having written all of that, I think that I can appreciate what you're thinking here anyway. But still.... I'm puzzled by it. Hmm.

 

I think it's better being fit in the real world , we decided to stay in shape or not, it only takes a little of will and everyone can do it.  

[sweforce]

Really developers should think of this from the beginning. Most people are avarage, some but slmd sre fat and some are mucular. Like Conan? He needs to be special, not avarage. Anyway, Baldur's Gate had some fat merchants and innkeepers.

[FwuffyMouse]

And then faggy little me walks into the thread all intimidated by the big, rough dudes who would break me in three or crush me under their muscles. 

 

Point i'm trying to make is that I don't find the over-muscled look appealing either, proving that ALL types can appreciate a little less spinach on their video-game dudes.

[ecto1]

I agree that there is an overabundance of ripped, beef cake male characters in video games. I'm a skinny dude myself, I don't look like any of those characters and quite frankly, don't want to. I could probably do with a few extra pounds but I would never want to look like some roid junkie, body builder.

 

As for the people having trouble creating male characters in Skyrim that don't look like that, I'm not really sure where the problem is.

 

 

 

 

Just made this character a minute ago, not exactly a beef cake. No male body mods used, just Race Menu and I don't think that's even needed. Sure you can see some muscles but with a person that skinny (like myself) you can see them because there's no body fat to cover them up.

[Darkening Demise]

 

ignore

 

seriously

 

 

 

Funny how we've come to believe what bullshit media feeds us as fact like it's the new Christianity.

Women must be Barbie and men must be He-Man. That's what media wants us to believe is 'natural' and everything else is appalling. Causing much controversy and insecurity in today's youth. Many suicides and much bullying. Murders and rapes. Thank you media. Thank you for fucking us up more.

Things will only continue down the dark path of corruption, why must women be twigs and men be 400 lbs. steroid abusing jocks? If anything that's the appalling. But sadly that's how things are and always will be. Either become a d-bag with a six pack or a twiggy female dog and get laid and live happily ever after in a successful life or welcome to the beta life where you get jack and never will.

 

 

 

Men will always be muscle and women will be twigs with DDs. Media is media.

[Kendo 2]

I will admit to an admiration of a strong body, however i am equally interested in all forms of flesh, which makes the lack of anything other than ripped herculean male characters, even skinny ones, depressing. Is there no mod(cant find it at least) for a softer more relaxed physical form? 

 

I just dont know how my bookworm mage characters and merchants are ending up with six packs and toned flesh, which can only be modded to be more toned, or creepy shiny body builder style as far as i can see. Women are no better as the opposite of this, also i've yet to find a mod like automatic variants for npcs so everyone doesn't just end up the same, though without the mods for bods i suppose it wouldn't work anyway. I mean i'm not even mentioning non distinct genders or trans characters, just one that looks a little more like an actual human and less like a half naked ape. 

 

I'm just wondering if people actually think physical form is such a binary concept and anything diverging from this is strange or unnatural. Also don't explain it away with any kind of medieval "everyone was tough or died" kind of nonsense, either make both genders muscular or admit the spectrum is less about gender than environmental/genetic/lifestyle factors. Less muscle won't even make them much smaller, just becomes softer after all.

 

Its like how supermodels all looks basically the same, to the point where you just can't see them as attractive anymore.

It's strange and unnatural in Bethesda games like Oblivion, FO or Skyrim.  'One body fits all' is easiest.  Looking at games like Witcher and Mass Effect there is a wider divergence of body shapes; from plump to thin, from soft to hard muscle.  The same sort of thing can be done for Skyrim but it's limited.  I have different body suits rigged as skins for ceratin NPCs.  I can get everything from tan and muscular to pale and soft, or anything in between.  The problem is body meshes.

If I want a fat merchant it is easy to make a merchant outfit 'fat' and make the merchant himself fat, but if he wears anything else he reverts back to the base mesh for whatever outfit.  Maybe that could be addressed by a script, but who is going to go through the trouble?

 

Sometimes when I'm walking through the Skyrim game world I'll see an NPC who I think would look more in line with their occupation as being plump.  Using game/cartoon style logic; if all the NPCs in the game get 3000 calories per day, the ones that do physical labor will be lean and somewhat toned.  The ones that sit on thrones or stand at shop stalls all day will be soft and fat.

 

Anyway Merilirem, that's my two cents on it.

[Gilibran]

lol 

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/52372/?

 

roflmao fcking Epic, think i'm gonna use that if i ever get around to my "Barbarian plunder & plough playthrough' idea lol

[oblivionwithdongs]

I was wondering this while playing earlier, it would be nice to have a skinny male body for certain characters, when a mage strips down to reveal a 6pack it's kinda dumb.

That said skyrim has its' limitations, i'd rather not have all the big buff nord warriors suddenly turn into bearded traps when i loot their armor

[xartom]

It'd be nice if there were more body type variety (afterall very different forms can still be appealing) but I guess it was too much work for Bethsoft.

[Rayblue]

 

 

Sometimes when I'm walking through the Skyrim game world I'll see an NPC who I think would look more in line with their occupation as being plump.  Using game/cartoon style logic; if all the NPCs in the game get 3000 calories per day, the ones that do physical labor will be lean and somewhat toned.  The ones that sit on thrones or stand at shop stalls all day will be soft and fat.

 

I once read an article years ago that in medieval times -- and crops being hard to grow and distribute, with most of the population working as serfs -- being fat was considered a sign of health, wealth, and... uh, beauty (which is why you have plump Venuses in some paintings).

 

As far as PC/console RPGs are concerned, we're often presented the "ideal"/"fantasy"/"Frazetta"/"Heavy Metal" body shape and size, that is, either ripped or slim, and never an obese or pot-bellied character; we make characters that are representative of our fantasies, since we're really role-playing as different people in an alternate universe.

 

Oh, yes, someone tried to create a pot-bellied mesh, but...

[SquallPT]

Didn't know about Medieval Times but during the Renaissance Era it's true and for the same reasons, health, wealth, beauty.

 

[Chaos63]

I don't know why Skyrim doesn't have this variety, they certainly don't lack the budget to do it. Hell, it's not even that hard to pull off since I've seen some modders who can do it for jack free. Not to mention other games which are a lot more massive in scale like GTA or Watchdogs handling it perfectly fine.

I don't know, either Bethesda is a lazy ass developer or it's much harder to do than I'm imagining.

[Symon]

Hmm, although this is supposedly general, all the discussion seems to be Skyrim. (I suppose yet another reason I eshew the game).

 

Anyway, to answer the original question, in Oblivion, all the Modder produced alternative Male bodies I've seen have a 'Slath' option. That's Slender/Athletic. Not fat, not skinny, not bulging muscles but slim and toned.

 

Might be more to the OP's tastes?

[iamfailtacular]

You do have to keep in mind, your character is expected to be capable of running around the entire world slaying dragons among many other enemies. You're expected to be capable of climbing mountains as well as swimming amidst frozen water. If you have that undefined appearance then it's common sense that your character shouldn't be able to survive Skyrim at all. That's not to say you couldn't survive with forty layers of fur on, and refraining from combat, but Skyrim expects you to be the character that saves the world from Alduin. It wants you to run from Solitude to the throat of the world, and you won't do that with a slim figure. I won't lie, I would love to be able to make more of a pretty boy character than a hunkier dovahkiin, but it just isn't lore friendly. 

 

Now say what you will about big tits and asses, but that's just what the modders wanted. They made it, so it exists. If you want something changed you might just have to do it yourself. Personally I decided to go with the muscular and slim female dovahkiin just because I felt it made sense. Can run around with two swords and bare a milf's body. 

 

All are entitled to their own opinion, but I just felt, despite my own taste for a slimmer male character, I just couldn't see the protagonist of Skyrim, slaying alduin without much muscular definition. It's not just swords and weapons that build muscle. We're talking harsh cardiovascular exercise in the cold lands of Skyrim. You're gunna get fit.

[ToxicKetchup]

Nah, mang. My boyfriend is skinny as a motherfucker. I like him that way.

 

I don't think guys need to be built like trucks. When I play as a male character I like to make them thin and tall. But I go for more magically or academically inclined characters, so I dunno.

 

It makes sense if you're playing a warrior character, though, because they're more physically involved, I guess?

[Oppaithon]

I have to agree.

 

I run a list thread for Bodyslide mods, mainly because I like a more varied range for characters. I'm fine with people using it for sex fantasies, but I tend to use mine abit differently at least in the main game.

 

There are a few issues with how Skyrim makes variation. One is on weight, basically you have a high weight and a low weight. So really these are doubling up for muscles and fat. I prefer Saint's Row 4's three point fat/muscle/lean system.

 

Another is that in general heights in Skyrim are racial, not per person. I've modded Lydia in particular to be above average height. She just comes across that way.

 

I use Bodyslide crudely to do two things. I try and keep armors for a more musclular body shape at the top end. For civilian or robes I use a softer bodyshape, usually more pear like.

 

I would happily include a male version of bodyslide on the thread, but we don't seem to get that.

 

Its worth comparing strong men from the 19th century Vs bodybuilders today. There were exceptions, but they weren't as defined as now. I doubt the nords would be quite so toned, but undoubtly more muscular than us desk job men.

 

I guess to flip it back, ideally what would you like to see Lady Horus?

[Kendo 2]

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/57952/?

[Molevalence]

In my opinion if society wants to stop being so overweight they should not sell healthy foods for supersaturated prices and fatty foods for 1/3rd of the cost. Also willpower plays a large roll too.

[Majuko]

Yes but prices inflate every year and stuff get more expensive while families has less money to spend it on. An average family lets say two parents and 2 children couldnt afford to shop at whole foods everday week or every two weeks because they simply dont know how to handle their money. Organic food costs more becuase more care has gone into what do you expect?

 

 

 

A family that makes 40k a year will eat like a family that makes 40k a year and a family that makes 110k a year will eat that way.

 

Even if you have the will you may not have the will to eat completely healthy, but people do take it completely out of terms, fruits and vegetables at a regular grocery store wont cost you much.....neither will stop buying junk food or microwave dinners. Neither of these things take money but will actually save money.

 

[weandi]

Id like to see a fully reskinned male setup that has a variation in skins aswell as body types and muscluar definition, also combined with a cock, and have a decent texture something perhaps 2k would be nice. Im kinda tired of trying to have sex with the shop keeper and all you get to see is a loincloth. I want full xxx detail. i want to be able to see the pussy sweat particles even if its just a textured wet skin with realism.

 

The female have huge adjustable boobs and ass, and have 10,000 variations of pubic styles, and have a variety of sexualities they cater to, why arent there any hardcore male mods of equal?

 

Mostly id like to see Khajit cock, because Khajit rape everything..........including Thalmor.

[Molevalence]

[Chaos63]

A six pack and beefy arms are less of an eye-gouge than a beer belly and flabby skin.

[Dahlia D]

There's just no way to get a realistic range of bodies with one slider.  Maybe they figured that the "heroic fantasy" pastiche made more sense with a narrower range of bodies for both men and women, with the men running from "muscular" to "bodybuilder" and the women from "clothes model" to "pinup," maybe they just didn't prioritize body variation on the theory that body type will be less visible under clothes/armor anyway.

 

Still, it's a bit irritating.  I wanted to play a thin, wiry male wizard/thief on my first runthrough, and a burly, grizzled old Orsimer warrior woman on my second; neither had an in-game body that made sense for my idea of the character.

 

That said...

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/57952/?

Thanks for that link.  That actually solves one of my two character-body-type issues...now to find a muscular, non-nuclear-titted female body model.

[Cheligan]

The problem i see in vanilla Skyrim is that the range of possible bodies is too much focussed on the players role.

But what about the 5000 other people in the game?

Not everyone is supposed to be a hero or even the same race.

I never understood why they even gave each race the same  skinny ---> bulky range. I'm not a expert in TES lore but to me it just looks strange that High elves for ex. can be just as massive like a Orc or Nord. Where's the diversion and variety if everyone looks basicly the same in a Role Playing game featuring Orcs, Elves Humans and so on?

In my opinion Vanilla skyrim should have at least assigned to each race a own Texture and Mesh set.

For example, almost every MMO i know features more variety than Skyrim, so it is possible. It just makes the impression that bethesda was simply too lazy to do it. 

I know that there are several mods out there trying to fix this, but they tend to create many problems with other mods.

 

For me this is a major nuisance to be honest, Sykrim offers so many possibilities for modding but in the end everyone keeps looking the same.

I think they should have discarded oblivions Face-Morph system in favor of a much more flexible and broad body/face creation system. I can't pinpoint which one i would favour but if i remember correctly Age of Conan had a pretty good character creation system.

 

 

Sorry if i got off topic too much.

 

@Oppaithon

Yeah, a male Bodyslide would be nice to have, especially one that works with vanilla body meshes, too.

 

 

 

[Darkwisdom]

On the Basis of the OP - As a male I actually hate and feel disgusted by the male stereotype of 'bigger muscles and massive muscles is sexy'. I don't feel as though I want big muscles, or a six pack. 

 

I used to be fat, lost most of my weight- same ol' story. Instead of trying to work out and be muscular, I ended up going for a skinny route. I have tone, and I find that more appealing than bulging biceps. I work out like the average woman, trying to tone my slender body instead of trying to build muscle. 

 

Trust, I think fat is repulsive too, I know first hand how it feels to be treated as a fat guy - I know how other people feel having to look at massive bellies and arse-cracks popping out of their trousers. It's horrible, but I think massive six-packs and huge muscles are as well.