COMPANIONS FACTION - what bakes-in their appearance/grey-face??

[FastestDogInTheDistrict]

I have a question about The Companions faction...

 

(*some individual NPCs are also subject to this problem, from memory)

 

 

The Companions seem to be one of several (?) factions where, after the first time your character has met these NPCs, their appearance is FIXED somehow in your save & CANNOT be changed without getting the grey-face bug, even if the mod is well-made & does not contain the bug. The only fix is to start a new game with their new appearance already in the load order prior to meeting them/loading them, or revert their appearance to whatever it was before you changed it.

 

That is, somehow the facegen for some NPCs is baked into the save, and if this is changed by a mod they get grey-faced, unless you start a new game with the mod installed & active.

 

For example, if you begin a game, progress out of Helgen, through Riverwood, meet some of the Companions attacking a giant outside Whiterun, and then AFTER THAT install a Companions appearance mod, their faces turn grey even if the mod has no native grey-face bug. The only fix is to start a new game with that mod already installed.

 

What is it that causes this??? Can it be killed/fixed in the CK? If such a fix exists, does it work to prevent this glitch in the game from occurring at all, or is it subject to the same problem (ie: if it is included in a mod, the glitch still appears as the "fix" was not present prior to meeting the NPCs, basically causing the same problem from a different angle)?

 

[Gameplayer]

I have a question about The Companions faction...

 

(*some individual NPCs are also subject to this problem, from memory)

 

 

The Companions seem to be one of several (?) factions where, after the first time your character has met these NPCs, their appearance is FIXED somehow in your save & CANNOT be changed without getting the grey-face bug, even if the mod is well-made & does not contain the bug. The only fix is to start a new game with their new appearance already in the load order prior to meeting them/loading them, or revert their appearance to whatever it was before you changed it.

 

That is, somehow the facegen for some NPCs is baked into the save, and if this is changed by a mod they get grey-faced, unless you start a new game with the mod installed & active.

 

For example, if you begin a game, progress out of Helgen, through Riverwood, meet some of the Companions attacking a giant outside Whiterun, and then AFTER THAT install a Companions appearance mod, their faces turn grey even if the mod has no native grey-face bug. The only fix is to start a new game with that mod already installed.

 

What is it that causes this??? Can it be killed/fixed in the CK? If such a fix exists, does it work to prevent this glitch in the game from occurring at all, or is it subject to the same problem (ie: if it is included in a mod, the glitch still appears as the "fix" was not present prior to meeting the NPCs, basically causing the same problem from a different angle)?

 

I have not experience "baked in face" not since switching to Mod Organizer.

 

Actually I don't think its even possible to bake in a face.

 

Whats actually happening in my experience is this.

 

A mod is installed that alters Faces of Companions.

 

Another mod is installed that alters followers (but maybe  not faces at least that's how its advertised)...

 

The mod that altered faces can be a follower mod like AFT, EFF, etc or say Specialized Followers, or yes another mod that alters NPC faces.

 

So now we have a few problems.

 

For one the installation order may be an issue that is what information got overwritten...?  We know this if using MO, but might forget this with other manager.

 

Then there is ESP load order.

Simply put the last esp wins....Thing is if say Specialized Followers came after Companion Face Lift, well SF now see's a color mismatch so displays a grey face.

 

Then there is making a right proper hand made patch of all offending mods that alter our Companions.

 

Yup if you have 2 or more ESP's that are making the slightest change could be adding Perks thing is Perks, Scripts, Stats, Face data all of that is on ONE Entry!!!  Shiiiiit.

 

So Patch it.

 

Also gotta make sure that the facegen data you want is installed last....Plus uh make sure the facegen entries from the ESP you want carry through to the patch.

 

That'll fix this.  Even in a game that you already met them.

 

The real kicker is it might not fix AI behaviors or added Scripts, I seem to remember that was a thing that gets baked in.

 

 

The face thing can be fixed in like a few minutes with TESvEdit.  I go a step further and merge all those ESP's to prevent load order crap I don't need to worry about.