TheSpeaker

So after months and months of having this issue and ignoring wood elf male characters altogether, I think I've found a solution. A friend of mine who does a lot of character modding told me that it was a meshing issue. The other night I downloaded Ethereal Elven Overhaul and I noticed, to my surprise, that the woof elf hair problem is gone. This is because EEO edits the face mesh, and subsequently fixes the problem, or at least it does for me. At first I was a bit sceptical about using this mod as I'm not a fan of going too far away from traditional elder scrolls lore, but I was actually very impressed with the mod. It makes the elves feel new and fresh without sacrificing their original design, AND it fixes the male wood elf hair problem we've been having. Try it out for yourselves maybe? You can find the mod here on the Nexus - http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/24273

Let's just hope that with the construction kit out now, SOMEONE will do something about it someday soon. I have no modding experience, otherwise I'd do it myself.

So by now, most of us have played a fair bit of Skyrim and we've joined and conquered a few factions/guilds. Maybe it was just me, but while the faction stories were more interesting than before, I felt they lacked something. I liked having a clear, visible rank in a guild. I wouldn't want to be the head of the guild all the time, but I do like to know where I stand within it. So here are my ideas. Please feel free to add your own, it'd be interesting to see them. 1. I know there is some dialogue implying it, but it'd be nice to have a badge of office for factions. An example could be the Imperial Army, a suit of armor that gets replaced when you gain a rank or if you get a new set for each rank. Things like that for all factions are a good idea to me. But also in the way of expanding things. It could be a staff for the college, or a specific set of robes, or certain rings for the Thieves Guild, etc. 2. When I joined the College of Winterhold and completed the quest line, I really didn't feel like I was the Arch-mage. Sure they have me some new robes and rather breezy new accommodation, but I didn't feel like the Arch-mage. I also didn't feel the college is nearly big enough. Yes, the main building is rather large, but essentially, it's only a handful of cells you can visit - and this is supposed to the famous College of Winterhold. I know things have gone down in the years, but was it really always that small? I feel the same with some of the other factions. Not to mention that your "underlings" don't treat you any differently, and there's hardly any real benefits. Even if I just got an apprentice after becoming Arch-mage, that'd be an improvement. I could send them out to fetch ingredients or soul gems etc, like Dogmeat from FO3. You don't get that sense of achievement or power as I felt in Oblivion. It'd be great if we could expand on these factions once the Construction Kit comes out. 3. Lastly, new factions. I really miss the Great Houses from Morrowind. I know there are two political factions in Skyrim at the moment, being the Empire and the Stormcloaks, but that's just grunt soldier work. It'd be nice if you could be an official or work your way up to some kind of politcal position. Possible ideas could be joining the Thalmor, or even the Imperial Cult. I loved my priest character from Morrowind. It wasn't my favourite elder scrolls game, but I really enjoyed the variety of factions and their choices and rewards. Even having a joinable East Empire Trading Company would be great. Start a small farming community similar to the mines of Ravenrock on Solstheim. That kind of thing. Bearing in mind, we might have a few things changed or added with possible expansions and DLC, but It would be interesting to see what everyone else thinks, and what you all might want to add to the game by way of factions and faction improvements.

Haha, nope. It's too tempting :) I remember there was a mod that dealt with fast travel in Oblivion. It also doubled as a travel system adding carraiges etc, but that's not my point. The mod came with a Fast Travel Ring, that would either cut off fast travel altogether, only allow it on a horse, or return it back to normal once changes had been made. THAT was a good idea. Hopefully there'll be another one like that. I want to disable my console commands too. I need to protect my game from myself :P

Just a side note with regards to what you've said, ginnyfizz - At no point did I say that we are all restricted to small eyes and breasts, or whatever else for our characters, as you seem to be implying. To clarify, my problem was just with the exaggeration that some modders employ, which can give mods of an anime slant a bad name. Offense wasn't my intention. Also, regarding your comments on the elves. While I do appreciate their new design, I agree that there does need to be a higher degree of facial customization. I personally find some of the preset female Altmer to be very beautiful actually, but creating a male Altmer from the presets that doesn't look like he'll poke your eyes out with his chin seems to be a challenge.

This is an incredible idea. When I started playing Skryrim, I immediately thought - Oh, if only I could go and see Cyrodiil now! If this idea does become a reality, whoever does it will hopefully be in sync with the lore of the time. Cyrodiil 200 years later? Hells yes. Maybe then it will finally have the scale of an empire, with all the glory and civilization that comes with it, albeit battered and a bit tarnished, no thanks to the Thalmor. However, it may be an idea to wait until all the DLC/Expansions are done in a few years. Not only would it provide a lot more resources to utilize for the idea, but on account of the fact that they've already rendered a huge portion of the map of Tamriel, they might make life easier by adding a few more locations in the available spaces. There would also be a few lore-wise things that we don't know yet. We have nearly no information of the Synod and the College of Whispers other than that they are all that's left of the Mage's Guild, and so on. Great idea, but we may need a bit of patience to pull it off.

Well, well. This certainly has turned into an interesting topic to watch. I'm going to add my opinions here too, and see what happens. I seem to have a foot in each camp. When I first saw the elves, I was amazed at the unique ways in which Bethesda decided to take the artistic themes for each. I do love that the elves are no longer "humans with pointy ears", as a previous poster mentioned. I do love that alien look they have though, and I'm glad they've gotten rid of the uniform pudding faces that frustrated me so much with Oblivion. Makes them look far more fae-like, which in my opinion elves should always resemble. Key words there, everyone. My opinion, which nobody has to share. However, I'll also admit to having downloaded "minor" tweaks, to make subtle improvements to the Skyrim elves in my game to make them more visually appealing to what I think is best, as no doubt many people have, and that opinion varies. The changes I downloaded pretty much just make the faces less accentuated and harsh, but they still have the elves in most of their glory, as they were intended, purely because that lines up with my personal preferences. I'm just as happy to play one of these elves as I am to the play the Blood Elves in World of Warcraft, or the ones in Lineage. I don't believe all elves have to be the same. They all originate in different imagined universes, so I'm happy for them to be different. In fact, I expect it, and enjoy it. I'm all for everyone having a personal opinion. I will say this though. I do understand where one of the previous posters was going, with regards to the Anime elf comment, that seems to have pissed so many people off. I couldn't go a day while browsing the TES Nexus without seeing some ridiculous parody of elf-kind, with gigantic breasts, huge eyes, and a notably vacant expression. However, that probably conflicts more with my views on feminism than my views of elves. The same thing goes for those ridiculous mods that gave the males gigantic erections and stupidly revealing armor. Personally, that's not my taste, but that's just my opinion, and each of yours will differ from mine, and so on. I prefer the general design of the elves that Bethesda gave us in Skyrim. But that's the beauty of humanity. We're all staggeringly different, and we'll never agree on anything. Nobody is forcing us to download these "fixes", and aesthetic mods, and nobody is forcing us to stay with what Bethesda gave us either. It's true that at the moment, those who don't like the way elves are now, are limited to texture replacers etc. But soon enough, the Creation Kit, or Set, or whatever you want to call it, will be out, and then artistic freedom truly can run around naked in the rain, if you want it to. However, to say that Bethesda is "wrong" in terms of their portrayal of the elves, and that the elves need to be "fixed", is not for any us to say. This is their game, this is their vision. They give us the opportunity to mod their game as a welcome to challenge their vision, and make Skyrim our own. For that, I respect them.

I was wondering if anyone else has noticed this. If you have, then I won't feel so alone 0_o When I first started playing Skyrim, I went straight for the Bosmer because, personally, I love the changes in their appearances from the other games. I chose one of the male presets, edited a few things...and then I got to the hair. I'm playing a mage, so I went for the shorter hair options because I like my mages looking neat. I have attached a screenshot, but it seems my game makes some nasty looking screenshots, so my apologies about the quality. You will still be able to see what I'm talking about hopefully. Anyway, with a male wood elf, the shorter hair it seems to have an ugly gap next to the left ear. It doesn't occur in any of the other characters, elven or human. I was wondering if anyone could please fix this? I have no custom content or modded textures. It's not a TERRIBLE problem, but after a few hours of looking at my character it does start to irritate me :(

Console commands aside, as soon as the CS comes out, someone definitely needs to make a mod for this. I have a male spouse with fairly barbarian-ish looking armor. That was great when I first started. But now that I own Proudspire Manor, and I already have a good housecarl follower to fight alongside me, I'd like to make my spouse look more like a well dressed citizen of the Empire (married to the Thane of Solitude too, no less) than one of the Forsworn savages -_- The mods that allowed us to actually open up the NPC's inventory and add and remove what we wanted was awesome, I never had any problems with it. They let me customize my followers perfectly. Now the only way you can change anything is give them higher level armor, which most of the time they remove the moment you leave the room anyway. Not cool. In some cases, for a spouse for example, you would want to make them look more like a citizen than a warrior. PLEASE somebody make a mod for this as soon as they can. Many thanks.

I'm guessing I'm just supposed to reply to this thread? Apologies if I've got it wrong. Anyway, if anyone could help me. I'm looking for an Oblivion crystal ball mod. It doesn't light up etc, but it makes it functional. So your mage can click on it and it will have a random effect, such as reveal a map location or grant a skill gain, or just give random information, mostly the latter. You can activate it with a normal interaction, but to pick it up you have to sneak, like some tent mods. It isn't a specific crystal ball, it does this to all of them. I've used this mod before, but now for the life of me I can't find it. Any help would be appreciated.