Creating NPCs with unique body types / textures?

[Vulon]

First off, I'd just like to clarify that I have very little experience with the Creation Kit. Thus far, I've only used it to export facegen data when I run into characters with the gray-face texture.

 

But I've been contributing to a large-scale mod in the works as a writer and voice actor, and recently I had an idea regarding some unique NPCs that would be added by the mod. Long story short, what I'm wondering is this -- is it feasible to create NPCs that each have their own individual body type and texture, without forcing the user to download a number of possibly conflicting mods as a requirement? And if so, how would I go about doing this?

 

For example, if I wanted to create one female NPC with the UNP body type and another with the CBBE body type (without any issues such as hip seams), and give each a different texture, could I?

 

EDIT - It just dawned on me that different bodies created with the CBBE bodyslider tool would maybe work better than having a ton of different bodies. My original question still stands, however.

Edited July 16, 2013 by Vulon

[Oubliette]

Yeah it's possible. There are several 'standalone' type companion mods already that feature unique hair, eyes, skin and bodies. Just google "how to standalone follower Skyrim" and follow those links.

 

Personally, I tend to ignore mods that are standalone for body sets I don't use though (CBBE being one of them) as it's just easier to share items between my pc and my followers when we all share the same body. I do know some people enjoy having companions in other body shapes though, so they can utilize a wider range of custom armors.

Edited July 16, 2013 by Oubliette

[Vulon]

Thank you. Yeah, I've been googling it, and so far it seems like the way to go about it is to create a new race. The mod I'm working on adds a 'family' for the player to interact with of each vanilla race. So I'm guessing I'd have to create a new race for each of these family members. Hmmm...since I'm so new at this I don't know exactly where to start, and I'm just wondering if there'd be any issues with having a 'Nord' family consist of separate races, or if it'd be relatively easy to get around that. Most of the planned interactions in the mod are specifically between the player and the separate family members, so...yeah, I dunno, haha, I'll look into it. It's a bit daunting, and if it's too much to follow through with (creating an individual race for 6 members of a family for each vanilla race does seem like a lot of work), I might just scrap the idea.

[rhowington]

You really don't have to create a new race to have different body types, i.e., CBBE, UNP, UNPB, ADEC, CHSBHC, or any other. When creating the mod, (I am talking standalone) the textures and meshes need to be in the folders the mods uses. Worrying about armor fitting is another matter but they can be downloaded and used without conflicting. For instance if you use the CBBE body and download a mod that is UNP, there is no problem downloading a UNP armor mod.

[Vulon]

Ah, I see. Thank you. :D