Follower mods reverting to original clothing

[kimota720]

I know this isn't the best place to put up this topic, on the old website I would have put this in the troubleshooting or general discussion posts but suffice to say I find this redesign of the website to be unnecessary while the old website was perfect for our needs.

OK, rant about the website over. Onto the main topic now.

I've been on a new playthrough after the last Bethesda update and I've been noticing the same problem all over the place. Follower mods are reverting back to their original armor and weapons upon loading a save where they were equipped with items I've crafted and enchanted for them. I've haven't come across this problem until now. So far I've noticed it with followers I've always used like Kaidan, Lucien, Faye and Mirai. I'm sure there are more follower mods with this problem if anyone wants to give us a heads up.

I've noticed that Bethesda have done more than add another paid mod to their Creation Club. I've noticed things like npc's displaying both their ref and base ids when clicking on them in console mode and the help command now requiring a 0 at the end. It seems that after the failure of Starfailed (yes, that's what I'm calling that game now) Bethesda needed some quick money and returned to their Skyrim cash cow after some modder sold their soul and mod to Bethesda. 

However with these problems occurring I'm unsure if this is the usual Bethesda incompetence where their updates bring back old bugs or if this some kind of campaign to put an end to free mods. 

[AaronOfMpls]

First of all, what follower management mod are you using (if any)?  Maybe a setting to manage outfits needs to be toggled on again.

And are your SKSE mods up to date, if you're using the current version of SE?

Edited March 19 by AaronOfMpls

[kimota720]

I've installed Nether's Follower Framework but I try to avoid using it on followers with their own quests and custom voices. And yes I'm using the latest version of Skyrim and most of my SKSE mods have been updated, otherwise I wouldn't have started a new playthrough. Only difference this time is that I'm using Open Animation Replacer instead of Dynamic Animation Replacer because the author takes a long time to update it.

[anjenthedog]

There are many mods you can use to set NPC (including followers) to use player specified clothing/armor/weaponry, aside from follower management mod capabilities.

The Manipulator,  Bosse, Proteus, and a few dedicated clothing manager mods provide such capability, right off the top of my head.

So if you don't want to futz with AFT or EFF or whatever, consider your alternatives. And if that's too much work, consider accepting that NPCs (including followers) will revert to their own code/model-native accoutrements over time, especially if they're not directly around you all the time as housekeeping and refresh timers kick in while you're away from some player home where you left so and so. (when I used followers, it was routine for them to revert if I left them in a player home, or elsewhere for that matter, while I went off and did something else for a while).

[kimota720]

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Thanks for the heads up on these mods you mentioned but I've got to ask if they're safe to use on followers with their own custom voices, quests and framework.

As for your comment on followers reverting back to their original outfits when relaxing at a home location, I was already aware of that and never had a problem with it. What I do have a problem with is my followers who were outfitted with armor and weapons I gave them are now losing their gear whenever I load a save with them as my followers. Now I have to remove their items before I make a save. Some followers are even losing their gear whenever I fast travel or enter another cell.

[AaronOfMpls]

22 minutes ago, kimota720 said:

Thanks for the heads up on these mods you mentioned but I've got to ask if they're safe to use on followers with their own custom voices, quests and framework.

Dunno; I haven't really used any such followers yet.  (Closest thing in my game so far (LE or SE) is Serana from Dawnguard, and she stays out of EFF's -- and Beth's -- follower system altogether.) 

There's probably info in mod descriptions or comments about it, though.  And EFF's menus have a "Talk", to get to both vanilla and mod-added dialogue options on followers.  (I mainly use it to get followers facing me and/or talking for screenshot poses.)

19 minutes ago, kimota720 said:

What I do have a problem with is my followers who were outfitted with armor and weapons I gave them are now losing their gear whenever I load a save with them as my followers.

Hmm, I haven't had that happen to me; things I put in their inventory tend to stay there.

On the other hand, I haven't played SE much beyond a bit of testing yet.  And this is one thing I haven't thought to test yet.  (*BRB, testing this now...*)

[anjenthedog]

2 hours ago, kimota720 said:

Thanks for the heads up on these mods you mentioned but I've got to ask if they're safe to use on followers with their own custom voices, quests and framework.

As for your comment on followers reverting back to their original outfits when relaxing at a home location, I was already aware of that and never had a problem with it. What I do have a problem with is my followers who were outfitted with armor and weapons I gave them are now losing their gear whenever I load a save with them as my followers. Now I have to remove their items before I make a save. Some followers are even losing their gear whenever I fast travel or enter another cell.

I use The Manipulator primarily for hooking into the reduced-capability NPC Racemenu interface (lacks head morph stuff, camera controls, race selection, and a few other things), but the main menu selections for body shaping, etc are pretty much there still.

I just cited the others because I believe they have the capability to do so as well (and as I recall, other people have mentioned other mods that offer such interfacing, although I can't remember what. point being there are mods for that and choices to suit). The manipulator for certain, as I use it's interface all the time.

As for safety... I don't think it's particularly unsafe, after years (The Manipulator installed May 2019) of tweaking NPC and follower shapes, using the interface to call up the particular flavor of Racemenu that can be used to modify NPCs in game,  but I'd be loathe to declare that anything in Skyrim is "safe". That's like begging to be crucified.

Anyway, safe or not (shrug), it IS convenient. Aside from any other uses for the program (the only other features I use are the NPC inventory and a 10K money cheat it provides)

I don't know why your followers are literally losing assets. That seems quite odd. Does anyone else have access to your game? (rhetorical) 

Hmm... I can think of one way. You CTD/Freeze-die, after giving or otherwise transferring something to someone. 

Another *might be some cool mod that offers a punitive act as part of it coolness, and takes things from player and or NPCs (like how defeat and likely other mods can be configured to rob you) and is, for whatever reason just doing its job, but it's not configured correctly (or for whatever reason has lost its configuration after already being addressed) to avoid robbing your followers too. idk (totally speculative on that one, but possibly something that could happen if say, you updated a mod)

 

 

[AaronOfMpls]

30 minutes ago, AaronOfMpls said:

On the other hand, I haven't played SE much beyond a bit of testing yet.  And this is one thing I haven't thought to test yet.  (*BRB, testing this now...*)

Well, after some brief testing of saving and reloading with a follower, some items I give them do seem to disappear eventually, in a minimal-mod setup without any extra follower controls.  (I'm using Mod Organizer, and have a mod profile for this.)   I gave my follower a dragonbone sword, dismissed him, then stayed away long enough for his home to reset.  The sword disappeared, but not the sacks of flour I also gave him.

On the other hand, using EFF -- with [x] Outfits checked in the MCM -- a sword and clothes I gave him seem to be sticking with him, even through an area reset. 

 

[elpuertorro]

Not sure if this is your solution but I had that problem with Lydia, the solution was:
Dismiss as a follower.
Then sneak and steal their original armour, but leave 1 piece behind in their inventory, in other words do not take it all.
Then rehire as follower and save, see if that helps.
My problem was I would give her better armour and after a few change of cells, leaving WR for example she would revert back to the og stuff, and the above suggestion solved my problem, I just forgot where I found that solution, but worked for me.  good luck

[kimota720]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I've just noticed that vanilla followers are losing their gear. Just recently I did Mjoll's quest to retrieve her lost sword from the Dwemer ruin and gave it back to her. When I took her on as a follower later I found that her sword was now missing.

The only followers that would keep their clothes on are Serana with the add on mod and Potema. In Potema's case I used the outfit option from Nether's Follower Framework. Other followers like Inigo and Kaidan, well I'll just have to do their quests with them in their birthday suits.

What I've started doing now is leaving two sets of armor and weapons in storage at a follower's home location. When I get started on the Dragonborn DLC I'll pick up the perk that gives me a Daedra butler and have him carry a set of armor and weapons for any followers in my party if they lose their gear after loading a game when I suffer the inevitable ctd.