A better way to Alter Settler Appearance?

[surg23]

I have this issue where I can fiddle and apply presets on some NPC's but not others. Just using standard Looksmenu (not compendium) for settlers I can not preview anything on them, their body morphs slightly upon each selection. I have had luck disabling/enabling on some but not others. 

Conversely I can alter appearance of slaves (Just Business) just fine. Same with other unique NPC's. Something that I have picked up on recently is that some settlers are in fact duplicates spawned from the same base form. Perhaps that is the issue there. 

Came across armed settlers allusing the form 0002DFFF - I had major struggle changing their appearance. I managed to get a preset loaded on one of them but only after disabling/enabling. This unfortunately bugs their settler state preventing further trade interactions. They count as a settler but won't trade and can't be properly assigned to tasks. 

I just don't get why there is a disparity between NPC's that prevents LM manipulation. Equally confusing is their behaviour after disabling/enabling. 

[surg23]

Alrighty, I have since discovered that the behaviour after enable/disable commands are only temporary. Seems to fix itself after reloading the cell. Good news but I still cannot reliably tweak settler appearances. I can choose hairs, eyes and skin and after disable they take on a new appearance without the selections I made. 

In this case trying to alter appearances of settlers from Commonwealth Captives mod. 

[363rdChemicalCompany]

On 10/10/2024 at 8:09 AM, surg23 said:

Alrighty, I have since discovered that the behaviour after enable/disable commands are only temporary. Seems to fix itself after reloading the cell. Good news but I still cannot reliably tweak settler appearances. I can choose hairs, eyes and skin and after disable they take on a new appearance without the selections I made. 

In this case trying to alter appearances of settlers from Commonwealth Captives mod. 

This has always been a struggle and its generally accepted it cannot be done without specific unique coded settlers, such as from "Commonwelath settlers" mod or the like.

But those all look good already and are not so many anyway. so its not a great solution for this problem.

Here is the more complete answer to your problem:

 

1)Build settler works fine, but you get 7 slots for each sex (and I dont care all that much about  the looks of the men, I usually try to pick the tougher looking vanillas for the guards and the intellectual looking vanillas for doctors/traders and the like). You get 7 slots in settler builder to build unqiue NPCs.

However 7 is the maximum. any beyond that will be a duplicate of those 7 models. There is an 8th one hidden after the men in the menu BUT the 8th one doesnt seem to any good in settlement intercation and asisgning.

You can change given slot form one look to another if u want, but then it chnages all settlers from that slot globally: all you have ever built in that settler builder slot. So I usually pick my 7 favorites and then leave it alone and build  same 7 unique SLM hotties for each new settlement.

Still,... its a great help ( be sure to read instructions).  All girls made will be at FO4 default level 2 like normal settlers, even if you have "better settlers" mod installed , since i use vanilla egneration methods for makes "betteler settlers" hooks for the men, ( and they need those higher levels as I station them on the perimeter of my settlements near know enemey spawn points, and i use the mortal pack for them so attackers CAN kill them, but then they ARE lvel 40 or 50 and are comprehesively equipped, my settler Bosses even with power armor and 50 cal machine guns)

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/63451

 

2)The other file I use is the entertaiing and plausible mod called "Commonwealth Captives".

So now when you bust up a supermutant or raider camp they will have hotties tied up for you to free after wards.

The dialogue gives you the option to send them away or to send to a settlement or to have sex with you (for this a working copy of AAF frame work, plus animations needs to be on your mod manager though, not everyone has that, its not trivial)

Most of those are quite attarctive and they reallty add a lot of different looks ot my settler girls.  Also will spawn at level 2 only.

Often when I know I need to populate a new settlment I cheat console one or two male settlers with a Far harbor settler code ( those guys look tough and with Better Settlers enabled, start at level 40 and I need my guards to look tough and be tough, not uniques though). and then go known raider outposts,  or SM camps to farm captives. (be sure to adjust setting in MCM to your liking, MCM is (or should be ) another requirement for this mod)

https://www.loverslab.com/topic/154476-commonwealth-captives/

 

A 3rd option is the most powerful tool for this potentially unlocking 100s of unqiue coded NPCs that you cna change the looks on, it does require a little more work than option 1) though

3) https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/27969 

Arch unique settlers.

Read the instructions and you will never be short of unique NPCs again its a bit more work than settler build. (For settler builder I can just cheatbox myself all the bone and blood packs into the workbench and from  then on, its all push button from the build menu to create settlers, but here its slightly more work per settler.).

For this I need to go into console commands and do a couple of them to get my settlers ( and I am prone to typos). But once I got the hang of it , I was able to make it work quickly.

There can be some bugs associated with this but they are managable I think.

Do this When there is still room in the settlement to assign them to the settlement you are in , if you dont they are not assinable to work but Sending them off to join another settlment often does not seem to work.

SEU works fine with them (if u are fmailar with LL and AAF you will know SEU)

 

PS: Edited for typos and clarity

[surg23]

@363rdChemicalCompany Thanks a lot for the info. Seems like there aren't many options if you want ultimate control over a larger number of total settlers. 

I do use Commonwealth Captives but I am quite picky when it comes to hair and eyes. There are some spawns from that mod that I am content with, but would ideally want to change hairs and eyes/skin. LM functions on those actors is really twitchy, if not, impossible. 

In past playthroughs I would just use slaves exclusively as you can perfectly manipulate their appearance given the method of spawning and built-in reset function for hair-physics compatibility. Only drawback being that slaves are emotionally sterile and practically dead inside for the purpose of roleplaying ambience. 

This playthrough I am trying to have a more healthy mix of slaves/settlers, just to breathe some life into settlements. I never understood why the personality of NPC's is not retained when enslaved. They lose all but a fragment of their total AI package, retaining only combat barks/emotes. Makes me sad. 

I'll have to look into the Arch mod you listed. Just being able to modify appearances without issue would be so useful. Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. Kudos for you.   

[363rdChemicalCompany]

1 hour ago, surg23 said:

@363rdChemicalCompany Thanks a lot for the info. Seems like there aren't many options if you want ultimate control over a larger number of total settlers. 

I do use Commonwealth Captives but I am quite picky when it comes to hair and eyes. There are some spawns from that mod that I am content with, but would ideally want to change hairs and eyes/skin. LM functions on those actors is really twitchy, if not, impossible. 

In past playthroughs I would just use slaves exclusively as you can perfectly manipulate their appearance given the method of spawning and built-in reset function for hair-physics compatibility. Only drawback being that slaves are emotionally sterile and practically dead inside for the purpose of roleplaying ambience. 

This playthrough I am trying to have a more healthy mix of slaves/settlers, just to breathe some life into settlements. I never understood why the personality of NPC's is not retained when enslaved. They lose all but a fragment of their total AI package, retaining only combat barks/emotes. Makes me sad. 

I'll have to look into the Arch mod you listed. Just being able to modify appearances without issue would be so useful. Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. Kudos for you.   

I am glad you read my response and that it was useful for you, especially grateful for the Kudo.

Also edited the post for typos and clarity.

[363rdChemicalCompany]

PS: So you are running simple enslavement  generate uniques

I tried this but found it impossible to get  a reliable knockout going.

Of course i have KO framework installed but it just seems to knock out folks by rare exception.

Even when I go thru the MCM settings and set it as permissable as I can.

So I kinda gave up on it, any tricks u can share for a reliable knockout of targets?

[surg23]

2 hours ago, 363rdChemicalCompany said:

PS: So you are running simple enslavement  generate uniques

I tried this but found it impossible to get  a reliable knockout going.

Of course i have KO framework installed but it just seems to knock out folks by rare exception.

Even when I go thru the MCM settings and set it as permissable as I can.

So I kinda gave up on it, any tricks u can share for a reliable knockout of targets?

I haven't experimented with many enslavement mods. I just stuck with the first one I tried which is Just Business mod. That one at least has a very reliable method of enslavement. The bonus is that it has its own script for Looksmenu which gives infinite control of appearance as well as built-in reset function. It also has escape and loyalty functions. Though it does feel slightly OP having settlers using PClevelMult as opposed to lvl 1 settlers. 

The only drawback, if you would call it that, is that modifying appearances also changes the base form. Not a terrible thing as it inherently beautifies actors from the factions you pull slaves from. To my understanding Just Business is likely the heavy-handed approach to enslavement. But it is self-contained and very reliable so I stuck with it. 

With Just Business, I can attest that the knock-out and subsequent capture processes never fails. You simply mark anyone you want to capture with a hotkey while in your sights and they will become incapacitated when brought to 0 health. From there you can open dialogue and demand they put on a slave collar. You can then apply handcuffs or other devices if you want. It has support for Real Handcuffs so I use those. Binding them that way will increase the rate at which they become submissive and hinder future escape attempts until they are 100% submissive. 

The only bug I have come across is that in rare instances, when a slave tries to escape and you get a quest for recapture, they can sometimes bug out upon you shooting them down again. Has not happened once in my current playthrough (9 slaves - 20+ escapes) but something to look out for. I think the trick there is to give them a few seconds to settle before initiating dialogue to recapture. At least that has been working for me. 

 

Regarding SEU, I'm not familiar with that. I do run AAF, but perhaps I missed that. Will need to investigate. Still looking into the Arch mod.  

 

On a side note; In my current game I recruited the settler from Doc Anderson encounter via console commands. I recruited Anderson first and the settler she was treating followed her all the way to my settlement. She is so adorable that I had to recruit her. She comes from ReFarmer: 0002DFFF base. I did notice that by using this method she is not set to Protected state. Had to add an override and flag her as protected. Not sure if that will come back to bite me being that she is from the same base as some RE's.  

[surg23]

Had a good long sniff around that Arch-SUS mod. Not sure how I feel about the inorganic approach to recruitment. I kind of enjoy and value the roleplaying element of having some type of history with people I recruit, whether it be forcefully or through liberation, at least they have a story of origin, something I use to aid in roleplaying.  

I ran into a similar circumstance and conundrum with my obsession of having a Junkie trader at my settlement. The only way I could facilitate that was to resurrect a dead junkie from the exceptionally rare vanilla RE. I have since been looking for a way to add a living and breathing Junkie to the game for my current playthrough. It would be even more fantastic if I could recruit her normally so as to retain any applicable passive dialogue packages she might come with.   

[subaverage]

You should at least be able to change hair and haircolor with mods like this: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/86640 (and it' requirements). I don't know how the look and feel on settlers with dirty skin would be, but maybe it's wort a try. It seems that there are some more mods out there doing a similar thing.

Edited October 13 by subaverage

[363rdChemicalCompany]

15 hours ago, surg23 said:

I haven't experimented with many enslavement mods. I just stuck with the first one I tried which is Just Business mod. That one at least has a very reliable method of enslavement. The bonus is that it has its own script for Looksmenu which gives infinite control of appearance as well as built-in reset function. It also has escape and loyalty functions. Though it does feel slightly OP having settlers using PClevelMult as opposed to lvl 1 settlers. 

The only drawback, if you would call it that, is that modifying appearances also changes the base form. Not a terrible thing as it inherently beautifies actors from the factions you pull slaves from. To my understanding Just Business is likely the heavy-handed approach to enslavement. But it is self-contained and very reliable so I stuck with it. 

With Just Business, I can attest that the knock-out and subsequent capture processes never fails. You simply mark anyone you want to capture with a hotkey while in your sights and they will become incapacitated when brought to 0 health. From there you can open dialogue and demand they put on a slave collar. You can then apply handcuffs or other devices if you want. It has support for Real Handcuffs so I use those. Binding them that way will increase the rate at which they become submissive and hinder future escape attempts until they are 100% submissive. 

The only bug I have come across is that in rare instances, when a slave tries to escape and you get a quest for recapture, they can sometimes bug out upon you shooting them down again. Has not happened once in my current playthrough (9 slaves - 20+ escapes) but something to look out for. I think the trick there is to give them a few seconds to settle before initiating dialogue to recapture. At least that has been working for me. 

 

Regarding SEU, I'm not familiar with that. I do run AAF, but perhaps I missed that. Will need to investigate. Still looking into the Arch mod.  

 

On a side note; In my current game I recruited the settler from Doc Anderson encounter via console commands. I recruited Anderson first and the settler she was treating followed her all the way to my settlement. She is so adorable that I had to recruit her. She comes from ReFarmer: 0002DFFF base. I did notice that by using this method she is not set to Protected state. Had to add an override and flag her as protected. Not sure if that will come back to bite me being that she is from the same base as some RE's.  

 I was attracted to Simple Enslavement because it promised to change the character into a unique NPC that can be SLMed.

And that part works. Its just that the NPC has to be knocked out and I find it almost imposisble to do on command no matter how much I adjust the settings in knockout framework or SE. Besides I kinda feel bad ; the brutality of it involved in hitting these NPCs again and again unarmed, in the hope of knocking them out, doesnt sit well with me. I'd prefer a more elegant solution like a ""knockout gun" "knock out syringer" or something like that.

With just business there is no feature that converts the NPC into a unique coded one is there?

.....

I get your point about not liking console commands. Its unimmersive. But to me I just cope my headcanon that if we can accept a radiobeacon , they simply appeared via radiobeacon. Who is to say these young women did not seek out the safety of my walled, well-fed, well guarded settlement from the harsh wasteland?

Just like in the real world. If you are in certain positions, of money or prestige, women tend to just suddenly appear.