Variation in Body Types

[SlappyMeats]

The player character and NPCs all are apparently in exactly the same physical condition. When your Barbarian strolls down into a bandit cave, cracks a Hedge Wizard over the skull with his 17 ton warhammer, and swipes that little pansy's nifty robe, :huh: "Good Gravy! This fellow is ripped! It looks like he could bench 900 pounds and run a minute mile!"

 

It doesn't seem quite right to me that no matter what race, class, level, stats, or age a character is, he or she looks like a prize fighter! Naturally, this also applies to the female "big ol' boobie" mods and the male body replacers, which do often offer variations on size and shape of bodies, but they still all apply to every actor in the game.

 

What I'm suggesting is some way to mix up the body types that the player and NPCs have. I know it sounds a bit demanding, but hear me out...I'd be willing to put work into this idea, if somebody would be willing to offer some expertise and advice in the matter.

 

I'm thinking about a few ways this could be approached:

 

-------1)

Make the mesh and/or texture used for a character controlled by the value of that characters level, strength, endurance, speed, or whatever stat seems most appropriate for different types of body meshes. Like, say the "speed" type bodies are slim, but increasingly toned as the value gets higher. The "strength" and "endurance" type bodies would get larger as the respective stat increases in value, in ways that are appropriate to each function (i.e. strength grows in shoulders, arms, and chest, while endurance bodies grow in back, legs, and belly...you get the idea).

 

In a situation where multiple body-deciding stats are at a high level, set the actor's body to a mesh/texture combination that reflects such a thing. For example, a high strength and speed would be somebody with big arms, shoulders, and chest, but have abs like a cheese grater. Conversly, high endurance and low speed would produce a character with a bulbous gut that's as smooth as a well-inflated dodgeball.

 

I don't know the full range of functions featured in OBSE, but if there are some sort of Get/Set functions that allow you to change the specific mesh an object uses, then this is entirely possible. From watching the demo clip of OBSE, it seems like there certainly are such functions, so I'm optimistic about this approach.

 

 

--------2)

Make the body mesh assigned to an actor be determined by that actor's class. While not as dynamic as the first approach, it certainly seems easier. When I say dynamic, I also mean interesting, since you're still going to look at your own character and think, "Wow, my skinny little bard can really swing that daedric battle axe and take loads of punishment!" It'd be better than the current system of "everybody's John Basedow!", but still not as rewarding as watching your character hit 80 strength and have that reflected in his 24 inch pythons, brother!

 

---------3)

Control the body type with the type of food items/potions consumed, and amount of strength-speed type activities done. I know you might be thinking "Sounds kinda like GTA:San Andreas" and you may also be thinking "That idea sucks!", and well...you'd be right on both counts. It's possible to do something like that by attaching a script to each food item that adds a value based on the item to some sort of global counter variable which changes body types at certain levels. Also, the distance the character runs and the number of swings of a weapon can modify that counter variable to change the body mesh to a healthier one :wacko: ...Yeah, I know, that idea is pretty poor, especially since it only seems to be viable for the player character and wouldn't change any NPCs, but I'm just throwing it out there to possibly give somebody some ideas.

 

 

In any case, this would take a lot of new meshes, but like I said, I'm down with trying to make a thing like this work, so any experienced modelers should sling some ideas this way. I think it's entirely possible.

[ninja_lord666]

I agree, everyone looks so boring. I don't mod, but I have experience (somehow :huh: :P )

 

1. Most plausible. This seems to be the best idea of them all, but it won't be easy.

2. Second. easiest, but least interesting.

3. Worst. Incredibly hard, and not quite as good as the first (in my opinion).

[Abramul]

Something like this? Not sure if they're currently considering using more than one attribute...but uoi can always ask (after reading the entire thread, of course).

[SlappyMeats]

Screamin' Jesus, that's about exactly what I had in mind! Wow, thanks a lot for the reference! I'd also like to include support for various other types of bodies, which is also briefly alluded to in the thread. By this I mean some variation in female body types, since so much effort has been put into making new body after new body for females...Exnem's new body is downright amazing, but Eshme's is classic and well supported, while Growlf's has a following all its own with some seriously creative (if not downright skanky) clothes.

 

Plus, for gamers with demands like those of (the ever-talented) AlienSlof, you could have characters..."react physically" to certain conditions...such as presence of certain clothing types on nearby NPCs...yeah...we'll just leave that at that...

 

A lot of stuff is possible with this, I'd really like to get my hands dirty with the resources that'll become available thanks to Breeze. I'd also like to hear any other ideas for this sort of thing.

[wyverex]

That would require creating a custom race for every base body type. Then you'd have to attach a script to every NPC that monitors their stats and then dynamically change their race. Both these problems will be difficult if even possible. If it is possible it will most likely conflict with any NPC mods.

[SickleYield]

There's one more way that was originally suggested by Corwyn (I think) way back when, but it's quite a kludge.

 

1. Copy all the parts of body A into one nif file.

2. Go into the CS and pick, say, the Imperial race.

3. Add the body mesh into the tail slot.

4. Repeat with bodies C-Q or whatever types/races you want.

 

The reason this isn't used?

 

The tailbody will not be hidden by clothes. Thus, the player must either wear only clothes that don't clip with the body or go naked all the time. The body WILL be hidden by things in the tail slot, so if you plan to always wear a tiara except when naked or whatever, this might still be a workable solution for you - but it will screw up every NPC in your game that doesn't have something equipped in the tail slot all the time (the default game doesn't have tail slot items other than tails).

 

This could be made to work, but it would still take scripting - either to add tailslot items to every NPC so their clothes will fit, or to add separate armor meshes for all the different races and make them swap out (much harder).

 

EDIT: Or alternately, you could do the tail-item script solution and just change the armors to create superficial variation - i.e., most elves wear fur or leather armor ingame, so make those a Biu body armor for women; Dremoras always wear daedric armor, so make that a Corwyn mesh; the mage robes could all be Biu meshes because mages are more likely to be slim. You'd get a slender Redguard or whatever sometimes too, but that could be explained by variations within races.

[Vagrant0]

I prefer the magic explanation. People regularly have their bodies twisted and scuplted into an ideal form regardless of their age, or social status. You keep the face of a 60 year old so that people respect you and attribute years of experience, but below the neck you look 20 something because a withered frail body isn't something anyone would want.

[SickleYield]

Or that works, too. :)