Can't use SLM menu on certain NPCs

[JeremeW5257]

I like to give some of the named NPCs personalized looks with the SLM menu, but can't on all of them. For whatever reason, Glory, Scribe Haylen, Desdomona and others won't change. Does anyone know how to make this work? Piper, Cait, and Scarlett work fine.

[Kreyd]

up ! if anyone found a solution :>

[Jeoshua]

This will never work on people who are spawned through lists. For example, a random raider. These mobs are spawned from a template, which is why you will see dozens of gunners or raiders with the exact same face. These NPCs do have personalized faces in their NPC records, but due to them having a template associated with them, they will not use this information. You have to change the actual template face to make them look any different, and you can't do this with ShowLooksMenu.

 

Cait, Preston, et al companions are permanent fixtures in the world.

 

Basically, if you want to know before hand if this will even work, look at the FormID associated with the NPC. If it says "FF-------" then forget it. That's added by list or script, is only an instanced character and not a full fledged NPC, doesn't have personalized facial data, and won't work. Anyone else should work, whether their FormID is "00------" or "EF------" or anything in-between.

 

Now, if you really want a solution, you're not going to find it in the console. You're going to have to make a mod changing the template. That will mean that your new face may be found on multiple people. Sometimes the template is for a single person, but usually it is shared. You have to find that face and change it in the CK, then save the mod and wait for one to be spawned to see the changes. Any characters that have already been generated will not accept these changes.

Edited June 13, 2016 by Jeoshua

[TJHammersmith]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I'm having the same issue as the OP poster.

 

I'm trying to change some NPC's (specifically, the minutemen who start at the Castle, whose ID starts with 00), but the slm console command doesn't work.

 

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Edited May 19, 2017 by TJHammersmith

[tomomi1922]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I'm having the same issue as the OP poster.

 

I'm trying to change some NPC's (specifically, the minutemen who start at the Castle, whose ID starts with 00), but the slm console command doesn't work.

 

Does anyone know how to fix this?

I believe the only way is to create a mod, or download existing ones. Sad news is there are not a lot of mods to change lesser known NPCs outside of companion circle. I too would love to have a way I can customize settlers and these Minuteman soldiers. Like literately customize them in game.

 

It works like this: Bethesda made a list for a group/faction. Like Settlers, there is a settler list. Each time they spawn a settler they get a face from this list, probably randomize hair, skin color, weight (maybe not even hair) and spawns to you. Sad news is they all look like hobo who refuse to live in a civilized community. This is my top concern because I really want to do more with settlements. Raiders are a little less of my concern because I just meet them, kill them, and move on.

 

I mean, it's like the Sims, we should have more control over this, right? We should be able to decide this settlement is a military base, another is a farm with a lot of hardy folks working the fields (with hot cowgirls in jeans and small tops), and maybe a nudist colony (I know lots of guys here are into that)... but all we have now .... we probably can create more and more hobo camps.

Edited May 20, 2017 by tomomi1922

[briarheart22]

I can get this to work most of the time. Go into CK and load the main file with dlc's selected if you want to change them. Make a couple of changes I suggested, when you save it will make a new esp file. Call it whatever you want. Suggest putting it in lower load order, if you have other mods that change characters like Cait, etc. put them after. Do not open those files in CK, they will nullify your new npc esp.

Go into your new file in CK, select the npc that wont change in slm. Go to template heading, deselect "use base D...", and "use traits" if selected. If you have an npc that will work in slm then select "use traits", find them, select them and then deselect "use traits". Make sure you use the Same Voice for the npc you are changing, that can screw up some quests. I found you don't have to export the face gen, seems to work without it. I have used this to modify some templates and seems to work. If you use that template deselect "use traits". Save your game first of course. If game crashes on load or other problems then you can always go into the bup folder in the game folder and restore the CK file you had changed.

BTW don't use tai to freeze your character while you do this, it crashes a lot. Use tgp (toggle game pause) seems to work the best. Console and slm still work. If you try to change a npc and they won't change esc out, it will crash you.

Also, get FO4 Creation Kit Fixes by perchik71, this doesn't work to good at all on the original. Send him some kudos and buy him a couple cups of coffee and endorse.

No guarantees.

Hope this helps.

Edited August 28, 2023 by briarheart22

[Roktuti]

I can get this to work most of the time. Go into CK and load the main file with dlc's selected if you want to change them. Make a couple of changes I suggested, when you save it will make a new esp file. Call it whatever you want. Suggest putting it in lower load order, if you have other mods that change characters like Cait, etc. put them after. Do not open those files in CK, they will nullify your new npc esp.

Go into your new file in CK, select the npc that wont change in slm. Go to template heading, deselect "use base D...", and "use traits" if selected. If you have an npc that will work in slm then select "use traits", find them, select them and then deselect "use traits". Make sure you use the Same Voice for the npc you are changing, that can screw up some quests. I found you don't have to export the face gen, seems to work without it. I have used this to modify some templates and seems to work. If you use that template deselect "use traits". Save your game first of course. If game crashes on load or other problems then you can always go into the bup folder in the game folder and restore the CK file you had changed.

BTW don't use tai to freeze your character while you do this, it crashes a lot. Use tgp (toggle game pause) seems to work the best. Console and slm still work. If you try to change a npc and they won't change esc out, it will crash you.

Also, get FO4 Creation Kit Fixes by perchik71, this doesn't work to good at all on the original. Send him some kudos and buy him a couple cups of coffee and endorse.

No guarantees.

Hope this helps.

What if i didn't have a preset of a npc that i can edit in slm? what should i do? Also my npc didn't have "use trait" and "use data" selected but i cant edit her nonetheless. Please help idk what to do

[LarannKiar]

 

I can get this to work most of the time. Go into CK and load the main file with dlc's selected if you want to change them. Make a couple of changes I suggested, when you save it will make a new esp file. Call it whatever you want. Suggest putting it in lower load order, if you have other mods that change characters like Cait, etc. put them after. Do not open those files in CK, they will nullify your new npc esp.

Go into your new file in CK, select the npc that wont change in slm. Go to template heading, deselect "use base D...", and "use traits" if selected. If you have an npc that will work in slm then select "use traits", find them, select them and then deselect "use traits". Make sure you use the Same Voice for the npc you are changing, that can screw up some quests. I found you don't have to export the face gen, seems to work without it. I have used this to modify some templates and seems to work. If you use that template deselect "use traits". Save your game first of course. If game crashes on load or other problems then you can always go into the bup folder in the game folder and restore the CK file you had changed.

BTW don't use tai to freeze your character while you do this, it crashes a lot. Use tgp (toggle game pause) seems to work the best. Console and slm still work. If you try to change a npc and they won't change esc out, it will crash you.

Also, get FO4 Creation Kit Fixes by perchik71, this doesn't work to good at all on the original. Send him some kudos and buy him a couple cups of coffee and endorse.

No guarantees.

Hope this helps.

What if i didn't have a preset of a npc that i can edit in slm? what should i do? Also my npc didn't have "use trait" and "use data" selected but i cant edit her nonetheless. Please help idk what to do

 

It's possible that the NPC has exported Face Geometry data. Those is stored in mesh (.nif) files. In vanilla, they're located in Fallout4 - main.ba2 >> Meshes\Actors\Character\FaceGenData\FaceGeom\Fallout4.esm ( or the plugin's name of the mod that contains the NPC ).

Edited October 16, 2023 by LarannKiar