Need Help with a Custom Race

[RSnider]

I downloaded a custom race mod called "Nidia Race" from some other site a while ago. The Nidia Race mod is decent, but what interests me is the way in which the texture and mesh folders are structured for the Nidia characters. Instead of loading textures and meshes from the default Data folder, the mod is entirely self-contained. The resulting effect is the ability for the Nidia race to utilize what appears to be the UNP body without changing the body for any other race. You see, the one thing I always disliked about body mods is if I want to use the UNP body to make my character super skinny, then ALL female characters get the super skinny body as well. I don't want every female character in the game to have the body of a runway model.

 

The problem is, I'm not totally crazy about the Nidia race. The face meshes/textures always look a bit too young. What I want to do is create a custom race that is basically identical to Breton in every way, except I want to use the same file structure as the Nidia mod so I can use body mods without making every female NPC ultra skinny. The idea isn't so much an entirely new "custom race"; rather, a copy of the Breton race so it looks and behaves like the vanilla Breton race, but doesn't use the vanilla body.

 

My problem is I don't know how the original creator of the Nidia race mod went about setting it up so it didn't automatically load the meshes and textures from the default data folder but instead loaded meshes and textures from the Nidia-only folders. Any tips/thoughts/advice?

[kibblesticks]

Sorry if you tried this already, but have you contacted the author of the nidia race mod with the query?

[coralfang]

You can make a new race on CK, or you can use Custom Races mod ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=8720 ). It creates new races with separeted files like you want.

 

Example :

Meshes/CustomRaces/Breton/femalebody_0.nif

Textures/CustomRaces/Breton/femalebody.dds

 

if you replace those with mods, it will only affect the custom races, making your character unique

( instead of installing the mods with mod manager, you extract and copy&paste then manually in the custom races folder)

[RSnider]

You can make a new race on CK, or you can use Custom Races mod ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=8720 ). It creates new races with separeted files like you want.

 

Example :

Meshes/CustomRaces/Breton/femalebody_0.nif

Textures/CustomRaces/Breton/femalebody.dds

 

if you replace those with mods, it will only affect the custom races, making your character unique

( instead of installing the mods with mod manager, you extract and copy&paste then manually in the custom races folder)

 

Excellent. Sounds like exactly what I need and this should save me considerable time. Thanks for the link.

[RSnider]

Now my next question is: Is there any way to apply armor mods in the same manner? The UNP armor sets make it look like you have the UNP body when equipped, regardless of the actual body mods you're using. So, even with Custom Races, if you use the UNP armor mods, it gives everyone the UNP body (NPCs included) until the armor is removed.

 

I suppose it would be possible to create duplicates of the UNP armor to act as stand-alone armor. That way, the NPCs would continue using the vanilla armor and the player could use the command prompt to add the UNP stand-alone pieces, thereby allowing the player to have the UNP body while the NPCs keep the vanilla body while dressed. Its just that building a complete set of duplicates seems like it would be extremely tedious and time consuming. Are there any easier ways?