Body Mods Require Fresh Restarts?

[C3ntury79]

Thinking about adding a body mod, CBBE (slider) paired with Bella, but wondering in order to actually use the mod are you requiredto begin a fresh game at the character creation screen or can characters in-game be altered? I assume that since Bella and other facial mods interfere with XCE that any current saves will be altered (negatively)?

 

Thanks for any info, couldn't find the answers searching :)

[MarethRavenlocke]

Body mods are simply mesh/texture replacers. They work fine with existing saves. I wouldn't recommend CBBE though. See, body mods are a different shape than vanilla characters, but changing the body shape does not in and of itself change the shape of armors and clothes, so you'll find that your character's nice new figure is gone when you equip that new armor, and back again when you strip. It takes a second mod to alter the shape of vanilla armors and clothes to fit the new body.

 

The CBBE body doesn't have a complete armor/clothes replacer to go along with it yet, but the UNP body does. As an added benefit, the UNP body is more realistically proportioned while still being sexy, and the armor replacer fits the new body without being incredibly revealing or immersion-breaking.

[C3ntury79]

Thanks for the info and glad they work with existing saves. I had already planned on new armour replacers, but I thought CBBE had a basic replacer for vanilla? I was drawn to UNP since its a better body mesh than CBBE and as you said, they have a vanilla armour replacer...they just have very limited armour replacements (CBBE only had 1 I liked to tell the truth).

So does Bella or other facial mods just offer a preset feature depending on race or do they just retexture and user can still manipulate features?

Are there any male mods recommended that offers better builds and facial features (no I don't wish to reconstruct his hoohoo so he can use it in battle)?

 

Thank you for the help, good to know info before I screw something up :)