LE Clothing that isn't going to give my female character frostbite.

[CassiPie]

I get it. I get that there are a ton of Skyrim players who want to see their female characters run around in the snow very nearly butt-ass naked. I get that. I accept it. But I am not one of them.

 

I am desperate, I repeat, DESPERATE for a little variety in the way of wearable clothing for my characters. All I want are some pretty dresses for my Breton that don't leave huge swathes of her body uncovered to be frost-bitten in the frigid Skyrim air. Some somewhat more form-fitting outfits for my thieves and mages. My characters are usually Breton, and I like to imagine that they've brought a few pieces of clothing that they'd have worn at court or other fancy or semi-fancy places in their homeland ; that they'd bring just a bit of Breton fashion to savage Skyrim. But I have found two, maybe three mods that sort of have what I am looking for. Triss Armor Retextured, for one, is more what I'm talking about. There are some decent leather armors out there, but not many, and none that come close to the Triss outfit that I have seen. But the only thing that has come vaguely close to what I want for more formal wear is the Saber Dress by Hentai. And that's about it. Pretty sad, with all of the clothing mods out there that this is all I can find that doesn't make me sigh and roll my eyes. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten excited, clicked on something that looked really beautiful at first only to discover that the outfit was mysteriously without pants, or was sleeveless (I picture my character rubbing her arms in Winterhold, teeth chattering.) The naked mid-drift is also a popular motif that is getting on my nerves. I think you could understand why I wouldn't want something that would leave the breasts and/or ass bare.

 

I am not against showing -some- skin, particularly cleavage. How else is a girl supposed to get free drinks and discounts from the shopkeepers? I even have the Caliente's body mod. I want my character to look feminine, even a little sexy, but what the hell? If throwing on a cloak doesn't make my outfit practical in cold weather, then what's the point? Am I the only one left who roleplays in roleplay games anymore, or is everyone playing this game as a fantasy porn simulator in-between hack-slashing dragons? Come on, guys! Work with me, here. I have spent hours trying to find something, anything that is even CLOSE to what I want, and yet I keep coming up empty handed. I can't imagine that there is so little demand for this. I cannot be the only one longing for some feminine clothing that doesn't look bloody ridiculous while standing out in the snow.

 

There are some amazingly talented modders out there who make the most beautiful outfits. Could you pretty please, for players like me, make some versions of your outfits that, as a roleplayer, I can actually use that doesn't kill my immersion?

 

Thanks for reading my ranting, and if you agree, please add your voice to mine. We need to let the modders know that we exist, that there are more of us than they realize, and that we would just download the s*** out of their mods if they did this for us!

 

P.S. - For an example of what I would like to see, here is a digital painting by Melanie Delon, which is also my new avatar. If someone recreated this dress somehow (though only the top half is shown) I would absolutely pee myself.

http://www.presidiacreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/elixir.jpg

Edited June 29, 2012 by opheliadrowned

[duchuy613]

Agreed, someone should do more decent armor for female, and realistice too. How can a skimpy armor provide aa bunch of def for the character? Are there some kind of invisible force field on the armors? Seriously, the best female armor I've ever seen is the female blade armor and the nightingale armor from the vanilla game. They look strong, flexible and most of all sexy without showing 90% of your body. Female armors nowadays is more like bikini than armors. It's really rare to see some decent armor. Female characters can be sexy in many ways, but in my opinion, using skimpy armors isnt one.

 

P/s: I'm playing a male character, not female but my companion IS female and I dont want her to showing too much skin to the enemy.

[tetradite]

Ditto here, even some of the vanilla armors seem to be little more than a flimsy excuse to amplify boobage (steel plate, I'm looking at you).

 

I'd like to RP a female character, lack of believable clothing is one thing that prevents this.

[Moraelin]

I kinda like the Crusader Priestess Outfit. Nobody expects the Talos inquisition :P 'Course, I converted it to light armour and gave it an armour value, to go with that mail mantle.

 

Not exactly a dress per se, but close enough, and I imagine I could get a few drinks and donations if I mumble some blessings and look all holy.

 

Edit: btw, the hood is separate, so you don't have to wear it if you don't want to cover your haircut. Me, I still put it on in the snow. It's cold out there :P

 

The Leere armour is also pretty nice. Not a dress, but when I'm out in the snow, I don't as much try to look pretty, but have some metal plating against an arrow to the knee. I can switch to dresses later.

[GrindsPowe]

The Eisen plate steel retexture is nicely done. Though it isn't a dress and does come with the option of just bikini bottom pants instead of the skirt I love it for my warrior type females. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12534

[13rimstone]

**Deleted due to poster's recovery from caffeine-deprivation induced trollishness, with apologies. I'll just leave the link to my original, non-inflammatory thread mirroring the same wishes if anyone has interest Edited June 30, 2012 by 13rimstone

[AstralFire]

Look up Lore Friendly Armor - at least for armor.

 

http://i.imgur.com/rmSVeh.jpg

 

For actual clothing... Yeah, we're kind of up a creek here.

 

By the way, nice name. I'm not a Shakespeare fan, but I did really like Hamlet and King Lear.

Edited June 29, 2012 by AstralFire

[Moraelin]

Unfortunately, despite your post, my post, all the other posts, all the comments in the individual releases month after month, apparently almost noone that mods has any interest in doing anything but the dental floss-and-scraps or anime crap.

 

Well, them's the breaks. Those who can do, and aren't paid to do what you want, end up doing what THEY want. No amount of complaining about "anime crap" is going to change that.

 

Additionally, you have to realize that not many people CAN do new clothing meshes. They're pretty hard to do, and hard to texture, second only to head meshes. That's the reason I'm staying away from that myself. A lot of people are actually porting meshes someone else did for another game, and a lot can retexture what's there but not really make new meshes. So no amount of asking and complaining will change the fact that most can't help you.

 

Which brings me to my next point, since there are few who can do the stuff you want, and it is a lot of work, I would humbly advise a lot of requesters to learn a bit of diplomacy. Especially the kind who is quick to call the work of persons X, Y and Z "anime crap" and then wonders why those people X, Y and Z don't help him afterwards. Insulting someone's work is not a way to make friends and get people to put in the work you want done. Believe it or not, it doesn't make people think "I'm now ashamed for doing what I want, and not what RandomInternetGuy123456789 wants, I must drop everything immediately and do everything he asks for." It's actually more like a way to get ignored.

[Moraelin]

Additionally, since in the end, no matter what you do, there still are 100 people wanting something done for every 1 person who can actually do it, sheer probabilities say that you have better chances if you do it yourself.

 

There are things which you can do without being elite with Blender or 3DS Max. E.g.,

 

- recolors. A lot of stuff like selecting by colour in the GIMP and giving it a rotation in the colour space needs no skill whatsoever to do. You don't need to be even able to draw. You just need to be able to use a menu and a dialog box. And you'd be surprised what you can colour coordinate that way.

 

- more advanced recolours. Some of that skimpy stuff actually is a bigger mesh with some parts being completely transparent. E.g., as one of the most adult-only examples, the Yes Mistress corset from Fallout turns out to be actually a pretty nice dress mesh, but most of it is invisible. (Edit: very NSFW, so don't look it up at the office.) You may be literally just one texture fill away from having a costume more to your liking.

 

- mesh mash-ups. Many meshes actually consist of separate pieces. Like you might have separate pieces in the .nif file for boots, pants, shirt, etc. Sometimes you can even find separate shoulder pieces, sleeves, armbands, etc. It's pretty user friends to just copy and paste such branches in NifSkope and make your own mash-up outfit. (For your own use, unless you get permission from all modders you copied from.) You may be able to just get the shirt from one outfit, the skirt from another, etc, and just put them together in the same .nif. My current Fallout 3 and NV characters are wearing such mash-ups, and they look nice. And if the colours clash, see the first option above: just re-colour them. And again, it really needs no skill. I'm not telling you to learn to model in Blender, but just copy and paste a skirt.

 

Edit: also

 

- do your own ports between games. This is especially nice since some stuff can't be legally ported and distributed, because it contains textures or pieces of mesh owned by Bethesda, which doesn't allow porting their stuff to other games. Not even to other games by Bethesda. But there's nothing to keep you from porting them for your own use. So if you learn how to load and re-rig that stuff, you could be wearing any outfit from any game between Morrowind and Fallout NV in Skyrim. Whether it's for lore reasons, or just to take the piss by showing up before Tullius in power armour :P

[CassiPie]

Thanks for the support where it was given. As well as the suggestions. It's too bad, though, because I have actually seen the armor that each of you mentioned (as I said, I've spent hours looking for outfits on the Nexus) and unfortunately it goes in the other direction from what I wanted. It's shapeless and not very feminine. The crusader armor would be cool if I played a character that would wear more heavy armor. Or was at all a religious sort of character. I really only play some form of rogue (assassin, thief) or mage. If I played a character who wore actual armor, I'd have nothing to complain about. There's plenty of cool armor out there. While it sounds sexist against my own gender, I just think a woman wearing heavy armor and swinging a greatsword is kind of ridiculous. Maybe a big, burly woman, but I wouldn't enjoy playing a big, burly woman. I prefer more lithe characters who are fast and lightfooted, with a grin as charming as it is a foreboding omen of death.

 

 

Additionally, since in the end, no matter what you do, there still are 100 people wanting something done for every 1 person who can actually do it, sheer probabilities say that you have better chances if you do it yourself.

 

Actually, I have recently downloaded some programs and started watching some tutorials on how to make my own textures and meshes. It all seems a little overwhelming right now, but I am trying. My hope wasn't to shame modders into making something I want by telling them what losers they are for wanting to make the kind of clothing mods that they want to make. Everybody has their own preferences, their spare time is every bit as precious as mine, and they should be allowed to create the things that they will enjoy. I was just hoping that some talented modder would happen upon my post and get inspired to do something different. It may have come off as a little hostile towards people who like that sort of thing. That wasn't my intention. The frustration stems from feeling like an outsider in an all boys' club. I know a lot of female gamers in real life who are just as feminine and fashionable as they are nerdy. I didn't think that the bias was so incredibly against me once I stepped outside of my own bubble. I guess the general feeling I should get from this is that I was foolish to ask for something I thought was a reasonable request that would make a lot of people, not just me, happy. Clearly I was mistaken. I will just spend my spare time learning how to create my own armor, but I fear I'm completely out of my league. Maybe someday a kind and talented modder will take pity on me and others like me, and try to make something that would make my day and would make me feel like less of an outsider in the Skyrim community. But based on what I've read here and on other, similar threads, I'm not holding my breath.

Edited June 29, 2012 by opheliadrowned