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

[CassiPie]

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

 

Thanks for all these suggestions, by the way. It helps a lot. I really have no idea what I'm doing. I downloaded Gimp on the suggestion of an online tutorial, but I will try Blender as well. That may work better for me.

 

Thanks again!

Edited June 29, 2012 by opheliadrowned

[jhondidfool]

I agree clothes for women are quite... ugly in vanilla, and that most clothing that gets out into the nexus is... cold to wear.

You might want to look for 'Ashara' in the nexus, though.

For a rouge, some of the ves armour retextures are pretty effective, and by the nine it's sexy. Search for 'Blue Stripes'.

Also, you might ask a modder to do a little mesh importing from Shivering isles, as some dresses are gorgeous, though that would have to be a personal favour: importing meshes from Ob into Sk is illegal.

However, you may be able to locate in other PC games that have a modding community nice dresses; I bet Dragon Age fits the bill, then get or ask for those meshes and have that trusted modder import and rig them. However, as they most probably are not free resources, it'll be, again, illegal.

So those of us who want out females (either PCs, like you, or followers, like me) to actually dress in some style are in bad luck.

However, if I recall correctly the gypsy outfit was ported to Sk... Wait, let me check decent things not ported to Sk that are not illegal to port...

 

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/25014

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/28765

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/24131

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/21248

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/40701

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/19009

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/37910

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/22231

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/20054

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/24382

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/18712

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/26432

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/14438

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/20232

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/18131

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/20172

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/11014

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/17597

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/18408

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/5120

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/11528

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/13067

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/39051

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/14943

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/6627

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/34972

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/38431

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/37173

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/24443

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/38869

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/18806

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/39341

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/33054

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/37613

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/19595

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/19822

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/39300

 

 

That was a quick search, many show the belly, nothing a good placed retexture and minor nif-editing can't solve.

Hope I was of help!

[CassiPie]

Thanks, jhondidfool. That was incredibly nice of you to give me all that information. It gives me a great place to start. ^_^

[Moraelin]

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.

 

Well, your post was ok, and I've praised a costume myself recently for not looking like something that would get my character frozen to death in a blizzard on some Talos forsaken mountain. But then I wasn't answering to your post when I wrote that.

 

The thing is, there ARE people around who think that they're in a position to come and try to shame everyone into doing what the poster wants, and really they aren't and it doesn't work. It just gets people annoyed and less likely to help. And by now there are a few people quite irritated by it, so it works even less well. But again, that wasn't about your post, since you weren't the one calling stuff "anime crap".

 

The frustration stems from feeling like an outsider in an all boys' club.

 

It's not really a complete boy's club, as I'm sure there are some female modders around.

 

I think in fact, I think you overestimate the gender distribution as a factor. I think the distribution also has to do with the fact that while a lot of male gamers want to play semi-naked women or have semi-naked women as companions, a lot of females want to play big handsome guys or have some big handsome guys as companions. So the problem isn't as much that there are fewer females, but just there are fewer females doing female-related mods.

 

But in the end, it's as much a boy's club as you let it be. There is no doorman keeping you out. If you want to make a mod, you're welcome in. If you expect someone else to just do that stuff for you, well, you're out.

 

I know a lot of female gamers in real life who are just as feminine and fashionable as they are nerdy.

 

Oh, amen to that.

 

I didn't think that the bias was so incredibly against me once I stepped outside of my own bubble.

 

There is none. People don't do that stuff because they're biased against you, but because they like to see boobs :P

 

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.

 

Well, it wasn't foolish to ask. Asking never hurt anyone.

 

But also when you have 1000 people asking for stuff, and maybe a dozen who can do that stuff, well, simple probabilities work against you. It's not just about dresses, but basically about everything. Even stuff like requests for samurai armours and whatnot, most of them don't get done.

 

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.

 

Well, take heart. Everyone started there.

 

For example, I didn't know jack about modding when I started, either. And I needed a cup to draw a circle :P

 

And, heck, when I started, there was no creation kit for Fallout out yet, and NifSkope was still being worked on. I had to help decrypt binary files to get anything. My first recolours, and you can still find the tutorial for it in the Fallout 3 forums, involved hex editing a binary file to make it point at another texture. Actually two files: both the .nif AND the record in the .esp.

 

For a while, I just did swapping textures and adding the Bethesda silencer to like half a dozen Bethesda weapons. When I tried making my own laser pistol... well, the less said about the hilarity that ensued when I published that one, the better :P

 

Heck, even the lightsabers, much as later they starred on lists of must-have Fallout mods, you wouldn't believe how awful the first attempts looked :P

 

Now I'm not trying to be the geezer giving you the "back in my day" talk, but just saying that I understand your predicament and been there too. But everyone started there, so I'm not even special or anything. As Nike says: just do it :P

[Moraelin]

Thanks for all these suggestions, by the way. It helps a lot. I really have no idea what I'm doing. I downloaded Gimp on the suggestion of an online tutorial, but I will try Blender as well. That may work better for me.

 

Well, Gimp and Blender are different programs for different purposes. One is for textures, the other is for meshes.

 

Personally I'd say it's less frustrating if you don't dive into both at the same time. IMHO you're better off starting with just the textures, the Creation Kit, and NifSkope. You'll need all three skills if/when you move to meshes too, anyway, so IMHO one might as well get them nailed first.

 

Other than that, if you have any problems, just send me a personal message. There is no guarantee that I can help, but I'll try.

[CassiPie]

Thank you again, Moraelin. Once again, your suggestions have been immensely helpful and you're very kind to take the time to reply to my rants as you have. I agree with everything you said, except that I have to respectfully beg to differ with you one point. There is absolutely a bias in the community, and that bias leans towards either men (or boys... probably boys,) or the type of woman that likes to pretend to be, and/or look at, half-naked or mostly naked women. That's clear purely in the sheer number of those types of mods. Now, am I saying I'm being blatently discriminated against? Certainly not! No one has been unkind or rude to me in the least. In fact, everyone has been very helpful and friendly, you included. What I mean by bias is the fact that the numbers are clearly stacked heavily on one side, and that side seems to clearly cater to men/boys. If women are making and downloading these mods, more power to them, but I haven't met many women who look at that kind of outfit and think, "Damn... I want to wear that!" Maybe women, particularly women who play these games like I do, are not as classy as I give them credit for. Though however you look at it, whether it is an all-boys' club or a boys and girls who love boobies club, I am still a minority that no one in the community cares to cater to. They haven't bashed or been rude to me, they simply either ignore me or tell me it's pointless to ask.

 

As to women wanting to play big, handsome men for the pleasure of looking at a big, handsome man: Is that seriously a thing? I've certainly downloaded mods to make the men in the game better-looking for my own viewing pleasure, but I've never had a desire to play a male, however handsome he is. Have you met these women? I don't think this actually happens. No girls I know have a desire to play as big, sexy men. One of my friends who also plays Warcraft sometimes likes to play as a big Tauren female, and when she plays games with other guys she might select a male character, like if she's playing a fighting game. But in role-playing games, even she wants to play a girl - some idealistic extension of herself in the game world. If she doesn't play a girl, it's to play some ugly BAMF for laughs, but not because he's sexy to look at. The fact that he's ugly is why she's playing him. It's purely for fun, not for ogling. Women just usually aren't that visual when it comes to what we find sexy. The male characters in games I've found the sexiest have been mostly for their voices, and I think the heaps of screaming fangirls who agree with me are evidence of that. Look at all the girls who were in love with Varric from Dragon Age: II with his manly chest hair. Varric was -not- physically attractive. It was the lines he said and the amazing voice actor who made him sexy. Also Fenris, who wouldn't have been sexy if he didn't have that deep baritone and gothic romance-style brooding that we fangirls can't get enough of no matter how many times it is done and overdone. Trust me. The way to the heart of most girls, particularly myself and all the girls I know, has less to do with abs and more to do with character and chocolate vocal chords. I'm not saying women are blind to looks. It's just not the first thing that draws me to a character. I can't tell you how disappointed I am with the romance options in Skyrim. I wanted to romance Ulfric, or the Jarl of Whiterun, or Rolof, or that blonde guy who stands outside of the general goods shop in Whiterun talking about the good old days. The only options were mostly characters with little to no personality, and the voice actors I found the most repellent. Hell, most of them you get as companions by hiring them. I feel like I'm buying a prostitute if I ask one of those characters to marry me. I'm getting sidetracked, but my point is that I don't need to stare at a sexy man all day to make me blush and giggle. Hearing Ulfric talk about his rebellion, or the Jarl sitting on his throne in that self-important yet relaxed manner that screams 'I have power, but I'm incredibly flippant about it because I'm a badass' is far more appealing. Ugh, I went off on a tangent. Sorry about that. It's just a subject that I don't get to talk about much, because I run the risk of being one of those girls who happen to play video games who try to draw attention to the fact that they are a girl who plays video games, and that somehow makes them automatically special and sexy to nerdy guys. Girls like that annoy the hell out of me, and I don't want to be mistaken as one of them. It just so happens that the fact that I am a female who enjoys video games and other nerdy pursuits is the center of my issue, here. On that note, gamers can be sexy too. That is a stereotype that I thought would be wiped out by now, what with all the evidence to the contrary. My fiance, for example, is one the biggest nerds you could meet. I mean he's a barely leaves the house kind of nerd. Yet when he does actually go out into public and he's all cleaned up, there have been times that women have snapped their heads around to check him out. There is nothing about being a gamer or an intellectual, loner nerdy-type that also means desperation. So when I talk about bias, I am not assuming that all the guys who make and love these mods are desperate, lonely nerds. Attractive, successful people also enjoy boobs, and there is nothing wrong with that. Sorry about another tangent. I'll wrap this up in the next paragraph, promise.

 

I hope I'll eventually get to a point where I will be able to mod what I want. That would be a dream come true. I have a lot of ideas in my head, but no idea how to create them. It would make my little personal universe the perfect escape that I want it to be. I work in the healthcare field, which is incredibly stressful and emotionally taxing. I am also trying to continue school and write a novel. (Key words there - try.) If I manage to fit in learning a skill that I have zero experience in, I don't think I'll be playing much of the games that I love so much. Not for a while, anyway. I thought I was pretty good with computers, but this weekend I have been bashing my head on my desk trying to figure this stuff out. I'll have to work my way up baby-steps, and I just don't know if I'll ever have the time. I'll keep working on it, and keep an eye out for someone to bring my dream to reality. I still don't think I'm the only one like me. There have got to be other women, and men, who want to see the kind of in-game gear that I want to see and who have the mod skills and time to do it. I know I'm not alone. I've just got to wait for it, and in the meantime try and take a stab at being the one to do it myself.

[tetradite]

 

- 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.

 

Now that I did not know, that makes it much more likely I'll attempt to get further into modelling etc, just about anything beyond retex'ing vanilla files in Photoshop has baffled me, but that seems a good starting point (not just related to this thread) to then start learning the rest from.

 

 

The frustration stems from feeling like an outsider in an all boys' club.

 

If it helps any, I'm a basically regular red blooded hetero male with a "healthy interest" in the delights of the female form, but the sheer volume of flesh and porn mods make me often feel like an outsider in all-lecherers club.

 

It's not that these mods exist, it's the overall % of uploads that they seem to compromise. Or certainly the % of popular uploads they seem to compromise.

[crysthala]

Anyone remember AlienSlof from Morrowind and Oblivion? She was an incredibly talented straight chick who modded sexy clothes for male characters. And she was constantly harassed and berated for it, by many of the same people who claim that such mods are a matter of personal choice, they aren't forced to download them, and so on. Yes, there is very much a heavy bias in the community, but it's more of a societal problem than any issue with gamers in general or Elder Scrolls fans in particular. I have no problem with it if anyone wants to run around Skyrim half-naked with all the jiggling boobs and G-strings they can handle, but that doesn't mean I won't ask for something with a bit more skin coverage. (40% of gamers are women, guys. You need to get used to us.)

 

I'm a bisexual lady, but that doesn't mean I want to stare at an imminent nip-slip any time I play a game. So, I will throw my support behind this, as well. I have some minor retexturing skill, but I won't be able to make clothes "from scratch" because of my lack of any kind of meshing talent. Are there any dresses or outfits in vanilla Skyrim that catch your eye?

[tetradite]

As to women wanting to play big, handsome men for the pleasure of looking at a big, handsome man: Is that seriously a thing?

 

To be fair, yeah it is. :biggrin:

 

Posts #9 and #12 here

 

Unless Stay Frosty isn't a woman, but her profile says she is.

 

As for roleplaying the opposite sex, I can't speak for women, but as a man yeah I am interested in RP (in games, I own no frocks, honest) as a woman, same way I'm interested in RP'ing a cat-person or a lizard or vampire or whatever. RP for me is about the escapism of getting inside someone else's head, I don't want a version of me in an RP game (at least not all the time), otherwise it's not RP.

[CassiPie]

Oh thank you, crysthala. I knew there were more of us out there! :) The dresses I have found decent in vanilla Skyrim are the following. I think they would look so much better with a little more textural flair. I'm surprised it hasn't been done. I've seen some 'cleaned up' versions, but that's about it.

 

Anyway, these are the dresses I find tolerable. I took screenshots of my character. (Not exactly artistic, but they give you the idea.) I used the mod that allows the vanilla villagers' outfits to be compatible with Caliente's body mod and slider. Also, I apologize for the huge pictures. Didn't realize they were going to show up so big on here.

 

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/336394_4238972052118_2008920986_o.jpg

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/194943_4238979012292_343846172_o.jpg

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/474403_4238979772311_310787546_o.jpg