Oblivion Change Appearance Without Losing Stats
Lain Lattin
I was asked what my race was, and I chose...but then I managed to exit without setting a name, gender...anything else. So now I'm a dude called "Prisoner". I'd hate to play the whole game with such a lame name. Am I going to be given an opportunity, like in Oblivion, to change these things again at some point, or do I need to start over, or...?
In the PC version, /showracemenu worked fine for me, and I successfully changed my appearance (eye-color, mainly), without affecting my skills, level, or anything like that (I recall in Oblivion there was a fairly convoluted way to do it -- this is much easier). I've heard changing your race is a bad idea though.
Although it is still possible to contract Porphyric Hemophilia after being cured, a character can never become a vampire again without the use of a mod or the console. This is due to the fact that either method of being cured of the condition sets pcvampire and vampire.hasdisease to -1. Since you cannot have porphyric hemophilia twice at the same time, this value can never reach 1. Prior to being infected they are both set at 0 and this is what allows the transformation to take place. There are several mods that change this, and different ways of doing it via the Console.
If this does not work as is the case with the bug where using the command sexchange will cause the head to disappear altogether instead of reverting to female, enter the command showracemenu into the console. Adjust your characters appearance to female and then save the game before hitting "done". Load the game you just saved, and your female pc will look female again.
If we use only the winning overrides, then, for example, the bashed patch will copy stats from a mod that was designed for vanilla Skyrim, instead of copying the stats from Weapons & Armor Fixes Remade, because that mod is farther down your load order. If we use only master records, then, for example, the bashed patch will copy names from the first copy of each record in your load order into the last plugin in your load order, effectively reverting any name changes that happened in between.
That said, they certainly could (and imo should) look back into the Angelic, Demonic, and Ancestral concept, however make it an alignment system where instead of providing stat bonuses of some kind, they instead can change appearance of a character and their abilities. So a Sorceress aligned in the demonic aspect would appear as a dark mage shrouded in black and red energy while her magic would take on hellish appearance (for example, fire spells would be darker in color with some black embers and such).
To avoid the blotchy effect that is common when creating a character, change the forehead shape to be tilted all the way forward, then modify the tone of the skin. As soon as you move the slider, the face will appear to snap into a smooth texture without the blotchiness. After that, you can modify the forehead to your desired tilt. Wrinkles may show based on the age slider, so set as young as possible for the smoothest skin. However, this may look unrealistic to an extent. Sometimes the forehead tilt and tone change don't smooth out the character; resetting the character appearance will usually work, although the blotchiness may reappear when you load a saved game.
To perform its magicks BAIN needs to know what's inside two directories: the game Data/ directory and its subdirectories and the Bash Installers folder (where the packages are). The Data directory scanning is done once per run of Wrye Bash, when the Installers tab is first opened, because walking this potentially huge directory and checking sizes and modification times does take a while. The Bash Installers folder however will be scanned whenever the installers tab regains focus after losing it (i.e. you select another program's window, then switch back to Wrye Bash, or you switch to another tab then back to installers tab). This automatic scanning just checks modification times and sizes of installers inside Bash Installers folder to decide if any package changed, and should usually be very fast (although noticeable). There is a catch however: this check is almost instantaneous for packages (archives) but for biggish projects takes a while as Bash needs to scan modification times and sizes for all files inside the project. To make this (automatic) scan faster two options are provided for projects: Don't Refresh (on the project's context menu) and Auto-Refresh Projects (on the global menu). If a project is affected by these options Bash will skip over it when scanning Bash Installers directory and changes inside the project's dir have to be detected manually. However the initial refresh (on booting BAIN) will ignore those skip flags and will scan all project directories for changes (comparing their sizes and modification times with the ones it loads from Installers.dat).However, changes in files in the Data directory will have to be manually detected after initial refresh, as in this scenario:
- Install a mod from some package.
- Go to the installers tab. Note the package is marked green.
- Go back to the mods tab and edit the mod using xEdit or the CK/CS/etc.
- Return to the installers tab. The package is still marked green instead of being marked as out of sync with the data.
- Silent skips. These are not listed on the Skipped panel on the right and are:
- thumbs.db and desktop.ini files
- the omod conversion directory (omod conversion data, fomod) if on the top level of package or sub-package
- the wizard images directory (again if on the top level of package or sub-package)
- Developer files. Any file or directory that begins with '--' and is at the top level of a package or a sub-package will be silently skipped. This is so that mod authors can include files related to a mod that are not required for it to work (e.g. screenshots) in packages.
- Bash will also skip voices for plugins that are not installed from complex installers
- Specified skips. There are a few options in BAIN to skip the installation of certain file types, namely the ones on the Global Skips submenu for all installers and Skip Voices (on a per installer basis). If any such options are enabled, the file type(s) in question will be silently skipped.
Faces may be imported from saves to saves or plugins, or from plugins to saves. This allows you to preserve a character's appearance should you wish to restart a character, to roleplay as a particular character, or to turn your character into an NPC that may be encountered during playing, among other uses.To import a face to a save:
- Select the Import Face... command in a save file's context menu.
- Choose the source save or plugin in the file dialog that is displayed.
- Choose the actor whose face you want to import. Click on a face in the list to display its details. If an image is associated with the face, it will be displayed.
- If you chose a source plugin, the plugin's NPCs will be listed.
- If you chose a source save, the player character will be at the top of the list, possibly followed by some clones of the player that the game uses for various purposes and some other NPCs.
- Use the checkboxes to select additional characteristics to import.
- The Race Import is incomplete. It will change the physical appearance and identification of the character, but not the racial powers.
- Use the Stats Import with care. In-game stats are a combination of base stats, magical modifiers and scripted modifications. This command only affects the base stats. As such, the in-game effect may be negative or bizarrely high. In addition, such alteration of stats often confuses releveling mods, and such a mod may require temporary removal so that stats are imported to a save which does not have it active. Such mods can be reinstalled once the stats have been imported.
- Click the Import button to finish.
- Create a new plugin using the New Mod command from the File menu of the plugin context menu in the Mods tab.
- Right-click the new plugin and select Import Face....
- Choose the source save in the file dialog that is displayed.
- Face Import does not check for unique Editor IDs. The Construction Set will inform you of any duplicates and auto-rename them, though you will probably want to rename them manually as DUPLICATE0000 is not very informative.
- If you want to associate an image with a face, save the image to Data\Docs\Images\[EditorID].jpg, where [EditorID] is the Editor ID of the face. The size of the image box is 250x210 pixels. Wrye Bash will scale down any image supplied to fit the box.
- To tweak the stats of an existing character, try importing them to a plugin, editing them there and then importing the character back into your save file.
- Normally when importing a face to a plugin, only eyes and hair from Oblivion.esm or the destination plugin will be imported. However, the following steps can be used to import eyes and hairs that come from other mods.
- Convert the source cosmetic ESP to an ESM, using the Copy To.. > .esm command in the plugin context menu in the Mods tab.
- Open the destination plugin in the Construction Set, also loading the converted source cosmetic ESM.
- Save the plugin in the Construction Set.
- In Wrye Bash's Mods tab, select the converted source cosmetic ESM in the destination plugin's Masters List and use Change To... to select the source cosmetic ESP.
- Now import the face as normal. The eyes/hair should also be imported.
- Array sizes. These arrays are for each of the major sections in the save file.
- Created items. These are items created in-game, through scripting or some sort of crafting skill (e.g. alchemy, spellmaking).
- FormIDs. This is a breakdown of the FormID table in the savegame, sorted by source plugin. The FormID table maps savegame reference numbers to the FormID of the referenced record. If a reference is made to a record from a plugin that is no longer loaded, the FormID is replaced with a 0.
- Record details. This gives a breakdown of the different types of records stored in the save file. The type is given as a number and as text (e.g. 48 Cell), and then the number of records eferenced from each plugin is given below.
- New ObjectRef Bases. These are objects that belong to the savegame, for example arrows dropped on the ground in-game. They generally are created and destroyed by the game as required, though bad scripting techniques can cause some of them to stick around. The Base of an ObjectRef is the BaseID of the object (e.g. the FormID of a steel arrow from Oblivion.esm). The ObjectRef refers to these indirectly through an iref. Usually this will map back to a FormID, but if the original plugin has been removed from the load order, then the FormID is set to 0. If this has happened, then a count of such Null Bases will be shown. After the Null Base count (if present) is a list of New ObjectRef Bases where the count is over 100 (e.g. if there are over 100 new arrows lying around). Shown is the count, the iref and the base FormID. FormIDs beginning with FF are references to an object defined by the savegame. Otherwise, the FormID will map back to a plugin. The first two digits are the master index, and can be matched to a plugin through the MI column in the list of savegame masters.
Oblivion & Nehrim: At Fate's Edge only. Rename Potions... Rename potions that you have created in-game for the selected save. Reweigh Potions... Potions created in-game are given a weight that is somewhat arbitrarily selected and potentially high. This command may be used to set all created potions to have a specific weight. Potions created after the use of this command with new names, new effects or new durations will not be affected. Rename Enchanted... Rename enchanted items that you have created in-game for the selected save. Set Number of Uses for Weapon Enchantments... Change the number of casts available on any enchanted weapon you have created in-game, or that has otherwise been recorded in your savegame. Rename Spells... Rename spells that you have created in-game for the selected save. Delete Spells... Delete spells from your spell list in the selected save. May be useful for deleting bugged or useless spells. Warning: This cannot be undone. Most spells may be repurchased or recreated, but quest and other special spells can most likely only be readded using the console. Rename Player... Rename the player's character in the selected save. Import Face... Related to Face Importing, see that section for more information. This command will import a face for the save file's player character (and possibly some NPCs) from another save file or from an NPC in a plugin. Update NPC Levels... Update the level information for NPCs stored in the selected save file to reflect the active load order's NPC level settings. This is required because although NPC levels are set via plugins, once an NPC is encountered its level is stored in the save file, which overrides the plugin levels. Repair..
Oblivion & Nehrim: At Fate's Edge only. Remove Bloat... This is an experimental command. It is recommended that saves are backed up before using it on them. Attempt to determine how much bloating there is in the selected save file and then optionally remove it. If the command reports a large number of created objects, there could be a problem with one of your mods, and such mods should be removed or updated. There are two common types of bloat:
- Excess created objects can occur through the use of scripting by a mod to duplicate existing objects in-game and a failure by the mod to clean up the duplicates after their use.
- Null references are caused when objects from a plugin that is removed are present in the game world. These objects then get replaced with null references when the game is next saved with the plugin missing.
- Note that you should only do this if the new name is a new version of the same plugin. Replacing a plugin with an unrelated plugin will cause file corruption.
- Note also that as of 307, the master will be renamed in the xSE cosave as well. As of the time of writing, all third party xSE plugins that store plugin names into the cosaves that we're aware of are supported.