Does changing appearance and gender affect game? : V

» Thu Jun 07, 2012 3:22 am

I'm currently playing as a female Imperial and just recently, wanted to play as a male. I searched online on how to achieve this and found out that the console command, "showracemenu" lets me edit everything - from appearance to name.

So my question is if I change my gender and appearance, will it affect my game? Taking into account that I have been considered as a female since the very beginning.

P.S. I've already invested a considerable amount of hours into this character and I have no plans of making a new character any time soon.

Thanks!

» Wed Jun 06, 2012 8:47 pm

No, it won't affect your game.

» Thu Jun 07, 2012 3:05 am

changing race might mess up some of your skills because of the racial bonuses

» Thu Jun 07, 2012 4:37 am

Changing race is the only thing I've found that changes your stats. Changing your gender or preset has never resulted in any stat changes for me.

Edit: And it won't confuse the NPCs. All of the dialogue is selected while you are talking to them. They're checking your character's gender during conversation.

» Thu Jun 07, 2012 1:25 am

changing gender basically means they'll address you differently, like they'll call you lad instead of lass and so on, its not really a big thing

» Wed Jun 06, 2012 9:14 pm

You could be the first six-change operation in Skyrim and the first test of whether or not it will affect your game. Let us know how it goes if you decide to do it. I have no idea how the coding will react to the change. Why not just set that one aside in a save and make a new character? That's fun too.

:tes:

» Wed Jun 06, 2012 11:45 pm

"showracemenu" lets me edit everything - from appearance to name.

P.S. I've already invested a considerable amount of hours into this character and I have no plans of making a new character any time soon.

Just to caution you, you may very well end up making a new character if you use the Showracemenu.

This menu, and other char gen menus can really hose an existing character. It is not guaranteed, but it can happen. The biggest problem is, all the issues that can happen to your character, like skills getting reset to 15, won't show up until after you have saved and reloaded your character.

So, if you are going to do this, then make a forked save and work off of that.

» Thu Jun 07, 2012 4:16 am

Changing your race and/or gender can mess up your health, stam and magicka stats, the game divides them up equally, regardless of how you've spent them.
An easy indicator is this: if your character is standing with his/her hands bound in the menu, the stats re-allocation will occur.

But just changing the appearance (within your current race and gender) through showracemenu seems to be harmless, I do it all the time to change hair/eye style/color or w/e, and never had any problems.

» Wed Jun 06, 2012 8:07 pm

Okay, I did it. Just a heads up, using the showracemenu command erases the latest blessing you receive (at least that's what I've observed). Example, I received the blessing of Julianos which increases my Magicka by 25 points. So when I use the command, the +25 points is lost.

One question though, why is my Stamina attribute colored red?

» Wed Jun 06, 2012 6:43 pm

One question though, why is my Stamina attribute colored red?

It's damaged or drained. Hopefully this is temporary. You did work on a Forked Save, right?

» Wed Jun 06, 2012 7:46 pm

It's damaged or drained. Hopefully this is temporary. You did work on a Forked Save, right?

Yep, I still have my original, untouched save.

How could it be damaged? Could I be cursed?

Update: I have also noticed no difference in changing my gender.

» Thu Jun 07, 2012 7:18 am

Not really. The game script more or less just assumes you are a Nord. Even in cases where you should be discriminated against for your race, nobody cares. There is supposedly some wonkiness with shapeshifting though.

» Thu Jun 07, 2012 4:13 am

How could it be damaged? Could I be cursed?

I guess you did not see my post about how the showracemenu can hose your character in weird ways. You were warned.

Load up the original save, make a new slot, then try it again. It may not be an issue this time around.

» Thu Jun 07, 2012 3:54 am

I tried changing my character and it works fine except for race, somehow I lost all my skills in on handed and it went to destruction

» Thu Jun 07, 2012 6:12 am

I know if you change gender they refer to you as a he or she. I also believe it affected your stats too at least in previous games. Males were generally stronger and females more dextrous or something. I thought that was bold and a change from the boring D&D ` males and females are exactly the same ` PC crap.

I guess they changed that in Skyrim no doubt.

» Wed Jun 06, 2012 9:24 pm

I guess you did not see my post about how the showracemenu can hose your character in weird ways. You were warned.

Load up the original save, make a new slot, then try it again. It may not be an issue this time around.

In my original save, my stamina is already red. When I used the command, it's still red. So I guess the command has nothing to do with it?

» Thu Jun 07, 2012 4:51 am

i think that they should have added age differences, the 18's, 30's, 50's and 80's, than people can look at you as an old man or a wise man, and young person or inexperienced.

» Thu Jun 07, 2012 5:25 am

Well, it won't fix Damage or Drain conditions.

» Wed Jun 06, 2012 7:44 pm

only thing I can think of that it might cause problems with...

Is when some one ptus a hit on you...and you were female..the note will read as if you were a female while male...cause I don't think the text will change anytime you re-opn the note...

thats about it.

» Wed Jun 06, 2012 8:44 pm

Tried this myself when messing around with the console. I discovered that your health/magika/stamina will distribute themselves evenly as in if was 100/120/110 it became 110/110/110. When changing race as a Orc however with it's Berserk racial ability turned on all stats remained then same. Also turning into a werewolf afterwards will revert you back to your original race.

» Thu Jun 07, 2012 6:29 am

Turns out I was really cursed / damaged. When I went to a shrine, my stamina turned back to white.

So guess, I'll be playing this male character from now on then.

Thanks to everyone who helped!

» Thu Jun 07, 2012 2:43 am

The other thing the showracemenu will do is if you dont change your race you will lose you race bonus, like nords get a 50% frost resist. if you are a nord open that menu make some cosmectic changes and save the rest of you stats will be fine but your frost resist will be gone. I have found the "showracemenu" is really only good for letting me start a new game right away in riverwood.

» Thu Jun 07, 2012 1:31 am

In Oblivion, when you used showracemenu to change anything (even just hairstyle), it would jumble up all of your stats afterward, unless you did it the following way.

1- use showracemenu and make your changes. Do not click on the final 'ok' button to close the race menu window.
2 - with the console still open, save your game (In Oblivion at least, the save option was greyed out unless the console was still open).
3 - load the game you just saved.

I have not tried this with Skyrim, but I expect that it works exactly the same. It is a the same engine after all.