How To Edit Followers (for Dummies) (2024)

I've received a few PMs asking me about editing followers, and even after pointing some of them to the guide, they still come back with the same or new questions, which are also covered in the same guide.

I'm assuming these people can't (or maybe refuse) to read, but being a magnanimous person, I decided to extract the parts related to editing, and dumb it down to a level where a 10 year old should be able to understand. If you've gone through the main guide and understood most of it, nothing here will be new to you, so you can skip it safely.

For anyone who feels that the way I typed this section seems insulting to your intelligence, don't worry; like I said, it's intentionally dumbed down so that from now on, nobody is allowed to give me the excuse that it is too hard to read.

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GLOSSARY:

Mesh: The shape of a 3D object. Mesh files for Skyrim are always *.NIF. Loosely referred to as "body".

Texture: The "surface" of the 3D object. Textures files for Skyrim are always *.DDS. Commonly referred to as "skin" for humanoid models.

Base:A lot of people keep throwing around "CBBE base" and "UNP base" without knowing what it means, just to sound smart or cool I guess. The word "base" is redundant and means nothing, because everyone who's ever download a follower or armor mod knows that CBBE and UNP arebody bases. There's no difference between "This is a CBBE follower." and "This follower uses CBBE body." and "This follower is using a CBBE body base." It's the same, damn thing.

Bodyshape: Whenever I say "bodyshape", I am referring to the6body mesh files that have already been built withBodySlide, and have a unique preset's shape.

Same as above.