#i dont like to play with mods on first playthroughs so here is my vanilla tav <3

[annuminas]

lýra 🗡

[flame2ashes]

thank you for replying to my question! i do remember always install mods before textures but i thought you meant dont make your own texture mod on a game that has texture mods already, my apologies! i didnt have a specific clothing mod in mind but i was curious if it worked, and i couldn't find one i liked anyway 😅 and yes! i was only gonna use it for a personal playthrough and get some screenshots that'll collect dust in my harddrive 😂

As long as the body and head meshes fit, just head mesh swapping is fine. The best results will always be mesh swapping between genders and species because they all use the same/similar armatures. Also you'll have to make sure that the skintone on the body matches the new head if the outfit shows skin (which you can do by either editing the texture to match the skintone, or adjusting the values in the materials)

But yeah to answer the question straight-on, it is possible to mesh swap female Shepard into a female romance option, and the same between two male characters. As I said before, as long as you have the assets you need, you're good to go :)

Now if you're doing the vice-versa of swapping a female character into Shepard's position so you can play as them, you can use this to help with that. tbh it's easier that way because you only need to edit, like, two files LMAO

You could try mesh swap between two different species, the results just won't be as good as swapping between two of the same (here's an example where I mesh swapped Kaidan into Garrus' position)

Full mesh swapping will always involve multiple files. Here's my file list for John's mod, for example, which involves Kaidan's files:

The first two are from post-Mars and when you get to the Citadel. There are also his romance scene files, his formal outfit for the Citadel DLC gala mission, his casual outfit on the Normandy, and his various armour options (plus the Explore versions). The file labeled BioNPC is from the LE3 Community Patch Framework, since I use that mod in my game. As a result, I can use the Community Patch and my mod on top of it (which is great, because I love the Community Patch)

tbh once you get one file to work, editing the rest of the files will be easier/faster because you already got the process down. I recommend you start out with one of the files before editing the rest so that you know it'll work. It'll be tedious, but it's worth it :)

Also, to make restoring your game easier without having to re-download the game every time, you can make a vanilla backup of your games so that the Mod Manager can just restore to vanilla with your backup and you don't have to re-download the game every time. You can also put your desired mods into a batch install so that you don't have to manually apply the mods every time. (Of course if your game is already modded and you haven't made a vanilla backup you will have to do a full uninstall and re-install, to which I say....I'm sorry 😭)

Anyway hopefully this helps! My recommendation is to read tutorials and try things out yourself, joining the ME modding Discord for extra help and resources, and just straight-up experiment. One day you too can turn ME3 into your personal content and serotonin machine and do shit like this:

[mj1343]

I didnt explore nearly as much of Fallout 3 and NV as i thought i did. Never went to Paradise Falls. Never spoke to the Khans because i didnt know how to start their quest and wanted to get to the dlc. Never done any other faction runs besides BOS, Independant Vegas, and Railroad in Fallout 4. Never travelled with any other companion besides Fawkes and Veronica. I tapped basically everything in 4 as to where i installed Tales from the Wastes just to give myself something to do before moving on to 76 mostly. I can explore more in 3 but i hit everything i wanted to, the last location being the Dunwich building. I remember saying “i am okay with stopping here and starting NV.” I can go back to Paradise Falls but all the story driven plot points are probably already gone. I could reload a save from before the dlc to talk to the Khans but i wont be at my most powerful because the DLC was the VERY LAST thing i did, it would be a pretty old save. Theres so much more to explore in those games i didnt realize i miss but i hateeeeeeeeeeeee making new playthroughs. I see people saying ‘this is my institute character’ or ‘im going to be bad this run’ i just play the games as Me with more charm and gun skills. I chose indepentant because that felt like the right option. Plus just... being back at level one and going through the same 20 quests to get powerful before starting a faction story is so much work i just want to be strong and level 20 so i can explore lore Now. Even on small games i rarely replay them. But i should talk to the Khans and Paradise Falls and Boones questline and meet Raul and travel with Arcade and go into the Underworld because somehow i only went into the lobby but not the actual underground and ughhhhh for my favorite game series ive missed so much and dont want to go and do them but i should ughhh

and then on the flipside i need to START fallout 1. and 2. and tactics. and wasteland 1-3. And try modding because i never actually modded before (which i know is like wow crazy bethesda games should be played modded whatever i like vanilla first time atleast) and Skyrim and the elder scroll games and aaaa theres too much to do and no energy to do it so ill probably just end up walking around the forest in 76 again because despite its flaws its the only game thats actively giving me new content without having me reset to level 1 or reload