Normally any female companion, except Curie, should stay the way you made them look after altering them. Reverting back to Vanilla is kinda weird, hasn't happened to me personally. May I ask how you go about altering Piper step by step? Do you use console commands for it or some other way?
It's been a while since a played FO4 but I think it was something like either cheat terminal NPC Manipulation and then Change NPC Looks - Piper. Or it was slm and left click on Piper.
To be completely honest with you, I would have no clue as to where the issue lies. All presets I have work fine for me and it's the first time I've heard someone else having issues with it.
Cheat terminal->game manipulation->companion manipulation->change companion appearance Once the menu pops up to edit character: go to presets->click on which ever you want->once face has loaded, takes like 1 second->press back->confirm appearance Now your companion should look like whatever preset you chose and should STAY that way, as I said, the issue you're having is completely new to me.
Okay I see where your confusion may lay. Perhaps... The afromentioned method works until the end of the game (aka until you save and quit the game. When you load the save again or she get lost and go back to you after fast travel she revert back to vanilla. At least that's how it is in my game.
Then I think there may be an issue on your end. I have 4 different characters, and neither of them playthroughs have had a companion revert to vanilla. Either look through your mod list to find any mod editing Piper, or maybe you're lacking a skin texture, try this and tell me if it changed anything, because other than that I don't use any other skin mods.
Skin mod have nothing to do with face/presset reversion. And since we are about it I use this: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/87136 and this https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/58950 along with basic CBBE ofc. But thoose two were meant to be used together and in fact they compliment each other. Believe me when I say but this is not my first rodeo and I'm modding this game since at least 2016 (soon it will be 10 years and Skyrim even longer, lol). The cause for switching back to vanilla may be many but it is not related to models and textures alone. I started FO4 again with fresh install and will keep troubleshooting until I found the culprit or if I don't I will just drop it again. Nowadays I find theese games too much hassel compared to worth and soon nexus will block acces to many mods which are CBBE based anyway so...
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edit: that didn't seem to help so I'm not sure. I double checked the requirements list and as best I can tell I have everything
edit 2: not sure what changed but now all of a sudden it is working. didn't add or remove any mods that should affect appearance
May I ask how you go about altering Piper step by step? Do you use console commands for it or some other way?
Once the menu pops up to edit character:
go to presets->click on which ever you want->once face has loaded, takes like 1 second->press back->confirm appearance
Now your companion should look like whatever preset you chose and should STAY that way, as I said, the issue you're having is completely new to me.
At least that's how it is in my game.
Either look through your mod list to find any mod editing Piper, or maybe you're lacking a skin texture, try this and tell me if it changed anything, because other than that I don't use any other skin mods.
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/58950 along with basic CBBE ofc.
But thoose two were meant to be used together and in fact they compliment each other.
Believe me when I say but this is not my first rodeo and I'm modding this game since at least 2016 (soon it will be 10 years and Skyrim even longer, lol). The cause for switching back to vanilla may be many but it is not related to models and textures alone.
I started FO4 again with fresh install and will keep troubleshooting until I found the culprit or if I don't I will just drop it again. Nowadays I find theese games too much hassel compared to worth and soon nexus will block acces to many mods which are CBBE based anyway so...
Way to knock that out of the park.