Polymorphic Armor - A PC Exclusive Armor Path Mod (Coming Soon, Hopefully)

[fingerscrossed]

Since I'm getting pretty close to being able to release this (I think!) I wanted to go ahead and make a post (as well as see if anyone wants to beta test for me).  There's a little video at the bottom showing the mod working in it's current stage.

 

This mod is an alternative to some of the PC Exclusive Armor Path mods that exist.  It's much more script heavy than a lot of the ones I am familiar with, but that comes with some actual advantages.  So, why this mod instead of one of the existing ones you may be wondering?  Simple, I wanted a framework with which I could make a new directory for the player exclusive path instead of having to make and set certain meshes here or there in armor addons.

 

So, what do I mean by a new directory?  I'll give an example:

Normally, you would find the female bandit cuirass in Meshes/Armor/Bandit/Body1f_1.  When someone goes to put on that bandit cuirass that's what is used for everyone.  The mod allows you to create directories that are equivalent to Meshes/Armorpa/.... (In this example, Meshes/Armorpa/Bandit/Body1f_1) and store the unique armors you want the player to use there. 

 

So, how does it work?

When the mod is active and the player equips a piece of armor, the mod adds a piece of "Polymorphic Armor" to the players inventory.  This armor copies the stats, name (with a "(PA)" appended so you can tell it from its base), and then finds what mesh it should use and finds that mesh in the player exclusive pa directories, switching the Polymorphic Armor to use those meshes.

 

Why is this better?
Some people may not find it better, but for me the big thing is that you can batch build directories easily with Body Slide for an unique armor type or body for the player.  Additionally, since everything is handled via scripts, armors from mods are essentially the same as armors from the base game, you just need to have their meshes built inside the "pa" folders.

 

Where does it fail?
Currently one of the primary failure points I see/have foreseen are: 1) Items that have scripts on them or are heavily scripted (Something like Devious Devices), 2) I currently don't have any way of modifying keywords on armor (AddKeyword/RemoveKeyword are functions in F4, but not Skyrim/SSE).

 

Mitigating failure?

In the MCM for the mod you can choose armor slots to prevent the mod from converting.  So, if you know you are going to use an item in a slot that needs to actually be the item in question, you can prohibit the mod from changing that item.  I've got this set up in base for items like rings, amulets, etc., where you may not be interested in copying them over, but all of the armor slots are there to enable/disable.

 

How far along is it?
Actually, it seems to be pretty close.  See the video below for an example of the mod enabled and the mod disabled.

 

NSFW WARNING: There's a naked woman in the video (I'm giving the warning since we're on the Non-adult board).

Spoiler

 

I've got a bit of menial/tedious backend work, but I can probably have a beta out soon if anyone is interested in testing.