How do you add tags to armours again?

[Telis5678]

I know the basics of SSEEdit navigation and all that, I'm just unsure about the datails of the process. I remember from some guide I watched years ago that you had to make a copy of the armour mod and only THEN add SexLabAroused as the masters and THEN apply the armour tags, but that may be wrong. So, my question is: 

Can I JUST add SLA as a master to the armour mod and add whichever tags I want to the relevant armours like in pic 1:

 

Spoiler

OR

Do I need to make a copy of the armour mod and THEN add the tags in? And if so, can anyone describe it step by step(besides adding the tags and masters themselves, that much I can do)? Or at least point me towards some tutorial that does show it, cause I can't for the life of me find it, cause neither google nor loverslab search functions are any help at all.

[Taki17]

If by tags you mean keywords, there's a much simpler approach that does not require you editing any plugins and that is using Keyword Item Distributor. If by your screenshot, you are looking to add aroused keywords to TAWOBA, I recommend lookin here.

[Telis5678]

Oh yeah, that's pretty much it, thanks a lot.

[traison]

2 hours ago, Telis5678 said:

Can I JUST add SLA as a master to the armour mod and add whichever tags I want to the relevant armours...

 

You can edit any plugin or master. The question is whether it's a good idea to edit this plugin or master. Editing Skyrim.esm is rarely if ever a good idea. Do you want to edit the armor mod plugin, or do you want to make a patch for the armor mod that can easily be disabled later.

 

Also it is imporant to note the difference between adding a new keyword to the armor mod itself, and adding another mod as master and using keywords it already defines. One of these will work, the other wont. A vast majority of mods that include the SOS_Revealing keyword have implemented it wrong by adding a new keyword to the armor mod itself. Keywords do not work based on their EDID, but rather their form id. The form id is always unique, the EDID is not.

 

For the wannabe hackers out there: the Form.HasKeywordString function provided by SKSE does not do what you think it does. If it worked the way you thought it would, you got lucky and your code will break in the future.

 

1 hour ago, Taki17 said:

If by tags you mean keywords, there's a much simpler approach that does not require you editing any plugins...

 

Sure, but this adds yet another layer to debug when the game breaks. I'd recommend everyone use the traditional methods for modding, and not so easily succumb to using 3rd party frameworks and methods. There may be valid reasons for using KID, but adding keywords to armor is most likely not one of those.

[Telis5678]

On 2/8/2026 at 12:34 PM, traison said:

Sure, but this adds yet another layer to debug when the game breaks. I'd recommend everyone use the traditional methods for modding, and not so easily succumb to using 3rd party frameworks and methods. There may be valid reasons for using KID, but adding keywords to armor is most likely not one of those.

Alright, what should I do then?

[traison]

13 minutes ago, Telis5678 said:

Alright, what should I do then?

 

Start by answering this question:

On 2/8/2026 at 1:34 PM, traison said:

Do you want to edit the armor mod plugin, or do you want to make a patch for the armor mod that can easily be disabled later.

 

Personally I just edit mod files directly. Saves a plugin slot. I also keep all downloaded achives in local storage, so if I want to get rid of my edits I'll reinstall the same version again. In your case you need to consider the following:

1. Are you likely to remove any of the master plugins you're about to add as a dependency? What happens when you want to switch from SLA to the next super cool looking version.
2. Are you likely to want to undo the changes, and how much work would it be to do so?
3. What is your undo solution going to look like. Like I said, I keep all downloaded files.

If you do edit the original mod directly, make notes of your edits so that if issues arise a year from now, you can still recall what you've changed and why.

 

The rest is just a record edit in xEdit, nothing special about that regardless of which way you go.

 

Alternatively you can use KID, but then I'd recommend you:

1. Go through all your currently installed mods and look for KID ini files that already exist. These will all be activated when KID is installed.
2. Make a mental note (at the very least) that any future mods you install should be inspected for surprise KID files. Sometimes you find these in the most unlikely mods.
3. Keep KID in mind whenever you have to debug *any* mod, especially if that debugging is looking like it's going to be keyword related. You will see these keywords in MIC, sure, but they won't be there when you go to inspect records in xEdit or the like. As an example, KID might be adding the keywords that block actors from being used in SexLab, which is going to look like SL isn't working.

Edited February 9 by traison

[Telis5678]

6 minutes ago, traison said:

 

Start by answering this question:

 

Personally I just edit mod files directly. Saves a plugin slot. I also keep all downloaded achives in local storage, so if I want to get rid of my edits I'll reinstall the same version again. In your case you need to consider the following:

1. Are you likely to remove any of the master plugins you're about to add as a dependency? What happens when you want to switch from SLA to the next super cool looking version.
2. Are you likely to want to undo the changes, and how much work would it be to do so?
3. What is your undo solution going to look like. Like I said, I keep all downloaded files.

If you do edit the original mod directly, make notes of your edits so that if issues arise a year from now, you can still recall what you've changed and why.

 

So, I can generally, just edit the mods directly, thanks. I did it years ago, as I mentioned in the post, I just forgot how to do this. I somewhat vaguely recall that I did it that way, but it didn't work then, so I created additional ESPs for each of the armour mods and did it that way. I just don't want to do hours of editing the keywords only to find out it doesn't work and do it all over again in a different way lol. Thanks for the advice though, cheers.

[Telis5678]

Btw, for anyone stumbling upon this thread when they're searching on how to do it, here's a detailed video(not mine) of the process:

(Mega link, but you can watch the vid in browser)

[Telis5678]

On 2/9/2026 at 6:39 PM, traison said:

 

Start by answering this question:

 

Personally I just edit mod files directly. Saves a plugin slot. I also keep all downloaded achives in local storage, so if I want to get rid of my edits I'll reinstall the same version again. In your case you need to consider the following:

1. Are you likely to remove any of the master plugins you're about to add as a dependency? What happens when you want to switch from SLA to the next super cool looking version.
2. Are you likely to want to undo the changes, and how much work would it be to do so?
3. What is your undo solution going to look like. Like I said, I keep all downloaded files.

If you do edit the original mod directly, make notes of your edits so that if issues arise a year from now, you can still recall what you've changed and why.

 

The rest is just a record edit in xEdit, nothing special about that regardless of which way you go.

 

Alternatively you can use KID, but then I'd recommend you:

1. Go through all your currently installed mods and look for KID ini files that already exist. These will all be activated when KID is installed.
2. Make a mental note (at the very least) that any future mods you install should be inspected for surprise KID files. Sometimes you find these in the most unlikely mods.
3. Keep KID in mind whenever you have to debug *any* mod, especially if that debugging is looking like it's going to be keyword related. You will see these keywords in MIC, sure, but they won't be there when you go to inspect records in xEdit or the like. As an example, KID might be adding the keywords that block actors from being used in SexLab, which is going to look like SL isn't working.

Hey, so I did it manually, with making new ESPs instead, but for some reason SL Survival isn't detecting them anyway, would you be able to tell what's wrong in that case?

 

Spoiler

Like as youm can see the keywords are properly added, it looks good and proper in all of the mods, but the bikini curse still triggers when I have the items equipped. When I bought the bikini armor license, the guard gave me back the bikini armors as if they're properly tagged, but they still trigger the curse and don't add to the Bikini EXP, which just leaves me stumped.

[traison]

24 minutes ago, Telis5678 said:

...would you be able to tell what's wrong in that case?

 

My first guess would be that light plugins have issues updating things like this mid-game. I haven't looked into it any further than that. I recomend you start a new game and do a sanity test. If it's still not working in the new game then there's something actually wrong with this. If it's working in the new game, then... I think I would try some of the following:

1. Unequip/equip armor.
2. Remove the light plugin. Load -> Save -> Quit. Install the light plugin. Test again.
3. Change the form id of the armor item to force the game to consider it a new item.
4. Have a look at this item with More Informative Console to see if the keyword shows up there.

Additionally:

1. If you remove a light plugin, make note of its mod index before you do. If the game crashes when loading your old save you need to restore the light plugin with the same id it had before you removed it.

Edited February 19 by traison

[Telis5678]

3 hours ago, traison said:

 

My first guess would be that light plugins have issues updating things like this mid-game. I haven't looked into it any further than that. I recomend you start a new game and do a sanity test. If it's still not working in the new game then there's something actually wrong with this. If it's working in the new game, then... I think I would try some of the following:

1. Unequip/equip armor.
2. Remove the light plugin. Load -> Save -> Quit. Install the light plugin. Test again.
3. Change the form id of the armor item to force the game to consider it a new item.
4. Have a look at this item with More Informative Console to see if the keyword shows up there.

Additionally:

1. If you remove a light plugin, make note of its mod index before you do. If the game crashes when loading your old save you need to restore the light plugin with the same id it had before you removed it.

No idea how to change formID of the armors, so didn't do that, tried the rest, took a look with the MIC and yeah, the keywords do show up:

 

Spoiler

(Sorry for the low quality, but the game really didn't wanna screenshot with the console on and yes, I checked all the pieces just in case)

So the keywords ARE properly applied, when I bought the bikini license after getting all my stuff confiscated the guard correctly gave me the armors back, but the bikini curse still triggers? And I do have some bikini exp, so it somewhat detects it? I genuinely do not know what the problem is or might be.

[traison]

45 minutes ago, Telis5678 said:

...the keywords do show up...

 

It might have been more reliable to check your character's keywords when wearing the armor, rather than spawning a new object. There's also the haskeyword console command, to rule out MIC not reading these like the game would.

 

46 minutes ago, Telis5678 said:

And I do have some bikini exp, so it somewhat detects it?

 

Don't know how SL Survival works. Were I in your shoes I'd add debug printing to the functions responsible for detecting keyword precence. Make sure they agree with what you're seeing in MIC.

[Telis5678]

3 hours ago, traison said:

 

It might have been more reliable to check your character's keywords when wearing the armor, rather than spawning a new object. There's also the haskeyword console command, to rule out MIC not reading these like the game would.

 

 

Don't know how SL Survival works. Were I in your shoes I'd add debug printing to the functions responsible for detecting keyword precence. Make sure they agree with what you're seeing in MIC.

Never mind, I figured it out, it turns out it was my bad, the mod by default requires heels for the armor to be fully considered as Bikini... That took me WAY too long to realize, anyway, thanks for all the advice, even if it didn't help. Glad there are people who help idiots like me.