Best way to make alternate meshes for outfits craftable?

[mac2636]

• Via OMOD the best way?

Just add entry under Model right?

If so, should I just use AEC_ma_armor_Addon?

[VIitS]

I personally prefer using OMODs (that way you don't have a bunch of different version of it cluttering up the workbench). The only downside is, of course, the keyword cap. What I would suggest (if you don't want to contribute to anyone's cap) is to use the keywords provided by Armorsmith Extended/AWKCR, but also use (i.e. make everything use two ma keywords) a vanilla weapon ma keyword. That way it will only show as an option for your armor.

 

What keywords you should use would depend on what the mesh change is/if you want it paired with an effect (i.e. if you want adding carry weight to add on a backpack mesh you should use one of the AEC_ap_CarryWeight keywords for the category), and then could just use any of the ma keywords (so the addon one is fine). ma keywords just determine if a mod should be attachable to a weapon/armor, so as long as your armor has the ma keyword it will be able to equip mods using that keyword. The ap keywords are the ones that define category.

 

If you want it to just be a visible change without affecting stats, I'd suggest using one of the recently added "Upgrade" keywords in the main ArmorKeywords.esm file. That way the visible change will be usable with an Add-on change.

[mac2636]

I personally prefer using OMODs (that way you don't have a bunch of different version of it cluttering up the workbench). The only downside is, of course, the keyword cap. What I would suggest (if you don't want to contribute to anyone's cap) is to use the keywords provided by Armorsmith Extended/AWKCR, but also use (i.e. make everything use two ma keywords) a vanilla weapon ma keyword. That way it will only show as an option for your armor.

 

What keywords you should use would depend on what the mesh change is/if you want it paired with an effect (i.e. if you want adding carry weight to add on a backpack mesh you should use one of the AEC_ap_CarryWeight keywords for the category), and then could just use any of the ma keywords (so the addon one is fine). ma keywords just determine if a mod should be attachable to a weapon/armor, so as long as your armor has the ma keyword it will be able to equip mods using that keyword. The ap keywords are the ones that define category.

 

If you want it to just be a visible change without affecting stats, I'd suggest using one of the recently added "Upgrade" keywords in the main ArmorKeywords.esm file. That way the visible change will be usable with an Add-on change.

Thanks VIitS, I really appreciate the suggestions. I hadn't seen the new upgrade keywords as I have not upgraded AK in a while because I've been concentrating on learning FO4Edit.

 

That should actually work perfectly as I only want to change visible body types. My main goal is to have several different body types for many different outfits in order to give the impression of variety among people in the Commonwealth like slim, heavy, musculary, etc.

[VIitS]

 

I personally prefer using OMODs (that way you don't have a bunch of different version of it cluttering up the workbench). The only downside is, of course, the keyword cap. What I would suggest (if you don't want to contribute to anyone's cap) is to use the keywords provided by Armorsmith Extended/AWKCR, but also use (i.e. make everything use two ma keywords) a vanilla weapon ma keyword. That way it will only show as an option for your armor.

 

What keywords you should use would depend on what the mesh change is/if you want it paired with an effect (i.e. if you want adding carry weight to add on a backpack mesh you should use one of the AEC_ap_CarryWeight keywords for the category), and then could just use any of the ma keywords (so the addon one is fine). ma keywords just determine if a mod should be attachable to a weapon/armor, so as long as your armor has the ma keyword it will be able to equip mods using that keyword. The ap keywords are the ones that define category.

 

If you want it to just be a visible change without affecting stats, I'd suggest using one of the recently added "Upgrade" keywords in the main ArmorKeywords.esm file. That way the visible change will be usable with an Add-on change.

Thanks VIitS, I really appreciate the suggestions. I hadn't seen the new upgrade keywords as I have not upgraded AK in a while because I've been concentrating on learning FO4Edit.

 

That should actually work perfectly as I only want to change visible body types. My main goal is to have several different body types for many different outfits in order to give the impression of variety among people in the Commonwealth like slim, heavy, musculary, etc.

 

That's a pretty good way to go about it (if a bit tedious). If you want it to be randomized (like for raiders/gunners/settlers/etc...), OMODs should definitely work great. I believe you can make it randomly mix and match mods each time it spawns, so you'd be able to add the armor to 5 people's inventories and (potentially) have 5 different body types applied. A good example of this can be seen in the Weaponsmith Extended main file (you don't need any of the listed mods if you are just looking at it in FO4Edit), specifically the tactical shotgun (xx0878da). If you scroll down to the Unknown (OBTE?) section (right under APPR- Keywords), and then scroll down to the "Random" combination, it shows how it would work.

 

Basically, you create an OMOD and add the <Unknown: 7> record flag to it, which tells the game it is a mod collection rather than an actual mod, then add all the options for a given category (i.e. that use the same ap keyword). Weaponsmith Extended is also a great example of these (any OMOD starting with modcol in the editor ID). At a guess, the first unknown value sets the likelihood of that particular option spawning versus another option (e.g. vanilla vs busty vs slim).

 

I haven't done anything with modcol OMODs or that section of the weapon/armor records, so if you can't get something to work the way you want it to Gambit77 (the maker of said mod) knows a lot more about how it works than I do.