SSE Vanilla Armor, Gear, and Weapons replacer (practical mode)

[DivineAurora]

So I was searching for mods along these lines, and couldn't really find quite what I was looking for, although a few things do things related to it.

 

Leanwolf's better shaped weapons is an example of something not quite going far enough, but does some of what I want.

 

Another example is the Practical Female Armors mod, doing something I want, but not everything.

 

Essentially I want to make high quality replacements for vanilla weapons, armor, clothing, and other character gear, both male and female, to go along with facial and body mods and such.

 

I want these replacements to be more practical designs, with whole new meshes and high res textures (or at least higher res than the vanilla ones).

 

They'd still have similar themes to the looks, for instance, helmet that originally had horns would still have horn designs or maybe much smaller horns (sticking out less than an inch and smoothed over and not curved so they don't catch on stuff or get gabbed by opponents to break your neck), glass armor would still have flange/wing design things, but they'd be flat against the armor, rather than sticking out.

 

Weapons would look like they are properly balanced and weighted and sharp, and have some design features that hint at their original forms, but still within practical limits, made of whatever appropriate materials there are to the weapon type. One handed versions would be of the proper size and shape for a real world one-handed weapon of that type, for instance, 'longswords' would be shaped and sized like historical arming swords, then two-handed weapons would be properly sized and shaped for personal use versions, rather than battlefield use versions, of historical weapons, things that an adventurer would concievably use in the close quarters of a dungeon, for instance, a two handed sword would be closer to the design of a historical longsword, rather than a historical claymore or whatnot, and bows would generally be the size of short-bows or hunting type bows of the sort you could use on horseback or sneaking through the woods and such. I'd also consider re-naming the two-handed swords to longswords and the one-handed ones to arming swords, or something along those lines, and changing names of any bows noted to be a longbow to appropriate shortbow names. But I'd only do this if it isn't likely to interfere with other stuff. Otherwise I'd just stick with the cosmetic alterations and accept Elder Scrolls naming conventions being different from the real world.

 

Chainmail and other metals would not stick out over open skin, but have some kind of clear cloth or other material under-layer to prevent chafing and other issues, and chain-mail would be detailed enough to be noticeably riveted, rather than butted versions.

 

Weapons with lots of bits sticking out, like the daedric weapons, could still have some serated parts, but only to practical degrees for increasing damage, not to the point that it's likely to get stuck in every foe slain or hurt the wielder even with normal practical weapons use.

 

More practical vanilla designs would be changed as little as possible, so long as the result is fully practical, but they would be made with higher quality textures and meshes.

 

Weapon and armor stats would be unchanged, although I would consider changing weapon hit-box type stuff so that adjustments to their visual sizes and shapes match when they hit opponents.

 

I'd want to make sure armor of various types is properly covering, for both male and female versions, especially in the cold climes of skyrim, certain ones having proper gambesons underneath and such, rather than have so many people who are wearing armor over that slot looking half-way undressed to the point you wonder if the armor really does that much. Even the Skaal, a group of Nords with frost resistance, wear full fur clothing, I don't see why random bandits, especially non-Nord ones should be running around even the slightly warmer parts of Skyrim half-clothed, especially if such a thing is counted as armor. Sure, some versions might cover less for certain armors, like random bandit furs, but I think they should perhaps at least wear cloth short-sleeved shirts underneath, even if parts of their arms and the neckline are a bit bare to still show off some of the chest on certain versions that previously showed most of the torso, maybe being cut off high enough as well to show a bit of the belly too, but certainly better covered that the vanilla versions.

 

Armor wouldn't ever have spiky bits sticking out that could be grabbed by opponents or catching on surroundings. It would have proper joints when needed and such to ensure flexibility. Females wouldn't have 'deflect into heart' boob armor, but they wouldn't be completely flatted down like the Practical Female Armors mod, the armor could still be a bit shaped, just not with an indent in the middle or curving under the boobs as if it's pretending to be a bra as well (since that would restrict movement and cause problems when dealing with rigid armor and trying to bend forward).

 

Some parts of armor may want to have a bit of physics applied for certain armors.

 

Any vanilla movements armor and clothing should be compatible with, and not clipping like crazy or looking too stupid with stuff like arm and particularly leg movements, especially when crouching and in combat stances that a lot of them have problems with, if such things can be fixed.

 

Items the player can craft, particularly a lot of the orcish stuff, shouldn't look super old and worn and beaten up. I'd consider if it doesn't interfere too much with stuff to make it so that the player-created versions and ones purchased from smiths might be separate versions that look newer than the ones purchased from other vendors or looted, but to keep things simple, I'd rather just replace them all with the newer looking replacement set. They can be relatively simple and practical in design and perhaps somewhat unfinished looking in ways appropriate to orcish design and culture, but looking 'pre worn' when your character just crafted them is going a bit too far. This applies to other weapons and armor that can be player crafted or purchased from smiths (rather than ones that just appear on loot lists and from other vendors who don't actually create them, those can look older and worn and damaged), since I'm pretty sure some things besides some of the orcish stuff has this issue as well, even if I can't recall off the top of my head.

 

The stuff should have their new models in the menus as well, in a consistent manner of how they are presented there, likely properly stacked, laid down, or folded up when appropriate and without weird solid spaces filling them like a lot of vanilla stuff has.

 

In general, where changes aren't needed for practical reasons, they shouldn't be made, such as random color changes or extra or different designs in already practical parts of the stuff, new designs should only be incorporated to replace impractical bits, and should resemble that impractical bit in some way, such as horn-shape etching or bumps replacing actual horns on helmets.

 

I'd also consider making it so that there are separate/modified models for kajit and argonians for a lot of the clothing, to accommodate for things like tails and different head-shapes, if such isn't likely to interfere with other modding related issues.

 

Stuff should perhaps also be designed in ways appropriate to their materials in a practical sense, such as perhaps parts of glass armor being rearranged to take into account the idea that the material might be very rigid, so avoiding more flexible parts of the suit, but also likely to shatter in a way that absorbs force if hit too hard, so designed so that the wearer isn't as affected if that happens, broken bits likely to either be held in place or go away from the wearer, rather than be driven into them.

 

Even the dwarven stuff should be made more practical and flexible, if with a similar style and theme to it so that it doesn't look out-of-place in dwarven ruins and stuff and with their magi-tech steampunk vibe and wonky serious-dude mask thing going on for the helmets.

 

Skyrim characters should still have proper figures approriate to the body mods the wearables might be linked to, female armor can still hug curves a bit, enough to hint at the figure in heavy armor, and show it off in some of the light armors, particularly more flexible and tight-fitting things like leather, but only so long as it wouldn't be a design that would interfere with the armor's function for armors.

 

Clothing on the other hand should cover roughly what it does in vanilla, clothing designs should stick as close to vanilla as possible, other than increasing quality of textures and perhaps adding bits of physics and stuff. It should have the same designs and patterns and colors, but more accurately reflect the apparent materials, and probably handle character movements better, and look less derpy when characters are doing things other than standing. Minor design changes are acceptable to allow for this, like wider lower areas and/or slits for robes and dresses to make crouching and stuff not get too wonky, especially if physics can be done to make things look and work right.

 

I'd also consider to have characters by default be wearing a cleaner and newer looking version of the vanilla undergarments if they are stripped in this setup, at least for NPCs, which is higher res and other quality improvements but basically the same design.

 

Essentially, the idea is to stick as close to vanilla as possible while making things higher quality and make more sense in terms of practicality, in order to improve immersion for someone who actually knows some things about weapons and armor.