Kaidan Fully Voiced Follower and Better Males Remesh Skyrim SE

[cwgortner]

Hoping for some advice. I really want to use a nude body mod to overwrite the original vanilla nude body of Kaidan Fully Voiced Follower, as I have for all characters in Skyrim. I finally got Better Males to work by doing it manually, as NMM wouldn't overwrite the BSA files (see more below), but for some reason, Kaidan's original ragged trousers just can't be overwritten or even deleted manually. The mod is packed into two BSAs and downloads with a corresponding plug-in esp. The mod creator states on the download page that he's "compatible" with Better Males Remesh SE, as she made no adjustments to his vanilla body other than two "scarring" body texture files I found in the unpacked BSA textures file.

I first tried the Better Males Remesh (BM) mod via NMM and it never asked to overwrite any of Kaidan's files, though it did work on my player character and every other male in Skyrim, so I left a slew of naked dead bandits in my wake. I then painstakingly modded the unpacked BSA files for Kaidan and the mods did take on his torso and feet - I tried different chest hair pattern textures to be sure. Everything worked after replacing his original files with the new loose texture and mesh files after unpacking the BSAs, which I've since discovered is controversial after copious online reading. However, after all this, when I remove his armor, he's still wearing his original ragged prisoner pants, which must be a texture, right? They're apparently glued onto him!

I'm pretty new to modding, but I've read countless guides, tutorials, etc. and modded other games successfully. So, I understand the basic concepts, even if I'm no expert. I'm also a quick learner as modding fascinates me. Thus far, I've only used NMM or modded manually, however. As stated earlier, with considerable trepidation I did unpack both the Kaidan BSAs to verify folder structure and contents, and then determine if the loose files might read without being BSAs, which made replacement of meshes and textures easier. This worked once I figured out the correct extraction method. But nothing I do can overwrite those ragged trousers, which are listed on his inventory via console but are unequipped and can't be deleted with the remove item command. I've gone through every one of his texture files, too, and nothing matches those trousers; trial and error removal of various clothing files hasn't helped. I haven't touched the esp because the game is reading the loose files fine - in fact, better and faster than the BSAs. This might be a really stupid question, but could those trousers be rigged into the esp somehow? Kaidan is fully voiced and wonderful, so I did reach out to the mod creator and haven't heard back. Because she said he's compatible, I assume she's okay with changing his nude body but I have no clue as to how to eliminate the trousers at this point. As his assets include voice files, I'm really wary of messing anything up.

I'd be grateful for any advice as to how go about eliminating Kaidan's ragged trousers. Clearly I'm lost. Could anyone help? I'd really appreciate it. I've spent hours and hours on this challenge. I'm very stubborn if I can't figure something out. Thanks much! I love modding my games, even when it's a major headache. Also, I don't have any other mods on Skyrim except Kaidan and Better Males and Females.

Edited March 23, 2018 by cwgortner

[eburakboz]

You can load "only" Kaidan.esp in Tes5Edit and go to armors on the left tab. Then find ragged trousers and ripped trousers and delete those entries altogether. Do the same for their corresponding armor addons and you are done. You can check which armor calls for which armor addon by looking at their Editor ID's. By doing this you delete his trousers (which apply a unique body texture for Kaidan) and now he takes whichever body texture overwrites your vanilla body (Better Males in your case).

 

When you do this Kaidan starts the game as nude and you can give him whatever armor you want by his dialogue options. However you may notice a neck seam after doing this depending on which body texture you load. I don't know how to fix that part :( But neck seam is only noticable when he doesn't wear any armor so normally it shouldn't be an issue (if he doesn't go around naked all the time :D) Also you can make it less noticable by giving him a huge necklace like Amulet of Arkay.

 

And I should add that these steps are valid for Legendary edition. But I don't think there would be any difference for SE.