im not sure if i asked this over a year ago when i first started playing around with mods but i would like to take clothing already available in the vanilla version and change them into armor. dont want to change the way they look - just the way the game designates it so i can change the base AF and add stats from there. i dont have a hex editor so i dont understand the tutorial i found online and it doesnt really explain step by step how to do it. i figured it would be really simple but its ended up being very difficult for me. any and all help would be awesome.

There are two stages, neither terribly complicated (three if you count research).

For each clothing object, open it in the CS, and find what body parts are used.
For each body part, open it, change to armor, change the ID, and save.
Then create a new armor object with the new body parts.

The will create armor from the clothing.

Now, if you want to just replace it, things get somewhat more complicated. You'll need a hex editor or other file editor and replace IDs, and it may crash the game. It's much simpler and safer to make clones as the new type and use them when/where necessary. If you have to do a replacer, we may be able to figure something out.

Just go into the Body Part file, find your clothing type (a robe being the simplest), change that [Part Type] to armor, assign a unique ID, and save. Go to the Armor Tab, right-click-> new, and assign values. This will logically be a cuirass, so assign your unique body file to the chest [Biped Object]. Left and right ankle are selected without a model (not sure why... Maybe for animation). Save the file.

[edit]

Forgot to mention; you will also need to set a 1st person file for the body type as well. IIRC the naming convention is very unforgiving towards the game engine, e.g.

aaa_armor_robe_1
aaa_armor_robe_1.1st

This would be the proper method.

Good luck!

[edit]

Didn't even see PK's post... :facepalm: