In this tutorial we will go through how to create totally new types of armor, well.. kinda, we will still use the basic models that came with the game.. In this example we will make a new type of light armor.. Spidersilk.

Before you start: As i showed you in the Racemaking tutorial (if you read that), making a dir for your files is highly recommended make a new directory (called MOD in this example) andrecreate the basic directory tree you see in Morrowind.

	MOD

	--Game Data

	----Meshes

	------A

	----Textures

Copy the textures and models you want to work with from the editor cd (or local editor dir)into their appropriate dirs

In my case i wanted to make a new type of light armor, that would give my char a more thievish look. So i decided to use those dark brown stealth suits as a base i copied ALL the meshes and skins from C_Commonshirt_C3 and C_commonpants_4 (i think, writing this from the top of my head)

NOTE: there are both male and female versions of many of the models, if you want females to have a more female like set of clothesyou have to edit a second set of files using the female versions of the models.

Remember the file structure

Textures -> mod/gamedata/textures
Meshes -> mod/gamedata/meshes/a

Renaming Models & Skins
first i renamed the models to A_Spidersilk_(S for shirt P for Pants)_(part) because i think bethesda's naming system works pretty good in identifying the files afterwards.
Rename files to something appropriate, remember to keep the filenames at roughly the same length as this simplifies hex editing

The part bit:
UA - upper arm
LA - lower arm
LL - lower leg
UL - upper leg
w - wrist
g - groin
c - chest
a - ankle

now it doesnt neccecarily have to be like that but it works eh :D now do the same to the textures, then open them all up.. i did something rather simple with mine, i darkened the pictures and grayscaled them..

NOTE: if you're making a second model for females you do NOT have to use a different texture, simply hex edit the models to use the same one.

example:

the models
A_Spidersilk_FS_C
A_Spidersilk_MS_C

Both use texture
A_Spidersilk_S_C

After i finished naming my files i started hex editing the models to use my newly created textures. Hex edit the model files to use the new textures.
For information on hex editing models, please refer to the Hex Editing tutorial.

I copied all the files in the mods dir into my game dir and fired up the editor to start the actual armor making (if you copy the game data from the mods dir just paste it in the morrowind root folder) Here comes the part that people fail to notice - armor parts must be created as a body part before they can be pieced together as armor.
Create new body parts with your newly made models

Load up your models, name them appropriately and remember to tick the ARMOR tag, for the female armor (if you made that) tick the FEMALE tag too. Now with all my body parts done I switched to the armor tag and made a 'new' item.
Switch to the armor tab and right click -> new

The Bipedal model part on the right is the actual model and placement, as you can see you get a full list of appropriate body parts for that area. I.E if you looked at the model for chests, you would only find chest pieces

for the world art, use the models ending with _GND.nif if you want you can also make a custom icon for your armor and put it in the Gamedata/Icons/A folder
then add appropriate AF, price & hp values, and add a script or enchantment if needed

Now, for my spidersilk armor i decided to make it a bit different from other armor, since it essentially is strong clothing, I included the upper arms of the shirt in the torso part, deleted the lower arms , and i also added some retextured shoulder guards from the Boiled netch armor greaves. The greaves are attached to the Clavicle part btw.. took me a while to figure that out :P

now.. if you were to add a pair of other greaves to this armor ingame. the arm and shoulder part will be exchanged with the greaves part Essentially you can make a complete armor set that is worn from a single location, khajiit suits anyone :P

As always, if you have any questions or comments on this tutorial, send me a mail at Tordstorlien@hotmail.com.