Keyword Attachment Guide

This guide will go through how to attach UAEE keywords to equipment in xEdit. If you've ever attached Frostfall keywords to armor, this will be a very similar process.


1.) Open up xEdit (i.e. SSEEdit or TESVEdit), and load the plugin which adds the cloaks or other accessories to which you want to add enchantment support, as well as this mod's plugin, Unified Accessory Enchantment Enabler.esp.


2.) On the left side of the window will be a tree view with all the plugins you've loaded, and on the right side will be a pane full of arcane log messages. Click the button by the name of the plugin you're patching to expand it, and then expand the Armor subsection.


3.) Find the first entry for a piece of armor or clothing you want to add enchantments to: the right pane will fill up with info when you click it. This contains data including the item's name, armor rating, weight, value, which slots it occupies - and its keywords.


4.) If you're making a patch for someone else's mod, continue to step (4a.). If you're editing your own mod, you can edit the original plugin directly and can skip to step (5.).

4a.) If you're making a patch for someone else's mod, you'll need to make a separate patch plugin rather than editing and redistributing the original. For each piece of armor that needs a UAEE keyword, right-click it in the left pane and select, "Copy as override into...". Ctrl+click to select multiple, or Shift+click to select everything between your earlier selection and the new selection.

4b.) A menu will appear asking which files you want to add the copied record into. Choose the the third option labelled "<new file>.esp", which has the ESL column filled and the ESM column empty. This will create a new ESPFE light plugin containing your copied records - give it an informative name. Select it from the list later if you need to override more records.

4c.) When you click one of the overridden records in either plugin where it appears, two copies of the data will appear in adjacent columns, labeled with the name of the plugin that each comes from. You'll be editing the right column, under the name of your new plugin.


5.) Before you can attach any UAEE keywords, you'll need to add a copy of the ones you need to your plugin. The keywords are injected into Update.esm, which means that as long as you provide your own identical copy of them, your plugin doesn't need to include mine as a master. This allows mods to be built with out-of-the-box support, without having two versions for users with and without my framework.

5a.) Since the keywords are injected into Update, you'll need to have Update as a master for your patch. If it isn't already, right-click your plugin's name and select Add Master, then choose Update.esm. Then right-click the name again and choose Sort Masters. If you're making a separate patch plugin, you may want to give yours the same requirements as the original, e.g. if the original mod requires Dawnguard and Dragonborn, so too will your patch.

5b.) Expand Unified Accessory Enchantment Enabler.esp, and find the keyword(s) you need. For example, if you're adding support for cloaks, you'll want to use UAEE_EnchWornKywd_Cloaks. Then return to your plugin and add a new keyword: if you don't yet have a keywords group, right-click your plugin's name and select Add, then scroll down to find KYWD. Then right-click that and select Add again.

5c.) You'll be asked to choose a FormID - make this the same as the FormID of the keyword you need. For UAEE_EnchWornKywd_Cloaks, this would be 01AEE000. If all goes well, your new keyword will now appear as an override of the one from UAEE. Make sure that all the data is the same in both columns.


6.) Finally, you can return to your armor record and scroll down to the list of keywords. Right-click the blank space over the first item in the list and select Add, then double-click the NULL item and replace it with the name of the one you've copied (xEdit will offer auto-complete, to avoid typos).


7.) When you've done this for all the pieces of armor and clothing that need it, save your new plugin with Ctrl+S before closing the program. The plugin you've made will appear in your Data folder, or in the appropriate virtual folder if you're using Mod Organizer. Organize it however is appropriate, re-sort and re-patch your plugins as needed, and head ingame to check that everything works as expected.