Version 1.1 (probably the final version)

This mods adds a new set of armor to the game, the Brotherhood Metal Armor, including a retextured version.
The armor set is intended to be the new standard armour for the Brotherhood initiates. It is integrated into the game world through various means:
Aquisition through a lore friendly quest, bridging base game BoS content, as well as giving it to the initiates (mostly in the Citadel.) It is not integrated in leveled lists or vendors by purpose, it is supposed to be a BoS exclusive armor.

This mod is based upon FavoredSouls Brotherhood Metal Armor, as well as base game material (I didn't create any new meshes, but did a lot of texturing)
The actual basis of this mod was the FO:NV port uploaded by warkiller75 (  https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/16613   )



Content (short version)

Items:

• Brotherhood Metal Armor: Changed armor model, also covering the arms (no longer requires Breeze male body replacer).
• Male and female model
  

• Matching retextured helmet
• New pip boy icons
  

• A retextured version used as a replacer for the Apocalypse Gladiator Armor
  

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Gameplay / Aquisition:

!! Important Note: none of my new dialogues are voiced, you need to turn on the dialogue subtitles or you will have no clue what's going on !!

• Aquisition through a short quest, starting in Falls Church (where you encounter BOS fighting supermutants and are asked to help rescue the cut-off initiate): Either help and start the quest to get a uniqe version of the BMA, or refuse/fail and loot the (normal) armor from the dead initiate.                   (I had to do a lot of debuging on that base game mini quest, most branches (refusing to help / failing) didn't work properly or lead to finishing the questline as if you had succeded. I made varius alterations to make the first mini quest stage more reliable (see below) but Hoss might still have wayfinding problems when traveling to the building entrance). Be warned: The muties inside the building are more numerous and tougher, but you might be able to sneak around them as a formerly blocked off corridor is now freed of the rubble piles.
  

If you have already done the Falls Church encounter before installing this mod, you are fine if:

• You succesfully rescued the initiate and spoke to Hoss afterwards: Speak to Paladin Bael at the Citadel gate, select *Paladin hoss send me to you with this letter."
• The lost initiate died (from not helping) but you didn't loot his armor: You should be able to loot the normal Brotherhood Metal Armor from him.
  

• You can also pick up the armor in the citadell: in the laboratory side room with the work bench
• The initiates in the citadel now use the brotherhood metal armor instead of the recon armor.
  

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• The Apocalypse Gladiator found its way into the ranks of the raiders. A defected Brotherhood Initiate with his old armor as well as his combat training. The apocalypse gladiator armor grants more damage reduction and melee ability, but also increases your weapon sway.
  

• If you like the metal n' rust texture better than the original one, but prefer your guns to be accurate: You have the unique oportunity to buy a non-unique retextured version from a certain (base game) raider merchant.
  

Requirements

Vanilla version: none (Fallout3.esm)

FWE version: Fallout Wanderer Edition.esm , CALIBRE (required for FWE as well)


Compatibility

I tried to make this mod as compatible as possible:
Overwrites were used only where necessary (Apocalypse Gladiator Armor, giving the BMA to the initiates in the Citadel and Falls Church). Most quest related stuff in my mod is handled through new quests and new dialogue, leaving the base game content untouched. Except for the Falls Church mini quest, which turned out to be a bug festival halfe way through mod development. A lot of the base game dialogue entries there have been changed (well, mostly their script parts setting quest stages and variables), as well as a lot of aspects to the involved NPCs (AI packages, script, class, equipment, setting and unsetting essential status or beeing part of the "player" faction).
I play a heavyly modded game with (among othes) UoFP, FWE, EVE, MMM, P:Beauty. All I found was the following:

• This mod overwrites the changes project beauty makes to the initiates in the citadel.
• Overwrites changes made by MMM to the second BoS knight in Falls Church (no increased BoS spawns)
  

• Incompatible with any other "Apocalypse Gladiator Armor" replacer (the last one loaded wins)
  

• Mods that change the base game quest "FreeformDC" might be incompatible: 
  

(It handles several small encounters and miniquests: Falls Church encounter, Arlington Library books trading, turning in BOS holotags,
Mirelurk hunters and Yao-Guai hunters. Apart from changeing most base game topics in falls church. I also added new quest stages which was neccesary to debug the falls church encounter. it is the only mini quest of those mentioned above using the quest stages, the other ones are handled through conversation toppics and the quest script, and I did NOT change the quest script.)Therefore, it is likely that other mods tapping in this quest are compatible, but possible that they are not. Please report if you find any incompatibilities.


Installation:

Install / uninstall with mod manager

Manually (not recommended): copy the contents of the archive into the Fo3 data folder. Deinstallation: Remove the .esp and the new directorys from the data folder structure


Credits

• FavoredSoul created the Brotherhood Metal Armor
  

• warkiller75 ported it from FO:NV  https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/16613
  

This mod is based on his port

• The arms, the gloves and the helmet are base game meshes
• The textures of the arms, gloves and helmet were created or modified by me,
  heavily using assets from FavouredSoul and Bethesdas base game material

Thanks:

To FavoredSould for allowing me to upload this mod
Gimp (Gnu image manipulation program) development team for this great pice of free open source software (and the creators of the gimp .dds plugin)
The same goes for the NifSkope team
Bethesda for their commitment to the modding comunity


Planned features:

A "More quests all in one" hook-in: Giving the Brotherhood Initiate from this mod the new armor and allowing you to obtain the unique BMA if you finish his (more interesting) quest line instead of my boring one.
(as an optional .esp)

A Brotherhood of Steel leveled list overhaul, allowing to encounter a few initiates with the new armor on all player levels (as an optional .esp)



Content (long version)

Balancing:

Object Effects:

• All armor variants: agility -1
  

• Apocalypse Gladiator Armor: melee +5, unarmed +5, endurance +1;
• Apocalypse Gladiator Helmet: base crit chance +3 for melee and unarmed weapons
• Your Brotherhood Metal Armor: energy weapons +5, big guns +5, charisma +1
• Your Brotherhood Metal Helmet: +5% damage with energy weapons or big guns
  

Vanilla:

• Helmets:                                     Weight   3, DR   6 
• normal armor variants:  Weight 33; DR 37
  

• Your Brotherhood Metal Armor:   Weight 33; DR 38
• Apocalypse Gladiator Armor:       Weight 34; DR 39   weapons spread -0.025 (increased spread like -5 skill points)
  

FWE:

• Helmets:                                     Weight   3, DR   6 
• normal armor variants:  Weight 40; DR 40
  

• Your Brotherhood Metal Armor:   Weight 40; DR 41
• Apocalypse Gladiator Armor:       Weight 42; DR 46  weapons spread -0.08 (increased spread like -10 skill points for FWE default preset)
  

Without other mods it is the most protective FWE non-power armor, slightly more DR and a lot more weight than the combat armor mark II heavy (DR 38, weight 33).
Repair:
With: metal armor, combat armor, talon combat armor, brotherhood metal armor, apocalypse gladiator armor
FWE: + repair parts

Gameplay /Aquisition

My goal was to make this armor an immersife part of the game. As a Brotherhood related armor it should'nt be available from vendors or such, and the encounter with Paladin Hoss in Falls Church was the only base game event that came to my mind where the player puts the Brotherhood in his debt. But the Brotherhood isn't the kind of organization that gives away its equipment and especially its uniforms that easyly. Thats one reason why I decided for Bael to send you on another quest. The other one is that the balance of the armor is mid game level on par with the raily rangers armor (FWE: above), so I found that a little more effort / delay to get it is in place for balancing reasons. (Thats alos the reason I found it appropriate to put more super muties in the office building and setting all of them from easy to hard...)

The apocalypse gladiator armor version is the reason this mod exists. I searched for an armor that looks like a better version of the metall armor, even more protective than the (FWE mk II) combat armor, to accompany a melee overhaul mod I am working on: The main problem of going melee is taking damage (which is appropriate for a game with firearms. But to make melee focused builds more viable (especially in FWE) I wanted an apocalypse gladiator armor that was in between the combat armor mk II and the power armors, but discourages non-melee usage (hence the weapon spread penalty).

The Apocalypse Gladiator is supposed to be sort of a mini boss (at least for lower level players), with a level of 15, armor condition of 80% as well as the toughness and nerd rage perks and a little surprise, he should be both tough and pack a punch. Well, sentry bots are still tougher, at least in FWE.


Base game Falls Church encounter:

I realized how buggy it is only after I finished large parts of my acquisition quest, because it is the branches where the player rejects to help or failes the quest that did not work properly. Apart from debuging those quest branches, I made the initial phase more reliable:

• Paladin Hoss is set to essential so he does'nt die in the initial battle with the super mutants (with FWE and MMM he died every single time I tried). The essential flag will be removed once he arrives at his destination at the parking lot.
• If the player accepts to help rescue the initiate, Hoss and the other BOS knight are added to the player faction. They will be removed from the player faction once the initiate leaves the building or dies. Reason: there are cars right beside Hoss's travel destination and a mutant spawns behind these cars. If you shoot at that mutant and set the cars on fire and they explode later while Hoss is slacking off right behind them, he turns hostile on the player, causing you to fail the mini quest ( and blocking off my acquisition quest)
• Paladin Hoss is set to the BOS paladin heavy weapons template, so he is equiped and skilled ike a paladin on every player level.
• Debugging the mini quest architecture (setting of quest stages and quest variables depending on dialogue and player action / making dialogue lines dependable on those quest stages and variables). It appears as the quest structure was changed from beeing hadled by quest variables to quest stages, but in an inapropriate way. Asking for a reward prevented Hoss from progressing to the parking lot. If the player accepts the mission but the initiate dies the quest progressed as if the initiate was rescued.
• The phase where Hoss travels to the parking lot is still wonky: he might have wayfinding problems or get stuck in an AI conflict. If that happens: just clear the parking lot on your own, enter the building and save the initiate, when you leave the building Hoss will be at the required position (at least he was everytime I tested that.)
• It was almost impossible to fail except on purpose, one would need to run through the mutants and qickly do the dialogue with Pek. Thats the main reason why I opened up the corridor that allows the player to sneak around them: to allow you to fail sneaking out again, loosing Pek (aint I nice?).
• Bonus features:
• • I eddided the skript attached to Hoss, enabeling a surprise behaviour in a specific gameplay situation.
  • I added an AI package to the initiate Pek, now he will follow Hoss when Hoss escortes you around Falls Church.
    
  
  

Meshes / texture changes to the NV-port version uploaded by Warkiller75  (ttps://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/16613)

• The naked arms are replaced with the meshes from the base game metal armor
  and carefully adapted new textures based on the source material of the BMA

• Therefore, the mod no longer requires the Breeze male body replacer
  

• It now includes a female version
• For both male and female version the x dimension of the torso and leg armor
  is rescaled: broader for male version, slimmer for female version

• It comes with a matching helmet (a retextured version of the vanilla female metal helmet)
  

• The gloves (base game metal armor) got some new chain mail textures for the upper side of the hand
  

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• A retextured version intended as a Apocalypse Gladiator Armor replacer
  (steel and rust: The upper body part is mostly a heavy modification of the brightness and color composition of the original texture, with new specular and environment mapping textures. The legs were then retextured with parts of the upper body material. The male arm plates are a mixture of these techniques, the female arm plates and the helmet are color and brightness changed versions of the vanilla textures. All armor parts got new specular maps (light reflection intensity) and environment mapping textures for a proper metal shinyness )

If you wonder why I spend so much time to release an armor mod: stuard made a good point that it is boring to just drop ne items somewhere in tha game world and proved that by making his fun mod for the chinese heavy armor ( https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/22652 ) giving it as well as the machinegun to the remnant soldiers in mama dolces, turning that space in a death zone even for higher level players.
And because I am a fanboy of FavoredSouls Brotherhood Metal Armor: when I started to overhaul it, I wanted to make it an appropriate release...