Per chryselephantine's request in the posts section, I went ahead and edited the Institute recruiter in the main quest "Dangerous Minds" to wear the antique uniform. I'm sure some won't want that, so I've made it an optional update to the main download. See the screenshots if you're not sure what I'm talking about (but beware of spoilers if you haven't played too far into the main quest yet... 3+ years after the game was released.)

Installation is pretty straightforward: Download whichever file corresponds to your version of the main file--ESL or ESP--and let it overwrite the original plugin.


If you use Niero's CROSS Institute Expeditionary Suit, it also overwrites the entry for the memory recruiter. Normally, whichever file comes last in your load order should win that conflict but, long story short, because of the way Niero has been setting up his plugins since the ESL format debuted, some combinations of his file and mine will result in his winning the conflict no matter what. To prevent this, just rename Niero's plugin file from "CROSS_InstituteExpeditionarySuit.esp" to "CROSS_InstituteExpeditionarySuit.esl" and make sure it's somewhere above mine in the load order.

Also, all you talented screen archers: feel free to post your own screenshots. I've set it to have no approval requirement, so they should go up as soon as you add them.

BACKGROUND/LORE

I'm actually not a huge Institute fan as far as gameplay goes, since I tend to err more on the overtly heroic side when I play (too many superhero comics, I guess).  But I do like a lot about how the Institute is presented in Fallout 4.  I particularly like the sense of history you get from them, viewing flashbacks into their past and getting a lot of context for their actions and what led to their current state from various characters.  You can draw a pretty clear, well-informed line from their origins as the CIT's surviving personnel to their current status as the sinister (or "misunderstood," if you prefer) underground oligarchy of the Institute.  So the Institute was kind of cool to me but not a particularly important part of my playthroughs for a long time.

Then I saw Niero's utterly stellar CROSS_InstituteExpeditionarySuit.

I absolutely loved that he integrated Bethesda's concept art into the game in a lore-friendly way by portraying the Institute as so wary of the surface world that they would only send agents up in heavily armored hazmat suits.  But obviously the aesthetic is very different from what the Institute embraces today.  So I used Niero's mod and more of Bethesda's concept art (top of this description) as a springboard to come up with what I think the members of the Institute might've worn around their base back in the day (before they decided color is the enemy).

It's basically the Synth Uniform's layout with a color scheme like the concept art, although I dropped some darker blues in for a little more visual flair.  I gave it a rougher texture and more leathery padding too.  My reasoning is that the Institute probably took some time to develop the tools and processes that give them nigh-unlimited resources underground.  Given that and the absence of any normal pre-war clothing among this society that's been almost entirely isolated since the bombs dropped, I imagine that back in the day they had to cannibalize whatever clothing they'd salvaged--made of wools, linens, cottons, etc.--to manufacture these things whenever some early director (arbitrarily?) decided they should all wear uniforms.  (I know, I come up with way too much unnecessary head-canon.  It's a deep-seated character flaw.)

LOCATION

The replacer obviously just replaces all of the Synth Uniforms, so you can get one wherever you'd get a Synth Uniform.

The standalone version places one suit on a cabinet in the personal quarters of a certain sentimental old fellow you could call "a child at heart" in the Institute.  (It's Father.  I'm talking about Father.)  See the picture for a better idea of the exact location.

There are also 3 suits for sale from the synth vendor in the Institute who sells you armor and weapons (i.e. NOT the food guy).  You know, in case you want to dress companions up or whatever.

INSTALLATION

Choose ONLY ONE of the main files, as they are mutually exclusive.  I mean, their changes are identical, so theoretically I guess you could use both and they'd just do the same thing with the ESP overwriting the ESL, but... why?  Basically, the ESL is the "real" main file because this mod is tiny and ESLs are a godsend if your load order is as jam-packed as mine.  The ESP option is available for those who need to place it somewhere particular in their load order, are using an older game version or mod manager that doesn't support ESLs, or just don't like ESLs, for whatever reason (to each their own; I don't know your life).

I made the replacer an optional file because you can either use it independently to only replace all the Synth Uniforms, or you can use it with either of the two standalone options to replace the Synth Uniforms AND pick up a free version from the world placement.

Whichever option(s) you choose, they're all straightforward 7zip archives with the appropriate file structure.  You can choose to install any of the downloads manually by extracting the contents into your FO4/Data folder, or you can use pretty much any mod manager for FO4 to do it for you.  (Personally, I recommend the latter because A) it's more efficient, B) I'm staggeringly lazy, or C) both.  I'll let you decide.)


I did my best to place the suit in a spot that's lore-friendly but unobtrusive.  I was particularly cautious of the many, many, (many, many, many) changes to the Director's Quarters that Elianora made in her Faction Housing Overhaul - Institute Director's Quarters, since I know a lot of people use it--myself included.  

The synth vendor sells the suits via direct insertion into his inventory.  Unfortunately, this makes it incompatible with any other mod that changes his inventory unless you make a merge patch.  Sorry, but I'm very much a novice at anything more than minor edits to other people's plugins, so my skills just aren't up to injecting the suits via script or quest or any of the more sophisticated methods that better modders use.

If you can't see them in his inventory but want more than just the one suit in the Director's Quarters, I'd heavily recommend something like the In-Game ESP Explorer (or OddsAndEnds - Modded Items Merchant, if you want a more immersive option).

As far as body replacers like CBBE, the outfit is just a material/texture alteration.  It covers the whole body, so it shouldn't have any wonky texturing issues with body replacers either.  I have no idea how to make BodySlide files, but it uses the vanilla Synth Uniform mesh, which I didn't alter in any way.  So if you rebuild the Synth Uniform mesh to your liking in BodySlide, my texture should still work fine, as long as you don't somehow change the UV mapping or retexture it in NifSkope or anything like that.

TOOLS USED

• Bought the game and all its DLC, then extracted the Synth Uniform's textures and materials from the official HD DLC's BA2 files as a starting point using Bethesda's official Archive2 tool.
• Edited and then exported the textures using GIMP and its handy-dandy DDS plugin.
• Added the item, placed it, and created the game plugins (both ESP and ESL format) with the Creation Kit.
• Cleaned the plugins with FO4Edit.
• Profited!  (But not really, as the permissions section says.)
  

THANKS/MENTIONS

Obviously, this mod owes a big debt to Niero for his Institute Expeditionary Suit.  I didn't take any assets from it, but it definitely fired my imagination.  I'm sure he doesn't need it, but I'd heartily encourage everyone to check out his work and drop him a kudos for enriching the FO4 mod scene to a pretty high degree.

This video from svaalbard (insane0hflex) was immensely helpful in showing me how to create new items and place objects in the game world.

I also got a lot of invaluable technical insight into the Creation Kit from Bethesda's Creation Kit Wiki and our very own Nexus Mods Wiki.

Nukapedia, the unofficial Fallout wiki, was helpful for references and pictures.

I'd like to thank Snow tha Product, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Disney, whose Pandora stations made for some good listening over the hours I worked on this thing.

Oh, and he has nothing to do with this mod but I'll also give a shout-out to Al ChestBreach, whose videos keep me engaged in all of Bethesda's games when I'm not actually playing them myself.