Disclaimer for Fellow Mod Authors

The chunk value that I have assigned to this mod is 84. Oblivion Remastered is my first time modding anything regarding Unreal Engine, so I am not sure if only one plugin can claim the same chunk value. If that is the case, hopefully this information helps in case you run into compatibility issues with this mod.

Bug Fixes

Makes the Imperial Watch set and the Imperial Palace Cuirass lootable and playable. This bug was also present in the original Oblivion, so it's no shock that it was carried over into this remaster as well.

Restores the unique textures for the Imperial Palace Cuirass. While the unique textures were created for the remaster, the Imperial Palace Cuirass instead showed the same textures as the Imperial Watch Cuirass. This was due to incorrect texture paths for its mesh. I also made sure to edit both the _f and _m meshes, so rest assured Body Type 1 and Body Type 2 are covered by the restoration.

Known Bugs

The pteruges (the flowy leather resembling a skirt) on the Imperial Palace Cuirass do not have physics. This issue is not terribly noticeable in actual gameplay, but it was an observation that I made. I believe that this is because the Imperial Watch Cuirass has proxy meshes associated with it, allowing physics. The Imperial Palace Cuirass unfortunately does not have proxy meshes in the game's files. I am not sure if I will be able to fix this issue. In case it is not clear, this is an issue with the base game, not caused by this mod. Because so little NPCs use the Imperial Palace Cuirass, it is not shocking that this small oversight made it to launch.

The Imperial Watch Cuirass has the same texture as the Imperial Palace Cuirass when dropped on the ground. Again, this is not a serious issue, but it may be annoying if you like to drop and display armor around your house. This has a higher probability of being fixed by me in the future.

Acquisition

The Imperial Watch Shield, Helmet, Cuirass, Gauntlets, Greaves, and Boots can all be acquired by looting a dead Palace Guard around the Imperial City Palace. It's up to you to figure out how a guard will meet their end—though my personal favorite method has always been making Umbra hostile and running all the way to the Imperial City Palace with her tailing you to take out some of the guards.

The Imperial Palace Cuirass is a bit more time-consuming. It only appears on a select few guards during The Ultimate Heist and Light the Dragonfires. Unfortunately, these quests are the final quests in the Thieves Guild questline and the main questline respectively. Additionally, the Imperial Palace Cuirass has the same stats as its Watch counterpart, thus making such a grind feel wasteful. Still, you now have the option to loot (and wear) it if you feel the need to be a collector.

Alternatively, you can spawn the armor pieces in with console commands.

Imperial Palace Cuirass: player.additem 00064F75 1

Imperial Watch Cuirass: player.additem 0018AE4C 1

Imperial Watch Boots: player.additem 0018AE4B 1

Imperial Watch Gauntlets: player.additem 0018AE4D 1

Imperial Watch Greaves: player.additem 0018AE4E 1

Imperial Watch Helmet: player.additem 0018AE4F 1

Imperial Watch Shield: player.additem 000653F7 1 (NOTE: Unlike the other armor pieces in the set, the Imperial Watch Shield is already lootable and playable in the base game. This console command is simply included in the list as a convenience.)

Installation

A Vortex installation should be as simple as clicking Mod manager download and using Vortex to deploy the mod once downloaded and installed.

For a manual installation, your .esp files should be located in \Oblivion Remastered\OblivionRemastered\Content\Dev\ObvData\Data. Once you have navigated to this folder, extract PlayableImperialWatchArmor.esp into it. Open Plugins.txt (located in the same folder) and add PlayableImperialWatchArmor.esp to the bottom of the list in order for the plugin to become active (if you have other mods, it should at least be going after all the game's plugins as well as the Altar plugins, but being above other plugins should be fine.)

For the impPalace84_P.pak, impPalace84_P.ucas, and impPalace84_P.utoc files, you should navigate to \Oblivion Remastered\OblivionRemastered\Content\Paks\~mods. Extract these files to this location.

Tools Used

TESIV Construction Set - Used to mark the Imperial Watch set and the Imperial Palace Cuirass as playable

Fix NL - Copy Name from Previous Override - xEdit Script by MadAborModding - xEdit script needed to remove the [NL] prefix that Oblivion Remastered applies to modded items

TES4Edit (aka xEdit) - Used to remove the [NL] prefix that Oblivion Remastered applies to modded items

FModel - Used to extract the meshes for the Imperial Palace Cuirass

Blender 4.4.1 - Used to correct the texture paths of the meshes for the Imperial Palace Cuirass

Unreal Editor 5.3.2 - Used to package the corrected meshes

UE4/5 Modding Guides - A good baseline to teach yourself the basics of getting started with FModel and Unreal Editor

Nordic Muscles by MikhailTeslov - Don't let the title fool you, the description for this mod has an in-depth guide for extracting and repackaging meshes

Special Thanks