Newbie moddin' question: Bandon's armor

[nunix]

So, I am absolutely positive this has been brought up approximately one million times before.. but since the FREAKIN' SEARCH FUNCTION IS DISABLED (obviously work of the Dark Side; my rage is certainly rising!) I'll have to ask it again. Gomen. -.-

Goal: turn Darth Bandon's armor into something the game recognises as simply a "robe"; i.e. have the texture and the stat modificiations without those pesky Force restriction penalties (since he ignores 'em too, dangit!)

Attempt:

Set up KOTOR Tool (handy! reminds me of some of the BG2 tools), found the Template/Item files (g_a_class4006 - 4008) and simply tried turning them from a base Defense 4 item to Jedi Knight robe. Saved the changed files as exactly the same name and popped it into the KOTOR\Overide folder.

Well, that didn't quite work.. the new robe dropped off Bandon when I beat his punk self, but.. the inventory icon is a blank white square, and the texture when worn is your default brown Jedi Knight-style robe.

Query:

This seems like such a -simple- change; in the base D20-style rules, this would just be flipping a switch from 'Light' to 'Clothing' or something like that. Obviously I need to make the change somewhere else. I know I could do this the long way, make a custom armor, and cheat-console it in, but.. that kinda breaks gameplay flow, plus you get that annoying CHEAT USED graffiti all over your saved games. =/

Also: three files? Wha? Is which armor he uses dependant on some game variable? I went ahead and changed all three just to be on the safe side, but..

If someone's got a copy of the override files already with JUST THIS (I don't want 176832 texture varieties and accompanying stats), that would be okay too, although I'd prefer to do it myself and start getting into moddy territory.

Otherwise.. maybe help me out here? -Is- this a simple thing, or are there some more hoops I need to jump through?

[Achilles]

If I'm understanding you correctly, and if my memory serves, this mod will give you exactly what you want. The site's in Russian so don't bother reading it (unless you understand Cyrillic), just click on the button looking thing toward the bottom of the page. You can ignore the Maul skins and just install the robes part.

Edit: Thanks, The Lone Badger.
*throws shoe at tk102*

[The Lone Badger]

You might want to include a link there.

tk102 laughs from afar.

[nunix]

So, I guess this is going to turn more difficult than I thought. -.-

Issue 1: the default mesh for the Bandon armor is male-only. When worn by la femme, it's the "normal" mesh for a PC wearing the armor (no collar, no loose pants, just a basic light-armor kinda look, but black)

Issue 2: The suggested mod is, alas, lame. It first changes all normal robes into Bandon- and Sith Master robes (the steel breastplate look, as on Endar Spire) - which of course only works for the male PCs - and second, it crashes the game whenever you run into Bandon anyway. Not so great. -.-

So! If I force the Bandon mesh to be wearable by female PCs, am I likely to crash and burn the game? If so, I'll probably just toss in the towel here and once again slog through with lame-o boring normal robes.

If I don't have to slam anything through GMAX or Maya, though..

It looks like my best bet is simply creating a new armor, and having Bandon wear and drop -that-, rather than attempt a "simple" switch somewhere. Sound about right? Or is there an easier way to go about this?