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Dev note: Update released with a full plugin set up for damaged versions of vanilla clothing and armor, so you can easily drop in replacement meshes! Check out the VSU Degradation Armors subsection for all the details! Damaged armor now has lower stats, and supports different meshes for the damaged versions.
Also updated a small bugfix to the main files, the MCM setting to enable/disable VSU armor changes was not updating.
v1.2 was released to support the new version of VSU Framework. Requires the latest version of VSU Framework. I will no longer be supporting the No Widgets version. You will need to rebuild the VSU Database after updating.

Why this durability mod?
There are a lot of durability mods out there. This one can visually update armor as it is damaged. NPC armor can get damaged or broken as well from player attacks. Armors that support visual degradation are also entirely configurable through config files. This means it's really easy to add support for armor items from any mods that have damaged versions of armor, and there won't be conflicts from multiple patches trying to modify the framework directly.




What this does:
Weapons and armor tempering degrades as they are used, and they eventually break. Broken weapons and armor can simply be tempered to return them to working order. NPC armor also takes damage from Player attacks, and can be switched to damaged versions or removed when broken. Any armor sets can be configured with VSU Framework to visually display damage. The VSU Degradation Armors file sets up damaged versions of all the vanilla Skyrim armor and clothing, with reduced armor rating for the armors. Clothing takes damage and can break as well. Weapons and armor will need to be regularly tempered to maintain good condition. While clothing cannot be tempered at a workbench, a Sewing Kit item was added to repair clothing. Sewing Kits were not placed in the world anywhere, but they can be crafted at a forge from 4 Leather Strips and an Iron Ingot. To use a sewing kit, equip it and then equip the clothing you wish to repair. Improved weapons and armor can also be distributed to NPCs without modifying any forms or leveled lists. When an NPC with default condition armor is hit (meaning they were hit for the first time by the player), their weapon and armor condition is randomly updated, within configurable parameters. This will let your enemies have randomly improved or damaged equipment. VSU Framework will also transfer condition and enchantments when items are swapped out for damaged versions, so you don't need to worry about losing your enchanted armor.

A hotkey can be configured to check equipment status. Using the hotkey, you can check equipment status in-game, and even from your inventory. If you'd like to check the status of items in your inventory, you can equip them then use the hotkey. Optionally, widgets can also be enabled to display equipment status as it is damaged in-game. Items at 100% condition show as a white icon. As they degrade the icon becomes more red. Improved items (above 100%) become more blue for higher improvement, and degrade back to white and then red. Widgets are disabled by default, and need to be enabled in the MCM. Saved MCM settings are applied automatically to new games, so if you want widgets on automatically for new games, you can save the settings after enabling it the first time.

You may wish to disable or adjust some of this functionality, and that can be done in the mod configuration menu for "VSU Degradation".

Installation:
Install this mod and it's dependencies. When VSU is first installed, or for new games, it will automatically rebuild the VSU database. If you make changes to VSU configurations during a playthrough, you will need to rebuild the database (MCM for VSU Framework). This can take a few seconds if there are a lot of VSU rules to process. Do not click the build button multiple times. You will get a confirmation when it is done.
If you want visual armor degradation, you will need to configure the base and damaged versions in VSU rules. There is a demonstration package set up for Leather Armor as an optional file. This contains simple damaged meshes for vanilla Leather Armor, a plugin to create armor forms and tempering recipes for them, and the VSU configuration linking them to original items.

Requirements:
SkyUI: Required for the mod configuration menu.
VSU Framework: Required for armor transitions. REQUIRES VERSION 1.3 or later.
Papyrus Extender: Required for Papyrus functionality.
PapyrusUtil: Required for Papyrus functionality.
iWant Widgets: Required for the Widgets.


Mod Configuration Menu:
- Status of currently equipped items can be checked.
- Hotkey can be set to check equipment status. Set to Escape to disable the hotkey.
- Certain functionality can be enabled or disabled: Player/NPC degradation, Armor/Weapon degradation, NPC Improved Items
- Rates of deterioration can be changed: Overall rate (base is 0.3%, adjusted based on skills, weapons, and armor), Player rate/NPC rate/Weapon rate/Armor rate (multiplies the degradation for their respective category by this amount. (These stack, so NPC Rate 3 & Armor Rate 3 means NPC armor will degrade 9 times faster than normal)).
- Point of decay at which armor is visually updated to a damaged version can be configured.
- Lower and upper bounds for random NPC item condition.
- Save current settings.
- Load last saved settings. This lets settings persist between save files. When a new game is started, it will also try to load the saved settings before reverting to the default settings.

Sewing Kits:
Clothing items degrade, but cannot be tempered normally. They can be repaired with Sewing Kits. 4 Sewing Kits are crafted from 4 Leather Strips and an Iron Ingot. To use a Sewing Kit, equip it (it is classified as a weapon), then equip the clothing you wish to repair. Clothing cannot be repaired in combat.

VSU Degradation Armors:
This sets up damaged states for all vanilla Skyrim armors and clothing (even enchanted versions!). Damaged and Ragged armors have a reduced armor rating. Comes with copies of the vanilla meshes, so if you use any armor/clothing mesh replacers, those need to be copied in to replace these meshes as well. The directory structure is the same as the vanilla meshes, but in a subdirectory, like this:

Normal: Data/Meshes/...
State 2: Data/Meshes/v2099/vsud2/...
State 3: Data/Meshes/v2099/vsud3/...

If you use any outfit replacers, simply copy all of that replacer's meshes into both of the subdirectories. If you do not copy over replaced meshes, then when an item is damaged it will switch to the vanilla mesh. If you use an outfit replacer with zaps, you can build the outfits with some parts zapped out, copy those to the damaged meshes, and then rebuild the outfit without the zaps for the undamaged version. Then, when the armor is damaged in-game, it will be missing those parts.

To use this package, install it along with this mod and the dependencies. If you already installed VSU Framework, you will need to rebuild the database (in the MCM). If you are installing this all together for the first time, the database will automatically update in the background when VSU Framework is installed. Building the database can take a while with all the armor VSU rules. It takes about 30 seconds on my machine. You can close the menu while you wait for the database to build.

Usage for Modders:(or adventurous users that want to configure their own armor sets)
Any armor or clothing can be configured to degrade visually. Armor and clothing in slots 30/31 (head), 32 (body), 33 (hands), and 37 (feet) will degrade, and when an item hits a certain threshold, it will transition to the new VSU state, if it exists. VSU Framework rules must be configured for armors to visually degrade. Details about VSU configuration rules can be found on the VSU Framework mod page. The degraded versions of the armor need to have tempering recipes associated with them (ideally the same as the tempering recipe for the base item, although they could require more materials for immersion purposes). Broken or damaged items are repaired by tempering them (except for clothing, which is repaired with Sewing Kits crafted from 4 Leather Strips and an Iron Ingot). The degraded versions of the armor can also have a lower armor rating than the base item. Armor rating improves when the condition is improved above 1, and so the armor rating will decrease as tempered armor is damaged, but Skyrim does not reduce the armor rating for conditions below 1. If you wish to have armor rating degrade with damage, a lower rating must be set for those forms.

Pre-enchanted versions of armor have separate form IDs from the base item. Player enchantments are handled by VSU, but pre-enchanted items need their own damaged versions and VSU rules. The armor addon and mesh can be reused, though.

Custom damaged armor configuration steps:
1. Configure the VSU rule. Each armor requires its own rule, and no armor can be part of more than one rule. If you only have 2 states for an item, you can set the State 2 or State 3 form to "NONE". Read more about VSU rules at the VSU Framework mod page. Basically, the format is:

DEG|State1FormID~Plugin.esp|State2FormID~Plugin.esp|State3FormID~Plugin.esp|MaleEnabled|FemaleEnabled


Here are sample VSU rules using armor forms from a plugin "Clothing.esp":

DEG|0x885~Clothing.esp|0x887~Clothing.esp|0x889~Clothing.esp|1|1
DEG|0x891~Clothing.esp|NONE|0x893~Clothing.esp|1|1
DEG|0x895~Clothing.esp|0x897~Clothing.esp|NONE|1|1


2. Make sure the plugin they come from has tempering rules for the damaged states. Items are repaired by tempering them, then equipping them again. If a damaged version has no tempering recipe, you will not be able to repair it.
3. You may wish to decrease the armor rating for the damaged versions. Skyrim does not decrease armor effectiveness for condition below 1.0 (100%). If you want items to functionally degrade as well, then the armor settings need to be lower on the Armor Forms for the damaged versions.

Known Issues:
- VSU state for armor is updated on hits, and when armor is equipped. If an armor is being worn, then it will not update when it is repaired. Equip the item again after repairing it, to update its condition.
- For now damaged versions of weapons are not supported. I may test this functionality more in the future, but replacing items can remove them from favorites, and might not be a great gameplay experience. Weapon tempering will still degrade, and they can break, but the item will not be replaced.
- You need a perk, and high smithing level to temper enchanted weapons and armor. This might make it difficult to use enchanted items in the early game. If this is bothering you, you can disable the option for broken items being unusable.
- Let me know if you experience issues with armor not switching properly, or conditions/enchantments not transferring. I added a delay before and after equipping the new armor to fix these issues, but I just want to make sure it's working on other people's machines as well. I may need to increase the delay if people still have issues.
- Widgets do not show up with 100% reliability. Sometimes, if the widgets are already fading when a hit is made, they might not all show back up. This is not a consistent problem, and I am not sure if this will have a clear solution. Timing for Papyrus events is not always reliable. Widgets generally show up as they should, so even if they miss a hit every now and then you should still get a general idea of the condition of your equipment.
- NPCs switching to a damaged state item are forced to wear the damaged version. Without this setting it was too unreliable, and they sometimes removed their armor. This should not be a problem, as you shouldn't attack your followers enough to damage their armor, but if you do run into an issue where you can't get someone to change their outfit after you've attacked them, this might be it. I'm working on better solutions for handling NPC outfits, but until then this is where I'm at. Again, shouldn't be an issue, but I just want it documented here in case anyone has this problem. If it bothers you, then you can disable damage to NPC equipment.

Upcoming Development Plans: I might not get to all of these, but I will try to keep this up to date with what I'm working on.

- [DONE] Investigating a hotkey to display equipment condition. This is currently checked through the MCM, but a faster way might be nice.
- [DONE] Put together a pack for all vanilla armors, so that they can have replacement meshes simply dropped in. I can set up the plugin, it's just tedious, but it will need meshes. If you use outfit replacers that have bodyslide zap options, you can build with certain parts zapped out, and drop in those meshes and then build again for the standard outfits. If any 3d modelers want to build meshes for damaged armors, let me know! I'd love to help configure them to work with this framework.
- [DONE] Investigating icons to display equipment status in-game, without needing to check yourself (this would require iWant Widgets, but it would be optional).
- Improve the widget icons. They're not the prettiest at the moment. I can do better.
- Update widget icon locations to account for empty spaces where items are not equipped. I will need to test this out and make sure it works reliably.
- MCM options to configure the location of the widgets
- MCM option to configure widget transparency, or a way to match the game's UI transparency.
- Sewing kit needs a proper mesh for the inventory. It is not a sword.