biped-slot-reference

name

biped-slot-reference

description

Find armor, clothing, or any equippable record that sits on a given Skyrim biped slot via houseCARL — translate a slot number, vanilla name, or community label into its `BodyTemplate.FirstPersonFlags` bit value and filter the load order with `housecarl_cross_plugin_query` `where ... has`, matching multi-slot pieces an exact-match misses. Use when the user wants to find or list every armor on a biped slot, tag or patch items by equip slot (slot 52 / SOS / pelvis, back or cape slots, a mask or fur-clip slot), audit biped-slot conflicts between mods, find what occupies slot 32 / 52 / a modder slot, or asks which slot a piece uses or what slot number maps to which FirstPersonFlags value. This finds and filters records BY slot — distributing keywords to those items is `kid-authoring`, editing a record's own fields is `skypatcher-authoring`. Load before composing any "armor on slot X" query — the mapping is non-obvious (slot N = bit N-30), so a hand-guessed mask silently filters the wrong slot.

Biped Slot Reference

Overview

Skyrim armor and clothing occupy biped slots numbered 30–61, stored as a bitmask in a record's BodyTemplate.FirstPersonFlags. This skill turns a slot — given as a number (52), a vanilla name (Body), or a community label (SOS, pelvis, a back/cape slot) — into the right housecarl_cross_plugin_query filter, so "find every armor on slot X" is one query instead of a guess. It is a reference-lookup skill with a short query procedure on top (the same look-it-up-never-guess discipline as mutagen-reference). The full slot↔bit↔value mapping lives in references/biped-slots.md.

The mapping is easy to get wrong by hand, which is why this skill exists: slot N is bit (N − 30) with value 2^(N − 30), and the field renders inconsistently (named slots as text, modder slots as raw numbers). A hand-guessed mask silently filters the wrong slot and looks like a clean answer.

First step — open the slot table

Read references/biped-slots.md for the verified slot 30–61 table (number, bit, the value to pass, hex, Mutagen name, note) plus the naming gotcha and community conventions. Pull the value for the slot your task names — don't compute 2^(N−30) in your head.

The query — has, not =

Use the where ... has predicate (a bitwise set-test) so a multi-slot item still matches the one slot you asked for:

housecarl_cross_plugin_query(
    type="Armor",
    where=["BodyTemplate.FirstPersonFlags has 4194304"])   # slot 52

has <value> is true when that bit is set regardless of other slots — so a body+slot-52 piece matches. Reach for it whenever an item might occupy more than one slot (most armor does).

• Modder slots (44–49, 52–60): pass the number from the table — has 4194304 or has 0x400000.
• Named slots (30–43, 50, 51, 61): the flag name works too — has Body, has Feet, has DecapitateHead.
• Exact, single-slot only: = 4194304 matches a record on slot 52 and nothing else — use it only when you specifically want single-slot pieces. It silently skips every combo, which is the trap that makes a slot look empty when it isn't.

has also works on a plain integer field, and a numeric range now works on the flags field too (FirstPersonFlags >= 65536 no longer errors) — but for "is this slot occupied", has is the tool.

Why a query can mislead — the rendering split

FirstPersonFlags is a [Flags] enum: it shows slot names when every set bit is named, but a raw decimal the moment any set bit is a modder slot. Two consequences worth holding:

• = 16 once 0-matched the slot-34 item that renders "Forearms" — flags = now compares by bit, so = 16 and = Forearms both find it. Prefer has regardless, so combos aren't excluded.
• Two named slots hide in the modder range: 50 DecapitateHead and 51 Decapitate. An item there renders as that name, not a number — don't assume everything 44–60 is numeric.

Be sure, don't assume (Q3)

Community slot conventions (SOS = 52, a back slot ≈ 46–48, …) are hints, not guarantees — modder slots carry no engine-enforced meaning, so a mod can use any free slot. When it matters which slot an item really uses, read its BodyTemplate.FirstPersonFlags (houseCARL returns it) or query the bit with has and inspect the hits. The bit is ground truth; the convention is a guess. If you can't confirm a slot, say so rather than asserting from the convention.

Scope — finding records BY slot

This skill locates and filters records by their biped slot. It does not distribute or edit:

• distribute a keyword to the items you found → kid-authoring.
• distribute a spell / perk / item to NPCs → spid-authoring.
• change a record's own fields (including its FirstPersonFlags) → skypatcher-authoring, or a houseCARL record write (a new patch plugin by default, or in place into an existing plugin via the in-place lane).