lydia wont wear armor

[Mr. Sarcastic]

i can only equip headgear, nothing else, she just keeps on that stupid steel imperial armor

[Ilja]

Lydia's default armor is a steel armor of nord tradition, not steel imperial armor.

Followers do not equip gear that is lesser than their own. Lydia sticks with her default steel, untill she gets something better. Dwarwen armor is considered as better than steel. She will revert back to her original armor when dismissed, but activating any armor piece in her inventory will make her re-equip the new armor. This matter is not limited to Lydia, but all other followers as well.

You can use follower mods to permanently remove the original armor from her inventory. I am using Ultimate Follower Overhaul. Once "You could dress better" is selected, characters default armor and weapons can be taken from him/her and replaced with a new.

[O)))]

There is also Amazing Follower Tweaks. I actually prefer it over UFO which I used for a long time before I sort of got fed up with it. AFT also has better options for managing outfits in my opinion. Rather then messing with their inventory, you can actually set what their standard outfit is.

[kahbee]

^I agree. I tried out all the follower mods a good bit and found AFT to have the best options and flexibility. maybe I missed something in the others, but with AFT I just got these massive lists of things to do lol.

EFF is also another option, though much simpler than AFT but some might like it that way + it has a nice interface. I may start using it since I had a compatibility issue between AFT and another mod.

Followers and wearing gear you give them can be annoying at times so you might want to just use a good follower mod for handling it.

[Ilja]

AFT is a good mod. I have tried it out my self, altough I did return to UFO.

While AFT might look like a mod that requires less tinkering, in some mod environments it becomes a real pain to handle. This is especially true, if you have a lot of animations included. UFO allows followers to execute them almost flawlesly, while followers with AFT may become confused.

However, this is not true for all mod environments. Others play with AFT without any problems and custom animations perform flawlesly. Reasons for varying behavior between mod environments seems to be a bit of a mystery.

UFO is most versatile of all follower mods, so I am keen to recommend it first. Go ahead an compare different mods. Make a save between your current save and test save. Run around with UFO, AFT and whatever else you wish to try. Pick whatever is easiest for you to use and runs without glitches.

[istvan_v]

In addition to what was already said, Lydia also prefers heavy armor over light, and for example will not wear elven gilded armor (superior), even though it has a better base rating than steel armor.

[hedgie_yozh]

AFT also doesn't work with Interesting NPCs, and playing without Interesting NPCs is game-breaking for me.

[Stoob]

AFT has a lot more options than UFO, but is much more likely to cause problems later on in my experience, such as followers deciding they are never again going to move from some random spot. Regardless, I use AFT for the extra options and roll with the punches.

[Mr. Sarcastic]

Thanks for the help everyone

[Mr. Sarcastic]

Alright guys, so whenever I end up putting armor on her that is better than her regular armor, she automatically get nightingle army and dragonbone gaunlets, wtf?t