Armor mod?

[Shurp]

Is this something that has been done, or is this something I need to do?

I am annoyed that Rimworld keeps blowing my colonists' arms and legs and face off. Sure, I can manufacture helmets and armor vests to keep them alive.  But missing bits turns them slowly into useless cripples which is depressing.

I don't need power armor level of protection.  I just need *some* protection for all the damageable bits.  I think I understand modding well enough that I could add body armor definitions to the game, but I don't know squat about the graphics to make it look decent.  Has someone already done this so I don't have to?

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OK, additional question: how do I create a mod file without the *complete* contents of the file I'm trying to pull from?  Armor vests are in \Mods\Core\Defs\ThingDefs_Misc\Apparel_Various.xml. I put my version in \Mods\KRP\Defs\ThingDefs_Misc\Apparel_Various.xml, and renamed it the "<defName>Apparel_BasicShirt</defName>" hoping that it would overwrite existing T-Shirts and replace them all with armor vests in my existing game.  But nothing happened, why?

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OK, additional additional question   What the hell?  I intentionally added the line <barf> to my mod of Storytellers.xml.  And... *nothing happens*.  I don't get an error message of any sort.  The game just ignores my mod and loads the defaults.  !!!  When I remove the line my mod works just fine.  Why don't I get any error message, and how can I debug my armor mod if I'm doing something wrong but it won't tell me what the problem is?