Cultured Bandits

Cultured Bandits is the first in my series of integration mods designed to distribute mod armors throughout Skyrim in immersive and thematically effective ways.  This mod seeks to solve two main problems:

1. Every bandit in Skyrim seems to be walking around in some kind of pelt.  Every now and then, you'll get a chief with Scaled armor, but that's hardly any better.  This mod alleviates this issue by assuming that at least some bandits are successful enough to afford proper clothes.  Weaker bandits have a decent chance of wearing Rugged Rogue gear, while stronger ones may have received the Practical Pirate or Toughened Traveler set.

2. Light Armor in Skyrim is a bit...weird.  A third of it is basically animal skin, a third is Elven stuff, and the other third is exotic materials that don't really fit someone who just wants to travel around Skyrim without sticking out like a sore thumb.  The sets of armor added by this mod allow you to do that.

To make this possible, I have incorporated the changes from my first mod, Strong Armor Stats Stabilized, in order to allow for a progression of "normal" low-to-mid tier light armors.  The Rugged Rogue has been made on par with the vanilla Leather Armor, while Practical Pirate and Toughened Traveler have been set to match Elven and Scaled Armor, respectively.  Now you can have respectable light armor without dressing like a bandit or an Elf, and at least some bandits will have the appearance of success.

With version 2. 0, Cultured Bandits now uses Spell Perk Item Distributor to handle the integration of the new armors.  They are set to 10% by default, but can easily be altered by adjusting the SPID ini file.

This mod would not be possible without the work and generosity of QuarantineCouture.  I have been a long-time fan of their work during the pandemic, and it gave me the inspiration to do something with it of my own.

In addition, I would also like to thank various members of the Simonrim Discord, especially GrayMatter90 and norive, the former of which taught me how to work with leveled lists, and the latter, who introduced me to xEdit and also supplied the images for the release of this mod.

Be sure to check out my other mod, Strong Armor Stats Stabilized (S. A. S. S.), where I make an effort to rebalance mod armors around vanilla content.

Bodyslide files for the armors are included on the original mod pages, listed in the Requirements.