== What this mod does ==

Have you ever wondered why bandits and marauders all seem to be poor as paupers? Their goal in life is to mug people and take their valuables, so shouldn't they have more in their pockets than a rusty lockpick/hammer and a stale piece of bread? Let's face it, they don't even have the stale bread! This mod aims to fix that. No, not the stale bread. By altering the inventory of each generic bandit and marauder in Oblivion, all of Cyrodiil's robbers now have a high chance of carrying some gold along with a smaller chance for additional valuables.

I could only find one other mod that added gold to bandits, but nothing else, nor did it disclose how much, so I couldn't tell if it was balanced. Because of that, I decided to make my own from scratch and release it for anyone else who wants it. This mod is meant to be more of an immersive gameplay change than anything else. The gold amounts are modest so as to remain balanced and realistic (they have to split the gold from that merchant raid amongst everyone plus the boss's cut, remember?). For a breakdown of what everyone can spawn, please see below.

Bandits/Marauders; regular, mage, and archers:

• 80% chance for 5 – 30 gold
  

Bandit/Marauder Bosses:

• 90% chance for 75 – 100 gold
  

All Bandits/Marauders:

• 15% chance to spawn one 'gem' item. This includes the following:
  
  • 1 Gold nugget or silver nugget
  • Or 1 flawed, regular, or flawless pearl, topaz, ruby, emerald, sapphire, or diamond
    
• 10% chance to spawn a ring or a necklace
  

Though statistically small, you do have a chance to get all three (gold, a piece of jewelry, and a gem) from a single bandit/marauder. You can also get nothing or any combination in between. The gem and jewelry items are selected from leveled lists, which means, for example, that you won't have a chance of finding a flawless diamond until you hit level 17 (this is basically the same list used for gems found in chests you loot in dungeons). The gold is not 'leveled', as you have a chance of finding any of the stated amounts starting at level 1.

This mod does not alter or remove any of the existing leveled lists associated with these NPCs, it merely adds three new ones as described above. You should expect to find all of the normal loot you found on bandits/marauders before plus what this mod gives the chance of finding. This mod also does not make any changes to highwaymen.


==Requirements ==

This mod shouldn't require anything beyond the base game as only vanilla assets are altered/used.


==Conflicts ==

This is my second mod, and I am still new to modding. I believe this mod will conflict with any other mods that make changes to bandit/marauder inventories. My understanding is the conflict is due to the way Oblivion works. Two separate mods cannot alter the inventory of the same NPC. Whichever one is lower in your load order will prevail, overriding the changes of the higher mod. I don't think this sort of conflict results in crashes, but if you run both mods only one will actually work. The only way around this that I know of would be to make a patch .esp, though how to do so is currently beyond my skill set. There may also be a way using Wrye Bash, but I have been unable to figure it out myself.

The mod Oblivion Character Overhaul may interfere with the spawn rates for this mod but is still perfectly compatible. In my testing I found OCO to be responsible for a significant decrease to the spawn rates when placed below this mod. I'm not exactly sure why this is, since OCO doesn't alter inventories. I've generally found it necessary to place OCO last in my load order to get it to work right but this mod is the one exception I make to that rule. If you are having issues with spawn rates being as I described above and you have OCO I recommend placing it below this mod to see if that fixes it.

Nothing else should conflict. If you notice the spawn rate does not appear to be what it should be (for example you killed and looted 10 bandits, but only one dropped gold) then another mod is interfering with this one and you should try moving this one lower in your load order.


==Installation ==

This mod is a single .esp file, and due to its simplicity, it can likely just be dropped into your Oblivion data folder. Check the box for the Robbers With Gold And Gems.esp in the Data Files of your Oblivion Launcher, and you're good to go.


== Updating ==

Discovered bandit hedge wizard stats were somehow changed when I created this mod by Oblivion Character Overhaul. The stats for the hedge wizards have been restored to vanilla using xEdit. Credit to iodizedsalt and aziwa for bringing this to my attention.

To update to 1.0.1, follow standard procedure for simple mods. Uncheck the .esp in the Data Files of your Oblivion Launcher, load your game, enter an interior cell (probably one without bandits or marauders!), save, exit, delete the .esp from your Oblivion data folder, and then reinstall the latest version.


==Uninstallation ==

Uncheck the Robbers With Gold And Gems.esp in the Data Files of your Oblivion Launcher and then delete the .esp from your data folder.


==Permissions ==

Feel free to tweak this as you like. If you decide to re-upload here or elsewhere, changed or not, please just give credit. There may be no unique assets here, but I still spent my own time putting it together.


== Related ==

Are you attracted to shiny objects(like every other normal, sane person)? If so, you may also be interested in another mod I created that alters Clam and Ore Vein containers. Check it out here:

https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/50040


==Credits ==

Bethesda for a great game and the Construction Set