------------------General Information------------------

🧵 How and Why?

It all started with me downloading every armor mod I could find—if it looks cool, I can’t resist adding it to my load order, even though I know I’ll probably stick with the same set for my entire playthrough and never actually use 95% of what I’ve installed. Most of them just aren’t tanky enough for my taste. I’m sure I’m not the only one who does this.

That’s when I thought it would be fun to outfit the NPCs with all those gorgeous community-made armors and clothing sets. The vanilla outfits look ugly af, and I’m not a fan of Divine Wardrobe or Armor and Clothing Extension. Over the years, modders have crafted incredible models and outfits out there (Also SMP is cool), why shouldn’t the NPCs get a glow-up too?
I chose not to replace most of the armor outfits because I was worried it might throw off game balance—especially for people running overhauls like Requiem (myself included). Overall, the mod’s main goal is to give Skyrim’s everyday citizens a visual upgrade—refreshing the common folk’s clothing without tampering with core game mechanics.

That said, I did swap out the leather, studded leather, and a few other really common city armors, since they’re basically just leather and won’t break progression (probably). If you’d prefer the vanilla versions, I can put together a build without those swaps, or you can easily remove them yourself by deleting the INI files that replace those specific outfits.
⚙️ How It Works (Skypatcher Magic)

Skypatcher makes this process really easy and perfectly customizable: you can distribute outfits by gender and create a more varied wardrobe than vanilla offers. It might not be as expansive as some massive outfit replacer mods, but I prefer a curated, high-quality selection over sheer quantity. That’s not to say those other mods aren’t great—they’re just not my personal style.

Here’s how it works: Skypatcher lets you replace the outfit records that NPCs use with your own custom outfits, which you build by combining armor and clothing pieces from your mods. In Skyrim, an “outfit” is simply a predefined set of gear that gets assigned to NPCs; Skypatcher swaps out the vanilla record for one of yours by referencing its form ID.

The best part is that, unlike model replacements, this method avoids clipping issues—because you’re swapping entire outfits rather than mixing random pieces that weren’t designed to fit together.

One of the downsides is that it doesn’t remove the original outfits from the game, so you still have the vanilla clothing lingering around. In my view that’s actually a plus, since it maximizes compatibility: you’re only adding new options, not overwriting or breaking anything.
Unfortunately, the biggest pain point is that any custom outfits—whether added by other mods or unique to certain vanilla NPCs—aren’t picked up by the bulk replacer and will each need their own individual patch.

Another thing, I made a lot of different plugins for the outfits records. They are all ESL flagged and I decided not to merge them to improve modularity and make updates easier.
👕 About My Choices

I’m a huge fan of Fuse00’s work—the quality of those outfits is simply incredible. Admittedly, some of my selections might not be perfect, but finding the right fits can be a real challenge, especially when it comes to farm attire. I’m always open to suggestions and requests; I believe this mod will only get better as new outfits are released. Feel free to upload altered versions of this mod without any permissions from me, I also want to see what y'all can find. And I can also upload your files here if you don't want to make a modpage.

I also plan to create a file specifically for the jarls, since many of them have unique outfits not yet covered by this mod. Speaking of NPC-specific gear, I’ve already replaced a few custom outfits—like Maven’s and Haelga’s—but there are probably others I haven’t found. If you spot any, please let me know so I can include them in the next update.

In the future, I’d like to set up more targeted NPC distributions for other favorite armor mods—for example, Obi’s Gladiator Armor for select characters, and several of 4thUnknown’s armors, which I absolutely love.
🚀 About Performance

Many of these outfits use SMP, and I haven’t noticed any performance issues most of the time, my PC is high end but a little CPU bottlenecked.
However, crowded areas—like Riften Market or Roggvir’s execution scene when you first enter Solitude—can murder your framerate without proper FSMP settings. 

But don't worry, I got you covered, I made a specific FSMP MCM Preset for this distribution. Not gonna lie you will still suffer a performance impact but nowhere near as It was before i tweaked the settings.

If it's still not enough, you should try Faster HDT-SMP - Ultra Performance Config. It will probably be better but you will notice frequent on-off toggling of the NPC's SMP gear.
🧩 About Compatibility

Thanks to Skypatcher, this mod is broadly compatible with virtually everything. If you’re running any SPID mods, their outfit assignments should automatically take priority over my Skypatcher distribution (I don't recommend using SPID for named distribution though, it isn't as reliable as Skypatcher in my experience).
However, as mentioned above, any truly custom outfits—whether added by other mods, bundled with NPC overhauls that swap out default gear (I’m looking at you, True Sons of Skyrim Refined), or otherwise unique—won’t be replaced automatically and will require a small patch to include them (Though the NPC overhaul thing can be avoided by using Easy NPC).

On the bright side, any mod—like Vigilant—that still relies on vanilla outfit records will seamlessly benefit from these replacements.

------------------Installation------------------

Setup Recommandation

- In MO2, create a separator named Community Outfits – Mods and Distribution. Place this mod at the top of that section, with all outfit mods listed below it for easy organization.

- Load order doesn't matter because you are only adding stuff to your game and Skypatcher doesn't edit plugins. You just need to load the FSMP config below the actual FSMP mod.



General Requirements (Required for add-ons too)

- Faster HDT - SMP is required to enable outfit physics.

- 3BA is necessary because some outfits need to be built in Bodyslide. If not built, the mesh will be missing—resulting in invisible outfits. If the 3BA conversion isn't from the main mod page, you don't actually need it, but for the sake of consistency, you should grab them too.

- Skypatcher is required to actually replace the outfits.

- (Optional) Himbo is supported I have linked the conversions below, but not required. (I dropped Himbo so I haven't tested the conversions myself)



Required Outfit Mods (Remember, always download male and female version for Fuse00's mods): 

- Squire's Plate (3BA and Himbo on the main mod page)

- The Hinterland Ranger and The Hinterland Ranger - SE by Xtudo - No both 2K to remove the logos (3BA and Himbo, this one is required because it adds accesories I used to make the outfit)

- Wandering Mercenary (3BA and Himbo)

- Roaming Girl's Attire (3BA on the main mod page, female only)

- Adventurers Tunic (3BA and Himbo is on the main mod page)

- Wandering Summoner Outfit (3BA on the main mod page, female only)

- DD - Daenerys Dress (3BA on the main mod page, female only)

- Ashtoreth Frostwarden Regalia and Ashtoreth Frostwarden Regalia - Cyb's Edit to get the pants (3BA on the main mod page, female only)

- Obi's Masquerade Outfit (3BA on the main modpage, female only)

- The SouthBound Scouts (3BA and Himbo on the main modpage)

- DD - Elanor Timeless Elegance (3BA on the main modpage, female only)

- Casual Pirate Outfit (3BA and Himbo)

- Robert HGEC Underwear (3BA on the main mod page, female only) This mod is just to complete a set that is missing underwear.

- Common Clothing Expansion (3BA here, Himbo is on the main mod page)

- Infantry Armor SE (3BA and Himbo)

- Traveling Mage Armor (3BA and Himbo)

- Kellan Armor (3BA and Himbo)

- Barkeeper Outfit (3BA and Himbo)

(Rest of the outfits are on Fuse00's Patreon but don't worry everything is free ! )

- Akasha Armor (3BA and Himbo)

- Sasrir Armor (3BA and Himbo)

- Helga Armor (3BA, female only)

- Shadow Armor (3BA and Himbo)

- Freija Armor (3BA and Himbo)

- Leon Set ( 3BA and Himbo) Note that the Himbo page has 3BA conversion too, but it is a bit broken so if you use both Himbo and 3BA, delete the 3BA files from the Himbo conversion.

- Highlander Armor (3BA and Himbo)

- Aemond Targaryen Set (3BA and Himbo)

- Phantom Armor (3BA and Himbo)

- Melony Armor (3BA, female only)

- Rogue Set (3BA and Himbo)