» Mon May 28, 2012 3:06 am Open Cities Skyrim
Open Cities Skyrim is a comprehensive project that aims to bring back at least part of the feel of Morrowind - specifically how most of the cities were a natural part of the world and you could just walk in without loading screens. The added immersion and realism goes a long way, probably a lot more than you might think. Ever wanted to ride your horse into the center of Riften? Well now you can. Need to get some help from the city guards to vanquish a foe? Run toward the gates and the guards will do their duty while you can seek safety within the walls. The town guards make for some very interesting interactions this way. This will also make running dragon battles that much more interesting since the flow of the battle won't be interrupted by the loading screen and all of the city guards can be involved at the same time.
Downloads
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=7320
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=8058
http://tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/files/file/1096-open-cities-skyrim/
http://www.tesvskyrim.com/skyrim-content-6-open-cities-skyrim
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?showtopic=1343495
Installation Requirements
Official Skyrim patch 1.5.26 or greater.
Installation - Wrye Bash BAIN
Drop the archive into your Skyrim Mods\Bash Installers folder, then install as usual.
Make sure the mod is active in the Wrye Bash mods tab.
Installation - Steam Workshop
Subscribe to the mod via the Workshop page, then use the Skyrim launcher to allow it to download and install.
Make sure it's active in the Data Files menu.
Installation - Nexus Mod Manager
Use the "Download with Manager" button on the Open Cities Skyrim page at Skyrim Nexus. The installer should take care of things from there.
Then simply make sure NMM has the mod activated.
Installation - Manual
Drop the Open Cities Skyrim.esp and Open Cities Skyrim.bsa files into your Data folder.
Activate the mod using whatever management tool suits you.
Post Install Setup
Set the mod's load order using whatever management tool you feel most comfortable with.
BOSS for Skyrim should set the proper load order, and is the recommended method for doing so.
It may also be necessary to rebuild your Bashed Patch if you're using one.
Once the game loads, you need to allow 24+ game hours to pass for AI to fully update in each city.
Uninstalling Open Cities Skyrim
Oh, now why would you want to go and do a thing like that?
But, since this isn't going to be for everyone, and you may decide you don't like what it does, the following procedure needs to be followed to remove the mod:
* Load your game, and move to a location away from any of the cities. Don't use an interior attached to a city for this. Save and exit the game.
* Deactivate any patches you installed for other mods first. Load your game, then save in a new slot and exit the game.
* Remove the patch ESPs from your Data folder.
* Deactivate the ESP. Load the save you just made and save again in another new slot.
* Uninstall Open Cities Skyrim from the game. Steam Workshop users should unsubscribe first.
* Be sure the ESP and BSA files are removed from your Data folder.
* Rebuild your Bashed Patch if you have one, as it is possible it may have pulled records from the mod.
You will need to allow 48+ game hours to pass for AI to recover before returning to the cities.
If NPCs are missing, you need to LEAVE AGAIN and either go do something else for awhile or wait for a longer time period before coming back.
This procedure has been thoroughly tested and if followed correctly will return your game to the vanilla state.
Load Order
Open Cities Skyrim should be loaded as late as possible in order to preserve changes to navmeshes and other exterior city data.
Compatibility Patches
None yet, but sure to be some soon!
Incompatible Mods
So far, none known.
Known Issues
The animation on the city gates in Riften is a bit choppy. It will be fixed at some point to be more refined.
Some of the meshes at the main gate in Markarth have missing parts and duplicated pieces. These will be fixed when Blender support for Skyrim is available.
Troubleshooting Problems
If you have a problem with an Open Cities mod and wish to report it, I'd appreciate as much information as possible, preferably in the form of a screenshot with console data showing if it's something that can be screened. The FormID of the affected object would help greatly to narrow down any problems that might result. Post this information along with your load order. Reports with less than detailed information may result in delays in getting it fixed, or result in being ignored entirely. It helps everyone to provide details. I am especially interested in verifiable conflicts, as I wish for Open Cities Skyrim to be as conflict-free as is humanly possible given the circumstances. If the situation requires a patch, I can only work something out if I know what to look for.
Locations of AI Doors
The AI doors are entry ways into the closed wordspaces should it become necessary. Not everything that is placed in a city by a mod is worth the time it takes to create a patch. Mods that drop items for a one-time pickup are a good example of this. It's much easier to just go through the door, get what you need, then exit the city as normal.
Riften: East of the main city gate, next to the alley gate.
Markarth: South of the main gate, along the eastern wall. Directly east of the small bridge.
Whiterun: East side of the bridge into the city, right next to the brazier.
Performance and FPS
Open Cities Skyrim should not produce a significant change in your frame rates and performance. Due to the liberal use of occlusion planes in the mod, the game will not render anything on the opposite side of the city walls in any given location. So your viewing content will be limited to roughly what you'd see if you were in the closed city worldspaces. The closed city worldspace system was NOT devised by Bethesda to improve frame rates. It was devised to conserve system memory on the XBox 360 and PS3. You're playing on a PC. Or, at least legally speaking you ought to be anyway.
Anyone who insists that this mod is a framerate destroyer is already experiencing other problems with their game. Do keep in mind, Skyrim is not one of those silly shooters that requires 60fps at all times in order to be playable. Dropping from 60 to 55 would go absolutely unnoticed. Even playing with 30-40 frames would go unnoticed to those folks who keep those dumb little indicators running while they play.
If you're seeing a massive frame rate drop, point the finger somewhere else. This mod is absolutely not the cause of your problems. I know this may seem harsh, but this sort of disinformation was rampant with the Oblivion mod and wasn't true then either and I absolutely will not stand for this sort of disinformation being spread now either.
Credits
Throttlekitty - Help with the Riften city gate collision sizing.
Bassix - Corrections made to the Markarth dam mesh.
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