I am adding Fortified Border Posts to the passes in Skyrim that link to Hammerfell (Elenhir Pass - South of Falkreath), Cyrodiil (Pale Pass - South of Helgen), High Rock (Jehanna Pass - West of Solitude), and Morrowind (Rift Pass - SE of Riften and Dunmeth Pass - NW of Windhelm). This will be a part of my DovKroniid Redoubt mod, since I can't split it out at this point.

Each fort uses Imperial Fort pieces, and has a barracks / jail / player home tower and a garrison of about 20 (all on AI schedules).
There is an .esp that adds drinking fountains (from MannyGT's superb Drinking Fountains of Skyrim mod), for you RP fans (DFOS plays well with RNAD).

At start, the garrisons are:
Elenhir Pass, Pale Pass: Imperial garrison
Rift Pass, Dunmeth Pass: Stormcloak
Jehanna Pass: militia (the pass is closed)(may tie into a future mod). Changed to Imperial garrison up the hill towards Solitude. Actual Pass might be done later by Beyond Skyrim team.

I am starting this topic as a clearing house for questions I have and interacting with users separate from DovKroniid Redoubt, since this is essentially taking the mod in a different direction and is in essence, a separate offering (at some point I may actually pull it out with TES5Edit, or another tool).

STATUS:
Elenhir Pass - DONE opposed by Hammerfell Alik'r garrison. Also includes Khajiiti caravan border crossers and connection to Caravan Depot at Falkreath.
Pale Pass - DONE
Rift Pass - DONE opposed by Redoran Guard garrison
Dunmeth Pass - DONE opposed by Redoran Guard garrison
Jehanna Pass - DONE will probably be released as separate .esp b/c of plans I have for this area.

Adding bBorderRegionsEnabled=0 to the [General] section of your Skyrim.ini file will be recommended if you wish to fully interact with most of the features.


May also release the tower / home/ barracks/ jail interior as a fully navmeshed modder's resource.

RESERVED.

Sounds really interesting mate /smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

THANKS, /smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

Anyone know, lore-wise why the Jehanna pass to High Rock effectively does not exist? The road just ends at a rock wall.

Again,.... so there is no Lore based reason for the terminus into a mountainside?

Should I make a collapsed Tunnel Entrance?

Is there a path over the mountain?

I highly doubt there is an actual lore-based reason, I'm guessing the developers simply didn't feel the need to edit the topography enough to fit a road you can't even travel all the way down. But if I'm thinking of the right road, it certainly does look like a collapsed tunnel.

I looked at in detail in the CK. It is set up to be a cave entrance (!?)

I have been talking to the German members of Beyond Skyrim doing the High Rock and Jehanna area.
They have a very fancy road and bridge hooked up to the road terminus that will lead along the coast.
Based on their work, I will build the fort up the hill near the iron ore deposit.
It is the logical place for a fort, even if it is not technically "on" the border.
They can always send patrols.

A note on this, you can add an ini for your mod that does this. Just tell people and make it very clear you are doing this so they aren't surprised if they wander far out into the Sea of Ghosts. /tongue.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':P' />

That's very interesting. It suggests that Bethesda had plans for that. I wonder what it could have been...

LOL!

Yes, it is very odd - the cobblestone road takes a left turn, and stops right in front of a crack in the wall that looks like the typical Bethesda cave hook-up.
If I were making it a tunnel, I would have made it far grander!!

Definitely a mod I will install.

Always wondered why Skyrim, of all places, does not have guarded border crossings. Especially since the Imperials think it is their country... /tongue.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':tongue:' />

Yes it will definitely tie in with the "caught crossing the border" storyline. Also it could have an interesting main quest attached to it, not just adding buildings and NPCs /smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

This looks great, I hope you do release it separately /biggrin.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' />.

Sounds interesting! We need MOAR SCREENSHOTS

Will post screeshots - but may be after Wednesday.

Screenshots up at http://www.darkcreations.org/forums/topic/3838-border-forts-of-skyrim-part-of-the-dovkroniid-redoubt-project/ .
Some of the Beyond Skyrim team wanted to see them also.

Let me know if there are problems accessing that page.

One thing I noticed while uploading the screenshots - which REALLY argues in favor of Redguard: Unlike ALL of the other passes, the road at the Hammerfell border goes on and on and on beyond the "You can not go this way." message.
Putting in the roads on non-level ground is one of the biggest PITAs of modding (I put more road in at Rift Pass and Dunmeth Pass). Why would Beth waste so much resouce time putting in that road to Hammerfell, Hmmmm?

I think all of these forts look very nice. I especially like the look of Pale Pass and Rift Pass. Those two in particular have a very cramped, walled-in feeling that I associate with mountain passes.

The Empire didn't have tons of BUxx for construction - they wanted a nice, tight 20-man border post that would lock down the passes!

In game they are fully staffed, with two shifts, full crafting stations, and an interior with jail, barracks, and possibly useable as a player home.

Once you get in the grove roads are actually easy to place. You use the object pallete editor for smaller pieces so it auto-slants them with the ground.

When I get focused in, I can easily place like 100-200ft of road per hour. So some dev probably got bored late on a Friday and filled the road in. /tongue.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':P' />

I am currently building out a marketplace in that valley, but it has its own worldspace which duplicates the landscape. Unfortunately, if ever released my mod will still conflict with this one since it also adds an Imperial garrison at the gate. It's central to the main quest, too, so I won't be able to remove it. Ah well, I guess that's what I get for modding in such an obvious location.

Are you in contact with the Hammerfell team at Beyond Skyrim?
They might have use of your concept? (I don't know - I don't speak for them)
I put the Khajiiti caravan terminus in the no man's land between the two posts. Alakir dressed Khajiiti come in from Hammerfell and Elswher, and a Skyrim based depot outside of Falkreath takes stock from them there. The Caravans to Solitude, Morthal, and Dawnstar that traverse the Labyrinthian pick up goods at the Falkreath Depot.

I've talked to the BS: Hammerfell team about possibly doing Elinhir for them, but I'm not sure if I'm up to it or not. I figure worst case, I can make mine compatible with BS by putting an invisible doorway in the other end of the valley. Just give it a choke-point somewhere and BAM, you're in Hammerfell once you pass that point.

I planned on having a caravan of Khajiit outside the marketplace as well... maybe once I reach that point I can do a patch or something that would make ours compatible. Probably be a while before I'm there, though - this is my first large mod and it's slow going. The Oblivion version got to about 70% finished but fizzled out.

Good news and bad news.
Good news- the Border Forts of Skyrim part of my mod is complete.
Bad news - it is tightly integrated into the DovKroniid Redoubt mod.
Separating them would be very difficult and involve maintaining in two places.
I will attempt to separate them out, but after the DKR mod is out, so I will have less maintaining to do as a separate effort.
Then maintaining this mod won't get in the way of finishing the main DKR mod.