My next post for my blog will be discussing various mods to add realistic interactions between the character and the roads of Cyrodiil. So far I've only looked at mods that populate them. Here's what is on my list at the moment:

http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20575: adds generic travelers to all the major roads
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=19060: similar to Tamriel Travelers, but uses only vanilla content
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25449: allows NPCs with "wander" AI to travel between cities and interiors if they so choose
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=32747: adds even more traders and adventurers, but these will aid you in combat and can potentially become your companions

However, there are a couple things I've noticed about these additions. Combined with Creatures Alive (another mod I've discussed on my blog), this creates a lot of violence on the roads, which isn't exactly what I was going for. If I want to give the feel of the roads being safer to travel on than the wilderness, what should I do to counter this tendency for violence? Should I just not use as many different traveler addition mods? Should I add a mod or two to put more guards onto the roads? Any suggestions on that front would be greatly appreciated.

Also, anything that would compliment these additions would be great. I say this separately because any other suggestions would probably be mods other than NPC additions. I'm not sure what else would go well with the NPCs to make traveling on foot feel more preferable, since add more people was all that I could think of. If anybody else has thought about this before, be sure to share your thoughts.

Thanks a million for any help I receive.

First thing would be to make sure you aren't using a version of Crowded Roads that adds assassins and evil characters to the mix. They are highly aggressive toward both the player and other NPCs and will make a huge mess of things along the roads.

There's also http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4387, which is awesome if only because some of the travelers have pack guars as companions and show up in various cities as well, and guars are just too adorable.

Honestly you're probably going to have to disable something like Creatures Alive if you want to avoid violence. I have MMM installed, and roads are quite violent at the moment in my game, but I want it that way. Before I installed MMM (and WAC I guess) I had all of the mods you have installed, except for wandering encounters, and there was rarely any fighting going on.

http://tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/files/file/53-voila-voices-of-imperial-legion-amalgamated/ adds, amongst other things, squads of patrolling legionnaires rather than individuals.

Forget about VOILA, it's definitely worth getting. One of those mods it took me a while to come across that probably deserves more attention.

I've just recently thought about adding an additional road-populating mod or two to my Oblivion installation. Like OP, I do not seek added violence. Or less violence. I think the vanilla game is pretty spot-on as to its potential for roadside mayhem. Smarter but not necessarily tougher (or more numerous) bandits would be a plus, but I think that's all but a pipe-dream.

I run only one such mod at the moment, the afore mentioned VOILA. I too recommend it.

-Decrepit-

You would have to place you npc in a special faction to protect them from getting attacked so often or causing attacks.

The faction would have to be setup with each of creature alive faction has well and how much the faction like or hate each other would determine the outcome.

That is really the only way to protect travellers once again, setup faction on them, and faction relationship with other faction's has well..

Tamrieltravellers has this type of setup in it MMM and OOO Modules and faction all plugins..

I may try VOILA again, then. The last time I played it, I was a little turned off by the Imperial Battlemages that would still think they were inside the Arcane University. I suppose it would be best if I just didn't talk to them.

@Arthmoor: Am I using the correct version of Crowded Roads, then? I was under the assumption that "Revisited" was the latest one.

@CorePC: I chose not to get Tamriel Travelers because of amount of non-vanilla content in it. It's very well done, but I personally thought the animal companions and such was a bit too much. I don't really want them to be protected from enemies as much as I just don't want there to be bodies all over the streets all the time.

I tend to treat road travelers as mostly aesthetic immersion-boosters so I pretty much never talk to them. If there was unique content for them, like they actually discussed their travels or whatever, and they didn't just regurgitate vanilla rumor content, it would be different; so I really find talking to them to be contradictorily immersion-breaking more than anything, heh.

You know you can disable the pet's, guards, etc in Travellers with the ring.

Tamriel Travelers is my favorite and is extremely well done. I have only played with Crowded Roads once or twice - mainly because of all the version differences - it's confusing figuring out which one to use.

Best Version of Crowded Roads that is most compatible and bug free is

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20575 by Lazymonk

A good idea if you're using other mods is to use the additional ESPs that come with Crowded Roads Revisited to reduce its spawn rates. I have them all at the lowest possible setting and I find that with everything else installed (Tamriel Travelers, Immersive Travelers, Roaming NPCs) the amount of people on the road is adequate and never gets out of hand. At its default rates, CRR with all of the other stuff tends to be traveler overload.

I'll have to try this out.

@Corepc: Is that a recent addition? I don't recall a ring the last time I tried using it.

You're the man - thanks.

@ Matthew_Kaine - I really enjoy your blog, and the topics you're making here have really been insightful as far as what the "best" or "preferred" mods are for certain people. I am going to be trying palidoo's setup out on my new setup.

Sorry if this looks like i am hijacking the thread people, but does any one know if VOILA is compatible with WAC and better yet will the (new)legoinaires use the armor from WAC-Legion or the vanilla version? (I ask because of the BSA. )

I use both VOILA and WAC without issue. I'm not sure about the legion armor, though, all of my legion soldiers have the vanilla armor. I am only using the basic WAC esp, TCOS, and nothing else. I should actually look into adding on to it, though I already have Hemingwey's capes on legion soldiers.

Not sure what you are getting at with that post as you contradict yourself in the first sentence itself!?!

VOILA is good, yes. I am hoping those guards will come in handy with Enhanced Daedric Invasion daedra attacks.

Thanks Palidoo.

And do me a favor, whack me with a big warhammer or something. Because i totally forgot that OBMM has a function that allows me to check out the content of a BSA, and it only contains soundfiles so the legionaires should use the armor from WAC-Legion. :facepalm:

Actually, it depends on how WAC-Legion applies the armor. It's possible that it only affects soldiers that exist in the vanilla game, and actually that's kind of what I'd expect it to do. It's possible though that it simply replaces the vanilla armor that is referenced for all soldiers that spawn regardless of mod, in which case then you'd see the changes on the VOILA patrols. Someone more knowledgeable about modding in general or WAC specifically would be able to clarify it, though. And possibly tell you how to edit the mod to get the VOILA soldiers to use the WAC armor if they don't by default.

@gyshall: Thanks! Asking all the right questions is probably what I do best. I'm glad that people can learn from what I and others here have been sharing.

@Illius: It's all good. As long as it relates the mods in question here, anyway.

Any other suggestions for me before I start working on my blog post? It doesn't have to just be NPCs, either. If not, thanks to everyone for the advice. I've added Tamriel Travelers with the disabled pets and guards, reinstalled Crowded Roads Revisited using the 5% spawn rates, and am about to try out VOILA again without directly interacting with the additions.

Yeah let's wait and see if some one knows something you and i do not. Otherwise if they do not use the WAC legion armor then i will pretend they wear stronger looking armor(It is the same of course) because they are on the road and as such will meet more dangerous creatures then those in the IC.

(Although i would prefer if they did. )

@ Thanks Matthew_kaine.

I have to give my vote to Tamriel travellers. It is a great mod. Also, thanks for posting the link to VOILA. I never heard of that mod.