http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=37903

Latest Update: Version 1.1.4

Tweaked B&M plugins to perform the edits more cleanly.


Permissions

SilentResident has given his permission for this file to be uploaded.
Arthmoor has given permission for this file to be uploaded.

Description

ImpreREAL Empire - Unique Castles is an excellent mod by SilentResident that improves the look and feel of the castles in the game. This is accomplished by adding numerous new extensions to the existing castles, as well as many more windows and banners. Unfortunately, users of Open Cities (started by texian and godhugh, now managed by Arthmoor) found that
SilentResident's changes were not entirely compatible with their newly opened cities...

...but not anymore!

This mod aims to correct this glaring shortcoming and allow users of Open Cities to finally experience SilentResident's
vision of Unique Castles.

Details

All of the castles in each of the games seven castled cities have been overhauled, providing a brand new, unique look to each one.

In some cases, SilentResident's changes to the castles were not able to be preserved in the Open Cities Reborn version. In such cases, I salvaged what I could and started from scratch, rebuilding the castle how I thought it might look under the new Reborn city layouts. In such cases, I have tried to keep hold of the original vision SilentResident had for the castles, but some artistic liberties had to be taken in such cases.

In short, some castles needed to be re-designed in order to work with Open Cities Reborn. These include Anvil (slight edits), Cheydinhal (moderate edits), and Leyawiin (completely done over).

Open Cities Classic, on the other hand, was very easy. All that needed to be done was reposition a few of the Open Cities flags and, in the case of Anvil and Cheydinhal, move the Unique Castles architecture so that it was positioned correctly.

Requirements

You need Open Cities Classic or Open Cities Reborn to use these mods. If you don't have them, you are in the wrong place; you want the original version of Unique Castles.

Blood & Mud version requires Blood & Mud.

Install

1. Copy the .esp file to (install folder)\Oblivion\Data\
2. Start OBMM/Wrye Bash, place a checkmark beside the .esp file.
3. Adjust load order as follows:
Oblivion.ESM
Open Cities Resources.ESM
Open Cities (Reborn or Classic).ESP
ImpeREAL Empire - Unique Castles - All the Castles - (OCC or OCR).esp

Or use BOSS.

This mod is also pre-packaged for use by Wrye Bash's BAIN installer. If you use BAIN, just select the appropriate sub-package for your version of Open Cities (Classic or Reborn) and the correct ESP will automatically be installed for you.

Uninstall

1. Start Oblivion Launcher, click Data Files, uncheck the .esp file(s).
3. Delete the .esp file from \Oblivion\Data\

Incompatibility

Do not use this with Better Cities (open or closed). Since you already get Unique Castles there, you'd just be wasting a lot of time.

Do not use this with the standalone Unique Castles mod. These plugins replace the originals, and as such should not be used together.

Make sure you choose the right version of Open Cities when installing this, otherwise you'll get the wrong castles.

This mod is incompatible with any version of OCR lower than 0.9. Do not use it with an earlier OCR version.

Known Issues or Bugs

None that I know of.

History

2011/10/04 - Version 1.1.4 - Tweak B&M plugins to perform the edits more cleanly.

2011/10/04 - Version 1.1.3 - Permanently removed a troublesome NULL Ref from OCR verions, Removed a ring of floating windows in Anvil OCR versions.

2011/09/04 - Version 1.1.2 - Added VWD flags to the city flags so you can see them from far off again, removed a couple floating objects left behind in the Leyawiin OCR versions.

2011/07/04 - Version 1.1.1 - Cleared up a few wild region edits. They are harmless, but nonetheless untidy and unwanted.

2011/07/04 - Version 1.1 - Blood & Mud support added, Castle Bruma tweaked to mirror a recent update to SilentResident's version of the mod.

2011/06/04 - Version 1.0 - Initial release.

Contact

You can contact me via PM either on the Nexus or on the Official Oblivion Forums. I am more likely to respond to the latter.
You can also pose any questions you might have in the thread.

Credits

Thanks to Bethesda for creating Oblivion.
Thanks to DarkOne for providing TESNexus so swiftly after TESSource/TESDB went down, and continuing to improve on it.
Thanks to LHammonds for the Readme Generator this file was based on.
Thanks to Arthmoor for Open Cities, and for destroying Bethesda's cop-out, unneeded console optimization once and for all.
Thanks to SilentResident for the ImpeREAL project, aiming to return the Imperial grandeur to a Cyrodiil that was missing so much of it.

Tools Used

TES Construction Set - http://www.theelderscrolls.com/downloads/updates_utilities.htm
Readme Generator - http://lhammonds.game-host.org/obmm/tools_readme_generator1.asp
Wrye Bash - http://wrye.ufrealms.net/
TES4Edit - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11536

Links to Required MODs

Open Cities Classic: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16360
Open Cities Reborn: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=33003

Licensing/Legal

Please contact either me or SilentResident for usage permissions. All of my work is considered open-source, so feel free to use it so long as you give credit where credit is due.

Congrats on the release, Thomas.

I was following this discussion in the OCR thread and they look great. Will definitely be a new addition to my game.

Thank you for sharing this with us.

I am currently using ImpeREAL Empire - Unique Castles with Open Cities Classic now.
The only issue I noticed was some of the flags added by OCC are clipping with IEUC changes.

Are there other issues I'm simply not noticing which your mod has changed?
Would be cool to know those specific changes.

thanks

Screenshots are always helpful.

Which castle(s) were you having problems with?

I think he's saying he's using SilentResident's normal version of these with OCC and that the flags OCC added clip. All you did for OCC was move the flags to fit better, right?

Also downloaded. Even if there aren't any interiors yet

Will need to look and see if this is going to interfere with TIE in OCR Cheydinhal.

Oh, I see. Sorry, misread.

Not quite, Arthmoor, Castles Anvil and Cheydinhal were actually a bit out of alignment, so I needed to move SR's castle assemblies slightly to put them back where they were supposed to be. Other than those two, I just needed to reposition the large flags where needed.

EDIT: I've check out TIE, and there seems to be two spawn points and a tree added by it being buried, but those are not because of my edits, it's because the repositioned castle is sitting right on top of them.

Cool, that was all I was wondering. It did bother me the flags were clipping the Unique Castles. I hadn't noticed the alignment issues with the castles so that's a bonus! Again, I appreciate you uploading this. Some people make changes to their own game but never bother to share those changes. You saved everyone the headache of having to do this ourselves.

Version 1.1 on the way. It will include:

-Blood & Mud support.

-Minor tweak to Castle Bruma's topmost turret, to mirror SilentResident's recent update of Unique Castles.

Downloading...

Its always great to see brilliant additions to cities being able to be used together.

Version 1.1.1 is now up.

- Cleared up a few wild region edits. They were harmless, but nonetheless untidy and unwanted.

Version 1.1.2

- Added VWD flags to the city flags so you can see them from far off again.

- Removed a couple floating objects left behind in the Leyawiin OCR versions.

Version 1.1.3:

- Permanently removed a troublesome NULL Ref from OCR versions.

- Removed a ring of floating windows in Anvil OCR versions.

Version 1.1.4

Tweaked B&M plugins to perform the edits more cleanly.