At least it sounds like an issue that can be dealt with via load order rather than needing a patch...or does it need a patch?

Just did some running around the area with impereal forts loaded below the shrine mod, and shuffling the load order like this seems to fix it completely, so no patch should be necessary. Will make note of it in the BOSS thread. Thanks for help in clearing it up.

If it gets moved past the ULs it should be ok, there's no cell conflicts with any of the ULs to date. Always best to avoid having to patch.

Removed from my list of conflicts with ULs needing a patch

I have happily to announce that for the first 2 days of the fort's release, got 5 mails, (this kinda surprised me, i didnt expect that), of which 2 were asking for permissions to be granted for the translation of the ImpeREAL Forts mod for different languages. (Russian & German). I told them feel free to do so. And the rest of PMs are from satisfied players for the revival of this mod by Prettyfly.



And CityManiac says he/she loves Prettyfly. Dear Prettyfly, I thank you again for having the courage to take that mod in your hands and continue its development. And thanks to Arthmoor and everyone else for their help to make the landscape tearings "a problem that belongs to the past" so the Oblivion Gaming Comminity can enjoy any mod without conflicts that damage the game's realism and entertainment.



hehe, I am with you, dear gamers and modders.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34010: Covers Fort Sunset Vista and JDNT's Brina Cross. The two actually end up going together quite nicely.

Great, I'll add the information about it to the mods page

And after all, what town wouldn't want to build itself at the base of a mighty military fortification....

Since Arthmoor's "Lost Spires" patch now seems to be the preferred one I'll likely switch to it in the near future, and at the same time move ImpeREAL Forts to its current BOSS-recommended load-order position. Oddly, in all my time playing Oblivion I've not yet needed to do so radical a load-order move (BOSS used to place Forts quite high). Is there anything special I need to look out for during the process, other than re-build my Bashed-Patch and rerun TES4LODgen?

Another question, at a risk of slightly shanghaiing the thread. Talk of compatibility with JDNT's Brina Cross mod sparked my interest. I visited it's Nexus page, only to find no screen-shots. For those that use it, do you consider it a worthwhile addition to Cyrodiil? On par with, say, Arthmoor's Faregyl or Feldscar, or maybe the DC Villages?

ADDENDUM: Since I'm asking questions...
If memory serves, this mod's original author was working on two additional forts, one on the Red Ring Road. Seems to me they were nearly finished. Will those be completed or have they been permanently abandoned?

Thanks in advance!

-Decrepit-

I can't think of anything special, this mod fairly simple.

I've only passed through it a couple of times, but it fits in nicely and doesn't come across as out of place.

Arthmoor, as care-taker of the TIE mod, can you comment on its compatibility with this and the other Unique mods (Castles, Districts)?

There shouldn't be anything that would interfere with the forts. Can't say 100% for certain on the castles or districts as I don't use those, but as long as they're not using oddball leveled lists they should be fine.

I don't think that there are any levelled list issues; what I was concerned about was the potential collision of secret thief areas and access points.

Shouldn't be any issues with those. The hideouts you're talking about are all closer to the cities than these forts are and there's nothing above ground to worry about unless one of those district/castle mods plops something on one of the new sewer entries in the IC. That would be a minor issue since the sewers are all connected anyway.

To answer Decripit;

I do remember Silent Resident mentioning on the mod's tesnexus page that he was working on two new forts as well as providing name and location, however, he never mentioned anything to me about a half finished esp or nearly finished forts or anything of the likes, so I assume that an esp with those forts either didn't exist anymore by the point I asked or had never actually been started.

Fort Sunset Vista however is one of the forts he was intending to add as part of that mod as I remembered its name and location from back then, however I forgot where the other one was and what it was supposed to be called so I came up with Fort Black Rock (though you mentioning the Red Ring Road does bring back that memory a bit, though I still don't recall the name).

Oddly, I never considered that asking Silent Resident for those details was an option...

But yes, I think they can be safely considered permanently abandoned.

Fort Black Rock glitch update...
A small land-tear spanning the road at Fort Black Rock disappeared once I altered my load-order to place ImpeREAL-Forts far lower on my list, as now recommended by BOSS. Issue solved.

Other comments...
I switched from adg's Lost Spires patch to Arthmoor's but haven't yet visited that fort to check out any differences. I also added the Brina Cross village mod (and Arthmoor's patch) and agree it blends well with the Fort. Seems a good combo.

-Decrepit-

Xtudo has recently provided me with two patches which replace the vanilla horse models with those from either Slof's horses or Zira's Clyde-stales.

They are now both available, and both look extremely good in my opinion.

Xtudo has also managed to embarrass me by picking up on several small bugs concerning some of the horses, though nothing game breaking.

So if you use either Slof's horses or Zira's Clyde-stales, this is a highly recommended grab for users of ImpeREAL forts.

Great news! Xtudo has produced another patch!

This one overhauls the NPCs in Fort Black Rock to fit in with the changes OOO makes. Includes both stat changes and inventory changes; check out the screen shots to see what I mean (as soon as I upload them)!

OOO is, to be clear, required for the patch. It will work fine with FCOM, to.

Xtudo's currently working on one of these patches for Fort Ordeal, keep a look out for it coming soon.

Just a small note, the main ImpeREAL forts file and Xtudo's horse patches have been updated so that the patches can be properly merged into a bashed patch (previously they could not, due to the existence of world space edits that have been incorporated into the main file). Also, the one the patch for Zira's Clydestales has had a minor model fix.

I have to say I find it most pleasant to finally see the Empire having a decent military presence throughout the province. OOO increases the number of patrolling soldiers, and now we have Unique Forts to watch over the citizens from every available view. Forts were one of those things Morrowind had that Oblivion sorely lacked, and while there are some stylistic differences between the two, I can easily dismiss that. After all, how long have these forts been around? :biggrin:

Oh, and kudos to Xtudo for the patch for Slof's Horses. Oblivion's vanilla horse models are pretty drab next to hers. :twirl:

Yeah I don't think I've ever said thanks for making this. Adding road travelers was the first thing I did to make the game world actually feel inhabited, but once I came across the forts it really filled in the world for me. I think Bethesda really dropped the ball when it came to making the capital province of the Empire actually feel like, uh, the capital province of the Empire. Ruined forts should not be the only forts you come across. Morrowind's somewhat desolate landscape felt appropriate for that game, but Oblivion's setting demands a greater presence of Imperial forces, other NPCs, and so on.

Plus, because I'm really strict this game about not adding anything that will affect gameplay or balance too much, I'm really glad I can install it as an aesthetic, immersive improvement without it affecting much else. My only gripe would be that I have fears being able to see inside the forts causes a performance hit when near a fort, but I don't even know if that's true at this point.

Also, coming across the forts always compels me to take screenshots, hehe.

http://i54.tinypic.com/e7yyy1.jpg

http://i51.tinypic.com/hsw2z9.jpg

Time to try out the new version, and like I said in the other thread where I brought up my landscape tear issue, I'll let you know if Unique Forts has anything to do with that problem.

@palidoo; I'm fairly sure its not the culprit, but if it is, I'll be happy to hear the info. Also, with the inside of the forts, only the bottom level has actually been made, the rest is just a big hollow space, so it shouldn't really cause to much of a performance spike. Of course, if SilentResident had made the whole interiors with the Tamriel world-space (my forts merely being copies of his) it would have been a different matter, but I suppose he came up with a pretty awesome compromise.

Also, I might mention that that the Silgrad Tower Black Marsh project is, to my knowledge, including an Imperial Legion fort that has been copied out of ImpeREAL forts. Which is kinda awesome.

While I'm thinking about it, I've got a suggestion. Is it possible for you to add more to the outsides of the towers? Right now there are the long draqed flags, but I was looking at the bare side of one of them rising out of some trees the other day and thinking it could use, well, something. More windows, maybe. Additional flags? If it was possible I'd even suggest varying the architecture towards the top, but I imagine that's a lot more work. I don't know, they're great enough as they are now, but I feel like they're missing something.

Speaking of ImpeREAL, time to try the Unique Districts again and see if they still destroy my framerate!

Just a bit of possible explanation on why Cyrodiil's forts are in such disarray. I get the impression that not only is the Empire stretched thin, but they more or less feel that the Cyrodiil province is very secure and thus didn't need a huge standing military at the forts anymore. I don't recall where I read it but there was mention about how the ones in Oblivion have been mostly abandoned for 100+ years. The Legion being off trying to hold the outer provinces together more than anything, which is why you have forts in Morrowind and forts mentioned in Argonia too.

Still, one would not expect ALL of them to be ruins so this mod fills a much needed space and I for one am glad to have it

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, but like you say you'd expect them to have at least something. And too much of an Imperial presence would make traversing the wilderness a lot less fun and dangerous, knowing there's always Legion soldiers nearby able to protect you. I think the amount of forts around right now is just fine, there could probably be one or two more, but more than that would be too much.

I actually had to scale back on Crowded Roads Revisited, using the optional esps that add the least number of travellers, because after installing Tamriel Travelers and Immersive Travelers, which have their own unique benefits, there would be so many people on the roads it was just totally immersion-breaking. Now I come across a few people here and there but not so many that all of the various creatures and bandits that wander on to the roads are already either dead or in the middle of fights when I get to them. It is pretty entertaining coming across various fights that break out and seeing people fleeing from them, though.

There's another mod I found, http://tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/files/file/53-voila-voices-of-imperial-legion-amalgamated/, that among other things beefs up the patrols along the roads, and I enjoy that as well. Combined with the various squads of soldiers added by Enhanced Daedric Invasion running around, I'm finally pretty happy with the Imperial presence around Cyrodiil.

Maybe tonight will be the night I finally install New Roads & Bridges and make the landscape even better. I've been holding off because I grouped it with Unique Landscapes under "things added to the game world I don't want to install until I feel I've had the TRUE VANILLA EXPERIENCE" but that may be kind of silly of me. Some might argue my whole scheme of avoiding anything game-changing until I've experienced the vanilla game thoroughly is pretty silly itself, though!