Planned right, NRB4 could even look like it had been placed with ICS in mind. Or the other way around. Really, NRB4 is primarily about the eastern side of the island.

I made a map of ICS, present and future. http://olivia.aob.rs/images/ICSMap.jpg

The part colored green is "already taken". I modified it so heavily that I can't imagine any mod in the same area being compatible with ICS. There's a stretch of land there that I didn't change yet, including the access to the wooden bridge leading north (dashed in blue on the map), but it's such a nice piece of flat meadow, I'm pretty sure I'll end up building there as well.

The part colored blue is terra incognita. I haven't studied it yet to see if it's feasible to build there, where exactly, and what. So in general, yeah, I plan to work on it, but I have nothing particular in mind. I have a mind to make at least one suburb almost completely on water, so to say; the little peninsula to the north-east, just under the sewer exit, looks like a nice spot for it, but I'm not sure it will work out.

Arthomoor, do you have a map where I can see your new roads and bridges? Or if you're up to it, just sketch them on my map. If they are mostly in the east part, I might be able to work around them. - Ok, I found your maps. Seems feasible enough. In any case the current ICS should be well compatible with NRB.

Finally, the part colored red is an area that I'll probably leave as it is. The Waterfront doesn't need additional urbanizing, and there isn't enough space for building. The aqueduct from "Let the people drink" goes straight south from this red zone, if I remember correctly, so there won't be any problems with that.

Looking at the map, I see that the green, "complete" area is more like a third of the total area I originally planned to populate. Hm, not bad.

I get a CTD when running across the bridge toward Waye with AFK_Waye installed and the suburbs mod. Disabling AFK_Waye solves the issue. Perhaps someone else can verify?

I can't verify because I don't have the game with me right now... Since both mods change the area around the bridge, it's quite possible there's an object there, like a tree, a rock, or such, that one mod deletes and the other references for some reason - that would result in a crash. From looking at AFK_Waye screenshots, I'd say there shouldn't be any conflicts, but I can't be sure. Try loading a different save, sometimes it helps.

Wow. My Mage has never thought of settling in a little dingy suburb with the peasant stock before, but....jeeze.

Your mod is just so amazing. It is EXACTLY the type of thing I look for. Nevermind flashy magic and items, I just love good additions to the game to make it feel more populated and worth exploring!

Keep up the good work; I may even disable the UL: II for this when it gets up in versions. Have you considered offering your stuff for inclusion into Better Cities once its in a finished state? The Imperial City could probably use it.

I disabled II so long ago, I don't even remember what it looked like!

There are no overlaps other than the region data from AFK_Weye and the CS spreading stray path grid edits around where they don't belong. So ICS needs to load before AFK_Weye to make sure everything is kosher.

Thanks, guys. Means a lot to know people are using and enjoying it.




Good to know. Thank you, Arthmoor.

Olivia...

This will be really fun to play, when you finally finish it. But just make sure that NPCs don't get stuck all over the place...that is what happened in RedBag's Imperial City Expansion mod...and even messed up the Thieves' Guild quest from starting. Sadly, I had to delete his mod...which I really enjoyed previously.

Well, I can't guarantee there will be absolutely no AI bugs in ICS... I'll obviously do my best to deliver a properly working mod. But there's little risk of ICS breaking vanilla quests: I'm not going to touch the Imperial City itself, and there aren't many quest-related things in the meadows around.

That is good news. And take your time in designing it! One problem with RedBag's, I think, was that he tried to get it all done quick...and there were buildings that had doors, but you could not enter...increasing the fakeness level exponentially!

I know that problem! Filling extra doors is a strain.

personally i never found un-enterable doors all that imersion breaking...but maybe i'm just use to NWN style games like DA:O and KotOR, etc. For me, i rather have the door there as unenterable than not have it at all.

I just hope Olivia, in her ladylike fashion, doesn't leave any door un-openable!

Yeah. It's probably the most tedious and boring part of making a mod of this kind. Why does every house has to have a basemant, and an upper floor? And all the foodstuff we came to expect on the tables, the different-sized watermelons and pumpkins, the interminable empty shelves and books, not to mention the beer bottles and utensils! I get tired just talking about it.

But I agree... doors that can't be opened just don't fit with the rest of Oblivion. I don't mind them in other games, but I always like to try and make my additions as similar in spirit as possible to vanilla, the dream being to make a mod that the players can't distinguish from a DLC by Beth, heh. So I may leave some *barred* doors that do not open, since that already exists in vanilla, and of course there's bound to be some "you'll need the key"-locked doors, but there will be no non-interactive doors.

hey

there are a lot of modders resources avaible that make such things a lot easier, like ready to go table sets (including dishes, food etc), filled bookshelves, booksets, static scroll resources and wine racks....of course you will still have to place a lot of clutter by hand...

cheers

onra


edit...enlarging the IC by is btw a really good idea...making it feel more like an impressing capitol like Rome or Contantinopel...especially combined with new roads and bridges and let the people drink...one thing though ...what is about new city walls or at least fortifications or doorhouses guarding the bridges ..any plans ?

keep up the good work

Hey to you too.

I have to admit it never crossed my mind to look for resources of this kind. Sounds like they could save a lot of time, thanks!


I won't be making a new ring of walls or anything of that magnitude, no. I might place guard-houses, towers, or the like near the existing bridges, and as for adding new ones, there's http://olivia.aob.rs/oblivion/screenshots/ICSuburbs051.html in plan (although it's the exact opposite of "new", heh). I may use fortifications such as the wall in the screenshot elsewhere, if terrain allows. In short: I don't really know what I'm gonna do until I start doing it.

sounds good

Is this going to interfere with Arthmoor's Roands and Bridges? Hopefully not!

Hey guys, just so you know, I'm still working on this. I only post "big" news and questions here, for smaller and more regular updates, I started a blog http://olivia.aob.rs/Play/Games/Oblivion/ImperialCitySuburbs/ImperialCitySuburbsBlog.aspx, you're welcome to keep me company.

In short, the two new suburbs are shaping up nicely, with the exteriors 90% complete, interiors at about 40%, NPCs and packages perhaps at 5% and quests/dialog at 0% (I'll get there eventually). I'm also preparing a couple of resource releases - rugs, tapestries, statues, furniture and the like.

Unfortunately, I just got back to work so my time is short again. Oh well...

I put your blog into my favorite's list!

Really, really nice work. Not sure how I've missed it 'til now. Well, that's no longer an issue, anyway.

Heh, you probably missed it because I have a bad habit of staying silent for months. In any case, thanks.

Just ran across this mod, keep up the work. Will be a nice addition to OCR when its finished. Thanks for the contribution, and bookmarked your blog as well!

Thanks for your support, shadowchao.

Since I'm already here, a little update on my plans and doings:

I'm looking into making ICS compatible with http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1112446-relzbeta-weather-all-natural-thread-27/. Doing this would make my work easier and faster, and the end result decidedly prettier. The only potential setback I can think of is that ICS will depend on and require AN to be installed. But I'll think about that later.

I'm also looking into replicating the beautiful work SomeWelshGuy is doing with http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1111972-wipz-immersive-interiors/ - in short, I'd like to apply the idea to my new interiors. Haven't decided yet whether to go into it or not, but it's certainly an attractive thought.