Improved Imperial Infrastructure

http://www.moddb.com/mods/improved-imperial-infrastructure

version : Beta 0.3
by Section 31
==================================

"Before Tiber Septim, Cyrodiil's roads varied greatly in quality, and were often impassable in bad weather and winter season." - Arcane University scholar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEH9seii4Mg

i.Preface

Over 300 years after the reign of Tiber Septim, it seems the roads of Cyrodiil have not received any major improvements. As the center of Tamriel Empire, the shape of roads as presented in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion barely represent the condition of a cosmopolitan province. Sections of major roads appear more like cross-country track not to mention the lack of any supporting infrastructures. Moreover, without roads or other infrastructure connecting Cyrodiil with the other provinces, it seems rather odd that the Empire could hold on and kept the provinces from seceding for a very long time.

Improved Imperial Infrastructure aims to transform Cyrodiil from backwater countryside into the cradle of civilization. This modification was inspired by the http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=811936 of The Wayfarer. Its planned features include:
- New and extended roads to the border
- New border forts and settlements
- Enhanced major roads (e.g: less roller-coaster ride)
- Custom meshes for many new Cyrodiilic infrastructure
- Voiced NPCs


ii.Description

Because Improved Imperial Infrastructure introduced dozens of non-Imperial race border guards, I highly recommend you to use http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1022121 to properly adjust the crime-handling behaviour of the non-Imperial border guards.

With the development of Elder Scrolls community, new modifications featuring the western provinces of Tamriel have been created along with roads connecting Cyrodiil with those provinces. The focus then, at least in the beginning, will be the improvement of major Imperial roads and some "untouched" border region. Thus far, the modification consisted of the following:

• Improved Green Road (the road which stretches from northwest of Leyawiin to crossroads next to Pell's Gate), it is roughly 85% complete
  
• Improved Silver Road (the road which stretches from east of Bruma to crossroads next to Sercen ruin), it is roughly 90% complete
  
• Extended road from Dragonclaw Rock further north onto Skyrim border and beyond
  
• A new fortified Imperial-Skyrim border crossing located on the road north of Dragonclaw Rock
  
• New small road or cobblestones connecting Bleaker's Way with Silver Road and Border Watch with Green Road

I have created compatibility patches for certain modifications, which are:
- Knights of the White Stallion
- Mountain Shack
- New Road and Bridges
- Open Cities with Leyawiin Reborn
- UL : Bravil Barrowfields
I might build patches for another modifications (or alternatively, you might politely ask the chief architect of another modification to create compatibility patch if you notice any peculiarity)

Lastly, if you want to extract the modification from the compressed archive, type "s31" (without quotations) as the keyword. This "barrier" shall be removed in the next release.


iii.Gallery

• http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/ac189/Section_31/Improved%20Imperial%20Infrastructure/25805-1-1247623050.jpg
  
• http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/ac189/Section_31/Improved%20Imperial%20Infrastructure/25805-2-1247623051.jpg
  
• http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/ac189/Section_31/Improved%20Imperial%20Infrastructure/25805-3-1247623051.gif
  
• http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/ac189/Section_31/Improved%20Imperial%20Infrastructure/25805-4-1247623051.gif, it should be hidden, with the old dirt road transformed to cobblestone and rerouted to Border Watch settlement.
  
• http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/ac189/Section_31/Improved%20Imperial%20Infrastructure/25805-5-1247623051.gif Why didn't the designers make the road straight? It must be assumed that wagons and horses can somehow move via stairs...

New features on the work:

• http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/ac189/Section_31/Improved%20Imperial%20Infrastructure/towerinteriorview.jpg
  
• http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/ac189/Section_31/Improved%20Imperial%20Infrastructure/towerupperfloor.jpg
  
• http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/ac189/Section_31/Improved%20Imperial%20Infrastructure/frontoftavern.jpg
  
• http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/ac189/Section_31/Improved%20Imperial%20Infrastructure/tavernwithmusician.jpg
  
• http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/ac189/Section_31/Improved%20Imperial%20Infrastructure/musicianattavern.jpg
  
• http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/ac189/Section_31/Improved%20Imperial%20Infrastructure/blueroadextended.jpg
  
• http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/ac189/Section_31/Improved%20Imperial%20Infrastructure/extendedblueroad.jpg
  
• http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/ac189/Section_31/Improved%20Imperial%20Infrastructure/whereisthat.jpg
  
• http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/ac189/Section_31/Improved%20Imperial%20Infrastructure/anewbridge.jpg

Latest images (23/7/2010):

• http://i25.tinypic.com/2z8zz9c.jpg
  
• http://i27.tinypic.com/295g1gw.jpg
  
• http://i30.tinypic.com/2cnk3nc.jpg
  
• http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/ac189/Section_31/Improved%20Imperial%20Infrastructure/newfortfarragut.jpg
  
• http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/ac189/Section_31/Improved%20Imperial%20Infrastructure/viewfromfarragut.jpg

iv.Transference

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=5714
http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=59

v.Acknowledgments

Arthmoor, DarkRider, daemondarque, PacificMorrowind, and Phant0m32 at TESAlliance for their help and guidance.
Fawzib Rojas, creator of Oblivion Dynamic Dialog Creation.
The Wayfarer, from whom the idea emerged and convinced me to make certain it is not forgotten.

This looks very nice! Will have to keep my eye on the WIP.

Does it clash with Unique Landscapes at all?

I think, it being a relatively new WIP mod, that he may not have looked into that potential conflict yet?

This looks great, Section 31! I will definitely try this out. Thank you!

This looks great. One more mod that help Cyrodiil come alive!

Tracking.

Thank you very much



What Leydenne said. Also it depends on which Unique Landscape mod you're using/referring to. I personally don't have Unique Landscape installed in my computer therefore can't really be sure.
There might be some oddities with Bravil Barrowfield or Dark Forest (both occupied the upper part of Green Road), but you might be able to solve it using Tes4Edit.

edit:wrong road

Bit of load order advice - If you put this above the Open Cities block, the amount of patch work needed to fix the road and land tearing is far FAR less. Still needs a patch but it wouldn't need to do nearly as much and would run less risk of clashing with other stuff in the immediate area, such as NRB4.

I can't tell for sure just by looking but if you've made significant modifications to the Green Road on the south side of Bravil, it will heavily impact Bravil Barrowfields as that UL spans both sides of the road all the way down to the river inlet from the Niben.

Also, do you happen to know if Wayfarer was going to offer the work he had done up to when he last posted? He had a substantial portion of the road east to Malada done except for fine tuning.

I have checked Bravil Barrowfield, it is small and select. III needs to be placed above it in load order for maximum compatibility (and to experience changes from both plugins), which in turns also put Open Cities below III and Bravil Barrowfield (according to BOSS masterlist), per Arthmoor's suggestion. In any case, the compatibility patches must still be placed as late as possible to take effect.

Anyway, all is not quiet. I have plan to extend the small patch of road east of Cheydinhal to Morrowind border, complete with its own fortification including Dunmer border guards, similar to Skyrim-Cyrodiil border fortification. For that purpose, I have made basic custom crime voices for Nord and Dunmer member of Imperial Legion, tested them in-game, and worked as planned. Their legion combat power-attack are already in the original game therefore I don't need to recreate them from scratch (e.g: "For the empire!" "Remember the emperor!"), in fact all male non-beast races already have legion power-attack voices in game. I got to say though, the Elf in particular sounds hilarious. The Nords and Dunmer (Elves) guard should have the ability to arrest you.

Regarding The Wayfarer, I have sent him a PM. However he hasn't been active since at least May 10 and cannot be sure whether he will come back and reply to me. In his thread though, he mentioned that he had sent his modification file to at least one beta-tester. I wonder who that person would be?

Yes, the patch would still need to load after OC, but what I was getting at is with the adjusted load order the patch could be trimmed to sealing a tear and aligning the road texture along a single cell boundary instead of along several of them as it is right now. And it's only really needed for the Leyawiin Reborn layout anyway.



Well. I don't know who else he may have sent it to, but I have a copy he sent to me after he said he fixed it. But obviously I'm not giving that to anyone else unless he says it's ok to do so.

I'm glad you've taken the initiative to finish wayfarer's idea. I was really looking forward to his mod, but then he left. But now we have this... awesome!

I'm one of those players that despises fast travel and a overhaul of the roads will make trips between cities more enjoyable. Keep up the good work the screens so far look great!

A patch for Bravil Barrowfields has been added to PES.

In addition, I highly recommend you to use http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1022121 as a complement to Improved Imperial Infrastructure as VOILA enabled the border guards to truly apprehend criminals (read: you). And a new mirror: III has been uploaded to TES Alliance.

oooooOOOoooh.

Is this compatible with New Roads and Bridges Revised?
I'd hope so, as I don't believe it changes the vanilla pathways, but it'd be lovely to use both of these

Looks good, keep up the good work

And I would imagine it wouldn't work with Roads and Bridges, aren't they doing the same thing (granted Roads and Bridges is feature complete, I think)?

Nice, i'll download this as a part of my next upgrade. I had followed the orignial thread and i was disapointed when i heard about the accident that threw his work over. Anyway, it seems it's still alive

Actually, it worked (almost) perfectly with New Roads and Bridges, but make sure you put III above NRB. There is a minor land tear north of Bravil and another one near Sercen ruin, but I have created a patch to fix these as well (haven't uploaded it yet). The "finest" load order is something like these:
- Improved Imperial Infrastructure.esp
- Road + Bridges.esp
- Bravil Barrowfields
- Open Cities
- *Compatibility patches here*

bump because both this and VOILA look incredible

This mod looks great. Hope its still alive

I hope this mod is still chugging along. :poke: I know I'm not the only one looking forward to it!

New screenshots are always nice, as well...

yeah, this and VOILA are awesome. even if largely uncomplete right now, they both add a very nice touch to the game. quality stuff.

with no vehicles going over the roads, there doesn't really need to be a great system of roads...

Whats the worst that can happen? Someone trips over a bump i the road?

Still alive? Chugging along? What do you think it is...? A sentient being...? Since technically it is not a sentient being, this plugin was never alive. In all seriousness, the project is still progressing, albeit on a slower rate. If you're really curious, why not take a little time for tour to find out? Don't worry, I shall guide you on this brief journey... :whisper:

===============
Let us begin the tour. Ladies and gentlemen, please have a nice seat. B)

We are approaching Skyrim, the place where human descendants from Atmora first set foot on Tamriel. http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1255816422/gallery_456_25_75453.jpg, which I shall explain later. We are still on the Imperial province here, if you seek a food or drink you might visit the tavern up over there. Travelers from both Skyrim and Imperial province often visit the place through their journey.

Located right in front of the tavern is http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1255816422/gallery_456_25_62782.jpg.

Let's take http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1255816422/gallery_456_25_73662.jpg.

From this canopy, you can relax and view the surrounding landscape. Admittedly, there is not much to see here apart from snows and trees. Nevertheless, if there's nothing much to see, then how about http://www.mountainsgate.com/images/EmeritusFeast200930.jpg?

I believe you've had enough rest in the tavern. Let us continue the tour. How about a little walk on top of the battlement behind the tavern? Surely you want to know http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1255816422/gallery_456_25_19698.jpg.

Imperial Legion soldiers guard this place day and night. They represent the might of Empire and their constant presence is enough to keep most criminals away. You can see one of the legionnaires overlooking the roads we traveled previously.

All right then, you might want to look what's inside one of those towers. Let's find out.

A torch will come in handy if you http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1255816422/gallery_456_25_18109.jpg, there are lights, but might not be enough. We shall go to the upper level of the tower. Be careful, and watch your steps.

We are on the http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1255816422/gallery_456_25_69271.jpg.

The visit into this tower concludes our tour on this place. We shall travel back through The Silver Road. http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/1255816422/gallery_456_25_61694.jpg The Ayleids once rule this province, then the Imperials rise and become the masters.

Our tour ends here, ladies and gentlemen. We might be able to continue the tour around the Imperial province later. The Oblivion Crisis have brought devastation and many uncertainty.

May Talos guide you!
===============

Well, those are actually taken straight from the Alliance thread, I posted there to keep some things...hidden. Anyway, what you see in those pictures are not final, as the contents will most likely be altered, changed, or added.


Your wish is granted...

Anyway, I realize I spent more time erecting the border structures instead of improving the road conditions, those are more appealing to do, but I'll try to change. :ahhh:


I for one think the existing Silver Road (leading to Bruma), and the road right in front of the Imperial City main gate are atrocity. The worst that can happen? A horse running too fast from the higher part stumble to its dead, bringing the rider along with it to afterlife another realm.

suggestion: you could try and get in touch with Arthmoor, it seems like this mod and his new roads and bridges would complement each other quite well

I was browsing the fora today for the first time in eights or nine months, and stumbled across this thread. Looks good.

I had finally gotten so frustrated and fed up with the CS, that I had decided to wash my hands of the whole thing. However, after all these months of not playing, I've gotten the itch again.

You should drop me a line; we might consider joining forces. Or, I could bequeath my work to you, leaving it in the hands of an active modder in the (perhaps likely) event that the frustrating CS drives me away again...