» Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:38 am http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?showtopic=1019807
Open Cities Classic is a comprehensive project that aims to bring back at least part of the feel of Morrowind - specifically with how most of the cities were a natural part of the world and you could just walk in without loading screens. The added immersion and realism goes a long way, probably a lot more than you might think. Ever wanted to ride your horse into the center of Cheydinhal? Well now you can. Need to get some help from the city guards to vanquish a foe? Run toward the gates and the guards will do their duty while you can seek safety within the walls. The town guards make for some very interesting interactions this way.
The only cities not covered by this project are Kvatch and the Imperial City's central districts. Kvatch has too much main quest material setup in very specific ways to mess with it, and the Imperial City is simply too large and unwieldy to properly open up.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16360
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=4222
http://tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/files/file/109-open-cities-classic-356/
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=32925 - All patches are localized here. PES and TESA will no longer carry the patch files as it is too much work to maintain.
Translated Versions:
http://www.confrerie-des-traducteurs.fr/site/mods/cyrodiil/villes_et_villages/cites_ouvertes.php - Version 3.3.2
If you like what you see, please rate/vote!
http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/271/opencitiescellgridgk2.jpg showing exactly which cells the Open Cities files affect.
Highly recommended complimentary mod: http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?showtopic=984109 - This is the evolution of Texian's Window Lighting System and is fully compatible with Open Cities.
To go with that, and provide LOD for all the new goodies, I also recommend: http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?showtopic=983713. Just be aware that there's a bit of a performance hit in activating all the extra LOD that Open Cities will provide that's directly proportional to the power of your PC, and how many other mods you have installed.
Open Cities: New Sheoth
"Cat's out of the bag! Why do people put cats in bags? Cats hate bags." - Lord Sheogorath
Continuing in the tradition, if it could be called that, of Open Cities, I bring you Open Cities: New Sheoth. The first, last, best, and worst, Open Cities mod for the Shivering Isles. Madness has never been so much fun!
The twin cities of Bliss and Crucible have been transferred from their own individual worldspaces out into the SEWorld worldspace, which is SI's equivalent of being in the Tamriel worldspace. Though it may seem somewhat silly given the small size of both cities, the results are still pretty good. Everything blends in with the immediate surroundings of the cities so if you didn't know any better.....
As with other Open Cities mods I feel this adds greater realism to the cities by not having to transition from one outdoor worldspace into another. It may seem silly but give it a shot. It really does enhance the gameplay by quite a bit.
I would like to give a big thank you shout out to Sjors_Boomscors, without him this project would have died on the table a long time ago without every really having a chance. It was because of his help in getting some critical model work done that I was able to proceed even after he moved on to other things.
The New Sheoth module obviously requires Shivering Isles.
Installation Requirements
Official Oblivion patch version 1.2.406.
Shivering Isles patch 1.2.0.416 required for the New Sheoth module.
Bravil Blood & Mud is required if using the open version of that city. (http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=12016)
Bartholm 7.0+ is required to use the open cities version of that city. (http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5022)
The Quick Install
Ok, for those of you who want to just jump right in, Open Cities is now packaged as a BAIN archive for easy setup. That was probably somewhat obvious though
00 Core Resources - All files here are required.
For modular installs:
10 Individual Cities - Install the cities you want opened from here.
For merged installs:
15 Full Merged - Pick this if you want all of the cities opened. Do not install anything out of folder 10 in this case.
For either install:
20 Road Record - Corrects NPC pathing while taking into account that the cities are no longer closed.
30 Outer Districts - If you want the Prison and Arcane University opened as well, install this folder's contents.
40 Bartholm - If you have J.Sera's Bartholm 7.0+, you can elect to have the city opened with this.
50 New Sheoth - If you have Shivering Isles, this will turn Bliss and Crucible into open cities.
If you installed the road record, rebuild your Bashed Patch and import the road record file using "Import Roads". Saves having to eat an activation slot for it.
Then just activate the rest of the files and you're off and running.
For those of you who want a bit more detail for installations, or prefer manually installing, read on:
Installation - Upgrading from Open Cities Prior to Version 3.5
The following procedure is necessary in order to upgrade from a version of Open Cities Classic prior to 3.5:
* If you bought the player home in Anvil Bay (from the bay expansion) clear out any items you don't want to lose.
* Go to any location not within the city walls of a city affected by the mod, save, and exit the game.
* Deactivate all of the patch files for OCC you may have installed.
* Load the save you just made, wait a few seconds, save again in a new slot, then exit the game again.
* Deactivate all of the Open Cities plugin files you are using now, including the resource ESM file.
* Load the save you just made, wait a few seconds, save in another new slot, then exit the game.
You may wish to wait 24 in-game hours to reset the AI first, but this is not strictly necessary.
At this point you should be ready to proceed with either the BAIN install or a manual install of Open Cities Classic 3.5.
If during upgrading the game will not load, rebuild your Bashed Patch as it may have pulled in records from one of the mod files.
Once the main mod is settled, you need to upgrade any patches you are using for other mods.
Get those files here: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=32925 or here: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16360
Installation - New or Existing Game, First Time User
Main Components:
* As a precaution, backup your saved games. You never know.
* Unpack the files from the archive into a new folder. Don't just blindly dump into your Data folder. It won't work.
* Just in case, if installing to an existing save, make sure you are not standing outdoors in a city.
* Copy everything from the "00 Core Resources" folder into your Data folder now.
* Copy the ESP file or files you wish to use, based on which cities you intend to play with.
You MUST be sure you are not using more than one of the same city! Failure to observe this will result in FPS eating duplication of EVERYTHING in the city.
The "Open Cities Full.esp" in the "15 Full Merge" folder contains them all, so if that's what you want, don't install the other individual city files.
If individual cities are what you want, then pick those from the "10 Individual Cities" folder. There should be one each for the vanilla cities.
Optional Components:
* If you want the IC Outer Districts, you need to copy everything from the "30 Outter Districts" folder into your Data folder now.
* If you want New Sheoth, copy everything from the "50 New Sheoth" folder into your Data folder now.
* If you want Bartholm to be open, copy the ESP file from the "40 Bartholm" folder into your Data folder now. Make sure you already have Bartholm 7.0 installed first.
At this point you should be ready to activate the plugins. You should consult the load order section for tips, or just use BOSS to take care of that for you.
* Install any needed compatibility patches.
* Rebuild your Bashed Patch if you have one. It's possible it may need to pull records from the plugins you're using now.
When you get done, it is highly recommended that you update your LOD using tes4lodgen if you are using RAEVWD.
Once the game loads, you should allow 24 game hours to pass for AI to fully update in each city, though this is not strictly required.
Uninstalling Open Cities Classic
Oh, now why would you want to go and do a thing like that?
But, since this isn't going to be for everyone, and you may decide you don't like what it does, the following procedure needs to be followed to remove the mod:
* Load your game, and move to a location away from any of the cities. Don't use an interior attached to a city for this. Save and exit the game.
* Deactivate any patches you installed for other mods first. Load your game, then save in a new slot and exit the game.
* Remove the patch ESPs from your Data folder.
* Deactivate the city plugins, and the ESM file. Load the save you just made and save again in another new slot.
* Uninstall Open Cities Classic from the game, either manually or by using BAIN. Make sure the plugin files are gone once you do this.
* Rebuild your Bashed Patch if you have one, as it is possible it may have pulled records from the plugins.
* Regenerate your LOD so the proper visuals are restored.
You will need to allow 24 game hours to pass for AI to recover.
Modularization
Open Cities Classic is entirely modular. If all you want is Anvil, then Anvil it is. If you want Chorrol, then you can have that too. Want three cities from this pack and two more from another city overhaul? That's possible as well. Have one of those not so strong systems that the Outer Districts module brings to its knees? Then simply don't activate that module. Since quests and AI have been sufficiently isolated by Bethesda, you can mix and mach any combination of city mods you want so long as you don't install a duplicate. You can even mix and match components from the Open Cities Reborn package if you want some variety.
Known Issues
There is another set of doors behind the ones that swing open on X city
This is a highly frustrating bug in the Oblivion game engine when dealing with persistent objects. It is causes by reloading the game without completely exiting to the desktop. Exiting to the main menu is *NOT* enough to bypass the problem. For whatever reason, the game will restore the positions of the city gates despite the mod clearly telling the game to push them far underground. When this happens, the only solution is to save, exit completely to the desktop, and then reload. It is therefore highly recommended that you use a mod such as FastExit2 (http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=22410) in order to be able to exit quickly when needed.
Duplicate chapels in Anvil
Update your UOP with the UOP Supplemental, v3.2.9 or above. http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=27710
Game crash right after facegen
Update "Knights - Unofficial Patch.esp" with the new version: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=27710
TIE NPCs are not visiting the cities
Update to TIE 1.36 or higher.
Tamriel Travelers NPCs don't visit the cities
AI support in TT is pending an update from Corepc. In the meantime, the NPCs will be unavailable on the days they should be visiting the cities. They resume their normal schedules in the wilderness afterward.
In "Big Business", Bauggi goes to Anvil and then vanishes
He has an AI pack set to send him to Anvil, possibly just for the realism effect. He does nothing once there though, so fixing it isn't important. Just wait for him to come back out and return to your farm.
Troubleshooting Problems
If you have a problem with an Open Cities mod and wish to report it, I'd appreciate as much information as possible, preferably in the form of a screenshot with console data showing if it's something that can be screened. The FormID of the affected object would help greatly to narrow down any problems that might result. Post this information along with your load order. Reports with less than detailed information may result in delays in getting it fixed, or result in being ignored entirely. It helps everyone to provide details. I am especially interested in verifiable conflicts, as I wish for Open Cities to be as conflict-free as is humanly possible given the circumstances. If the situation requires a patch, I can only work something out if I know what to look for.
Locations of AI Doors
The AI doors are entry ways into the closed wordspaces should it become necessary. Not everything that is placed in a city by a mod is worth the time it takes to create a patch. Mods that drop items for a one-time pickup are a good example of this. It's much easier to just go through the door, get what you need, then exit the city as normal.
Anvil: Along the city wall behind the abandoned house.
Anvil Castle: In the garden that's in front of the guard barracks.
Bravil: In the garden area immediately outside the castle in the NW corner.
Bruma: A small snow rock in the castle courtyard area, along the wall south of the gateway arch.
Cheydinhal: In the castle area between the well and the guard barracks tower, along the wall.
Chorrol: On the back side of the castle, directly south of the guard tower.
Leyawiin: Southeast corner of the castle area.
Skingrad: Near the horse statue on the north side, between the red tree and the archery targets.
SKingrad Castle Courtyard: Tucked against the wall immediately to the right as you come through the gate.
New Sheoth - Bliss: Small rock cluster next to the entry to Sheogorath's Palace, right in front of the barrel.
New Sheoth - Crucible: At the bottom of the stairs to the palace, on the ledge next to the sewer grate.
Bartholm: Along the south city wall, directly behind Rufus' house.
Arcane University: On the west side, along the wall, right across from the well.
Prison District: Also on the west side, next to the wall, to the left of the practice target.
Performance and FPS
Rumors continue to persist about Open Cities Classic being an FPS killer. In and of itself, OCC will not represent a significant hit to your gaming performance. If you are playing the stock game, with stock graphics, go run around near the Imperial City, then around Chorrol. Measure the performance you get. Add Open Cities Classic, and perform the same test again. The Imperial City will remain unchanged, and your trip around Chorrol will see a minimal impact of 3-5 frames. In other words, if your system is low end, it'll still feel low end after installing Open Cities Classic. If you have a midrange to high end system, installing OCC will not be a noticeable drain on your resources.
The problem most people have is that they're not playing in a stock configuration. They load up a bunch of graphical enchancers ( guilty as charged! ) and a ton of graphically heavy mods, all at the same time. So suddenly trips around the Imperial City are a bit sluggish, and that trip around Chorrol is bogging things down. In the process of adding mods, they not only activated huge memory sinks like QTP3, but also activated a large set of LOD mods, FCOM, 18 quest mods, a lighting overhaul, a weather overhaul, and higher quality sound files. So when the game slows down, it takes all of two seconds of "OC is an FPS killer" and people believe it, because, by coincidence, removing it results in what they think is smoother play. However, removing any one of the other elements would have done the same. Bog the system down with enough stuff, it will buckle. There are tradeoffs to be had. I am aware of how this may sound, but in the grand scheme of things, Open Cities is not the FPS killer everyone says it is. Do yourself a favor and be objective enough to try it first and see for yourself before believing some random forum poster. The vast majority of the negative attention was from 2006. We're in 2010. The mod has been trimmed and polished a lot since then. Systems have also evolved considerably at the same time.
That said, there may be some additional load placed on your game if you install the Outer Districts module. Sjors has provided me with some updated collision optimized meshes to use for the large walls and towers that enclose the two districts. Without them, there was significant lag while in the Arcane University and slight lag while in the Prison. After the optimized meshes were installed and tested, the lag is all but gone and it's about as smooth for me as it is to be in the closed versions of these districts. That does not mean however that your experience will be the same. These districts are made up of large high detail meshes. A low end machine struggling with the Imperial City in general is going to have trouble here as well. Midrange PCs may see some significant additional lag. Higher end PCs should notice little if any difference, but this will depend greatly on both your CPU and GPU. Visible images tax the GPU. Collision meshes tax the CPU due to the Havok physics involved. Be prepared for some tradeoffs. The Imperial City has always been and will likely continue to be a resource hog whether or not you fling them open to the world.
Credits
Texian & Godhugh for the original groundwork on the Open Cities mods. A hell of a lot of work went into that and I've only built upon it.
Wormheart for the working city gate resources.
Sjors Boomscors for providing optimized and corrected meshes for the Outer Districts module.
Ryan for allowing me to produce an Open Cities extension for his Blood&Mud mod.
J. Sera for allowing me to produce an Open Cities extension for Bartholm.
Fearrabbit for providing the retexture and LOD for the new lighthouse in Leyawiin.
Vorians and Ismelda for being cooperative on sharing compatibility tricks we can both use in each other's mods.
Firespark for the flags flying over each city's castle.
Open Cities users everywhere, for being patient enough to put up with my bumbling efforts to get things right. Maybe one day I finally will
Licensing and Legal
Redistribution is strictly forbidden without prior consent. This means do not upload it anywhere unless you have obtained permission from both myself (Arthmoor) *AND* godhugh.
Non-English translation versions may be uploaded without permission on the following conditions:
1. All mod files contained in this archive are retained with their current names.
2. No alterations are made to the contents of the plugins or master file other than those necessary to translate the English text.
3. No alterations or additions are made to the meshes and textures other than those necessary to translate English text.
4. This readme is included, in ENGLISH, exactly as it is written in the version it was downloaded with.
