I have never played http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16815 or http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=37867

I would love to hear people’s views on the merits of each mod and a recommendation as to which one I should try first – I am sure they are both fantatstic mods.

Many thanks for your comments and guidance.

I tried Sutch Reborn, but it just felt awkward and even though the buildings were nicely built, the landscaping left much to be desired. Quests were just not up to par for me, and it felt like playing a mod. Especially, quests that involved you to accomplish a task such that a Fighter's Guild could be built. And as soon as you step out into the city, the entire fighter's guild building is there, built within an hour. Just felt bizarre and unreal. Suspension of disbelief fail.

I've been meaning to try another Sutch mod, and have my eye on ImpeREAL Sutch. From what I understand, the interiors are not complete in that mod, so I think it is a WIP. I am also looking forward to Arthmoor's Village of Sutch, a WIP, which should be a good one based on his other village mods.

Ah! So many Sutch mods - such (pun intended) is the way of life. :wink_smile:

ImpeREAL seems much more professional to me.

Yes Reborn is unfinished and the author, last I knew, was working on yet another version which would have made it a closed city.

I've not played ImpeREAL.

ImpeREAL Sutch is still a work in progress as has been mentioned. However, what is done so far is done very well and the author has made painstaking efforts to make the mod compatible with just about everything else out there. It doesn't have any conflicts with the other 200+ mods I'm running, and I believe it was stated somewhere it's compatible with at least 5,000 other mods that were checked.

That said, it will be incompatible with the eventual Sutch Village that was announced after ImpeREAL Sutch was released. The design of Sutch Village will apparently make patching untenable both due to placement of structures as well as storyline.

Many thanks to all of you for taking the time to provide your insights - very much appreciated.

I like how ImpeREAL city of Sutch puts the city right next to Fort Sutch. It finally explains why a group of Imperial Guards were ordered to defend an abandoned fort in the middle of freakin' nowhere.

I also like how ImpeREAL city of Sutch is kind of built onto Lord Drad's Estate.It's a nice touch, but I have to wonder if the Sutch guards will ever come to poor Drad's rescue after the ogre's enslave him and his wife.

Well, that is almost true for the Sutch Reborn mod as well...

That's right, Sutch Reborn isn't much farther away is it? It's on the water, so I felt it was farther, but Fort Sutch isn't that far from the beach now that I look. Well, it's far enough away that the two mods are technically compatible (according to the author of Sutch Reborn), although using both would be kind of redundant.

So in recalling that Biulding3015 was making a new Sutch mod I researched and found a bunch actually.

There is the http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35813 - meant to replace DCRP. and building on that:
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=32298 - the main city mod.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35799 - adds infrastructure around area - claims to be compatible with ImpeREAL too.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35757 - adds the docks from Reborn to the above city.

But just infrastructur and NPCs so far - no quests or things to do.
Also no updates in 5 months.

http://www.forums-dragoncaptions.com/county-sutch-new-haven-t524.html

I'm waiting for Arthmoor's Sutch village. I can see why they didn't include Sutch in the game; western Colovia is waaaaay too small to have three cities. Putting a city there always seems to 'upset' the balance Oblivion has with cities...

I'm not 100% on the lore regarding sutch - I can't seem to dig up much on the Imperial Library site. Could be that nothing is canon, so this may all be weasel deluxe thinking here.

It seems the DC team take the point of view that Sutch was a hidden from view city with a cloistered atmosphere. This accounts for why no reference in the vanilla game. But the architecture is all vanilla style and an attempt to make the city look like the others. I'm not sure how Silent Resident approaches this at all, so can't comment. I like this approach to explaining why - the city is a lost city - hidden behind it's walls. But the existing mods do not go far enough in that direction in my opinion.

I don't consider the ImpeREAL forts mod to be lore friendly - it has been a while since I read the material on it, but I'm of the impression that the old broken down forts were from a different era - a different regime. I could be wrong.

Looking at Morrowind you see the forts are not like this at all - and they are the current forts being used by the empire. Fort Akatosh redux matches that design more closely in architecture that looks modern (to the era of Oblivion). I can accept that perhaps the ImpeREAL models were renovations (whatever it is all good). It seems the thinking with ImpeREAL forts was "Morrowind had occupied forts, but Oblivion doesn't ... so lets occupy the existing ones." I think the Oblivion forts were always meant to be just dungeons.

I'd think it clever to tie sutch back to that older regime and have architecture that matches the forts, but more upkept. Have the population not part of the official empire, but outcastes that do not want to be recognized -- kind of like maybe Hackdirt, but better.

So in short none of the options seem that appealing as I agree the area is too small for another large town.

you are right about the forts Psymon...all these abandonned forts were from the second aera...when General Talos conquered all of Tamriel and finally the empire of Tamriel was proclaimed all of the legions were moved to the new provinces and the forts were abandonned...since this is a good while ago, military organisation and architecture has changed... as you stated before this can good be seen in TES 3 Morrowind...Imperial forts look more now like roman castellums...
as I posted on the Unique impereal forts thread Fort Akatosh Redux provides some nice lore background about the Elder Council giving orders to rebuild some of the old forts beside ordering at least the Swamp moth Legion back to Cyrodiil during the Oblivion crisis...

for Sutch...since this is a heavy modded area (Ul, Castle Seaview, Hammerfell etc) my biggest problem with DC Sutch always was compatibilty, I think Silent Residents Sutch does a better job in this point
what I personally don't like is the big cathedral in ImpeReal Sutch...since this town looks like a small trading point on the route to hammerfell, a small chapel would have been much more realistic...

cheers

Thanks for the really interesting and informative discussion - now pondering

Perhaps the village is the way to go.