Hello and thanks for reading.

I recently started a thread here on the forums because I was seeing purple windows in one of the locations in Bravil with Better Cities installed. Even though I'd grabbed BC fairly recently (back in June 2014), turned out I was using an older version that at the time required a patch to fix this issue. I was informed that a newer version is available that integrates this fix.

So all I needed to do was update my install to the newer version. Simple, right?

Last night I downloaded the three required .zip files from Oblivion Nexus. I uninstalled BC using Wrye Bash's BAIN, pulled them out of my Bash Installers folder and replaced them with the new .zip files. The I went into Wrye Bash and used the wizard to install each in order. Finally, I activated the .esm/.esp, used BOSS to correct my load order, rebuilt my bashed patch and started a new game (clean save).

The game ran, but when the Better Cities menu popped up, as it does after character creation is complete, it only listed one option to change settings for the Imperial City. Nothing else (other than "Cancel") appeared in the menu. I'd had BC installed before and I knew the menu included options for all the cities plus an option to open/close them all at once (rather than individually). So something was up.

I then spent the next three and a half hours trying to figure out what that might be. I must have tried every possible combination. I uninstalled BC and installed it again. I uninstalled the new BC and replaced it with the older version I had been running. I tried different install options via the wizard, like specifying that I did not intend to use open Better Cities (just closed). I tried uninstalling it, running the game without BC, saving that game, reinstalling it and restoring that save (the BC readme mentioned something about creating a save without BC installed when updating to a new version...but I'd figured this was just for folks wanting to update BC but continue with a current game...I was starting a fresh new game with nothing in the Saves folder).

Now, I'd also installed Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul (after the bashed patch, as directed). I thought that might be the culprit, as it was the only other aspect of my install that I'd altered. But uninstalling it did nothing. I then left it out of my install while I tried all the different BC installations. It made no difference.

At some point, I saw that DarnUI had "gone red" in Wrye Bash. Figuring that might produce an issue — though the BC menus I did see looked fine aside from the missing options — I annealed it. That made the red go away, but fixed nothing.

And at another point I annealed all, entered Oblivion and, amazingly, the BC menu appeared to work! All the options were there. Except the location was now filled with WTF! missing mesh indicators. Those missing meshes were of course from BC, so I had to install it again. The WTF!s then disappeared, but the menu issue was back.

In the end, I went with a work-around — using the BAIN wizard I told BC that I wanted to customize my install (up to that point, I'd only selected the Better Cities Full option that installs everything) and then I just checked off all the options individually (so every available city would be a BC city). That seemed to work and my in-game menu offered options for all the individual cities. However, options like "Open/Close All BC Cities" were absent.

Below is how my install was prior to swapping in the latest BC files and Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul from Nexus. I changed nothing else...so my current install looks exactly the same except for the new version of BC and the addition of Maskar's loaded after the bashed patch.

While I have, as I mentioned above, found a workaround, I'd love to hear possible explanations for this from the good folks who are far more mod-install accomplished than I am. This had me tearing my hair out.

Thanks so much.

- ELB

You really ought to use the official thread for a mod when posting about specific mods, it increases the chances of the mod authors noticing your query. Better Cities thread is http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?showtopic=1503054, but as I am the only active modder for Better Cities, and I have noticed you, let's stay here.

It's possible that the latest release may have an error in the menu scripts preventing it detecting the merged plugins. When I get home from work this evening I will check.

Thanks so much, displayname. Sorry about my defying protocol and failing to post in the official thread. Please know this was out of ignorance...I've not had to post such issues before. Should others arise in the future, I'll be sure to go to the official thread.

Thanks for looking into it. I look forward to hearing what you found out. I keep thinking that it must be my doing somehow (that I didn't uninstall fully or I chose incompatible options), but I can't for the life of me figure out what I may have missed. When you're using those great Bain wizards, it's pretty hard to screw it up.

The one thing that especially concerns me is that when I reverted to the earlier version of BC that had been working perfectly, that presented the same menu issue as the new version. That suggests to me that something in my install or install order is to blame. But we'll see what you come up with.

- ELB