Vorians

This thread looks to have been abandoned now, but I really don't like the sound of "all of the better cities files activated" - a lot of the BC ESPs are patches dependant on other mods, if you've installed all of them then what you are experiencing is EXACTLY what I would expect. Make sure that you are only using the BC ESPs you actually need, check the file titled "What Does Each File Do.rtf", it's in the main archive download (containing all the ESPs and the ESM).

@ biosman: May want to read the actual news post by Dark0ne, it clearly states it's optional.

Will we be able to use this tool to download mods from GMods too? :p

You're no longer using TheElderCouncil.esp so you probably don't need CyrodiilUpgradeResourcePack.esm anymore. If the crashing still occurs only when using BC, then remove everything except BC and the BC patches (so keep the mods the patches are for too) - see if the problem persists. If it does, you've at least narrowed it down.

You don't have Better Cities installed. Better Cities won't work very well if it isn't installed. I seem to recall ScreenEffects.esm being a problem file. You should only use one of these, not both: LetThePeopleDrink.esp [Version 2.5] LetThePeopleDrink-Cobl.esp [Version 2.5] VaultsofCyrodiil.esp is incompatible with BC. Use VaultsofCyrodiilBC.esp instead, found in the BC archive. I believe some people find RenGuardOverhaul.esp unstable. You're using an outdated version of TheElderCouncil.esp. Update to the latest version (and clean it with TES4Edit).

I believe I merely did as you are now jaime74, and voiced my favour for the addition of a date field after someone previously suggested it. EDIT And "yay!" for getting the order of the changelogs to match the order they're submitted! Thanks Dark0ne, now the Villages changelog looks very nice and tidy, correctly ordered as it used to be when it was in the Description box.

For me, it is working as currently intended. I have transferred my changelogs from the Description page to the Changelog page for my uploads of Brew House, Villages, Five Blind Mice, UL Cliffs of Anvil and UL Silverfish River Valley. All are viewable without issue in the Changelog box, which has its own background overlaying the Description page behind. I'm also using Firefox v4.0.1, so jaime74's problem is not purely the browser. To see how useful it would be for the logs to display in the order they are submitted, take a look at the log for Villages, entries for v1.1b. There are three villages added by the mod, and in the changelog v1.1b I first listed changes which affected all villages or none specifically, then I listed changes specific to each village, prefixing each entry with the village name, submitting entries for one village at a time to keep them together. But the result is that the non-specific entries are at the bottom instead of the top, and the specific village entries have all been shuffled by placing each new batch of submissions above the previous sumbissions (though I also noticed that if you submit four changes, then submit some more, the first entry of the 2nd batch will still be appended after the fourth of the 1st batch, then the rest of the 2nd batch goes to the top). EDIT The slideshow thumbnails sits on top of the Changelog box, instead of being behind it.

Some people complain when a readme is really large. For this reason, Better Cities now has a separate txt file for the changelog, and a separate txt file for the extensive Credits list. Taking these out of the readme itself reduced the readme length by several pages. With regards Nexus, providing a separate page for the changelog certainly seems like a great idea, but after seeing how it is implemented, I am in agreement with others who have posted here, that for larger mods which have many changes, it simply isn't practical to have lots of separate fields breaking the changelog down - a single unlimited text field would be much more suitable, and much quicker for the modder to update. However for smaller mods or those which are complete feature-wise and now only have bug-fix updates, the current system would be very suitable. How about providing two options for the changelog, allowing the modder to pick either the line-by-line method or the free-size text box method? And the modder might be allowed to choose a different method each time, depending upon what they want to add into the changelog. Another thing I see as potentially useful here by the way, modders could update the changelog while editing their mod, listing what will be in their next release as they go. This will give existing users of their mod a glimpse of what to expect, will provide references to any known bugs which are fixed for the next release, and once the release-date arrives, the modder can just copy/paste the contents of that changelog into their readme (or changelog.txt) straight from the Nexus page. EDIT Also as has already been mentioned, there needs to be a field to enter the date the version was released (this could be optional rather than a required field). Also, there is no way that I can tell to edit a changelog entry once created, only an option to delete a line. EDIT2 And some time in the future, I too request to be able to control the order the entries display in. For now at least, could you make it so that new entries to the same version are appended to the list instead of prefixed? I'm sure everyone else must be the same as me, they start at the top of their changelog and copy/paste their way down until they run out of changelog fields, then submit and return to add more. Having the new additions placed above the previous entries is rather odd.

There's actually a really important reason for this behaviour, which is that we modders quickly learn that the majority of people who post in the comments thread with problems could have found the info in the mod's Description page, but didn't bother to read it because it was somewhere lower down - too many gamers seem to have a really short attention span, and are willing to read the first few lines of the Description page, then decide that it would be quicker to annoy the modder by demanding that the answer be handed to them in the Comments thread. By placing information considered by the mod author to be important at the top, this at least increases the chances of it being read.

Well I'm not going to make ALL BC Anvil ships toggleable. I have relocated the Night's Scream, replacing another BC ship outside the Anvil Bay which didn't have very good interiors, so now that space is free for any other mod using it. This won't be available to you however until v4.9.5. The rest of the BC ships will stay put (though one can be bought and sailed, so if that conflicts, buy it, sail it somewhere, then abandon it if you don't want to use it). As for the menu giving status reports, Ismelda would have to answer that one.

Thanks for your thoughts, and I'm pleased that as someone who has not yet started using the mod, you had the sense not to vote! The poll is entirely intended for people already using the mod. There is no right and wrong, there is what is best for us as modders, and what is best for those who use the mod, and generally speaking, that which is best for the modders should win out. While I did indeed know what I wanted to do, and Ismelda pretty much said what you say (that if this is what I want I should just do it), I wasn't about to make such a change if the majority of BC users were against it, hence the poll. And I'm happy with the number of voters we've had, even if it is a tiny percentage of the number of individuals who have downloaded the mod. I've been looking for a clear majority-vote, and I've had one, so I am satisfied that the majority of people who are willing to vote would comfortably accept abandoning modularity, so it is now a definite choice for us to do so if we still want to. It's the one the opposite side of the quay from the one with the ghosts - I'd tell you a name but the merged ships hide each others names so it's a little hard. I took a look in the CS but couldn't make head nor tail of what I was doing in there - too complex for my poor little brain. That must be the Night's Scream. I'll talk with Ismelda about that ship.

It's a possibility, which ship in particular were you thinking about?

You chose a mod which places a single container in a District over an entire District overhaul? Either edit the Nexon's Armory ESP to move the container to a new location, or use the console to tcl and reach the container through whatever part of BC makes it unreachable, retrieve the contents then disable tcl once out of the overlapping object again. Or retrieve the contents of the container, and THEN use the BC Market District (The Market District is the best part of BC's IC overhaul!). You only actually need to access a container once to get what is inside, afterwards it really doesn't matter if another mod places a building on top of the container.

Use the latest version of OMG along with the compatibility patch found in the main Better Cities archive. TEC is fully compatible with BC. And prior to the patch for BC/OMG, OMG's "4th era stuff" didn't break BC, it merely broke the compatibility I'd been maintaining between the two mods without need of a patch - which is why I then made the patch!

That choice automatically exists as soon as you install BC. As I already said, the OBC content is inside the BC ESPs, but disabled by default. A console command (or using the BC in-game OBSE menu) is needed to enable OBC for each city.

Ah, this might just explain the three spam emails I received yesterday! Normally I don't receive any as I try to be careful with my email address. Such a shame that once the hackers have put your address on spamlists, fixing the hole in Nexus' security can't take our addresses off the list again! Hackers and virus writers should all be punished, so I'm very much in favour of this being pursued if it doesn't require too much time or cost to Dark0ne. EDIT @ LadyMilla: Yahoo disposables? Loving it!!!! Signed up just now.

BC widens and deepens the water of the Lower Niben where it flows past Leyawiin, and replaces the stone footbridge with a raisable drawbridge - so ships should now be able to sail straight through - there's still a blockage further north of Leyawiin, but that's beyond the city so not something BC would touch. I'm not entirely sure what your concerns are with regards "water tables" but if you're worried that Onra's Tamriel Heightmaps might conflict with mods editing the IC Waterfront or Bravil/Leyawiin/Anvil coasts, don't worry, Tam Heightmaps does not touch any or these locations at all. BC adds one Imperial Navy ship in Leyawiin harbour, and (optionally) adds city guards along the walls of every city (excluding the IC). BC does not touch anything in the Kvatch area at all. Kvatch does make some edits immediately east of Anvil outside the city walls, but this should be fully compatible with BC. No need to worry about it, that doesn't happen. If it did, there would have been no reason for RAEVWD (for instance) to need a cities ESP to handle making the buildings visible and Bethesda would not have needed to make their own generic VWD meshes for the cities. Oh that was based on something someone else had said. I already spent a good deal of time since then testing and confirming that it was incorrect. I also found out that DistantLOD for child worldspaces was pointless, as the game completely ignores such files, using instead the parent worldspace files to display VWD content in child worldspaces.

Well you're out of luck a little there, since we've been recreating Open Better Cities within the Better Cities ESPs, so you can't have OBC in separate ESPs to BC. Luckily the OBC content is entirely optional, and disabled by default, so if you don't want OBC, simply don't enable it, and pretend that it isn't part of the BC ESPs. As for compatibility with those other mods and mod types: • Will always be so, with compatibility patches • Will always be so as BC doesn't touch weather • Will always be so as BC isn't a texture replacer • Erm, sometimes! Especially with compatibility patches for some which conflict

What's wrong with the two merged FPS patches we already offer? One for the BC IC merged ESP, one for the BC Full merged ESP. The Waterfront FPS patch has not yet been updated since the new additions to the Waterfront, there's plenty more wonderful clutter that can be removed with the FPS patch once I get around to it.

Have you thought of using the vanilla Bruma house meshes, but with the snowy roof textures swapped for a non-snowy one?

Any mod which renews Bruma Mages Guild after destruction should be compatible with Better Cities, but won't be if you use Open Better Cities. The same is probably true of any mod which rebuilds the Temple District (Temple of the One places some scaffold around the ruined temple, some parts of this scaffold clip with a few lamp posts added by Better Cities around the temple, but otherwise should be fully compatible).

For any mesh to appear VWD (Visible When Distant) in-game, it needs to have a corresponding _far mesh. A mesh named "BigCommonHouse.nif" would have with it in exactly the same folder, "BigCommonHouse_far.nif" - and it's this second mesh which will appear VWD in-game (after running TES4LODGen to regenerate the VWD data in the DistantLOD folder). _far meshes ought to be less detailed, collision-free meshes which look similar to the original (take a look at some vanilla meshes which have _far meshes with them). Installing RAEVWD might give you what you're after, but if RAEVWD doesn't include what you need and you're not able to edit meshes yourself, then simply copy the original mesh and name it to match the original but with "_far.nif" on the end instead of ".nif". Not advisable if the object is going to be appearing a LOT in-game, as using a non-optimised mesh intended for close view as a VWD mesh will have an impact on FPS in-game.

Good ideas, but contains an amusing comment. If a pirate who had not purchased Shivering Isles tried to play the mod, everything would be fine for them. They'll have a pirate copy of Shivering Isles so they'll have the vanilla resources just like anyone who bought Shivering Isles did. Still, all suggestions are good ones, as those who haven't bought or pirated Shivering Isles will be missing some content if they try to use this mod, and thus might be encouraged to purchase Shivering Isles if what does work from the mod appeals to them enough.

We (Better Cities team) have included several compatibility patches with BC for popular (and some less well-known) mods which conflicted with BC, so there's a good chance you'll be find a patch for most quest mods which conflict. I have also been the primary compatibility patcher for Unique Landscapes for almost three years now, you can find all my patches plus some by others here.

Bad move, this simply duplicates in-game everything from the mod, one version being the original mod content, the other being your edited content. If this is for personal use only, then you simply edit the original mod, don't make copies and use both. If you plan to release, then you need to ESMify the ESP you want to use as master, and make any edit in the Tamriel worldspace before saving. The CS contains a lovely bug where it will always crash on save if another ESP is loaded, and if the active ESP does not contain the Tamriel worldspace record. Thus making any edit at all in the Tamriel worldspace will bypass the bug.