LE Bigger cities

[stebbinsd]

The hold capitals are teeny-tiny. Even if we accept that there are going to be processing limits, there's still plenty of room for expansion.

 

The minor hold capitals don't even have all the commercial amenities you'd think they would need to survive! Dawnstar, for example, doesn't even have a general goods store, and Falkreath has no ore smelter.

 

Even in the major cities, each merchant has a monopoly on their particular services. Whiterun and Markarth are the only cities in the game that have two competing blacksmiths. In small towns like Riverwood, this makes sense due to the size of the towns. However, in capital cities, it's completely nonsensical.

The only way these monopolies make sense is if you accept that their prices and inventory stock are fixed by the game mechanics. In lore, however, there's no explanation even attempted as to why these merchants aren't abusing their monopolies by skyrocketing their prices.

 

Most city enhancement mods just focus on sprucing up the cities, adding foliage and other decorations.

 

I'd like to see the hold capitals themselves become physically bigger. The The overworld would remain unchanged, but I suppose the people would just suspend their disbelief on that. Also, scripting for the Battles of Whiterun, Solitude, and Windhelm would have to be tweaked, but that shouldn't be a difficult task for adept modders.

 

Major hold capitals would have multiple districts, separated by load doors. Much like the Imperial City in Oblivion. Windhelm, Whiterun, Markarth, and Rfiten could have four districts each (upper class, middle class, poor district, and commercial district), while Solitude would have nine districts (3 poor, 2 commercial, 2 middle class, 1 upper class, and 1 district for the Blue Palace).

 

Increase the number of inconsequential NPCs to help fill the extra space. Not all of them need to have quests (though adding them to radiant quests would get no complaint from me). They're just space-fillers.

 

With the exception of Solitude, the Upper Class District (or, the "Cloud District" in Whiterun) would contain the capitol building, while the poor districts (such as "Beggars Row" in Riften or the "Warrens" in Markarth) would have scarcely-populated buildings that are in a state of disrepair (kind of like Anise's Cabin, or Narfi's home). The poor district would be where all the beggars hang out when they're not begging for coin in the commercial district. Poor districts would also be out-of-the-way, so tourists wouldn't have to lay eyes on these filthy, diseased, homeless trash.

 

Commercial districts would be just past the main gate of the city, for the convenience of travelers.

 

Best of all, the commercial districts would have multiple versions of each type of shop! Sure, spell merchants would be few and far between except in Markarth & Solitude (due to their higher-than-average Breton population), due to the Nords' hatred of magic. But other than that, let's have some competition!

 

In order of most common to least common, the merchant types you could find in the commercial districts are as follows:

 

General Goods

Blacksmith merchants (since providing weapons & armor would be every Nord's dream job).

Fetcher merchants (next-best-thing to all-around weapons & armor)

Food Vendors (preferably in stalls)

Jewelers & clothing stores (tying in terms of commonality)

Apothecaries (slightly accepted amongst Nords compared to other magical things, but is bordering the line, which is why it would be so low on this list).

Spell merchants (again, keep to one in Whiterun, Riften, & Windhelm, to compete with the Court Mages, while only Markarth & Solitude would have more than two competing spell merchants).

 

Any takers?

Edited December 27, 2014 by stebbinsd

[DoctorKaizeld]

check out the Dawn of series of overhauls. they add a few new merchants as well as updating and 'expanding' several of the cities.

[stebbinsd]

check out the Dawn of series of overhauls. they add a few new merchants as well as updating and 'expanding' several of the cities.

Where's the link?

[DoctorKaizeld]

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/58275/?